After the momentous journey to Afghanistan in 2012 I thought my travelling days were over. However, in September I hope to travel to Russia and spend two weeks in Perm. How did this come about, I ask myself?
When I was a teenager I read ‘Doctor Zhivago’ and fell in love with the idea of Russia. The world presented in Pasternak’s novel was so new and in many ways terrifying. Although there was much I didn’t understand I realise, on re reading the book a couple of years ago, that I was taken by Zhivago’s sense of identity and his struggle to remain true to his beliefs in the violently changing world around him. Like so many others over the years I have been attracted by the values of communism yet appalled at what the Soviet Union became under Stalin.
Decades passed, during which I read ‘War and Peace’ and ‘Anna Karenina’ but not much else of Russian literature. In 2013 I attended a course at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, OUDCE, on ‘The Brothers Karamazov’, a novel much loved by Dorothy Day, co founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Our tutor was Kaen Hewitt and during the course she asked if anyone would be interested in visiting Perm, Oxford’s Russian twin town. Having just returned from Afghanistan I felt this would be a bit much but told Karen that I would be interested in such a visit in 2014. Last September I attended another of Karen’s courses, ‘Russian Shorter Fiction’ and told her I was interested in the Perm visit this year. Consequently, God willing, I’ll be part of a group of eight visiting Perm from 6 – 21 September.
On the surface this seems very different from our adventure in Afghanistan. There, we went to visit peacemakers and on our return we have spread the news of the life and work of the Afghan Peace Volunteers. The visit to Perm is in the context of the twinning of Perm with Oxford. However, there are similarities as well as differences. We shall be staying in Russian families and learning about everyday life in Russia. We shall have the opportunity to speak to groups about our lives in Oxford. We have been asked to give details about our interests and I said I would be interested in speaking about Afghanistan, asylum seeker issues, homelessness, disability, and non violent direct action. Perhaps I’ll be able to share experiences on these important areas of my life.
What seems to me to be the most important aspect of our visit is that it is taking place against the background of the current political climate created by recent events in Ukraine. The Afghan Peace Volunteers and their friends in the U.S. and Europe, including Voices for Creative Nonviolence with whom I went to Afghanistan, believe that peace and cooperation can only be achieved when ordinary citizens cross borders and communicate with each other. This communication might be actual or online. The more we know about each other the more we can understand each other and create a border free world. The true peace of the world depends on us, not on the leaders and politicians and most certainly NOT on military means. The former Soviet Union and ourselves have inflicted terrible damage on Afghanistan. Let’s hope we can forge bonds of friendship between us.
Live Adventurously 