I said that I prepared a book on my account, and it was a reasonable reason to revise my version of the facts.
Pierre Sautreuil, Les Guerres perdues de Youri Beliaev
He knows that I am preparing a book about him, and that is reason enough for him to revise his version of events.
Pierre Sautreuil, born in 1993, has worked as a journalist covering Russia and Ukraine since 2014, initially for the Nouvel Observateur, later at Le Figaro and La CroixHe too is someone who combines journalistic and literary writing to do justice to his subjects. His novel was published in 2018. Les Guerres perdues de Youri Beliaev at Grasset, for which he received, among other awards, the Prix du Livre du Réel, which recognizes one French-language and one translated work based on a true, contemporary or historical event. The text is based on Sautreuil's real encounter with a Russian mercenary in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which is also the setting for the first Ukrainian novel by Benoît Vitkine at a hunt.
Sautreuil's interpretation of Putin's attack this February 2022 sees it as part of a strategy that has been consistent for years, demonstrating "how this rhetoric resonated with the feelings of declassification, anger, and humiliation in Russia after the collapse of the USSR and the economic stagnation of the 1990s, in order to blame the United States and its allies for the country's misery," rather than simply attributing a pathological psychology to Putin, as suggested by the French: "On Monday, February 21, the Russian president showed the face of a leader who is lonelier, more authoritarian, and more withdrawn than ever before, in an ideological and self-victimizing view of history and international relations. Vladimir Putin's decision to escalate the conflict is anything but irrational; rather, it is the continuation of a siege-like identity politics pursued for years." 1
Cécile Mazin, on the occasion of the award ceremony for Les Guerres perdues de Youri Beliaev Sautreuil describes his encounter with the main character as "[a] fascinating investigation that emerged from his reporting in the Donbass and his meeting with Yuri Belyayev, a figure from the Russian political landscape who became a member of the mafia after the collapse of the USSR. Yuri's career path seems identical to that of many Russian nationalists, but Sautreuil nevertheless establishes a connection with him that oscillates between fascination, pity, and friendship." 2 Annie Daubenton's review identifies the role of mercenaries in the Russian struggle for influence (and for Sautreuil's anti-hero Yuri, it's the war in eastern Ukraine): "The narrative unfolds like a broad roadmap, stretching across the territories the Kremlin wants to keep under its control. The warlords follow orders because they are naturally inclined to take revenge on others, on enemies of a different race and religion, against whom they would otherwise be met with resistance. Their trump cards: money, weapons, a share of the hydrocarbon reserves, and good connections that allow them to recruit as needed from the igniting 'hotspots'. Trading with these mercenaries is lucrative for those with a good network." 3
Sautreuil's text, which has not yet been translated into German, has gained a sad relevance with Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Whether the military occupation of the country will lead to Ukrainian literature and novels about the Ukraine crisis gaining greater prominence in European consciousness in the coming years remains to be seen. One can only hope so.
In journalistic passages such as Sautreuil's portrayal of May Day celebrations in Saint Petersburg, the narrative frays into a telling depiction of a Russian "people," with a constructed polyphony that actually has a harder time being represented in Putin's media dictatorship than in literary form:
The perspective of Nevski is fermée à la circulation, and it is comme si the population of all the districts of Saint-Pétersbourg s'y était donné rendez-vous, mais la procession qui s'aligne d'un bout à l'autre de la plus célèbre avenue de la ville pour fêter le 1er Mai n'a rien d'une déambulation spontaneousée de flâneurs du dimanche. The Fête du Travail is a rassemblement of "people" according to the power of the thunder à voir: associations and partis politiques strictement compartimentés en blocs dociles qui défilent au garde-à-vous les uns derrière les autres, brandissant des drapeaux irréconciliables, marchant pourtant tambour battant in the same direction. Le plus miteux des régimes autoritaires peut créer un parti d'opposition bidon pour mettre en scène une parodie de pluralisme, mais aucun mieux que la Russie n'a poussé la blague au point de l'étendre aux associations, aux syndicats, aux federations sportives, aux communautés locales, aux Corporations les plus diverses, and jusqu'aux groupuscules ultranationalistes ou libéraux, de sorte qu'il n'existe plus a recoin de la société civile qui échappe au soupçon de compromise with le pouvoir.
It is 10 hours, and the enceintes sanglées sur les voitures diffused déjà une pop assourdissante au pied des palais et des galeries marchandes. Sur les trottoirs, des milliers de badauds sans étiquette lancent des hourras et agitent des balloons de baudruche derrière les cordons de plastic les séparant des dizaines de groupes qui, sur le bitume, attendent le coup d'envoi du défilé comme des cohortes romaines aux effectifs disparates, immobiles sous leurs étendards respectifs: les adolescents poutinistes de la Jeune Garde, Russie unie, le syndicat des employés de Gazprom, le mal nommé Parti liberal-démocrate, le parti Yabloko, les communistes, names, derrière un immense portrait de Staline, les soutiens au Donbass, les cosaques du Don, quelques representatives of the Fantôme de Mozgovoï brigade, suivis by the parti anarcho-écologiste, the Union des Métallurgistes de l'oblast de Leningrad, the Vegan Community, the anti-capitalists, the Russian Imperial Movement, the National-Bolchevik Party, the feminists, the majorettes, the motards, The Alliance of Pilots from the North-Ouest League, and among the pacifists and opponents of the war in Ukraine, are placed at the end of the cortège between an animal defense league and an LGBT association.
Pierre Sautreuil, Les Guerres perdues de Youri Beliaev
Nevsky Prospekt is closed to traffic, and it's as if people from every part of St. Petersburg have gathered there, but the procession stretching from one end of the city's most famous street to the other for the May Day celebrations is no spontaneous stroll by Sunday strollers. Labor Day is a gathering of "the people," as the authorities want to portray them: associations and political parties are strictly divided into compliant blocs, marching rigidly in single file, waving uncompromising flags, yet drumming in the same direction. The most despicable authoritarian regime can create a fake opposition party to stage a parody of pluralism, but no country like Russia has taken this joke so far that it has spread to clubs, trade unions, sports associations, local communities, various bodies, and even ultranationalist or liberal groups, so that there is no corner of civil society that is not suspected of being compromised by power.
It is 10 o'clock and deafening pop music is already blaring from the loudspeakers in the cars at the foot of the palaces and shopping arcades. On the sidewalks, thousands of spectators cheered and waved balloons behind the plastic ribbons that separated them from the dozens of groups waiting on the asphalt like mismatched Roman cohorts for the parade to begin, standing motionless under their respective banners: Putinist teenagers of the Young Guard, United Russia, the Gazprom Workers' Union, the poorly named Liberal Democratic Party, the Yabloko Party, the numerous Communists behind a giant portrait of Stalin, the Donbas supporters, the Don Cossacks, some representatives of Mozgovi's Ghost Brigade, followed by the Anarcho-Ecological Party, the Leningrad Oblast Metalworkers' Union, the Vegan Community, anti-capitalists, the Russian Imperial Movement, the National Bolshevik Party, feminists, majorettes, motorcyclists, the Northwestern Airlines Pilots' Alliance, and even pacifists and opponents of the war in Ukraine, who were placed at the end of the procession between an animal rights league and an LGBT association.
The real-life protagonist, Yuri Belyayev, is interesting not as an individual, but as a type—one of many minor leaders, extreme but not fanatical. They play "leader" in some small institution and know they lack the makings of a national politician. Reading these texts in 2022, in which men like him are categorized as irrelevant veterans or figures of the past, leaves a bitter aftertaste in light of the Russian war against Ukraine.
« Do you want to write… and read… on Beliaev? »
[...]
Tarasov repose the cup on the soucoupe. Pas une goutte de thé dans la barbe.
« Don't you think it's an important figure in Russia?
— Eh bien… Dans le milieu nationaliste et à Saint-Pétersbourg, c'est évident que c'était quelqu'un, mais il n'a pas réussi à aller plus loin politiquement. It is available for competition, a beautiful guide in the genre, and also a great sponsor for a good place in the country and its resources. Quant à ses qualités personnelles, your les connaissez: ce n'est pas a figure charismatique. »
It represents a lamp of the thé, déglutit, and conclut succinctly.
« Beliaev is a veteran, but he is also a national figure. C'est un homme du passé. »
Les vieux routiers comme Youri, Tarasov les appelle presque affectueusement « dyedushki russkogo faschizma »: les papys du fascisme russe. The merveille de l'obstination avec laquelle ils tentent de faire parler d'eux en se jetant à corps perdu dans le soutien au Donbass, comme s'ils étaient à la recherche d'une new youth, d'un chaos ambiant qui leur rappelle les années fastes de la décennie enragée, quand ils étaient riches et influents, et sûrement cherchent-ils a terreauvierge où prospereraient de new leur nom et leurs idées. Aujourd'hui ils espèrent bâtir en Ukraine cette Nouvelle-Russie qui leur a glissé entre les doigts vingt ans plus tôt, mais Youri et ses semblables ont raté le coche, leur bestiaire est périmé. There is no way you can see that there is no return match for the animals in the distance.
« Les monarchists of Stanislav Vorobiov, les ultranationalists of Alexander Barkachov, or les neo-Nazis of Ivanov-Soukharevski, all of them wanted to envoy the centaines de combatants in Donetsk and in Lougansk. »
Tarasov rigole doucement.
« Le chiffre réel ne dépasse pas quelques dizaines d'individus. Quant à Édouard Limonov, que les Français admirent tant, la moitié de ses volontaires n'ont même pas de lien avec son parti. »
Pierre Sautreuil, Les Guerres perdues de Youri Beliaev
“You want to write a book about Belyaev?”[...]
Tarasov places his cup on the saucer. Not a drop of tea in his beard.
"So he was never an important figure in Russia?""Well... He was obviously someone in the nationalist scene and in St. Petersburg, but he didn't manage to advance politically. There was competition, lots of small groups." Leader in his own way, and no major sponsor felt it necessary to invest their trust and resources in him. As for his personal qualities, you know them: he is not a charismatic figure.”He took another sip of tea, swallowed, and concluded laconically.
"Belyayev is a veteran, but not a national figure. He is a man of the past."Tarasov almost affectionately calls old hands like Jurij “dyedushki russkogo faschizma“The grandfathers of Russian fascism. He marvels at the tenacity with which they try to make a name for themselves by throwing themselves headlong into supporting the Donbas, as if they were searching for a new youth, for a prevailing chaos that reminds them of the fat years of the raging decade when they were rich and influential, and surely they are looking for virgin soil on which their name and ideas can flourish again. Today they hope to build in Ukraine that Novorossiya that slipped through their fingers twenty years earlier, but Yuri and his people have missed the boat, their bestiary is outdated. They refuse to accept that there is no return match for the endangered animals.”
"The monarchists of Stanislav Vorobyov, the ultranationalists of Alexander Barkashov, or the neo-Nazis of Ivanov-Sukharevsky – they all boast that they have sent hundreds of fighters to Donetsk and Luhansk."Tarasov laughs softly.
"The actual number is no more than a few dozen people. As for Eduard Limonov, whom the French admire so much, half of his volunteers don't even have any connection to his party."
Books have their: Pierre Sautreuil, who on the occasion of the award ceremony explicitly referred to the model of Emmanuel Carrère's subjective writing and to his book about the Russian writer Limonov (with the same title) Limonov) appointed, clearly condemns his late turn from oppositionist to warmonger:
When Emmanuel Carrère published a biography of Édouard Limonov in 2011, Viktor Yanoukovitch conducted in the Ukraine. You can't let yourself be told that the war is outside and it's so powerful. And a person who is now 70 years old, Limonov emerges from the stagnants of the Russian opposition to write in the song of a new leader in the world.
The February 2014 and the issue of the Revolution on the Place Maïdan, the members of the Russian Federation on the affluée and Crime pour exiger son rattachement à la Fédération de Russie. In May 2014, just after the debut of the combats in the East of Ukraine, Limonov published a text announcing the creation of "International Brigades of Volunteers" pour lutter aux côtés des separates.
At Moscou, a center for entraînement d'Autre Russie a accueilli des volontaires de all horizons avant de les expédier dans le Donbass. The members of the members of the party are all fighting in Ukraine. Beaucoup y ont trouvé la mort. You best-seller de Carrère, on retient qu'Édouard Limonov a rêvé toute sa vie d'être un jour chef de guerre. C'est désormais chose faite. À 72 ans, the voilà reconverti en prophete du jihad russe.
What is the reason for the anti-system to have the door-voix of the propaganda of the Kremlin? Come now, the raisons remontent à l'enfance, qu'il a passée à truander à Kharkov, dans l'est de l'Ukraine. This also means that there is nothing to fight against the regime of Vladimir Poutine. In May 2014, in the streets of Moscow, we assisted in the assembly of the Russian Federation in separate separate areas of Donbass. D'une voix chevrotante, le vieil Eddy appelait aux armes devant une centaine de militants. Avait-il l'assentiment des autorités ? The contrary parait is probable. C'était son premier meeting autorisé depuis des années.
Pierre Sautreuil, Les Guerres perdues de Youri Beliaev
When Emmanuel Carrère published his biography of Édouard Limonov in 2011, Viktor Yanukovych was still ruling Ukraine. Nothing at the time indicated that a war would break out so suddenly. And no one suspected that Limonov, in his seventies, would emerge from the stagnant waters of the Russian opposition to write a bloody new chapter in his life.
As early as February 2014, following the successful conclusion of the revolution on Maidan Square, members of his party, Other Russia, flocked to Crimea to demand its annexation by the Russian Federation. In May 2014, just one month after the start of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, Limonov published a text announcing the creation of "International Volunteer Brigades" to fight alongside the separatists.
In Moscow, a training center run by Other Russia took in volunteers from all over the world before sending them to the Donbas. Dozens of party members went to Ukraine to fight. Many died there. Carrère's bestseller reveals that Édouard Limonov dreamed of being a warlord his entire life. Now he has achieved it. At 72, he has become a prophet of Russian jihad.
What drove this herald of the anti-establishment to become a mouthpiece for Kremlin propaganda? As always, the reasons reach back to his childhood, which he spent as a con man in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine. Perhaps he also grew weary of his futile struggle against Vladimir Putin's regime. In May 2014, I attended a rally in the streets of Moscow organized by Other Russia in support of the separatists in Donbas. With a trembling voice, old Eddy called on about 100 activists to take up arms. Did he have official approval? The opposite is unlikely. It was his first authorized rally in years.
Also for Carrère's book Limonova The book's dual nature, straddling journalism and literature, is emphasized by Daniel Henseler's critique: "Emmanuel Carrère initially envisioned only a longer article about Limonov. This eventually evolved into an entire book, which he describes as 'reportage,' but which could justifiably also be called a biographical novel. The author specifically interviewed over thirty people, accompanied Limonov for a period of time, listened to him—and sometimes simply observed him when he preferred to remain silent. What Carrère doesn't shy away from is that he draws much of his information directly from Limonov's own works. These include chronicles and memoirs, but also literary texts. Regarding the latter, it should be noted that Carrère doesn't always avoid the 'biographical' trap—that is, he too obviously equates the protagonist in Limonov's works with the real Limonov, thereby overlooking the possibility of deliberate self-presentation or even self-stylization in Limonov's books." 4 This was precisely part of the problem with this book for Jörg Aufenanger: "As long as Carrère tells this erratic life story with a touch of invention, he is able to fascinate the reader, but as soon as he puts himself next to or even in front of Limonov, it becomes vain and bland." 5 That this subjectivity is nevertheless necessary to interpret the French fascination with this "Ukrainian provincial crook and political scoundrel" Limonov was demonstrated by Sigrid Löffler's review: "With feather-light elegance, Carrère uses his own reactions to Limonov to examine the political and intellectual vulnerabilities of the Parisian caviar left. In writing this book, he frees himself from the blind spots of a French political elite flirting with both left and right—even to the point of dismantling such concepts that are of no help in considering the excesses in contemporary Russia. Emmanuel Carrère does not simply dismiss Limonov as an amoral, scandal-prone scoundrel and desperado; despite all his fascinated aversion to his protagonist, he takes the trouble to decipher this dramatic career against the backdrop of the political upheavals and radical shifts in values in Russia over the last fifty years as potentially exemplary." 6 This self-criticism comes at the expense of Figaro It's fitting that Buisson ultimately understands "The Distorting Mirror" as a reflection of France: "Carrère has written a dazzling biographical narrative here that acts like a distorting mirror. He maintains an ideal distance from his subject, behind which he elegantly retreats: empathetic, but not too much so. With the patience of a psychopath, he shatters the media clichés that Limonov and his country evoke in France, and enchants, amuses, convinces, shocks, and recounts, as if it were nothing, the last forty years of the world. The world of Edward the Terrible. But also his own. And ours." 7
The real question for contemporary and future novels about Ukraine, therefore, is: What self-criticism of Europe, France, and Germany, of the Western world as a whole, will we find reflected in their distorted mirror of the new war order between Russia and "us"?The Lost Wars by Yuri Belyayev "It takes us to a Russia that never recovered from the fall of the Eastern Bloc," according to the publisher Grasset. 8 Annie Daubenton saw the achievement of this docu-fiction in "exploring new figures in society and different kinds of conflict, hybrid wars, wars on the fringes of Europe, new mercenaries, new Don Quixotes or the last scoundrels, however you want to judge them." 9 Sautreuil's novel-reportage is not only a lament for the new order after 1989, as in the following excerpt, but could unintentionally prove to be a portent of remilitarization, a rearmament madness, and the dangerous confrontation between Russian imperialism and NATO states, because the man of the past, Yuri Belyayev, and the warmongers of his kind have not yet given up on their wars.
The wall of Berlin comes in tomber, the URSS is not available plus que pour quelques mois. À Leningrad, comme partout ailleurs, the hour is à la pénurie. The capital of the North is one of the rarest villes or the one that finds its way into the viande, and all the rest of the manque cruellement. This is not what the power of the Soviétique looks like. Les prix restent encadrés, and Mikhaïl Gorbatchev are also awarded a higher general salary. The problem is plus simple, and also grave: from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, it's still a plus in the magazines. « The carnet de rationnement is the new étoile de notre philosophie, écrit à this époque the penseur Alexandre Zinoviev, c'est l'idéologue principal de la perestroïka. »
In print in 1990, the Russians came to the premiere of cigarettes. The « émeutes de la nicotine » éclatent dans plusieurs villes. Au marché black, a cigarette is sold at the price of a package. Quand on ne trouve plus de mietettes de tobacco, on fume du thé vert et des pesticides. At Moscou, the speakers block the avenues and store the magazines.
C'est dans ce désordre complet qu'après soixante-dix ans de glaciation, la presse libre fait son apparition en Union soviétique. With an avidité inconceivable, the Russes s'arrachent tout ce que le pouvoir a si longtemps mis à l'index: journaux de tous bords, littérature à l'eau de rose, récits de détention. Tout ce qui a été tu pendant des décennies et que les Soviétiques ne s'échangeaient qu'à voix basse dans l'intimité des cuisines s'affiche désormais sur cinq colonnes à la une. The Archipelago of Goulag was created in 1989. The group of rock fonts combined with the chant “URSS-SS”.
À l'époque, Youri is in Leningrad, inspector de la police criminelle, et pour lui, la perestroïka is an inconceivable brothel. The ville bouillonne de palabres, de meetings, d'incessantes manifestations: a coup les nationalistes, a coup les communistes, a coup les democrats, parfois même Hare Krishna. Quelques années plus tôt, la police aurait mis un terme à ce cirque à coups de matraques, mais désormais les Soviétiques ont le droit de manifester, alors Youri se contente d'y aller en civil et de signaler les plus agités.
Pierre Sautreuil, Les Guerres perdues de Youri Beliaev
The Berlin Wall had just fallen, and the USSR had only a few months left to live. In Leningrad, as everywhere else, there was a shortage. The capital of the North was one of the few cities where meat was still available, and everything else was in acute short supply. It wasn't so much that the purchasing power of the average Soviet citizen had decreased. Prices remained reasonable, and Mikhail Gorbachev had even just ordered a general wage increase. The problem was simpler, but far more serious: from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, there was nothing left to buy in the shops. "The rationing book is the new star of our philosophy," wrote the thinker Alexander Zinoviev at the time, "it is the chief ideologue of perestroika."
In the spring of 1990, Russia experienced its first-ever cigarette shortage. "Nicotine riots" broke out in several cities. On the black market, a single cigarette sold for the price of a pack. When tobacco crumbs were no longer available, people resorted to smoking green tea and pesticides. In Moscow, smokers blocked streets and vandalized shops.
In this utter chaos, after seventy years of repression, a free press emerges in the Soviet Union. With unfathomable greed, the Russians seize everything that the regime had so long suppressed: newspapers of all stripes, sentimental literature, reports from prisons. Everything that had been kept secret for decades and that Soviets had only whispered about in the privacy of their kitchens now appears in five columns on the front page. The Gulag Archipelago is published in 1989. Rock bands sing "USSR-SS" in sold-out venues.
At that time, Yuri was a police officer in Leningrad, an inspector of the criminal police, and for him, Perestroika was an unbelievable mess. The city was seething with palaver, meetings, and incessant demonstrations: sometimes the nationalists, sometimes the communists, sometimes the democrats, and occasionally even Hare Krishnas. A few years earlier, the police would have put an end to this circus with batons, but now the Soviets had the right to demonstrate, so Yuri contented himself with going undercover and reporting the most troublesome.
This article is written in German and can be found at https://rentree.de. Automatic translations into English and French are available. English, French.
Notes- "The President of Russia in Montré, on February 21st, has the visage of a conductor plus his voice, authoritative and reputable that he is in a vision of ideology and victim of history and international relations. Loin d'être irrationnel, le choix fait par Vladimir Poutine d'escalader le conflict s'inscrit dans la continuité d'une politique identitaire obsidionale menée depuis des années.” Pierre Sautreuil, “Comment Vladimir Poutine s'est enferré dans une vision victimaire,” La Croix, 23. February 2022.>>>
- "Une enquête passionatenante issue de son reportage dans le Donbass et de sa rencontre avec Youri Beliaev, personnage du paysage politique russe devenu mafieux après la chute de l'URSS. The course of Youri semble être identique à celui-ci de beaucoup de nationalistes russes, mais pourtant Sautreuil va tisser un lien avec lui entre fascination, pitié et amitié.” Cécile Mazin, “Pierre Sautreuil and Maggie Nelson, laureates of the Prix du Livre du Réel 2018,” actualitte.com, June 22, 2018.>>>
- "Le récit se déploie comme a large feuille de route qui s'étend aux territoires que le Kremlin entend end maintenir sous son contrôle. Les seigneurs de guerre la suivent sur ordre, par un penchant naturel à la revanche sur l'autre, l'ennemi d'autre couleur, d'autre confession, et qui les ferait rebondir ici puis là. Leurs atouts: de l'argent, des armes, un pourcentage dans les hydrocarbures et de bonnes connexions qui permettent de recruter à la demande des «foyers» qui s'allument La traite de ces mercenaires rapporte qui est pourvu d'un bon réseau.” Annie Daubenton, "Chronique d'une décennie enragée", Waiting for Nadeau, 3. July 2018.>>>
- Daniel Henseler, “Limonov, Russia and I”, literaturkritik.de, January 1, 2013.>>>
- Jörg Aufenanger, “My Wild Brother in Spirit”, Frankfurter Rundschau, January 22, 2013.>>>
- Sigrid Löffler, Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 19, 2012.>>>
- "A destin exceptionnel, livre exceptionnel. Carrère signe là un éblouissant récit biographique aux faux airs de miroir déformant. The son sujet derrière lequel il s'écarte élégamment, il se tient à distance idéale: empathique mais pas trop. Brisant avec une patience de psychopathe les clichés médiatiques que Limonov et son pays suscitent en France, il enchante, amuse, convainc, bouleverse et raconte, l'air de rien, les quarante dernières du monde. Celui d'Edouard le Terrible. ((Jean Christophe Buisson, “Emmanuel Carrère: Edouard le Terrible”, Le Figaro, 27 2011 August.>>>
- "Les wars perdues de Youri Beliaev Nous fait découvrir une Russie qui ne s'est jamais remise de la chute du Bloc soviétique.>>>
- “En tout cas, ce « docu-roman » ou « docu-fiction » s'attache à fouiller de new personnages de la société et d'autres types de conflicts, guerres hybrides, guerres aux marges de l'Europe, new mercenaires, new Don Quixote or derniers des salopards, on jugera comme on voudra.” Annie Daubenton, "Chronique d'une décennie enragée", Waiting for Nadeau, 3. July 2018.>>>
