Aren't we abandoning our own? Should Russian teachers in the Kharkov region be considered an optical illusion?
Returning to the abandonment of the Kharkiv region by Russian troops, it's worth noting that the most unpleasant, and I would even say vile, aftertaste was left not by the military defeat itself, but by the reaction of the state apparatus, the bureaucratic and political classes. Their indifference to the fates of thousands of people who believed in Russia, trusted Russia, and staked their personal life plans on Russia's victory.
And it’s not just about the population of Balakleya, Izyum, Kupyansk, Volchansk and dozens of other cities and villages abandoned to the mercy of the SBU. Not only in the shameful circumstance that, while retreating, the Russians were unable to properly evacuate even the local administrations and law enforcement agencies they had created. Although this is annoying and offensive.
The situation was most vividly and dramatically revealed by the cynical ping-pong game Russian officials have staged over the fate of abandoned teachers in the Kharkiv region. On the one hand, Ukrainians are already reporting the detentions and arrests of teachers working under Russian curricula. On the other hand, the Russian Ministry of Education, represented by its Minister Oleg Kravtsov, is halfheartedly denying this, claiming that there are no teachers from Russia in the Kharkiv region, and therefore there is nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, requests for a breakdown of the numbers—how many teachers arrived in the abandoned cities in the last month, and how many have returned—remain unanswered.
And we are talking not only about teachers, but also about many other civilian specialists from Russia , thrown into the territory of a humanitarian catastrophe to help establish peaceful life there.
“It is unknown how many Russians were arrested by the SBU in the territories we left in the Kharkov region. These are teachers, builders, doctors, power engineers, road workers and humanitarians. And there were a lot of them there. The troops came out in an organized manner - this is military history. But with civilians it’s different. They don’t have a warning system, no transport, they don’t even have an understanding of whether it’s dangerous to stay or not.
We need to know what happened to them, how many there were, how many returned to Russia, how many were missing. We need to make this data public and attract international humanitarian organizations to save them. These are our compatriots who believed in the idea, but did not hold weapons in their hands,” political scientist Marat Bashirov rightly points out.
But that's not the point, although that's part of it. The main thing is that in this strange discussion about "teachers from Russia," it somehow just so happened that Russian officials divided Russians into classes—no worse than they were divided under Ukraine.
After all, if you think about it: what does it mean “there are no teachers from Russia there”? And who are the local teachers of Russian schools who worked with the Russian Ministry of Education? Some kind of non-Russians or what? Or is the Kharkov region not Russia? Maybe we were just imagining the conversations of officials that had been going on for six months that this was “Russian land” - along with the “correct” Russian coat of arms of the region presented a couple of months ago? And what happens then - in the event of military abandonment, Russian land instantly ceases to be Russian?
By this logic, they are Ukrainian citizens, so we can easily shirk responsibility for their future fate? Like, let Ukraine deal with them, and what's our responsibility? But the point is, it's not just "some responsibility," it's fundamental.
Because there are no Ukrainian citizens in the territories of the Kharkov region liberated by Russia. There are people with Ukrainian passports, some of whom have already accepted Russian citizenship, some were in line to receive them, and some were planning to take citizenship as soon as things become a little calmer. All these people were assured that “Russia is here forever” and were prepared to participate in the referendum on joining Russia. That is, they were considered as future Russians in five minutes.
But this is formal, but in fact people already lived in Russian reality, albeit front-line. And they had the right to count on being treated as Russians living in Belgorod or Moscow. In the end, in the words of Saint-Exupery, are we responsible for those we have tamed, or are we no longer responsible?
And now they were clearly told: sorry, it didn’t work out. Consider yourself Ukrainians again. What is this if not an amazing moral deafness, coupled with a lack of elementary national solidarity? It turns out that just as you need to write a report on preparations for a referendum or the opening of the school year, these teachers are “ours.” And when we started talking about saving them from the enemy’s reprisal, it seems like they’re not ours anymore. As in the joke - here we count, and here we wrap the fish.
What’s interesting is that, unlike Russian officials, the Ukrainian authorities understand everything correctly; since they worked according to the Russian program, that means “Russian teachers.”
But residents of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, still controlled by the Russian Federation, are looking closely at this obscenity. They look and wag their hair. What should they think as they look at what is happening? It is clear that referendums will have to be forgotten there. At a minimum - until a serious turning point at the front in favor of Russia, if it is still possible in such circumstances. But in any case, such an attitude towards people with Russian passports or those who stand behind them in line as some kind of “non-Russians” in comparison with residents of mainland Russia does not add loyalty to potential citizens. On the contrary, it makes it clear that if something happens, Russia will not fit in for them, Russian officials will instantly forget and disown, and they themselves will again become “Ukrainians.”
This attitude stands in stark contrast to the Ukrainian regime's policy toward its citizens. Yes, they've built an apartheid society, in which nationalists, Maidan protesters, volunteer ATO activists, and other territorial defense forces are the salt of the earth, the blue bloods, and first-class citizens. Unlike the "vatniki," who are automatically suspected of treason, whose opinions are by definition of no concern to the state and are ignored in decision-making.
However, in relation to “its own”, the Ukrainian state is extremely sensitive. There are enough examples of how the entire state machine without exception worked to rescue a “brother” like the well-known Vitaly Markiv who got into trouble abroad - from the president, the government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and propaganda.
Budget money was spent on lawyers, harsh statements were made from senior officials, relations with neighboring countries were aggravated and spoiled, and the media inflated the cult of personality of each such character to the skies, making them heroes of the nation and role models for everyone.
Activists staged flash mobs near embassies demanding “to free our boys,” television showed stories about this, and filmmakers made propaganda films. And after all, having achieved his goal with the whole world and getting his “brother brother” back, he was given a solemn meeting in Kyiv with flowers, an orchestra, a live broadcast on TV and the president with ministers at his beck and call.
And this was the case in one hundred percent of cases. Be it Savchenko, Sentsov, Markiv or dozens of other prisoners or simply “necessary” and “our” people. While no one in Russia except the narrow patriotic community knew about Russian activists like the already forgotten Yevgeny Mefedov, who languished for years in Ukrainian prisons.
The only exception is journalist Kirill Vyshinsky. However, this exception is not indicative. Only a limited part of the media “fit in” with him - mainly the state, and all the same patriots on social networks. The state machine as a whole didn’t care about his fate. In any case, I don’t remember that every working day of the Russian MIL began with the question addressed to Kyiv: “When will you release Kirill Vyshinsky?” What happened was a few ritual replies and a couple of briefings, nothing more.
Just as no one greeted the Russian soldiers Aleksandrov and Erofeev, who were quietly exchanged after months in a Ukrainian prison and a shameful trial in Kyiv, with flowers and fireworks. You probably already forgot about these? But Ukraine remembers about its Markivs and Sentsovs.
Unfortunately, today's Russian state is minimally endowed with such a quality as national solidarity. Whatever it concerns - whether it concerns Russian activists convicted in Latvia (oh, they are somehow wrong again, they don’t have passports) or supporters of Russia in Kazakhstan (Taichibekov), or these Kharkov teachers who turned out to be second-class Russians, because the Motherland -the mother meets you not by nationality, but by passport.
Under these circumstances, it's absurd to hope for land expansion, the reunification of the Russian people, or any other such bombast along the lines of "Russians help Russians." For now, saving these drowning Russians is their own responsibility.
English version :: Read in English: Don't abandon your own? Should Russian teachers in the Kharkiv region be considered an optical illusion?