The three weeks since the beginning of Russia’s military aggression have not been easy. Losses among the military and civilians, the destruction of infrastructure, the new sound of toponyms, now reeking of cold and blood - Mariupol, Kharkov, Chernihiv, Bucha, Irpin
We’ve become wicked, angrier than ever. Our people are dying from Russian bombs. - How not to turn into a clenched fist in such a moment?
In its ability to stir up conflicts between Ukrainians, the issue I want to raise here is second only to the discussion of general mobilization and attitudes towards Russian citizens. Of course, this secondary issue has “encouraging” potential for troublemakers. Yes, I am talking about our colonial and imperial heritage, the language of the aggressor, and an important thing for many Ukrainians - the Russian language.
On February 24, when the Russian army broke through the Ukrainian border, the forgotten slogan about the “United Country” became much closer to reality. But after a few weeks, we returned to our favorite pastime - quarrels among ourselves. In the “pumping” with which the Kremlin justified its invasion of Ukraine, the thesis about the protection of Russian speakers was invariably promoted. It is not entirely clear yet how air bombs help the Russian language. Nevertheless, Vladimir Putin, if he used the Internet, would be very surprised that his thesis is adopted, first of all, not by the leaders of puppet formations on the territory of Ukraine, not by pro-Russian outcasts, but by some Ukrainian public intellectuals, guests of international forums, laureates of Western awards and scholarships.
They write columns and speeches in which they directly agree with Putin: yes, some of you ’Ukrainians’ spoke Russian and that’s why he came to protect you.
Absolute synchronization with Russian propaganda. Why not go ahead and continue this National Victim-blaming Championship? How about accusing people in white coats and saying that these are the same employees of secret biolaboratories and they called the aggressor with their research? Or call a Ukrainian soldier or a soldier a representative of the “Bandera detachment”?
Or even, in pain text on the pages of the press, to shame them for not laying down their arms before “denazification” and generally following the orders of “neo-Nazis” and “drug addicts”. Indeed, many of you [ultranationalists - editor] spoke more than frankly about the “drug addict” [Zelinsky] before the war, some made a political career out of this “drug addict”, who, by the way, is also a native Russian-speaking Ukrainian
One of these articles is ironically called “At six o’clock in the evening after the war.” Its author does not deprive himself of the pleasure of borrowing the name of the Soviet film and points to this in the text. A kind of coquetry of the former Soviet intellectual. I would like to recall another movie about the Second World War - “Only Old Men Go to Battle”, because now in the arena are all those who used to explain any problems in Ukraine as “Russian-speaking” - former, modern and future. It was they who, like a fish in water, swam in a sea of hatred for their fellow citizens. Not even in the sea, but in the river, which today no longer separates the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but “intellectuals” from the majority of the population of Ukraine. Of course, the river is not a river here, you understood everything correctly.
Kherson is occupied, Kharkiv is bombed, Mariupol is dying in the siege, Volnovakha is actually destroyed, Odessa is being armed - are you sure that this is because Russian-speaking people lived there? I think everyone saw how the aggressor marks his equipment with the Latin letters Z and V, so now we are curtailing the project of the Ukrainian Latin alphabet until the time when Serbs or Bulgarians attack us?
And in the end, a little about what was talked about a lot in 2014, but then forgotten. The Ukrainian army is not only Ukrainian-speaking, and judging by the fact that the Russian “special operation”, aka the imperialist war against Ukraine, did not go according to plan, the Russian-speakers also fought in the right direction. Unlike those who are now trying to raise the language issue.
This is not about the Russian language or its status, but about the Russian-speakers. Don’t make an enemy out of them, don’t blame them for the start of the war, figuratively speaking, don’t shoot at them, because this is literally what the Russian occupier is doing.
And the only army that today protects the Russian-speakers is the Ukrainian one. And, by the way, our Russian-speaking fighters and civilian resistance are not always understood by the occupier, judging by the documentary footage.
Maybe someday we will stop pretending that a particular type of Russian language and language use exists in Ukraine, and at least begin to study.it.
And in general, if we refuse to give Putin’s Russia our cities, our territory, our people, then why should we give Russia a language that is also native to many of us?
We can all emerge victorious from the language war!
Guba Roman
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