Crimean's view
In the last weeks I read a lot of articles about Crimea. So many authors discussed what was happened there. Did Ukraine loose Crimea, or did Putin steal it? Or maybe someone else provoked this situation? And is Kiev’s government going to return it?
All these articles are very interesting, but famous authors didn't pay attention to one small thing. Such words can be used, when we are talking about dolls or toy bears, but Crimea is not a doll! It's a big territory with about 2 mln people living on it. They have their own opinion about the situation and they have the rights to make their own choice. Not Putin, not Obama, not Turchinov, but habitants of Crimea! All discussions about "who lost" and "who stole” sound funny. But it's incorrect point of view. We are - 2 mln Crimean people – and we want at last to choose our own future. Let's look at a short fragment of our history.
In 20th century Crimea was a part of Russia. Then one day we woke up and found that we became a part of Ukraine. In 1954 Crimea was passed to Ukraine. Nobody asked us if we wanted it. Okay, we decided, it was not a big problem, because Russia and Ukraine both were parts of the USSR at that time. It was one country. This exchange was something that never touches upon our life as we thought. And later, in 1991 the USSR was disbanded. Dissolution of a state! This way we woke up in the new country again: the independent Ukraine. Everything was slum mock ... We were very confused by so many different news: no more USSR, no more old politics, new life that came so suddenly... All was so unusual! And among the chaos of that news it was the most important lost - we are not a part of Russia anymore. The awakening came too late. We lost that chance to choose our future and to select the way for Crimea. This was a really very strange situation: we were "already-not-Russia" and "not-enough-Ukraine" at the same time.
Most of us speak Russian. But our TV and cinema were in Ukrainian. Some people in Crimea still don't know the Ukrainian language, but all legal documents and laws are written in Ukrainian. And when you buy something - all instructions and manuals for goods are in Ukrainian (sometimes in German, sometimes in English and so on, but not in Russian)! Ukrainian street nameplates and pointers only showed us that we're still in Ukraine but couldn't give us a direction. At last we got accustomed to it, but we didn't become a part of this country. Our celebrations and traditions didn't become theirs, the Ukrainian language didn't become our native language, and their heroes didn't take place in our hearts. We felt like immigrants in a faraway country: it's good, it's friendly, but it would never become the native one. A lot of us were dreaming to come back to Russia and very few of us thought that it could ever become true. Suddenly fortune smiled on us. We got a chance. We could choose our future for the first time! And we did it - we chose the Russian Federation!
Now let's see the starting point of this article. Famous authors are discussing Putin's decisions, Obama's answers and so on. They still cannot see us - the people living in Crimea. Our choice is a free expression of our will. And we are proud we could do it!
And the last but not least. Some authors said: "free expression? But there were soldiers... what about it?" Yes, you're right, they were. But we needed them to protect our choice - they didn't make choice for us! We were sure that some people didn't want to let us do it. We didn't elect "at gunpoint", as some journalists wanted to show you. The most important proof of my words was the celebration after election. A great number of people came to the squares. They sang, they cried, they danced, they laughed... it looked like madness! It looked like a stream of mass happiness! It was unbelievable; I have no words to describe it. So, I can only say... believe me, there are no guns and rifles in the world that could force people to be so happy! This choice and this victory belong to the Crimean people only!
J.V.