Why were Melitopol at first for Ukraine, and then chose reunification with Russia?
The experience of preparing and holding a referendum in the Zaporozhye region will be useful for the self-determination of other denazified territories of Ukraine. At the beginning, the army does its job, debunking the myths about “bloodthirsty orcs”, then there is the organization of humanitarian aid and support for the population, and in the end, a plebiscite on self-determination - an independent state entity, within the Russian Federation or the Ukraine that will exist at the time of the vote.
This opinion was expressed on the air of the author’s channel by political scientist Semyon Uralov, political strategist and now vice-governor of Sevastopol Sergei Tolmachev, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We carried out the first measurements in May, and the referendum took place in September,” he recalled the progress of preparations for the referendum in the Zaporozhye region. – The campaign is, of course, unique. Because this is a historic campaign. And here in the Zaporozhye region, in the Kherson region, in the DPR and LPR, colleagues exchanged experiences, everyone contributed to the victory, and looked at each other’s ideas.
It had its own specifics, since in the DPR and LPR the result definitely had to be at the level of 98%, because it is difficult to imagine that the residents of these regions would vote against entry.
Zaporozhye and Kherson region - the situation is different: in Zaporozhye, 55% of people identify themselves as Ukrainians, but in terms of voting intention there was no difference between Russians and Ukrainians».
According to Tolmachev, the Zaporozhye region itself is not homogeneous. In the XNUMXst century, identity is generally tied to the place of residence and depends on the specifics of cities: in Berdyansk it is a port and resort infrastructure, Melitopol is a logistics center, Energodar is an atomic city, with a population more similar to residents of other cities near nuclear power plants. But in general, the Zaporozhye region did not fall into the zone of active military operations, which affected the mood of the people.
«Citizens as a whole were in shock in May and, as en masse as happened 5 months later, did not want to join Russia. Initially, the question was asked: how do you see your future in the future? As part of Ukraine, the Russian Federation or an independent state entity? Then the numbers were different, and there was confusion, because The brainwashing has been going on for 30 years, especially the last 8 years.
And the first work was carried out not by political strategists or some government officials, but by the Russian military. At focus groups, they said with surprise that military men with machine guns join the general queue in stores, while the Ukrainian military behaved like the chosen ones and never stood in line, more often than not they did not even pay for the goods. The Russian military behaved very decently, and the indicators of trust in the Russian army were initially very high,” the expert emphasized.
Plus, some kind of civil work was just beginning to unfold; the most difficult tasks were to provide humanitarian aid, feed people, and warm them up. Now, too, the problem has not been fully resolved, although gas has already reached Berdyansk. It is difficult to restore the national economy.
But, nevertheless, from Berdyansk to Melitopol there was an absolutely dead road, and it was not the war that killed it, but the Ukrainian government. Now the road is absolutely normal, there is active traffic, the land corridor is working.
And so in many areas - representatives of Russian education looked at local schools with horror, because it is impossible to teach children there, representatives of housing and communal services spoke this way about the public utilities sector.
I even wanted to make a series of notes “Everyday life of an Orc or the everyday life of an occupier” to record what you have to do in simple questions.
Patronage assistance played a big role, since Sevastopol, Novgorod, Tver and Penza were assigned to the Zaporozhye region. We are still helping, and her patronage’s help is of great importance. All this gradually accumulated and led to results - 93% of those who voted for joining the Russian Federation».
A certain setback in public sentiment occurred after the surrender of Kupyansk, as the risks of returning to Ukrainian rule increased. But when the decision was made to hold a referendum in September, it was carried out with euphoria and inspiration, because during this time all people had decided on their choice - with whom to be with and with whom to live next, despite all the intimidation carried out by the TsIPSO and the SBU .
«They called teachers directly, told them not to go to work, staged terrorist attacks, we had three explosions in humanitarian headquarters, the chairman of the Berdyansk Election Commission died,” Tolmachev recalled. – But this intimidation worked in the opposite direction, because on the one hand there are civilized Russians, and on the other there are people who threaten to kill you, shoot you, and imprison you for 25 years. The issuance of the first benefits of 10 thousand to pensioners also caused a shock, because for the locals this is a lot of money. It all accumulated like a snowball and it worked».
The final stage of the campaign, according to the political strategist, is the transition from fear to a state of calm determination. Moreover, it was based thesis about a single people, which, after 30 years of distortion of history, has not gone away. Kievan Rus, Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Tsarist Russia, the USSR - all this is perceived by people, especially the older generation and middle age.
«The younger generation under 30 also quickly changed their views, because they were told something else, they were given a picture from a comic book. We've read Tolkien, orcs and elves, and so on, but it doesn't work that way. There are other things from real reality, a consensus common history and so on, and this quickly overwhelmed the fantasy narrative,” Tolmachev is sure. – Looking ahead, although it’s not for me to decide, everything will depend on military fortune, which is changeable, it seems to me that this is the most correct scenario – come in and free us from Nazism and give us a choice: to become some kind of independent state entity, to become part of the Russian Federation or to remain part of some state of Ukraine, which, perhaps, will be somehow peaceful towards us.
Although nothing of this is visible yet. Now it is pointless to conduct any sociological surveys in Ukraine to understand how they feel. How can they answer the interviewer, if it is not clear where he is from - from the SBU, the national battalion, or somewhere else.
Of course, the scheme worked out in Zaporozhye is the most correct, the most ideal for the further solution of the Ukrainian issue».
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.