Faina Savenkova, 13, Lugansk
The more you grow up, the more you realise that the world is unfair. When the war in Donbass began eight years ago, few could have imagined that instead of the peaceful country of Ukraine, its authorities would make it miserable and torn apart, with a fierce hatred of the inhabitants towards each other. But it happened. That Ukraine – with Russian literature, great achievements and normal attitude towards each other – will never be the same again. Just as there will not be the West, which is the stuff of legends: with history, freedom and people to believe in and strive to be like them. Musicians, actors, presenters, politicians… they are all the same. The world itself is changing. Television replaces your walks in the rain and the Internet replaces your books. Why read when you can watch a movie? Why be literate at all? Just know how to count to 100 and put an X. It’s been done before. And it’s probably a very comfortable world for some. But not for those who remember what IT is like to ask the right questions. Because asking them can destroy the cardboard world that we are encouraged to think is real. Such was the case with Julian Assange, who has become an example to many. He is one of those who has not been afraid to openly declare that people have a right to know the truth, shattering the known and so familiar illusion. He broke through the breach in this painstakingly built-up cardboard wall at the cost of his “normal” life. Let it not be in vain and others who wish to live in truth push that breach from horizon to horizon. And I will keep trying to push that breach to my horizon in Donbass…
Good afternoon Mr. Assange!
I have been thinking for a long time how to start this letter… I have written many letters over the years to presidents, politicians and artists in Europe and the USA. Even to the Pope. I was ignored and dismissed, except for the clerks and small officials who answered with formal replies. But I kept writing and begging. It was all about one thing: to help stop the war in Donbass and to influence Ukraine not to kill children in Donetsk and Lugansk, Makeyevka and Pervomaisk. Many people said I was doing it for nothing. Just wasting my time. But listening to them, I remembered you because you were and are an example to me. You could have said nothing to the world about what America was doing and simply remained silent and lived quietly, as many journalists did. But the truth is necessary. And the easiest and the most difficult thing at the same time is to tell it to people.
You have become an example for many, including me. Thank you for your honesty, for your strength of will and for not breaking under the blows of fate. Thank you for the fact that you were able to give strength to fight injustice. May God bless you and your family.
Those that are not familiar with Faina’s work, please do a search on the right hand bar for Faina Savenkova
How cute. And how smart she is. She will be a great woman.
You made tears well up and I’m 81, I have been following this human tragedy from 12’ and revolted with my once sacred homeland. Russian ‘heart’ is alive within you and available for all time in her music, literature and culture. Don’t loose heart there are many spiritual forces at work.
Hello, Stacklifter, I am not Ukrainian, nor Russian, nor even Slavian. My ancestors are sort of Scots and Vikings. All of the recent claimed and maybe believed they were Brits. Most my family would disown, if they admitted to knowing them. I was taught to grow up “Western”. Anyway, I decided to to attach my reply to your post, because I have only a few summers younger than you, and your heart is pointed in the right direction, at least as regards Faina Slavenkova.
And, well, because your words address not a young possible baby-carrier. Your words address victims of human hate and human tragedy. Your words urge Faina and fellow (all!!) victims to hear the voices of their grandmothers and grandfathers. To hear their people’s wisdom.
—————-
At this point, I stopped writing. Insteaded I listened to Konstantin Klinchev, an old rocker who discovered God, and Russia, during a concert tour in Israel :
АлисА Небо славян (band Alysa, song Slavian Sky)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgboXOcZgIs [4:41]
He sings about the sky, and the snow covered fields, and “mon_as_teri”.
It is amazing how many young, and some older, people have recorded cover versions.
Then, I listened to a Tatar band, “GRAI – folk metal band from Russia”:
ГРАЙ – В объятиях Мары (GRAI, in the arms of Mara)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vLupooVhsc [6:47]
I promise you, they do not sound like ‘Metalica’ or ‘Kiss’.
The only imitator I know of is ‘Aeterna’.
They, at least the singer, know about snow.
—————-
So,,, why did I listen/watch them,,, and worse, recommend them to you and everybody?
…. I think they are ”Russia”.
So, too, are:
Ramzam Kadyrov and his woman dancing “Lezginka” !!! ;
the numerous Kazakh versions of “Ойся ты ойся (Dancе with swords)” ;
and also, The HU, “Wolf Totem”.
Now, I come to Руслана – Wild Dances (Ruslana “Wild Dances”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFe01wU5naA
— the youtube video production values are kinda crappy.
You can see, she and her friends identify as Cossack, which is their way of pronouncing Kazakh.
Note: according to wikipedia “The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian but originally Turkic people”. I dispute “Orthodox” since people in Lemberg are “Uniate”, which means the Orthodox Churches which submitted to the political and military authority of the Roman Catholic Church, to deflect Polish aggression. I also dispute “Slavic” since “originally Turkic”, and since the Magyar passed through and the Lemki frequently exhibit Magyar physiognomy. And the Polaks came and set a while, too. OK, yes, I digress.
Getting back on track,,, why have I pointed at Ruslana?
She was a potentially great musician. Who has been distracted by popular politics, allowing popular political culture to consume her time, and to influence her artistic development and expression. It did not stiffle her youthful exuburance, nor her later experiential skill. But buried it under a mound of stupid political manure.
So… in my opinion, Ruslana is a Cossack (Kazakh) notable person/talent/culture. I have already declared Kazakh to be Russian, a significant part of Russian. So (again)… a Lemberger. Also, a nazi sympathizer, of unknown degree, consciousness, and culpability. And a Cossack/Kazakh/Russian. And (potentially) a great musician. A (potentially) great RUSSIAN musician.
Frankly, (which is a mediaeval lie, saying “I am a Frank Noble, I tell the truth; and all peasants are liars.”), I think that a hundred years ahead, obscure groups of academics and fans will hold Ruslana up as an obscure great talent, with rare flashes of brilliance, smothered by the stupid politics of her time.
(And there may be, for all I know, tonnes of paper scores and pitabytes of computer files stored in her basement.)
Returning to you, Stacklifter, and folks like you…
First, I greatly admire you, and people like you, for seeing the humanity, Russian and universal humanity, in Raina.
Now, I ask you :
Well, first let us take the spotlight off Stacklefter :
Everybody!! I ask you :
First, think about Ruslana. Is she a nazi scum? Is she a musician, like a lot of students, farmers, ditch diggers, mechanics, cabdrivers, and janitors: beaten down and then misled by the popular media and hordes of clever lies?
Second, I saw a photo, about a week ago (sorry I misfiled the url) labelled “Lisichansk surrendered” … and they managed to get away without being shot in the back. It showed 6 or 8 men in fatigues, unarmed, sitting at the edge of a road. A Kavkazi, a Polak, a few others, 2 seeming to me Ukrainki, Behind them, 3 men, also unarmed, I think I have seen 2 of them in Donbas defender videos, apparently moving behind the line, talking to the prisoners. One has a sympathetic face. One is postured like a translator, or maybe a bad cop. I repeat, the ?guards? not armed.
The 2 men in the forground are most interesting. They might be father and son. They look very similar. Maybe the same village. Maybe they have volunteered together. Maybe they were scooped up by the same pressgang. We do not know.
Their body language is, COMPLETELY BEATEN.
Their body language is, LOST EVERYTHING.
Their body language is, THERE IS NO FUTURE.
THERE IS NO HOPE.
Again, we do not know.
Do they have (do they hope they have) women, children, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sweethearts, dogs, cats, horses, cows, goats, cornfields, favourite fishing pools? Barns, woodsheds, which need repairing and refilling? Phd theses, highschool exams, arithmetic or printing lessons waiting to complete?
Of course, they hope vaguely, with no conviction, that they might go home, in a few months in a few years; but no hope that home might still be home.
I have seen videos of the Russian white trucks coming down the road in Syria. Kids crowding reaching for cookies and candies. 4 year olds balancing 10 kilogram bags of rice on their heads, heading home. Mama will have something better than reheated stone soup for supper.
Russia has won Syria. Russia has won most of the MiddleEast, Eurasia, Africa, even parts of America.
Russia, and NovaRossiya, are winning large parts of Ukraina, wherever they can go, delivering food, repairing roads, irrigation canals, powerlines. Marking and clearing mines. A few Rubles here and there, more hope than recovery.
Finally, back to Stacklifter (whom I have excused) and everybody who has read this far :
Will you forgive them your sins?
Will you help find them their way home?
Will you help them rebuild their homes? Their lives? Themselves?
Bob Marley : “Them belly full, but them mind empty.”
Will you ?
It started in the garden of Eden Faina and fairness won’t happen until Christ returns. Don’t loose hope for life is a challenge for all, we are tried on earth to assure are hearts are faithful to our creator. Continue to persevere.
Totally agree with you Emmet. Life was never meant to be easy. We will always have trials. We must remain faithful to our creator who we are in debt to for his countless mercy he has for us.
All the great things start from a lonely seed, abandoned in the rain and cold, waiting against all odds for a ray of sunshine to spring into life.
These are the ways.
Mr. Assange is my hero as well. I am SURE I disagree with him over a load of issues – that changes nothing though. We all owe him – he documented a lot of crime we all suspected were(are) happening.
Hey!
This too will end. One foot at a time… 😉
To Faina whose shining light completely destroys the darkness of “you have ruined my childhood Greta” via Invictus.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For her unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
She has not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
Her head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find her, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
She is the master of her fate:
She is the captain of her soul.
“Mainstream journalism died not in a prison cell, not from a bullet in the head, not in a car explosion, not even hacked up in a Saudi consulate. It died the day it chose complicity by letting the best of them slip away into silence and oblivion.”
Absolutely!
The presstitutes are condemned by their vassalating silence. Gutless, spineless maggots, all of them.
When I feel despair about the state of the world, I read this young woman’s words and I feel hope that maybe – just maybe – European civilization will still survive.
The sooner this house of cards falls here in the Euro-badlands and the comatose citizens awaken, come tae grips with reality, we can do a mopping up exercise of the Eurotrash elite, then maybe we can, cap-in-hand, sign up as observer status to one of the Russian groupings.
Who will have us though. the unclean, agreement averse?
A beautifully written letter.
As a youngster, in Life Magazine I saw the infamous picture of the young Vietnamese girl running, screaming, alongside a rice paddy field with her back on fire from Napalm dropped on her village during the American War in Vietnam (Vietnamese say “The American War”) my worldview was changed forever. My politicisation was instant and permanent from that moment. Like life, the age of innocence is short and precarious.
Yes I saw that on the T.V. when it happened I also saw them gun down a popular people’s president on T.V. because they didn’t like his policies as I saw them gun down his brother and I have never felt anything for the country since except distrust, and when they mouth freedom democracy mom’s apple pie, the shinning light on the hill I know that like the devil that they are lying through their lips
Yes to all you have written here, bluedogg. After so many years of peeling back the onion, it is people like us who recognize the rotten core. This of course after being propagandized for so many decades, it takes a critical and independent thinker to come to terms with it. The fact(s) remains, November 22 1963 was a coup, the unofficial but oh-so-real story of our times. The following (and yet to come) assassinations maintained the gains, even as the cover stories became so much more fantastical, let alone improbable, especially after so many altered autopsies.
And the lies, constantly repeated about how the USSR and now the Russian Federation forever are Reagan’s “Evil Empire” no matter what our own eyes and ears tell us. A giant psy-op has been the marker for my seven + decades. Living with those truths has made me stronger for having accepted the basis on which the Owners/Elites have framed the narrative and the reasons as to why the U.S. public is so amenable, incurious, and complacent about the history being made around them every day.
It’s lonely out here, but the air sure is fresh.
Does Faina write in English too or only in Russian? I would like to prebook her future literary work and pay her an advance. Could she (or her family) please make arrangements for Faina to receive money from Abroad?
Yes, please. For years I’ve been sending money to Phoenix, who look after the extremely rare Amur leopard. Phoenix are Russians and the leopards are in Siberia, so “the west” is saying no. Many are the USUK evils.
Life’s not fair. But it’s not fair for everyone and that’s what makes it dair.
Thank you for writing !
Beautiful and extremely cogent.
Yeah, this indeed is the right interpretation of the human plight today, and yeah, Assange with his courage and fortitude may indeed be the shining light of our hope.
Very impressive writing all those letters and exposing the recipients who didn’t respond as cowards and frauds.
Faina is a very dear soul, and sincere and honest, with her thoughts and feelings being an expression of the experiences of young teenager, who are at best so full of natural insight and passion.
For her own well-being and future however, and clearly going against the interests of those who are presenting her here, I feel that her letters should remain with her family and teachers, friends, and perhaps shared later in a more responsible manner.
Forgive me for my frank words, I can only suggest that they are taken seriously.
Peace and blessings to Faina.
Dear Faina
Yes, life is unfair! Reminds me of the words of Christ:
“if they do these things when the tree is green what will they do when it is dry.”
Psychopaths everywhere these days https:
http://www.chinastrategies.com/defense-against-the-psychopath
Cheers
Dear Faina, Julian Assange is also a hero of mine in his dogged stance against the wicked forces arrayed against his stand for the truth to be heard. You too are a hero for the way you have raised your brave and eloquent voice against the evil and violence NATO has knowingly stirred up in your country leading to the devastating civil war which has dominated your young life. Bravo Russia for standing firm for their principle and acting to protect its people. I hope for peace and reconciliation and an end to the barbarous behaviour of the Nazis. Wishing you peace and joy in future. I am deeply ashamed of my country for being part of this wrongdoing. The corruption that has led to this has to be fought and you, dear girl, are fighting against it. You are a heroine.
Good luck to you, Faina, may your ardent spirit carry the flame of life for many years through this world so full of dark and light. Your innocence and your wit remind me of another little girl under threat of genocide in another town in Ukraine 80 years ago — only in those days the town was called Lvov. Because this year is not the first time that the Russian Army has needed to come to de-Nazify the Ukraina.
Like you, that clever little girl wrote letters to the famous Leaders, it seemed so obvious, so simple. She wrote to Hitler that he did not need to kill her because she meant him no harm — neither she nor her parents nor her cat. Then she proudly addressed her letter and took it to her mother to post.
The little girl survived the horrors of Nazi genocide, grew up to have children and make a fun career being a scientist. The world went on being unfair.
I wish you an even longer and even happier and even more “successful” life than that of the ever hopeful young girl who grew up to work and shine and love and shed grace (and occasional flashes of Slavonic temperament) in the world as my wife. This world which continues to be mysterious, painful, kind, loving and unfair — like a beautiful woman.
“To live is not only to stroll in the park” — Pasternak (please forgive my lack of Russian).
Torak,
It is true, as we discovered much later, that Anne Frank diary was fake, that Zlata Filipovic diary was used to push fake war narrative, that manipulated Greta has no knowledge of what is involved in real climate science and politics behind ‘climate change’.
Faina Savenkova, however, is unlikely to be used by anyone. To start with, her writings, that appeared on Saker’s blog for several years, display consistency in style, depth of empathy, and clarity of ethics rarely seen even in much older writers on the similar topic. Furthermore, these writings are consistent with events and the information that came later from different sources.
Her letter to J. Assange, who like her was a witness to a war crime and raised his voice, displays the same qualities that graced her previous writings.
Thank you Faina.
I wish you Faina Savenkova the greatest of plenitudes with all my heart.
Respect and solidarity from the Basque Country.
Ad: Also for Julian Assange & family of course
This past evening took a little time to relax and listened to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. The finale was certainly soul stirring for me at that time. May the PEACE that surpasses all understanding flood the hearts and minds of the inhabitants of this world.
Faina,
You are far more mature and politically conscious for your age than the vast majority of western teenagers. This is no doubt due to growing up in the Donbass war zone. I can see that you have a great future ahead of you and you will make a difference in the new world. You will hopefully witness the momentous changes that will lead to a fairer world…by that I mean the implosion and self-destruction of the unipolar world of USA/NATO and its vassal states in western Europe and the rise of the Multipolar world of sovereign states led by Russia and China. I wish you a long and healthy life. Just one last thing: Irish people closely identify with the suffering of the Russian people of the DPR and LPR under the Ukrainian Nazis. Remembe this that every Irish Republican supports you and is behind the SMO of the Russian Federation initiated by President Putin.
Faina – Thank you for writing, you give me hope. However “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end, which you can never afford to lose, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” ~ James Stockdale (Stockdale Paradox). The world is controlled by psychopaths. To gain some insight and understanding, study the events of November 22, 1963. Especially the “why?” Good place to start – “JFK and the Unspeakable” – James Douglass
Faina, you inspire and give me hope. Thank you!
Faina again brings a wonderful sense of completeness to which we should all try to aspire by never giving in to the Beast. We know who ‘they’ are, and she gives us the essence of what is truly worth fighting for; the right of children to grow up in peace and wonder regarding the many profoundly beautiful gifts we have been bestowed via our Creator.
Such a noble thing to do, Faina, acknowledging Julian and the sacrifices he has been compelled to make as each day brings him closer to martyrdom. I for one, thank you sincerely.
Hi Faina! It’s Ghassem, a 66 year old man, from Iran 🇮🇷. How open and beautiful minded you are at this early age; and, of course, mature! I really enjoyed reading your fantastic letter. Your family and people of Lugansk will be proud of you.