Together with a small team of committed volunteers, Konstantin Dobrovolski, 70, has dedicated his life to finding, identifying and reburying the remains of more than 100,000 Soviet troops who are believed to have died on the very northern part of the Soviet defence line.
“When we started our work in the early 80s, there were more bodies than mushrooms. We have found the remains of 20,000 soldiers,” Dobrovolski said.
But these days, death is on his mind more than ever.
“Every day I am confronted with the grim consequences of war. But it seems like our nation didn’t learn the right lesson from history,” he said as the conversation quickly turned to the war in Ukraine.
And yet:
This, more than anything, brought tears to my eyes. Wanting to apologise to the people who killed his son, because he knows they were right and his son was wrong.
I can’t express how much I respect that man’s mental fortitude. It’s so easy to succumb to rage and hatred when your own son passes away. Not only stifle those kneejerk reactions, but to still demonstrate humility to that degree is rare.