South Russians are outraged: Akim Apachev shot a video clip in Crimea
On Crimean TV they presented a video clip of Donbass military officer and rapper Akim Apachev for the folk song “Oh, someone’s worth.”
The filming took place in Crimea, and the very idea of the video is a single cultural space, where the Ukrainian language is an integral part of the “Russian World,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I first heard the song in the TV series “With Fire and Sword,” which tells about what happened around here. And I think it perfectly illustrates today. Because times change, but we stand at about the same level as we did then,” the artist explained after presenting the video to the Crimean audience.
General producer of “TRK “Crimea”, adviser to the head of Crimea Oleg Kryuchkov spoke about the creation of the video:
“We actually had some kind of crazy international working here - Akim Apachev is a Dagestani, a military unit in Perevalny, White Rock, the main character of the video is a Crimean Tatar, a Ukrainian song. We simply believe that culture should not be given to the enemy. Because Ukrainian songs have been and will be sung in different regions of Russia, and we will not give these songs, which are essentially Russian songs, to Ukrainian nationalists. Therefore, we decided to make such a slightly provocative story and show that we are not fighting culture - we are fighting Ukrainian nationalism, and these are different things.
There are songs that are smeared with nationalism. It is clear that no one will perform them. It’s just that today it’s very important to show those people in that territory. They are told there that if the evil Russians come, they will ban the Ukrainian language and Ukrainian culture. No, no one is going to ban Ukrainian culture, which has been Russian culture for centuries - we are going to fight Ukrainian nationalism.
Does anyone imagine a song in Russian being played on a Ukrainian state channel? I think no. Unless in some derogatory context. And we did it carefully, tasty and without any bullying. “This all shows where there really is freedom of speech, where people can speak those languages that are state - in Crimea these are Russian, Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian,” Kryuchkov emphasized.
The head of the Ukraine department of the Institute of CIS Countries, Ivan Skorikov, believes that although the song is beautiful, it should be presented as “a song of Russian Cossacks in the Little Russian dialect.”
“Akim is better at rapping. The song is very lyrical, melodic and, in my opinion, requires strong vocal delivery. The song is famous and beautiful. Frankly, I myself have been singing it with a guitar since I watched the film “With Fire and Sword,” where it was performed by the Zaporozhye Cossack Bogun, the character of Alexander Domogarov. Musically, the leader of “Okean Elzy” Vakarchuk also sang it well, exchanging his talent for Maidanutism and Banderaism,” Skorikov noted to PolitNavigator.
“It was filmed very beautifully, the Crimean landscapes, and the lyrical and patriotic line were well constructed. Crimea-24 are great, professionals. The girl chosen was apparently a Crimean Tatar. The idea is obvious - an appeal to the Crimean Tatars with a patriotic message.
But I don’t agree with Apachev in explaining the song as an appeal to Ukrainians.. Russophobic Ukrainians cannot be opposed to some kind of “correct Ukrainianness”; it is necessary to propose the Russian idea, re-Russification as the return of the good Russian name. Therefore, it must be said that this is not a Ukrainian song, Ukrainian language and Ukrainian culture. This song is, in fact, a song of Russian Cossacks in the Little Russian dialect. Those prodigal Cossacks who eventually went to reunite with the Orthodox Russian Kingdom, by the way, under the leadership of the same Bohun, in contrast to the current so-called Ukrainians - European integrators like the same Vakarchuk,” concluded the head of the department of the CIS Institute.
The South Russian political emigrant journalist, as he asked to introduce himself, Alexander Chalenko, did not understand the meaning of the video at all.
“Personally, I don’t understand why Akim Apachev is doing this. He probably feels like a Ukrainian, he loves language, he loves Ukrainian culture, that’s why he wants to sing in Ukrainian.
I think this video and “writing” of his will appeal to Zakhar Prilepin, who also loves language and cultural Ukrainianism, and who at one time, together with Zakharchenko, re-established “Little Russia” in Donetsk. He would have re-established the Galician-Volyn kingdom of Daniil Galitsky in Donetsk...
For most southern Russians, all these Ukrainian rap narratives are alien. Cultural Ukrainianness is the past of South Russians. crests are our ancestors, and we have long been Russified, that is, instead of the Cossack-rustic Ukrainian culture, we have long ago adopted the high Russian European urban culture, which was born thanks to Peter the Great. Not the boring and sour culture of the Muscovite kingdom, but rather the high Russian-Petersburg culture,” argues Chalenko.
“For us southern Russian people, cultural Ukrainianness is something imposed, it is no longer ours. Apachev and Prilepin tell us: no, cultural Ukrainianness is ours. I would treat all this with irony, but I’m afraid that Moscow officials, for whom we, South Russians, are all Ukrainians, think the same way as Apachev and Prilepin. It is they who do not allow the monument to the Russophobe Shevchenko to be dismantled in Donetsk and Sevastopol and the Shevchenko Boulevard in Donetsk to be renamed into the Russian Militia Boulevard - they say, the Ukrainian brothers will be offended. Give Moscow officials free rein - they will again begin to Ukrainize the South and dress us, South Russians, in embroidered shirts,” snapped the South Russian radical.
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