The enigmatic lines from Mr. Brodsky’s poem “Still Life,” a dialogue between Jesus, who is dying on the cross, and his mother Mary, reflect the uncertainty surrounding Mr. Prigozhin. “As I step on a threshold, / I know not nor decide: / Are you my son — or God? / Are you dead — or alive?”
The final stanza, in which Jesus responds to his mother, can be interpreted as a representation of Mr. Prigozhin’s larger-than-life status and his professed loyalty to his homeland: “Dead, or alive / There is no difference, woman / Son or God, I am yours.”
Many of Mr. Prigozhin’s followers have refused to accept his death.
“I just don’t believe in it,” said a man who placed carnations in front of a spontaneous memorial at the Wagner Center, a modern complex in St. Petersburg. The man, who had recently served under Wagner and considered Mr. Prigozhin his direct commander, declined to disclose his name to Western media.
The controversy surrounding Mr. Prigozhin’s death may linger in Russian history for decades, according to Aleksei A. Venediktov, former head of the liberal Echo of Moscow radio station, which was closed down by the Kremlin last year.
“Who killed Kennedy?” he rhetorically asked in his office during an interview last week. “Look, this comparison is really important, because there are numerous alternative theories circulating in the public domain alongside the official version.”
Reporting contributed by Valeriya Safronova from Vienna, Austria, Jesus Jiménez from New York, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Milana Mazaeva from Washington, and Oleg Matsnev from Berlin.
2023-08-29 16:19:47
Original from www.nytimes.com
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