Dear editorial board of The Day,
I appreciate your support for the initiative of the group of the Donetsk National University students who propose giving it the name of Vasyl Stus, its eminent graduate, a poet, and a fighter against despotism. It is no wonder that the students’ suggestion has caused a discussion in the Donetsk region. However, it is unfortunate that some of its participants’ voices evoke sadness and bitterness. Vasyl Stus does not need his name to be imposed upon anybody, but the way he is being discussed is an indicator of the disputants’ cultural level.
I, personally, care more about how much Vasyl Stus’ image and poetry is present in the consciousness of Donetsk’s and Ukraine’s intellectual community than about naming the Donetsk National University after him. In my opinion, it would be an honor that the university’s faculty deserves, although it is up to them to make the choice. There are a number of people who understand the significance of his poetry and know the value of his heroic feat.
At the same time, there are some responses that indicate indifference or even enmity toward things that go beyond some people’s way of life and stereotypes of thinking. I was especially shocked by that insolent young man who impudently crossed Vasyl Stus out of the list of poets because his “Donbas intellect” did not accept this kind of poetry. This was, of course, irony but how miserable and self-descriptive! Indeed, it does not matter to him that a thousand true experts in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Germany, and other countries consider Stus to be one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.
Speaking of the “Donbas intellect,” the Donetsk region, as any other region in the world, is inhabited by people with normal, natural, universal human intellect. That is why the region has always produced numerous talents in every area of human activities and will continue to do so in future. A person who is satisfied with the artificially modified quasi-intellect reduced to one’s narrow-mindedness may call it “Donbas intellect,” but this person has no prospects in politics, culture, or any other area where ethics and values play a role. An escape from the great world of ideas into the self-styled “Donbas intellect” is as much an illusion as hiding into the demagogically invented “Donbas nationality.” The Donetsk region lives and will live in Ukraine, sharing the values that are common for the entire Ukrainian political nation, and Vasyl Stus’ image, poetry, and heroic feat are among those values.
