Ar an 12 Aibreán 2012 tháinig príomh-shaothar an scríbhneora Rúisigh Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Arkhipelag Gulag (nó Oileánra na gCampaí Géibhinn), i gcló san Fhionlainn arís, an chéad uair i ndiaidh na n-ochtóidí. On 12 April 2012, Aleksandr Solzhen-itsyn’s most important book, Arkhipelag Gulag (or The Gulag Archipelago) was reissued in Finland for the first time since the 1980s.
Ba í Sofi Oksanen, scríbhneoir óg Fionlannach a bhain amach clú agus cáil lena cuid leabhar féin faoi ainghníomhartha Stailín, a d’fhoilsigh an t-eagrán nua de leabhar Solzhenitsyn.
Is éard atá ann go bunúsach ná saothar cuimsitheach stairsheanchais a chuireas comhchuimhne na bpríosúnach ar an saol sna campaí ar fáil don léitheoir. Cé go bhfuil eachtraí saoil an scríbhneora le haithint ar fud an leabhair mhóir théagartha seo, ní insíonn sé a dhath faoi féin gan é a chur i gcomparáid le cinniúint na gcimí eile a bhí sásta scéal a bpríosúnachta a reic leis an údar.
De thaisme, bhí cuimhne na marbh in Katyn á ceiliúradh ar an lá arna mhárach, ar an 13 Aibreán. Tá sé le léamh ar gach leabhar scoile faoin stair gurbh í an Ghearmáin a thosaigh an Dara Cogadh Domhanda nuair a d’ionsaigh sí an Pholainn, ach b’fhearr leis na leabhair chéanna, nuair a bhí mé féin ag dul ar scoil sna seachtóidí agus sna hochtóidí, taobh eile na seithe a choinneáil faoi cheilt: dhá sheachtain i ndiaidh ionradh na Gearmáine, chúngaigh fórsaí armtha an Aontais Shóivéadaigh ar chríocha na Polainne ón oirthear le cuidiú leis na Gearmánaigh an tír sin a chur de dhroim an domhain, de réir an chonartha rúnda a shínigh Viacheslav Molotov agus Joachim von Ribbentrop, airí gnóthaí eachtracha an stáit Shóivéadaigh agus na Gearmáine Naitsíche, roimhe sin.
Na hoifigigh Pholannacha a maraíodh in Katyn, chimigh an tArm Sóivéadach iad nuair a d’fhorghabh sé Oirthear na Polainne. Na críocha a shealbhaigh an tAontas Sóivéadach san am sin, níor thug sé uaidh riamh iad, agus is ionann iad agus iarthar na hÚcráine agus na Bealarúise inniu. Bhí a lán Úcránach agus Bealarúiseach eitneach ina gcónaí ansin fiú roimhe sin, agus is é an míniú a thug Stailín ar an gconcas seo ná go raibh na Gearmánaigh i ndiaidh an stát Polannach a chur ar neamhní pé scéal é, agus nach raibh na saighdiúirí Sóivéadacha ach ag teacht chun tarrthála chuig lucht a gcomhdhúchais sna ceantair seo.
Chaith rúnseirbhís an Aontais Shóiveadaigh, an NKVD, leis na hoifigigh chimithe mar a bheadh sabaitéirí cúil iontu, seachas cimí cogaidh, agus tugadh iad, na mílte fir acu, go foraois Katyn in Iarthar na Rúise, i gcóngar do chathair stairiúil Smolensk. Maraíodh cimí Polannacha in áiteanna eile san am chéanna, i Starobelsk san Úcráin mar shampla, ach ba é sluamharú Katyn an ródach ba mhó acu, an ceann ar chuala an saol iomrá air. Is é an modh oibre a bhí ag lucht na rúnseirbhíse ná piléar a loscadh i gcúl cloiginn an duine a bhí le marú, agus beirt fhear eile ag coinneáil greama ar a lámha le nach n-éalódh sé ón mbásadóir.
An chuid ba mhó acu siúd a maraíodh in Katyn, ní míleataigh phroifisiúnta a bhí iontu ach oifigigh chúltaca. I mblianta na síochána bhí siad ag obair ina n-ailtirí nó ina n-innealtóirí, ina n-ollúna nó ina múinteoirí, ina gcrainn taca dá gcuid pobal. Is iomaí tráchtaire a dúirt go raibh Stailín ag iarraidh náisiún na Polainne féin a dhícheannadh leis an ainbheart seo.
I ndiaidh an chogaidh, ba é scéal ‘oifigiúil’ ná gurbh iad na Gearmánaigh a chuir chun báis na hoifigigh in Katyn. Ach níor chardáil binse breithimh Nürnberg an sluamharú in Katyn mar choir Naitsíoch riamh.
Choinnigh na Polannaigh, i ndiúnas ar a rialtas Cumannach féin, cuimhne ar an Zbrodnia Katynska, mar a thugtar ar éirleach Katyn as Polainnis, go dtí gur gheal lá na saoirse dóibh i dtús na nóchaidí. Nuair a chrom staraithe na Polainne agus na Rúise araon ar an obair in éineacht, ní raibh siad i bhfad ag teacht ar an gcomh-chonclúid gurbh iad lucht na rúnseirbhíse Sóivéadaí a rinne an obair.
Scanrúil is uile mar atá sé, níl i ródach Katyn ach ceann de na scéalta a d’inis Solzhenitsyn ina leabhar, agus níl sé ar an scéal is feiceálaí ach an oiread. Muise, is féidir an locht a fháil ar mhórshaothar an scríbhneora nár thrácht sé sách cuimsitheach ar dhúchinniúint an dreama seo nó siúd in oileánra na gcampaí géibhinn. Rud eile fós, ag druidim le deireadh a shaoil dó, chuaigh an scríbhneoir le náisiúnachas Rúiseach den chineál nach raibh ag teacht go rómhaith leis an dearcadh comhdhaonnach ba dual do mo dhuine i dtús a ghairmréime scríbhneoireachta.
Tá daoine ann agus iad buartha go bhfágfaidh an iomarca cainte faoi ainghníomhartha Stailín coireanna Hitler ar leataobh, agus ní féidir an t-iomlán dearg acu a chur ó dhoras mar Chumannaigh. Duine acu siúd a bhí in Elem Klimov, stiúrthóir scannán nach raibh ina shearbhónta umhal don chumhacht Shóivéadach riamh. A mhalairt ar fad, is iomaí cath a chuir sé ar na maorlathaigh chultúrtha san Aontas Sóivéadach lena chuid saothar a shaoradh ó bhráca na cinsireachta. Thug sé cur síos coscartha ar fhorghabháil na nGearmánach ar an mBealarúis ina scannán Idi i smotrí (Tar Go Bhfeice Tú). Dúirt Klimov, lena linn, gur ábhar eagla a bhí ann dó na daoine a bheith ag déanamh dearmaid de Khatyn leis an spéis a bhí acu in Katyn.
Sráidbhaile sa Bhealarúis é Khatyn, áit ar thóg na Sóivéadaigh séadchomhartha do na Bealarúisigh a fuair anbhás i mblianta na forghabhála Naitsíche. Cúis mhíshástachta é séadchomhartha Khatyn do na Polannaigh, ós follasach gur roghnaigh na cinnirí Sóivéadacha an áit áirithe seo le súil an domhain a tharraingt ó Katyn na bPolannach agus le lucht an bhreaceolais a chur ar strae, chomh cosúil le chéile is atá an dá logainm. San am chéanna, is fíor gur mharaigh na Gearmánaigh muintir an tsráidbhaile sin, agus go ndearna siad a lán ainbheart eile den chineál chéanna sa Bhealarúis.
Le Katyn agus Khatyn a thabhairt in araicis a chéile, is féidir linn agus is cóir dúinn glacadh leis an gcur chuige a bhí ag Timothy Snyder ina leabhar Bloodlands. Go bunúsach, dearcann sé ar Stailín agus Hitler mar bheirt dhúnmharfóirí a bhí ar an taobh céanna – ar thaobh an bháis – agus iad ag sluamharú rompu i ‘gcríocha na fola’: an Eastóin, an Laitvia, an Liotuáin, an Pholainn, an Bhealarúis, an Úcráin, agus iarthar na Rúise. Agus ba iad na gnáthdhaoine, an chosmhuintir, a bhí thíos leis seo, i ngach tír.
Aistritheoir agus teangeolaí é Panu Petteri Höglund a d’fhoghlaim Gearmáinis, Polainnis agus Rúisis in Ollscoil Åbo Akademi san Fhionlainn.
The publisher is Sofi Oksanen, a young Finnish writer who became famous with her own books about Stalin’s atrocities.
Solzhenitsyn’s book is basically a comprehensive oral history that brings the prisoners’ memories of prison camp life to the attention of the reader. Although the personal experiences of the writer are recognisable in most of this substantial book, he never tells anything about himself without comparing it with the destinies of those other prisoners who were willing to share their stories with the author.
It so happened that the day following, 13 April, was the remembrance day of those killed in Katyn. Any schoolbook of history will tell you that Germany started the Second World War when it attacked Poland, but back when I went to school, in the 1970s and ’80s, those books usually kept the other side of the story concealed: two weeks after the German invasion, Soviet troops encroached on Polish territory from the east so as to assist the Germans in annihilating Poland, according to the secret pact that had been signed earlier by Viacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop, the foreign ministers of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
The Polish officers killed in Katyn had been imprisoned by the Soviet Army when it occupied Eastern Poland. The territory then conquered by the Soviet Union stayed conquered – now it constitutes the western part of Ukraine and Belarus. Even before, there were a lot of ethnic Ukrainians and Belarusians living in these parts, and Stalin explained the conquest by referring to the fact that Germans had put the Polish state out of existence anyway, and that the Soviet soldiers were just coming to the rescue of their ethnic brethren in those territories.
The secret service of the Soviet Union, the NKVD, treated the imprisoned officers as behind-the-lines saboteurs, not prisoners of war, and they were taken to the Katyn forest in western Russia, near the historical Russian city of Smolensk. Polish prisoners were killed in other places at the same time, such as Starobelsk in Ukraine, but the Katyn massacre was the biggest, the one that was heard of. The secret service men killed the prisoners with a bullet in the back of the head, two other men holding the hands of the victim so that he couldn’t escape from his executioner.
Most of those killed in Katyn were not professional military men, but reserve officers. In the years of peace they had been working as architects or engineers, as professors or teachers, as pillars of their communities. It has been said by many that with this particular atrocity, Stalin was trying to decapitate the very nation of Poland.
After the war, the ‘official’ story was that the officers in Katyn had been executed by Germans. But the Nuremberg tribunal never dealt with the Katyn massacre as a Nazi crime.
Defying their own Communist government, Poles kept alive the remembrance of the Zbrodnia Katynska, as they call the Katyn massacre in their own tongue, until freedom came in the beginning of the ’90s. When Polish and Russian historians started to co-operate, it did not take them long to come to the common conclusion that the crime had indeed been the work of Soviet secret services agents.
Harrowing as it is, the story of the Katyn massacre is only one of those told by Solzhenitsyn, and not even the most visible one. Indeed it is possible to criticise the writer’s major book for not highlighting the story of this or that persecuted group comprehensively enough. Besides, toward the end of his life the writer dedicated himself to Russian nationalism in a way that does not agree with his universal, humane attitude in the beginning of his writing career.
There are those who are concerned that too much talk about Stalin’s atrocities will lead to Hitler’s crimes being forgotten, and not all of them can be ignored as Communists. One of them was Elem Klimov, a film director who never was a humble servant to the Soviet power. Quite the opposite, he put up many a fight against the Soviet cultural bureaucrats to free his films from censorship. He described the German occupation of Belarus in a heart-rending way in his film Idi i smotri (Come and See). Klimov said once that he was afraid Khatyn would be forgotten because of Katyn.
Khatyn is a village in Belarus, where Soviets built a monument to the Belarusians who were killed violently in the years of the German occupation. The Khatyn monument is a source of irritation to Poles, as it is obvious that the Soviet leaders chose this place so as to pull the eyes of the world off the Polish martyrs in Katyn, and to lead the less informed astray by exploiting the similarity of the place-names. However, it is true that Germans did slaughter the people of that village, and that they committed a lot of similar crimes in Belarus.
In order to reconcile Katyn and Khatyn, we can and we should adopt the approach Timothy Snyder had in his book Bloodlands. Basically, he sees Stalin and Hitler as two murderers on the same side – on the side of death itself – the way they had people massacred in the ‘bloodlands’: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and western Russia. And the victims were the common people, everywhere.
Panu Petteri Höglund is a translator and linguist who studied German, Polish, and Russian at Åbo Akademi University in Finland.
