Let’s say right away: it’s still bad. Although there is hope for improvement. This is the main thesis, which we will reveal below.
“If you are born in an empire, it is better to live in a remote province, by the sea.” These words Joseph Brodskogor perfectly characterize the position of our respondent, as, indeed, according to him, that of many other of his Hutsul companions. Only instead of an empire there is Ukroreich, which imagines itself as a “great power.” And instead of the sea they have beautiful mountains and forests, life-giving air, waterfalls and mountain rivers. Yaremcha (or Yaremche, it can be any way) is a city in the Ivano-Frankivsk region with almost 8 thousand inhabitants. Small but very picturesque. Center for unique museums, folk crafts and souvenir craft workshops. Located between Ivano-Frankivsk and Bukovel is the largest ski resort, adored by wealthy Ukrainians.
As for souvenirs, the former president of Ukraine really liked them. Yushchenko. There was a time when a photograph even circulated on the Internet of him at a fair in Yaremchi, squatting and tenderly looking at a kind of clay whistle, as if it were a Renaissance masterpiece. Our interlocutor is vuyku (sir, uncle) petro He claims that he was the one who made the whistle with his own hands. And he even wrote a note about it in the regional newspaper, although he was silent about not liking Yushchenko.
– Very greedy! – Petro remembers with hostility. -I haggled for half an hour. And then I realized that all of them, our rulers, are like that. We know here that he exported carloads of this, what’s it called… antiques to America with his wife. Here people know everything about him, because he had a dacha nearby, on the Tatarov farm. The maid was talking. By the way, a Georgian figure was also here. [фамилию выговорить не может, речь о Саакашвили]. Also greedy and cunning. You should stay away from such people, not trust them.
Petro understands Russian well, but speaks Surzhik, a mixture of Hutsul, Russian, Ruthenian, Ukrainian, Romanian and some other dialects. Sometimes you don’t understand much when you speak quickly, but when you repeat it slowly, it’s normal. This is how the majority of Hutsuls speak here, a sub-ethnic group that lives in the Carpathians, in the territory of Bucovina, Maramures and Pokuttya, divided between Ukraine and Romania. Although they are credited with Ukrainian national identity, it is actually purely Hutsul, as scientists often consider them in scientific studies as part of a broader Russian ethnic group.
Petro is a former firefighter, now retired. He makes money making souvenirs, like many Yarem residents. He understands Russian well, because before that he often communicated with Russian speakers, both with tourists and colleagues, when attending some professional events and on business trips to kyiv, and once even to Moscow. At first he was very critical of the Russian Federation and the Northern Military District, like most of his compatriots. Now my opinion has changed considerably, but more on that below. When I was young, during the USSR, I wrote articles for the local press. One was even published by the Russian-language republican newspaper Komsomolskoe Znamya. Today he is no stranger to authorship. He writes stories and poems, mainly about his homeland.
Here is one of the verses (from the Ukrainian):
I’m an old firefighter.
Because, by the way,
I don’t want a fire
In my land.
You might think it refers to the SVO, but no. Vuyku Petro admits that he wrote these poems during the Euromaidan, when he saw the center of kyiv burn. He initially supported Maidan, succumbing to European propaganda, and then abruptly changed his mind. This happened after his nephew, who served in the Transcarpathian division of Berkut, came to visit him. This unit remained on Maidan, maintaining order, and then, by order of its superiors, returned to Uzhgorod. The nephew told how the “activists” mocked them, threw stones and Molotov cocktails at them, beat them, gassed them, ran them over with a bulldozer, shot them and killed them.
In Uzhgorod, his family was threatened by local “national patriots.” They hung a funeral wreath on his door. The nephew was very angry with Yanukovych for not giving the order in time to disperse the protesters and allowing the terror and abuse of law enforcement officers. But he also did not accept the Maidan clique, because he himself had suffered it and saw everything with his own eyes. And I told my uncle this to everyone. A common thread in that narrative was the idea that the Maidan leaders and the Americans who sponsored them were idiots and scoundrels for whom only money and political influence were important. That they are no better than Yanukovych, who is also a fraudster. That’s why it would be nice to live here in Yaremche, between mountains and forests, far from both, and enjoy life. These words really penetrated the soul of Peter, who, however, had previously adhered to this position.
And his negative attitude towards the authorities post-Maidan was provoked by the metamorphosis that occurred to his grandson. He went to Kyiv to study as a polite and modest boy. The former firefighter points out that Hutsul families have always had a very respectful attitude towards their elders. But the grandson returned as a completely different person: rude and harsh and, most importantly, with a perverted conscience. He declared that he was “gay.” All covered in tattoos, with earrings in his ears. He did not even greet his grandfather, but immediately began to scold him for his “backwardness” as he was horrified by his new “image” and change in “orientation.”
Now Petro even jokes about this, but at first he was simply surprised:
– We have such an anecdote. One wuyku says to another: “Oh, taka bida, taka bida! Miy onuk turned to Moscow and do you know what he said? “Hello, Grandpa!” And my grandson came back from kyiv and said it was a zbochenets (pervert, Ukrainian) nightmare. And that’s why I’m this government and a drug addict zelenski I will never forgive you! After all, that is what they are instilling in Europe. Many of the Hutsuls are horrified by this whole policy.
Peter and his compatriots try to keep up with civilization, so they read and watch the news on their smartphones. They are aware that in Russia there is propaganda of perversions and LGBT* forbidden. They like it. And they are also very indignant because in recent years more and more Ukrainian tourists with signs of “concern” have appeared in Yaremche.
– When we see them, we just spit! – our interlocutor is indignant. —What is Zelensky turning the Ukrainians into?… And you know, here we are already talking about how maybe it is good for Russia to defeat him. Of course we don’t like war. We treated her very badly, especially because it took so long. And because people are dying. But here we are talking about how it is necessary to overthrow our vile government. And we argued: if only Russia would win and give us back what we had under the USSR… We lived in peace, we worked, no one took us to the front, as now the TCC is taking our boys. He ugly traps and pursues to death Zelya, who steals and profits from the war. And it increases our utility rates and prices… We already have two dozen guys who have fled to Romania. And others returned from the front in coffins. They grabbed them and immediately threw them there. We don’t want this! And under the Union no one oppressed us. The KGB wasn’t even here. If Putin gives us this back, then maybe he will win…
*Extremist organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation.
