Hatred. Why Ukrainians do not like Russian? Why don't they like Ukrainians?

Why Ukrainians do not like Russian? Some will say: “Why love them? They poke their nose into our affairs. They came to our country with weapons at the ready. They are imposing their culture and their language.” They will also remember Peter the Great, Catherine, the Soviet Union.

Others stare at the questioner with an uncomprehending look: “What hatred? My wife is Russian. I studied for five years at an institute where half of the students were Russian. I still communicate with many of them. And I don’t feel any hatred towards them. I even love and respect.”

Still others will remember that the Ukrainian hit the Russian who was standing next to him on the barricades. I heard an insult directed at myself and hit him in the face. So he “went” not because he was Russian. And for rudeness. However, questions remain. Why don't crests like Russians? Why do Ukrainians call Russians Katsaps? Below we present the most common answers to these questions and counterarguments to the answers. Where the truth lies is up to you to decide.

Childish resentment

Why do Ukrainians hate Russians? The roots of this resentment are quite deep. Therefore, there is no way to overcome it. Schematically, the birth of hatred and resentment can be depicted as follows.

1. Initially, the Slavic people gathered near Kyiv. A powerful power was formed - Kievan Rus. And Kyiv became the “father of Russian cities.”

2. Then new centers of gravity formed. Muscovy appeared (some Ukrainians say with gloating that there was not even the name “Russia”). Nevertheless.

3. The Great Russians gradually took a leading position, pushing aside everyone else.

That is, the younger brother ascended to the throne, which rightfully belonged to the older brother. The Ukrainians were offended. And they remembered all the unpleasant historical facts. It’s not fair, they say, the throne is occupied. Bloodshed and betrayal of their brothers.

The deeply national resentment has not gone away centuries later. And at the right moment, people were reminded of this, helped to inflate the “psychology of the people,” and made hatred the driving force.

The feeling of deprivation makes it humiliating for Ukrainians to join any political entity created by Russia. To Europe? Please. You can also play supporting roles with them. But “under Russia” - never. This is a slap in the face, a reminder of the loss of a leading position.

Counter argument

Not even an argument, but simply a reasoning-refutation of the supposedly existing great-power chauvinism. Russians do not suffer from Napoleonism. We are not talking about politicians now, but about ordinary people.

Russians are ready to look at any country as an older brother or father. Show honor and respect. No problem. And they would look at Ukraine...

Suffice it to recall the not so distant Soviet era. When Gorbachev mentioned the possibility of infiltrating Europe. With what lust the Russian people looked at everything European. How his face changed when he saw a foreign tourist.

No, there were, of course, deeply politicized individuals who perceived any foreign citizen as a spy. But this was not due to a sense of self-importance. In addition, the majority of Soviet citizens wholeheartedly desired to enter Europe.

The desire to defend independence

The main points with which Ukrainians explain their “natural” hatred. We put the word “natural” in quotation marks, because not everyone thinks so. We will try to be impartial: we will present both arguments and counterarguments.

1. Russia sells its gas to Ukraine at the highest price in Europe.

And it is not just the President who is to blame for this, but all Russians. Who elected this president. Who support him and consider the policy against Ukraine correct.

Counter argument

Until a certain point, Ukraine received gas at the lowest price in Europe. And then she managed to get into debt. Now, of course, she has paid them. But only those that she recognized.

Why does Gazprom keep the price as it was? This is unprofitable and irrational.

2. The Kremlin interferes in the internal affairs of Ukraine.

Mainly, it’s a shame about the language and television. The imposed Russification is not to the liking of ethnic Ukrainians.

Counter argument

Russification began in the past. There is no point in talking about this phenomenon now. Nobody imposed a “foreign” language on Ukraine. It was her choice, the choice of her citizens.

There are many Ukrainians who speak disparagingly about their language. Of course, there is nothing to praise them for. But there is nothing to blame Russia for. How many countries were part of the USSR? Do any of them complain about the imposed Russification? Many chose their native language as their official language. They managed to maintain respect for their roots. Why didn't Ukraine manage to do this?

3. Russia condemns the national heroes of Ukraine.

Throughout history, Ukrainian heroes fought against occupiers, defending their people and their land. Ukrainians also glorify those who once fought against Moscow. And Russia perceives these speeches as a manifestation of anti-Russian policy.

But Ukrainians have never accused Russia of anti-Ukrainian policies. Even when the Russians put down Peter the Great, who destroyed Zaporozhye. And Catherine, who again struck a blow at the Zaporozhye Sich and took care of the introduction of serfdom in Ukraine.

Counter argument

Ukrainians turned to history because this is the only thing on which their grievance is based. Someone pulls the strings, points out offensive moments. And the people are being “led” and demonstrating their hatred.

For some reason, Ukraine avoids the shameful historical events that took place in “its own garden.” Like every country. But Russia can remember who actually burned Khatyn. Even textbooks on this subject should be rewritten. There is a lot of historical research and evidence.

And what do historical events have to do with today’s situation? Why were Ukrainians silent about this before?

4. Russia took a piece of Ukraine.

We are talking about Crimea. There was even a note in the news that Ukraine had filed a lawsuit against Russia for this theft. And the current President confidently asserts that Crimea will still return to the “bosom of its state.”

Counter argument

The Crimeans themselves asked to come to Russia. And the elections that were held on this occasion were recognized by the West as legitimate. Therefore, there can be no complaints against Russia.

These are the kind of contradictory opinions that can be found on the Internet. Where the truth is, let everyone decide for themselves. Ardent opponents of Russia claim that there was never any friendship, there was no brotherly love. The Ukrainians beat the Russians more than once (Hetman Vyhovsky is remembered here), and more than once marched on Moscow in alliance with other nations. And the one who was still friends with a Russian person was not a real Ukrainian. That's so categorical. But is it fair? Is it reasonable?

Western Ukraine and the Russians: a tangled story.

How many theories do you know about why Russians are not very liked in Western Ukraine? If you look hard enough, you can find many explanations. Most of them differ from each other primarily in the flight of imagination of the authorsand the main villains, but it’s unlikely that any of them will be able to surpass theory about the Austrian General Staff.

In short, Austria wanted to weaken its dangerous neighbor, the Russian Empire, which became especially reasonable for Vienna during the First World War, when both countries were on opposite sides of the front line. And what could be better thought of than to undermine the foundations of the unity of the Romanov Empire - to quarrel"brotherly peoples" , the pillars on which the Russian state is based. Without thinking for long, the insidious Austrian General Staff began to implement a cunning plan and invented the Ukrainian language, Ukrainian culture, and the word “Ukraine” itself . True, history does not tell how the cunning Habsburgs managed to teach a language invented only yesterday to millions of people. And how it happened that this same language has been used for a long time in worship, in literature and folklore, no one explains either.

There are many similar pseudoscientific theories and all of them are good only upon superficial acquaintance. Ukraine and Ukrainians were “invented” by everyone and everything: Poles, Germans, Freemasons, Jews, Americans. But, however, always with one goal - to destroy Russia and quarrel “brotherly peoples”. Of course, they know nothing about these plans either in Warsaw, or in the Masonic lodges, or in Tel Aviv, Berlin or Washington. Ukrainians will also laugh at these theories - even their grandmothers’ grandmothers sang lullabies to their children in Ukrainian. Therefore, these stories can afford the luxury of claiming to be scientific only in one country.

Today, thousands of Russians travel to Western Ukraine on business and as tourists and, imagine, they return home safe and sound, and even take with them fresh positive impressions. But you can’t argue with the facts - according to opinion polls, it is in Western Ukraine that the largest number of people consider Russia to be an unfriendly state, it is here that the number of supporters of the EU and NATO is steadily growing, and it is here that nationalist parties with anti-Russian rhetoric have the greatest support. The situation was the same before the events of 2014.

So what's the deal? Why do Western Ukrainians “dislike” Russians so much? If you discard all pseudoscientific theories and arm yourself with facts, the reasons will seem much more prosaic than intricate fiction about the insidious Austrian General Staff. This issue is quite complex and one article will not be enough to cover all its problems. We'll try give simplified in presentation, but at the same time not answer that simplifies the facts.

To this end, we will briefly go through the history of Western Ukraine as part of Austria-Hungary, Poland and the USSR in search of an answer to the question of when and why the image of the Russians as an enemy was formed, with whom Western Ukraine had the most tense relations and why in 1939 Lviv met Red Army with flowers.

Western Ukraine within the Austrian Empire

The phenomenon of “Western Ukraine” in its modern borders appeared after the three divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the second half of the 18th century. Galicia, Northern Bukovina and Transcarpathia became part of the Austrian Empire, all other Ukrainian lands became part of Russia. This division was finally consolidated after the defeat of Napoleon in Europe and the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

At that time, the national identity of Ukrainians was just emerging. If you had a chance to ask a resident of Galicia who he is, you would hardly hear “Ukrainian.” Most likely “Rusyn” or “Uniate” or even “local”. Approximately the same would have happened in the rest of the territory of modern Ukraine (replace only “Uniate” with “Orthodox”). You will be surprised, but you would have heard something similar in Europe - in Germany, Italy and even France. Decades will pass before states build a unified education system and, accordingly, a national mythology.

It was much more difficult for Ukrainians, because they did not have a state and no one created a single national mythology. This was done by separate, multidirectional circles of intellectuals. The most influential were the Moquophiles (Russophiles) and the Narodniks (not to be confused with the Narodniks in the Russian Empire). Muscovophiles saw the future of Western Ukrainians in an alliance with Orthodox Russia, while Narodivists saw the future in Ukrainian (Rusyn) autonomy, which should be created in Galicia.

Both trends did not arise simultaneously. Muscovophiles have been active since the very beginning of X 9th century. Their ideas of unity with Orthodox Russia were understandable to the majority of the population, who then identified themselves primarily on religious grounds. Greek Catholicism, which was then professed by the majority of Ukrainians in Galicia and Bukovina, was opposed to the Catholicism of the Poles, and accordingly, sought support from Orthodoxy. Muscophiles even began a movement to de-Latinize the Greek Catholic Church in order to bring it as close as possible to the Orthodox Church.

But in the 1860s, a new movement began to gain popularity - the Narodovtsy. It appeared as a response to the activity of Muscovophiles and promoted completely different ideas. The Narodovites also advocated the unification of all Ukrainians in one state - independent Ukraine.

And here we cannot fail to mention another problem that Western Ukrainians immediately encountered. After all, not only they considered Galicia theirs; the Poles claimed their rights to it. And let’s say right away that the positions of the Poles were much stronger - after all, they made up the majority of the intelligentsia, the administrative apparatus, and in general, could boast of centuries-old state traditions.

Both Muscovophiles and Narodivists saw the Poles as their main opponents. The Poles could not allow either the annexation of Galicia to Russia, which the Muscovophiles demanded, or national Ukrainian autonomy, which the Narodivists sought. Therefore, a paradoxical, but at the same time logical situation arose: Western Ukrainians considered the enemy not the Austrians, as the main “enslavers,” but the Poles, with whom they essentially shared the same fate of a people without a state. For example, an indicative fact: during the so-called “Spring of Nations” in 1848, a revolution broke out throughout the Austrian Empire, the Poles Same began a national uprising in Galicia. Ukrainians behaved like a conservative force that advocated the preservation of the Austrian Empire. It is here that the roots of the theory about the Ukrainian nation as the brainchild of the Austrian General Staff grow. In fact, everything was much simpler - the Ukrainians could not allow the Poles to strengthen in Galicia and therefore supported a force that could restrain this strengthening.

The influence of the Poles increased even more after the transformation of the Austrian Empire into the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867 after defeat in the Austro-Prussian War. The monarchy weakened and the Polish aristocracy in Galicia took advantage of this, achieving the highest level of autonomy for the crown region. Of course, it was the Poles who played first fiddle in his political and economic life.

This led to the strengthening of the national movement of Ukrainians in Galicia. In the 1890s, the Populists created the majority of political parties. Muscophiles lost their popularity over time. Some compromised themselves with espionage and subversive activities paid for by Russia, others switched to Ukrainian national democratic positions. By the beginning of the First World War, the Populist movement, organized into political parties, dominated the political life of Western Ukrainians.

World War I

During the First World War, Muscovophiles again expanded their activity. True, now as an openly subversive trend of collaborationists, Austria-Hungary could well call them “invented by the Russian General Staff.” Created by Muscovophiles in August 1914, the “Carpatho-Russian Liberation Committee” openly campaigned for the surrender of Galicia to the Russian army, and during the occupation of the region by Russia in September 1914 – June 1915, it actively collaborated with the occupation authorities. After the Austro-German offensive in May-August 1915, the Muscovophiles were either interned in the Thalerhof camp by the Austro-Hungarian authorities or fled east along with the retreating Russian army.

But the best vaccine against Muscophilia in Galicia was the actual policy of the occupation authorities in 1914-1915.

Firstly, the Russians actively fought against the Greek Catholic Church. Local priests were removed from worship, arrested and expelled. In particular, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, was also expelled. In their place, Orthodox priests were sent from Russia, and church parishes were forcibly transferred to Orthodoxy. During the occupation in Galicia, from 86 to 113 priests of the Russian Orthodox Church worked in parishes.

Secondly, the practice of taking hostages has become common. Mainly representatives of the elite of society were taken hostage - bankers, entrepreneurs, cultural figures, and intellectuals. Most of them were accused of espionage and sent to the Russian hinterland to settle.

When the Russian army retreated, an order was issued to resettle the male population of Galicia to Russia so that men could not be mobilized into the Austro-Hungarian army. Although this measure could not be implemented on a large scale, more than 100 thousand men in 1915 ended up in the territory of Volyn, controlled by the Russian Empire.

Such a policy canIt does not seem very tough - for us, who from the course of history know about mass executions, concentration camps, gas chambers and other delights of totalitarian regimes. But for people in Western Ukraine in 1914, this was all new. Therefore, the majority of people have lost sympathy for the Russians.

Obviously, the Narodivtsy, who immediately supported Austria-Hungary from the beginning of the war, gained much greater favor with the Austrians, as well as popularity among the Galicians. The authorities allowed and welcomed the creation of Ukrainian national units (Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen). Here, too, the legs of the Russian propaganda myth about the Austrian General Staff are growing - they say they created an army of Galicians to fight against the “brotherly people”. In fact, the Austrians limited the patriotic zeal of Western Ukrainians. More than 10,000 Ukrainians responded to the call of the people from the Main Ukrainian Rada to form the Legion, but it was allowed to create a unit of only 2,500 people. Once again, the Poles interfered, using all their influence in the empire to limit the size of the “Ukrainian army.”

The Sichovykh Riflemen Legion successfully fought at the front and never experienced a shortage of volunteers to make up for losses. In July 1917, in the battle near Konyukhi, the Legion, almost in its entirety, was captured. Paradoxically, this defeat opened a new page in the glorious history of the Streltsy - namely, their participation in the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917 - 1921.

Ukrainian revolution

In February 1917, a revolution broke out in Petrograd. The people are tired of constant shortages, unnecessary deaths and impoverishment. Emperor Nicholas II abdicated the throne, power was in the hands of the provisional government.

But the paradox was that the revolution, which began as a protest against the war, did not put an end to the war itself.In July, Russia's last great offensive in World War I began, named after the head of the Provisional Government, the “Kerensky Offensive.”. It was during this offensive that the Sich Riflemen were captured.

At this time, a revolution also began in Kyiv, but with a national tint. In March, the Ukrainian Central Rada began its work under the leadership of history professor Mikhail Grushevsky. The leaders of the Rada were very careful in their ambitions - they did not fight for an independent Ukrainian state, but only for the national-territorial autonomy of Ukrainians as part of a “democratic federal Russia”. They also decided not to create a Ukrainian army - they were going to live in peace with Russia. Separate armed detachments from former front-line soldiers were created with great difficulty by the strength of enthusiasts.

History has punished the Central Rada for this mistake. In October 1917, the Bolsheviks came to power under the slogan “Freedom for the peoples!” begin to build a new empire. In December, the Reds captured Kharkov and proclaimed the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic - with an eye on all of Ukraine.

But let's return to the Sich Riflemen. After the proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic in November 1917, Western Ukrainian prisoners of war were released and they formed the Galician-Bukovinian kuren of the Sich Riflemen. Since December, he found his permanent commander - Yevgeny Konovalets, who providedsupply, training and ideological spirit of the archers.

It was the policy of the Central Rada that led to the fact that the small kuren (about 400 people) was almost the most combat-ready unit in the Ukrainian army in January 1918 . They resisted the Reds, who were advancing on Kyiv, suppressed the Bolshevik rebellion in Kyiv, and guarded the Central Rada after the evacuation from the capital.

After the hetman's coup in April 1918, Konovalets and many streltsy went underground and returned to the arena of the Ukrainian revolution only in November, under the banners of the Army Directory of the UPR. They remained faithful to it until the final defeat of the Ukrainian revolution in 1921.

Meanwhile, a revolution was also brewing in Galicia. In October 1918, it was clear to everyone that Germany and Austria-Hungary would lose the war. Everywhere in the empire, national movements arose in support of the independence of their peoples from Austria. The Ukrainians were no exception either - in November, the centurion of the Sich Riflemen Vitovsky with a small detachment captured key buildings in Lviv, hanging a yellow-blue flag. The same thing happened in other large cities of Western Ukraine. The Western Ukrainian People's Republic (WUNR) was proclaimed, which was supposed to extend to the territory of Galicia and Northern Bukovina.

But again the Poles interfered. They began actively building their state, and of course did not forget about Galicia, which they considered theirs. After stubborn resistance, the Ukrainian Galician Army, and with it the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, was defeated until June 1919. The military retreated across the Zbruch River, where they joined the UPR Army, which was then fighting off the Bolsheviks and Whites.

The Ukrainian Galician Army managed to fight both in alliance with the Ukrainian People's Republic (July-November 1919), and together with the whites of A. Denikin (November 1919 - January 1920), and even as part of the Red Army (January - April 1920). But there was never any alliance with the Poles - until the end of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917-1921, the Galicians considered the Poles their main enemy. Warsaw anti-Bolshevik Pact between the leader of the UPR Symon Petliura andHead of the Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthGalicians perceived Józef Pilsudski as treason on the part of Kyiv.

Second Polish Republic

The First World War was not only the last gasp of the four great empires - Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, German and Russian - but also gave birth to new countries. This fate did not spare the Poles, who had long dreamed of their own state. In 1918, one of the points of the Paris Peace Conference, at which the fate of the post-war world was decided, provided for the creation of a Polish state - the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

But the creation of new countries then raises one of the most painful issues for all states – the issue of borders. It was, of course, necessary to take advantage of the unique historical moment and gain as many territories as possible in the chaos that reigned then. And given the fact that especially the border lands in Europe are ethnically heterogeneous, there were more than enough reasons to seize part of the territories from a neighboring state.

The first head of the revived Poland, Józef Pilsudski, also understood this, saying that the borders of Poland in the West depended on the decisions of the Entente (the coalition led by France and Great Britain that won the First World War), and the borders in the East depended on Warsaw itself s. As a result, the Poles defeated the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, repelled the Bolshevik offensive and consolidated their position in these lands, as they thought, forever.

Western Ukrainians found themselves in new political realities - now they are citizens of Poland, and the capital of their new homeland is Warsaw. But not only Ukrainians found themselves hostage to the Polish dream of their own state, since 30% of the population of Poland were not Poles - 15% were Ukrainians, and the remaining 15% included Belarusians, Germans, Lithuanians, etc. Taking these facts into account, the national question in the Second The Polish Republic, of course, could not but be relevant.

Officially in Poland, the right of Ukrainians to realize their interests through local governments was secured, and the rights of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Ukrainian language were also guaranteed. But it never came to fruition. And although Poland in the early 1920s. and seemed outwardly to be a democratic state, one of the leitmotifs of its national policy was the assimilation of the Ukrainian population.

It all started in 1921 with the adoption of the Constitution, which did not provide for national minorities the scope of rights and freedoms that they initially expected. A year later, parliamentary elections were to take place, which almost all Ukrainian parties, as well as the clergy, called for a boycott. The Polish government saw this as nothing more than subversive activities of Soviet Ukraine and began to zealously arrest Ukrainian politicians.

The aggressiveness of Polish policy towards Western Ukraine is explained primarily by Warsaw’s uncertainty in its ability to retain these territories, the population of which until recently fought with those who are now their government. The situation really did not develop towards a peaceful scenario. The policy of polonization (implantation of Polish culture and language) and the distribution of land in regions with a predominant Ukrainian population to Polish military personnel caused protests among the Ukrainian population, including against military service.

But against the backdrop of worsening Polish-Ukrainian relations and with the direct support of the USSR, the Communist Party of Western Ukraine (KPZU) operated in Poland. Sympathy for the Soviet Union and the idea of ​​joining the USSR enjoyed good popularity in the 20s, but almost completely disappeared after news of forced collectivization, mass repressions and the Holodomor in the Ukrainian SSR. And the leaders of the KPZU themselves were later almost all recalled to the USSR and sentenced to death on trumped-up cases.

But it was not the communists alone who presented the ideas of resistance to the Poles - Ukrainian nationalist organizations began to emerge in Poland, as well as in neighboring Czechoslovakia and Austria. For example, in 1920, the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO) was created in Prague, headed by Yevgeny Konovalets, the core of which was made up of former Sich Riflemen. The organization was engaged in sabotage and subversive activities and political assassinations, which included an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Jozef Pilsudski. As a response, 5 thousand people were arrested and the authorities began to pursue the so-called “pacification” policy, searching Ukrainian villages in search of “UVO militants.” In response to these actions, the nationalists switched to tactics of individual terror, emphasizing both their anti-Polish and anti-Bolshevik orientation.

For example, the assassination attempt by OUN member M. Lemik on Soviet consulate employee O. Mailov was widely publicized - the former’s goal was to protest during the trial against the Soviet Union’s hushing up of an artificial famine in Ukraine.

But the OUN was not the only one that represented the political interests of Ukrainians. For example, the most popular was the Ukrainian National Democratic Association (UNDO) of anti-communist and democratic persuasion, which set as its goal the creation of a Ukrainian state, but rejected violence as a method of achieving goals. However, the actions of both Ukrainians and Poles only inflamed an already difficult situation, making it even more difficult through attempts to enlist the support of external players. The potential for conflict increased, and the positions of both sides became more and more radical.

Long live the power of the Soviets

On September 1, 1939, German troops invade Poland from the West, and 17 days later the Red Army invades the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the East. The young Polish state, which barely had time to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, found itself squeezed between a rock and a hard place.

But what was a tragedy for the Poles was not without reason considered by the Ukrainians of Poland as a new historical chance, which fate does not often like to throw away. A month after the start of hostilities, they already found themselves in new political realities that could change, as it seemed then, their lives for the better.

Today this may seem like a fantastic scenario, but Lvov welcomed the Red Army with joy. Twenty years of extremely difficult relations with the Poles and the arrival of “brothers and Soviet Ukraine” created an atmosphere of hope for long-awaited changes for the better, although most of the intelligentsia were extremely skeptical about this turn of events.

The music played for a while

The euphoria passed quickly. Stage one – culture shock. The unkempt-looking “liberators,” who found themselves outside the USSR for the first time, greedily bought goods that were in short supply in the Union, causing justifiable surprise to the local population. Not only “capitalists hostile to the working class,” but also ordinary people suffered from expropriation and frequent cases of robbery; and the public use of night "ducks" by the families of Soviet officers as containers for milk and nighties as evening dresses became the talk of the town throughout the occupied territory.

Stage two is the legalization of annexation. Of course, it was necessary to cement the new borders with the will of the local population, which the Soviet regime always did well. On October 22, 1939, elections were held in which, according to official statistics, 93% of the population took part and 91% supported the proposed candidates.

The formed People's Assembly of Western Ukraine unanimously thanked Stalin for the “liberation” and turned to the First Secretary of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Nikita Khrushchev with a request to officially include the territory of Western Ukraine into the Ukrainian SSR.

Stage three – repression. The first to be deported were former Polish officials and police officers. One of the most famous events for its tragedy occurred in the spring of 1940 - in the forest near Katyn (Smolensk region), the NKVDists shot more than 20,000 Polish soldiers.

The turn of the Ukrainians came: the activities of organizations not controlled by the councils were stopped, political parties were liquidated, and all those who, in the opinion of the Bolsheviks, could pose any danger were persecuted. The only major political force in opposition to the Bolsheviks remained the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, which was forced to go underground.

There is no trace left of past gratitude to the “liberators.” Prisons were filled at a rapid pace, forced collectivization was carried out, death sentences were imposed, and in less than two years hundreds of thousands of people were taken to Siberia - the exact number of their victims is not known to this day. The details of Stalin's repressions began to be investigated back in the 80s, when a mass grave of NKVD victims was discovered near Kiev near the village of Bykivnya. But even today no one will say for sure how many were killed then, or how many of these “Bykiven” are located throughout Ukraine.

The arrival of the Germans

Soviet power in Western Ukraine did not last long - just two years later, on June 22, 1941, the Third Reich attacked its former ally, with whose help it had recently redrawn the borders of European states. A few weeks later, Western Ukraine was completely occupied by the Wehrmacht. At first, many Ukrainians greeted the Germans with joy - even before the Third Reich attacked the USSR, thousands of people were forced to flee from Western Ukraine to Nazi-occupied Poland. In addition, Ukrainian nationalists pinned their hopes on the Germans for the revival of the Ukrainian state and initially saw them as allies in the fight against the communists and Poles.

On June 30, 1941, the German Nachtigal battalion, consisting mainly of Ukrainian nationalists, took Lviv together with Wehrmacht units. On the same day, the Act of Restoration of Ukrainian Statehood was proclaimed on Market Square in the presence of the general public and church representatives. But these plans ran counter to the German vision of the future of Ukraine, and therefore, already on July 5, many OUN leaders, including Stepan Bandera, were arrested and some were shot.

The Germans gave a clear signal that the creation of a Ukrainian state, even a union one, is not part of their plans. When Nachtigal learned about the arrest of the OUN leaders, the military demanded their release, for which the battalion was recalled from the front to the rear, and was soon disbanded. The future commander-in-chief of the UPA, Roman Shukhevych, managed to avoid arrest, and most of the Nachtigal soldiers later formed the backbone of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).

So, in 1941 it became clear that neither the Poles, nor the communists, nor the Nazis promised anything good for the Ukrainians. However, hopes for an independent state still smoldered. There were also people ready to fight for them. Repressions against the civilian population by the German occupation administration led to the creation of local self-defense units, whose No. 1 enemy was the Nazis.

The process of creating armed units to fight the Germans was led by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. From disparate groups in Volyn and Galicia, self-defense units began to be created, which united in 1943 into the UPA known to us. Before the Bolsheviks came to these lands, the UPA took part mainly in battles with the Nazis, setting itself the goal of complicating, and ideally ending, the exploitation of Ukrainian villages by the Germans.

With the transition of the territories of Western Ukraine under the control of the USSR, the UPA switched to the fight against the communists, who again showed the local population what deportations, collectivization and mass repressions were. The memory of the recent crimes of the Bolsheviks rallied thousands of people in the UPA, ready to prevent at any cost a repetition of the tragedy of 1939-41. The rebels organized acts of sabotage, and they targeted everyone who collaborated with the Bolsheviks - heads of village councils, workers of district party committees, local activists and others. And the support of the local population for the actions of the UPA and their general hatred of the Bolsheviks made life significantly more difficult for the occupiers.

To combat the rebels, special groups of the NKVD were created, the so-called agent combat groups (ABG). The main tactics of the ABG was to carry out provocative actions under the guise of the UPA - disguised NKVDists killed people, looted and burned houses in order to discredit the insurgent movement.

What now?

After World War II, Germany underwent a full course of denazification - the Nuremberg trials and subsequent trials punished Nazi criminals, in the post-war years, democracy was instilled in the Germans in every possible way, and the German economic miracle was one of the proofs that economic progress does not require the strong hand of a dictator. To prevent a relapse into dictatorship, the German Constitution even included Article 20, which enshrines the right of Germans to rebel against a government that is destroying the democratic foundations of Germany. The payment of reparations to the injured parties once again showed an admission of guilt and demonstrated a desire to somehow atone for it, and the apogee of this policy was, of course, gesture personally affected his from the Nazis in German Wow Chancellor Willy Brandt , who knelt in front of the monument to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. Thanks, among other things, to repentance and atonement, Germany today is associated primarily with progress and economic power, and not with the terrible events of World War II.

A more ambiguous situation has developed today in Ukrainian-Polish relations. If we do not take into account the openly biased and radical positions of some both Polish and Ukrainian historians, who blame exclusively the other side for all troubles, Ukraine and Poland as a whole manage to take the path of reconciliation, although so far without any particular results. Also in In the second half of the 90s, a symbolic reconciliation of the two peoples was carried out by the then presidents Kuchma and Kwasniewski, But At the personal level of perception of the conflict, this changed little. Today, after a many-year break, the dialogue between the Ukrainian and Polish Institutes of National Memory has resumed regarding the most acute and controversial aspects of bilateral relations. After all, objective history is history written by two sides.

A completely different situation has developed with Russia. Neither Beria nor Stalin are alive now, and the Soviet Union has collapsed. But, unfortunately, imperial thinking, imperial mythology, pain for the “lost power” and rehabilitation of the killers of millions of people not only live in today’s Russia, but are also successfully cultivated. Realizing that part of the population of Ukraine did not find a new identity after the collapse of the Union, the Russian propaganda machine began to offer them its own, imposing myths about the “three fraternal peoples,” “holy Rus'” and the “Russian world.” This matter cannot be done without creating an image of the enemy - “decaying West”, “aggressive NATO”, “vile State Department”. At the Ukrainian level, the top three “enemies” include Mazepa, Petlyura and, of course, Bandera. And the stronghold of all these “alien and hostile” ideas to Ukrainians is Western Ukraine, which has learned the tragic lesson of the 20th century better than all other parts of our country. about our Russian “brothers” and certainly said goodbye to her Soviet past earlier than others. And while we are trying to find ourselves in this new world, in Moscow they are talking about the aggressiveness of Lvov while the “little green men” are occupying Crimea. By shelling the cities and villages of Donbass, Western Ukrainians in Russia are called Banderaites, fascists and Russophobes. And “mourning those killed in the civil war in Ukraine” a new column of Grads is being sent from Moscow across the border. It's all so Russian.

Subconscious hatred towards Ukrainians.
A little story from a Luhansk village.

There is a well-known expression by Vinnichenko that“where the Ukrainian question begins, the Russian democrat disappears”. Nobody ever asked the question, why is this?

I made an interesting conclusion about this after one conversation with a guy by training as a historian, who was on his way from the ATO to visit his wife and small child in Kyiv... He told me an interesting story from a village in the Lugansk region. He went to buy milk from one very old woman, who was well over 80 years old. He went to her specifically, because she was furious towards our military, but money was still not superfluous to her, so she sold milk to those whom she really sincerely hated.

This grandmother herself is from Russia. She was brought to the village as a very small child by her parents, who were purposefully resettled there by the Soviet government. They were resettled to a village where more than 90 percent of the peasants died of starvation during the Holodomor. The Russians were settled in the very houses where whole families of Ukrainian peasants lived and died of hunger. And this old woman fiercely hated everything Ukrainian, because she understood that once upon a time her parents were given what belonged to Ukrainians. They did it like marauders. They stole it from those they killed.

Is that why this old woman had such a subconscious hatred for those who can be considered the descendants of the dead Ukrainian peasants? This hatred is based on the fear of exposing a crime that was once committed.

We observe the same thing at the subconscious level of the vast majority of Russians. They understand that their great-great-grandfathers once stole the history, the name of the people - everything that is the basis of the nation - from the Ukrainians. And therefore there is such hatred towards everything Ukrainian, rejection of Ukrainian traditions, language, cultural heritage.

Russians understand that their great-great-grandfathers once stole the history, the name of the people - everything that is the basis of the nation - from the Ukrainians. And that’s why there is such hatred towards everything Ukrainian, rejection of Ukrainian traditions, language, cultural heritage.

After all, if we admit that all this was stolen, then it will become clear that most of what Russians declare to be “originally Russian” does not belong to them. They stole it with extreme cunning and cruelty from certain peoples. This is the hatred of villains who are afraid that one day they will come and call a crime a crime, and what is stolen is stolen.

It is not for nothing that one can so often hear from quite intelligent Russians the emotional opinion that the issue is not in Ukraine or the Ukrainians at all, whom they have never recognized on a subconscious level as a separate nation. The question now is in Russia itself. Having recognized Ukraine and the Ukrainians, we will have to admit that they are the descendants of those who lived in Kievan Rus - Ukraine. And then the whole concept of the “Russian world” falls apart. They really don't have anything of their own. Everything was stolen from someone.

Having recognized Ukraine and the Ukrainians, we will have to admit that they are the descendants of those who lived in Kievan Rus - Ukraine. And then the whole concept of the “Russian world” falls apart. They really don't have anything of their own. Everything was stolen from someone.

Therefore, the fate of the Russian Empire is really being decided now. If Ukrainians retain their statehood, then the final collapse of this prison of nations is only a matter of time. Moreover, I am sure that we are not even talking about decades. This question has been around for a few years.

My name is Maya. I am a born Ukrainian - that’s what Muscovites call me. I don’t like Russians, and now I’ll tell you why.

The Russian people, especially residents of the capital, feel arrogant bitterness towards visitors.

We crests speak with a characteristic accent that irritates Muscovites.

Why should we love Russians if they almost consider us occupiers?

I came from Ukraine to work.

Having got a job I didn’t like, I started working in business, claiming a high salary.

Yes, you finally understand that a rented apartment, for which you have to pay, costs about 30,000 rubles every month.

Thus, you have to earn twice as much.

Most of all, I don’t like Russians because they have ceased to be Slavs.

I’m really telling you that it wasn’t because of a good life that I had to leave my father and mother.

I’m not used to complaining, but Russian residents of the capital, especially grannies, humiliate me, calling me “a burry little Ukrainian.”

Not long ago I met a guy. He is Russian, but never emphasizes his nationality.

I fell in love with him, beginning to understand that all people are different, and we are still a “big family”: Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians.

But his parents, as soon as they found out that I was a Ukrainian, immediately “ringed the bells.”

What did I not hear?

She's arriving. She only needs an apartment from you. She doesn't love you. crests are all very cunning. Even the Jews are “fools”.

Dear mother, have the Russian people really changed that much?!

Why should I love them if I hear reproaches at every step?

There was no such chaos under the USSR.

Ideology, even if it was enforced, taught us to respect and value any person.

Lord, how tired I am of the nickname “Khokhlushka”.

The Ukrainian people are a very hardworking nation, which differs from the Russians by their “mustaches and cowards.”

My story is quite typical.

I broke up with my boyfriend, or rather, we were divorced.

I work seven days a week as a trader for Caucasians.

Even they do not allow themselves to show dislike - which cannot be said about Muscovites.

And I’m ready to swear that I don’t like Russians only because they, too, are hostile to the talkative Ukrainian accent.

Maya Bogdanovna.

Dear site readers!

I urge you not to incite national hatred and adequately assess the objective reality.

This publication reflects a single opinion, which should not become a manual on the Ukrainian issue.

The story of the girl’s life was prepared by me, Edwin Vostryakovsky.

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Number of reviews: 28

Hello, dear girl! My name is Anastasia. It’s not that I’m Ukrainian, but I live not far from the border (9 km). I have a typical Ukrainian surname, and, in fact, I speak with a Ukrainian accent (in my hometown they talk a lot, especially grannies). There are times when I forget how some words sound in Russian and automatically pronounce them in Ukrainian. Now I’m studying in a fairly large city, and you know, I don’t have any problems with any kind of harassment about my accent. The guys from our group, on the contrary, like it. They ask to teach. And not one person spoke about me with any malice. Now I’m dating a boy who is Russian to the roots of his hair. And it’s okay, we have a good relationship, we don’t quarrel. He likes the way I talk and often says that he misses my “talk.” Like this.))

Why are you still here? Go to Europe... I think everyone there will love you... But the fact that intelligent people are irritated by the dialect, there’s no getting around it... And the fact that you’re just a guest of the capital here, who is brazenly indignant that, they say, they don’t like... Yes , I don’t like newcomers, because the mentality and culture are different, everyone always owes them everything, they are always poor and dissatisfied, they press for pity... You need to behave more modestly, since you have come to a foreign land! I don’t have enough pride and self-esteem to go home, but I have the nerve to demand love and respect here! Be glad that you are tolerated here at all, and there is also an opportunity to earn money, girl Maya... from Ukraine... with a dialect... The kindness and hospitality of Russians should not be abused... and put the pig at the table, she and her legs on the table. This will not work here... because Russians, although smart, are far from stupid... and they can put a pig at the table only out of the kindness of their hearts - and then only for the time being...

Julia writes:

Maya, if you feel so bad in Moscow, go back, or to a place where everyone will love you and you will feel good.

Hello Julia.

I beg you not to become bitter, considering the entire Ukrainian people as occupiers.

Everyone has enough impudence. I’m telling you this as a native resident of the capital.

It happened that I was traveling on public transport, and a crest, not a Muscovite, gave up his seat to a decrepit old woman.

Let me thank you for leaving a comment, despite its categorical and extremely dissatisfied judgment.

Let's live in peace!

I’ll also put in my 2 cents. My brother is married to a Ukrainian woman. So, she constantly bullies me with her ridicule towards Muscovites, i.e. She's taking it out on me, it's like she's joking. And he often remembers his Bandera grandfather. I try not to conflict, to take it as a joke, but now where I live, a lot of Ukrainians have come. And to be honest, don’t close or gag our mouths, otherwise the administrator doesn’t like it if they write the truth and behave frankly arrogantly. At the savings bank: we stand in line - no, I found one
smarter than others, he began to jump in line. I went outside and heard him say: I told you so, they hate us...

In the summer, refugees were settled in a children's boarding school. Summer has passed, the children are returning. They are offered work with housing, but in other regions, in return, go yourself, but we are fine here too. The salaries are small, less than 40-50 thousand - and we won’t go there. The situation at the Federal Migration Service: a young couple applies for a temporary residence permit. She’s fine, he’s missing some documents. I’m so upset, I’m buying housing here with my own money, although you promised to give us an apartment for free, and you’re not even giving us a temporary residence permit!

One woman collected her things, washed them, ironed them, and took them to the reception center. So, in her words, 2 Ukrainians looked and said: no one here will wear this. Give me some money, I'll buy myself boots. Everyone will probably draw conclusions according to their upbringing. And there are many, too many. Say thank you for being patient!

Elena writes:

... The administrator doesn’t like it if they write the truth...

Your comment has been added successfully.

As for the truth, I fear hostility, not straightforward feedback.

If this page is recognized as resonant and provoking ethnic hatred, our site will be blocked to hell.

I, like you, am a supporter of true interpretations, and I myself often become a witness to what you wrote about.

Thank you for your comment, Elena.

I really hope it won't be the last.

Good luck!

Alexander writes:

I work in the center of Moscow at the Bank on Arbat. My wife is Ukrainian by nationality, and I am Russian. My wife is a citizen of Ukraine, and I am a citizen of Russia. We are happy. We have no problems with changing citizenship. I can take Ukrainian citizenship, and she can take Russian citizenship. My wife communicates with me in her native Ukrainian language, which I like, and I do not dissuade her from such communication. I speak Russian with her. We understand each other perfectly. And in public places she speaks Ukrainian. Nobody in Moscow pays attention to her Ukrainian dialect. Just as they don’t pay attention when Kyrgyz, Tatars, Tajiks, Azerbaijanis, Ossetians, etc. talk to each other. Russian people are very kind. Russia is a multinational country in which there is no difference between “Khokhol” and “Katsap” - everyone is equal. There are people, like other peoples, who are ill-mannered... to whom you should not pay attention...

Alexander, it’s nice to hear such stories about people who are not bothered by national differences. But the text of “Maya Bogdanovna” itself evokes conflicting feelings.

Why does she love Russians? - because she makes a living in Russia. Who brings money to her employer, from which her salary is paid?

About the accent. Only for this reason – not everyone experiences hostility. I also live and work in Moscow, not far from Arbat. I was born here. I’m used to being around people who speak with an accent. Personally, Ukrainian speech doesn’t irritate me; it doesn’t bother me if someone nearby “shocks” and “ghaks.”

There is no need to label all Muscovites as “Ukrainophobes because of their accent...”

Many people now regret the USSR. Why was it destroyed in 1991, why did they unanimously vote for the independence of the republics? The train of brotherhood of peoples has left. All that was left was one of our own people and all the other strangers, of varying degrees of relatedness.

So Maya Bogdanovna is a foreigner in a foreign city and a foreign country, not very happy with life. If it gets really bad, you can go home – to Ukraine.



Yes, I know one too. They took him to serve in the Sverdlovsk region. I cried on the phone - mom, take me away from here. I don’t want to offend anyone.. But the majority there is a disgrace to the nation. And all of Russia works for them.

Igor comments:

Girl, you don’t know Muscovites. I'm from Russia myself. From the Samara region. So they are not only talking about foreigners - they have come in large numbers. But also about Russians from other cities.

And all of Russia works for them.

But I am a native Muscovite and I am proud of it, just as a normal person is proud of his hometown, no matter where it is.
I definitely don’t consider myself a disgrace to the nation, nor do I consider my friends and relatives.
That they came in large numbers to Moscow is really enough, if everyone rushed to Samara, you would also scream.
You say, feed us, I wonder what? Isn't it Samara's budget? So you are a subsidized area, they are pouring it into you, and Moscow is pouring huge amounts of money into the country’s budget!
You will also remember the sausage that we supposedly ate all of from you.

Sorry, but a very stupid and angry comment.

Good luck to everyone, regardless of nationality, by the way, not only Russian blood flows in me, but also Polish and Bessarabian, and my husband is half Mordvin.
I wonder who our son is - well, the one who is his mother’s boy, and indeed his mother’s, and also his father’s, which is what I wish for all children.

Igor comments:

So don’t judge all Russians by Moscow. And they are not loved anywhere.

Of course they don't like it. They suffer from a provincial inferiority complex, from envy and do not love. Moscow is wow, they will gnaw their own throats out, they will stand up like crazy and turn themselves inside out to stay here if such an opportunity even glimmers. And Moscow has become like one continuous bazaar, because half of Moscow is “guests of the capital.” At one time, on a trip to England, members of the group from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (Russians at that) didn’t like me - they didn’t like me, they plucked me for any reason, like geese, they told me about Moscow (I don’t know it), and then before leaving they started begging for the phone: “You come to us, we come to you”...

Madam, no one has yet canceled such a concept as the Federal Budget. At your leisure, read how it is formed and how funds are redistributed. You are a Muscovite, the “COLOR” of the nation, such basic things should be known to you!!!

Once they separated, that means they went through the forest! They gained independence, quickly squandered everything, squandered it, and now Russia owes them! Put yourself in order - and live!

And, the question arises, why are you coming to us? We Muscovites are such bastards! Well, just sit at home! Everyone is fine, no one will be indignant! What's the problem?

No, well, really, give me an answer: For what purpose are you coming to Russia? To earn money? But everything is fine with you! Soon you will join the European Union, and then, lo and behold, you will join NATO! Is it logical?

Good afternoon

Let's talk about painful things.

I agree with Maya, in general there are such ideas about Ukrainians, and even if few say so, many think so.

But knowing people from Ukraine and other CIS countries, in my opinion, they are more competent workers, skillfully cope with the tasks assigned to them, and moreover, they think more deeply, hospitable and simply JOYFUL, despite all the adversities!

Now I am a citizen of the Russian Federation, but I am proud that I did not grow up here in Russia, namely in Ukraine...

Sergey comments:

Why do I love you, excuse me?

For all! We're awesome!)

Lena comments:

Sergey comments:

Why do I love you, excuse me?

For all! We're awesome!)

Rather, cunning ones, forgive me.

Let's live in peace!?

And this is possible, after everything they did in 2014.

I mean crests, not Ukrainians, here you need to be able to separate.

And what we see now: we have all this rags to earn money.

I am from Murmansk myself, and do you know what I hear from these scourges in my city?

They go and insult people.

What the hell is it like to live in harmony, what did they do with the people in Donbass, it may remind you of what slogans they had during the torchlight processions in honor of Bandera.

Unlike them, we never called for the destruction of Ukrainians.

But after all this, they still have the audacity to come to the “occupiers”, behave vilely and be surprised that they are not loved.

Yes, Muscovites are not to blame.

Propaganda and television make them latent.

Uncle Vova pushed through Ksyushka and that one, and he’ll push in all the spineless ones in the same way.

The question is this.

Do today's thinking, analyzing citizens of Russia have a backbone?

Khokhlushka from the first story, why the hell did you come to Russia?

It’s better to sit in your Ukraine and chew lard.

I believe that Russians, and especially Muscovites, are disliked out of envy and an inferiority complex.

This is a projection of one's own feelings.

I came to the capital from a regional southern city, having married a Muscovite.

At first, people seemed distrustful and tough to me.

But as they say: “they don’t go to someone else’s monastery with their own rules,” so I tried to understand Muscovites and get used to people.

It turns out that they are absolutely adequate people.

And there is no point in being offended by them, because no one likes evil and envious people.

So Maya needs to treat the owners of the city or country with respect and peace, and in return she will receive the same.

Pride in communications hinders everyone.

It would be nice for Maya to imagine that a Muscovite comes to (to) Ukraine and demands to love him)))

And then what will happen to him?

I completely agree with you!!!

If this person had tried to come, for example, to France or Germany, then she would have felt all the “rosiness” of Europe, with all the certificates, taxes, and problems with employment.

Julia comments:

Maya, if you feel so bad in Moscow, go back, or to a place where everyone will love you and you will feel good.

• Khokhlushka is my cousin. You don't have to go far.

  She came to us in another city with 1 suitcase.

  My parents fed her, gave her water, welcomed her, then she got to her feet - no answer, no greetings, no birthday congratulations.

  And all the time she collected gossip about me, the envy was incredible.

  I haven’t talked to her for a long time, and I’m very glad about it!

  In my opinion, they all build their relationships only for profit.

  We still need to look for people like Ukrainians.

  They look where it is profitable and profitable.

  They just got used to complaining.

  Ungrateful, gossipers, brawlers.

  And after I worked with them, I think that they should live at home - in their native and beloved country.

  I’m probably off topic, but since we’re talking about interethnic relations, I want to express my deep gratitude to the Kyrgyz people.

  I was simply blown away by their openness and constant readiness to engage in dialogue.

  Like everyone else, there are some embittered ones, but in general, in their wonderful Issyk-Kul, the atmosphere of “friendliness” was constant.

  It was a shock for me: when buying apricots, they gave a handful for FREE.

  In our corrupt world, this is aerobatics.

  crests, you will still answer for Donbass!

  And I have a whole story. I transferred money to a girl in Ukraine so that she could come and live with me.

  Every time I translated, she found the reason: I was robbed, customs didn’t let me through in Belgorod. And why should I love them?

  I earn money honestly.

  He sued her. And the girl insolently writes that I didn’t transfer anything to her. But the data remained, and the correspondence too. And our communication via video.

  As many times as I have encountered Ukrainian women, they have always turned out to be, to put it mildly, not very good women, first: gossip!

  They know everything about everyone, what does it have to do with it, even if they arrived in the city a year ago, secondly, they are all geared towards someone giving them something, they really love freebies, thirdly, if a man is a little they fell for it, then that’s it, he ended up being married to her.

  Moreover, they can have a huge number of marriages, they do not disdain anything.

  Girl, you don’t know Muscovites. I'm from Russia myself. From the Samara region. So they are not only talking about foreigners - they have come in large numbers. But also about Russians from other cities.
  So don’t judge all Russians by Moscow. And they are not loved anywhere. A work colleague of mine fought in Afghanistan and told me that they were mama’s boys, from Moscow.
  Yes, I know one too. They took him to serve in the Sverdlovsk region. I cried on the phone - mom, take me away from here. I don't want to offend anyone. But the majority there is a disgrace to the nation. And all of Russia works for them.

  I don’t know where you found mama’s boys and what each friend told you. I myself served in Afghanistan and my call sign was Moscow and it always sounded proud. And I saw plenty of schmoozers from the village.

Photos from open sources

- Barrymore, what's that noise under the window?

- Prostitutes are on strike, sir!

- What do they require?

- Salary increase, sir.

-Are they not paid enough?

- A lot, sir.

- So why are they not happy?

- Fuck, sir!

This classic of the anecdote genre can be transferred to the question “Why are Western Ukrainians unhappy with Russians?” But the answer of an anecdote cannot be transferred to the answer to a question. Westerners do not like Muscovites not because they are like prostitutes, to whom no matter how good you do them, they do not remember anything and will not be happy with anything. To understand the issue you need to look deeper.

There is a good joke about preferences.

- Question: “Why doesn’t the camel eat cotton wool?”

- Answer: “Because he doesn’t love her.”

Westerners don't like Russians. Like a camel watu. Why?

The answer is simple and known to everyone.

Western Ukraine - the girl everyone used.

For 500 years, the lands of Western Ukraine were alternately under the rule of Polish, Hungarian, Austrian, German, and Romanian occupiers.

When the Russians came to Western Ukraine in 1939, the locals perceived it as another change of occupier.

History tells us that already in the time of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Ukrainian nationalism was the dominant element of the political consciousness of the people living in the South-West of the territory of Muscovite Rus'. All European enemies of Rus' used this factor as a given, making it easier for them to carry out the war with Russia. The hostility of the local population towards the Russians, who were subjects of the Moscow Tsars, made it possible to use the Little Russians as natural allies of all the conquerors of Russia.

The OUN is a radical organization of Ukrainian nationalists whose goal is to achieve the state independence of Ukraine from all countries by any means - and from Russia in the first place as the main threat to its independence. The OUN emerged in the late 1920s. It is clear that the OUN viewed situational alliances with all of Russia’s enemies as a useful resource in its struggle. It is also clear that the nationalists understood that they were pawns in the fight against Russia for more powerful states. But they consider this situation temporary and understand that if not the Poles, Germans or Americans, then the Russians. Since the threat from the Russians is stronger, the Ukrainians prefer everyone who is currently against the Russians. After the defeat of the Russians, Ukrainians believe, the time will come to fight yesterday's allies. The ultimate goal is a completely independent Ukraine.

Ukrainian nationalists are not stupid people. The most implacable, sophisticated and experienced organized force the Russians have ever faced in their struggle for security and control of the country's territory. The OUN members played against Russia at the level of the powerful intelligence services of Western countries: both because they were fueled by them, and because of their own motives and resources. Considering that Soviet Russia ultimately lost the war to the OUN, it can be said that Russians still harbor illusions about the idea of ​​fraternal relations with Ukraine and its nationalist population.

The more clearly the Russians understand that in the Ukrainians they have an implacable and fierce enemy, disciplined, motivated and capable of fighting in the most effective way - that is, the most vile and most cruel, the better they will understand where they are constantly losing to the Ukrainians. The war of Ukrainians against Russians is of a partisan nature, and it is impossible to win a partisan war using the methods of a regular army. Russia is not yet making a transition to a retaliatory guerrilla war against Ukraine. The only enclave where the guerrilla war against Ukraine was waged with Russian support is Donbass. And this is where Russia won. However, the GRU officers themselves say: so far there has been no command to work to crush Ukrainian statehood. In this case, complex operations would certainly begin in the Kyiv-controlled cities around Donetsk and Lugansk. In Kharkov, Odessa, Kherson, Mariupol, Dnepropetrovsk. The lack of activity in these key cities suggests that Russia is still waiting.

Ukraine as a large Chernobyl zone

But when the time of liberation from Ukrainian Nazism comes, euphoria may once again overwhelm the generous Russians. Realizing that they need to start building new relationships with Ukrainians, they will again start talking about a single people, the Russian world, brotherhood and other material that, in their opinion, can help establish friendly relations.

If this happens, Russia will lose again. If in 500 years it was not possible to turn Ukrainians into brothers, then we can confidently say that this will not happen in the next 500 years either. The Russian government understands this - unlike some ardent Russian patriots. They again think that if the nationalists are driven out of power, the people can be re-educated in three generations.

This is mistake. Ukrainians cannot be re-educated. Late. They have long ago, several centuries ago, emerged as a national type, distinct from the Russians. Recognizing this fact is not playing along with the enemy, who, they say, is just waiting for the Russians to start thinking like that about the Ukrainians. Recognition of this fact is a sober understanding of the fact.

Ukrainians must remain in their state. They should not become part of Greater Russia. Yes, all the key territories of Eastern Ukraine in terms of ties with Russia, where nationalism has not taken deep roots, should be torn away from Ukraine. These lands must be included in Russia's orbit of influence. The degree of inclusion will vary, from trade associations to federal relations. But the West must be separated and the Center must turn into a local zone like Chernobyl, where only stalkers go and where there is no life. Nobody needs such a territory - neither Russia nor Europe. Ukraine should concentrate there.

Judging by Putin’s policies, this is precisely the state of Ukraine that he is seeking. This is understood in Kyiv, Brussels, London, and Washington. For them, this position of Moscow is very unpleasant. Recognition of the statehood of Ukraine by Russia does not allow Russia to be demonstrably presented as an aggressor. The existing evidence base is very weak and does not provide the desired effect. Now, if Russia declared that Ukraine is an illegal terrorist state subject to liquidation, this would give them all the leverage. But Russia recognizes Ukraine and insists on its existence. This causes misunderstanding among patriots who think straightforwardly, but angers nationalists: this position of Russia does not allow them to consolidate their resource in a better way. The resource disintegrates when faced with the inability of the nationalists to organize an effective state on the principles for which they fought for five centuries. This is undermining the idea.

Considering that nationalism as an extreme form of patriotism is an irrational feeling, no failures in state building will lead Svidomo to admit the bankruptcy of their ideology. They will insist that they were interfered with from outside.

Therefore, there can be no brotherhood with Ukraine. Ukraine should become something between a ghetto and a safari park, where tourists are brought to show the conditions of the wild. In order for them to better understand how lucky they are that they do not live in all this.

Ukraine of the near future.

Europe will not admit it out loud, but will silently agree that the Russians are the main guarantors that these wild predators in embroidered shirts will be behind a secure fence.

And they can be safely viewed from afar.

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