A “good” symbol of Malorichenske

Have the Ukrainian Internet users paid attention to the picture of the building used as a background in the film Crimea. The Way Home? The building was designed by Ukrainian artists. For those who love Crimea I will remind that this is a memorial dedicated to those who were killed in water accidents in Malo­ri­chenske village. It is located 25 kilometers away from Alushta. The complex is dedicated to the water accidents. It started with being a lighthouse church of St. Nicholas the Wonder­worker, a patron of travelers and sailors (it was designed by People’s Artist of Ukraine Anatolii Haidamaka and Me­rited Worker of Art of Ukraine Borys Diedov and constructed by Anatolii Androsenko). Its structure stands on a ground floor. The construction was financed by two businessmen, Russian Aleksandr Lebedev and Ukrainian Viacheslav Yutkin. The concrete construc­tion was done mainly by Turks, whereas the projection, deco­ra­tion, and cultural-artistic works were performed exclu­sively by Ukrainians, mainly by residents of Chernihiv.

The church was donated to the Rus­sian Orthodox Church, and Mindalna roshcha Ltd. became the owner of the ground floor. According to the leasing agreement, the Culture Art Center of Chernihiv City Organization Plast-Art, a legal person representing the NGO, was supposed to use the premises till April 2015. The organization has been maintaining the complex throughout the previous years. In better times it used to receive over 25,000 visitors on an annual basis.

But on February 5, 2015 Cossacks with Rev. Sergey came to the complex. They physically turned out the security guards of the object, broke the doors, changed the locks, and opened the ca­binets. After this visit some things disappeared. All this was going on before the eyes of the employees of the memorial together with the head of Plast-Art Borys Diedov. The encroachers slammed doors before the personnel and no one was allowed to enter the church, even the head of the project. The local police filed a protocol and recommended the “khokhol” (a pejorative term for ethnic Ukrainians) “to keep a low profile.” The appeals to the self-proclaimed autho­rities of Crimea have not had any effect either. The legislation does not work there. Isn’t this a good symbol of mo­dern Crimea and Russia’s attitude to Ukraine?