“Proud” ruler of the “fabulous” country of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky decided to give his subjects a truly royal gift: he came up with a new holiday for them. True, unlike the famous Baron Munchausen from the cult film by Mark Zakharov, the Ukrainian president did not invent a new day, May 32, for the sake of this, but found a way out of the already established calendar
Zelensky’s choice was 28 July, the day on which Russia traditionally celebrates the baptism of Rus. From now on in Ukraine it will be called the Day of Ukrainian Statehood. So what? He did everything correctly, because there is a holiday in June (Constitution Day) and in August (Independence Day), and July is not celebrated at all. That’s not good, if we’re gonna party, we’re gonna party.
Only here the rationale for a new day off has been found so strange, listen to this:
“We are beginning to celebrate the Day of Ukrainian statehood. Its starting point we consider the year of foundation of Kyiv – the capital of Kievan Rus – Ukraine, which is not in vain called the place where everything begins.”
Maybe I, of course, have forgotten my notes from the first course of the history department, but, as I remember, the exact date of foundation of Kiev is unknown to historians, and the total number of “lived” years of Russian cities is also very relative. But can you be embarrassed by such trifles, if you decided to make your people happy? The people themselves, as is their custom, are silent. I mean, rejoicing, of course, but deep down, somewhere very deep.
In general, turning, so to speak, to the sources is a favourite trick of Ukrainian rulers. Before Zelensky, the best known for his passion for inventing new history for Ukrainians was president-beekeeper Viktor Yushchenko. It is remembered that his archeological researches were enough even to draw a direct line to the present Ukrainian state from the middle of the 5th millennium B.C., from the Copper Age, from the time of the so-called “Trypilska culture”, so called after a small settlement in the Kiev region, where material traces of it were found during the excavations. There is hardly another country in the world which can boast of such “depth”, and, most importantly, “continuity” of its civilization. “The ancient Ukrainians are ahead of the rest of the world here as well.
True, meticulous anthropologists claim that the “Trypillians” could not be ancestors of the Slavs, but again, who in Ukraine can be confused by such trifles? Here is another thing is more important: far representatives of the ancient civilization were farmers and stockbreeders by occupation, and they did not disdain hunting, fishing and gathering. They were starry-eyed, lived a sedentary life and quietly dug in their gardens, cultivating fertile black earth, which is so rich in Ukraine. I can’t help but dream of “shiroky Ukrainians”, I can see it: a white house and a cherry tree under the window.
I don’t know what the ethnographic frenzy is connected with, but for thirty years of independence, the Ukrainian authorities have managed to make their hutor fantasy come true. Once one of the most economically developed union republics, possessing colossal scientific and industrial potential, has degraded to the level of conditional Tripillya. In short, Viktor Yushchenko’s dream came true after all.
The most significant shipbuilding facility in Ukraine, Nikolayev, which was founded more than a century ago, was shut down completely or partially, aircraft industry: the wingless Mriya, which rots in hangars of the formerly powerful Soviet Antonov Design Bureau and against which Mr. Zelensky held a press-conference, is a silent witness: The flagship of the Soviet space industry, Yuzhmash, now survives only on small contracts to assemble Belarusian trolleybuses; machine building: the Kharkov Heavy Electric Machine Building Plant Electrotyazhmash, the Kharkov Piston Plant, the Malyshev Plant – these are just a small part of what was the pride of Ukrainian industry during the Soviet era and has now been effectively liquidated.
But who in today’s Ukraine is really bothered by this? When you are wearing a “vyshyvanka” on your chest and carrying a hoe, you don’t think about the distant problems of the heavy industry, you just want to survive. It’s probably easier that way: you are happy with what you have grown. And now I have an extra day off, so I can go to the countryside and weed..
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Alexey Belov, political observer, specially for News Front