In 2004-2005, Ukrainians finally had enough of Russia’s blatant intrusion into the affairs if their country. After Putin’s government tried to manipulate the Ukrainian presidential elections to ensure that a pro-Russian candidate became the leader of Ukraine, the country erupted in hundreds of peaceful, creative, and colorful protests.
This hopeful moment when the people of Ukraine rejected the 300+ years of Russia’s brutal colonial rule and the 13 years of constant intrusion of Russia into Ukraine’s business after Independence was called the Orange Revolution.
Finally, Ukrainians were ready to come together and put a stop to the endless interference into their country’s affairs on the part of a big and powerful neighbor. A decision was made to commemorate the millions of victims of the Communist regime brought to Ukraine by the Russians in 1921. A cross was erected in Kiev in memory of the fallen and as a sign of a national reconciliation. For a very long time, the myth of the Eastern and the Western parts of Ukraine which were supposed to be at war with each other had been promoted by the colonial powers. Now the Ukrainians were trying to come together in the opposition to Russian imperialism.
Yesterday, a Ukrainian pseudo-feminist organization FEMEN decided that the Ukrainian victims of Communist genocide matter less than a hooliganism trial taking place in Russia and destroyed the cross. This is a highly symbolic act that signals the readiness of certain representatives of the Ukrainian youth to forget the colonial past and go back to caring about Russia more than they ever cared about Ukraine.
As a Ukrainian, I can tell you that we were schooled to believe that everything Russian was better, more important and more prestigious than anything Ukrainian. When after the independence the TV companies started showing Ukrainian news programs instead of the Russian ones, many people were appalled. For them, the only news that mattered were the ones coming from Russia. The women of FEMEN are young, yet their mentality is still fully colonial. The centuries of colonial rule brought out in people this humiliating servility that leads them to destroy their own historic memory to show how well they lick the boot of their masters.
Clarissa's Blog 
Now that’s just fucking tragic.
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Tragic, you are right. These are young people who’ve had opportunities to distance themselves from the colonial mentality. But the inner colonial is stronger, I guess.
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I think a nice fine (around 10 thousand dollars) would convince these “feminists” to stop doing stupid stuff like this. Literally pissing on millions of victims’ memory.
(I know the currency is Hryvna, but…. you know…).
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What I find weirdest about the western defenders of FEMEN and Pussy Riot is that all of their arguments seem to revert back to some odd idea that freedom of speech means being allowed to do whatever you want, anywhere, with anything, as if belongs to you, without repercussions. They completely whitewash over why a reasonable person might find this unacceptable. Furthermore, and this is a suspicion that I’ve been mulling over since reading your last post on the topic, I wonder if a lot of Americans and other westerners don’t understand that other countries are not required to directly toe the same legal line that we’ve developed. Really, really strange to me.
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I wonder if a lot of Americans and other westerners don’t understand that other countries are not required to directly toe the same legal line that we’ve developed.(Flib)
You are exactly right. But dont be bitching if their line all of a sudden becomes a yardstick for you, really.
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What on earth is going on here I feel like this is all getting out of hand, I mean they (Pussy Riot) were on the front page of The Times in the UK today because it looks like they were trespassing where they should not have been and have been arrested for that however it sucks that they’re going to prison.
It’s weird because I’m all for protest and shaking up the system I grew up on punk but they broke the law and have been arrested for that. Nobody in the blogs I read has been able to tell me just what they were protesting all they can offer is some platitudes about Putin and Russia and freedom and thats it.
I feel like a traitor for not supporting this, but at the same time it’s like I don’t know anything about the situation is these places (I’m from the UK) and nether do the majority of westerners whose blogs I read but they seem like they do and oh god I don’t know.
Sorry to rant all over you’re blog but what I’m saying Clarissa is that you’re an oasis of sanity in a desert of WTF at the moment regarding this incident.
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“Sorry to rant all over you’re blog but what I’m saying Clarissa is that you’re an oasis of sanity in a desert of WTF at the moment regarding this incident.”
– Thank you. 🙂 A post on what really happened with Pussy Riot is coming up tomorrow. I’m so tired right now that all I can do is self-promote. 🙂
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Well I did a bit of promotion of your blog (or at least this post) on mine, in the comments on one of the posts on this issue. What I get from my Russuion Orthodox friends about the Pussy Riot is (1) They shouldn’t have done it; and (2) they shouldn’t have been prosecuted for doing it.
But the Western media seem to take the line that it was really cool that they did it, and that the right to freedom of speech totally overrides the freedom not to listen.
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“As a Ukrainian, I can tell you that we were schooled to believe that everything Russian was better, more important and more prestigious than anything Ukrainian. When after the independence the TV companies started showing Ukrainian news programs instead of the Russian ones, many people were appalled. For them, the only news that mattered were the ones coming from Russia. The women of FEMEN are young, yet their mentality is still fully colonial. The centuries of colonial rule brought out in people this humiliating servility that leads them to destroy their own historic memory to show how well they lick the boot of their masters.”
Even if I’m a traitor, I find this superb!
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