ODESA – It has been a week the media discuss the developments of the attempt by the young resident of Odesa Viktoria Sybir to express her civil position by decorating the wall above the balcony of her flat in one of the buildings in the central Odesa street of Derybasivska with a sing “Slava Ukraini!” [“Glory to Ukraine!” – Ed.]. The sign is written on the wall overlooking one of the most crowded and popular parts of the legendary street. It is equally important that the sign is performed in the Ukrainian folk manner. Sunflowers and other plants appeared above the balcony about five years ago. Though the sign irritating a part of Odesa inhabitants, especially, the professional Russian and Soviet patriots was added a year ago, only now several unknown people painted it over using the building equipment and without any explanations regardless of the author’s protests. However, Sybir has already renewed the sign.
The war of wall slogans has been conducted in the Ukrainian cities for a long time, as well as in other countries. The signs leading in Odesa are the following: “Death to the yids,” “Glory to the UPA heroes,” “For united Ukraine, Belarus and Russia,” “USSR,” etc. There are also signs “Khokhols, get out!” Usually, the authors of those wall slogans hide their names. However, now we have an example of an absolutely open demonstration of the civil position through graffiti by a usual resident and not a political force.
Sybir agreed for the interview without any hesitation as soon as she found out that it was for The Day. The girl is on her fifth year at the Odesa National Maritime Academy and works in her profession. She graduated from the Odesa gymnasium No.2 where they taught in Ukrainian. It should be noted that the two native Odesa residents had a conversation using the high-quality national language.
Could you, please, tell about your family?
“My father is a Ukrainian whose family originates from Baturyn and my mother is a Greek from Georgia. They both completely supported my wall painting and the slogan. By the way, they have been reading your newspaper for a long time. I do not belong to Den’s regular readers; however I follow your interesting and instructive articles. I should also recall my grandfather, the teacher of history in the Odesa Maritime Academy.”
In this context I just have to ask you about the origin of your surname.
“People often ask me about this, especially those who wonder how someone with a geographically Russian surname can be a Ukrainian patriot. In fact, my ancestors, Decembrists of the insurgent Chernihiv regiment, were exiled to Sybir where this surname appeared.”
How would you define your social and political views?
“I do not belong to any political party on principle though recently I have had quite many offers. I consider myself a Ukrainian patriot but I negate the modern radical Ukrainian nationalism since I do not believe in its sincerity and suspect that its adherents play up to the government. The European democratic way is more acceptable to me since nobody prevents anybody else from upholding certain views and developing in general.”
What made you have written “Glory to Ukraine”? Did you have a feeling of protest that overwhelmed the hero of the bright movie by Georgy Danelia called Passport who carved the slogan “Slava KPSS!” [“Glory to CPSU!” – Ed.] on the wall of an Israeli prison?
“I wrote it during the last presidential elections on the wave of the European hopes of Ukraine when we still hoped that Yulia Tymoshenko or Arsenii Yatseniuk would win. I had no other feelings.”
What was people’s attitude to your creative work before this incident?
“Absolutely normal. Passersby often took photos of it and commented with interest. The local authorities did not express their dissatisfaction either.
“Shortly after the unknown people painted the sign over I called the police and the mayor of the city. I have not received any reply so far. I learnt from an unofficial source that it had been done by Ihor Markov’s people from Rodina. After that I was warned through the Internet not to walk in the streets. But I renewed the sign and I will do it every time. At the same time I felt the support of my surrounding.”
You have chosen the propagandist struggle though the Ukrainian society demonstrates the tendency for radicalism now. What do you think about Daryna Stepanenko’s action towards Dmytro Tabachnyk?
“I am negative about it. Their methods should not be used. But… if she decided she should have hit him with more force or spit… Though such forms of protest are common in Europe, I negate similar actions.”
In the context of struggle forms it is interesting to know your opinion about awarding the title Hero of Ukraine to Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych and then annulling the corresponding decree.
“First I was outraged that both of them were deprived of the title Hero of Ukraine. But then I realized that those outstanding figures would have been ashamed of sharing this title with, say, Volodymyr Lytvyn.”
So, what is the “wall case” the evidence of? It is too early to come up with any conclusions about shaping a significant stratum of consistently conscious Ukrainians among the young people living in Odesa or in the southern part of Ukraine. They are still exotic and rare. What is more, I had a chance to talk to young people who were imbued with the Ukrainian idea but later it turned out that it was the youth maximalism. When the adult life started material factors prevailed and made the recent patriotism minor and gradually nullified it at all. Speaking Ukrainian was also in the past since it was “inconvenient.” Patriotism is always to some extent romantic, inconvenient and sometimes dangerous in Ukraine; one cannot build the career relying on the romanticism.
Viktoria Sybir’s example proves once again the importance of the family and school education in gaining patriotism. That is why the struggle for Ukrainian-language schools is the struggle for Ukraine. It will be more difficult for the Ukrainophobes to overcome the family traditions since they will have to create a real Orwell’s “paradise” in order to do this. However, such projects exist. When commenting on the patriotism development program by the Party of Regions in Odesa, the “court” journalists and MPs emphasized that we should influence children’s mentality since they get the wrong idea of patriotism in their families.
The signal the young Ukrainian patriots give to their prospective leaders is also important. Sharing the declared ideology of some of them, young people often do not believe in the sincerity of their claims, intently watch the developments, analyze them and avoid the role of the mass, “clay” to be led and search their own ways. If the leaders do not understand this signal they risk finding themselves in the role of manure. This signal is also important for those who declare to be the liberals and emphasize that supposedly all the people living in the east and south of Ukraine are completely Russian-speaking. We have to think over what such liberalism is worth since it denies the necessity to fulfill the rights of the pro-Ukrainian minority in these Ukrainian regions. If the necessary and considered actions are undertaken, this minority will quickly turn into the majority, the firm basis of the Ukrainian sovereignty and nation.
