I’d like to introduce Vladislav Ugolniy, a Russian nationalist in Donetsk and a founder of OPCB — a humanitarian aid and media project which I can’t for the life of me translate. When I asked Ugolniy to help me out he just chuckled and said it was an inside joke. So there, sorry, I tried.
Thank you Rolo for these interviews with patriots from the Donbass. I surmised that they existed but have never encountered anything like them on any media channel in the West, whether mainstream or reinformation.
It pains me to learn about the poor treatment that the people in Donbass received from Russia, between the assassination or incarceration of patriotic leaders and the appointment of corrupt managers. What a choice between being butchered by the Ukrainian nazis and being robbed by Russian security services while the Ukrainian nazis shell you. It reminds me of the months before February revolution when ministers, officials, and merchants used the difficulties in supplying the cities with food and coal in order to push up prices and make some coin : the people were mere sheep to be fleeced. I believe that Putin and his ministers have made a serious political mistake in their poor treatment of the population in the Donbass.
In the presentation of Ugolniy, you mention that he is in favour of the reunification of the Slavlands under the Russkiy Mir. A worthy goal. However it all depends on what is intended for the populations living in the Russkiy Mir. Peoples were left to their own culture and law under the tsar and there were no questions on their loyalty. The Balts, the Finns, the Cossacks fought for the tsar. Even the German aristocracy and bourgeoisie in the Baltic region fought for the tsar and against the Reich in the First World War. It all changed under the communists with large population displacements and a heavy-handed Russification campaign. This and the communist absurdity created bitterness and resentment among the non-Russians. The Finns and Balts are frightened at the thought of coming again under the rule of Moscow. So are the Ukrainians. They all think they will be killed or sent to Siberia. Nothing Putin does will dispel this fear.
Well there goes my dream of the Russian government being the “good guys” and saving the world. It was a flimsy dream, I know, so no great loss, I guess?
As usual the news and interviews from the "pro-russian" side are not pretty much entirely made up as those from the USA-ruthenian side, but have a feel of authenticity and reliability, including like in this interview reports of the difficult situations with exploitative oligarchs/gangsters in the DNR/LNR. Thanks for this interview therefore.
«As May came, Russians were burned alive in Odessa and that angered us all.»
It was not the Odessa massacre that really started the rebellion, because that could be blamed on fascist terrorists. The real turning point was I think the Mariupol massacre, 9 May 2014, the day when the civil war started, because it was the first time that official "ukrainian" government troops and armored vehicles were used to mow down ukrainian civilians, a massacre that was celebrated by the USA government of B. H. Obama:
“With the open support of Washington and its European allies, the regime installed by Washington and Berlin in last February’s fascist-led putsch is now extending its reign of terror against all popular resistance in Ukraine. That is the significance of the events in the major eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol yesterday. After tanks, armored personnel carriers and heavily armed troops were unleashed on unarmed civilians in the city, the Kiev regime claimed to have killed some 20 people. The Obama administration immediately blamed the violent repression on “pro-Russian separatists.” This is the second time in a week that the Obama administration has defended the role of the Kiev government in the murder of anti-government demonstrators, having done so following the Odessa killings (see: “US defends role of Kiev regime and fascists in Odessa massacre”).
The violence bore all the hallmarks of a calculated provocation on the 69th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Soviet Red Army. [...] These admirers of Hitler and his Ukrainian collaborators are now serving, with Washington’s full support, as the regime’s shock troops against popular opposition centered in the industrialized east of the country as well as in Russian-speaking centers such as Odessa in the south. The same forces have been given free rein to attack anyone in the west of the country who dares to oppose the fascistic government in Kiev. Outraged accounts from residents of Mariupol, verified by journalists on the ground, make it clear that many of those targeted by the Ukrainian National Guard and associated fascist elements on Friday had been participating in a Victory Day rally commemorating the anniversary.”
The Mariupol massacre has been largely forgotten outside the DNR/LNR, in part because it is was an embarrassment to V. Putin. But I think that very few people in Donbas have forgotten it. If there is a side that I really sympathize with is not the russian side and never mind the fascist ruthenian side, but that of the people of Donbas, who only now are slowly emerging from 8 years of brutality, and I am not surprised that many of them yearn for the years of peace and prosperity that the USSR meant for them.
Thank you Rolo for these interviews with patriots from the Donbass. I surmised that they existed but have never encountered anything like them on any media channel in the West, whether mainstream or reinformation.
It pains me to learn about the poor treatment that the people in Donbass received from Russia, between the assassination or incarceration of patriotic leaders and the appointment of corrupt managers. What a choice between being butchered by the Ukrainian nazis and being robbed by Russian security services while the Ukrainian nazis shell you. It reminds me of the months before February revolution when ministers, officials, and merchants used the difficulties in supplying the cities with food and coal in order to push up prices and make some coin : the people were mere sheep to be fleeced. I believe that Putin and his ministers have made a serious political mistake in their poor treatment of the population in the Donbass.
In the presentation of Ugolniy, you mention that he is in favour of the reunification of the Slavlands under the Russkiy Mir. A worthy goal. However it all depends on what is intended for the populations living in the Russkiy Mir. Peoples were left to their own culture and law under the tsar and there were no questions on their loyalty. The Balts, the Finns, the Cossacks fought for the tsar. Even the German aristocracy and bourgeoisie in the Baltic region fought for the tsar and against the Reich in the First World War. It all changed under the communists with large population displacements and a heavy-handed Russification campaign. This and the communist absurdity created bitterness and resentment among the non-Russians. The Finns and Balts are frightened at the thought of coming again under the rule of Moscow. So are the Ukrainians. They all think they will be killed or sent to Siberia. Nothing Putin does will dispel this fear.
How prescient Karamzin was ! It turns out that in addition to being THE historian he created an ideology.
"The new ideology of the once liberal Karamzin was expressed very sharply in his
"Memorandum about the Old and the New Russia," which he
presented to Alexander I in 1811. The "Memorandum" was meant
as a warning to the emperor against the projected constitutional
and liberal reforms, and it began with a brief outline of Russian
history intended to prove that the fortunes, the very life of Russia
were inseparably connected with the institution of autocracy.
A criticism of all projects to limit the power of the sovereign
followed: such plans were found to be inadmissible both on
general grounds and especially in their application to Russia.
Next there was a defense of serfdom and of all the privileges of
the gentry, and an argument advocating a further strengthening
of the gentry, as well as of the Holy Synod. Karamzin's views
were summed up in the famous sentence which declared that
Russia needed fifty good provincial governors, and not reforms.
In another memorandum, "An Opinion of a Russian Citizen"
about Poland, Karamzin discussed the Polish problem in the same
conservative vein. Practically all component elements of subsequent
Russian nationalism can be found in Karamzin's writings.
A detail, especially interesting in connection with Slavophilism,
is that Karamzin took in his "Memorandum" a rather
negative view of Peter the Great"
Thank you so much Rolo, not having any idea really about what is going on, I appreciate the good information you bring. Keep it up, please.
Very insightful interview. Helpful in better understanding what is going on when you have the perspective of someone on the inside as a participant.
Well, if my version of fervent prayer counts for anything that's what it will be.
Well there goes my dream of the Russian government being the “good guys” and saving the world. It was a flimsy dream, I know, so no great loss, I guess?
As usual the news and interviews from the "pro-russian" side are not pretty much entirely made up as those from the USA-ruthenian side, but have a feel of authenticity and reliability, including like in this interview reports of the difficult situations with exploitative oligarchs/gangsters in the DNR/LNR. Thanks for this interview therefore.
«As May came, Russians were burned alive in Odessa and that angered us all.»
It was not the Odessa massacre that really started the rebellion, because that could be blamed on fascist terrorists. The real turning point was I think the Mariupol massacre, 9 May 2014, the day when the civil war started, because it was the first time that official "ukrainian" government troops and armored vehicles were used to mow down ukrainian civilians, a massacre that was celebrated by the USA government of B. H. Obama:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/05/10/ukra-m10.html
“With the open support of Washington and its European allies, the regime installed by Washington and Berlin in last February’s fascist-led putsch is now extending its reign of terror against all popular resistance in Ukraine. That is the significance of the events in the major eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol yesterday. After tanks, armored personnel carriers and heavily armed troops were unleashed on unarmed civilians in the city, the Kiev regime claimed to have killed some 20 people. The Obama administration immediately blamed the violent repression on “pro-Russian separatists.” This is the second time in a week that the Obama administration has defended the role of the Kiev government in the murder of anti-government demonstrators, having done so following the Odessa killings (see: “US defends role of Kiev regime and fascists in Odessa massacre”).
The violence bore all the hallmarks of a calculated provocation on the 69th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Soviet Red Army. [...] These admirers of Hitler and his Ukrainian collaborators are now serving, with Washington’s full support, as the regime’s shock troops against popular opposition centered in the industrialized east of the country as well as in Russian-speaking centers such as Odessa in the south. The same forces have been given free rein to attack anyone in the west of the country who dares to oppose the fascistic government in Kiev. Outraged accounts from residents of Mariupol, verified by journalists on the ground, make it clear that many of those targeted by the Ukrainian National Guard and associated fascist elements on Friday had been participating in a Victory Day rally commemorating the anniversary.”
The Mariupol massacre has been largely forgotten outside the DNR/LNR, in part because it is was an embarrassment to V. Putin. But I think that very few people in Donbas have forgotten it. If there is a side that I really sympathize with is not the russian side and never mind the fascist ruthenian side, but that of the people of Donbas, who only now are slowly emerging from 8 years of brutality, and I am not surprised that many of them yearn for the years of peace and prosperity that the USSR meant for them.
Is there anything we here in the US can do to help?