LUHANSK, Ukraine -- When asked to be photographed, 64-year old Svitlana Kliuyeva says: "Oh please, not with this on the background," and moves away from the momument to national hero Taras Shevchenko stands behind her back in the central square of Luhansk.
Half-Russian, Kliuyeva was born and lived her whole life in this industrial Ukrainian city of nearly 500,000 people near Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia.
Now she supports the Crimean referendum to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. She rallies for federalization and greater autonomy of Luhansk Oblast as a first step to realizing her dream of becoming part of Russia once again.
“I like Russia, it is close to me. I still think of Moscow as my capital,” she says.
When asked what Ukraine is to her, she replies: “Nothing.”
Some 1,000 to 2,000 people with views similar to those of Kliuyeva came to the central square of Luhansk, near Radyanska (Soviet) Street on March 16.
They planned to hold an unofficial referendum on federalization of Ukraine and the status of Russian language. But on the night before, the city court banned the referendum, so the people came to the rally instead.
In Luhansk, which is steadily losing population, 47 percent are ethnic Russians with ethnic Ukrainians holding a bare majority. Russian is the native language for 85 percent of the citizens. In the past weeks, the city’s natural sympathy for Russia, coupled with fear of western Ukrainians’ nationalism, led to powerful emotions that could spell trouble for Kyiv’s central government.
“I’m against war, but if the fascists from the Right Sector come here, I will take a gun and I will fight them,” says Oleksandr Syvolapov, 54, standing at the rally.
Syvolapov is very worried about “the fascists in power.” That includes Svoboda Party head Oleh Tiahnybok, Svoboda member of parliament Iryna Farion and Right Sector ultranationalist leader Dmytro Yarosh. Syvolapov is calm about the possibility of Russian forces entering eastern Ukraine, while he fealts threatened by the West and NATO.
“Nationalism is the worst. I would sooner join Russia than fascistic Kyiv,” he said.
When asked if he was comfortable living with Ukrainian as the only state language, Syvolapov said: “I’m against it. I don’t speak the pigs’ language.”
However, the language issue doesn’t seem to be a big a deal in Luhansk.
Almost all the street signs are in Russian, as well as the menus in local cafes. At the central railway station, the announcements about the coming trains are read in Ukrainian and Russian. Until several years ago, there were Russian schools available in Luhansk.
But while bilingualism is fine with Luhansk, the fear of the nationalists is strong among its citizens.
“I don’t want to be ruled by fascists. Tiahnybok is the real fascist, and since Vitali Klitschko and Arseniy Yatseniuk stood next to him (during the EuroMaidan Revolution), I conclude that they support him,” says Kliuyeva. “My whole family suffered from the fascists in the World War II, my brother was killed then. I will never accept fascism.”
Like many in the east, she wants the country to be federalized and eastern regions to be united in a federation that has little dependance on Kyiv.
Syvolapov wants the same, but for economic reasons as well as moral.
He complains about Luhansk having too little jobs and small wages. He earns some Hr 4,300 monthly and says it’s a very good wage for Luhansk, and that there are people working for Hr 800 or so. Many people, he says, have to additionally work hard on their dachas in summer to grow vegetables and therefore save some money on food. Syvolapov believes the situation will get better once Luhansk gets more self-ruling rights as part of federation.
Most of the people at the rally in Luhansk are pensioners, some of them driven by the ethnic issues as much as their Soviet memory and crave for stability. In this crowd, young people stand out noticeably.
A native of Luhansk who studies at a university in the central Ukrainian city of Kirovograd, 21-year-old Olga Ayrapetyan says she likes the advantage of being able to compare the moods in different regions. Most of her friends in Kirovohrad support EuroMaidan and European course for the country,while Ayrapetyan’s heart is with Russia.
“Russia is simply closer to me,” she says. “All about it feels like my land.”
But she has no negative feelings about Ukraine. She knows Ukrainian well even though Russian is her native language. She also accurately picks her news sources, trying to get balanced picture of what is going on in Ukraine.
“Of course I don’t believe these tales about fascists coming here,” she says, smiling. “We are all different, in the east and west and center of Ukraine. But we in Luhansk simply feel more bonded with Russia.”
Once the two-hour rally is over, one of its organizers and main speakers, local Communist Party city council member Yuriy Khokhlov gets surrounded by several dozen people, all demanding a plan of action.
“We will meet here next Saturday,” he promises them. “We’ll see what the Crimean referendum brings. If there going to be a lot of people, we’ll go take the Security Service of Ukraine office and regional police department.”
Kyiv Post editor Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected]
Editor’s Note: This article has been produced with support from the project www.mymedia.org.ua, financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, and implemented by a joint venture between NIRAS and BBC Media Action.The content in this article may not necessarily reflect the views of the Danish government, NIRAS and BBC Action Media.
