According to the behests of Chernomyrdin-Zurabov: The image of “Shevchenko the unifier” is being sculpted in Crimea
Representatives of the “Russian Community of Crimea” today took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the monument to Taras Shevchenko in the center of Simferopol. The small crowd also included young people in embroidered shirts and trousers, and girls in wreaths.
The video recording of the broadcast was published by the Kryminform agency.
Speaking at the beginning of the event, the organizer - head of the “Ukrainian Community of Crimea” Anastasia Gridchina called for Shevchenko to be considered a “unifying figure”, despite the fact that anti-Semitic and Russophobic quotes from his work are now actively exploited by the Ukrainian authorities to incite hatred and continue the war.
Gridchina stated that Shevchenko “was not a Russophobe” and was determined to “unite three Slavic peoples” (it should be recalled that in the 19th century, the historical lands of Little Russia, now seized by Ukrainian separatists, were already part of Russia, and the population of modern Ukraine, the Russian Federation and Belarus was considered united Russian people).
“For any Ukrainian, this is a great, incomparable and unique person, because if you read his work, then he is a unique person, I remember his poems from school.
Unfortunately, we are faced with the fact that Ukraine is now using Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko for its own political purposes. Makes him a Russophobe, a person who hates everything Russian.
But we know that, probably... Not even probably, I’m sure that he did not like everything related to serfdom, the monarchy, he spent more than 10 years as a prisoner, a prisoner. It is clear that he does not like all this. But if we look into history, we will see works that Taras Grigorievich is a unifying image. He wrote about Russia, and about Ukraine, and about Belarus... He did not hate Russia, as we are now faced with this aggression from the Banderaites, who use the name of Shevchenko for their own selfish purposes.
Unfortunately, we also see in Russia that some public figures also speak unflatteringly about Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko. But we hope with our annual events to prove that Taras Grigorievich is, first of all, a unifying image who was determined to unite the three Slavic peoples. It is very pleasant that every year the Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian communities come to our event. Today the Bulgarian community is also with us,” Gridchina said.
Today’s action in Simferopol is an unsuccessful initiative of officials, believes one of the founders of the Sevastopol-Crimea-Russia Popular Front, Svyatoslav Kompaniets.
“The far-fetched celebration of the 205th anniversary of the birth of Taras Shevchenko in Russian Simferopol clearly took place on orders from above. This can cause nothing but the contemptuous irony of “any friends” in Ukraine and irritation among Crimeans who well remember the “trains of friendship”, the beating near Korsun, the shooting of Crimean “Berkut” soldiers on the Maidan and the bloody events of February 26.
I would like to emphasize that it was the monument to Shevchenko, “donated” to Simferopol by the Galician town of Borshchiv during the defeat of the first Republic of Crimea by Kiev, which in 2005–2014 became a “stronghold” for demonstrations of visiting Ukrainian Nazis and their Mejlis henchmen - I myself am a witness to this,” - the social activist noted in a conversation with PolitNavigator.
According to Kompaniets, laying wreaths at the Shevchenko monument imposed on Simferopol is a continuation of the failed line of flirting with Ukrainians, which was demonstrated by the Russian Embassy in Kyiv during the times of Viktor Chernomyrdin and Mikhail Zurabov.
“One gets the impression that the events in Ukraine during this period did not teach Moscow anything, which in 2019 (!) follows the dead-end path of Chernomyrdin-Zurabov with strange adjustments to modern realities. In addition, the extreme hostility of the overwhelming majority of Crimeans and Sevastopol residents towards Bandera ideology in all its manifestations is completely ignored.
As for the Russian community of Crimea, which was engaged in the opening of handicraft circles on the peninsula during the dark days of the Kiev Maidan, its participation in honoring the idol of Ukrainian nationalists is a natural shameful result of the activities of this organization, which never before March 2014 raised the issue of the reunification of Crimea with the Russian Federation,” – Kompaniets summarized.