Visite à Moscou à l’occasion du Jour de la Victoire le 9 mai 2015.

Traduction du texte du Saker.

Chers Amis,

Claude Roddier, la “marraine” de toute la Communauté Saker, vient de revenir d'un voyage en Russie où elle a participé aux manifestations de célébration de la Victoire, à Moscou, aux côtés d'une délégation représentant la Résistance française à l'occupation nazie de la France pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale.

Au départ, Claude avait prévu de se rendre à Odessa et à cause des risques associés à un tel voyage, nous avions gardé ce projet secret. Puis, après avoir parlé à des amis de confiance à Moscou, elle a décidé d'annuler son voyage à Odessa, à mon immense soulagement.

[Aparté : Je parle de Claude comme de la “marraine” de la Communauté Saker parce qu'elle a été la toute première personne à me contacter pour me suggérer que mon blog soit traduit en français. Puis l'exemple du blog du Saker français a été suivi dans d'autres pays et langues, mais rien de tout cela ne serait arrivé sans la suggestion de Claude. Claude m'a aussi soutenu dans certains moments vraiment douloureux. Son soutien et sa gentillesse ont été essentiels dans ma décision de ne pas tout laisser tomber l'hiver dernier. Honnêtement, sans Claude, il n'y aurait plus de Communauté Saker.]

Ci-dessous, je poste trois textes explicites qui vous raconteront les manifestations entourant cette célébration historique. A une époque où la France est encore, une fois de plus, occupée, ces témoignages illustrent magnifiquement le fait que, comme pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, il y existe toujours une Résistance française, même si de nos jours, le mode de résistance est différent. Au lieu de tirer sur des forces d'occupation étrangère, la Résistance française d'aujourd'hui lutte contre les idées collaborationnistes, contre un régime qui a abandonné de manière aussi évidente les intérêts nationaux de la France, contre une politique impérialiste visant à une confrontation maximale avec la Russie et qui porte en elle le risque très réel d'aboutir à une autre guerre mondiale.

Ce qui est particulièrement beau à propos de ce voyage, c'est que c'est là encore un autre exemple brillant de cet “autre Occident” qui, loin de se montrer hostile à la Russie, est en fait son véritable ami, et qu'il veut se tenir à ses côtés en ces temps difficiles et dangereux. Résister à l'actuelle “zombification” et oser défier l'idéologie officielle constitue aussi un acte de grand courage. Non seulement Claude était déjà publiquement citée par un site pro-Ukronazi [NdT : contraction entre Ukrainien et Nazi] comme faisant partie d'une sorte d'armée blogueuse abominable et pro-Poutine, mais il y a aussi le temps post-Charlie Hebdo en France, où la plupart des gens auraient tout simplement peur de parler tout haut et d'oser défier la ploutocratie au pouvoir.

[Aparté : Alors que Claude a décidé de rendre publique son identité, mon conseil strictement personnel aux membres de notre Communauté est de cacher leur véritable identité, en particulier pour les chefs d'équipe.]

Je suis immensément reconnaissante à Claude, dont la gentillesse et la sagesse ont profondément changé ma vie et, je le soupçonne, la vie de nombre d'entre nous. Je n'aurais pas pu souhaiter meilleure “marraine” !

Le Saker

Visite à Moscou à l’occasion du Jour de la Victoire le 9 mai 2015.

http://lesakerfrancophone.net/courrier-dune-lectrice-la-marraine-de-la-communaute-du-saker/

The Godmother of the Saker Community was in Moscow for Vday!

2389 Views May 21, 2015 28 Comments Guest Posts The Saker

Dear friends,

Claude Roddier, the “Godmother” of the entire Saker Community has just returned from a trip to Russia were she participated in the Vday events in Moscow alongside a delegation representing the French Resistance to the Nazi occupation of France during WWII. Initially, Claude had planned to travel to Odessa and because of the risks associated with such a trip, we kept all these plans a secret. Then, after speaking to trusted friends in Moscow, she decided to cancel her trip to Odessa to my immense relief.

Claude and her daughter Mireille

[Sidebar: I refer to Claude as the “Godmother” of the Saker Community because she was the very first person to contact me and suggest that my blog be translated into French. Then, the example of the French Saker blog was followed in other countries and languages, but none of that would have happened without Claude’s suggestion. Claude also stood by me in some truly painful moments and her kindness and support were crucial in my decision not to abandon it all last winter. Honestly, there would be no Saker Community if not for Claude].

I am posting below three texts which are self-explanatory and which will relate to you the events surrounding this historical celebration. At a time when France is yet again under occupation, these testimonies are a beautiful illustration of the fact that, just as during WWII, there still is a French Resistance even if nowadays the mode of resistance is different, instead of shooting at occupying foreign forces the French Resistance today struggles against collaborationist ideas, against a regime which has so clearly abandoned France’s national interests, against an Imperial policy aimed at a maximal confrontation with Russia and which has the very real risk of resulting in another world war.

What is particularly beautiful about this trip is that is is yet another shining example of this “other West” which, far from being hostile to Russia, is her real friend and wants to stand by her in these difficult and dangerous times. To resist the current zombification and to dare defy the official ideology is also an act of great courage: not only was Claude already publicly listed by a pro-Ukronazi website as being a member of some nefarious pro-Putin blogger army, these are also the post Charlie-Hebo times in France when most people would be simply afraid to speak up and dare defy the plutocracy in power.

[Sidebar: while Claude decided to “go public” with her identity, my strictly personal advice to the members of our community is to hide their real identities, especially for Team Leaders]

I am immensely grateful to Claude whose kindness and wisdom have deeply changed my life and, I suspect the lives of many of us. I could not have wished for a better “Godmother”!

The Saker

——-

CLAUDE RODDIER:

When Lucien Pons (http://lucien-pons.over-blog.com/), the president of the Association CNR06 of Nice, called me on March 12 to tell me that our friends from Odessa were looking for descendants of members of the French Resistance, in order to invite them to the May 9th parade in Moscow, I did not dare to believe it. When he asked me if I could go, of course I immediately agreed. Each invitation being for two descendants, I proposed to participate with one of my children. Another group, the FTPF resistant, Lesou Serge and his daughter Sylvie were also invited.

In 1942, when he was 15 years old, Serge met a group of young “Résistants“ who joined others to form the “United Forces of patriotic youth” in Montargis. Later, he arrived Paris, where he was greeted by Colonel Baudoin, one of the commanders of the FTP networks in Paris. As a militant in the XXth, he took part to the liberation of Paris on a barricade at the corner between Menilmontant and Sorbier street. In Moscow, Serge held up a picture of Colonel Baudoin. His daughter Sylvie had the French flag together with a picture of young FTP fighters from the Var who were murdered by the Germans in 1944.

Born in Odessa in 1911, my father, Gleb Sivirine, arrived in France in 1919. He became part of the Resistance, first with his brother in a network of Marseille before becoming the head of the largest underground group of MUR (Mouvements Unis de la Résistance) in the Var, a group known as the Maquis Vallier (http://maquis-vallier.fr). I had a picture of him that matched our needs, the kind of picture that hundreds of thousands people marched with on May 9. I was planning to enlarge this picture, when I learned that François Hollande was about to become a shame on France. I then realized that this invitation would enable me to somehow save the honor. This is how, together with the French flag, on a picture showing also my father and one of the leaders of the Var Resistance, the General de Gaulle became part of the great march of Victory down the Tverskaya Avenue and through the Red Square, ending in front of the Basilica of St. Basil the Blessed.

Remembering those who gave their lives

We were allowed to show two pictures. For the second I wanted to honor also the memory of Résistants of the networks who lost their lives while being often forgotten. A name became obvious to my mind, that of Vicky Obolensky (http://www.lecourrierderussie.com/2012/06/sainte-genevieve-des-bois-insolite/) a Russian princess who arrived in France aged 9, has been a resistant since the first hour, and was guillotined in Berlin on August 1944. My daughter carried her picture.

From the start of the parade we had lost our group. The two of us found ourselves with two young participants of the “Immortal regiment”, Alik and Nikita, both from Odessa. Instead of quietly walking at the same pace as others, they had took a faster pace. Having no fixed point appointment we did not want to lose them. So we constantly outpaced the others. Hence we could see that other participants in the march were receiving our message as we hoped they would. Both of us have been thanked, photographed, filmed throughout the afternoon. Several times people have spoken longer with us, and had their picture taken with us. Most of the time, the language used was French, with that Russian accent which, of course, was not the “inimitable” accent of my grandmother although, listening well, yes, there was something of that accent.

he hundred members of our delegation, guests of the “immortal regiment”, were housed in a beautiful hotel in Kosygina street, not far from the State University. Our little CNR06 group was the only French group. The other groups, such as the Polish, Spanish, and Italian ones, were larger than our. Reality and imagination merged when, after the parade, we met in the lounge of the hotel. In the books of the great Russian novelists, I had often read descriptions of meetings and discussions that lasted all night and had found them similarly depicted by Soviet dissidents in their accounts. A beautiful custom to which we were entitled. Among such an international crowd, English was mostly used with asides in the language of the members of the same delegation. We ended up chatting with the Poles met the day before, Alik and two ladies that I thought were russian.

Naturally I spoke to them about my imminent departure to Odessa, explaining the visit of the delegation to Nice and my will to show that we do not forget the massacre of May 2. I also added that my father was from Odessa. To their already warm attitude, complicity was added. Galina, one of the ladies, and Alik told us that they were Odessites and had just arrived in Moscow. A bottle of vodka appeared out of nowhere with a plate of appetizers prepared for us and we toasted to all those born in Odessa. They talked among themselves about the danger that we might run and came to the conclusion that the risks were minimal, the game was worth the candle.

For over a year I had heard about Ukrainians, “pro-Russian” separatists, Odessites that were for or against the current government of Kiev, but anyway Ukrainians, and now I had two people in front of me, a journalist and a police colonel, both proud to be born in Odessa, both in a certainly difficult personal situation in Moscow, who were considering themselves as Russian. They were not pro-Russian. They were Russian. I thought about Marseille, the city where my family settled on its arrival in France; even if politicians succeed in creating a separate Occitan entity, from Aquitaine to Nice, Marseille will still continue to feel French, 25 years after its creation. Galina told us things so passionately that Sylvie filmed her while Monika, a Polish-French, was translating. Several bottles of vodka came one after the other. In short, we were in Moscow as one imagines.

The next day our discussion resumed regarding our trip to Odessa. An Italian woman had been added to the group. More reluctant, she found unreasonable to take a risk. She told us about the arrest, followed by deportation on May 1, of Franco Fracassi, an italian journalist whose writings had displeased the regime. He was traveling to Odessa for the commemoration of the tragedy of May 2, 2014. She testified that journalists, Russian or Ukrainian as well as foreign, faced arrest, or even could disappear. Then Alik told us he had also been under arrest for his writings. He managed to get by and had just finally arrived in Moscow for an indefinite time.

Someone said “they do not risk anything, they are not journalists, their names do not appear on red lists”. However though, as a participant in the Francophone Saker blog, I had the honor, moreover as a member of CNR06, to appear on the infamous “list” (http://lesbrindherbes.org/2015/03 / 19 / call-a-la-delation-of-site-pro-Russian /) last March. I even got a special treatment on the list, with a mini-biography mainly describing my work as an astronomer with my husband. The account of this story changed the tone of our new friends. No more questions about going to Odessa. We changed our tickets and went back directly to Nice.

Back home was a message from Irina, the head of the delegation that came to Nice. Currently in the United States she is attempting to learn the truth about last year events. The message was waiting for me on my computer:

“Dear Claude! Ivan will meet you in airport with your name table, do not worry. How are you? I.”

On May 2, 2016, if no disaster occurs by then, we will meet again Irina, Ivan and especially Elena who lost her son on May 2, 2014.

Claude Roddier-Sivirine

Moscow, May 9th 2015

——-

SYLVIE PILLE:

In February 2015, Hollande travels to Saudi Arabia to pay tribute to King Abdullah: Saudi Arabia, which condemned to flogging a blogger Raef Badawi, who campaigned for a moral liberalization of his country. Saudi Arabia, which refuses to grant basic freedoms to half of its population – women- and where religious police can practice or force-on excision and infibulation on adulteresses and prostitutes. Saudi Arabia which condemns homosexuals to death.

On May 9, 2015, holding their three color flags, 4 French people – Serge Lesou and her daughter Sylvie Pillé, Claude Roddier and her daughter Mireille – who or whose relatives were involved in the struggle against Nazism, acknowledge the invitation of the “Eternal Regiment” via the « nouveau CNR, an association of the Alpes Maritimes.

These invitations came after meetings with a delegation of Ukrainians who came in January 2015, to bear witness of the assassination of militants by fascists in the house of the Unions of Odessa, on May 2, 2014.

More than 25 million deaths! How many Russian families affected? Today, these events remain engraved in the collective memory. For proof, one has just to look at the gravity with which the combatants grant children or great grand children were participating to the ceremonies. Above all, it suffices to attend this huge mobilization, with young people, hundreds of volunteers, supervising the parade.

But beyond the commemoration, it is the aspiration for peace that was claimed, that showed up in every conversation we had: MIR! Druzhba!

Hence we went on, with our pictures, parading with thousands of participants, some of them coming from the most remote regions of Russia. We met Ouzbecks, Kyrgyz, having all participated to the fight against the Nazis, whose dean was 101 years old. But also people from Spain, Italy, Poland, Ukraine (most of them refugees in Russia, because of the fascist danger that threatens them in their country) …

What a thrill that being mixed together with all these people, serious, aware of the threats posed by the United States on peace, all these people united by the same desire to fight against the resurgence of the extreme right, of fascism and neo-Nazism all over Europe and particularly Ukraine.

Everywhere, the sight of French flags, raised the same warm reactions, “thank you for being here.”

Hopefully, in the mind of these Russians, all four of us have helped cleaning the honor of France.

(1) Kafala: a system that governs the lives of all the foreigners working in Qatar. It requires them being “mentored” by a Qatari, without whom authorization they can neither change jobs, get a driver’s license, rent a house, open a bank account or, especially, leave the country.

2) By their landing, the US aimed more at occupying France rather than freeing it. They had trumped up a program called AMGOT (Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories) and created an American franc, denounced by de Gaulle as counterfeit money.

——-

LUCIEN PONS

Presence in Moscow of a delegation of the association “Committee for a New Resistance-CNR” for the 70th anniversary of the victory.

We live in a very dangerous period. But the French, under-informed, are not aware of it.

The cannon thunders in the east of Europe. NATO countries are gradually drawn into a war against Russia. France has always had excellent relations with That country. General de Gaulle even said that he wanted to build Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals.

The association “Committee for a New Resistance” supports the full exercise of our national sovereignty. Its purpose is inspired by the ideals and achievements of the National Council of Resistance created by Jean Moulin on May 27th, 1943 in Paris. True to the ideals of the Resistance, faithful to the words and actions of the leader of the France Libre, General de Gaulle, we refuse to submit to the submission to the policy of the United-States, we want the policy of France to fall in with friendly relations with Russia for a fair balance in Europe and in the world.

The voice of France must serve negotiation and dialogue, not confrontation.

We also believe that we must express to Russia the gratitude due to it, following its essential contribution to the defeat of Nazism. You must remember that this country allowed the destruction of the brown plague in Europe by sacrificing over 25 million Soviets in this merciless war.

Our association has been investigating since September 2014 on the rise of fascism and the war in Ukraine. Our goal is to inform our citizens on other aspects of the conflict.

We hosted on January 29th in Nice a delegation of Ukrainians from Odessa. These people explained to us the ongoing conflict and they also testified about the massacre of May 2nd 2014. On that day more than forty people died, burned alive in the Trade-Unions house. One person of the delegation lost, in these dramatic circumstances, his 27 years son brutally finished off by barbarians after trying to escape the flames by jumping out the window.

Following this meeting we were invited by the leaders of the demonstration on May 9th in Moscow to attend the parade for the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazism. The Delegation of the “Committee for a New Resistance-CNR”, an association composed of Resistants and children of Resistants, has acquired an important symbolic value.

Here are the four members of our delegation:

– Serge Lesou, resistant FTP and his daughter Sylvie Pillé.

– Claude Roddier, daughter of the commander of a “maquis” MUR of the Var, the maquis Vallier, and her daughter.

A conference to report on the official participation of our association in this event will

Take place in Nice, on Tuesday, June 9th, 2015. The members of the delegation will provide information about it. This will be an opportunity to continue our work for peace in Ukraine and Europe.

Lucien PONS President of the association “Committee for a New strength-CNR