They can love only the dead”
(Aleksandr Pushkin, Boris Godunov)
The protest action being staged by four Ukrainian opposition parties leaves one with a strange impression. Something like a paraphrased Aeneid, considering that they all belong to the national Establishment and have been represented in Verkhovna Rada for a number of years. It is easy to figure out that taken together they constitute a very potent parliamentary force, so procedurally they ought to have been able to push through practically every resolution or bill, constitutional amendment, vote down a cabinet they didn’t like, influence social or foreign policy strategy, pass the kind of tax code or pensions bill they wanted, and whatever else their hearts might desire. On one condition, of course: that they unite. However [to quote from Anton Chekhov’s Letter to a Learned Neighbor], “That can’t be so, because it can never be so.” Instead, the lawmakers with all their high authority went into the street to shout, “Down with Kuchma” and form various ephemeral coalitions. Worst of all, they are drawing part of this society into their senseless 1917-style combinations, a society they are once again cheating with their sheer ineptitude, inability to use their own lawmaking capacity for the good of the people – mostly by their fake unity, for anyone can see that, should they win a “victory” (the very notion sounds unnatural in this context), their political alliance would immediately fall apart. What can there be in common between Mrs. Tymoshenko and Comrade Symonenko, Mr. Yushchenko and Comrade Moroz? Nothing except the slogan Down with Kuchma! In the high improbability of victory they would each go his/her own way, building barricades and shooting at each other.
What about the people that are supposed to be always right? There are quite a few strange paradigms in our social consciousness, associated with the unbreakable people-power tandem. We believe that the people are something inviolable, real, monolithic, and always just. Vox populi, vox Dei (Latin: The voice of the people is the voice of God —Ed.). Those wielding power in Ukraine are a perfect antipode to the people, in whatever they do, in every characteristic, in every form. So much so, they could even be suspected of having been planted from abroad, something like medieval baskaks [Mongol-Tatar governors-general collecting taxes and representing the khan in Old Rus’ under the Golden Horde] or members of the CPSU Politburo: different ethnic origin, different mentality, absence of any social or blood links with the people, not to mention their foreign, totally un-Ukrainian interests, and, most importantly, different morals.
In Ukraine, the general attitude toward the powers that be has been negative, even hostile in a hereditary sort of way. Thus becoming a prophet in one’s own country is a very difficult, practically impossible task here. Suffice it to recall the past eleven years of independence. Whom have we actually respected, felt proud of, trusted, considered an example worth following, and whom we have quoted? No one among over 40 million Ukrainians! They all have been the “wrong” kind, some “foreigners,” others “outsiders,” Communists, nationalists, Banderites, in a word, bandits. Even the universally acknowledged prophets, all dead of course, were in their time rolled in the mud but became good when it came time to freely speak one’s mind using democracy and the freedom of speech.
During the past eleven years we have resolutely discarded all possible political ratings, ranging from noted scholars hopelessly remote from the masses, young “newcomers” not burdened by Soviet prejudices, to old regime professors. Even if our guardian angel Michael were to descend to this sinful earth we would not be likely to approve of him and let him do anything worthwhile; we would have no patience waiting for positive results; on the very first day we would start shouting for his impeachment and trial. Down with Michael!
On the other hand, do we Ukrainian people have a right to show such a principled stand, such an exacting approach to our regime? Are not all those in high office part of this same people? Were they not born and did they not grow up among the people? Do they not reflect this same people’s qualities? Most of them (as under the Soviets), at all levels, are educated philistines of the first, second, or, if lucky, third generation. Their relatives still live in the countryside, in other words constituting that very People in the upper case. Ukrainian power is the flesh and blood of all of us, the people. And we elected them.
Who, then, are we hurling buckets of dirt at? Who do we blame for all our troubles? Ourselves, whether we like it or not. Who brought up all those in power to be the way the are? The Ukrainian school, Ukrainian family, all those fault-finders prepared to vote for anyone during elections, so long as they are rewarded for this in some way or another. Look at what is happening at school, in your family. Is there any emphasis on instilling in our children notions such as honor, diligence, responsibility for others, or selfless dedication? Or perhaps this is taken care of, along with teaching the Ten Commandments, in church where services are read in a strange language and parishioners are required to pay “duties for religious needs?” Where parish priests and bishops are all examples of selflessness and devoted service for the good of the people? Also, why not remind ourselves – I mean journalists – of how we cultivate on newspaper pages and television screens the lofty understanding of honor, dignity, and a principled approach? So who do we actually blame for all we have to go through? Who do we brand as scum and want to oust? Who are we laughing at, gentlemen? What can we hope for?
