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141 " People came from all around on their cars and their bikes to have a look. We didn’t know that death could be so beautiful. "
― Svetlana Alexievich , Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
142 " But… it was men writing about men—that much was clear at once. Everything we know about war we know with “a man’s voice.” We are all captives of “men’s” notions and “men’s” sense of war. “Men’s” words. Women are silent. No one but me ever questioned my grandmother. My mother. Even those who were at the front say nothing. If they suddenly begin to remember, they don’t talk about the “women’s” war but about the “men’s.” They tune in to the canon. And only at home or waxing tearful among their combat girlfriends do they begin to talk about their war, the war unknown to me. Not only to me, to all of us. "
― Svetlana Alexievich , War's Unwomanly Face
143 " During the war, one out of every four Belarussians was killed; today, one out of every five Belarussians lives on contaminated land. This amounts to 2.1 million people, of whom 700,000 are children. Among the demographic factors responsible for the depopulation of Belarus, radiation is number one. In the Gomel and Mogilev regions, which suffered the most from Chernobyl, mortality rates exceed birth rates by 20%. As "
144 " But I’m never lonely, a man who believes can never be lonely. I ride around the villages—I used to find spaghetti, flour—even vegetable oil. Canned fruit. Now I go to the cemeteries—people leave food and drink for the dead. But the dead don’t need it. They don’t mind. In the fields there’s wild grain, and in the forest there are mushrooms and berries. Freedom is here. I "
145 " I met this one man, he was saying that this is because we place a low value on human life. That it’s an Asiatic fatalism. A person who sacrifices himself doesn’t feel himself to be a unique individual. He experiences a longing for his role in life. Earlier he was a person without a text, a statistic. He had no theme, he served as the background. And now suddenly he’s the main protagonist. It’s a longing for meaning. "
146 " I hear about death so often that I don’t even notice anymore. Have you ever heard kids talk about death? My seventh-graders argue about it: is it scary or not? Kids used to ask: where do we come from? How are babies made? Now they’re worried about what’ll happen after the nuclear war. "
147 " Dreptul omului de a nu ucide. De a nu învața să ucidă. Neînscris în nicio constituție. "
― Svetlana Alexievich , Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War
148 " We don’t need anything. Just listen to us and try to understand. Society is good at doing things, ‘giving’ medical help, pensions, flats. But all this so-called giving has been paid for in very expensive currency. Our blood. "
149 " Pero en nuestra familia la heroína era mi madre. Ella los había salvado a todos. Salvó a la familia y salvó la casa. Su guerra había sido la más terrible. Papá nunca se ponía sus órdenes, consideraba que era vergonzoso pavonearse delante de mamá. Le resultaba embarazoso. Porque a mi madre no le habían concedido medallas... "
150 " Мъжете се бояха, че жените „ще разкажат някаква друга война, и не както трябва. "
― Svetlana Alexievich , Войната не е с лице на жена / Последните свидетели (Гласовете на утопията, #1-2)
151 " Защо не осъдихме Сталин? Ще ви отговоря… За да осъдиш Сталин, трябва да осъдиш роднините си, познатите си. Най-близките си хора. "
― Svetlana Alexievich , Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets
152 " We were told that this was a just war, that we were helping the Afghan people to put an end to feudalism and build a wonderful socialist society. "
153 " Back then everyone was saying: "We're going to die, we're going to die. By the year 2000, there won't be any Belarussians left. "
154 " If you don’t play, you lose. There was a Ukrainian woman at the market selling big red apples. ‘Come get your apples! Chernobyl apples!’ Someone told her not to advertise that, no one will buy them. ‘Don’t worry!’ she says. ‘They buy them anyway. Some need them for their mother-in-law, some for their boss.’ "
155 " ان ماينقذ الإنسان في الحرب هو تشتت وتبدد وعيه "
156 " A soldier must be like a bullet, constantly ready to be fired.’ I learnt that by heart. You go to war in order to kill. Killing is my profession — that’s what I was trained to do. "
157 " Whatever women talk about, the thought is constantly present in them: war is first of all murder, and then hard work. And then simply ordinary life: singing, falling in love, putting your hair in curlers… In the center there is always this: how unbearable and unthinkable it is to die. And how much more unbearable and unthinkable it is to kill, because a woman gives life. Gives it. Bears it in herself for a long time, nurses it. I understood that it is more difficult for women to kill. "
158 " Con los años, el ser humano comprende que la vida se ha quedado atrás y que ha llegado el momento de resignarse y de prepararse para marchar. Es una pena desaparecer sin más. De cualquier manera. Sobre la marcha. Al mirar atrás, uno siente el deseo de no solo contar lo suyo, sino de llegar al misterio de la vida. De responder a la pregunta: ¿para qué ha sido todo esto? Observar el mundo con una mirada un poco de despedida, un poco triste… Casi desde otro lado… Ya no necesita engañar ni engañarse. Y comprende que la visión del ser humano es imposible sin la noción de la muerte. Que el misterio de la muerte está por encima de todo. "
159 " still remember the way a twenty-year-old shouted, ‘I don’t want to hear about any political mistakes! I just don’t want to! Give me my two legs back if it was all a mistake. "
160 " Ако хората не забравят войната, ражда се много омраза. Ако я забравят, почва нова. Така казвали древните. "