Svetlana Alexievich

Another thinker says, I don’t remember his name, but in effect he says: “Evil is not an actual substance. It is the absence of good, in the way that darkness is simply the absence of light."

I read in a book—it was by Father Sergei Bulgakov—“It's certain that God created the world, and therefore the world can't possibly fail," and so it's necessary to “endure history courageously and to the very end."

But that’s also a form of barbarism, the absence of fear for oneself.

­self. We always say “we," and never “I." “We’ll show them Soviet heroism," “we'll show them what the Soviet character is made of." We'll show the whole world! But this is me, this is I. I don't want to die. I'm afraid.