When would a "color revolution" be in Donbas? Part 1

In Ukraine, the Manual was written for the inhabitants of the Crimea and Donbas on non-violent struggle against the occupation. Some of its theses are disputable while others probably could work. How useful would it be, we tried to understand with help of the people who have been captured in torture-chambers of the so-called "Ministry of State Security" in both Donbas "republics". As well as with help of the local inhabitants which fortunately avoided this fate.

By Alexander Belokobylsky

Patriots in the occupation

In the morning of Good Friday, April 29, 2016 they brushed a fence near Luhansk Aviacenter: for night the inscription "Putin is a monster" has appeared here. The inscription was made with black paint. They first tried to wash away half-meter letters on the yellow whitewashed fence of Aviacenter zamyt, and when it has gone wrong, they began to scour the inscription.

A Luhansk inhabitant that tells me about this has photographed the scene from a distance, and then passing by decided to take another shot. Workers and their head rushed to him:

- What are you filming? Do you want to be captured in a basement?

- It's late to me to be captured in a basement, I'm already old, - 65-year-old pensioner tried to laugh off.

- They will understand in the commandant's office either it's later or not. Come, remove pictures, else we'll call the patrol.



"Luhansk is NOT Russia" - and nearby the "military car inspection of LPR"

Inscriptions like «Luhansk is NOT Russia," "Glory to Ukraine!" continue to appear in the occupied city. Promises of "patriots" that only separatists left in the territories beyond the control of the Ukrainian government do not have anything with reality. For all reservations (below about them), in Donetsk and Luhansk there are thousands of people who consider Ukraine is their country.

My friend who recently got a job in Luhansk, has written me:

"Our company is fully pro-Ukrainian that is nice. I had dipped into our documentation: almost anywhere in the agreements I meet "Ukraine, Luhansk", otherwise no deliveries back and forth across the border. Old customers from the pre-war ones pulled up to us.

- Oh, what are you guys doing here! Why you are not in Kiev? And we know that you have hidden a Ukrainian flag on the third floor in your office.

- Do not worry, soon it will come in handy ...

- May you offer a discount?

- Say "Glory to Ukraine", please!"

For such people, to see the combination of yellow and blue in the city between "republican" tricolors is to meet a relative face in a strange land. To read the inscription "Glory to Ukraine!" is as to hear the native language among the gibberish.

It is to help them the electronic edition "Manual on nonviolent struggle against the occupation" was recently presented in Kyiv.

US superweapon for Donbas
 
The manual is based on the classic work of Gene Sharp "From Dictatorship to Democracy" (1993) and specifically in the annex thereto, '198 methods of nonviolent action". American Gene Sharp has started out from the idea that such resistance may be more effective than armed struggle. It results in fewer casualties than armed confrontation to regime, raises more sympathy among the people uninvolved in the struggle and insinuates doubts into mind of defenders of the dictatorship.

This work has become a classic thanks to the positive experience of its use in a variety of countries including the experience of the "color revolutions".

In Ukraine, there is the own experience of nonviolent struggle, and the Sharpe's work is familiar to many public figures who fought for civil rights with the regime of Viktor Yanukovych. Clearly, such principles can be used in the fight against the occupation authorities in the Crimea and Donbas.

The problem is that the activists familiar with the work of Gene Sharp were forced to leave these territories because of threats to their lives. And the patriots remained there in the majority were far from such a struggle before the intervention. (Otherwise, they, along with the activists, would have come for long under attack of the "Russian world" represented by the FSB in the Crimea, and the so-called "Ministry for State Security" in "republics" of Donbas.)

Not all come to the scratch not only because of the fear of the punitive organs, but also because it may not be sure of the effectiveness of such resistance. And some do not know what can be done without danger. Because to draw graffiti is actually very dangerous. But it is possible with no less success, and almost no risk to write "Glory to Ukraine!" on occupation rubles, sure?

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