If you follow my work you must have noticed I am a Lithuanian immigrant in the UK. I was born in Vilnius, I lived there for a quarter of my life. Vilnius is my City, there is no better city in the entire world. I know, it sounds big-headed. Don’t get me wrong, London is a lovely town but with me getting older, it is becoming a bit too much. I visited many beautiful towns around Europe. All of them have something special but Vilnius will always be my town.
My neighbours were Russians, Belourassians, Poles and Ashkenazi Jews. I was still a little boy when Jewish were allowed to leave USSR and move to Israel. My early childhood neighbours left, we never heard about them again. I hope they found a better life than the bolshevik project.
The same nationality kids used to stick together. Lithuanians with their own lot, Russian speaking kids with their lot. Polish kids hung out with Russian speakers. There were kids going between groups.
There used to be fights — Lithuanians against Russians. Instead of nationalities, two groups called themselves Punks and Montanas. Lithuanians were Punks and Russians were Montanas.
My neighbours were a tough crowd, they were running the hood. I knew each one of them. Every night they would warn me not to join the “Punk” gang. And every night I would do just that, join the Punks. And then every night I would meet my neighbours again and they would say — ‘didn’t we tell you not to go together with punks’ — while laughing. My neighbours were a cool bunch of rascals. I like them even we were on opposing sides.
When we grew up and started to enjoy beer and cigarettes the national boundaries melted. Everyone likes a good party regardless of their nationality.
Then the independence came and Russians got a bit confused. Suddenly they lived in an independent country away from USSR. Thanks to that time Lithuanian government they were not pushed away but accepted as citizens of the Lithuanian Republic.
Today, we have a war in Europe once again, we couldn’t keep it together. Brother against brother, neighbour against neighbour. My heart is crying. I am afraid that my child will see the horrors no one should see. Nationalities are pushed against each other. Ukrainians will hate Russians and Russians will hate Ukrainians. Everyone else will hate Russians. I don’t want to live in a place where everyone is talking about the war and how NATO must bomb the shit out of Russia. It’s insane. I don’t want to see bombed towns of Ukraine, I don’t want Ukrainians to die from the bombs sent by the psychopath Putin.
I love Europe, I loved the time when I could go to any European city, enjoy local beer and local food. I love Hungary and Austria, the Netherlands and Germany, Estonia and Poland. I love the cultural differences of European nations. I don’t want them killing each other.
The way I see it, it’s the end. We are on the self-destruction course. I can’t hear rational conversations about how to stop the war. WAR, BOMBINGS and DEATH. Ukrainians are fucked, the powers to be are in the process of ripping that country apart. The rest of Europe is fucked because we are losing freedom and turning into some kind of semi-fascist, biosecurity regime.
When Yugoslavia was falling apart, and a neighbour went against neighbour and NATO jets were sent to level Serbian towns I was too young to fully understand the horror. The horror has no nationality, a death of a loved one is a death of a loved one. It does not matter what language they spoke. No parent should see their dead children.
It seems to me that we can’t help ourselves. We end up with people(if they can be called that) who hate humanity and do everything possible to destroy it.
It was a good ride until it lasted, not long left and Europe will be in ruins once again.
I am a peace and freedom-loving man but don’t get me wrong if the evil forces will send their goons to Vilnius I will be there defending my beautiful City.
