I will say nothing new, because everyone who had something to say has already spoken. I’ve also expressed myself repeatedly. However, repeating well-worn truths is not always useless, especially in times of despair. After all, believers of various religions have been repeating the same words for centuries, hoping either to reach God or to inspire themselves.
So first of all, we must clearly understand that we have no choice. More precisely, each of us individually has choices: move to the countryside, cross the Tisza, get a job in an office with a reservation, shiver from the draft board, or finally join the army. Or: evacuate children to the countryside, find work abroad, stay in place, even give birth, persist, burn out, but hold on. Overall, however, there is no choice. A “compromise” with the enemy automatically means, sooner or later, likely sooner, complete occupation, which, in turn, means a purge not seen in Ukraine since Stalin’s times. Hopes of safely sitting out under new/old masters are entirely vain: the Russian repressive machine is like a ratchet, it can only move in one direction, toward absurd tightening. Declaring victory will mean just a new front for the empire, where all Ukrainians will be targeted as potential insurgents, regardless of their personal loyalty. To illustrate, just observe the practices of the regime’s enforcers within their empire right now: fully pro-regime public figures periodically fall under the roller alongside little-known “dear Russians,” loyal functionaries, apolitical intellectuals, and the bohemian, just for formalities’ sake. The crocodile wants to eat. There’s no doubt that eradicating “sedition,” meaning foreign identity, will become point number one on the agenda for the occupying administration and the Kremlin machine as a whole. This is not a hypothesis but an established fact.
Calls to somehow negotiate with the inhumane, appease them, find a compromise mean nothing except genuine misunderstanding of the enemy’s nature either through ignorance or certain personal defects. I don’t believe Honcharenko, Terekhov, Hetmantsev are paid agents of Putin, but I believe, considering their political trajectories, they might dream of a future career in the anticipated Malorossiya to which they have always gravitated. They don’t consider that the supreme boss, due to his partly agent, partly criminal past, has always despised traitors and never fully trusts them. This, by the way, proves the fate of many Russian liberals, who supposedly evolved towards the authorities and became more royalist than the dictator, yet are carefully labeled “foreign agents” and moved away from levers or cathedrals. However, the personalities of our potential collaborators do not interest me, aside from certain zoological curiosity, the worse part is that they contribute to the demoralization of a weary society.
Confusion is an irrational state, a moral surrender. It implies a loss of contact with reality, particularly civilization. Spoiled by Ukrainian freedom and the humanitarianism of Ukrainian society, the waiters forget about the inherent traits of their desired master. They fail to notice his pathological sadism, cynicism, and opportunism, idealizing the dreamed new order and overestimating their place in it. Just like a lovelorn young man believes a prostitute will reform, or an abused woman convinces herself that her monster will stop drinking. Arguments in such cases don’t work, warnings are ignored. It’s like saying “it’ll be fine” in a pool with predators. A crocodile or shark are also living creatures, but without the slightest signs of emotion, they’re large protein-processing machines. As part of the integral living nature, created with an incomprehensible plan, there’s nothing that can be done. As dialogue partners that can be appeased, it’s a parody. Under the yoke, new Oleshkys without food, new Donetsks without water, new Buchas with corpses on the streets await us—this, as the younger generation says, is not a bug but a feature. Let’s add the inevitable resettlement along with the colonial administration of simple, unwise people from Vologda and Kineshma to Cherkasy and Sumy, because it’s warmer here and there are more career opportunities. For two hundred years, the empire has called this “Russianization of the region.” Anyone who expects something different should be treated.
Colleague Nataliya Lebid recently reminded us of the bombing of London during World War II. I read about it a long time ago. Half (!) of the English capital was destroyed, and yet many Londoners considered it undignified to hide from shelling, especially since they, like us, didn’t have proper shelters, and sought refuge in the subway. The fact that postmen diligently collected letters from mailboxes amidst the ruins proves that behaving with dignity under bombs and missiles (don’t forget that the German V-2 was a classic ballistic missile and the V-1 was a reactive drone) is not just our invention. Let me add, just in case, that under naval blockade conditions, a rationing system was implemented: a pound of sugar a week, a quarter-pound of margarine, one egg or the equivalent amount of egg powder, two ounces of tea (a little over 50 grams) — imagine, for the English! The winters of 1940-1942 were the coldest of the 20th century, yet besides coal rationing, homeowners were required to keep room temperatures no higher than 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit (10-13 Celsius). If the chimney produced too much smoke, neighbors could complain to the authorities or, worse, submit it to public censure. The famous slogan “Keep calm and carry on,” which we used left and right before the war, was born there and then. It’s incorrect to compare (though why not, actually?), but our “empty shelves” after hits on retailer warehouses are true luxuries.
I’ll also mention that the most active local waiters were interned without trial and investigation based on the national security law Defence Regulation 18B. Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley and his wife were imprisoned in Holloway and released only in 1943 due to severe illness under house arrest. With sizychki they didn’t bother either, there were about 100,000 of them: they were held in military disciplinary centers (glasshouses) in conditions far from a resort until sent back to the front. Dodgers, imagine, were caught by patrols on the streets, in pubs, at stations, nothing new. Haven’t heard of anyone from civil society complaining.
It is worth remembering that we have lived for more than sixty years without full-scale wars, not counting Afghanistan (and no, I haven’t forgotten about the UPA) — this is the first time in European history. Several generations of Ukrainians have grown accustomed to the idea that war is either far away or long ago. Moreover, at a certain point in time, the fifth column of politicians and media reassured us, claiming the worst could be avoided if the shootings stopped. Well, what can we do? Alright, I won’t.
The concepts of state terror, lawlessness, concentration camps, and the fear of saying the wrong word have almost not been recalled for about forty years. We’ve become complacent. We must become more vigilant to win in this endurance race. When my batteries run low, I think of those with whom I cannot be due to age and general physical condition. Or those who had a missile strike their apartment. However, things aren’t sweet for humanoids there either. We must persevere, encouraging ourselves that it could have been and can be worse.
Why? To survive as a nation with our own values, rather than as several million Moscow convicts. To have a chance to realize the Ukraine that it deserves as a culmination of all imaginations, hopes, and dreams of all generations of Ukrainians.
It’s not that I consider some abstract Ukraine more important than each living Ukrainian, but the presence of a common idea, a shared ideal, gives each of us a sense of existence — for some, it complements family, self-realization, and the search for truth, and for others, it is a service to a higher purpose; we have seen and remember such people. Moreover, I won’t hesitate to repeat: Ukraine now provides the civilized world with evidence that values are not empty words, that freedom is worth and should be fought for, and that relationships between people are not a card game or the fantasies of hysterical demagogues, be they left or right.
Missing the opportunity given to us by God or fate, however one feels, is incompetence. Being incompetent is shameful.
Photo: Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights
