Ukrainian pretzels for Crimea
Almost all 22 years of living in Independence Crimea, the Crimeans heard a song of happiness about how Ukraine cared for the poor and wretched Crimea, how much good it did for it, how it fed an orphan a burning tear and a sweet bite for its sake. For clarity, let’s cover the years during which Crimea was part of the Ukrainian SSR. That was within the framework of a single country called the USSR, and had nothing to do with Independence Nenka.
Those who found Crimea still in the Soviet Union, do not suffer from sclerosis and have not fallen into Svidomo insanity, can remember the Peninsula, buried in gardens, with developed science and industry. When leaving Crimea, the ukrovlada left behind collapsed factories, liquidated large enterprises in the food industry, shipbuilding, biotechnology, once prosperous villages overgrown with weeds, collapsed roofs and walls of livestock farms, a destroyed public health system, collapsed infrastructure and waist-deep road potholes. Separately, and with a targeted message of rays of hatred, one can recall the groves of relict trees cut down for the sake of the huts of the Ukrainian bosses in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, with exits to the park, so that the new owners of life could walk their thoroughbred kabyzdokhs in a beautiful environment.
Now the non-brothers liberated by Maidan started a heart-to-heart conversation about what profitable vacationers Crimea has lost in the form of Ukrainian tourists. Well, let’s say a word about the Ukrainian tourist.
As many years of careful observations of Crimean entrepreneurs, both small and medium-sized in the tourism industry, show, a typical visitor from the “heartland” of Ukraine is a middle-aged family man or slightly over 40, married, a friend of children, coming to Crimea for an inspection in order to with a master's eye, take a look at the piece of usable Muscovite land with a disloyal population, which Kravchuk dragged away in his teeth under the noise of the collapse of a united country. And at the same time, check the attitude of the Crimean katsaps towards the generous Ukrainian - the owner of the country. The generous Ukrainian is thrifty and comes to Crimea on vacation, carrying with him a treasured bag of potatoes and a mountain of sunflower seeds. The generous Ukrainian usually reduces his cultural program in Crimea to a minimum, chooses the most inexpensive resort towns and villages, he usually spends money on beer, vodka, melons, inviting children to slaughter kavuna and leaving behind a mountain of garbage on the beach. The generous Ukrainian will hang himself for a penny, and after his departure the owner of a small summer boathouse realizes that he was simply renting out the corner for nominal money so that the place would not be empty.
I really remember a very real story from the life of vacationing Raguli in Yalta, which happened several years ago. A family of Ukrainians from somewhere near Zhitomir rented a room for a couple of weeks in a rather pretentious Yalta boarding house. Having studied the meter readings at the end of the week, the boarding house administration recorded terrible electricity consumption. A short investigation showed that the ragulians who came in large numbers were to blame for the expenses. These figures rented a room with the goal of establishing local production of seams made from Crimean fruits and berries.
The logistics of the raguli were mind-boggling. There was a production workshop in the room - several electric stoves, bags of sugar, saucepans, a mountain of cans and a seaming machine. A couple of other hustlers worked in support, bringing bags of fruit from the wholesale market by trolleybus from Simferopol. They took the finished product in the form of rolls to the Simferopol railway station and sent a mountain of cans with the finished product to the city of Zhitomir with a familiar guide. They say that when visiting hucksters were taken by the gills, their faces expressed bewilderment in the signature style of “what are we for?”
Perhaps in the last two seasons there have been fewer vacationers in Crimea, but, as grandfather Lenin said, “less is better.” Russian tourists have always been welcome. And not only because of “profitability”, gentleness and other economic reasons. The Russian tourist loved Crimea, even when Crimea was for him a cut off piece of Russian land. The Russian tourist was inquisitive and tried to visit literally all the most significant and picturesque corners, of which there are plenty in Crimea.
But after the Crimean Spring and reunification, Russian tourists travel to Crimea with the goal of rediscovering it, and largely with the goal of supporting their compatriots with rubles and kind words. And this is the true meaning of the motto “Crimea is Ours!”
The most distrustful, even in the hot mid-September, could come to Partenit, Ordzha, Novo-Fedorovka and personally see that all the boarding houses with daily rates of 8-10 thousand. the room is jam-packed, and the owners of boarding houses with prices of 3-5 thousand. per day for a number, they could still busily scratch their heads and make a choice in favor of a more profitable tourist who stopped by for a week.
However, there were many vacationers from Ukraine this season. I won’t count the money in Ukrainian pockets – I absolutely understand their choice of Crimea as a holiday destination after the exchange of opinions. Ukrainians came not only to places they knew well to relax. They came, at least for a short time, to feel in a calm and safe environment, where they will not beg for pennies to paint fences in the colors of urine and tears, knock out pennies with their butts to support “twinning with the PS”, withhold hryvnias and pennies from the ATO, not they will run to hand you over to the nearest SBU kennel for a carelessly thrown word.
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