Donbas is thinking. Truth about this peaceful “Ukrainian” region

Iryna Tsybukh, student of Lviv Polytechnic National University

- Where are you leaving? To tell separatists about Maidan?! Nobody is waiting for you there; nobody will listen to you there, —  my parents' were skeptical about my trip.

They oriented me to the worst, but their predictions did not become true. My friend Nastya and I set for frontline Kostyantynivka left by “DPR” militants on June 5, 2014. We went there to tell people about the Revolution of Dignity and to understand the Donbas.



Photo: My friend Nastya and I set for frontline Kostyantynivka left by “DPR” militants on June 5, 2014

Meeting the audience from schools and technical secondary schools started with the words about Maidan. That provoked biased attitude to us all the time. However, young people tried to understand. That united us.

We we decided to go to the East as we wanted to understand what was going on there, and how we, simple students, could help. We tried to make people understand that the war is everybody's business, so we went to find common language.

We did not over-persuade; we tried to explain who was at Maidan, why we became volunteers, why it is important to understand who you are.

Vigorous discussions with students and teachers allowed to understand the mood in the town: dissatisfaction with life standards, offense, and what made locals experience problems. What is this “what”? It it Maidan? Is it the power? Are they themselves not guilty in that “what”?



Photo: Meeting the audience — schools and technical schools — started with the words about Maidan

Talk with a School teacher of Ukrainian:

- Maidan? But it is not better now. Who did you give the power to?
- Why didn't you take part in the Maidan? Maybe, someone better would have come to power.
- We worked.

I had the impression that residents of Kostyantynivka tried to go back to communism instead of progressing and going ahead. They did not want to take responsibility.

- Your park is very dirty. You should clean it! — We addressed children.
- Children, tell them! We constantly clean the territory near the school, and the park, then somebody comes and spoils everything, —  the teacher says. Why to clean it?

There were a lot of talks like that,  and they do not need any analysis or commentary. Unfortunately, these are the real ideas of the town which form its today and its future too.

I will present the main words and dialogues which sounded when we talked to  locals in Kostyantynivka.

Maidan is guilty, it caused the war and made us poorer.

- Why don't you stop blaming others and make your town and your life better?
- What? After you (after Maidan)? Now we have to correct your mistakes?

 It was better with Yanukovsch.

- In summer I could go abroad.
- Rouble was 8.
- It was dollar  rate – 8 hryvnyas. Do you know how this exchange “rate” was maintained? Close ties with Russia and empty country treasury. It could lead to a closer link with Russia which would “save” the poor sister.

It does not matter with who. The main thing is to stop the war.
- Are you Ukrainian?
- I don't know.
- This “I don't know” is like inviting the war because as far as locals do not know who they are they will be the resource for the war. When the city is Ukrainian, without any props, “D-LPR” will have no chance to exist, the war won't come.

The referendum was legitimate.

- You came to Maidan and overruled Yanukovych. We had the referendum.
- In other words, the referendum was legitimate.
- Yes (almost unanimously).
- Under the law, the borders of our country are inviolable. If a part of the country wants a special status, the citizens of the whole country are to make the decision.

 It is not provocative answers, but the truth which made young people start thinking and analyze, at last.

The majority of the negative emotions came from teachers. However, there were teachers who made a step forward and shared their ideas with us.

A lot of children stayed in the classroom to exchange contact information to  be in contact with us via social networks, and we talked.



Photo: A lot of children stayed in the classroom to exchange contact information to  be in contact with us via social networks, and we talked.

Will “Ukrainian” Konstantynivka be strong enough not to give the town to terrotists again?

It is difficult to answer this question, but there is regional patriotism, love to what is “their own” and the desire to protect this “their own” in the hearts of the majority of the young people. This is what differentiates them from other people who remain “the victims of Russian propaganda”.

This patriotism of the young causes attempts to understand and to become stronger together. A step to understanding was made by a student of senior high school:

- We all are grateful to you. You are cool. We would like to take a picture with you.

In one school a girl came up and offered us to go for a walk and to take us around the town.

In one technical school a student talked about Yanukovych's clan and regionalists in Kostyantynivka and concluded:

- Why was it better then, in the past?

It was very brave of him as it was not a post in social networks; it was very categorical and said in front of other people.



Photo: Girls are waiting for their friends from the Donetsk region

We invited them to our place and are waiting for the first friends from the Donetsk region. And in the evening we spend hours to answer numerous Donbas students' messages. When we came back, there was a pleasant surprise waiting for us in social networks: selfie from Kostyantynivka, in vyshyvankas (Ukrainian national embroidered clothes). To come to school in vyshyvankas without any orders from the above is an example of real patriotism and self-identification: “I am Ukrainian. I do not want the war”.

This proves that it was worth to go there.

We told the students there about grants, about opportunities to study abroad. Children got excited an asked questions. Their teachers tried to find arguments to say that it would be impossible for the children to go to study abroad. In the East individuality is accepted as a threat. It, it is a threat, and nothing from the past will come back. The Donbas has started thinking.
 
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