In 1848 German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published their epoch-making political tract The Communist Manifesto. “A specter is haunting Europe,” they wrote, “the specter of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter.”
Now, 172 years later, to paraphrase them, in an uncanny bolt from the blue, it is the specter of the coronavirus that is menacing not only Europe but most of the world. And at least some international cooperation is belatedly under way to deliver us from this very modern scourge.
In Ukraine, as in many other countries, drastic measures have already been taken to contain the virus and begin eradicating it. International borders have been closed to the extent that the war with Russia in the Donbas permits, a strict regime of quarantine is imposed and preparations for the worse urgently undertaken. Soldiers have already joined the police in patrolling the capital and other cities and the declaration of a nationwide state of emergency is expected shortly.
This is a huge test for all, and for Ukraine all the more so. It is not simply about coping with the emergency, in terms of managing the crisis and the leadership, wisdom, and courage involved. It is about the level of political culture, sense of responsibility and commitment to the interrelated ideas of the common good and the national interest that are also at stake.
The imposition of a state of emergency, economic upheaval, panic, and extreme anxiety create conditions offering huge temptations for the unscrupulous, cynical and greedy – politicians, businessmen, profiteers and fifth columnists. The situation demands humanity, empathy and solidarity, but also zero tolerance of abuse and exploitation, and the most severe sanctions permitted by the law.
This is a time for putting aside political ambitions and for national unity. The president and his government have to lead by example, but we are all in this together. How we pull through will depend on how each one us, politician, oligarch, prosecutor, clergyman, journalist, student, worker or farmer. Will we be able later to paraphrase Churchill and say as a nation that this was our “finest hour”?
So many other random thoughts and emotions arise. Of course, one thinks in this situation of uncertainty and apprehension about those least prepared to face the challenge and the most vulnerable: the elderly, the poor, the sick and abandoned. But also of the medical workers, police, and military ensuring order, and others having to continue working together to maintain the supply of food and essential services.
And also about the exposed soldiers on the front line in the Donbas defending Ukraine from Russian aggression. Suddenly, they too are under increased threat – not only from Russian shells and snipers, but also from an invisible biological enemy that attacks silently and just as mercilessly, and from any direction.
Yes, Ukraine is now at war on two fronts – against the epidemic of belligerent Russian expansionist nationalism and the coronavirus pandemic, both of which have no respect for international borders. And this significantly compounds the challenge facing the country.
Kyiv’s Euro-Atlantic allies have for the last six years provided essential support to deter the Russian threat by imposing sanctions on Moscow, thereby acknowledging the broader international dimension. But today, as each one of Ukraine’s allies itself faces the unexpected enormous difficulties caused by the coronavirus in all areas of life, they are preoccupied with essential matters at home and Ukraine will, more than ever, have to do its best to fend for itself.
The Kremlin is aware of this and true to form is exploiting the pandemic. Putin has declared that in Russia it is “under control” thanks to the Kremlin’s “timely” measures. His state media has been accusing Europe of “mismanaging” the pandemic and thereby highlighting a “failure of European Union solidarity.”
Putin’s cynicism knows no bounds: he has just announced that the Russian army will be sending medical supplies to Italy to help battle the coronavirus. In the meantime, his forces continue to kill and wound Ukrainian soldiers every day in the Donbas and he neglects to combat the pandemic in the areas of Ukraine under Russian occupation.
Who could have imagined such a grim scenario of pestilence and war that is more reminiscent of medieval Europe rather than of the twenty-first century? Well, the French existentialist writer Albert Camus certainly did in his allegorical novel written in 1947 called The Plague. Highly relevant again, the book, which is translated into Ukrainian and Russian, demands to be read as widely as possible today.
Written just after the World War II, The Plague brilliantly connected two types of contagion – physical, from a disease, and psychological, from a corrosive ideology like Fascism, which was the prevalent form of expansionist nationalism of that day. How do people cope, or should cope, in such situations, isolated, vulnerable and anxious, as the infections spread?
“There have been as many plagues as wars in history,” Camus writes, “Yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise.” And Ukraine, barely recovered from the liberating popular revolt of 2013-14 known as the Revolution of Dignity, has had more than its share of such shocks. The key question is how will Ukraine respond to the mammoth task of confronting two such simultaneous mortal threats. Will this uninvited but now inevitable shock therapy jolt it into recovery and eventually a healthier state? Or will the physical epidemic only weaken the national body organism?
Camus encourages us to do the right thing. “All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it’s up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences.” He reminds us: “What’s true of all the evils in the world is true of plague as well. It helps men to rise above themselves.”
Let’s also recall a few more lines from that famous speech which Churchill delivered on June 18, 1940, only a month after taking over as prime minister, incidentally as head of an all-party government, when Nazi Germany appeared poised to defeat Britain and national unity was so essential. They are apt for today’s situation in Ukraine, especially on the eve of an unprecedented state of emergency.
“…To form an administration of this scale and complexity is a serious undertaking in itself, but it must be remembered that we are in the preliminary stage of one of the greatest battles in history, that we are in action at many points….”, Churchill told the country. “We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering….You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory – victory at all costs…victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.”
Isolated by quarantine measures, as we are, we at least have the inspiring advice and insights of such giants as Churchill and Camus to help us through this ordeal here in our own time and place.
