“Do you think Putin’s soldiers can land all the way here (in Moldova)? »
” I do not know. Since the annexation of Crimea we can no longer be sure of anything. »
This dialogue is taken from “The empire of Nistor Polobok”, novel by Iulian Ciocan (Belleville editions). “A dystopia” published in 2018, comments the writer on Skype from Chisinau, the Moldovan capital. A repeat offender, since he had already published “And in the morning, the Russians were there”, on the invasion of Moldova by Russia, which already de facto occupies the eastern part of the country, Transnistria.
The disgust of war
Iulian Ciolan, 54, makes a point of specifying in his calm voice: “I am not one of those ultranationalist writers who hate everything that comes from the east. But this invasion seemed likely to me…” In a Moldavia torn between Romania to the west and Russia to the east, he believes that a writer “must describe a world as complex as possible”, with characters reflecting the different perspectives. Fables where we laugh at hesitation between terror and the absurd.
Since the outbreak of the war, Iulian Ciocan has not written a line. “Impossible… It’s not out of fear of saying anything, but out of a form of disgust at everything that’s going on. Life is not easy in Chisinau, between a hundred thousand Ukrainian refugees, crazy inflation (“with the same money, you can only buy half of what you could seven or eight months ago ”) and the threat of war. The atmosphere “is very particular, notes the writer. You have people who fear a Russian landing in Odessa and a junction with Transnistria, others who continue to live as if nothing had happened, indifferent. »
Values or comfort
On June 23, the European Council will examine Moldova’s application to join the EU. Iulian Ciocan would like a positive answer, but does not believe it. He adds, however, in conclusion: “I can clearly see, from Chisinau, that it is very complicated for the West to unite against this invasion. There is a struggle between the desire to preserve daily comfort and the need to defend certain values. But I believe that, to defend your values, you absolutely have to agree to leave, even temporarily, your comfort zone.