In four days, it will be a year since Russian tanks entered Ukraine.
Twelve months later, we still do not know how this conflict will end.
Are we moving towards a “Vietnamization” of the conflict? Two empires waging war by interposed country?
Or will Putin’s Russia, under the weight of war-related expenses, have to leave Ukraine with its tail between its two legs, as it left Afghanistan in February 1989?
Putin, who is said to be ill, so who would have nothing to lose, will he gamble and “weigh on the peak”?
No one knows.
We are swimming in the fog, and all options remain possible.
Even the worst.
HISTORY IN THE MIRROR
That’s why it’s so comforting to watch historical documentaries.
We know the end.
We know how it will all end.
We are able to make connections, we interpret each little event, even the most trivial, in the light of what happened at the very end.
It’s like watching a game of chess in replay.
Every room move suddenly makes sense.
“Ah yes, he moved his bishop to get his opponent to push his rook to the left, then he advanced his pawn to attract his knight, and…”
We look at the past in the rear view mirror.
And we analyze each blow in the light of the outcome of the match, the implacable victory of Bobby Fischer or Garry Kasparov.
Whereas when you live History “in the making”, you have absolutely no idea what awaits you.
Little did people who lived their day-to-day lives in the 1920s and 30s know that the events that made the headlines every morning would lead to one of the most terrible conflicts in history.
We watch German, Polish and Austrian Jews walking, laughing and chatting in old archival films of the time, and we feel like saying to them: “Pack your bags and go!” And above all, don’t go to France, because they too will send you to camps! »
What will our great-grandchildren say while watching the reports shot today? What are they going to want to shout at us?
What is going on behind the scenes, unbeknownst to us?
Where will the train of history take us?
No one knows.
And it’s terribly scary.
We would like to press the “Fast Forward” button to find out what awaits us.
And to be able to prepare ourselves.
THE ALMA BRIDGE
We are like Lady Di who has just left the Ritz in Paris on August 30, 1997 at 12:10 a.m. and who is regarding to get into Dodi Al-Fayed’s Mercedes.
The photographers surround the car. Flash lights crackle.
Do we tell the driver to go full throttle? Or on the contrary, he is told to drive carefully?
What will the world look like in a year?
Did Ukrainians know what awaited them the next day when they had dinner with their families on February 23, 2022?
