Odessa: Remember this May 9, Nazis!
On the ninth of May, at ten o’clock, the girls and I agreed to meet and go to the Walk of Fame together. I had already thought through the route, knew where I would buy flowers, and set the alarm clock. But yes, paranoia did not give me peace, because I understood that Marinka, seeing the new policemen, would definitely ask something like “Boys, who hired you so ugly and lame-legged?”, and I would start laughing. But Galka said that the mother of the guy who was beaten and burned in the House of Trade Unions would come out with us for the first time. And I think - how to laugh in front of her and in general, how to behave?..
But in the morning Galka calls and says that Marinka is being searched, and instead of getting ready for the Alley, we talk on the phone for an hour, calming each other down: Galka twitches at every rustle, thinking that they have come for her too, but she I saw with my own eyes how her adult son miraculously escaped from the roof of the House of Trade Unions, she mentally buried him, she SURVIVED it!.. And my little one is just small and, of course, I understand that “I finished writing a long time ago.” And together we understand that we are about to burst into tears. I yell into the phone something like “Get out of the house!” She “I’m afraid for Marinka!”... Because Marinka was injured on May 2, 2014 on the Kulikovo Field, and in the winter she had a stroke... Suddenly Marinka calls and says that “the cops drank compote when they searched the refrigerator... They left. The house is upside down, shelves have been ripped off the cupboards. I call a taxi and go to the Alley!” Well, that’s how she is, Marina! “What did they want?” I ask. Marinka replies “they are accused of organizing the riots on May 2 three years ago,” - this is when they tried to kill her! She brought me a court order, but in the heat we simply couldn’t handle it - it’s hard to read such nonsense.
And I'm going.
I’m already going in a bad mood, I’m late. The flower speculators under the house, having guessed where I was going, suddenly sell me a bouquet at a wholesale price and ask “Put it from us too!” Congratulations on Victory Day.
But “on the switch”, there are still our people at the station, we don’t have time to call everyone - not everyone is still aware of the searches. Our Larisa says: “I’m standing at the station. A group of Ukrainian “patriots” began to gather next to me to also move to the Walk of Fame. Young sbitni in black camouflage robes and soft sports shoes. Some are transported by minibuses. They come out with backpacks and bags. They wink joyfully at each other, pulling on their black hoods and pinning a red poppy badge on their chests: “So? Shall we ask now?” I realized that they would be “pratsyuvats” with us, with the residents of the city who are rushing to the parade of the Immortal Regiment.”
Frame. ABOUT! They will search your bag again. But in all this turmoil, I somehow didn’t forget to tear up these idiots’ templates: I have a soap dish in the shape of a toad, bright green and squeaking – well, a child’s toy. I carefully placed it next to the powder, phone, cigarettes and handkerchief - choke! Yes, I don’t have what you would like to contribute (alas)! We've had enough of the trouble! Well, really. In short, they felt my toad on the frame thoughtfully, but without surprise - apparently, I wasn’t the only one...
There, near the frame, there are trays with red poppies and yellow-blue flags. Flags - for money. Free poppies. No one took the flags. And the poppies are just some chickens, apparently the teachers are trying to curry favor with the head teachers on Instagram, because everyone else answered the poppy peddlers politely and thoughtfully: “Let’s go to...”!
Passed the frame. Kulikovo residents call: “So and so is being searched.” The connection is lost.
Walk of Fame... You know, in childhood it really was a formality - they would lay flowers for us, and go to the monument to the Unknown Sailor for us, and Brezhnev told us about Victory Day, and just in case, even Eleonora Belyaeva and Yuri Senkevich. And now - that’s it: it’s only on our conscience and in our hands... But when the mountain of lilacs on the monument began to compare with my height - I looked and didn’t believe it, I felt like I was in a dream - neither last year nor the year before there were no number of people and flowers! I don't know how much! Because it is impossible to grasp with the eye.
...Kyivstar worked! We called Marina and our people. I found them. Oops - her finger is already bleeding: she signed up to fight off the people from the Immortal Regiment from the Nazis (you can see from those with backpacks, from the station and “pratsyuvals”), but the Nazis broke the portrait, she cut herself on the glass.
And I was already walking from the Alley in a fog - the temperature (some kind of small virus had dragged me from school), and the crowd and the heat, I think I’m going to fall right now. I remember a guy riding a moped in a military uniform - well, in OUR uniform! And after him - the Nazis and the cops rushed. And then... we apparently didn’t like it, but I don’t remember exactly. Galya later wrote on Facebook: “Tanya Gerashchenko and I shouted: “Let him go!” Let go quickly!” The police caught him out of surprise and let him go!” In the news, however, there were later “heroic” remarks about how this guy was finally detained and his pistol and knife were taken away. Nonsense - I would rather believe in a rubber toad, but not in the fact that a person brought a weapon to the Walk of Fame.
And just as we were leaving the Alley, our Masha... suddenly rushed towards the Nazis - only later did I understand why. They grabbed the guy, and Masha remembered that she was walking next to him in the Immortal Regiment, the guy had a portrait of his grandfather with the St. George Ribbon printed on it - obviously made before the rampage of the Gerashchens with the Vyatrovichs. The Nazis also remembered the guy, took his passport, and put him in a ring. I’ve already been through exactly the same thing - there are a lot of them, and obviously they don’t beat you, they just silently twist your arms, so that you walk around with bruises, take away your things and documents, take pictures (I didn’t care - I’ve been on the “Peacemaker” for a long time) and yell “Police, we took the separatist!”
Masha says: “I come up, and a bunch of werewolves are already searching this man. Fear? What fear is there - I go straight there, and these guys are already leafing through the guy’s passport... I take him by the hand and say: “Let my young man go home!” Marina ran up and said, “This is my son, let him go, what’s the matter?!” They answered us rudely, but I stubbornly insisted that I wanted to “take my boyfriend home and that’s it!” The girls played their roles at the highest level and everything worked out for us. They, apparently, because of their stupidity and surprise, because of our screams and actions, gave us the guy. And I took his hand and we left. Then everyone went in their own direction. Then I found out that his name was Kolya.”
Kolya and I were on our way home. We walked along Pushkinskaya in silence, and I thought about one thing, remembering how the Nazis mocked me in the same way, how only one guy from the crowd stood up for me, and they knocked him down and kicked him. I had one thing in my head then: “Lord, my child is waiting for me at home.” And then Kolya said sadly: “The child is waiting for me at home.” And we moved on. In his backpack there was a portrait of his grandfather with the St. George Ribbon, and Odessa residents with the same portraits were walking towards the Walk of Fame - and there was no end to this Immortal Regiment! And it won't! Never! Remember this, Nazis!
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