The forest burned over the river
and along with it burned the dawn.
Out of eighteen boys
only three of us remain . . .
How many dear friends
have fallen in the dark,
near an unknown town,
in a place with no name . . .
From the song of the Russian veterans of WWII
Russia is a country whose citizens are the first to support government corruption. This is why our society will never be able to become democratic or liberal: the Russians can only live properly under some form of dictatorship.
A statement made by the history teacher at Bender’s top middle school
Parade uniform collects dust on the shelf,
moths eat at the gold epaulettes.
And we have the tough and thankless lot
of defending this world without law.
Today ancient evil’s not scared of the cross,
chaos is trying on the crown,
and he who still has a clean conscience
is destined to become an outlaw.
On a series of fronts generals stage
this new drama of the nation,
but because of this theatre season
an officer’s dignity is against the law.
In the bought prattle of media hacks
and functionaries at every level
we deploy on a military mission,
where our every step is unlawful.
In this poor downtrodden nation
that so much resembles a prison,
someone might as well stay
in the civil war – the outlaw.
Song by Sergei Trofimov dedicated to the officers and soldiers who took part in the counter-terrorist operations in the Chechen Republic