It should have been a normal presentation of a recently published book, like many others held in Milan. Moreover, on a neutral and theoretically shared topic: violence suffered by women during the war. Instead, it turned into an intimidation by a Russian diplomatic representative, who essentially stated that the book was “against the Russians” and “would end badly”.
Libreria Centofiori, June 19. The book presented is “Donna sul fronte”, by Alaine Polcz, written in 1991 and recently published in Italian by Edizioni Anfora. Present were the translator Antonio D’Auria and the curator Mónika Szilágyi. The book, partly autobiographical, is set in Transylvania (then Hungary) in 1944 and tells the story of Alaine, who at 19 years old escaped with her husband from what is now Cluj-Napoca when Romanian troops approached. The novel also talks about the rapes suffered by Hungarian women at the hands of Red Army soldiers.
The diplomat’s intervention
For about three-quarters of an hour the meeting proceeded normally, talking about the book and the related historical facts. Then, when it was time to ask the audience if anyone had any questions, a young man in a suit and tie took the floor and introduced himself as Dimitrij, an attaché at the Russian consulate in Milan, and took out some papers to read them, stating that the book “does not attempt to create friendship between the peoples of Europe, to explain the reasons for what is happening and to protect future generations from the mistakes of the past and from the war” and “creates a distorted vision” of Russia.
He then complained that the novel only talked about the violence committed by the Soviets and not about that committed by the Romanians. On this point, the translator pointed out to him that, in one passage, the Soviet soldiers were liberating those areas from Nazism. The Russian diplomat went on to underline the violence on the Hungarian side and then that, although Western politicians today claim that Ukrainians and Russians are two different peoples, the Ukrainians participated in the liberation of Hungary.
The threat
Finally, the intimidation. “We are not against this book,” concluded the unknown diplomat, “but, divorced from the historical facts, it unfortunately paints a bad picture. of Russia and our history, and is unlikely to contribute to the development of friendship between the peoples of Europe. Rewriting history and demonizing Russia will end badly.”
“It seems to me that this book is quite peaceful, as well as feminist,” immediately replied the editor and director of Edizioni Anfora, Mónika Szilágyi, while the translator Antonio D’Auria added that in the book “the soldiers of the Red Army really wanted freedom and democracy, so it does not accuse the Soviet soldiers or deny their role as liberators in history.”
