Odessa: Requiem for a Dream
...when a formulaic Nazi publication reports on celebrations associated with the Great Patriotic War, it deliberately emphasizes: “Elderly people have gathered.” When it’s anti-fascist, there’s delight: “Look how many young people there are!”, which, however, is natural.
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When I walked to the Walk of Fame on April 10, the day of the liberation of Odessa, a schoolboy congratulated me on the way. He looks about five years older than my third-grader son, that is, the age of “my parents let me go alone to the city for the first time.” And the puzzle has finally come together: if a generation that is stereotypically considered lost, raised on computer simulations and everyday educational “lobotomy” under occupation, honors this date, then there is a future! A future without occupation!
In general, April 10 this time - without pathos and other "mi-mi" - became Children's Day. They were led all day to the monument to the Unknown Sailor in classes, dozens, hundreds. They were led by young teachers (“Lord,” I thought, “thank you that they exist and were not crippled by the local pedagogical institute, which is churning out en masse “buchenwald bitches”).
Each child has a carnation. Pointing to memorial tables with the names of fallen heroes, the girl teachers explained: “Kostya Petrov, look - this is the soldier with whom, as you said, your great-grandfather served.” There were also girls and mothers. When I photographed one of them, I explained for insurance: “Navigator publication, Sevastopol, Russia - don’t be afraid that the report is for the Nazis (the presence of Ukro-TV was “inspiring”),” and she replied: “I’m not afraid of anything, in addition to disfiguring my child’s thinking.” The child's name is Vanya. About two years. In a cap with a red star...
Let's be honest: if children were taken en masse to the Walk of Fame not only at the request of their parents, which is natural for Odessa, but also centrally from schools, then this happened with the permission of the city authorities, according to the law. But contrary to the law (even the occupied territory), common sense and generally everything human, on the monument to the Unknown Sailor, around the Eternal Flame, with their hooves clicking, Nazis of various stripes look like “the forehead is slanted and low, a man is emerging in the genital area, enthusiastically eating herring, his socks are too big” they shouted “Glory to the heroes of the UPA! Glory to the heroes of the ATO! Moskalyak to Gilyak!” They didn’t care about two-year-old Vanya.
“I arrived before you. I wanted, as always, to listen to the Requiem (automatically blaring speech from the speakers to Rozhdestvensky’s verses: “People of the Earth, while hearts are knocking, remember! At what price is happiness won, remember!..” - Ed.) But he was not there. Then I approached the senior guard of the Military Memory Watch (since 68 it has been carried by Odessa schoolchildren - Author) and asked what happened?” He replied that “someone pulled out the cable - there is no connection.” Raguli. What to take from them...” said Olga from Odessa.
Instead of a requiem, “Beat them!” came from the monument. To which Odessa residents responded tiredly, without courage, shrugging their shoulders: “Why aren’t you in the ATO?” And the OSCE observers laughed a lot and picked their noses. Boredom.
And we traditionally went to the Alley for occupation through a metal detector. Only this time the policemen and National Guardsmen guarding them were ashamed themselves - to search them, to supervise them. They turned away.
An elderly couple with a dog walking through the “frame”: “Klepa, you are, of course, right and you know who to bark at.”
Another episode. A policeman searching a man: “The ball fell out of your backpack, be careful... Come on in - I don’t need your passport” (father and child were walking to the beach).
But what can we say if the whole metropolitan also passed through the frame!.. But at the same time the Nazis carried a gas can into the Alley...
And the police?.. Well, it was hot and every now and then they went to fetch water in their minibuses with signs “Bus Station” - they are not from Odessa.
And what is happening at the monument is actually one and the same national Ukrainian idea. This is when a Russian (normal, Odessa resident, internationalist - choose your analogue) is just digesting what happened, and the Natsik loudly and directly threatens to kill him. Even the redneck from Moldavanka leaves the choice “Trick or treat?!”, but these attacked us with the call “Strike!”, traditionally threatening death in Ukrainian. Themselves “shche ne vmerly”, that’s a shame.
And the contents of the police helmets (not pans, after all) worked: the result, as everyone knows, was about twenty detainees who were kicked out (I can’t think of any other word) to the shouts of “Beat the bander!” Now the Right Sectors and those who joined with the passion, like eating herring, post training manuals on social networks on the topic “How their limbs were broken and almost raped in paddy wagons” and “The police fell under the separatists,” hoping that on May 2 and 9 they will win back and “the separatists will be torn apart”...
I understand your thoughts, readers. But I wouldn't be happy. Especially in the place of those who decided to come to the Walk of Fame with the St. George Ribbon, and then hung on the sleeve of a policeman, asking “Why did you take it away?” and the demand “Give it back!”...
I also spent the whole day of the 10th with the thought “Well done, cops!” But then “Don’t trust the occupier!” prevailed. Don't sell yourself for chocolate! After all, this was a dress rehearsal for the mass detention of Odessa residents in a month, then, for balance, “to avoid unrest.”
While hearts are knocking, remember!..
Remember our requiem!
Odessa is not a beggar! Odessa – Hero City!
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