We talked to Alexey Gotovskiy a journalist for EWTN in the Vatican and a former student at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. He has dual citizenship: Russian and Kazakhstan. He tells us about the complexity of belonging to the last generation of the Soviet era and analyzes the war conflict.The first victim of the conflict in Ukraine is freedom".
After the interview with two Ukrainian students from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, we met today with a Russian, Alexey Gotovskiy, a former student of our University, who also studied for a degree in Institutional Communication.
Alexey was born in Karaganda, a city in Kazakhstan, in 1990, just the year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and one year before the fall of the Soviet Union. This Russian journalist is an "ethnic Russian", meaning that he is part of the Russian minority that today still lives not only in his country, but in almost all the former Soviet republics that were part of the USSR, as well as Ukraine. Sadly he confesses, "It's not easy to be Russian now."
After graduating from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross with a degree in Communications, he is currently a project manager at the EWTN Vatican Office.
Thank you for the possibility to tell us your story Alexey. It is a great opportunity to talk to a young Russian who can give us his point of view on the latest events. And the first question I wanted to ask you is just: what does it mean to be Russian today? Your people have suffered a lot throughout history, along with others in the former Soviet Union, and today, with the war conflict, we see the world accusing Russia of being to blame for the suffering of Ukrainians.
That's right... And I have to say that it's not easy to be Russian now, because of these prejudices.
And in your opinion, are these prejudices also due to the fact that communism and Bolshevism are still alive in the culture of Russia, as well as in the culture of Kazakhstan and the countries of the former Soviet Union?
Well, I would say no: the ideas of communism and Bolshevism in Kazakhstan and in the countries of the former Soviet Union are dead.. In my opinion, what is alive is fear. And this fear resurrected the dragon that everyone saw die with the fall of the Berlin Wall. People's ability to judge facts is limited when there is fear.
And the ability to have good information as well...
Of course: in both the West and the East, people live according to their information dimensions or so-called "bubbles". It is easy to rely on information that makes you feel comfortable and secure.
I was very struck by how you express in Italian (a language you master perfectly, although we did the interview in English) the word "freedom", because it seems like something you savor when you say it, something that is not just an abstract concept, but a way of living, a conquest, a good to keep at all costs. And someone who was born in the 1990s in the former Soviet Union knows this well....
Of course! I am proud to have been born in the largest country in the world, because it is something that gives us, or has given me, a taste for big dreams, along with a great thirst for freedom. As you said, I was born in 1990, in today's Kazakhstan, and I was baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. However, from 1992 to 1998 my family moved from Kazakhstan to the southern region of Russia, in the Caucasus.
What memories do you have of your childhood?
The 1990s were difficult years, full of poverty, crime and uncertainty. People soon began to feel nostalgia for a great country that had collapsed. I have been infected by this mood and I must say that I feel I belong to this last Soviet generation, no longer atheist, but still with the mentality of that time.
And you were telling me that it was also difficult to live the faith...
Well, quite a lot... My first experience of God came naturally through my family. My mother taught my sister and me our first prayers: The Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary in the old Slavic language.
And with the danger that, outside the family, atheism continued to dominate....
Yes. The first memory I have of this public manifestation of faith was once - it was Easter - when I heard people greeting each other in the street saying, "Христос Воскрес" (Khristos Voskres), i.e. "Christ is risen". That phrase resonated so much in my head that I started to repeat it, greeting everyone saying "¡Христос Воскрес1". I felt an indescribable joy, joy that I also saw in the faces of others.
How marvelous! This resurgence, this return to the surface of a popular religiosity that not even state atheism could destroy....
Yes, none of the families around us were practicing Christians, but we were all baptized. My friends wore crosses like me, but when the cross came out of our shirts during games, we would stop, kiss it and hide it again. We were afraid to show the cross because among the children there was always this saying, "Крестик наружу тот всех хуже", (Krestik naruzhu tot vsekh khuzhe), which means something like "he who has the cross outside is the worst". This saying has been around since Soviet times and was still branding Christians in my childhood days.
Alexey Gotovskiy is a former student of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. He graduated with a degree in Institutional Social Communication. He has dual citizenship: Russian and Kazakhstan. He tells us about the complexity of belonging to the last generation of the Soviet era and analyzes the war conflict. Sadly, he confesses: "It is not easy to be Russian now".
He is currently the project manager at the EWTN Vatican Office. With this Catholic network he traveled on the same plane as Pope Francis to Iraq in March 2021.
"I witnessed the strength of faith when Pope Francis met with Iraqi Catholic leaders in Baghdad at the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation, where 48 people were martyred during a terrorist attack in 2010. When the Holy Father entered, all those religious were shouting for joy and it was the moment when I felt that life had conquered death. It was a moment when it was very easy to believe in the resurrection and eternal life. Pope Francis' message in Iraq was simple: "Love is our strength".
And Our Lady of Fatima came to an Orthodox family!
Something wonderful! Well, it so happened that when I was 8 years old, my relatives from Kazakhstan came to visit and brought rosaries and a booklet about Our Lady of Fatima. Well, it turned out that they taught us how to pray it. From that moment Our Lady of Fatima was present in my family's life.
We returned to Kazakhstan and, upon our arrival, my little sister was born prematurely. The doctors said there was a small chance that she would survive, so we could only rely on a miracle. So, my mother spent the whole night praying and promised that she would name the child Maria, if she survived. Maria survived and that was the first reason we went to church, to give thanks for her life.
A very striking testimony, especially knowing that Our Lady of Fatima asked for a particular consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. In light of the current situation in both Russia and Kazakhstan between the war and the popular protests, how do you Russians feel about the war with Ukraine?
Well yes I am Russian, but from Kazakhstan, so I am not competent to speak about the situation in Ukraine. However, I believe that the crisis is bigger than Ukraine, since it is a conflict between the "West", represented by the United States and the European Union, and Russia. And Ukraine is the battlefield. It is not easy to be Russian now.
As it was also in Syria...
Yes, and here too it seems to me that the first victim of conflict is freedom. Everything is for freedom, even the very cause of the conflict.
And why?
In 2014, Euromaidan protesters in Ukraine wanted freedom to choose their political future with Europe; in Crimea, people wanted freedom to be part of Russia; and in Donetsk and Lugansk, the Russian majority wanted freedom from the new Ukrainian government.
The Russian president, for his part, has for years called for freedom from the threat posed by NATO's presence on Russia's borders, while Europe wants freedom from Russian fossil oil and gas. And now, in Ukraine, the people want to be free of Russian troops.
We all want freedom! The problem is that we often want it at the expense of others.
Of course! Everyone seeks freedom, fights for freedom and yet freedom is disappearing. Why? In my opinion, because there is a dragon with two faces that has been fed by fear. One face is the "Western apostasy" and the second face is the "residues of Soviet ideology".
This argument has been understood by Pope Francis, Benedict XVI, John Paul II and other predecessors. All popes have stressed the need, both in the Church and in the world, for both the Eastern and Western lungs, which are necessary for life. And yet, the Pope's mediation has been heavily criticized by both Catholics and Orthodox, as many feel that there is no way to talk to either Putin or Kirill.
I would like to quote Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who went through the Soviet Gulag: "Gradually it was revealed to me that the line separating good and evil does not pass through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties, but right through every human heart and all human hearts. This line shifts. Within us, it oscillates over the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, a small bridgehead of good remains. And even in the best of hearts, there remains... a small corner of unrooted evil. Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the world's religions: Fight evil within the human being (within every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrain it within each person."
Solzhenitsyn is a great one...Moreover, in such a complicated situation, with the Orthodox Church in Russia accused of being allied with the regimes in power, Pope Francis wanted to talk to Patriarch Kirill.
Of course, and in these difficult times, dialogue is even more necessary between the two Churches. We are both destined to win over the dragon if we stick to Jesus. On September 14-15, 2022, Pope Francis will travel to Kazakhstan to participate in the VII Congress of Traditional Religions, where he will meet with Patriarch Kirill. I place great hope in this meeting and I am proud of Kazakhstan for hosting such an important event.
The ideas of communism and Bolshevism in Kazakhstan and the countries of the former Soviet Union are dead.. In my opinion, what is alive is fear," says the Russian journalist.
You studied Communication at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross: to what extent did it allow you to train for your current job?
I had a positive experience studying communication at the University of the Holy Cross. Without a doubt, the courses laid the foundation for my professional life. There were students from all over the world at the University and the network of contacts I gained here is invaluable because I can now establish and continue to cultivate many relationships, humanely and professionally, in all parts of the world.
And it also contributed to the beautiful professional experience to which you are now devoted in EWTNThis is a very important task, since Eternal Word Television is a network that presents Catholic-themed programming around the world and reaches everywhere. With EWTN, for example, you were able to follow Pope Francis on one of his trips.
Yes, a great privilege. As a Russian journalist at EWTN, I traveled on the same plane with the pope to Iraq in March 2021. I witnessed the power of faith when Pope Francis met with Iraqi Catholic leaders in Baghdad, at the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation, where 48 people were martyred during a terrorist attack in 2010. When the Holy Father entered, all those religious were shouting for joy and it was the moment when I felt that life had conquered death. It was a moment when it was very easy to believe in the resurrection and eternal life. Pope Francis' message in Iraq was simple: "Love is our strength."
Thank you, dear Alexey, thank you for your witness of life and faith, for your great work at EWTN and for giving us such beautiful words of hope in this time that seems so dark. We pray for peace and for you. As Alexey says, it is not easy to be Russian now.
Gerardo Ferrara
BA in History and Political Science, specializing in the Middle East.
Responsible for students at the University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
