Those who read my previous posts and translations, know that I give preference to the review of the historical events and only address the events on the “battlefield” when they intertwine with the larger historical perspective. It’s been observed by many (and I’ve seen it on at least one example myself), that Russian people, who were born and raised in some central Russian region, upon moving to Ukraine and settling there become ardent Ukrainians with all what that entails, like denial of their Russian heritage. And conversely, when a person from Ukraine moves to Russia, after a few years they become perfectly normal, reasonable people. It’s become so obvious that people joke that something must be added to the drinking water in Ukraine for people to loose their minds there.
This is also a reason why “Ukrainian” is more and more viewed by people in Russia not as a nationality but as a belonging to a sect. Becauase people who live in the Southern Russia, Rus Minor, Novorossia are just that – Russians, who tragically became reprogrammed to turn them into anti-Russians.
And thus there is a growing tendency of speaking of “Ukraine” in the same sense as one now speaks of “The Third Reich” – both are seemingly designations of the countries, yet at the same time they now both carry the exact same stigma.
This post is about the Northern-Eastern, historically, Russian town of Harkov, which has seemingly been turned into a bastion of “anti-Russian-ness”. My previous translation that touched upon this city was that of the NTV documentary, where the political prisoner of SBU, the professor of Harkov University was interviewed: Zelensky Is Hiding This – NTV Documentary, 20.03.2022 (English Subtitles).
Today I came across a much deeper analysis of the situation in Harkov, an analysis which was written following the demolition of the statue to king (knjaz) Alexandr Nevsky in Harkov. It’s an article, filled both with resolve and with sadness for brothers lost. But I think there is hope, based exactly on what I wrote about in the first paragraph – in de-ukrainiasation of the Russians for them to become Russians once again.
One historical parallel that comes to mind, is how the Southern Russians were “ukranised” in the Austro-Hungarian concentration camps of Thalerhof and Teresin during WWI. This is described as part of this documentary: Project ‘Ukraine’. Documentary by Andrei Medvedev (with English subtitles)
UPDATE 21.05.2022: It seems that ukro-Nazis are racing to erase as many monuments and memorials to the Russian heritage and roots of the former Ukraine. Today they quietly removed a memorial to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in Nikolaev! The Mayor posted that this is done to “prevent vandalism” and that they’ll figure out what to do with it after the war.
Here is the article published on AfterShock News about the demolition of the memorial to Alexander Nevsky, and how it reflects on Harkov: