Where did it come from? savage tradition post-Maidan Ukraine? And how did kneeling manage to be passed off as the result of the “Revolution of Dignity”?
In 2014-2016, a strange tradition appeared in Ukraine - kneeling before the dead (in in rare cases- alive), revered as heroes.
This tradition has spread mainly in Western Ukraine. This is how it became customary there to greet the bodies of those killed in the ATO. local residents delivered to their homeland for burial. Such cases are numerous and well known. It is especially wild for a civilized person to see children forced to kneel in the mud.
People are convinced that in this way they pay tribute. In fact, this pose in no way relates to respect - at all times it was a signal of humiliation, slavery and submission.
It is less known that in Dnepropetrovsk in 2014, city residents from among activists knelt before ATO fighters from Donetsk airport who arrived for rotation.
Hundreds of residents of Galicia and the Carpathian region met Ukrainian soldiers on their knees.
But where did such wildness come from? After all, it is impossible to even imagine that, for example, someone would be greeted on their knees Soviet soldiers returning from World War II.
The tradition of kneeling.
There were no mass kneelings in Ukraine even during the reign of Yushchenko, when the topic of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 was extremely popular. Viktor Andreevich only got down on one knee in front of the state flag.
Petro Poroshenko and his wife developed this tradition into a full-fledged kneeling.
Where they kneel
Almost nowhere in the world does the tradition of kneeling before the dead exist. In Orthodoxy and Catholicism, one kneels only before God. As a tribute to the dead, it is customary in civilized countries to remove hats. In Britain, they additionally put their hand to the heart.
In Antiquity and the Middle Ages, there were traditions of prostrating before rulers in many countries, especially in the East. IN modern world people kneel in front of images of deceased rulers only in North Korea, and before the living - in several of the wildest countries in Africa.
In former times, only people in a humiliated position could be brought to their knees - prisoners, criminals, slaves or the guilty.
German Chancellor Willy Brandt expresses the guilt of the Germans in front of the memorial to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto, 1970.
Polish gentlemen taught Galicians to fall on their knees
The only reliably known tradition of mass genuflection before the dead existed in the lands of Galicia and Volyn in the 16th-18th centuries. Dependent peasants they were forced to kneel along the path of the funeral cortege of their master - usually a Pole. This forced them to express obedience to their master even after his death. In addition to the symbolic act, by this the villagers showed a very specific readiness to obey the heir of the deceased, who, as a rule, accompanied the body.
Thus, over the centuries, the Poles passed on dominance over the Galicians. The controlled must be humiliated so that he does not dare to think about liberation.
This tradition, which has lost its original meaning, has been preserved in late time. Writers and travelers of the 19th and early 20th centuries noted the servility and humiliation of the inhabitants of the Carpathian region.
During the Soviet era, the equality of people and external forms homage was not welcomed. After independence in 1991, Ukraine was constantly eradicating Soviet traditions. In 2014, this took on unlimited proportions as “decommunization.” And now the “non-slaves” were able to return to their natural state- kneeling. Not only in front of the memory of the fallen, as they like to justify themselves, but also in front of very living foreign lords.
Ukraine as a country is on its knees
Physical kneeling - only outer side. Ukrainian state and society kneels before the EU, humiliatingly begging for “visa-free regimes” and other attributes of access to the master’s home. The majority of citizens (the overwhelming majority in Western Ukraine, except for Transcarpathia) dream of leaving their beloved homeland.
True independence for Maidan supporters is a burden; they do not need it. Polish, Georgian and Baltic managers are freely appointed to high management positions. The main person in Ukraine is not the president, but the US ambassador.
One of the atamans of the Kherson Cossacks, bending his knee, hands over a saber former ambassador USA D. Tefftu, 2014
Nothing else could be expected from rapprochement with the West, which is ready to accept Ukraine only as a colony and its inhabitants as servants.
Ukraine is consistently returning to the state in which Western Ukraine was before joining the USSR in the late 30s of the last century. Moreover, the Galicians, accustomed to kneeling, are aggressively imposing their way of life on all residents of Ukraine.
Bottom line
Defenders of this tradition in Western Ukraine claim that it is a tribute to deep respect for the dead. But, firstly, we see that Maidan apologists kneel not only in front of funeral corteges, but also in front of very living people. And secondly, kneeling has never been an expression of respect anywhere - it is a sign that a person voluntarily surrenders himself to the power of the one before whom he kneels, that is, slavery.
Conclusion:
Western Ukrainians cannot distinguish between respect and humiliation. Their cultural code is structured in such a way that they are unable to be equal with others. In relation to others, they perceive themselves as either a “lord” or a “serf”. With all the ensuing external manifestations.
Kyiv. January 2015. Ukrainians knelt to honor the memory of the victims of “Russian aggression”
Lviv journalist and political scientist Valery Maydanyuk published an article on the Lviv website zaxid.net. The article is naturally written from a pro-Ukrainian position, but is of some interest.
An infantile nation on its knees
The rational voter theory does not work in Ukraine
Perhaps due to political immaturity, or perhaps due to mental naivety, but Ukrainians remain one of the most infantile nations in the world. Obviously, this is precisely the reason for the frequent appearance of national “messiahs”, bitter political disappointments and, finally, the crisis political and economic situation of the country.
Do not make yourself an idol
The first Christian commandment, apparently, was written specifically to warn Ukrainians, but, unfortunately, it was never followed by them. Ukrainians would not have experienced such severe political disappointments if they had not had a tendency to create idols for themselves, especially among professional politicians. The root of this mental problem lies in the excessive gullibility inherent only in children and the idealization of popular personalities, among whom there are almost no ideals and saints. Anglo-American political culture is distinguished by pragmatism and rational, cold calculation, according to which voters evaluate a politician not for his personal psychological traits and charisma, as for the correspondence of the points of his program to his material interests or normative demands. That is why the political science theory of a rational voter, who is always guided by pragmatic motives, contrary to the expectations of political strategists, does not work in Ukraine.
Our compatriots vote not even for those who promise them the most, but for those who will win their hearts. Therefore, politicians such as Oleg Lyashko, Yulia Tymoshenko, Petro Poroshenko, at a certain period, had multimillion-dollar support and an off-the-scale rating. The Ukrainian voter, instead of participating in reforming the country and developing local democracy, is waiting for a political messiah who will come, restore order and change everything for the better. This naive belief in political and economic miracles, honest and noble statesmen who do not think about anything personal but about the people and love for their homeland, has remained the core for decades political culture nation and the vector of its electoral behavior. Ukrainians tend to endow such political messiahs with extraordinary intelligence, talented abilities, various superpowers and incorruptibility.
On Maidan they kneel in honor of the memory of the heroes who fell in Donbass
During the Orange Revolution in Western Ukraine, there were rarely sober voices warning against unconditionally believing in Yushchenko as a national messiah. Those who said this were perceived as latent regionals, agents of Moscow. They risked becoming black sheep in the provincial Galician regional center. Sometimes you could even get punched in the face just for being against Yushchenko. But what can we say about the masses, when a rare professor, musician, doctor, writer or any member of the intelligentsia spoke out against Yushchenko in 2004 - the entire intellectual elite of the country was on his side. The slogan “Yu-schen-ko!” a million voices were heard over the orange Maidan, and more than half of the country believed in the messianic properties of this unremarkable, weak-willed and sickly person. And then bitter disappointment came. Yushchenko's rating has slipped into statistical error, and Ukrainians have forgotten yesterday's messiah. How many conflicts have there been in Ukrainian families, when, for example, the grandfather was for Yushchenko, and the woman was for Tymoshenko, and how many dishes were broken in the kitchens because of this?
Poroshenko kneels before the heroes of the “Heavenly Hundred”
Later, although on a smaller scale, the idols of Ukrainians a short time became Dmitry Bulatov, Cossack Gavrilyuk, Vladimir Parasyuk, Semyon Semenchenko, Yuliy Mamchur, whose political stars unexpectedly flashed brightly, reached the zenith of public attention and faded away just as quickly as soon as the public learned more about their real “heroes.” During the Euromaidan, Dmitry Bulatov was even a “victim” of the Yanukovych regime; many Ukrainians considered him a representative of the new generation political elite, until he squandered the enormous credit of popular trust in a ministerial position. Ukrainians considered the Cossack Gavrilyuk almost the standard of an honest, not corrupt, not spoiled by bureaucracy, a simple guy from the people, who should be given power in their hands, until he began to speak and showed his “abilities.”
Today such a heroine is Nadezhda Savchenko, but who knows how she will change public opinion about her, when Nadezhda leaves a Russian prison and becomes a politician and deputy of the Batkivshchyna faction? Will it happen again to her? heroic story» “ordinary guy” Volodya Parasyuk, who supposedly drove Yanukovych out of the country with one speech, and the revolution won? And then he became a deputy, began riding ATVs with singers, he was seen in a jeep, which was supposed to be used by the military in the ATO, and soon information appeared about him receiving large funds from the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky. And when they began to say that Parasyuk’s family earned about a million hryvnia in 2014, and the revolutionary himself began to be drawn into the system of Ukrainian politics, the popular euphoria began to decline.
Yatsenyuk and Turchynov kneel before the heroes of the “Heavenly Hundred”
Until recently, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians considered a number of battalion commanders, volunteers and ATO participants to be heroes and messiahs of a smaller scale, before whom they felt sacred reverence, as if before sacred cows. At the last parliamentary elections, parties staged a real hunt for ATO officers, trying at any cost to attract “ folk heroes": Maidan centurions, volunteers, ATO battalion commanders. Many citizens believed in the large-scale changes that would be brought by the arrival of “people of the people” in parliament, who went through the hell of war, in battle received immunity from behind-the-scenes intrigues and bureaucratic fraud, who themselves would not steal and would not allow others to do so. Hopes were also placed on the Brotherhood of War ATO veterans who shed blood together in the same trenches. However, the cult of military heroes and belief in messiah-battalion commanders in camouflage have in Ukraine more chances to success than the short-lived zeniths of fame of politicians in suits.
A nation on its knees
Kneel before fallen soldiers from the ATO zone - a typically Ukrainian tradition. Of course, these people are heroes and deserve all due honors, but are there any analogues of such a tradition in other countries, in particular European ones? American seals and the Delta special forces are perhaps the best and most combat-ready fighters on the planet. They professionally perform extremely complex and impossible tasks. combat missions. But Americans don't kneel at funerals. American soldiers. IN historical context The soldiers of Napoleon's army did the impossible - they conquered all of Europe, but the French did not kneel before them. They took off their hats. The sailors of the British fleet in the 19th century conquered about 25% of the planet’s land for the empire, and during World War II they won the “Battle of Britain,” but the British did not kneel at funeral ceremonies - they put their hand on their hearts.
Transcarpathia. Children meet "cargo 200" from the ATO zone.
If you postpone pink glasses patriotism and heroism, from the point of view military science, Ukrainian army did not fulfill the combat missions assigned to it: Crimea was lost without a fight, parts of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions were occupied by gangs of separatists, there was a terrible defeat near Illovaisk, Donetsk airport after heroic defense lost, Debaltsevo abandoned. And Ukrainians bow down to every ATO participant, believing that only for this the guys should be appointed to positions, elected as deputies, and given up their places in queues and buses. In every country at all times, it has been generally accepted to respect military heroes and veterans, to be grateful to them for protecting the Fatherland, and to provide state support. But you don’t need to pray for them.
Non-heroic heroes
Finally, one should not recklessly consider anyone who returned from the ATO zone a hero, given the corruption of the bureaucracy of the Ministry of Defense. Today, many facts are known about officials and prosecutors who, after visiting the administrative borders for several days Donetsk region, issued themselves certificates of ATO participants. Social networks undermine the applause from photographs of judges who allegedly left their positions and volunteered for the front. Although it remains unnoticed that the status of an ATO participant is effective immunity from lustration and inspections by regulatory authorities. Thanks to the halo of a volunteer, such a judge can not only continue to occupy a position of profit and take bribes, but also be considered a “hero”, who cannot be removed from office so easily now, since this would be an “attack on a hero.” And how many cases of drunkenness, looting, and smuggling are there in the zone, from which some patrol checkpoints make good money. Sometimes drivers military equipment The Armed Forces of Ukraine, being drunk, run over women and children, which leads to casualties, and in Konstantinovka, Donetsk region, such an incident led to an anti-army rally of local residents. Even the military command is forced to admit that some of the deaths in the ATO, mainly from mine explosions, were due to alcohol consumption.
In the Lviv region they say goodbye to the “cyborg”
It is also no secret that many well-known volunteers made a good fortune from their charitable activities: they bought cars, apartments, made repairs, embezzled some of the money and things, and some even went to the soldiers at the front. The Ukrainian army is not ideal, because it is a product and reflection of its society, with all its shortcomings and sins. If in Everyday life Ukrainians experience corruption, bribery, nepotism, the desire to get rich, hack work and drinking, and at the front, especially in the conditions of a sit-down war, such things are clearly manifested.
Kneel before the veteran!
And in Ukraine they kneel before the military, and not only before the dead. So, in Dnepropetrovsk 2014, hundreds of city residents knelt before the cyborgs of the Donetsk airport, who arrived for rotation. Hundreds of residents of Galicia and the Carpathian region greet Ukrainian soldiers on their knees. The famous Ukrainian singer Anastasia Prikhodko knelt before the heroes of the ATO, thanking them for their courage and bravery, and many representatives of the Ukrainian elite will follow her example at ceremonial events. Kneeling has become peculiar form gratitude, recognition and admiration of our people for their defenders and is not perceived as something seditious. How do people feel who, despite the general the surrounding atmosphere worshipers do not want to kneel, if only because the ground is dirty? How do those who have already bowed before the defenders look at those who dared not to do so?
Volyn. Village residents meet the corpse of an ATO hero
Until now, Ukrainians knelt only in church before God, but today they bow before the same people who have been endowed with an aura of sacredness and heroism. Only children, lonely pensioners and emotionally vulnerable people who are imbued with noble reverence for their defenders can believe so much in soldiers. The cult of ATO warriors in Ukrainian public consciousness begins to acquire the features of the Russian cult of veterans and “dedyvaevala” with characteristic popular hysteria and humble admiration, magnificent glorification and traditional bureaucratic indifference to their needs. In the modern world, in the 21st century, people kneel behind religious temples only in North Korea in front of images of leaders and in some dictatorships in Africa and Asia, where dictators have built a successful cult self. If Ukrainians today are ready to kneel so easily before soldiers, whom they consider their messiahs and protectors, then the nation is painfully naive and dangerously infantile, and the ground for totalitarianism and the cult of the national leader is already ready.
Volyn. Village residents meet the corpse of an ATO hero
P.S.. Let me comment on a few points:
“In the historical context, the soldiers of Napoleon’s army did the impossible - they conquered all of Europe, but the French did not kneel before them.”
Let me remind you that this “conquest of Europe” ended with the solemn entry of the Russian army into Paris in 1814.
- “If we put aside the rose-colored glasses of patriotism and heroism, from the point of view of military science, the Ukrainian army did not fulfill the combat missions assigned to it: Crimea was lost without a fight, parts of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions were occupied by gangs of separatists, there was a terrible defeat near Illovaisk, the Donetsk airport was lost after a heroic defense , Debaltsevo is abandoned."
The author does not write the most important thing, apparently, so as not to traumatize the psyche of the ukropatriots. All Ukrainian heroes: Mazepa, Petliura, Bandera, Shukhevych, UPA, SS Galicia division - were losers. Ukrainians are based on the cult of loser heroes, so molding loser cyborgs into heroes is a common thing for Bandera’s heirs.
- “The cult of ATO warriors in the Ukrainian public consciousness is beginning to acquire the features of the Russian cult of veterans and “dedyvaevala” with characteristic popular hysteria and humble admiration, lush glorification and traditional bureaucratic indifference to their needs.”
Never in Russia has there been a cult of kneeling before fallen and living heroes. So here the author is talking complete nonsense.
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Where they kneel
Almost nowhere in the world does the tradition of kneeling before the dead exist. In Orthodoxy and Catholicism, one kneels only before God. As a tribute to the dead, it is customary in civilized countries to remove hats. In Britain, they additionally put their hand to the heart.
In Antiquity and the Middle Ages, there were traditions of prostrating before rulers in many countries, especially in the East. In the modern world, people kneel in front of images of dead rulers only in North Korea, and in front of living ones - in several of the wildest countries in Africa.
In former times, only people in a humiliated position could be brought to their knees - captives, criminals, slaves or the guilty.
German Chancellor Willy Brandt expresses the guilt of the Germans in front of the memorial to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto, 1970.
Polish gentlemen taught Galicians to fall on their knees
The only reliably known tradition of mass genuflection before the dead existed in the lands of Galicia and Volyn in the 16th-18th centuries. Dependent peasants were forced to kneel along the path of the funeral cortege of their master - usually a Pole. This forced them to express obedience to their master even after his death. In addition to the symbolic act, by this the villagers showed a very specific readiness to obey the heir of the deceased, who, as a rule, accompanied the body.
Thus, over the centuries, the Poles passed on dominance over the Galicians. The controlled must be humiliated so that he does not dare to think about liberation.
This tradition, having lost its original meaning, was preserved in later times. Writers and travelers of the 19th and early 20th centuries noted the servility and humiliation of the inhabitants of the Carpathian region.
During the Soviet era, the equality of people was declared and external forms of admiration were not welcomed. After independence in 1991, Soviet traditions were constantly eradicated in Ukraine. In 2014, this took on unlimited proportions as “decommunization.” And so the “non-slaves” were able to return to their natural state - on their knees. Not only in front of the memory of the fallen, as they like to justify themselves, but also in front of very living foreign lords.
Ukraine as a country is on its knees
Physical kneeling is only the outer side. The Ukrainian state and society kneels before the EU, humiliatingly begging for “visa-free regimes” and other attributes of access to the master’s home. The majority of citizens (the overwhelming majority in Western Ukraine, except for Transcarpathia) dream of leaving their beloved homeland.
True independence for Maidan supporters is a burden; they do not need it. Polish, Georgian and Baltic managers are freely appointed to high management positions. The main person in Ukraine is not the president, but the US ambassador.
One of the atamans of the Kherson Cossacks, on bended knee, hands over a saber to former US Ambassador D. Tefft, 2014.
Nothing else could be expected from rapprochement with the West, which is ready to accept Ukraine only as a colony and its inhabitants as servants.
Ukraine is consistently returning to the state in which Western Ukraine was before joining the USSR in the late 30s of the last century. Moreover, the Galicians, accustomed to kneeling, are aggressively imposing their way of life on all residents of Ukraine.
Bottom line
Defenders of this tradition in Western Ukraine claim that it is a tribute to deep respect for the dead. But, firstly, we see that Maidan apologists kneel not only in front of funeral corteges, but also in front of very living people. And secondly, kneeling has never been an expression of respect anywhere - it is a sign that a person voluntarily surrenders himself to the power of the one before whom he kneels, that is, slavery.
Conclusion:
Western Ukrainians cannot distinguish between respect and humiliation. Their cultural code is structured in such a way that they are unable to be equal with others. In relation to others, they perceive themselves as either a “lord” or a “serf”. With all the ensuing external manifestations.
Fast news today
Where do Westerners get the tradition of kneeling, falling on their knees in the mud, in the snow in front of any dead security official. Not even those who died in battle, but, for example, those who were poisoned by glass wash. The comments explained:
The Poles once taught the Galicians to kneel when the dead lord was taken to the cemetery; his serf slaves had to kneel throughout “ the last way", expressing obedience and devotion to his master until the grave. Slave reflex before master.
The genetics remained - they didn’t know where to shove them. Here they finally found an outlet for a reason, under the guise of a “worthy” one. Now they are promoting this tradition under the guise of “truly Ukrainian” even in Slobozhanshchina and Novorossiya. “Non-slaves”, Fule... Although ethnographers have suspicions that this strange chthonic custom in the Carpathian region comes from the Dacians and Celts (carps, boii, and others). They crawled in front of the dead soldiers before burning their bodies.
Kuprin wrote about Volyn peasants in Oles:
But... either the Perebrod peasants were distinguished by some kind of special, stubborn reticence, or I did not know how to get down to business - my relations with them were limited only by the fact that, when they saw me, they took off their hats from afar, and when they caught up with me, they said gloomily: “Guy bug,” which was supposed to mean: “God help.” When I tried to talk to them, they looked at me with surprise, refused to understand the most simple questions and everyone tried to kiss my hands - an old custom left over from Polish serfdom.
I re-read all the books I had very quickly. Out of boredom - although at first it seemed unpleasant to me - I made an attempt to get acquainted with the local intelligentsia in the person of the priest who lived fifteen miles away, the “Pan Organist” who was with him, the local police officer and the clerk of the neighboring estate of retired non-commissioned officers, but nothing of the sort it didn't work out.
Then I tried to treat the residents of Perebrod. At my disposal were: castor oil, carbolic acid, boric acid, iodine. But here, in addition to my meager information, I came across the complete impossibility of making diagnoses, because the signs of the disease in all my patients were always the same: “it hurts in the middle” and “I can neither eat nor drink.”
For example, an old woman comes to see me. Wiping his nose with an embarrassed look index finger right hand, she takes out a couple of eggs from her bosom, and for a second I see her brown skin, and puts them on the table. Then she starts to catch my hands to plant a kiss on them. I hide my hands and convince the old woman: “Come on, grandma... leave it... I’m not a priest... I’m not supposed to do this... What hurts you?”
It hurts in the middle, sir, right in the middle, so I can’t even drink or eat.
How long ago did this happen to you?
Do I know? - she also answers with a question. - So it bakes and bakes. I can neither drink nor eat.
And no matter how much I fight, more certain signs there is no disease.
“Don’t worry,” a non-commissioned clerk once advised me, “they’ll heal themselves.” It will dry out like on a dog. Let me tell you, I only use one medicine - ammonia. A man comes to me. "What do you want?" - “I am sick,” he says... Now a bottle of ammonia is placed under his nose. “Sniff!” Sniffs... “Sniff even... stronger!” Sniffs... “Which is easier?” - “It’s as if I’m feeling better” ... - “Well, go with God.”
Besides, I hated this kissing of hands (and others fell so directly at my feet and tried with all their might to kiss my boots). What was at play here was not the movement of a grateful heart, but simply a disgusting habit, instilled by centuries of slavery and violence. And I was only amazed by the same clerk from the non-commissioned officers and the constable, looking with what imperturbable importance they thrust their huge red paws into the lips of the peasants...
Non-slaves, in short. Reproaching the Great Russians for “300 years of Horde slavery”...
Plop on your knees in the mud, in the snow in front of any dead security officer. Not even those who died in battle, but, for example, those who were poisoned by glass wash.
Let's remember:
The Poles once taught Galicians to kneel when the dead lord was taken to the cemetery; his serf slaves had to kneel along the entire “last journey”, expressing submission and devotion to their master until the grave. Slave reflex before master.
The genetics remained - they didn’t know where to shove them. Here they finally found an outlet for a reason, under the guise of a “worthy” one. Now they are promoting this tradition under the guise of “truly Ukrainian” even in Slobozhanshchina and Novorossiya. "Non-slaves"!
Although ethnographers have suspicions that this strange chthonic custom in the Carpathian region comes from the Dacians and Celts (carps, boii, and others). They crawled in front of the dead soldiers before burning their bodies.
Non-slaves, in short. Reproaching the Great Russians for “300 years of Horde slavery”...
Many travelers. those who visited Ukrainian lands in the 19th and early 20th centuries noted the amazing servility of Ukrainians, their tendency to the most humiliating manifestations of slavery without any apparent need or reason, but simply due to the rooted slave mentality in this people.
Karl Vladislav Zapp. "Travel through the Galician Land" (1844)
“In Lvov, little Russian is spoken, and the Rusyn intellectuals speak Polish. The people are abandoned, abandoned, given over to moral humiliation and unjust slavery... This is where the simple Rusyns have their separatism and distrust of everyone who is at least different from them clothes."
A.I. Kuprin, story “Olesya” (1898), about the morals of the peasants of Volyn.
The peasants of Perebrod were distinguished by some kind of special, stubborn reticence, or I did not know how to get down to business - my relations with them were limited only by the fact that, when they saw me, they took off their hats from afar, and when they caught up with me, they gloomily said: “Guy bug ", which was supposed to mean "God help." When I tried to talk to them, they looked at me with surprise, refused to understand the simplest questions and everyone tried to kiss my hands - an old custom left over from Polish serfdom.
For example, an old woman comes to see me. Having wiped her nose with the index finger of her right hand with an embarrassed look, she takes out a pair of eggs from her bosom, and for a second I can see her brown skin, and puts them on the table. Then she starts to catch my hands to plant a kiss on them. I hide my hands and convince the old woman: “Come on, grandma... leave it... I’m not a priest... I’m not supposed to do this... What hurts you?”
Besides, I hated this kissing of hands (and others fell so directly at my feet and tried with all their might to kiss my boots). What was at play here was not the movement of a grateful heart, but simply a disgusting habit, instilled by centuries of slavery and violence. And I was only amazed at the same clerk from the non-commissioned officers and the sergeant, looking with what imperturbable importance they thrust their huge red paws into the lips of the peasants... (And this is late XIX centuries, serfdom has long been abolished and there is no vital need for kissing the hand of a clerk or policeman!)
Jaroslav Hasek, "Adventures good soldier Seamstress", part 3, chapter "From Hatvan to the Galician border"
Less than half an hour had passed before they returned with three piglets tied by the hind legs, with the howling family of the Ugrorus - his piglets had been requisitioned - and with a fat doctor from the Red Cross barracks. The doctor was heatedly explaining something to Second Lieutenant Zeithaml, who was shrugging his shoulders.
The dispute reached its climax at the headquarters car, when a military doctor began to prove to Captain Sagner that these piglets were intended for the Red Cross hospital. The peasant did not want to know anything and demanded that the piglets be returned to him, since this is his last asset and he cannot give them back for the price that was paid to him.
At the same time, he thrust the money he received for the piglets to Captain Sagner; his wife, grabbing the captain’s hand, KISSED HER WITH THE servility THAT IS EVER NATURAL TO THIS LAND.
Captain Sagner, frightened by the whole story, had difficulty pushing the old peasant woman away. But it did not help. She was replaced by young forces, who, in turn, began to suck his hand.
Four soldiers surrounded him (the Ugro-Russian) even more tightly, and the whole family blocked the path of Captain Sagner and Second Lieutenant Zeitgaml, throwing themselves on their knees in front of them in the middle of the dusty road. The mother and two daughters hugged both of their knees, calling them benefactors, until the peasant shouted at them and shouted in the Ukrainian dialect of the Ugro-Russians to get up.
Vasily Kelsiev. "Galicia and Moldavia. Travel letters" (1868)
My sitting on the porch somewhat disturbed the calm of the honest company working near the chaises. They were obviously racking their brains: am I a master or not, and is there anything noble under my reddish coat?
I conclude from this that every time they passed by me they took off their hats, and took them off somehow restlessly, as if their conscience was unclean - whether they should bow or not was spinning in their heads and, just in case, they walked past me without hats Again, I have not seen this either in Christian or Turkish Europe; Even here, as far as I know Russia, this breaking of caps in front of anyone who is not dressed as a peasant is far from being the custom.
I was driving to Vyshatichi and looking at the men I met. We shouted a lot and were surprised that the Poles consider the people cattle (cattle), and the Poles are absolutely right: I would call the local people cattle. Several generations will pass until the local people are equal in their development to the Great Russians, Slovaks, Bulgarians, even Romanians.
History has crushed him so heavily with its heavy wheels that he is really close to the state of a dumb creature. There is some kind of fear written on his face; who does not even know his past and will say that he did not go forward, but retreated back
Timid clap; This guy is humble like a hen: he bows low - he grabs his hat in his hand and places it all on the ground and at your feet. Walk past them - they will jump up and run towards your hand - for no reason at all, just out of servility.
Beaten, crushed, having spent five hundred years under the yoke of the Polish and his own gentry, deprived even own history, he remembers only the Tatars and the gentlemen, bends to death and, like all the powerless and spineless, becomes cruel and unforgiving if power falls into his hands.
Priest Grigory Kupchanko. "Galicia and its Russian inhabitants" (1890s)
The subversive character of the Russian peasants in Galicia is their extreme submissiveness and inferiority in front of others, especially the higher camps, before which they are not ashamed to even bow to their feet or else fall on their knees.
This shameful habit comes from those ancient times, when Polish kings, lords and priests ruled over the Russian people in Galicia. In order for the Galician-Russian peasant to abandon this vile habit of his, which lowers his stature and insults his honor.