The Soviet Union’s sunset years hardly felt like an innocent age to those who lived through them, but to recall the hopes and aspirations of that era is to rue the naiveties of those days. “A common European house” was how President Mikhail Gorbachev pictured the continent’s future; “a Europe whole and free”, in the words of George HW Bush, his American counterpart. But, as the tussle over Ukraine has shown, Russia and the west are rivals once again. The ceasefire signed on September 5 gives both sides a chance to overcome their own illusions. They should take it, lest the conflict become a direct military confrontation.
对曾经亲身经历过那个年代的人而言，苏联(Soviet Union)日薄西山那些年很难算“纯真年代”。但回想那个时代的希望和憧憬，我们一定会为那时的天真感到后悔。当时的俄罗斯总统米哈伊尔•戈尔巴乔夫(Mikhail Gorbachev)这样描述欧洲大陆的未来——“一个共同的欧洲大家园”，用当时的美国总统老布什(George HW Bush)的话来说则是——“一个统一而自由的欧洲”。然而，围绕乌克兰的争吵显示出，俄罗斯和西方又一次成为了对手。9月5日签订的停火协议给了双方一个克服各自幻觉的机会。他们应该抓住这个机会，以免冲突演变成直接的军事对抗。