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The Nazi Danger — A Letter from Odessa

The Nazi Danger — A Letter from
Odessa

By T., a teacher from Odessa — submitted
by Bruce Gagnon
http://warisacrime.org/content/nazi-danger-letter-odessa

I
have lived in Odessa since my early childhood and adore this
sunny south city with its hospitable and witty people.
Odessa is a multinational city which is reflected in the
names of its streets: French and Italian Boulevards, Greek
and Bulgarian Streets, Moldavian district, etc. Odessa was
built according to a decree issued by the Russian empress
Catherine the Great over 200 years ago as a Russian port
city on the Black Sea. And it was constructed by French and
Italian architects and engineers invited by Catherine. That
is why it is said to resemble Paris …

During the Soviet
period Odessa was a part of the Ukrainian SSR – one of the
15 republics comprising the USSR at the time, though it was
Russian, both by its population and the language it spoke.
But it was not of principal importance for the numerous
nations and nationalities living there, as all of them had
equal rights and comprised one and the same Soviet people.
When I studied at school there were Russians, Ukrainians,
Jews and Bulgarians in my class, and it didn’t matter –
we were the citizens of one and the same country.

After
the USSR collapsed, the Ukrainian Republic became Ukraine
and started building its own independent state seeking to
prove its self-sufficiency and ability to become a powerful
and prosperous state. But it failed. Instead the state
succeeded in splitting and embroiling the two people
inhabiting it – Ukrainians and Russians. Being a teacher I
can definitely state that in 23 years of independence there
appeared a generation of young people brought up in a
Russophobic spirit. It was made possible due to the
anti-Russian policy of the state which tried to shift the
discontent of its citizens from itself onto its external
neighbour-state – Russia (the so-called “younger-brother
syndrome”). But to make hatred to one’s fraternal people
a country’s national idea is, to my mind, absurd and a
crime against its own people.

Ukraine could be called
“an artificial state”. If one takes interest in its
history, it will turn out that the state has existed in its
present form not so long ago, and consistsof heterogeneous parts. One of
the major reasons of the present crisis in Ukraine is that
the neo-nazi and Russophobic ideology of one of these parts,
Galicia, is imposed upon the entire Ukraine. The slogans of
the Kyiv “Maidan” like “Glory to Ukraine! – Glory to
heroes!”, “Nation is above all!”, “Death to
enemies!” are the slogan of the nationalists and
Bandera-followers from the west of Ukraine. Their enemies
are Russians, and their heroes are Bandera, Shukhevich and
the like, who were fascists’ henchmen during the last war,
and who became notorious for their flagrant atrocities
against peaceful population in the west of Ukraine.

And
for Odessa, which heroically fought with [against Hitler]
the fascist invaders, for Crimea (which “returned back
home to Russia”), as well as for the whole southern and
eastern Ukraine, such an ideology is unacceptable and
arouses rebuff. There are lots of ethnic Russian and
Russian-speaking people here who are traditionally strongly
attached by Russia. So in many cities, Odessa inclusive,
people startedparticipating in peaceful protest
marches demanding, in particular, a referendum as to the
future state structure arrangement.

They do not want to be
second-rate people, they want to stay on the land where they
belong, to speak their native tongue, and to live in peace
with their Russian neighbours-brothers, as well as with the
whole world. But the Western-backed (US first and foremost)
unelected fascist regime in Kyiv does not want to take into
account their inalienable right to their culture and
national identity, so confrontation and repressions started.
The propaganda of the Ukrainian media is stirring up the
information war, the journalists trying to tell the truth
have to leave the country. The Russian TV channels are cut
off. A parliamentary deputy, Oleg Tsaryov, the only
presidential candidate who tried to inform the government
and the world public about the opinion of the people living
in the south-east, is now subject to criminal prosecution
and is being relieved from inviolability of a deputy.

On
the Internet there has recently been promulgated the
telephone talk between Tsaryov and the second-richest
Ukrainian oligarch Kolomoysky (the latter is said to stay
behind and pay for organizing the flagrant provocation and
massacre in Odessa, as well as for organizing punitive
squads for fighting the people’s volunteer corps in the
eastern regions of Ukraine), in which Kolomoysky was
threatening Tsaryov and his family.(ref) As a result,
millions of people in the south-east do not feel themselves
protected, fear about their future and seek protection and
salvation from their brothers-Slavs living in Russia.
That’s why the slogans “Russia!”, “No to junta”,
“No to fascism!” and “Putin!” were sounding during
their peaceful protest marches. These thousands of people
are neither “separatists”, nor “terrorists” as they are
often called by the pro-Kyiv media, they are just peaceful
citizens wishing to be heard.

Now the split in Ukraine has
turned into a real war against its own people, with a great
number of victims. The horrible massacre and the succeeding
burning of dozens of people in Odessa
is, to my mind, a peak in the fratricidal war. I am neither
a politician, an expert, nor an investigator, so I am not to
judge exactly what forces are behind these events. But
having read lots of information and opinions on the Internet
I understand that it is definitely a provocation in the
dirty game of big politicians and oligarchs in their
struggle for redivision of the world, power and money. Now
only children do not understand that the West does not want
to see the truth about the events in Ukraine because the
stakes in this game are geopolitical. The fight is for
hegemony in the world between Russia and the USA, and
Ukraine just happens to be the battlefield between these two
“great powers”. It is quite natural that Russia does not
want to have NATO “at its door”, and a US naval base
deployed in Odessa. Neither do the Russians living
here.

Whether the crime in Odessa will be investigated or
not, is a big question. I personally am not at all sure of
it. But it is impossible to put up with the fact that 48
Odessites (and, by the grapevine, much more) have been
burned alive, as in Byelorussian village of Khatyn. We have
been seeing their charred bodies while sleeping and have
cried our eyes out imagining their sufferings. There has
never been such a horrible crime against humanity in Odessa
since the war of 1941-1945. My parents were fighting then
against Hitler invaders, my father was awarded to many
orders and medals, my mother had two medals too – one
“For the Defense of Stalingrad”, and another one “For
the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War”. So I
cannot accept the fact that neo-nazism and fascism as
represented by the current junta (and there is no other name
for this unlawful and criminal government) is established in
Ukraine. After the Odessa Khatyn there will never be a
single and united Ukraine. Fascism/nazism is a terrible
evil, and if it is not immediately stopped, it will keep
growing and sprawling like cancer.

I was so glad when,
thanks to Olga, I got an opportunity to contact you: now we
have some hope to bring the truth about Odessa and Ukraine
to the people all over the world. I would be happy if my
letter could at least a little helpful for you in your noble
and important activity, that of struggle for
peace.

ENDS

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