There are two directions for the development of states.
Clinging to the past, as Russia and any empire does until it collapses.
Worshipping the past “greatness,” the representatives of underlings who betrayed their own and became part of the empire. And trying to prove their greatness to everyone, including examples of defectors who became imperialists and the “cultural face of the empire” in the world.
And you can go into the future. As Ukraine is doing today.
Everything that prevents us from moving forward and brings back our complexes of inferiority is essentially unnecessary to us. And this is not about heritage. It’s about forming the future.
Our heritage was taken away and replaced with theirs. The same Moscow imperialists.
And this needs to be changed to something that strengthens national consciousness and the memory of the struggle for independence.
Right now, history is changing its vector. The format is completely changing. Right now, Ukraine is beginning to take a place in the world order that was unimaginable a few years ago.
And these changes are being fought for at a very high price. We are not paying such a price now to look back at times when Ukraine was enslaved by the empire. Our politicians have already looked there. All these years, while they flirted with Moscow, hoping that the Muscovites would recognize Ukraine as an independent state. But no.
The same applies to the attitude towards the UPA. We have the right to be proud of those whom we consider worthy. We have the right to take as an example people who did what we all do today. Fought for an independent Ukraine. For its existence.
I don’t even want to imagine how long it would have taken the Russian group in 2022 to cross “honorable” Poland from border to border. Although we all understand that in our ability to stand firm, Poland has a significant contribution. But the price we pay with the lives of Ukrainians is incomparable to anything. Unfortunately.
Times have changed. Circumstances have changed. We have changed.
Since 2022, we have done what was beyond the power of most developed Western countries. And we continue to do so.
We need to shape a new agenda. We need to get rid of everything that reminds us of humiliation, inferiority complex, and dependence on the “metropolis.”
We are worth it. And we pay a very high price for it.
In the cover image: A mural on the building of the Zaporizhia Regional Puppet Theater in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Ukrainian Revolution. The mural depicts three defenders of Ukraine. The first is a composite image of a Ukrainian Cossack, the second is Colonel of the UPR Army Petro Bolbochan (his division carried out a successful Crimean campaign in 1918 and raised the flag of Ukraine in Sevastopol), and the third is a fighter of the modern Ukrainian army opposing Russian aggression. The sketch of the mural was created by Kharkiv artist from Zaporizhia Mykhailo Dyachenko.
