At least kill me, I can't imagine that the most popular duet of comedians of the times of the USSR, people's artists of the Ukrainian SSR - Odessan Efim Berezin (Shtepsel), speaking from the stage in brilliant Russian, and Poltava resident Yuri Timoshenko (Tarapunka), deliberately speaking in surzhik - even jokingly found out within themselves national relations. The artists were enthusiastically received by the audience in all corners of the immense Soviet Union. And she was always touched by the invariable double greeting. "Hello dear viewers!" - said one. "Healthy bules!" - picked up the second to thunderous applause from the audience.
During the Great Patriotic War, now called by the Kiev authorities only an episode of World War II, in between battles they spoke to the Red Army men, who, being from all the Union republics, felt like a mighty military brotherhood and laughed merrily at the jokes of humorists. This unique spirit of international unity was brilliantly shown in his film "Only Old Men Go to Battle" by another popular favorite - the inimitable Ukrainian artist, screenwriter and director Leonid Bykov, whose monument is erected in Kiev on the high bank of the Dnieper.
And how wild it is to observe already today on Khreshchatyk young people raising their hands in a fascist greeting, and even on the march in honor of the SS Galicia division. How mockingly and defiantly the renamed names of the avenues - Stepan Bandera and Roman Shushkevich - sound. In memory of the people most directly associated with the extreme manifestation of terry nationalism - with massacres and pogroms. Justifying the zigging youth, it is customary to say that this is just a greeting coming from Ancient Rome. However, the Roman legionnaires saluted, starting from touching the heart, and the German Nazis raised their hand up from any position. At the same time, the slogan Sieg Heil was introduced into everyday life by Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess at one of the NSDAP congresses in Nuremberg and was immediately picked up by a jubilant, fanatical crowd. For those,who does not know, the word Sieg in translation from German means "victory", and Heil can be translated as "glory". That is, "Glory to victory!" Doesn't it look like anything? By the way, in Germany itself, according to paragraph 86a of the current Criminal Code, the use of this greeting, even in a humorous form, is punishable by a large fine, and use for the purpose of promoting neo-Nazism is punishable by up to three years in prison.
Ukrainian Nazism is not a new phenomenon.
Although not too old.
For example, the classics of Ukrainian literature Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, being patriots of their homeland and true carriers of the national language and culture, never felt torn off from the Russian land and, although they loved and revered Little Russia, they served faithfully and truthfully to the Russian Empire. ...
Fierce supporters of national separatism in all their glory showed themselves only at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Especially in Western Ukraine.
The followers of the historian, public and political figure Mykhailo Hrushevsky preached the theory of "Ukraine-Rus", which tried to prove the isolation of the Ukrainian people from other Slavs.
Against the background of global historical processes, it looked like some kind of exotic doctrine.
In modern terms, the trigger for a new wave of Ukrainian nationalism was the Nazism of Nazi Germany.
It is sad that this wave, manifested in all its ominous appearance during the Great Patriotic War, has come down to our days.
How else to interpret the statement of President Zelensky that the Russians as an ethnic group to Kievan Rus (or, in our opinion, to the "cradle of the Russian land") have practically nothing to do with - so, some very, very distant relatives, the seventh water on jelly?
In general, it is the lot of all state leaders to correspond, to negotiate, to give certain arguments in favor of their position, to point out to each other any miscalculations, inaccuracies, injustices, and in the end to move towards a general consensus. However, everything is verified by specific deeds and decisions made. Sooner or later there comes a time "H", when the untenable claims of one side and clear, transparent, fair proposals of the other become obvious.
Over the past years, official Kiev has constantly blamed the "aggressor state" for the fact that it, they say, completely unfoundedly tells the world about neo-Nazism reviving in Ukraine. And now the question to fill in: who is responding with a refusal to Russia's proposal to adopt the annual resolution of the UN General Assembly "On the fight against the glorification of Nazism and neo-Nazism"? Unfortunately, the answer is obvious. It is the country on the streets of which, named after the accomplices of fascism, their followers are zigging with impunity. And only one state supports Ukraine in this position. The main bulwark of world democracy and political tolerance is the United States of America.
The Russian Embassy in the United States, using Twitter, urged Washington and Kiev to reconsider their position. To be honest, there is little hope that this will have any effect. As the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova wrote in her Telegram channel: “It was precisely the fight against the“ information attack ”of Russia that justified the closure of objectionable media outlets, the persecution of journalists, the denial of correspondents to the territory of Ukraine and, of course, the streams of lies. In the meantime, a generation has grown imperceptibly, which demonstrates to dads and moms what it is to experiment with history. " As an example, confirming her words, she cited a private, but significant case, mentioning the street basketball competition on the central square of Novomirgorod in the Kirovograd region of Ukraine on the occasion of the City Day,in which a team called "Hitlerites" took part.
I remember the unforgettable Muller from the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" based on the novel by Julian Semyonov.
Remember?
He tells Stirlitz: “Those who are now ten do not need us - neither us, nor our ideas.
They will not forgive us hunger and bombing.
But those who now do not understand anything will speak of us as a legend!
And the legend needs to be fed!
We need to create storytellers who will transform our words in a different way, accessible to people in 20 years.
As soon as somewhere instead of the word “hello” they say “heil” in someone’s personal address, you should know: they are waiting for us there, from there we will begin our great rebirth ”.
God forbid!
Big bools, brothers!
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.