A Reply of Experts on Eastern Europe to the Open Letter of German Intellectuals titled "A Ceasefire Now!" published in Zeit Online on June 29, 2022

In June 2022, a group of well-known German professors, cultural figures, publicists, and an ex-diplomat published—first in the leading German intellectual weekly Die Zeit, and later in its web edition Zeit Online—a well-sounding text calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine. The concerned celebrities do not fail to brand Russia in general and its President Vladimir Putin in particular. However, they apparently consider a peace deal with Moscow to be unproblematic. Such ideas are not uncommon in Germany.

The piquant aspect of the German collective call for negotiations between Ukraine and Russia is that none of the signatories had previously been known for their interest in Russian-Ukrainian relations. It can be assumed that none of the signatories understands Ukrainian. One wonders how many of the callers are proficient in Russian and, if so, to what extent. This repeats the pattern of the infamous "Open Letter to Chancellor Scholz" by 28 German intellectuals and artists not very familiar with Eastern Europe in the feminist magazine Emma from April 29, 2022.

It is only to be welcomed when publicists and scholars outside the field of East European studies also speak out publicly on the region. However, since the call is about a war between Ukraine and Russia, the complete absence, in the group of signatories, of researchers on the Ukrainian or Russian polity, army, history, foreign policy, and culture is surprising. Why have several well-known professors signed but no prominent historians of Eastern Europe, no analysts of Russian politics, or Ukrainianists? Shouldn't those specialists who are, after decades of work on Ukraine and Russia, familiar with one or both of the countries, be the dominant authors of such an appeal for peace? Shouldn't German intellectuals with dozens if not hundreds of friends, colleagues and acquaintances (sometimes relatives) in the target region support this call for a ceasefire in large numbers? Why did the letter not come from a renowned German institute for East European studies, but instead from a group of randomly gathered intellectuals?

The underrepresentation of Russia and Ukraine expertise in the letter on the Russia-Ukraine war is no coincidence. The callers paint an incomplete picture of the course of the first four months of the war. For example, they write, "Ukraine has so far been able to defend itself against Russia's brutal war of aggression thanks in part to massive economic sanctions and military support from Europe and the United States."

However, these factors were of secondary importance until June 2022. Most of the heavy weaponry used by Kyiv for national defense until then was of Soviet or Ukrainian design. The indeed massive economic sanctions against Russia have so far had only a limited effect. They had not yet had any significant effect on Moscow's belligerence as of the publication date of the appeal.

The signatories of the open letter, like other commentators recently interested in the topic, seem to have the following or a similar scenario in mind for resolving the Russian-Ukrainian conflict: The West should replace Ukraine's now largely depleted self-produced heavy weapons with Western equipment only on a limited basis, if at all. They believe that restricting military-technical assistance to Ukraine clears the way for productive negotiations with Russia, and that creeping disarmament of the Ukrainians would eventually lead to peace.

Few experts on Eastern Europe would agree to support such an approach to contain Russian imperialism. Anyone who has studied the post-Soviet space more intensively over the past 30 years knows how difficult it is to deal with Moscow's hegemonic claims. Only very few researchers, journalists, or activists who have studied the Kremlin's behavior in Moldova, the Caucasus, and Ukraine in recent decades would support such an approach.

Misjudging the nature of Putin's internal regime and foreign policy doctrine, the appeal—like other such letters—proposes the opposite of the measures needed to deter the Kremlin. The signatories apparently do not see enabling Ukraine to defend itself in the long term as a primary task. Instead, the group proposes to maintain the same restraint in containing Russian expansionism that the West has tried many times since 1991 in Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, and elsewhere. The letter's authors have little interest in post-Soviet contemporary history; they, therefore, offer the continuation of a Western policy toward Russia that has brought us to the present dilemma.

Nor are the letter authors aware of the ethical ambivalence of their undertaking. The signatories presumably know little about the Russian torture prison "Izoliatsiia", which has been operating in Donetsk for years. One can recommend for reading relevant reports by the United Nations and other international organizations, or German- and English-language translations of the autobiographical book Heller Weg (Light Path; Stuttgart, 2021) and The Torture Camp on Paradise Street (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, forthcoming in fall 2022) by former "Izoliatsiia" prisoner Stanislav Aseyev.

Disturbing is also that the Russian widespread abduction, deportation, mutilation, and murder of civilians on Ukraine's territory that has been occupied by Moscow as recently as 2022 is apparently secondary to the letter signatories. The plan proposed by the German dignitaries amounts to allowing Russia to continue this practice in large parts of Ukraine in perpetuity. The possibly genocidal implications of a tacitly welcomed Ukrainian cession of territory to Russia remain in the fog.

The signatories of the Zeit appeal entitled "A Ceasefire Now!" recommend for the West—as a Russian and Ukrainian proverb says—to step again on the same rake on which it has already stepped several times, that is, to give in—for the umpteenth time. What repeatedly has not worked before February 24, 2022, is now supposed to be the solution. This paradoxical thesis is given plausibility by the media presence and listed professorial titles of the signatories.

Signatories:

Vera Ammer, Advisory Board of the Lew Kopelew Forum assoc., Berlin

Anders Åslund, Stockholm Free World Forum, Washington, DC

Martin Aust, Department of East European History, University of Bonn

Margarita Balmaceda, School of Diplomacy, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ

Fabian Baumann, Department of History, University of Chicago, IL

Marieluise Beck, Center for Liberal Modernity (LibMod), Berlin

Jan Claas Behrends, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt-Oder, Germany

Boris Belge, Department of History, University of Basel, Switzerland

Karel Berkhoff, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam

Florian Bieber, Center for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz, Austria

Uilleam Blacker, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL, England

Tim Bohse, Human Rights Monitoring Eastern Ukraine, DRA assoc., Berlin

Thomas Bremer, Ecumenical Institute, Westphalian Wilhelm University of Münster

Karsten Brüggemann, Institute of History, University of Tallinn, Estonia

Franziska Davies, Department of History, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Tatiana Dettmer, Management of the Lew Kopelew Forum assoc., Cologne

Martin Dietze, German-Ukrainian Cultural Association assoc., Hamburg

Benno Ennker, formerly Institute of East European History & Regional Studies, University of Tübingen

Sabine Erdmann-Kutnevic, Board of the “Memorial Deutschland” assoc., Berlin

Rory Finnin, Robinson College and University of Cambridge, England

Jörg Forbrig, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Berlin

Annette Freyberg-Inan, Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam

Ralf Fücks, Center for Liberal Modernity (LibMod), Berlin

Klaus Gestwa, Institute of East European History & Regional Studies, University of Tübingen

Angelos Giannakopoulos, Department of Political Science, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine

Anke Giesen, Board of the “Memorial Deutschland” assoc., Berlin

Oliver Gnad, Bureau for Contemporary Affairs, Frankfurt am Main

Witold Gnauck, German-Polish Science Foundation, Frankfurt an der Oder

George G. Grabowicz, Slavic Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Gustav C. Gressel, European Council on Foreign Relations, Berlin

Rebecca Harms, former Parliamentary Assembly EURO-NEST, Wendland

Andreas Heinemann-Grüder, Center for Global Studies, University of Bonn

John-Paul Himka, formerly Department of History, University of Alberta, Canada

Christhardt Henschel, German Historical Institute (DHI) at Warsaw

Julia Herzberg, Department of History, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Anke Hilbrenner, Institute for Historical Studies, University of Düsseldorf

Richard Herzinger, magazine The Ukrainian Week / Ukrainskyi tyzhden, Kyiv/Berlin

Helena Holzberger, Department of History, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Mieste Hotopp-Riecke, Institute for Caucasica, Tatarica & Turkestan Studies, Magedburg

Hubertus F. Jahn, Clare College and University of Cambridge, England

Kerstin Susanne Jobst, Institute for East European History, University of Vienna

Andreas Kappeler, Institute for East European History, University of Vienna

Christian Kaunert, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Ireland

Sarah Kirchberger, Institute for Security Policy, Christian Albrecht University of Kiel

Maria Klassen, Research Center for Eastern Europe, University of Bremen

Taras Kuzio, Department of Political Science, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine

Manuel Leppert, Thuringian Archive for Contemporary History, Jena

John Lough, Russia & Eurasia Program, Chatham House, London

Leonid Luks, formerly ZIMOS, The Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Bavaria

Martin Malek, independent political scientist, Vienna

Georges Mink, European Interdisciplinary Studies Department, College of Europe, Natolin

Margareta Mommsen, formerly Scholl Institute, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Michael Moser, Institute for Slavic Studies, University of Vienna

Alexander J. Motyl, Department of Political Science, Rutgers University-Newark, NJ

Dietmar Neutatz, Department of History, Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg

Tanja Penter, Department of History, Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg

Andreas Petersen, Applied Sciences University of Northwest Switzerland, Brugg-Windisch

Hans-Christian Petersen, Institute of History, University of Oldenburg

Heiko Pleines, Research Center Eastern Europe, University of Bremen

Nikolaj Plotnikov, Lotman Institute for Russian Culture, Ruhr University of Bochum

Detlev Preuße, formerly Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Hamburg

Waleria Radziejowska-Hahn, Board of the Lew Kopelew Forum assoc., Cologne

Felix Riefer, Board of the Lew Kopelew Forum assoc., Bonn

Maren Röger, Leibniz Institute for Culture and History of Eastern Europe, Leipzig

Stefan Rohdewald, Department of History, University of Leipzig

Malte Rolf, Department of East European History, University of Oldenburg

Per A. Rudling, Department of History, Lund University, Sweden

Gwendolyn Sasse, Center for East European and International Studies (ZOiS), Berlin

Sebastian Schäffer, Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, Vienna

Susanne Schattenberg, Research Center for Eastern Europe, University of Bremen

Frithjof Benjamin Schenk, Department of History, University of Basel, Switzerland

Ingrid Schierle, Institute of East European History & Regional Studies, University of Tübingen

Winfried Schneider-Deters, formerly Kyiv Office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation

Dittmar Schorkowitz, Max Planck Institute for Ethnological Research, Halle

Dietmar Schulmeister, Country Association of Germans from Russia (LmDR), Düsseldorf

Martin Schulze Wessel, Department of History, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Anton Shekhovtsov, Centre for Democratic Integrity, Vienna

Timothy D. Snyder, Department of History, Yale University, New Haven, CT

Susanne Spahn, freelance historian of Eastern Europe and political scientist, Berlin

Dmitri Stratievski, Management of the Eastern Europe Center (OEZB), Berlin

Kai Struve, Institute of History, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg

Sergej Sumlenny, formerly Kyiv office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin

Ernst-Jörg von Studnitz, formerly German Embassy in Russia, Königswinter

Maximilian Terhalle, LSE IDEAS, London School of Economics and Political Science

Stefan Troebst, Global and European Studies Institute, University of Leipzig

Frank Umbach, EUCERS/CASSIS, Rhine Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn

Andreas Umland (Initiator), Department of Political Science, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

Ricarda Vulpius, Department of History, Westphalian Wilhelm University of Münster

Torben Waschke, Institute of Geography, Justus Liebig University of Giessen

Tobias Weihmann, non-governmental organization EUROMAIDAN PRESS, Kyiv

David-Emil Wickström, Pop Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg, Mannheim

Martina Winkler, Department of History, Christian Albrecht University of Kiel

Alexa von Winning, Institute of East European History & Regional Studies, University of Tübingen

Alexander Wöll, Institute of Slavic Studies, University of Potsdam

Susann Worschech, Institute for European Studies, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt-Oder

Kerstin Zimmer, Center for Conflict Research, Philipps University of Marburg

(The naming of the institutions in the list serves to identify the signatories and does not imply any support of the letter on the part of these institutions. The initiator of the letter is responsible for its contents.)

Source:
https://krytyka.com/en/articles/heavy-weapons-now
PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362453903_Heavy_Weapons_Now_A_Reply_of_Experts_on_Eastern_Europe_to_the_Open_Letter_of_German_Intellectuals_titled_A_Ceasefire_Now_published_in_Zeit_Online_on_June_29_2022

Ukrainian version:
https://krytyka.com/ua/articles/vazhke-ozbroiennia-zaraz
PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362426268_Vazke_ozbroenna_zaraz

Original German version:
https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/ukraine-krise/96-osteuropa-experten-weltweit-fordern-schwere-waffen-jetzt_id_119428660.html
PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362162668_Schwere_Waffen_jetzt_Replik_auf_Waffenstillstand_jetzt

Russian translation:
https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/columns/2022/07/25/7360003/
PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362347567_Tazeloe_oruzie_sejcas_Otvet_nemeckim_intellektualam