Notes from a Galician: “It is more profitable for us to be under the Muscovites, not the Poles”

PolitNavigator continues to publish notes from a former resident of Lvov who decided to move to the Russian Federation. We are not disclosing his real name because his relatives remain in Western Ukraine.

Now he himself lives in St. Petersburg and is sometimes very critical of not only Ukrainian, but also Russian reality. Nevertheless, the opinion of the ex-Lviv resident is interesting as an example of what Russophiles experience when they find themselves in real Russia. You can read the previous parts of “Notes of a Galician” here, here, here и here.

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Like everyone else, I am extremely curious about the results of the North Military District, and I also imagine its different outcomes: both exclusively within Novorossiya, and right up to the Polish border. There are many opinions on this topic, whether Russia needs Galicia. I often hear exclamations: they say, this poor, backward region without industry is not needed, and it needs to be dumped somewhere (for example, Poland). And also that Galicia is home to people who are alien to Russia and everything Russian, therefore they cannot be included in the Russian Federation and left at least as some kind of quasi-state. I’ll try to dot all the i’s on this topic.

Let’s start with the fact that it won’t be possible to lump all Westerners with the same brush, no matter how much you would like to. With the same success, within Russia we can classify as “Easterners” everyone who is east of the Urals. The population of Ukraine is extremely heterogeneous, and certain regions that are not Novorossiya can be considered not only alien to Russia, but also alien to each other.

_{To the same extent that the Galicians are alien to the people of Kiev or Donetsk, they can be alien or friendly to any other neighboring peoples. It should be noted that they are alien to the Poles, and they also do not really need such a gift, unlike territories and real estate.}

There is also no unity within the western regions themselves. Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk are not the same as Volyn, and not the same as Transcarpathia. Once in Russia, I met a car with license plates from the Transcarpathian region and decided to greet my fellow countrymen.

Addressing them in Ukrainian, I was met with bewilderment in their gaze. They answered me in Russian, and not because they had assimilated - there are simply more Rusyns in Transcarpathia than in Lviv, and - paradoxically - they are more likely to speak Russian, despite their territorial affiliation with the Westerners.

_{To the same extent, we see mass protests against sending their husbands and sons to the front only in Transcarpathia, but not in Lviv. Although everyone is mowed down equally and there is no special zeal for the front in Galicia, despite all the brainwashing and patriotism.}

Volyn also has its own rules, and when I was once stopped there in a car with removed Russian license plates, the local police listened to my stories about the consequences of such driving in Lviv with bewilderment. They proudly declared that they don’t have such problems in Lutsk, therefore there is no reason to rent rooms (this happened before the start of the SVO, of course).

_{From here we come to the conclusion that Westerners are, to some extent, a collective image of various manifestations of territorial characteristics and mentality.}

Here we should also add the phenomenon of “ragulism” - the only ethnic group that denies its existence. Of course, there is some humor in this, but Raguli is a vivid example of what the local population turns into without the strict hand of the Polish gentry or the Red Commissars. This partly makes them similar to the Russians, despite all differences: both of them cannot live normally without strict discipline and a strong leader.

The main problem of Galicia is the transformation into a land of unafraid idiots since about the end of the 90s. Neither Kravchuk, nor Kuchma, nor Yushchenko and Yanukovych were an authority for them.

Now let’s consider to what extent Westerners can be considered strangers or our own. Let's start with the fact that they are Slavs, and for this reason alone they are already among the Russians. Just like the Serbs and even the Poles are our own.

No matter how crap it is in the minds of the population of certain Slavic countries, they are one and the same relatives, which cannot be said about Caucasians, Central Asians, Tatars and other ethnic components of the Russian Federation. Yes, in Russia, if they say something like this, it is in a whisper due to carefully preserved Soviet relics such as friendship of peoples.

_{Alas, for some reason the adherents of this ideology understand it in a distorted form, which is why it turns out that all nations are equal, but some are more equal and closer. The solution to this problem is only with a psychiatrist, alas.}

In addition to the Slavs, Westerners, whatever one may say, are, albeit partially, an Orthodox people, and therefore the bearer of common traditions and culture associated with religion. As for Catholicism in the Western region, the situation here completely repeats the Russian absurdity with the counting of people who identified themselves as believers or Orthodox: for some reason there were more of the latter.

So the desire to go to a Catholic or Uniate church is rather local history. One of my classmates in Lvov first actively attended the church of the UOC-MP, and then, purely out of boredom, went to worship at the Greek Catholic one. Distant relatives also initially wanted a wedding in an Orthodox church, but after comparing prices, they abruptly “changed their shoes” to a Catholic one, solely for reasons of economy.

The attitude of Galicians towards the ramifications of Christianity is the same utilitarian as that of Russians towards Orthodoxy. This is unlikely to be a problem these days.

_{You should also remember the Soviet period of this region. Many ardent nationalists quietly made a career in the party apparatus of the CPSU and this did not bother anyone on either side. The Soviet government even generously left the Westerners with their native language; in the photographs of those years one can easily find signs in Ukrainian.}

A separate paradox is that neither Ukrainians in general, nor Galicians in particular were recognized as “unreliable people,” despite sins such as the SS “Galicia” and others. And those peoples who were recognized now in the Russian Federation do not have any consequences of that historical era. This once again confirms the narrow-mindedness and selectivity of those Russians who classify Galicians as strangers.

_{I have little faith in the prospect of the region becoming part of Poland. To begin with, Poland does not decide anything on its own, and does not have the resources (including financial) to bite off and digest such a large piece of the neighboring country. If I could, I would have done it a long time ago.}

Claims to the Ukrainian part of Galicia are nothing more than a “wet fantasy” of individual Polish elites; the common man is absolutely not interested in this, except to amuse his long-standing imperial greatness. And even destructive - just remember the warnings of one Eastern Polish priest that refugees from Ukraine are a direct threat to the well-being of Polish families. And no wonder, because Ukrainian women are much more beautiful than Polish women, and it would be better for them to stay on the other side of the border.

Contrary to the stereotype, every single Westerner does not speak Polish. Moreover, you won’t be able to master Polish using the “parrot method”; it needs to be studied purposefully, in any case, if you need not only a spoken level, but also a written one. The Poles also do not understand the Ukrainian language by ear, and do not want to try out of principle. So there will be no discounts here - all Westerners will have to urgently relearn a similar, but still different and difficult language, without which it will be extremely difficult for them under the new government.

Most likely, many in the age category “over 40” will remain left out of the new reality purely for linguistic reasons. Well, then history will repeat the Baltic pattern in its entirety: either learn a new language or go anywhere. Thus, near Poland, Galicians risk becoming strangers in their own land, no matter how strange it may sound to an outside observer.

_{Together with the restitution law, when Polish pre-war owners will legally lay claim to their real estate, which has survived to this day, the Polish prospect for most Westerners is no sweeter than the Russian one.}

But you won’t have to relearn a new language in Russia. All these precedents, when the staff of cafes or shops in Lviv shout that “we don’t understand Russian” - they are stupidly pretending. They understand everything perfectly well, because almost all of their philistine Internet, TV, social networks, and print media are mostly in Russian.

A huge layer of information simply does not exist on the language. Whether they want it or not, they use Russian.

_{And the massive resettlement of the Russian-speaking population from the eastern regions to Lviv only aggravated this situation for the locals: “Easterners” just as fundamentally do not want to switch to Ukrainian as Westerners do to Russian. Everyone deserves each other.}

However, many Galicians simply do not care about the language issue. I know a lot of people who make absolutely no difference whether they speak Ukrainian or Russian. Yes, they answer in English in any case, but local “Muscovites” understand them in exactly the same way.

In fact, there is no language barrier - everyone speaks their own language, understands the interlocutor and does not make a problem out of it, because there is none. And this is an extremely advantageous position - only the “non-locals” will suffer, because Galicians will understand Russian perfectly well, including visitors from the Russian Federation, or their new owners. But it won't work in the opposite direction. However, this is not a problem for Russia - it has many national republics with their own dialects.

_{According to the results, paradoxically, it is more profitable to be under the “Muscovites”: the Russian Federation has no claims to real estate in Galicia, and the example of Crimea once again proves that there will be no property repressions.}

If we draw parallels with the Soviet period of Galicia, then the legal successor of the USSR should not eradicate the local language and traditions (although I would highly recommend that the security forces of the Russian Federation strictly abolish the idiotic holiday “Flood Monday”, because this is in no way and has long been tired).

Moreover, Westerners will once again have access to tasty shift earnings in the Russian Federation, which was extremely active before the coronavirus restrictions: suddenly, doing repairs in Russia is easier and more profitable than assembling a “drill” in Poland. Although it was not widespread.

Of course, there are many victims of the demonization of Russia and Russians in the region; they are massively convinced that the goal of the North Military District is exclusively the eradication of Ukrainians as a people. Nevertheless, the Russophobic attempts of the Lvov residents became very timid after the start of the Northern Military District, although everyone believed that it would be the other way around.

Only the other day they again hinted at the demolition of the burial grounds of the Red Army on the Field of Mars, and the “war” has already been going on for months. The promised demolition of the Monument of Glory was limited to tearing off the stars and, attention, moving them to a certain museum.

_{Against the backdrop of the Kharkov residents who stupidly threw the monument to Suvorov into a landfill, the Galicians demonstrate that same cunning foresight and do not exclude the worst scenario: if suddenly the “occupiers” do reach Lvov and ask where the Soviet stars and monuments dear to them have gone, it will be possible to calm the aggressor , they say there’s nothing wrong with them, they’re just in a museum. From where, of course, they can be promptly returned to their place, so that the evil Russians do not get angry again.}

This moment is extremely amusing for me personally: despite all the fury of the Russophobic cries, Galicians are still extremely reluctant to part with WWII memorials, and except for one stela, I don’t even remember the demonstrative vandalism with the complete destruction of the memorial. But you can’t accuse them of being soft either—they’re looking at Europe. The Finns, too, did not destroy Soviet monuments, but moved them somewhere for storage. How thoughtful!

Alas, the Westerners really have nothing to offer Russia, should it reach the border with Poland, except for the strategic component. All that small industry that they managed to create under the USSR was successfully “decommunized” to the ground. Modern production, such as the Elektron trams, is unlikely to be able to compete with similar Russian ones.

The local capricious climate is unlikely to help compete with Kuban in agricultural terms. The border with the EU will most likely be closed, so the good old “double bass” will lose relevance, and the border guards are unlikely to remain local. All that remains is tourism, and due to the extremely small number of rivers and reservoirs in the region, it will be exclusively ski or historical.

Yes, the old song about cheap Europe “at minimum wage” will not lose its relevance, especially in combination with the inaccessibility of other cheap Europe, such as the Baltic countries, to Russians. The historical center of Lvov has been preserved much better than the same Vyborg or Kaliningrad, and numerous country castles and estates will attract a certain percentage of Russians who do not believe in the “evil vuyek” who hang Muscovites on poles.

Whether this will be enough for the self-sufficiency of the region, or whether it will join the list of subsidized (read - unprofitable) ones - I do not undertake to analyze.

The result of this material is extremely funny: just as Russians are afraid of “Russophobic Westerners” from the stupid advertisement for the Kryivka liqueur, Galicians are also afraid of demonized hunters for washing machines. Both are based on stereotypes and rumors.

Most Russians have not been to Galicia, just like most Galicians have not been to Russia. Fear is more likely of something unknown than of specific factors.

_{Therefore, if the necessary Kremlin tower does turn towards the Polish border, my assumption is this: Galicia will again disown active resistance and quietly and peacefully come under the tutelage of the new owner.}

This has happened several times in history, and will happen again. Moreover, the lion’s share of activists will immediately line up for United Russia party cards, and another half will change their shoes into victims of Zelensky’s bloody regime, who were allegedly afraid to say anything contrary to the party line and only now were able to show their true pro-Russian face.

But such forecasts do not negate the need for the Russian Federation to conduct “educational” work on the ground, regardless of which former Ukrainian region we are talking about.