Civilian in Berlin

Antoniy Sobansky (1898–1941) – aristocrat, socialite, polyglot, journalist, author of the book “Civilian in Berlin” – a series of reports from Germany after the Nazi victory in the elections. He traveled to Germany several times to see with his own eyes how National Socialism was changing the lives of Germans. Sobansky became, among other things, an eyewitness to the famous book burning, attended a “party rally” in Nuremberg, and listened with horror to a press conference of the “outspoken psychopath” Julius Streicher.

Today, when this book is being read by Ukrainian readers, we cannot help but say how painfully almost every observation of Antoniy Sobansky from Hitler’s Germany in the 1930s resonates with what is happening in Putin’s Russia. In the end, the world seems to have changed little - again, they are looking for agreements and understanding with the dictator, trying to "save face for him", expecting him to "finally understand everything", not realizing that this could lead to a catastrophe much worse than World War II.