Alexievich: Minister Shunevich in NKVD uniform is stamped on my memory
Nobel Prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich has commented on the situation in Kurapaty for Radio Liberty. The restaurant “Poedem, Poedim” opened there a few days ago.
"Minister Shunevich in NKVD uniform is stamped on my memory. I have understood how low our authorities have fallen. I do not think that that Shunevich has ever read Solzhenitsyn or Shalamov. He does not have a clue about it. Secondly, since most Kurapaty defenders are young, I have understood that ‘shunevichs’ feel that they can go unpunished,” the writer said.
The opening of the restaurant in Kurapaty testifies to ‘absolute degradation of the society’, she said. The entertainment complex appeared there with the higher authorities’ permission, Alexievich thinks.
At the same time, the society bears responsibility for the situation, the writer thinks. “We can speak about our personal responsibility. We have allowed it. Why is the public silent? Hundreds of thousands people would be protesting in the streets in any European country”.
The Nobel Prize laureate commented on the authorities’ initiative to install an official memorial in Kurapaty. The jury chose three variants out of 32 on June 11. They will need to be improved by July 1. “They want to install a monument in Kurapaty. They believe that it will give them a free hand to do the same in the future,” Alexievich thinks.
