2023-11-29 18:10:50
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“SVO is in full swing, and there is no end in sight”
Secretary of the Writers’ Union of Russia, graduate of the Literary Institute, Alexey Polubota is a fairly well-known writer and columnist. Therefore, his laconic post – “And at 48 it’s not too late to take the oath to the Fatherland! Coming to the ribbon soon. Good luck and Victory to all of us,” everyone remarked. Hundreds of friends liked it, dozens wrote approving comments or reposted the post. Someone, keeping a “fig in his pocket,” may have removed the patriotic writer from his friends list. But these were an absolute minority – Polubota did not voice his position today or even on February 24, 2022. Why the father of three children decided to go to the front – the MK correspondent found out. The interview turned out to be short: our interlocutor wrote down the answers on the way to the SVO area.
— Alexey, why did you decide to join the army now? Are there personal motives for this action – connections with Donbass, injured or dead friends who fought there?
— Since 2014, I traveled to Donbass as a volunteer and military correspondent, I always worried about this land and these people – they became like fellow countrymen for me.
But there are also personal motives: I knew very young guys who died there. One of them, Andrei Manchenko, as during the Great Patriotic War, credited himself with one year – he was 17 years old, he joined the People’s Militia of the DPR (the official name of the armed forces of the republic. – B.S.), died at the age of 19. When this happens, you get the feeling that, compared to their exploits, you personally are not doing enough. Plus, now more than ever people are needed in the army.
— Do you have combat experience, a military specialty?
– No, I didn’t serve, but nevertheless I tried to pass the medical examination – and now I’m enlisted in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, in a motorized rifle unit.
— Do you perceive what you have to go through as a dangerous and difficult, but still a “literary business trip”? Do you plan to keep a diary, write front-line essays or a novel upon your return?
“I’m not sure I’ll have very much time to write, judging by how the training is going.” But, God willing, in the future this will become the basis of some new works.
— And yet the main reason is why you take up arms?
— For eight years I have been calling for Russia to stand up for Donbass, for Novorossiya, “we don’t abandon our own” and all that. And then some said: a few weeks, a simple military-police operation, would be enough. And by 2018, it became clear: the enemy was gaining strength, and it would not be an easy ride.
— Last February, did you hope that they would “cope without you”?
— Yes, and I believed that in three or four months the fighting would end. For some time, considering that I do not have any special military skills, I waited – maybe they would manage without me. But the SVO is in full swing, there is no end in sight – and that’s why I’m going to the front.
Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29168 dated November 30, 2023
Newspaper headline: “SVO is in full swing, with no end in sight”
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