Abandoned Steps: Democracy in Decline – Digital Edition

$19

Arkady Karpilovsky

### At 94, Arkady Karpilovsky walks Kyiv’s broken steps one last time.

He doesn’t protest. He doesn’t preach.

He plays a violin—and in the silence, you hear what democracy forgot.

This is not a political tract.

Not a memoir.

Not even really a book.

It’s a final walk.

One last time, Arkady climbs the cracked marble steps of Kyiv—the square where protesters once stood shoulder-to-shoulder, the ministries where promises turned to paperwork, the libraries where knowledge gathered dust.

And as he walks, he notices something no one else sees:

> Democracy doesn’t die with a bang. It decays between footsteps.

The steps to the Ministry of Justice are “stained and uneven, as though the marble itself hesitates to declare what is right.”

At the Monument to the Founders of Kyiv, the bronze figures stare forward—but “even the plinth beneath them chips away, as if time itself is erasing their destination.”

And then, comes this line—so quiet, so devastating:

> “We row in circles now, reciting history as if repetition could heal the steps we’ve already broken.”

In this digital edition, you receive:

- The complete text of Abandoned Steps: Democracy in Decline (20 poetic vignettes)

- Two rare audio recordings in Arkady’s own voice:

• “Maidan Nezalezhnosti” — his witness to the heartbeat of a revolution

• “Coda: The Music Remains” — his final, trembling note of hope

> “When I close my eyes, I see light on cracked marble… and a boy in the crowd humming an unfinished tune. He does not know the melody’s name, but I do. It is called hope.”

This is not for everyone.

But if you still believe that beauty is a form of resistance, that memory is a moral duty, and that someone must listen to the sound of silence—then this was written for you.