After a short break for Easter and some traditional observances, I return to this column with a topic I read about yesterday that shocked me, and which I haven’t seen reported anywhere as news. Russia carried out extensive bombings in Odesa, and among the buildings hit was the student dormitory of the local Music Academy. At least five musicians were injured, and the building has sustained extensive damage.
The Odesa Music Academy is not just any institution. David Oistrakh, Emil Gilels, Sviatoslav Richter, Shura Cherkassky, Oleg Maisenberg, Maria Guleghina, and many other musicians—perhaps less known, but always of high caliber—who have staffed orchestras, choirs, and ensembles over the years, all studied music there.
Destruction and wars have not ceased to devastate all our lives, and this has certainly intensified in recent months, as you know. At the same time, however, we must not overlook the fact that we have lived for a long time in a period of peace, at least in Europe. This war, which has lasted for so many years and shows no sign of stopping despite mutual exhaustion, is sure to leave us with many scars that will soon become apparent.
The cultural structures of a place attacked by an enemy like Russia are also a tremendous loss (when they are destroyed or targeted) for global heritage. What always strikes me, and struck me even when I was young and learning about the history of World War II, is how a nation that has produced artists like Beethoven and Schiller in the case of Germany, and Tchaikovsky and Dostoevsky in the case of Russia, can inflict such great harm on global reality. A harm that is not limited to damage and destruction, to the ultimate evil of loss of life, but simultaneously an evil that directly attacks Culture itself.
All of this should make us reflect, see our reality differently, become better, and rise to the occasion as human beings; to finally pull our heads out of the sand and confront our mistakes head-on. I do not claim that there are perpetual and eternal paradises. I do not believe in them. But I do believe in people who have the discernment to say, “no, this should not happen,” and ultimately succeed in preventing it. Even those who make mistakes and wrong decisions, even they should be recognized the right to change. But for those who consciously and deliberately destroy culture and its structures, I am not sure there is room for their sins to be forgiven.
