All Quiet on the Eastern Front.
Of course, this text’s title refers to Erich Maria Remarque’s book All Quiet on the Western Front. I wrote this text on the 9th of May, 2024. A few days ago, I read in one of the news that it’d been 800 days since the Russian trolls invaded Ukraine. I started writing a ‘War in Ukraine’ series, a collection of personal reflections and analyses on the ongoing conflict, in the first months after the attack. Today, the topic of war in Ukraine probably has become dormant for most people living outside Ukraine. Of course, the Polish news website contains information about what’s happening on the Eastern Front. Still, I read them less frequently. Also, I practically stopped donating to charities that help Ukrainian civilians.
While writing about it, I decided to donate something straight away.
Still, I feel that the war in Ukraine has become customary. For whom? For most of the people living on Earth. Earlier (I do not remember when, whether it was a few months or years ago), I read a wise thing that people, speaking shortly, can get used to even the most horrific situations. I believe something similar happened in Ukraine. As far as I know from the website articles, living in such cities as Kyiv, Kharkiv, or Odesa is quite normal. Of course, except for moments when the Ukrainian cities are being bombarded. Did I read ‘All Quiet on the Western Front?’ No, I did not.
I bought it approximately ten years ago but haven’t even started reading it.
I read the fourth volume of Marcel Proust’s “In Search Of Lost Time” (‘Sodom and Gomorrah’) today. That’s how I moved from the horrific topic of war to the one I love: reading books. I hope the war in Ukraine ends sooner than later and that Ukrainians will be satisfied with the ending results. I mean, it is hard to be satisfied knowing that your country was highly damaged and thousands of people were killed. Still, I hope Ukraine will kick the Russian invaders, including those in Donbas and Crimea, out of Ukraine.
