People of Russia protested against the war | Radhakanta Barik

Streets of Russia
Look different
With colourful flowers
On the sides of street
Flowers with reddish colour
It creates life in dead souls
They feel pain for others
They feel intensely about the neighbhours
Pain is the beginning of thinking
This thinking supported writings
On farmers
Producing wheat
Workers in Defence industries
They feel bad
Their products used for the war
They get reminded of their mothers
They want peace
They want food
No war
These slogans brought the young
To the streets
To protest against the war
War is killing people
Children are dying in the laps of mothers
They do not want war
They want peace
Streets of Petersburg
Turned into Leningrad
It is Lenin inspired them
Do not do border nationalism
Nationalism helps the bourgeoisies
It does not help people
People of both the countries are friends
They do not support the war
War helps only the defence industries
They want bread
They want work
They stand for brotherhood
They stand for internationalism
They protested against their rulers
Their rulers losing their minds
War is not answer
But dialogue
Discussion works
Debates help the enlightenment
They make the spring as spring
With full of flowers
Streams are flowing
Road sides’ trees with reddish flowers
Looking today lively and energetic
People are protesting for peace
Streets are questioning the rulers
They want to stand for brotherhood.

(This is a poem based on Gogol’s dead souls, Tolstoy’s human being carries pains, Lenin’s slogan for food and peace in 1917)

— Radhakanta Barik, Delhi