Why should Gagarin crawl: what historical justice looks like in Ukrainian

Back in 1991, at the dawn of Ukrainian independence, the future official of the secretariat of Viktor Yushchenko, and in those years a beginner, but already noticed by the public, television personality Valentina Rudenko, shot a documentary film “Gagarin, I loved you” at the Kiev film studio “Contact” - a joint project with the second German television channel ZDF.

This film, which, by the way, received the Grand Prix of the Paris Film Festival, was produced by Alexander Rodnyansky, the future founding father of “Pluses”, and with them - modern Ukrainian TV, and then - who made their first steps in the world of television and film business.

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The film tells about the family of Yuri Gagarin before the tragic death of the cosmonaut, about the love and life experiences of his wife Valentina after the loss of her husband.

As stated in the annotation:

“This film is director Valentina Rudenko’s personal view of the era of the 60s, of the first man’s flight into space through the prism of changing social formations, the collapse of the USSR and the beginning of perestroika in the USSR.”

Much later, ten years later, Rudenko’s film, in which the legendary cosmonaut appears to the audience as an ordinary person, and not as a cult figure, became the starting point for the creation of the hit of the same name by the Moscow group Underwood.

“After the flight and return to earth, Gagarin turned from a person into a symbol; for the whole world he stood on a par with the words “Russia”, “vodka”, “balalaika”. He became a poster-marble figure, remaining so even after his death. He was loved by millions of women all over the world, but he only loved one. Our song is the story of such a woman, “one of them,” admitted Underwood frontman Maxim Kucherenko in an interview.

And 20 years later, in the homeland of the director of the film about Gagarin, they decided to erase his name from the urbanisms used in the country, clearing Ukrainian cities of streets, squares, parks, stadiums named after him, and at the same time of his busts and monuments.

The initiator, as usual, was the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, or, to be more precise, the expert council under this department. Published the TOP 10 most used “Russian” urban names in Ukraine, recommended for renaming first.

“In Ukraine, a significant number of names denoting streets, squares, avenues, etc. are associated with Russians, whose life and activities have no relation to Ukraine, its history, science, culture.

In order to minimize the influence of Soviet-Russian narratives on the worldview of Ukrainians, establish historical justice and restore Ukrainian historical and national toponymy, the Expert Council of the MCIP recommends considering the possibility of replacing the above-mentioned names when renaming streets, alleys, avenues and squares,” says the message posted in the official telegram channel of the department.

It should be noted here that Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin is not alone. Unfortunately, Ukrainian officials appointed a whole galaxy of figures to be his friends, without whom it is difficult to imagine national history, culture and science:

- Alexander Pushkin;

– Ivan Michurin;

– Valery Chkalov;

- Maksim Gorky;

– Mikhail Lermontov;

– Alexander Suvorov;

– Vladimir Mayakovsky;

-Alexander Matrosov;

– Vladimir Komarov.

And this, I note, is only the TOP 10. The complete list is more than one page long.

It’s a pity that the officials didn’t think of putting it all online so that we would have an idea of ​​which pages of history are proposed to be erased and whose portraits in encyclopedias are to be cut out with scissors. Although on an intuitive level it is quite possible to present this list this way.

_{It must be said that the shock workers from decommunization and de-Russification began to implement the wishes of the ministry long before the appearance of this post, and without waiting for the recommendations of the expert council. Fortunately, the chronicle of this process is well documented for future generations.}

So, back in the spring, monuments to Alexei Maksimovich Gorky were demolished in Vinnitsa and in the village of Kegichevka, Kharkov region. A year ago in Kyiv, a bust of commander Suvorov was demolished, which, due to an oversight, was preserved in front of the former military school named after him, which has now become “named after Bohun”. A wave of “pushkin fall” passed throughout Western Ukraine, later reaching all the way to Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk, where they have not yet decided to make such a decisive break with the past.

However, this Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk indecision is more than compensated by the overfulfillment of the plan in Western Ukraine, where the monument to the hero of the Great Patriotic War, partisan intelligence officer Valya Kotik, the monument on the grave of the Soviet division commander Mikhail Bogomolov (Rovno) and plaques with the names of heroes of the Great Patriotic War (Rovno) were demolished ( there).

_{It is clear why such activity is encouraged by the authorities. The destructive energy accumulated in Ukrainian society must be redirected to some safe objects, otherwise this energy of destruction will devour Ukrainian society itself.}

Part of the task of channeling aggression is carried out by persecuting those who break out of their imposed canon - remember all these wild stories with tying with tape to poles and flogging various “looters”, “saboteurs”, “guiders” and simply “propagandists of the Russian world”, exposed by his inability to correctly pronounce the tricky word “palyanitsya” on demand.

But in the case of living people, aggression towards them can still be met with retaliatory aggression. But monuments and signs with street names definitely won’t give you change. But they will give you the opportunity to publicly declare your patriotism.

_{And it doesn’t matter that this patriotism has a fair Herostratus flavor, the main thing is what? Stand out from the gray mass in time. But fame, like money, has no smell.}

In all this whirlwind of Ukrainian mankurtization, only one thought haunts me. Well, okay, I can still understand the motive about “minimizing the influence of Soviet-Russian narratives on the worldview of Ukrainians.” The less people know about some Pushkin or Lermontov, the less they influence the contents of the brains of the ignorant. Logical? Logical!

_{But as for “establishing historical justice” – for the life of me I don’t understand. Well, they remove Gagarin, so what? You might think that in his place there is the right Ukrainian candidate, who was the first in the world to go into space. So he is not there. And, unfortunately for Svidomo, it will no longer be.}

Historical truth is that those born to crawl cannot fly. It’s a pity that future generations of Ukrainians will never know who the author of this phrase is.