“In contemporary Russia, under these conditions, it is a battle — a silent battle,” said Tatyana Krupina, a 28-year-old chemist who went with a small group of friends to lay flowers last week.
“在當前的俄羅斯，在現在的情況下，這是一場戰爭，一場無聲的戰爭”
坦卡拉，一個28歲的化學家說道。
她和一小群朋友上個禮拜來獻過花。
This is what passes for protest in Russia in January 2023, 11 months after the invasion. Russians have also begun laying flowers in other cities, spurred by social media.
在俄國發動侵略戰爭11個月後，俄國人也開始在其它城市獻花。而社交媒體，就是背後的推手。
The flower tussle is one of the first public protests taking place on a large scale since the days after President Vladimir Putin’s announcement in September that hundreds of thousands of men would be called up to fight.
這是自從普京在去年九月，聲稱數十萬年輕男人要被征召入伍後，爆發的俄羅斯的第一場大規模群眾抗議運動。
Russia has imposed harsh penalties for criticizing the war, or even calling it one, so for many Russians, laying flowers seems like a rare opportunity to show dissent without being arrested.
俄羅斯對批評戰爭的人懲罰嚴厲，所以，獻花是表示抗議的一種安全方式。
For anti-government Russians remaining in Russia, the flowers remind them that they are not alone in their opposition to the war, even as the propaganda becomes increasingly vitriolic and the letters Z and V, which have become pro-war symbols, are etched on public buildings.
對於在俄國國內的反戰異議人士，鮮花讓他們感到不再孤單，特別是官方大力宣傳戰爭，把象征支持戰爭的Z和V，刻在大樓的牆上的時候。那些鮮花溫暖人心。
And for Russians who fled because of persecution, potential conscription or a refusal to pay taxes that will fuel the war machine, the flower memorial is a sign that there are still people left in the country who are brave enough to protest.
當俄羅斯人逃離迫害，征兵，或者用逃跑的方式拒絕交稅，免得為戰爭送子彈的時候，鮮花是一種象征，在這個國家，還有勇敢的人，用這種方式，站起來抗議。
“This is not only a way to show people in Ukraine that there are people in Russia who do not condone what is happening; it shows people that they are not alone,” said Alexander Plyushchev, a popular Russian journalist with a significant following on YouTube.
油管網紅記者壓力山大說：“這不隻是讓烏克蘭人明白，俄羅斯人同樣感同身受，還告訴他們，我們和他們站在一起。”
But even laying flowers has potential consequences. At least seven people have been detained, according to a New York Times journalist who witnessed the episodes over the past week. Four were detained after placing flowers at the site.
但即使是獻花也不安全，據紐約時報跟蹤報道這個事情的記者所知，最近一個禮拜，已經有七人因為這個被捕，其中四人更是剛放下花就被逮捕。
The police have tried to prevent people from photographing the memorial, and have told others to delete the images from their phones. But people keep arriving, looking for an opening when many are not gathered around the monument so that it does not seem like an illegal public gathering — and quietly placing their flowers.
警察還不許人民照相記錄這一事件，抓到就讓他們刪除相片。但是人們繼續湧來，在紀念碑周圍見縫插針，在看起來不像非法集會的時候，靜靜的在紀念碑前放下鮮花。
“My endurance is finished; I want to show my opinion,” a lawyer named Ekaterina Varenik said Saturday afternoon after placing flowers on the statue. She was referring to not being able to express her opinion publicly.
“我的使命達成，我想表達我的想法。”一個叫爾喀特尼娜的律師，在周六下午放下鮮花，她說她沒法公開表達自己的想法，隻能這麽偷偷的幹。
Varenik, 26, said she last protested when opposition politician Alexei Navalny was arrested two years ago. She stayed home when thousands protested the war mobilization. But, she said of the crackdown, “Every day it gets worse and worse, and stricter and stricter.”
26歲的瓦尼卡說起她因為示威在兩年前被捕的事情，她這次在幾千人反戰抗議的時候，躲在家裏麵療傷。她說“管控越來越嚴，情況越來越糟糕。”
For more than half an hour, Varenik stood in front of the statue with a homemade poster that read, “Ukraine: not our enemies, but our brothers.”
半個小時的時間裏麵，瓦尼卡在雕像前拿著自製的標語：“烏克蘭，不是我們的敵人，是我們的弟兄。”
She was detained by the police shortly afterward, and could face up to 15 days in prison.
她很快被趕來的警察逮捕，麵臨最高15天的牢獄之災。
For many, standing in front of the statue is intensely emotional.
對許多人來說，隻是站在這個雕像前，就已經心如刀絞。
“How can this be happening?” sobbed a pensioner named Rita who declined to provide her surname out of fear of retribution, and gave her age only as over 50. “People are dying: children, the elderly,” she said. “It is just awful. Maybe this will be a reminder to people that we are living in a terrifying world.”
“這到底是怎麽一回事”芮塔哭著說，她因為恐懼受迫害，不敢告訴記者自己的姓氏，隻說她五十幾歲。“老人和小孩在死去。”她說，“太可怕了，這是一個可怕的世界。”
Some prominent Russians have minimized the protests.
有些俄羅斯名人就對這次抗議很蔑視。
“Bringing flowers to a monument does not require courage, or even money,” Dmitry L. Bykov, a poet and writer who is critical of the government and lives in exile, said Wednesday during a discussion streamed on YouTube.
“拿鮮花到紀念碑不需要勇氣，甚至不需要花錢。”詩人和作家，反政府流亡人士拜克夫周六在油管上說，
“This is aesthetically beautiful, but completely pointless,” said Bykov, who Bellingcat’s investigative journalists concluded was the victim of an attempted poisoning in 2019 with a nerve agent similar to the one used on Navalny. He said, “There is only one positive effect: Maybe someone will find out who Lesya Ukrainka is — a great poet — and read her work.”
“這都是表麵功夫，但是完全沒用”，拜克夫說。
拜克夫當年因為調查貝卡特事件，差點被用神經毒素投毒。
這回他說：“這個獻花事件，唯一的作用，就是有人會發現誰是這個被獻花的雕像，萊雅烏克蘭，發現她原來是一個偉大的詩人，然後去找她的詩作來欣賞，僅此而已。”
The statue has been the site of altercations with pro-war nationalists, who have denounced the mourners and accused them in reports to the authorities of discrediting the Russian military, which is now a crime in Russia.
這座雕像曾經是好戰的軍國主義咒罵那些為戰爭中死亡的人哀悼的人之處，
這些哀悼者被認為是在貶低俄軍，這現在在俄羅斯是犯罪。
The Kremlin’s crackdown on political opposition and protests accelerated after the invasion of Ukraine. About 20,000 protesters have been detained since the war began, according to OVD Info, a human rights watchdog. Many lost their jobs after protesting, signing petitions or writing social media posts critical of the war.
入侵烏克蘭後，俄當權者加強了對異議人士的鎮壓。據人權觀察機構估計，自開戰以來，兩萬抗議人士被捕，很多人因為抗議，簽名，或者在社交媒體上反戰而丟掉飯碗。
Ilya Yashin, a municipal councilor in Moscow, was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison for speaking about Russian atrocities in Bucha, Ukraine. A 19-year-old university student from the city of Arkhangelsk is facing up to 10 years in jail for social media posts criticizing the war.
莫斯科的社區工作者莉亞葉新，因為談論俄軍在烏克蘭步查的暴行，被判刑八年半。而另外一個19歲的大學生，僅僅因為是在社交媒體上反戰，被判刑十年。
In that context, defying the police to lay flowers may require a degree of bravery, but it also takes a mental toll that has become harder to bear as the war grinds on.
在這樣的環境下，哪怕是僅僅在紀念碑放下鮮花，也需要勇氣，還有難以忍受的精神壓力。
“I know that at any minute the police can come to my house and arrest me,” said Maksim Shatalov, 36, a former flight attendant who said he had been fired from his job because of his anti-war position.
“我知道警察隨時會來我家逮捕我。”36歲的前航空公司的空中少爺馬克辛沙他洛夫說，
他就是因為反戰，被公司開除。
Shatalov became friends with a tight-knit circle of activists after being thrown into an avtozak, or police van, after a protest in April. During the summer and fall, they protested against the mobilization, painted anti-war messages around in the city in chalk and laid flowers at other memorials.
Shatalov and his friend Anna Saifytdinova, 34, brought flowers together to the statue one recent evening. She had four white roses — Russians give an even number of flowers as a tribute to the dead.
Because one of their friends, a minor, had been detained after placing a picture of the devastated Dnipro building at the base of the statue, Saifytdinova waited until there were no people around so they could not be accused of staging an unsanctioned protest.
“I already spent eight days in jail for protesting mobilization,” she said. “If I am detained again, I face criminal charges.”
That could mean a sentence of up to 10 years.
“It’s like Russian roulette,” she said. “You never know when something bad could happen, or when it won’t happen. Some people have been detained for holding a blank piece of paper in public.”
Shatalov said he was planning to leave Russia soon because he feared arrest.
“I believe that I would do more good in another country than by staying here without a job and without a livelihood,” he said. “What will I accomplish when I sit in a prison camp: Will I be beaten up constantly or kept in a cage all the time like Navalny? Or someone from the private military company Wagner will come to try to recruit me to fight in Ukraine with threats that if I don’t sign up? They’ll just drive me to the point where I kill myself.”
Still, some who risk arrest insist on showing their resistance.
“Moscow is a huge city, and everyone is quiet,” said Varenik, the lawyer, before she was detained for her anti-war poster. “I want to show the world that we should not be quiet. We allow all of this with our silence.”
