Russian extremism and the “Ukrainian issue”

Last weekend two symbolic events took place in the Russian capital: an anti-Nazi meeting on Pushkin Square and the closure of the Ukrainian Literature Library. On the face of it, it may seem that the two events are not connected. However, there is a direct connection between them. “The Ukrainian issue” appeared in Russia long before the events linked to the Caucasus. At this, one could feel a negative attitude not only from the Kremlin. At that time Russian intellectuals were not indignant, though the risk of exacerbation of the national issue in relations between Moscow and Kyiv was growing.

The meeting on Pushkin Square, which was organized as a response to xenophobia and the recent unrest on Manezhnaya Square, demonstrated that there are many people in Russia who do not support the fascist ideology and the government’s indulgent attitude toward extremists exasperating ethnic animosities.

According to the organizers, about 4,000 people came to Pushkin Square. A letter by the actor Emmanuil Vitorgan was read: in it, he appealed to “remove the brown shit from the squares of our cities.”

Participants of the meeting were chanting “Russia for everyone,” “Fascism will fail,” and also “Surkov will fail.” Near the entrance to the meeting, stands with photos taken at Manezhnaya Square were put up. The exhibit was called “Motherland, you went nuts.”

It is good that some Russians demonstrated an active stand by participating in the anti-nationalist meeting. But only one voice was heard regarding the closure of the Ukrainian library. As it is known, The Ukrainian Literature Library in Moscow was closed and sealed on December 26. The department of the Mi-nistry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for fighting against extremism confiscated over 50 books in order to conduct psychological-linguistic examinations during the search of the library on December 23. The police officers searched for the word “nationalism” in the electronic catalog and confiscated all books containing this word. As UNIAN reported, these are, in particular, books about Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, the OUN-UPA, the activity of the Pora movement, and also copies of the newspapers Natsia i derzhava, Shliakh peremohy, and Ukrainske slovo. The edition National Security of Ukraine was also one of them. And on December 24 another search was held in the library, as a result of which hard drives from computers, as well as readers’ cards were confiscated.

It would be interesting to know if Russian investigators conducted a similar search in the central libraries of Moscow, and searched for the same word or, say, “fascism.” How much literature would they have had to confiscate? How many libraries in Russia could one accuse of extremism?

One should esteem the Russians who interceded for the Ukrainian library. In particular, Irina Sobianina, director of a comprehensive Creative Center “The Irina Sobianina Social Fund,” candidate of pedagogical sciences, and member of the Creative Union of Professional Artists of Russia, who believes that the accusations of extremism addressed to the Ukrainian Literature Library in Moscow are ungrounded. In her opinion, the library’s activity is peaceful and creative, and the accusations are “simply ridiculous.”

Therefore, the actions of the Russian government look rather strange. On the one hand, it actually shuts its eyes to the actions of extremists, fascists, who kill or maim national minorities.

On the other hand, for some reasons they started regarding Ukrainian literature, which has never been used as manuals for conducting revolutions, state revolts, or coup d’etats, as a threat. So far the action “Russia for everyone” gathered several thousand. Perhaps many people were discouraged by the weather and listened to the government’s appeals not to go out in streets. But one can be sure that the ice broke and in the near future we’ll see in Russia the development of a real opposition, which will support real, not sovereign democracy, and will build a Russia for everyone, not only for Russians. For Ukraine it’s important to learn not only from its own mistakes but also from the mistakes of the others in order not to repeat them. It looks like everything is alright in Ukraine, and there are no problems with nationalism. But we know that in Ukraine, as well as in the rest of the world, demographic changes take place. Migration concerns our country too. Therefore, one should study these processes to be ready to react in time. The national issue is rather difficult and events not only in Russia but also in other countries prove this. Democratic forces of Ukraine and Russia should act together.