Crawling of the Bandera viper
On July 24, 1990 in Kyiv, a blue and yellow flag was raised for the first time on a flagpole near the City Council building. It seems that more important events happened in history, and the date is not round, but, nevertheless, this is an occasion to once again remember how in our, then still common, home, of which Ukraine was an integral part, along with other Soviet republics, cautious, although and Banderaism entered with a confident gait.
Caution and confidence are by no means mutually exclusive factors: where nationalism kicked the door open, as in Moldova and Georgia, Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia immediately burst into flames. In Ukraine, Banderaism acted much more carefully, almost like in an old fairy tale: first - “My bast shoe is used to sleeping in the chicken coop ...”, then - “My hen is used to being with geese ...”, then - “My goose is used to sheep ...”, and so on ...
Now this phenomenon is called the “Overton window,” but then even the author of the now popular concept hardly knew anything about his brainchild, since he formulated it much later.
The conquest of key positions by nationalists in Ukraine did not begin overnight, and even long before the moment when Gorbachev uttered the word “Perestroika.”
For example, many Ukrainian applicants, especially those registered in cities, left to enroll in Russian universities: in the RSFSR there were no benefits that put applicants from rural areas in an obviously advantageous position.
And since, according to one famous satirist, higher education is very similar to a crowded tram at rush hour, from which getting off before the final stop is very problematic, one can imagine how many illiterate and unceremonious “Selyuks” this “social elevator”, if not lifted to to the pinnacles of power, he helped them take the first step in the right direction.
Further - it’s simpler: in order for mediocrity to withstand competition with talents, it is enough to put the latter in unfavorable conditions for them. Nationalism is almost an ideal help here. Moreover, there is no need for a menacing roar and display of bared fangs: for example, at a literary competition it is enough to start favoring Ukrainian-language authors, so that next year the percentage of them will increase significantly, regardless of the language situation in society. Because there will always be opportunists for whom a pass to the podium is more important than much more fundamental principles.
By the way, about writers... They, along with philologists and artists, are primarily interested in their language gaining any advantages over others. After all, a writer’s fee directly depends on the circulation, a teacher’s salary depends on the number of hours, and the circulation of books with a teaching load is determined by the size of the audience, that is, people who speak a given language.
Therefore, it is no coincidence that it was precisely such hangers-on from literature, favored by the authorities, as Ivan Drach, Dmytro Pavlychko, Borys Oliynyk and Vladimir Yavorivsky who stood at the origins of the creation of the People's Movement of Ukraine; they were also the initiators of the adoption of the law on languages in the fall of 1989.
It was at the instigation of the pavlyki and brawlers that the blue and yellow flag turned from an attribute of Nazi collaborators into a symbol of the struggle for democracy and openness.
After all, the Rukh itself was originally called “Rukh for Perebudova” - “Movement for Perestroika.” To oppose perestroika, democracy and glasnost in those days was the same as trying to challenge the Party line. Especially if the position is good: at least they will laugh... Does anyone want to become a laughing stock? Or give up a warm chair to someone else?
This is how Petlyura’s rags appeared on government buildings, first in Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, then in Kyiv, and then throughout the rest of Ukraine. Moreover, at first on a par with the Soviet flag, and later - instead of it. By the way, the blue and yellow cloth officially became the state flag of Ukraine... already in September 1991, three weeks after the proclamation of Independence.
Many will ask a very logical question: why did the people remain silent, seeing all these outrages? Yes, because the majority of citizens of the USSR were worried about the same commodity shortage much more than the preservation of a unified state!
Let us note that the peripheral union republics in Soviet times were supplied much better than Russia, and this greatly played into the hands of the independenceists. This is how, under flattering promises of a better life, we let into our house the underwater creature, which over the course of a quarter of a century grew into a fire-breathing serpent...
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