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How to turn an ordinary person into a Banderivets*

April 24, 2014

Boris Bitner, Live Journal

banderivets3Take a tolerant Russian-speaking Ukrainian and subject him to the following manipulations:

Break agreements signed with his country and support a criminal regime; give refuge to the leader of this regime who is guilty of embezzlement; turn TV channels that are being watched by half of Ukraine into a platform for slander, hate speech and deception; call Ukraine a quasi-state and its government a junta; spread lies that Russian-speaking Ukrainians are being abused because of their language; seize a piece of Ukraine’s territory; embark on a dirty propaganda war against his country; support the separatists who wish to split the state; unleash a gang of lying Internet trolls and propagandists; snub the international community and collective security…

Thus, the negative connotation of the notion ‘banderivets’ which used to mean a thug, a killer and an enemy of the Soviet regime, the connotation that was systematically inculcated throughout the postwar period, now easily transforms into a positive one – a partisan, a fighter for independence, a freedom-loving person struggling against the Soviet authorities. Interestingly, the concept of the ‘Soviet power’ has undergone no change. It has not gone down the drain, it is still etched in minds of the people.

Dear Comrade Putin! Dear Soviet citizens of Russia who turned out to be a great many!

Thank you for inducing me and others like me to learn the [Ukrainian] anthem, to install the flag on my car, to start respecting the language, to reevaluate certain historical facts! There is no greater motivation to love our Motherland than the external threat, the disrespect for the people of the country of 46 million and the uncontrollable megalomania of the inadequate neighbor.

Thank you for helping us make up our minds about the direction of our country’s development and understand who is our friend and who is our enemy.

Better late than never.

Do not worry, we are going to be fine. The only thing that matters is that you do not go saving anybody here or, God forbid, come to defend us.

We wish you well. We promise not to interfere in your affairs, not to claim back Krasnodar and Stavropol regions.)))

We will live peacefully and happily, but let us do it separately from each other.

We will move towards the EU and USA, we will cooperate with NATO, all in all, we are going to integrate into a society that overcame fascism and tolerates gays. And you will ravel in your own spiritual convulsions, intolerance and nazi-saluting homophobes.

You have managed the impossible: until now we were a population, now we grew to be a nation.

Thank you for your help.

Source: http://bither.livejournal.com/347700.html

*Designation ‘Banderivets’ refers to a follower or sympathizer of Stepan Bandera, the leader of WWII anti-Soviet nationalistic insurgency in Western Ukraine (ed.)

Translation by Tatiana Kononenko, edited by Mariana Budjeryn

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