Writer and professor Elena Styazhkina: Until proved otherwise, a citizen of the Russian Federation is the enemy. Part 2

The professor considers that a presumption of guilt is in force concerning all Russians. She admits this is not the humanist tradition, but it so happened.

Writer and professor Elena Styazhkina: Until proved otherwise, a citizen of the Russian Federation is the enemy. Part 1

"The war will catch up with us all the time"

- People who left the occupied territories or live in a "front-line" area, are often think in an all-or-nothing fashion. They perceive a person solely through the lens of his or her political views. The only important thing would that the person is set up pro-Ukrainian or pro-Russian. Is that good, bad, or just normal?

- I would not call this as political views. And I would not use the words "pro-Ukrainian" and "pro-Russian". A disappearance of halftones for those who saw the war could be explained. If your brain does not hurt by Russian TV products which dominate in broadcasting in the occupied territories and near-front zones, the understanding of the war and Russian aggression is not a question of theory, but a matter of personal experience. This experience can not has compromises. There can not be a good Russian who came to Ukraine to kill. There can not be a gray area between the good and the evil. It does not matter either the Russian was drugged by propaganda or he is a poor man decided to make money out of the war, or he is "just a soldier carrying out orders". It is only important that he is an aggressor who had come to kill.

Probably it is necessary to be aware of the fact that the Russian Federation, in the same way as the pseudo-republics DPR and LPR, is occupied by the criminal and chekist regime. Probably, there is also a loss of information subjectivity in Russia, that is why the TV picture of a nation-wide approval is a spectacle created for the amusement of the Kremlin regime. But I do not want to think about this wasting time today. For me now, the Russian Federation is the enemy. And on my mind, presumption of guilt is in force for the Russians: until proven otherwise, a citizen of the Russian Federation is the enemy.

This is probably incorrect and does not correspond to the humanist tradition. But it so happened. We cannot export the good to Russia. Our good will is intended only to win, to return Donetsk and Luhansk, to deal with the internal trauma of Ukrainians. We need a lot of good for all this.

- Many of the migrants who left the occupied territories try to emphasize their Ukrainian identity, sometimes making radical nationalist statements. How to explain this?

- People are different. Perhaps some people think that someone being important and strong, such a state control authority, requires it. It requires proof of Ukrainian identity. Some people think that others come with a prejudice towards them. For others, perhaps, proof of Ukrainian identity is a personal way of dealing with the Russian aggression. They need their manifestation in Ukraine, finding a Ukrainian in themselves - a strong, free, and fair person. Such a way of self-healing and victory over the enemy. Some people do not need demonstrative practices because to be a Ukrainian is "how to breathe" for them. Why show your breath? Yes, and how to do it? Maybe some of the people try to monetize their status in such a simple way. There are a lot of scenarios. But they are all about the difference injuries residence, experience the difference experience of war.

- Not everyone who left the occupied territories could find themselves. There could be dozens of reasons for that, but those people have become strangers here. They can not back to Donetsk, too, they are already strangers there. What these people have to do?

- No one will be able to give advice for the situation because there is no a universal recipe valid for everyone. But there is a big problem here which concerns not only the issue "friend-or-foe", "work and self-realization". We will necessarily win. Soon. But the war will always catch up with us and present in our lives as an enormous trauma. It will catch up with children and adults, and veterans, and survivors of the occupation and those who seemed to be successfully integrated into other areas of Ukraine, and those who return to the liberated lands.

There will not be "Transnistria-2 for many years". The pain and trauma are already present and will be for years to come. It will not go away if to not work on this issue. It will not be resolved on its own. Denial of injury is not the way to recovery. We must prepare for the fact of necessity to heal the trauma of war for many years. We need specialists, we need psychologists, psychotherapists, psychiatrists. People who survived the war, need help. Even if they themselves are not willing to admit it or not aware of the problem today.
 
"Occupation of consciousness is horrible, but not fatal"

- You lived in Donetsk, knew the mood of the people there. How it seems to you, was it possible to avoid that has happened?

- The tragedy could not be avoided because it is the story of Russian aggression. It has been prepared since the time of the disappearance of the USSR. Since 1991, they began to prepare and implement the revanchist plan. Another option could not be. The question was "when" only. The aggression was planned and it was held. This is war. The Russian plan was not so good. Their analysts missed figure relatively pro-Russian attitude relative to the absolute support of the return to the bosom of the empire. A generation has grown that did not know the Soviet slavery, and middle-aged people overestimated power of their Soviet past. The protest which was supported by some people in the east, was not a protest against Ukraine, but against the slave-like conditions created by the oligarchs in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. No promotional efforts were able to direct this protest against Ukraine. So gangs headed by Girkin, and then the Russian regular army itself had to become a strike force. Understanding this is very important for our future victory.

- Why they have not managed to repeat the same scenario in the Odessa region?

- An important component of their plan was demonization of Donbas. All Ukraine has been convinced in that this region is inhabited by fundamentally other people and that it is natural there. This may not be in Odessa and Kharkiv, and Donbas is such lame, cockeyed, bad, bandit and uneducated. The plan worked well. People believe that this is possible there. Unfortunately, they believe even now. Neither Odessa or Kharkiv were not demonized in such a way.

- In Donetsk, schools now spend so-called "lessons of patriotism". This, of course, affect the consciousness of people. Do you think that the more time will pass, the more the population of these pseudo-republics will disengage from Ukraine?

- I notice another. I can see that people who charmed by the television idea of greatness of the "Russian world" having tried it in reality, now clearly understand the need to return to Ukraine. It is difficult to formulate this, but such understanding presents. Moreover, not only in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but also in the Crimea.

Yes, sometimes it looks horrible, very uncomfortable, looks scary, but it is not a fatal disease. We have a large part of the locals having a Komsomol and pioneer past. They joined the Komsomol, were pioneers. There were meetings of Pioneer detachments, Komsomol meetings, political informations, "damn America", "cruise missiles", "Food Program", "support for Angela Davis," and other Soviet propaganda nonsense. So what? Someone has rushed to defend the "communist ideals" in 1991? The practice of liberation of 1945 and 1991 shows that fake educational activities quickly sink into oblivion. They, unfortunately, have adherents that stay on. But without the Russian weapons and Russian military presence it is not critical.

- You often give examples of historical allusions. What would you compare that has happened in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions?

- This is the classic pattern of occupation. Such was experienced by Ukraine in Nazi invasion period during the Second World War. It was the same in Europe. We can look at the sad history of Czechoslovakia. And not even the Sudeten option, and the history of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. There many Germans believed that Hitler is their friend, met him with a swastika, moms offered him their children in hands to show what they are beautiful young Nazis. People rushed to re-register into the Germans. Interestingly, in 1918, when Czechoslovakia was created as the state, citizens searched for possibility to register them as Czechs, and in 1939 they actively sought and found "German roots". Such people were called "amphibians", and there were quite a lot of them. And local newspapers during the occupation period wrote that Bohemia and Moravia are the true name of the native German lands. It lasted from 1939 to 1945. Where it all go after 1945? Disappeared as it was not ever. And some citizens again recorded the Czechs themselves. So our experience is not unique, and we can see already now many of the processes that would start after the liberation.

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