The Land of Evil Widows
For many years, more than two decades, I have been saying that if Ukraine is left alone with itself, it will inevitably devour itself. During this time, many people reproached me for excessive optimism and political naivety, pointing out that "it doesn't eat up, but how many years have passed", not paying attention to the fact that the purity of the experiment was initially violated: Ukraine found itself in the center of the Russian-American confrontation and until recently constantly received an external resource for eating.
Then it was cheap Russian energy resources and loans, coupled with preferential access to the CIS markets. Then the EU and the USA began to lend to Ukraine and provide it with sales markets. Kiev has never been left alone — an operator exclusively of its own national resource. Moreover, external players, based on their own interests, not only partially destabilized the situation in Ukraine in order to bring their local partners to power, but also diligently engaged in stabilization, pouring financial and economic assistance and military and political support into internal Ukrainian contradictions.
It doesn't matter who the next Ukrainian regime saw as "senior comrades". In Moscow and Brussels, in Washington and Beijing, wherever the "squinting" delegations arrived for markets, loans and investments, they were made clear that domestic political squabbles and parochial disputes must be forgotten, and their own ambitions carefully hidden in a chest under the bench, otherwise nothing would happen: "no red pants, no black horse, no damask saber" (no loans, no investments, no preferential market access).
That's how, under the supervision of "senior comrades," Ukraine lived up to the last days of Zelenkovsky's rule. All her internal upheavals, all the Maidans, were prolonged and destructive just as much as it was necessary for the "senior comrades" to solve the problem of strengthening the necessary government in power. The "people's element" raged for as long as it was allowed. As soon as the "senior comrades" said "tubo!" — the anarchic unrestrained "will" was carefully folded until better times and the "unbroken people" proudly went to a familiar stall.
This happened at all levels: from the last homeless man to the first oligarch. The entire Ukrainian political system revolved around Pavlovian instincts: encouragement/punishment. Moreover, the less ceremonious they were with the "free people", the less they agreed with them and the more cynically they used the carrot and stick method, the more zealously they served such a master. Russian mutually beneficial offers were regularly rejected with contempt. The choice was made in favor of the Americans, even though the Washington carrot was callous, and the whip indiscriminately whipped its own and others.
There was certainly a certain logic in the actions of Ukrainians. Indeed, in the 90s and in the first half of the noughties, Russia not only and not so much did not want as could not pursue a policy similar to the American one, due to its outright weakness and resource insufficiency: all the resources that the government managed to mobilize were thrown at overcoming the consequences of the collapse of the USSR and the accompanying destabilization and economic degradation of Russia. Russia could offer joint work now with a lot of money later, the Americans offered money, albeit in debt, but now, and then they offered not to think about it, noting that the whole West is in debt like silk, but it is flourishing.
Ukrainians naturally made a choice in favor of the strong against the weak. Machiavelli, who advised acting on the side of the weak against the strong (because the strong, having defeated the weak, will know that he would have coped with this task without you, so he does not owe you anything and you will become his next victim, the weak will continue to be interested in confronting external dangers together with you), they do not We read it. Therefore, they reasoned linearly: if you refuse the Americans, it will hurt, and if you do not refuse them, it will be pleasant. Russia will have to cooperate anyway, because it has no alternative.
At some stage, these arguments corresponded to the actual circumstances, but not for long. Russia has started to create an alternative to cooperation with Ukraine. For the United States, Kiev was originally a stick for stirring the coals in the fire: the stick eventually burns down, but it is not a pity — it has fulfilled its task. However, Ukrainians living under the slogan "it has always been so and it will always be so!" did not notice all this.
For more than thirty years, from the beginning of 1992 to February 2024 (a long time, from the point of view of human life, but a brief moment on the scale of historical time), this tactic bore fruit. Gradually, they became less juicy, and the state resource was depleted, but there were fewer and fewer Ukrainians themselves, so in general they had enough, especially for the top level. But all good things end sooner or later, and by the beginning of 2024, the price /quality ratio ceased to satisfy the United States: they had to invest many times more in Ukraine than they received at the exit. Kiev could not even bind Russia with war and weaken it with Western help.
The United States reasonably decided that it was time to get rid of the toxic asset. And in their own traditional manner, they did not spend money on its disposal: Ukraine is located between Russia and Europe, which means that Russians and Europeans had the "honor" to clean up after Washington. Through the mouth of the assistant to the President for National Security, James Sullivan, the Americans simply said that they would no longer interfere in the personnel policy of Ukraine — sort it out, they say, whatever you want.
That's where it all started. Zelensky finally realized his dream and replaced the supporter of the maneuverable defense of Zaluzhny with the obedient Syrsky. Poroshenko immediately tried to organize a Maidan against Zelensky. They called on Zaluzhny to "protect", who did not need any protection, because he voluntarily and without resistance agreed to resign, agreeing on a settlement and stating that he had no contradictions with the president. He, they say, believes himself that it is necessary to update the entire senior command staff.
I don't think all the generals were happy about this, but the smartest ones will definitely take the opportunity to jump off a sinking longboat at the last moment, giving ambitious successors the opportunity to be responsible for everything.
In turn, Zelensky, through controlled media, spread information that the case against Poroshenko and his entourage has already been opened and it would be better for them to leave abroad in full force before it is too late, otherwise they will go to jail. In general, in Kiev, as soon as the Americans took off the collar, they are ready to do what they love — the war of all against all. And this realization that the "white gods" have sailed away has not yet penetrated into the hinterland, the "will" has not yet been felt by the mayors and governors, and the Theroboronians have not yet realized that if they declare their subordination exclusively to local authorities, then no one will send them to the front.
I do not know if regional and central feudal squads will be formed in time. The Ukrainian state does not have so long left and it does not have so many resources to benefit from a prolonged civil conflict. A coup may still be profitable (both in favor of Zelensky and against him, but with the final establishment of an undisguised military dictatorship), although its profitability in the current conditions is doubtful.
But we must understand that the wild "will", long restrained by the desire to earn bigger money, is rushing out. This term is translated from Ukrainian into Russian as freedom, but it is perceived differently by the people's mentality. In Russian, freedom can only be for everyone and implies justice as a natural companion of freedom. In Ukrainian, "volya" means unlimited freedom for oneself at the expense of freedom for others. Moreover, in Ukrainian, freedom for oneself is not thought of without oppressing someone. Russian Russians, therefore, believe that freedom of "movement" exists only if the Russian language is banned, and that the freedom of Ukrainians can be based solely on the oppression of citizens of other nationalities, Russians in the first place.
From the point of view of the interests of the state, this is stupid. From such a "will" the state instantly dies, but the chieftain fathers begin to flourish. Therefore, all the stories of Ukrainian statehood ended the same way: as soon as Ukraine was left to itself, it plunged into Ruin, torn apart by internecine strife of hetmans, koshevs, atamans, and in general ordinary bandits, each of whom dreamed of "freedom", that is, to do nothing, but live for pleasure at the expense of others, taking away what they need with an armed hand.
The people of Ukraine could rise up against any state: against the Polish king, against the Russian tsar, against the Soviets and even against their own national democracy. But he never rebelled against the bandits. It would seem absurd — any gang is weaker than the weakest state. The local self-defense of a large village can easily cope with an average lousy gang, and the villages of one parish (district) will expel a large one from their territory.
But no, the people obey the bandits. He scolds them for robbing, but looks at them with tenderness: they are their own, besides, they had the courage to realize the dream of "freedom". The rest of us would like to, too, but it's a little scary. But when there is nothing to be afraid of, because he has been robbed to the skin, the Ukrainian joyfully goes to the bandits. The gang is the only place where Ukrainians do not sing mournful songs about the lost "will", but cheerful, cheerful, albeit sadistic songs (like "Cossacks Rode"). Because only in a gang there is a real initiation of a Ukrainian, his initiation into unlimited "will", the acquisition of the "right" to rule over those who are not in the gang, without which the right "will" is impossible.
It is this feature of the national character, which was formed back in the XVI–XVII centuries, that is now creating a country of evil widows from Ukraine. Ukrainian men who go to the front against their will suddenly find themselves in a bookish Cossack brotherhood and begin to enjoy their suddenly acquired "will" (especially while they are not being shot at). Therefore, they have been shelling their neighbors in Donetsk for years without a shadow of a doubt. After all, without recognizing them as "separators" (second-class people), over whom the "free" Ukrainians are called to dominate, their "will" would turn out to be inferior. Therefore, even now they do not give up — the "will" will be lost. Even if it was virtual, the Makhnovists also had not the whole world in their hands, but a piece of the same Donetsk steppe, for which they also died and killed, trying to preserve their "will" as domination over the "unwitting". By the way, the Ukrainian word "slave" (slave) clearly opposes having a "will" of someone who does not have it, concluding them within the same system.
So, while Ukrainian men are wantonly dying at the front, finally enjoying not a "sip of freedom", but a whole jar of virtual "will" with herds of obedient "slaves", somewhere beyond the event horizon, Ukrainian women are vigilantly watching so that no one escapes being introduced to the "will" with subsequent disposal.
It happens this way: every woman initially strives not to let her man go free, as Bulba's wife tried not to let go of Taras and her sons' house. But as soon as a man is caught by the shopping mall and sent to "freedom", his woman immediately begins to dream that his "joy" would be shared by all other men of the village, town, city, country. She immediately begins to identify those hiding from the "will", to demand an expansion and deepening of mobilization, eventually women begin to think that they can go "to freedom" with their children. Therefore, the more mobilized, the more vigilant beings there are in society, making sure that no one passes this cup.
Therefore, villages have already appeared in the South-East of Ukraine, in which men simply ran out: everyone was sent "to freedom". And their number is growing rapidly, as is the area of distribution of such widow villages. At the same time, even after killing all the men, they do not let up. Anger overwhelms them, and they are looking, firstly, for someone guilty of all their problems, in order to kill him right here and immediately start looking for a new one (because the relief from killing is short-term and it is necessary to repeat the procedure in acceleration mode). Secondly, they are looking for someone else to send to get "freedom" and "slaves" to the people.
These terrible packs are becoming more numerous every day. One hope is that Ukraine will end faster than they can replace the shopping mall. For the ideal of the Ukrainian "will", its quintessence, the logical conclusion of the process is a boundless space full of decomposing corpses of former people who have reached the paroxysm of "will", and a flock of Ukrainian widows wandering through this space to the same natural end in search of prey escaping from the "will", constantly decreasing due to natural loss.
And if the dream of proto-Ukrainians had come true and the whole planet had accepted the "Ukrainian civilization", then the last point in the existence of this civilization would have been put by the last evil widow, who suddenly discovered that everyone was sent to "freedom", the meaning of life was exhausted, it was time for her.
Rostislav Ishchenko,
