I speak Russian. Below are excerpts of conversations from my Russian community on Facebook, translated into English, when the war with Ukraine broke out on February 24, 2022. Where needed, I’ve inserted brackets ([ ]) for clarification.
“Shame, guilt, impotence, hatred and disgust, terrible pain. One of the worst days of my life.”
“#roskompozor began to “partially restrict” access to Facebook. Therefore, if anyone does not have a VPN yet, hurry.”
“Browser plugins are cross-platform. The chrome or FF [Firefox] on the mac are installed in the same way.”
“Ilya, thank you! The request was made for you to create your own telegram channel [Russian equivalent of Facebook]. I join the request!! I think many will find this useful.”
“Telegram? This is a huge FSB [successor to the KGB] project. Stay away from everything connected with toxic Russia.”
“Yes. I see the iron curtain is strengthening. Hold on…”
“Opera?”
“The question of VPN, is it free or not?”
“Dear friends from Russia! Just in case – I am also on telegram!”
“I can’t find you there.”
“What is going on? Is FB being shut down?”
“For what reason are they shutting down?”
?
“I will download telegram immediately.”
“Will everything stay the same in FB?”
“Joined.. Peace to us ?”
“I feel so bad because of this war that I don’t even want to teach my native language.”
“Today, at my husband’s school, his Spanish students asked him to talk about the war. [Name withheld] said that he had lived in Russia for 9 years, that it was a wonderful country and that many wonderful people lived in it. He added that it is not necessary to associate the country with the authorities.”
“Well, not everyone thinks so.”
“Clearly, but we need to fight for it.”
“Normal people are against war and violence. The irony is that the criminal authorities do not need our support.”
“These are special kinds of people that live in their own reality. Those who can’t contort their souls choose other professions.”
These are special kinds of people that live in their own reality. Those who can’t contort their souls choose other professions.
Inserted Docs.google.com file: “Form for people who need transport from Ukraine to the Polish border.”
“There is hope, of course. Trying to understand what is happening, I recall the story of a military acquaintance who was on duty at a nuclear installation where he turned gray overnight worried that they might give an order to press the button. And then there is the scene from the movie The Reader, where the main character is given an order to close the barracks of the gas chamber. She did not hesitate. She obeyed the established order of things.”
“I wonder if my Russian students will ask me about the war today…”
“I had to cancel all of my classes because we’re in a bomb shelter. Russians are shelling Kiev – the “mother of Russian cities”.
“Hold on! ♥️”
“Thanks. We are on our own land. The enemy will not pass, victory will be ours. And Russia in its current form will come to an end.”
“And we [Russians] will all have to swallow a bitter pill, but it will heal us!!!”
“Today, in the shelter, my mother overheard a boy asking his mother something, and she replied fervidly, “What Germans? What do the Germans have to do with this? These are Russians!”
“We just keep working, doing what we love the most – educating our children!”
“Is your child tired of studying or lost the motivation to study? We invite you to watch a selection of cartoons on the topic “learning is great”.”
[The End.]