Yerofeyev: 'Free speech in Russia still under threat'

Russian writer Viktor Yerofeyev: 

"I am thinking with aversion of the Soviet Union as a political system that violated the freedom of speech and distorted the very idea of freedom. Creating uncensored anthology 'Metropol' in 1979 with the best writers contributing to it became my revolt against this violation. Chasing the contributors to the anthology that followed its publication still motivates me to resist censorship anywhere it appears, directly or under cover. The tradition of censorship and self-censorship is still rooted in Russia and originates from the country's autocracy in all its forms.

However, thinking of the full freedom of speech, I would not grant it to the real enemies of freedom. Fascists, Islamists and other fanatics of dictatorships are fighting in the liberal societies for the freedom to express their opinion in order to wipe the freedom of speech out as soon as they come to power.

The procedure to control the words of hatred has not been created, and hypocrisy in dealing with this problem is only getting bigger. The human nature tends to delude itself, even with its best intentions."

Born in 1947 in Moscow, Yerofeyev is one of the leading writers of Russia. He writes regularly for DIE ZEIT, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Welt.

His contribution is part of Deutsche Welle's #Article19ForAll project. The goal is to collect voices and opinions to mark the 70th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and more specifically Article 19 which defined free expression and access to information as basic human rights.