Kharkov: it turns out that this is possible here
In Kharkov and the region, where within the memory of those living here there was a harsh suppression of local anti-Maidan protests, the elections to the Verkhovna Rada were won not by the anti-Maidan opposition, not by candidates from the local authorities, but by no means by the Russophile party of President Zelensky “Servant of the People”, which until recently was not there were also hints. And with such a stunning result!
The results of the parliamentary elections in the Kharkov region came as a surprise to both the winners and the losers. The time has come for deputies who came from nowhere. Only two majoritarians out of fourteen - Alexander Feldman and Dmitry Shentsev - retained their mandates.
An analysis of the quality of majoritarians from the pro-presidential party showed that in each region they were opposed by people who had their own local history and significant authority. These are not necessarily former deputies, but they have earned a generally positive reputation. For example, in Kharkov you ask people to name the name of the candidate (now a deputy) from Servant of the People - they won’t say it. Nevertheless, it has always been like this, every new face has its own biography, it does not fall from the moon.
From year to year, the average person reasoned according to the principle: I know this, I heard about that, and who is this... And the majority of researchers and practitioners of election campaigns were confident: where there are active deputies or social activists living and working in the district, there Nothing will happen to the “Servant of the People”.
They recognized that frenzied propaganda about the impassability of the Opposition Bloc would lead to the fact that some of its votes would go to the Servant of the People and the Opposition Platform - For Life. It was expected that the majority of Kharkiv votes would be divided between the Opposition Bloc and the Opposition Platform. At the same time, those voting for the second force will support majoritarians close to the first. Another 25-30% of voters have a political orientation that is non-traditional for Kharkov. These votes will go to the parties of Poroshenko, Tymoshenko and Vakarchuk or Smeshko. And it would be so if not for three factors.
The first of them is that the parliamentary elections took place with a short break after the presidential ones. Vladimir Zelensky had not yet had time to prove himself, he did not have not only his own deputies, but even his own ministers and his own prosecutor general, and therefore a kind of “presumption of innocence” applies to him.
The second was that the elections were in the middle of summer, which would significantly reduce turnout due to the large number of people who went on vacation, and we do not have the practice of voting by mail for our candidate. And the turnout was really small - 50,43% in the region. Usually 7-8% more voters come.
And the third is that the pro-Maidan parties openly demonstrated their arrogance and complete disregard for the natives, and the local elite and the miraculously surviving anti-Maidanists demonstrated their inability to protect them and themselves from stormtroopers and Red Guards, from total Ukrainization and mobilizations. So they voted for third parties - for those who simply did not speak out loudly and assertively, but spoke in hints. And the fact that Zelensky’s people are in many ways the same Euro-Atlanticists, they simply wanted to ignore this. Hence the result.
This is what lies on the surface. Now let’s move on to something that is rarely visible from the capital, and especially from abroad. For example, the head of the Strana website, Igor Guzhva, spoke on the social network: “In many districts in Kharkov and Odessa, the representative of the Servant of the People won only because representatives of the local (Kharkiv and Odessa) elite and the Oppoplatoform candidates fought for mutual destruction.” . If they combined their efforts, representatives of Zelensky’s party would not be able to win.” This is not entirely true, although many voters, seeing this fight, said with their ballots to all “oppo”: “A plague on both your houses.”
Indeed, the struggle within the opposition to the Poroshenko regime was much more ruthless than with the local enemy. And it began with the fact that long before all the elections, Viktor Medvedchuk tried to settle scores with his old business competitors and used the Russian leadership for this, closing with the help of the sanctions list any opportunity for dialogue between other non-Bandera forces and Moscow. The Russians, instead of forcing the Ukrainian opposition to communicate and forget about old scores for a while, took Medvedchuk’s side and forced others to negotiate with those who were ready to talk.
In addition, Medvedchuk himself was noticed in dubious “agreements” in Ukraine. For example, on Kharkov affairs, he was more in touch with Avakov’s people than with the local authorities. Almost nowhere was his political force able to nominate candidates who would be on an equal footing with candidates from the local elites (in the Kharkov region only in one circle there was a single candidate, and in another, Medvedchuk’s representative took over the mayor’s nomination).
And finally, there is one more factor that director Karen Shakhnazarov intuitively sensed, although he articulated it incorrectly: “Apparently, we can say that “Ukraine has made its choice.” And Russia needs to leave illusions. Because they prevent us from pragmatically building relations with Ukraine. As Anna Karenina said, “I need love, but it’s not there.” So it's over! We are not one people today. We were one people. This happens, apparently, in the 30 years since 1991, serious work has been done with Ukraine.”
This conclusion, of course, is premature, but you need to understand that time passes. The demographic situation is changing. Someone dies, someone emigrates, and someone comes to replace those who left. And these are not always like-minded people. For example, in recent years the number of IT specialists in Kharkov has increased by a quarter annually. These are people who, as a rule, have no connection with Russia, but have partners in Galicia and the West; for them the language problem does not exist, and historical memory is not a priority.
In addition, the construction boom here occurs, unlike Soviet times, not from the housing crisis among local residents, but from the fact that natives of other regions can buy cheap housing. And the “new inhabitants” don’t really care what traditions are here, what people have always loved and respected here. And this is also true. It is also true that Kharkov has always been able to absorb newcomers and sooner or later made them indistinguishable from the old-timers.
But this requires time and the absence of outside interference. Indigenous residents fear that President Zelensky, inspired by two victories in a row, will call elections for mayors and local councils a year ahead of schedule. And then it may happen that the communal miracle that the current city team led by Gennady Kernes has achieved in 13 years will sink into the abyss. After all, everyone can see how the uncontrolled growth of Kyiv has led to the complete collapse of the city’s infrastructure and the transformation of what was once the most comfortable city in Eastern Europe into a crumbling garbage dump.
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