In her acceptance speech at the close of the annual Frankfurt Book Fair, Applebaum urged the West to increase its military support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, Poland's PAP news agency reported.
It said the prize jury honored Applebaum for her in-depth analysis of authoritarianism, particularly focusing on the communist and post-communist systems of the Soviet Union and Russia.
In a tribute, Russian human rights activist Irina Scherbakova praised Applebaum as one of the first Western observers to recognize the authoritarian turn in Russia under Vladimir Putin.
Scherbakova said that Applebaum helped Western nations understand the need to defend themselves against Russian aggression.
At the book fair, Applebaum promoted the German edition of her latest book, Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World.
During her speech, she drew parallels between military victory over Nazi Germany and the current situation in Russia, arguing that military success could put an end to what she described as "the horrific cult of violence" in Russia, the PAP news agency reported.
“If we have the chance to end this cult through a military victory, as was done in Germany, we should take it,” she said, as quoted by the Polish state news agency.
She added that calls for peace should not always be seen as moral.
“Anyone advocating pacifism by conceding not only territory but also principles and ideals to Russia has learned nothing from the history of the 20th century,” she was cited as saying.
According to Applebaum, Germany's lesson from history is not to avoid becoming involved in a war entirely, but to recognize its responsibility to actively support freedom and take necessary risks.
Applebaum, born in Washington in 1964, has lived in Poland for many years. She is married to Poland's top diplomat Radosław Sikorski and is the author of several influential books, including Iron Curtain and Gulag, which earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 2004.
(jh/gs)
Source: PAP