【5月9日】看軍聞學英語

■林國賓

原文：

Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has adopted many laws that allow to prosecute for any dissent to the actions of its army. Thousands of people are fined and imprisoned.

To avoid punishment for anti-war statements, Russians have been seeking anonymous forms of protest, leaving messages in public spaces: placing stickers and leaflets, drawing graffiti and writing on walls. Anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova has been collecting protest street art since 2022, but it continues to grow.

People who oppose war through street art have been dubbed "semiotic partisans" because their creativity undermines the meaning of official propaganda, says anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova. Messages can be direct or hidden. For example, "No to war!" is the most typical of direct messages. Such statements do not require disguise.

Direct messages have two imaginary interlocutors. One of them is a Russian who believes propaganda or claims to be "apolitical," distancing himself from what is happening. "Semiotic partisans" try to reach out to such people. For example, in February 2022, a drawing appeared on one of the streets of St. Petersburg with the text: "Ukraine is not our enemy."

The second target of the "semiotic partisans" is Vladimir Putin. In the first year of the war, street art often featured direct messages to Putin, although his name was not always mentioned: "Go away," "You’ve fucked up," "You’re dragging us to hell."

中譯：

自全面入侵烏克蘭以來，俄羅斯已通過多項法律，使當局得以對任何反對其軍隊行動的言論進行起訴。數以千計的人因此遭到罰款與監禁。

為了避免因反戰言論受到處罰，俄羅斯民眾開始尋求匿名抗議的方式，在公共空間留下訊息，例如張貼貼紙與傳單、塗鴉，或在牆面書寫文字。人類學家阿爾希波娃自2022年起持續蒐集這類街頭抗議藝術，而相關作品仍在不斷增加。

阿爾希波娃指出，透過街頭藝術反戰的人被稱為「符號游擊隊」，因其創作削弱了官方宣傳的既有意義。這些訊息可能是直接的，也可能是隱晦的。例如「不要戰爭！」就是最典型的直接訊息，這類表述無需掩飾。

直接訊息通常有2個假想的對話對象。其一是相信官方宣傳，或自稱「不涉政治」、試圖與現實保持距離的俄羅斯民眾，「符號游擊隊」試圖觸及這群人。例如2022年2月，聖彼得堡街頭曾出現一幅塗鴉，上面寫著：「烏克蘭不是我們的敵人。」

「符號游擊隊」的第2個對象則是俄羅斯總統蒲亭。在戰爭第1年，街頭藝術中常出現針對蒲亭的直接訊息，儘管未必直接點名，例如「滾開」、「你搞砸了一切」、「你正把我們拖入地獄。」

- 關鍵軍語 -

※full-scale invasion：全面入侵

※dissent：異議