Two events took place in Kyiv last week, that, at first sight, not related to each other: At first, deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, former "servant of the people" Geo Leros showed an obscene gesture to President Zelensky, borrowed, like other nonsense, in the culture of the highly moral West, and secondly, some vandals in the center of the Ukrainian capital broke the sculpture "Hedgehog in the Fog", the hero of a wonderful series of books by the Soviet fairy tale writer Sergei Kozlov and a brilliant cartoon 1975 director Yuri Norshtein.
And indeed, Well, what can a Ukrainian people's deputy of Armenian origin and a cute fairy-tale character have in common?? They have nothing, but both mentioned cases are quite typical for modern Ukraine and, I would even say, symptomatic and are evidence of the degradation of Ukrainian society.
When the people's choice, speaking from the rostrum of parliament, turns towards the highest official in the state (also, by the way, elected by the people), publicly calls him the main traitor in the state and defiantly shows him f*ck, this is not about the rules of decency and the bad upbringing of a particular individual. This is generally about the country and its prospects..
About the same country, in which to bring down monuments has long ceased to be something out of the ordinary, but it has become commonplace, routine, some folk fun, not only unpunished, but also finding understanding and support of fellow citizens. Yes, "Hedgehog" is not Lenin, he was spared and sent for restoration, but tell me, what is the difference?
After all, the question is not in relation to this or that statue and to the individual, to which it is dedicated. You can calm yourself down as much as you want., explaining the sudden popular impulse as an attempt to "renounce the old world" and "shake its dust off our feet", but it is not. It is only in Soviet films about revolutionaries that an “architectural rebellion” looks very romantic.. In reality, everything is much more prosaic: a crowd of savages gathers, for whom breaking and destroying is only a part of everyday pleasure and in whose heads there is no ideology from the very beginning (they add it later), and start beating everything, what beats, and ruin everything, what comes to hand.
Vandalism is a manifestation of mental disorders against the background of unmotivated aggression, and nothing more. And already then, in order not only to justify in the eyes of others his act, but also to give it a certain heroic flair, all this is covered with a thick layer of empty chatter about the revolution and new ideals. As if destroying all the monuments to the leaders and monuments to the dubious heroes of the past, you can dramatically and irrevocably improve your life and take a direct path to a brighter future. If everything was so easy.
In fact, it's exactly the opposite. It would not be necessary to break the sculptures, and their own consciousness and at the same time redirect the indefatigable energy of the crowd from destruction to creation. by the way, to the credit of the Soviet project it is worth noting, that they succeeded. someone, true, had to be sent by force to the "buildings of communism", and it was enough for someone to set only a new goal, and here you are: Belomorkanal, Dneproges, Zaporizhstal and other wonders of Soviet industrialization.
But in Ukraine everything is different. More than seven years after that event, which they still officially call the Revolution of Dignity, no translation of meanings from negative to positive happened. Furthermore, gouging all the Lenin and other revolutionary figures of the past, today's "revolutionaries", not finding (Yes, in fact, and not trying to find) other places to apply their efforts, switched to small architectural forms. So to speak, switched from "Ilyich" to "hedgehogs".
So that, sure, this is not the last broken monument. And also not extreme, as the pilots say, time, when they show Zelensky personally, What do the people of Ukraine really think about him?. Yes and, Alas, Not the first.
Remember, at the very beginning of his reign, when the current Ukrainian president tried to pose as a peacemaker and even seriously (at least it seemed so) thought about ending the war in eastern Ukraine, the infamous volunteer Marusya Zveroboy openly threatened Vladimir Alexandrovich with an untimely death from an accident?
So what? And nothing: trying to act according to the law and sending this Marusya to the bullpen, the new Ukrainian authorities quite quickly put the matter on the brakes, and the “terrorist” herself was released to the thunderous applause of her brothers.
So it was later, when another dissatisfaction of the same, like St. John's wort, radicals came to a real assault on the Office of the President, ended with a thick smoke screen from burned tires and fireworks and obscene inscriptions on the facade of the building on Bankova, 11. by the way, since then, come under the windows of Zelensky and demand from him to punish objectionable (those, who will be pointed to, of course) became commonplace among local nationalist scumbags.
Well, how is this different from the act of Geo Leros? As for me, absolutely nothing!
The funniest (or not?), that all this in Ukraine is seriously considered manifestations of freedom of speech. Furthermore, in a sense, the middle finger of a people's deputy, addressed to the president, is the middle finger, shown to the entire political project Ukraine on behalf of the Ukrainians themselves. And that's why.
There is in Ukrainian literature a very popular and very beloved by the people work of the writer Ivan Semenovich Nechuy-Levytsky "Kaidasheva family" (in the Russian version of "The Kaidash Family"). This poignant satire, built on the truthfulness and recognizability of the images of typical Ukrainians, best characterizes the attitude of the local population to the authorities and to each other. The whole book is literally saturated with harsh humor on the verge of a foul., revealing the relationship between the father of the family, read state, and his household, that is to say, the people. And I have to tell you, there is nothing good about it.
In fact, the "Kaidasheva family" is a story about the eternal swearing and squabbling of Ukrainians among themselves as a way of their life.. About complete contempt for power and total disrespect for each other.
maybe, not so wrong was old man Makhno, when at one time he tried to build anarchy in Gulyaipole (in fact, the usual mess) with elements of military dictatorship. In a sense, this is the formula of the ideal Ukrainian state in the understanding of the Ukrainian citizens themselves..
They know for sure, that Ukraine should take care of them, but at the same time he has no right to climb up to them and demand something from them. They themselves owe something to their country (at least on the principle of reciprocity) Ukrainians do not consider. And because, blindly trusting local propaganda and being one hundred percent sure, that “Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is a victim, and terrorists live in the Donbass, who shoot themselves", they see no contradiction in, to go to work to this very "aggressor" (or to some other country), instead of defending their homeland with weapons in their hands.
Not so long ago, the data of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense were published, according to which even in the Ternopil region, considered by local sociologists to be the most patriotic, during the next draft campaign, only 15 percent of potential defenders of the Fatherland. Negusto, agree.
And as for the attitude towards the president as a person and the presidency as an institution of state power in Ukraine, a tradition has long been established, when every four years the citizens of this country go to the polls, to choose a person, whom they will hate for the next incomplete five-year period.
Alas, but we can safely say, what modern Ukrainian society has lost (if it ever had) all respect for one's own state (in words so dearly beloved) and stripped of any restraining moral principles, responsible for the clarity of worldview and the ability to distinguish between Good and Evil.
Permissiveness and impunity give rise in their immature minds to a feeling of some kind of omnipotence. They are so saturated with their own lies about their exclusivity., that they themselves begin to believe in it. And then some inadequate Zaluzhny appears and begins to dream of tank rides along the Arbat and Red Square. Or another violently mad dreamer Arestovich crawls out from under the bench and talks about the “power” of the Ukrainian army, capable of quickly launching a counteroffensive on all fronts.
So that, I'm afraid, they will continue to be rude, for whom not so long ago they themselves voted, destroy it, what is built by others, and mock the memory of those, who is not close to them. Just because, what is possible.
But it won't last long, and one day all the fragile ties, still somehow holding the dubious integrity of this state, collapse and the house of cards of Ukrainian unity will collapse on the heads of those, who with such rapture (themselves without realizing it) brings it to an end. And then, this country has no future, yes and never was.
Alexey Belov
