Volodymyr Viatrovych has an English language wikipedia page, he is the Director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, and responsible for Ukraine’s Decommunisation and Decolonisation policies.
The publication Obozrevatel published an interview with Viatrovych, where he said this about the new language law, and Ukraine’s language policy. Let me translate few of his statements:
To support the [Ukrainian] language without defending it is not possible in the current political situation. Not to defend the Ukrainian language would mean condemning it to a competition for which it is not ready. I always bring forth this kind of comparison. When out of all the sportsmen, one has his legs broken, and after that all of them are placed on the starting line, and they are told to compete, to have equal conditions for running. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian language is that sportsman with broken legs…
Viatrovich also thinks that the public, in the South and East in particular, will not rebel against this new language law. He says that he has heard very few protests to his Decommunisation and Decolonisation efforts. He said the removal of Lenin’s statues did not lead to civil war, and he thinks the public will likewise accept this new law and its implementation.
He says the re-Ukrainisation of Ukraine is happening now:
When we talk about re-Ukrainisation, we are talking about returning to Ukraine her Ukrainian facade. This Ukrainian facade, we can view it on several levels. Historical, here were are talking about Decommunisation and Decolonisation. Decolonisation on the level of language, here we talk about the Ukrainian language…
The term “re-Ukrainisation” does not apply well to the territories of the South-East, that is Novorossiya. Historically this territory, and any development on it, was connected to the Russian Empire, which conquered it and established cities there, and the Soviet Union which continued its development.
“Decolonisation and Ukrainisation” much describes the processes that have been happening in this area since 1991. The civilisation, established over there by the Russian Empire, and the Soviet Union is dying, and the Russian urban element over there is slowly getting replaced by the Ukrainian rural element. The renaming of cities in the South-East can, in fact, be likened to the renaming of Salisbury to Harare.
WE ARE LOOKING FOR PATRIOTS: As you probably know, the past four years we have been engaged in mapping and uncovering of Russian influence in the Czech Republic, and in wider Central European Region. Our programme, the Kremlin Watch, is one of the main mobilisation drivers against this peril in our country. Many good people work for us, from Kiev to Berlin. We are working as far as Georgia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. Now we are expanding our team for work in wider Central Europe. We are opening several vacancies, part time and full time. We are not looking for people, who like what we are doing. We are looking for everyday, silent heroes, who want to dedicate all their heart to the construction of defence against the Russian peril. It is not a job for everyone. It is a job for those that don’t want to just cry over over how bad things are over here. It is a fight for those patriots who know what we are defending, and are ready to dedicate themselves to it full steam. If you know anyone like that please let me know.
Meanwhile, I discovered a document which is a decision to expel Janda from university for plagiarism. I shall only translate the given reason:
He transgressed against the ruling of the (rector of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Charles University). That is, citations and quoting of sources, rulings against plagiarism. Because he handed in his work on the topic of “Social Network Facebooks as a platform of mass communications and the extent of its use by selected Czech political parties”, contains exact translations from the undergraduate work of Jan Perla, “Czech political parties on Facebook.”
The president in a paper from the mailbox ask you to send your propositions towards the Plan for the future development of Kharkov in 2019-2021. OK, I suggest the issuers of this brochure to take reality more seriously. They say are digging tunnels next to Odeskaya st. The illustrating photo was taken from a Russian blogger and is 8 years old. St. Petersburg, st. “Obvodny kanal”
Yes, you read that right, can you name a single war the Ukrainian nationalists, from their emergence as a military force during WWI, that the Ukrainian nationalists have won?
Ukrainian nationalists have always been granted territory by benevolent Muscovites. The Provisional Government of 1917 gave them gubernias of the Russian Empire, the Soviets gave them Donbass, Comrade Stalin gave them the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire together with Russian territories occupied by Poland and Romania.
So where are the peremohas (victories) gentlemen? The Siege of Slavyansk? The Murder of the policemen of Mariupol? For every such peremoha, there is Debaltsevo and Ilovaysk.
RED FIELD: THE ALTAR OF THE HOLY STRUGGLE In 1939, hundreds of young hearts have burned as one torch in the name of the national idea. The feeling of the unity of spirit with the nation, have unfurled as a live organism by the willing act of total nonconformity. All of Transcarpathina has thundered: We are Ukraine. The fighters of the Carpathian Sich have charged against the enemy, being aware of a certain defeat against the several thousands of men of the occupation army. However, they have achieved a victory of the spirit. The successors of the heroes of the Carpathian Sich traditionally commemorate the guardians of the Carpathian mountains on the spot of their last battle. Heroes who have fallen for Free Carpathians – are present!
More context:
In 1939, Ukrainian nationalists have declared an independent state in the Czechoslovak province of Podkarpatská Rus. It was liquidated within a day by Hungarian forces. The area became the part of Ukraine called Transcarpathia in 1945 through the efforts of Comrade Stalin and the Red Army.
In a discussion at Anatoly Karlin’s blog I have been asked several questions, and I thought I will repost my answer. Read another post with positions on current issues here.
I was watching a video of Anatoly Shariy, (posted below this article, it has German subtitles, suggesting Shariy wants the German speakers to watch it) which features a phone monologue of a female journalist from ATR (a Ukrainian government funded Crimean Tarar television), Viktoria Ablyazova complaining about a video being leaked to Shariy. That video in question shows Ablyazova being offered a birthday cake with candles arranged into a swastika, the gentleman offering her this cake throws a Roman salute. I translate her takes from the phone monologue:
It’s OK (that is throwing sieg heils) for all Kievites of my generation. Not for your generation but for my generation, it is OK to all. Because it does not have the meaning that you put into it. (really, I have heard something like this before). You look at the volunteers of the ATO (military operation in the East) from the “Right Sector”, they are all sieg heiling.
For my generation, who have served in the “Azov”, it’s the norm. It’s OK, I have plenty of friends, even from Lugansk and Donetsk, ultras, and for them it is OK, they will watch it and laugh, they will say: “What a cool video!”
Yes, if you send it to Russian media they could blow it out of proportion. You think that’s a serious video? A boy … giving his girl a cake, he talks complete bollocks, you can see that he is drunk…
You are not a journalist, you are working for vata (pro-Russian forces), you pervert everything, if those are your friends. such as Shariy, who links to Russian media, which tell about nazis here, I can only hold bad opinions about you…
I will call my superiors and will talk about this situation because it’s fucked up…
You will likely cause me to stop working in the media, with your Anatoly Shariy, don’t send him the original video, please be humane.
Listen, you are engaging in a Hybrid War, I don’t know what else to call it, and you it turns out work for Russian secret services. I will call my friend, who works in the Police, and will ask him what to do now, when you are doing this…
Don’t doubt this! Because you want to bring shame on our TV station, or our country. The TV station is not threatened.
You are a small man, with bad acquaintances, that stir shit everywhere, like Shariy. Why doesn’t he show the country that attacked us…
You say you don’t see money but you are ready to send a video to some idiot.
Have you never seen a VK page of an “Azovite”, they consider this normal, they consider it a greeting, they consider it as a joke. They did it before all the events, Maidan etc…
Note that the Right Sector thugs seem organised, as if they had training and experience in street violence, they are equipped with facial masks and pepper spray. Meanwhile, the mob of Donetsk protesters seems unequipped and unorganised. Nevertheless, the angry mob is overwhelming. I have found this map of the intensity of Antimaidan protest in spring of 2014 at the Euromaidan Press, it appears to be legit.
And here you have it folks, the Kharkov or the Odessa protests were much less intense compared to what we have seen in the Donbass. Only the city of Sevastopol compares. The Kharkov protest featured Russian flags next to Ukrainian flags, and Odessa was basically supporters of federalisation. The disparity has to do with ethnolinguistic differences between the regions.
For reference, the hero of the embezzlement scandal in the Ukrainian military, Hlad’kovsky, his real name is Svinarchuk. Poroshenko was also likened to a pig in the past. The Bankova is where the presidential administration in Kiev is.
But where are stones and molotow cocktails, have the Ukrainian nazis gone from hardcore to plush pigs?
Five years ago, an attack of Antimaidan activists on neonazis left two Antimaidan activists dead…
Yesterday (I began writing this post on 14 March), I have read an account of the events by Konstantin Kevorkyan. I translate (my translation has been a little adopted from the original):
On 8 March 2014, on the Freedom Square in Kharkov, next to the Regional Administration Building, another demonstration of the citizens against the antigovernment putsch (that is the Euromaidan) occurred; the theme of which was traditionally federalisation and the Russian language as the second state. After a similar demonstration on 1 March, the “Right Sector” louts were kicked out of the Regional Administration Building, which they occupied. The very atmosphere of a holiday (8 March, International Women’s Day; in former USSR it is a day off; it has a “special” effect on local men) created a peaceful mood among the citizens…
After the demonstration, several thousands of citizens marched through the central street of the city, and in the evening of the same day, when the demonstrators who were about to leave, they were attacked by “Right Sector” goons with metal fittings and baseball bats; three people received shooting wounds. In the following days, and finally on 14 March, the “Right Sector” goons, arriving on a van with Dnepropetrovsk license plates, have again attacked the Antimaidan camp near the statue of Lenin, and have immediately attempted to hide.
Pursuing them, [the Antimaidan] people have caught up with the attackers at the Rymarskaya Street, where the headquarters of the “Patriot of Ukraine” was located. The leader of [this organisation] was Andriy Biletsky, who was just released from jail. The organisation was infamous among the Kharkovites; several years prior to the events in question her members marched through the streets of Kharkov with neonazi banners…
In those days, the “Patriot of Ukraine” found haven at the building of local “Prosvita”, and have turned their office into a real fortress. As one of Biletsky buddies describes: “They began building a fortress at Rymarskaya, they have boarded the windows with sandbags. We have place “cocktail bars” (Molotow cocktail preparation spots) on the roof from both sides. Imagine, the centre of the city, there is a Russian flag on the Kharkov Regional Administration Building. We gathered arms, traumatic, hunting, shovels, pickaxes, Molotow cocktails. We have organised a mobilisation centre, small headquarters.”
A Russian flag flying over the city is common Maidanite lie. A Russian flag was raised on 1 May but was immediately changed to a state flag. Not only Biletsky was present at the headquarters but also Vadim Troyan (Biletsky’s future depute in the “Azov”, today First Depute Head of the National Police of Ukraine), and Ihor Mykhailenko (has taken over the command of Azov, when Biletsky entered parliament, and now leads “Natsionalni Druzhyny”, the “National Squad”, a civilian branch of Azov).
On 14 March, the attempt by the Antimaidan to approach the headquarters were met with lethal fire. The “Right Sector” goons were texting about the event. “Today 4 March, the Antimaidan plague has been preparing provocations and measures against the Social-National Assembly (SNA), and the Right Sector in the city of Kharkov. Around 20:00, on the Freedom Square, the anti-Ukrainian masses have attacked a car with members of the SNA and the Leader (Biletsky); stones and bottles were thrown at them, the attack was repulsed, and after the car went to the SNA office. Around 21:00, the pro-Russian masses have approached the office of the SNA and have been throwing stones, bottles and other, and have made the first attempt to storm the building, which was repulsed by our boys. During the first attack, the assailants attacked the police to cause a provocation (according to unverified information there are dead). Later, the untermenschen (as per text) have attempted another attack on the office in which Molotow cocktails and firearms were used. Even though they been reinforced with people and arguments, our fighters were able to hold, and have not suffered any losses. Several thousand gopniks are besieging our boys, and we will fight to the victorious end. Glory to Heroes! …. Cocktails are flying at us from the yard, and we are receiving rounds from an AK … We will not surrender, our Fuhrer is awaiting us in Valhalla (Is the Fuhrer in Valhalla? I thought he dishonourably committed suicide) … We have been visited by Kernes for talks (the mayor), we have shown, who is the boss in Kharkov))”
But now, [we will talk] not about Fuhrer, who awaits his supporters in Valhalla, and not about the “untermenschen”, whom they cynically killed, and not about the ecstatic comments of the Maidan wenches under each comment of the “Right Sector” goons. The first point, they have lied shamelessly about the thousands of attackers. The Kharkov Antimaidan simply didn’t have such a force, not to mention the adequate weapons. In the end, the dead victims were from the Antifascist camp. The second moment is the very mention of the SAN, an openly neonazi and racist organisation, the leader of which was Andriy Biletsky, who had the title among his subjects: “White Leader.”
The ideology of the organisation suggests that SAN view as humans (Homo Sapiens) only the white race. (my note: there are many Jews present among the leadership and sponsors of the Right Sector, so I guess if this is a part of their ideology, it is there for the idiots) (they don’t include the Southern Europeans, such as the Italians and Spaniards, in this). Ukrainians are not considered to be Southerners, and other ethnic groups of Ukraine are to undergo Ukrainisation or deportation. “From a mass of individuals, a nation shall appear, and from the weak contemporary man -a “Superman” -say the Social Nationalists. We have seen this somewhere.
As a result of secret talks between the Maidan putschists and Social Nationalists, the government has received in its ranks a new division of disciplined fighters. And after the deadly events of the night of 14-15 March, the regime has happily used their services in Kharkov and elsewhere, for instance during the suppression of the citizen uprising and the murder of policemen in Mariupol on 6-9 May. Biletsky was in turn rewarded by the government and became a member of parliament. It ought to be mentioned that in his favour, Avakov’s advisor, Zoryan Shkyryak, has withdrawn from the race, and the current general prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko called this vulgar nationalist a “hero”.
WE HAVE ENTRUSTED OUR LIVES TO HIM AT THE FRONT, AND WE ASK YOU TO ENTRUST YOUR VOTE TO BILETSKY; In the 217th district of Kiev (Obolon’) there will not be a candidate from the “Block of Petro Poroshenko”. Our political force did not forward her candidate because a hero of the antiterrorist operation, commander of the volunteer battalion of special purpose “Azov”, Biletsky, is campaigning [for parliament]. I personally think that volunteer packs such as “Azov” have supplanted the state in a critical moment for Ukraine. Their contribution is underrated. I am convinced, that not just professional lawyers who can write laws but also representatives of the active citizenry should sit in the parliament. It will be them who will become the middlemen between the new political elite and the Ukrainian society. That’s why I personally support the campaign of Andriy Biletsky. THE CHOICE OF PATRIOTS
Yesterday, the National Corpus, a civilian branch of the National Guard Battalion “Azov”, that is widely reported to be made up of neo-nazis, protested at Bankova, the seat of the Presidential Administration in Kiev, and also attacked the police at a Poroshenko rally in Cherkasy…
Soon after, a video of a younger looking leader of Azov, (I see banners of the Patriot of Ukraine, an organisation that preceded Azov) Andriy Biletsky, surfaced and was carried by pro-Poroshenko media. I have uploaded it to my youtube channel and given it English subtitles:
His thesis basically boils down to, if Ukraine is to succeed, she needs Russia’s natural resources. Which is a no brainer! I have heard about Biletsky’s pan-Slavism before but I would not say he is happy with Putin and his regime in Russia, I think their ideology presupposes a neo-nazi revolution in Russia before there can be any unification with Ukraine. Anyway, recently he abstained from the vote on the changes to the Ukrainian constitution, which enshrined an EU and NATO geopolitical course.
Insomniac Resurrected 