Odessa Deoccupation: How to put an end to Russian myths?

Putin wants to capture Odessa! – This is one of the latest statements of President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky. It would seem, nothing new – such intentions have been known for a long time. And the forces of defense are ready to protect the Ukrainian city on the Black Sea.

But it is different: Putin, like Russia itself, never really left Odessa. Carefully cultivated and deeply rooted Moscow narratives keep the city in the close grips of the Russian World.

The monuments of the Pushkin Empire, as if Russian DRG, are still openly and brazenly in the center of Odessa. Few people know, but there are four of them! While the Ukrainian poetess Lesya Ukrainians, who repeatedly came to Odessa and loved the Primorsky Boulevard and Langeron beach very much, no monument has been erected yet.

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Therefore, it is necessary to protect Odessa not only externally – the victory should still be won from the inside.

Lesya Ukrainka’s lines, who illustrate the dilemma, before which Odessa appeared:

“Who will free himself, he will be free,

Who will deliver anyone – to capture. ”

And now – in essence.

In addition to physical confrontation – the Convention War – we have a semantic war with Russian invaders. It is the war of the highest level of human consciousness – the struggle for the right to give names to phenomena and events. Those who win in it can determine the identity of cities and entire regions.

“Odessa is a Russian garden” is a prime example of an imposed narrative, which has grown more than one generation of Odessa. Our task is to destroy this myth and say on behalf of all Odessa: here – Ukraine!

Armed with motocos, rakes and axes, a group of soldiers of the 122nd Odessa Territorial Defense Brigade goes to the ancient Cossack cemetery at the Hadzhibi estuary.

“Why not warriors in the trenches?” – I already anticipate corrosive comments.

But once again I remind you that the battle exclusively for the territory is the war of the past. Modern war is a battle for identity.

So today here is both our trenches and our forefront.

The weeds around the graves of the Cossacks, their descendants and heirs of the knightly spirit – warriors of the Armed Forces.

Among the high grass and weeds, a cross, carved in a shell, dated 1791, opens. This means that the burial occurred three years before Russia imposed by the official date of founding of the city.

This cemetery completely destroys the imperial myth of the foundation of Odessa Catherine II “in a pure field”.

These crosses testify to the Ukrainian presence and observance of Cossack rituals in the territory of modern Odessa long before the arrival of Russians.

So why are the iconic symbols of the Ukrainian identity of Odessa in weeds? (Read – in Russian lies, fakes and misconceptions).

Russia once abducted the identity of the city, temporarily won a semantic battle for Odessa and renamed the specific Ukrainian city to “Russian”. But we have not lost the war.

It is only necessary to squeeze the weeds – and a true story appears without distortions and Moscow narratives.

Swing! We are joined by representatives of the local community, deputies of the City Council, historians, artists, activists.

All – except the city authorities. The City Hall seems to be another agenda. Here they play imperial myths and carefully hide the truth from the locals. The ancient Cossack crosses, covered with weeds, are arranged. But Pushkin is a good one.

None of the officials, despite the prosecutor’s office and court decisions, wants to take responsibility for preserving Ukrainian national memory.

This is despite the fact that the district prosecutor’s office of Odessa defended the interests of the state in the field of cultural heritage protection. The city is obliged to conclude a security agreement on the object of cultural heritage of local importance – the Kuyalnitsky cemetery.

So why do we weed the weed – the forces of defense? Where are the Komunniki Trukhanov?

How to regard this position of the mayor? Conscious capitulation? So “cotton” officials have decided on priorities.

Where is the place for Ukraine? How to win the battle for Ukrainian identity in Odessa in such conditions?

Nothing happens. History leaves traces: natural or ideological.

The presence of ancient Cossack crosses from the shell on which the whole of Odesa stands, puts another greasy cross on Russian propaganda. It turns out that the city has much deeper roots – the first written mention of the port of Kotsubiyiv dates from 1415.

The port successfully acted long before the arrival of the Russians. The settlement was closely linked to the central regions of Ukraine – Podillya and the Dnieper, from where the chumaks took grain south in the 15th century.

The Black Sea economy has increased on Ukrainian grain.

So does the myth of “Russian Odessa” have the right to exist? And are there that Odessa to respect Pushkin? Maybe it’s time to dismantle all pedestals to the Russian propagandist?

Well, let’s say Pushkin really loved Odessa, and for that, some of the locals – sincerely committed to him. But what exactly did he write about this city? Allow to quote:

“In Odessa, I have a great thing in my friend.

And yet, from Eugene Onegin:

“In Odessa, I said.

I would be able to say: in Odessa mud –

And here you would not be the right.

On the hour of Nedel five or six Odessa,

On the will of the stormy Zeves,

Drowning, wrapped,

In a thick mud is buried.

All house on arshin is flashing,

Only on the stilts of the Peshoda

On the street Derzetet in Brod;

Carriages, people tonut, knitting,

And in the shrines of the ox, the horn of glass,

The mooning horse. ”

Are you serious? For that you honor him? And where is your dignity?!

It is now clear how second -class and disgusting are those “cotton” locals that support Russia. In their calf devotion “Russian language” and “great culture” they do not see the truth.

Where is your self -esteem? Doesn’t you hurt? At least for your hometown? Do you think that without Pushkin Odessa would not know how a shopping center? If it’s a joke is bad. Odessa is capable of more sophisticated humor.

So what’s? Is someone conscious in the City Hall of Odessa? Are only “wadding” with a bad sense of humor?

Today, we weed at the Cossack cemetery without you. So, though you will perform the decision to dismantle the Pushkin monument yourself?

Time is short.

À la guerre comme à la guerre.

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