#same river

Oksanen describes herself as a post-colonial writer. East Europeans went through totalitarianism twice – first with the Nazis, and then for nearly half a century, under the Soviets, she says. Typically, though, the experiences of those who lived behind the iron curtain “do not find a place” in the west’s cultural consciousness. Without a reckoning of Russia’s“colonial” crimes, where the present echoes the lurid past, justice is impossible, she thinks.

Same River, Twice is thoughtful, instructive and deeply harrowing. Today’s anti-Kyiv Kremlin rhetoric has deep historical roots, she points out. Stalin demonised the Estonians and other rebellious ethnic groups as “fascists” – an enemy within. The state film industry in Moscow cast actors from the Baltic Soviet republics in the role of Nazis or American spies. Under communism, “fascist” became a synonym for non-Russians.

In the run-up to his Ukraine attack Putin reactivated this “dehumanising and racist” language. Russia’s president said his “special military operation” was necessary to free Kyiv from “neo-Nazis”. The claim is absurd. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish. Most of his male relatives perished during the second world war fighting against German invaders. Zelenskyy’s defence minister is a Muslim Tatar from Crimea.

The book makes a compelling case that misogyny and imperialism are linked. At the same time as killing Ukrainians, Putin has rolled up women’s rights within Russia. In 2017 the pro-Kremlin Duma effectively legalised domestic abuse. Russia’s patriarch argued that criminal sanctions for men who hit women amounted to foreign interference. There was, one female deputy argued, nothing wrong with a mere “slap”.

15, Cynth, How might they be ignorant or prejudiced?Cynth is from a pretty wealthy background and has a lot of ignorance on how people are affected by poverty even within her society. She has a lot of prejudice against people working for and within corrupt branches of the government and fails to recognise that some people might not have much of a choice. She will carelessly blow a lot of money on fast cars and bail fees and is constantly surprised to see other people struggling.

18, Nadia, Are they ever a pushover about something? If so, how?Nadia will do ANYTHING for her sisters. Bake a small mountain of cake for their birthday, play laser tag with her face painted like a lizard, lie on the living room floor so they can wrestle over her stomach. She almost dropped out of uni a week in because they said on Skype that they missed her and asked when she was coming home.

18, Matt, Are they ever a pushover about something? If so, how?Matt is incapable of not helping people whether that is his mum after a serious incident, any number of friends needing a space to crash and a new identity or a semi-broken robot who may or may not have recently committed a murder. He will pretend to be all stoic and ‘I have my own problems’ but one flash of the big sad eyes or the vaguest attempt at a sob story and he will fold like a house of cards.