By Boris Kushniruk, UAINFO
11.11.2014
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine
There’s a well-known expression from Vynnychenko, that states, “Where the Ukrainian question begins, the Russian democrat disappears.”
Has no one ever wondered why this is so?
I came to an interesting conclusion on this after I had a conversation with a guy, who is a history major; he was coming back from the ATO on furlough to Kyiv, to his wife and small child. Returning from my lecture tour, I picked him up in Cherkasy and took him to Kyiv.
He told me an interesting story from a village in the Luhansk region. He used to buy milk from this very old woman who was well over 80 years. He went to her on purpose, precisely because she had a furious attitude toward Ukrainian soldiers, but nevertheless money came in handy for her, so she sold milk to those whom, in reality, she truly hated.
This old woman was herself from Russia. She was brought to this village when she was still very little by her parents, who were deliberately transported here by the Soviet regime. People were relocated to this village where over 90 percent of the villagers died of starvation during the Holodomor period. Russians were settled in those exact homes where Ukrainian peasants used to live, and where they died of starvation along with their entire families. And this old lady hated with passion everything Ukrainian, because she understood that at one time, her parents were given that which originally belonged to Ukrainians. They did what looters do; appropriated from those killed by them.
That’s why such a subconscious hatred developed in this old woman, of those who may be considered descendants of Ukrainian villagers who were victims. This hatred is based on fear of exposing the previously committed crimes.
We are seeing the same thing happening on a subconscious level to the vast majority of Russians. They understand that – by their own [Russian] grandfathers – at one time for Ukrainians their history was stolen from them, the name of their people, and all that is the foundation of the nation. And that’s why there is such hatred for everything Ukrainian–a denial of Ukrainian traditions, language, and cultural heritage.
Because if they admit that all of it was stolen, then it becomes clear that most of what Russians now call “historically Russian,” does not belong to them. It’s just something that they seized from other nations at some point in a very brutal and cunning manner. It’s the hatred of villains, who are afraid that one day the crime will be called a crime, and what was stolen, as stolen.
It’s no wonder that so often one can hear from totally intelligent Russians, this emotional thought that the question in general is not about Ukraine or Ukrainians, which on a subconscious level they have never recognized as a distinct nation. The question now lies in Russia itself. If they recognize Ukraine and Ukrainians, it will become inevitable to admit that they themselves are the descendants of those who once lived in Kyivan Rus–Ukraine. And then the whole concept of the “Russian world” will crumble to dust. That in reality, they have nothing of their own. Everything [they have] was at some point violently taken from others.
That’s why right now the fate of the Russian empire is really being decided. If Ukrainians preserve their sovereignty, then the final collapse of this prison of nations is only a matter of time. Moreover, I’m convinced that we are not talking decades. It’s a matter of several years.
Source: UAINFO.org
Voices of Ukraine 
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I translated this for The Ukrainian Weekly (Parsippany, NJ)– publ. last week.
Did you? Can’t seem to search it anywhere to find it. What a shame you don’t translate for us! 😉
Dear Oksana, I really thank you for the translation. Re: the substance of the article, the actions taken were not “subconscious-” but blatant. Unlike today with the help of Sigmund, we can look back and see that very few actions were subconscious in the 18th, 19th and especially 20th Centuries. They were blatant.
UKraine and its history fit the needs of Tzar Peter after Ukraine was subjugated by Tzarina Catherine. Names were changes and histories obliterated- almost.
Bohdan Shandor
Guys, Oksana did not translate this version!
There is a sovereign God who is on the throne. Justice will prevail.
This little story from a little village reveals the consequences of well over a thousand years of tragic historical events – and the collective ramifications felt by the keepers of their fabricated identity. The significance of this revelation is anything but “little.”
Thanks for publishing Boris Kushniruk’s personal account, Voice of Ukraine. And thank you, Orysia Tracz, for your translation of this story (and countless others you’ve penned – for decades!) in The Ukrainian Weekly. It was a real eye-opener for me.
An insight into the psychology of those who lived for generations on lands provided by a Russian benefactor who bequeathed stolen properties to whomever they chose from Catherine the Great to Lenin and beyond.
Embarrassingly, my Mennonite ancestors and most of their surviving progeny in North America still refuse to admit they dwelt on Ukrainian soil for well over 100 years without so much as the proper recognition of the Ukrainian people.
Thank you Bill for bringing up the Mennonite history in Ukraine. For those of you interested, here is a synopsis from the Encyclopedia of Ukraine: http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CM%5CE%5CMennonites.htm
I translated it for Voices of Ukraine 🙂 Thank you for wonderful editing work! Helps me better my translator skills reading the final cut )) As for the author – great article!
@chervonaruta
Don’t know if this may help but the website for The Ukrainian Weekly is >
http://www.ukrweekly.com
However, I believe, only the archival, *everything * up through Dec 31, 2013, is available for free public viewing. Otherwise, current year is by subscription only.
Roma Hadzewicz is the Editor-In-Chief. Perhaps if you contact her directly, or Editor Matthew Dubas, some *arrangement* can be made for you [Voices of Ukraine.]
IDK
And the Ukrainian-language counterpart is Svoboda. >
http://www.svoboda-news.com
I believe the same viewing stipulations exist.
Ms. Hadzewicz is, also, Editor-In-Chief and the Editors are Levko Khmelkovsky and Petro Chasto.
I highly recommend both *publications*.
We are well aware of the publications. Just could not find your article online (for the reasons you state). It does not really matter if 2 translations exist of the same article though. Thank you! 🙂
Yeah, as my mom and dad always said
that the reason Russians hate Ukrainians so much is because the Ukrainians know the TRUTH about what Russians did. (Of course, Russians, then, want to make sure that the world never believes Ukrainians.)
Re above piece…”the fate of the RU empire is being decided…If Ukrainians preserve their sovereignty….then it’s only a matter of time…a few years..”
Sadly, I’m not so optimistic. Putin’s recent speech, with emphasis on Crimea being Russia’s Holy Land; his Duma pumping $3mil into the expansion, presence and fortification of the Russian Orthodox Church; the building of a mammoth statue in *Russia* of *their* Russian Orthodox St. Vladimir *their baptizer*, their continual high jacking of Kyivan-Rus Christianization celebrations; *their* history books w/ erroneous info existing in classrooms from which generations of Ukrainian/Russian/etc students have already been and continually are being *taught*, etc…
Russia’s on-going covert weaponry is to discredit Ukraine’s sovereignty and *prove* it was THEIRS all along ‘cuz ROC-MP says so!
Scary stuff.
I am very impressed by the article and by some of the comments that follow. Such open and honest discussions are what we need more of.
I agree with the basic premise of Russia’s misapropriation of culture, land, history, etc. from Ukraine and other nations. (this can even be seen in that people’s contemporary culture… in the attempted annexation of Crimea, etc.). However, the reality is that even in spite of the horrific crimes against humanity – especially in the Communist era – Russia can claim a history of which it can be proud… a cultural legacy that it can claim as its own. But this will never be achieved until it comes clean about its roots and past. Yes, if Russia does show the courage and integrity to ‘come clean’, it will have much to deal with and perhaps much to give up (at least with regards ‘exclusive’ ownership). However, the benefits of honesty are limitless – with regard to the peace and friendship that could grow.
I for one pray and hope that this will come to pass. Perhaps the author of the article is right…. it may begin within years…
–Am appreciative of your perspective. It’s reasonable and worthy of development. And, yes, agree re wanting RU to *come clean*.
You do realize that your ideology e.g. “…it will never be achieved until it comes clean about its roots and past…RU’s misappropriation of culture, land, history, etc. from Ukraine and other countries…” is considered *extremism* by RU law and subject to punishment?:)
But I do wonder, perhaps, whether you realize, also, that this is going on, and will obviously and undoubtedly, continue. >
(please read) All But One Faith Is Persecuted…
http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1416974931
Or this – where even the Ukrainian language in Crimea is *impermissible* > (warning – if you’re really an Otets, there are 2 risqué photos included)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2848959/Teenagers-murdered-grannies-hounded-street-money-tight-strippers-t-paid-Inside-prison-cell-Crimea-Russian-invasion.html
or this, Associated Press piece, which, again, establishes future years of Russia’s chokehold
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/166097f662ec4e6e899b14c12e9a0c58/change-leadership-crimea-means-property-grab
or some revealing stories at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty http://www.rfe/rl.org
Unfortunately, IMHO, Russia is on a fast-forward to backward. (But I do believe in miracles.)
Beautiful story.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana.
Russians haven’t made a collective deal with their past. They don’t know it, they can’t accept it, they can’t forgive themselves and they can’t move forward.
I don’t blame individual Russian about the nations sins. So didn’t my father and his brothers when they tried to get back what Stalin took from Finland in winter war. Russians have o notice that there are bad leaders and choices made by them which they have to learn about.
That was very well said.