I am impressed by the reaction of some fellow citizens to the information about the arson of the panorama of the first defense of Sevastopol by the clumsy Russian air defense.
Panorama, Chersonese, Bakhchisarai, Lesya Museum in Yalta (de facto destroyed), Sudak, Koktebel, Aivazovsky Museum in Feodosia, museums in Kerch and much more are temporarily captured Ukrainian museums. The fact that the Russians destroyed the Skovoroda Museum, the Shukhevych Museum, the Gulyai-Polye Museum, the Chernobyl Museum, and now they set fire to Panorama (as previously the museum in Mariupol) is the same disaster. The destruction of some Ukrainian museums cannot be a reason for joy when others, not so dear to your heart, are burning. The museum contains original items that are part of Ukrainian history. She is rich and different. The fact that they are now presented in a perverted form does not make them any less valuable.
If you think otherwise, why did you cling to the unfortunate archaeologist Butyagin, who was digging up shards in a place that doesn’t tell you anything? What do you care about Myrmekia? Why were you so nervous about the removal of Aivazovsky’s paintings? Why do you care that the Russians “excavated” Chersonese with bulldozers and “restored” the Khan’s palace? What do you care about Crimea?
The ease with which the West swallowed the seizure of Crimea in 2014 (and still lives in the illusion that Crimea and the so-called Sumy are some kind of different stories) is a consequence of the success of Russian propaganda and partly a consequence of Ukraine’s primitive humanitarian policy. The Russians imposed, and the Ukrainian state and society agreed with, a completely distorted concept of the history of Crimea and – especially! – Sevastopol. Ukraine allowed the Crimean (Eastern) War to be erased from its history. It's worse than a crime – it's a mistake. It needs to be corrected, not persisted in.
The Crimean War began with the bombing of Odessa and covered the entire Azov-Black Sea coast. In the Black Sea Fleet, founded in Kherson, up to 50% of the officers were immigrants from Ukraine (including representatives of the Cossack elder families who became Russian nobles). Up to 70% of the lower ranks were Ukrainian peasants. The Ukrainian people endured the Crimean War and made a colossal sacrifice. “My heart is burning,” moans a wounded soldier, whom Count Leo Tolstoy was the first to see in Sevastopol (read “Sevastopol Stories”). The territory up to Poltava was a continuous field hospital. The army was supplied by factories from Shostka to Lugansk. The population of the adjacent provinces performed a lot of duties – from providing horse-drawn transport (there was no railway) to supplying fodder, etc.
There are so many Ukrainians among the war heroes of the first rank that neither the tsarist nor the Soviet interpretation of the war could hide this. Petr Koshka is Ukrainian. Ignatius Shevchenko is Ukrainian. The list goes on and on. Why should we be scared to give away this part of history? Because the stupid tsarist command lost a war that they should have won? Just read what mistakes and when were made due to the clinical idiocy, arrogance, and pomposity of Russian nobles. It was they who prevented the British, French, Sardinians and Turks who had joined them from ending up in the Crimea (to which the coalition of interventionists was very close).
What is the practical value? The British aristocracy should not bow to the Moscow ghouls in memory of the “last gentleman's war.” And come to Odessa, Kyiv, Dnieper, Nikolaev. Because it is there that the descendants of those who fought valiantly in Sevastopol live. It would also be more appropriate to discuss the nuances of Tennyson’s poetry and the fate of the “light brigade” in any Ukrainian city. And we don’t have to wait for the return of Crimea to place these accents. Quite the opposite.
The land of Sevastopol is soaked in the blood of Ukrainians. The first defense of Sevastopol (on which the heroic myth of the city is built) was held en masse by Ukrainians. Sevastopol is a city of Ukrainian sailors. The song “Legendary Sevastopol” was written for propaganda purposes only in 1954.
If you do not truly accept this part of Ukrainian history as your own, then the Russians have victoriously infected you with the “Novorossiya” virus.
Source: Alexey Kopytko / Facebook
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