Writer Pavel Belyansky (Pastet): "People are used to war, but it is a trap"

The writer-soldier Pavel Belyansky, on the eve of the release of his book about the war, shared with the focus the details of the front being and with his vision of the current situation. On the eve of the second anniversary of the war, Focus met with a popular writer, blogger and soldier - Pavel Belyansky (Paste). It is now preparing for the publication of the book about the front "Life begins".

Recall that at first Belyansky became a popular blogger under the nick "Pate" (nickname of Belyansky from childhood, on the name of Pas). When a couple of tens of thousands of subscribers appeared, he began to issue collections of stories that the audience invariably bought. Today, Pavel Belyansky has published several books: "I work in the cemetery", "The abomination of the surrounding", "Grandma did not love to die", "The dentist decides to marry", "Great escape".

On the covers of books, he did not forget to indicate his colorful nickname. And in September 2022, a wonderful film was released on the screenplaces of Belyansky "I work in the cemetery". Initially, Pavel Belyansky positioned himself as a "Ukrainian Russian -speaking writer". After the full -scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, of course, his position has changed, and he overruns his past bestsellers in Ukrainian. On February 25, 2022, Belyanski went to Terrobron.

Then he found himself on the front. The nickname "pate" became call sign. I, like many fans of his talent, read the posts of Pasha, written on the front: they were accurate, figurative and always managed to touch the heart. It is on this front material that his future book was founded. - Why is the name of your future book - "Life begins"? - Because war is not just about death. A new period of life begins. Many lose themselves in war, but many find it. I am not a man of war.

I have several heroes in the book, and they are not military people. None of them planned to become military. These are the stories of civilians who had nothing to do with the army before the war is a branch of the infantry battalion. - Do you describe yourself? - Including. - I read your posts about the war with great attention, like many - especially remembered the story of how the birds copied the arrival of mines, and you with a partner fell to the ground. Both funny and tragic.

- Posters - part of the book. I planned to make a book. In it, the story is made from both the first person and the third. Before the war, I did not serve in the army as, in fact, most who got to the front. - Who is this average citizen who is on the front line? Man 40-45 years old? - It is difficult for me to say. To know the answer to this question, you need to see people and visit many places. I first served in Terrobron in Kiev and then in the battalion in two directions. And that's all.

- What were the hardest fighting for you? - All combat clashes are difficult. But the most difficult were the fighting in the Kharkiv direction. We were under balaklia and kept the defense of the site. They sat in trenches, armor. Specifically, I am a senior infantry shooter. I had both assault actions and defense actions. In defense, it is when you sit in the trench, and mortars, artillery, tanks are beaten on you. And you can do nothing in response. You just have to stay here: dig and disguise.

And such a passive position continues - not a day, not two, not a week. It requires, because everything explodes around: the guys kill, there are wounded. There were attempts from the enemy's attacks-their DRG measures (a sabotage group-focus), there were attempts of their infantry units to break through our defense-we shoot in these situations. But for a long time, these were single attempts. All this was in July-August 2022-before our Kharkiv counter-offensive.

For me, this time was the most difficult. We have the daily routine: a mortar shelling, then beats the tank, then shelters the helicopter. And on the new one. As my platoon said, "War is always scary. " I am sitting now, but I have an internal tension equally, because I know that I can get an order - I am in the Armed Forces. And in the army you are a man of order: you belong not to yourself, but to the state and the Armed Forces. So in battle.

Yes, war is scary, but there are two options: either you control fear or you. Fear is different: big, small. Sometimes you barely feel it. But it should be understood that fear is a good thing, thanks to it, you have hypersensitivity, it helps to survive. Personally, I was probably lucky - I have high stress resistance. Although this is not my merit. I didn't develop it, I just have it. - Did you have a military one? - I have a dad and my mom. I have been roaring with my parents for 17 years.

I know the military environment. Many volunteers, when they came to the Armed Forces, were stuck from the fact that you did not belong to yourself. From the fact that the order is the main thing. From the fact that your life is subject to the charter. As they say? Something needs to be done, but the discussion begins immediately: it turns out - it will not work? There is dominated by a critical approach so that it . . . not to do (laughs).

And the order, when you tell you, "Follow the forestry and organize a observation post there. " It is only discussed how we will do it, but not why. And the fact that you do not have a log or something else - it does not matter: there is an order, and it must be obeyed. It is difficult to get used to such a relationship at first. After all, civilians are characterized by such a thing: "I am smarter than all.

" Every civilian in everything is in the series: "Come on, I will tell you why what you offered to me is bullshit. " But, by the way, with the same Kharkiv counter -offensive, when we sat in the trenches and beat us, then the guys who came from the citizen grunted: "Why don't we shoot in response?" They told how everything was wrongly organized in the army.

They complained to the mouth: "What kind of devil do we not cover us?" And then suddenly it turned out that - Babakh - in September 2022 a counter -offensive began. No one expected it. It turned out that our task was to portray that there were little in the trenches. That we have no shells, there is no reinforcement. And at this time, a powerful fist was organized behind our backs, which hit so that he rejected the Russians far back. We were part of the tactics that proved to be successful.

It was a military trick. When they tell you: organize an observation post, and it seems to you that it is a stupidity, you need to leave with you these considerations: you do not see the paintings in general. You can't know all the tactics and strategy, watching only a hundred meters in front of yourself. - Moreover, it turns out that the successful completion of the general military task is that you do not understand: why did you keep your site without answering the fire? - Of course.

After all, you can accidentally pour into the social network. You can be captured. Therefore, you do not need to know unnecessary information. At your level you have to do the most effectively what you are commanded - this is your task. And in this - the power of the army. - What are the differences of modern war? - Modern war is a war of drones. There were many of them: large, small, different modifications. But once again, imagine the situation I described above: we took the defense in planting.

And if they went, let's say, enemies would immediately appear in our place. Therefore, whatever mortars, drones, artillery, and a person with a car and now decides. - They like to ask the question: you had some special feelings when you first destroyed the enemy? - No. This is an enemy - he came to my country with a weapon in his hands. Here is a direct analogy with a bandit that has fallen into your home with a weapon and wants to kill you. And you killed him in response.

What is the attitude to him? I would not go to me - and you would have nothing. I am face-to-face, however, I did not encounter. But he heard them. Sometimes we even called. Sometimes they will turn on the music, and we shout them: "What do you listen to shit different?!" - They made their own chanson. And we included our selection: "Zhadan and Dogs", TNMK, Kozak System. There was such a case: the artillery was grinding on us for the second hour. Around the explosions.

You have the whole body from explosive waves. Not only ears, you really have guts: shells and mines arrive close to the armor. You are on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I got my phone. Although mobile for a position is forbidden to take: you can calculate you by signal is a security issue. Therefore, he was in the flight mode on the plane. When it became difficult for us, I turned on our favorite songs on the phone.

And the guys began to sing: we sang "Red Viburnum", "March of Ukrainian Nationalists" ("We go to battle the victorious course"). They explode around the shells, and we sing! And I will say: it helped us psychologically. Straight - norms! - You told our past interview about the feat when a girl under a heavy fire pulled a wounded soldier from the battlefield. - Yes, it is a feat, but on the other hand - ordinary combat work.

I saw, for example, as the tankist boys were pulled out of the neutral territory of our "Motoliga" (MT-LB, a tranquilist conveyor, armored-focus), which stood in the middle of the field. She was shot down, the injured crew was evacuated and it was between our and hostile positions. Between us about 200 meters, the "motorway" in the middle. But our tankers left in the field, touched it under fire and taken out. It was returned to the system because "armor" is important. And our tankers do so daily.

- How do the characters of people appear in the war? - Differently. We are all constantly in some role, we all act a little. And we imagine ourselves as we give up, not what they are. And the war is a place (and as, in fact, a cemetery), where people become frank - even if they do not want it. Everyone sits inside some main feature. It is clear that it is usually a set of features, but still one dominates. For example, a person is greedy. Or a careerist. Or is a truth.

So in the war this trait will certainly come out. All the husk from a person will fly away and will be its essence. It's fun watching. I saw people who were UBD (combatants - focus), they have an ATO behind their back. And then they dived into this war and emerged after the first battle with horror: "I know nothing about this war. " And he saw a workman who seemed to have no combat experience, but who was quickly involved, because he was treated as hard work and tried to do it well.

At home, he was quietly engaged in his profession, and here he dug and fired. Moreover, not seeing nothing heroic in his military work. From my point of view, such calmness and assembly are incredibly cool. With such a person you can go anywhere. If you tell her, "This is your sector - you keep it and you don't go from here," you know for sure: it will keep your sector, if it happens.

This attitude is expensive! Although they do not give medals and orders, because, at first glance, there is nothing outstanding. In fact, the correctness, predictability and quiet execution of the order are the key to success. - Did you have reliable combat friends? - Unfortunately, many of those who became such friends have already died. I would say: more killed than remained alive. And losing a friend in the war is like staying without a hand. After all, it was your close fighting companion.

You have passed so much with him and survived. He was part of you. And now he was gone. And then you live like without a hand. - Fighters often say that humor helps survive on the front line. It is so? - Yes, the closer to the front line - the more "rust". But when you tell someone these jokes here, for some reason they do not look so funny. For example, before going into the battle, they agreed, whose equipment and how to divide if anything. This topic is constant.

There are no three things in the war: you do not have tomorrow, privacy (you do everything with someone) and you do not dream: because, again, there is no tomorrow. Therefore, these three things everyone tries to return a little. Take a little privacy: the guys, when they return from combat exits, try to stab faster in the variety to be a little to be alone. Or go to the shower for the same purpose: let you separate from others quite conditionally - sticks and film. I will tell the case of "dream".

They sat somehow under a dense hostile fire in the armor, and suddenly the conversation came: who will be on the citizen after the victory? One guy, the window of the windows, replied interesting: they say, who knows him, I was, relatively speaking, a nail, and now he became a screw, so you will need to look for something new. Externally, they say, as before, a "sharp metal object" and the shape is quite different.

And one soldier said he would just lay, doing nothing, and to pay the money, and everyone was running around: they were fed. We have rushed together: "Yeah, now suddenly you will cover you and will be in a coma, and everyone will run around you. " He was really injured then, he stayed in a coma and died. Then we laughed, and everything ended fun, but this peculiar dream came true.

- Are you looking at some militants or movies about war now? How are they perceived today? - I watched a lot before, and now I don't look at all. I am, first, triggered after contusion sharp sounds-the same shots. But I still liked the fighters but criminal series of the type of shore. I still look at them when there is a time. My tastes have not changed much. And lifestyle - radically changed. For example, I can't fall asleep. And, I do not need pajamas, but a tracksuit.

It should be a thing in which I can get up and run anywhere. I need a minimum level of readiness for extraordinary circumstances. I go to the headphones, trying to score the city hum. Why? Because it is a consequence. For example, you storm the village, you have an enemy there, here are your boys: they move from the street to the street. Whatever at this moment it happens, you listen to the environment, because the hearing is your safety.

In a piece of second, you can hear the whistle of the flying projectile. And you are obliged to hear him to fall in time, that when he exploded, you will not cut you with fragments. I saw the situation. Three fighters in the forest Pasadka made coffee. They heard the sound of a flew: two lay down, and the third did not have time - he hit a fragment in his head. And if he had time - the maximum would be a little injured.

Therefore, a conditional reflex is produced to noise and an instant response to it. You don't even think - your body responds to sound before you have thought. This is made at the instinct level: you have to react - you are okay. And the kid, who did not have time, was torn into a few pieces. And you knew not only him, but also his relatives, acquaintances he showed you in the phone.

And when you find yourself in a civilian place, in the city - you can not but respond to sharp sounds, and in the city - hundreds. So I dressed the headphones and everything - you feel normally. Only gradually it releases you. - What has changed in society, in your opinion, before the second anniversary of the war? - People are used to war. And it is normal, accustomed to, they were able to organize their life.

And it is also clear, you can't live in a temporary position, but you want to translate it into something permanent. But here the trap: civilians were separated from the military. Like, the military - somewhere there, and we - somewhere here. I can't talk to everyone, but among those I meet - there are many. And on the front, on the contrary: people broke away from their past life, the war became close and understood to them.

And even a little fear of "citizens", because their professional qualification is lost, you are more in your military profession. - And the character somehow changed: countries, nations? - From my point of view, as a screenwriter and writer, the character changes only in the heroes of bad works. The attitude towards something, goals, motivation changes.

At first, let's say a lot of money, and then, having passed a series of trials, realizes that the truth is in children and in raising a new generation. And this person now wants to have children. But such a person will want that money, that children, using the same traits of their character. The character is formed by adolescence, and then - already there. If a person is active, used to manage - sooner or later, he will go to guidance.

If it got to the front: it becomes a platoon, the commander of the department, the mouth. He was a supervisor to the army and commanded construction, relatively speaking, and now commands several branches. But returning to the question, I do not want to think that again the tragedy is needed to consolidate as February 24, 2022. Then the queues were lined up to military enlistment offices and people were not interested in what they would be tomorrow - today you need to go to fight.

Although even then there was a stratification of society: there was a bunch of cars that went to the opposite direction - west, creating endless congestion. And it is also clear, not all of us are warriors. But what to say? We have proven repeatedly as a society that is ready to fight for our ideals, which are built into the context of the progressive world. We proved this by the actions. But gradually the benchmarks blur, because, again, a person cannot live in stress.

I hope we will surprise ourselves more than once in a good way, we can gather and get the enemy. However, I think with horror I think that again it will require an external stimulus. Not all people have this engine - the need for action until they are pushed. It is a manifestation of infantility. Society drives a small percentage of active people. Many have come up with their lives and somehow lives inside him, forgetting that a terrible and cruel enemy still strongly wants our blood.