Andriy Kurkov
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing downed by pro-Russian terrorists or terrorists who had come to Ukraine from Russia added almost 200 Dutch citizens, as well as dozens of UK, Malaysian, Belgian citizens and those of other countries to the list of the victims of this aggression. The “international” list of terrorist victims grows every day. Last Friday, the name of Lithuania’s Honorary Consul to Ukraine Mykola Zelenets was added to it.
Nobody makes lists of the killed and wounded on the side of the terrorists. The dead are buried in fields, streets, in forests. Frequently there are no names, surnames, date of birth or death on the plaques placed over such graves. Because these deceased fight for “that guy” and his ideas, frequently unwittingly. “That guy” is sitting in the neighboring country and he doesn’t care about the number of victims even among his conscious supporters in Ukraine. “Soldier #9” – this is what is written on one of the plaques on a grave that had been left by the mercenaries out in the open field; he might not have planned on being a soldier. He definitely wanted to be a good father and a happy grandfather in his own family, but “that guy” did everything in his power to take away his name, his family and his future. Nonetheless, “that guy” is concerned with the future of those who put their lives on the altar of Ukraine’s state independence. They are simply enemies.
Someday, soon, I hope, the number of victims of this aggression will “stop” and will be engraved on marble tombs at the base of a memorial. This list has to include all the passengers and crew of the Malaysian Boeing, together with other innocent victims.
Ukraine is also an airplane. A huge airplane which Russian and pro-Russian terrorists are trying to shoot down following the orders of “that guy.” This is why “that guy” gathered so much artillery, manpower, airplanes and cannons at the Ukrainian border.
“That guy” thinks that he was the one who won World War II. He laments the fact that he was unable to win in World War I and counts on definitely winning World War III. Spineless Europe, which is only able to express “severe concern,” inspires him to make more attempts to down the “Ukraine” airplane. However, Ukraine will survive, withstand, heal its wounds, bury its children and continue going forward on its own way. It will fly its own route without asking the neighbor, “that guy” for a safe airway.
And we should rid ourselves of our romantic perception of our Soviet past. We have to stop toasting to “that guy” at the dinner table. “That guy” is now responsible for the deaths of thousands of Ukrainians, Dutch people, British people and Malaysians. “That guy” doesn’t let go of the grenade launcher and is watching us through the scope.
To leave “that guy,” we need not only legs but first and foremost, a head. We have to cleanse our thoughts and emotions, look for new senses and new reasons, new “funny and touching” things. Because if we don’t, we will once again gladly watch old Soviet comedies before midnight on New Year’s Eve and old Soviet romantic movies on March 8. We will watch them and think or just feel that it’s all ours. Not just “our past,” but our present, our “own.”
As such, we did not create a new thick layer of our own mass culture which would support us emotionally and reflect our concerns as of today, our happiness and our feelings. Russia told us: “our common past is enough for the future.” And those who believed it, those who liked this easy and most dangerous thought, paid a giant price for it: ruined houses, graves in front yards, terrorists who take away people’s houses, money, cars, lives of their loved ones.
Now everything seems clear, that our country is just like a Boeing, but it is in flight and this flight depends only on us; it is time to start thinking about such simple things as the humanitarian, cultural components of Ukrainian lives. We were divided not only with foreign culture and the culture of the Soviet past. Donetsk oblast was separated from us with the lack, or at least, the obvious insufficiency of our own culture, which births general images, general myths, which gives generally understood quotes and anecdotes to the entire nation, which means that it helps form a general sense of life, understandable to all Ukrainian citizens. The sense of our country’s existence.
Source: Radio Liberty
Translated by Mariya Shcherbinina