What is the difference between Russian products and European ones? How do Russians differ from everyone else...

How are we Russians different from the British? Of course, language, anthropology, culture and so on. But the key difference is the windows. Windows of Russian and British houses.

The Russian "window" comes from the word "oko". That is, the window is a kind of sensory organ of the home. The origin of the English window, which is not difficult to determine, is somehow connected with the wind. To be more scrupulous in translation, window can be interpreted as a device for creating drafts. That is, there is no talk of any visuality here. If we translate the “English window” in accordance with the “house” system of sensory organs, then window is undoubtedly a respiratory organ (nose or mouth).

Nose

So, the British lived with built-in “noses” for several centuries, until the Puritans, a Protestant sect, became active on the island in the middle of the 17th century. And so they, as they say, “pulled their eyes over their nose.” The English window's organic function has changed. From now on, windows also became eyes, however, not of the house, but of society.

As you know, the Puritans advocated complete transparency in the private lives of community members, so curtaining windows was strictly prohibited. Any honest Christian, in a fit of suspicion, should have had the opportunity to check whether his brother was living correctly.

With difficulty, the British fought off the Puritans - they went to “supervise” overseas, and curtains returned to the windows of some British people. True, the habit still remains: in some towns in Scotland, curtains on the windows are still considered bad form. And in the “fraternal” Protestant Amsterdam and Lutheran Stockholm, until recently there was a strict ban on curtains.

Human inner world

Now about the Russian “window” tradition. As already mentioned, our window played the role of an eye. The space of a Russian house symbolized the inner world of man. Uninvited intrusion into a home from the outside was considered a great blasphemy. Like, in fact, peeping through windows. The role of “overseers” was played by icons, which mobilized people to a righteous lifestyle much more than anyone else’s eyes.

At the same time, the door of the Russian hut was always open for guests. This was related to the biblical story when three angels appeared to Abraham in the form of travelers. Therefore, the Russian hut was always ready to meet the Trinity. This is precisely why the façade of a traditional Russian house has three windows.

Eyes

Russian windows were not used to look into the house from the street, as with Protestants, but, on the contrary, to look from the hut at the world created by the Lord. In other words, windows in the Russian tradition are the “eyes” of the inhabitants of the house. In Protestant culture, windows serve as the eyes of society. The Puritan spirit of surveillance of people carried over into the modern Anglo-Saxon political tradition.

The roots of liberal ideology - transparency of citizens, open society, all these countless observers at elections, control over “rogue states” lie precisely in the habit of looking into other people’s windows. And we can only hope that someday they will see the Holy Trinity there.

The language is of course Russian. But then the problems begin. For example, Russian or Russian literature? Russian or Russian history? Residents of Russia - Russians or Russians? And there is another word " Russian-speaking", which for me personally smacks of some kind of inferiority, although I have been studying languages all my life. Then it’s better " Russian speakers". although it’s also not much better.

Russian is Russian by blood or any man with Russian passport and not even necessarily speaking Russian? Russian by mother or father?

Nowadays everything is mixed up. Take, for example, famous athletes (football players, hockey players, figure skaters), who were often born in one country, train in another, and compete for a third.

We can intelligently differentiate the meanings of the words “Russian” and “Russian” as much as we like. But as long as the participants themselves Russian-speaking language community and even more so, residents and the press of foreign countries will confuse these words and concepts; clarity will not be achieved here. Yu.N.

Russian golyad (rusk.ru) // Yuri Kobzenko, author of the book “Matir mov” (Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine)

The main problem of today's Russia is determining the name of the titular, state-forming nation. Considering that my grandfather is from Penza, I decided to take part in the debate: “Russian or Russian?”

RUSSIANS IN HOLLAND Although it would be more correct to say “Russian-speaking people in Holland.” Oddly enough, people from the former USSR differ little from each other in their nationalities. They are similar like identical twins in their Soviet (primarily) culture, Soviet upbringing, manner of dressing and behaving. This is neither good nor bad. It’s just that Russian speakers, with rare exceptions, can always be recognized on the streets of different countries of the world, including in Holland.

How do Russians differ from Europeans?

All three categories of Russians, who answered differently to the question: are we like Europeans, are right in their own way. Because, answering as if for everyone or for many, they spoke to themselves. Where is the truth? And what arguments should be given to prove our similarities or differences with Europeans? What's important here:

appearance,
behavior,
relations with the law,
traditions and habits, life values,
space and open spaces,
written and oral culture.

Let's go through the points listed above as they apply to Europeans and to us.

1. Appearance

By appearance we mean face, clothing, style. Some similarities can probably be found here. Although our attitude to appearance, especially to clothing, differs from the European one. Because we attach too much importance to clothes. And it is here that people are “met by their clothes.”

They say that if a beautifully dressed girl in high heels walks along the beach, then this girl is either from Russia or from Italy. Because Russian girls and Italians always want to be in shape.

But the faces of a Russian and a European are different in many ways. Europeans have completely different eyes, filled with confidence and calm. The faces of many Europeans are somewhat reminiscent of children.

In the eyes of a Russian there is fear, anxiety, confusion, anxiety. A Russian should always be on his guard. So that they don’t cheat, don’t go around at a turn, don’t sue indiscriminately or for cause. Every day is a struggle. Either for survival or for a place in the sun. And constant stress, which is treated with a well-known folk remedy. But in Europe, stress is rare, and they treat it with medical intervention.

What about the old people? Theirs and ours? The difference is contrasting. Our old people are bent over, their eyes are extinguished. But pensioners in Europe look fresh and are not going to give up, because life is not a burden to them... And it’s not just about the size of pensions.

The phenomenon of European pensioners is explained primarily by the fact that they, as a rule, give their children some kind of education and then “sorry, goodbye”: they send their children on an independent voyage. It is not at all customary for them to help their children, for example, with their grandchildren. It is believed that grandparents raised their children and fulfilled their duty. And they don’t owe their grandchildren anything, so they can play with them occasionally and that’s all.

Whereas our connection between grandparents and their grandchildren is often stronger than they once had with their own children.

2. Behavior

Europeans respect themselves and are therefore dignified, and they also respect others. At the same time, they are individualists, every man for himself. This is why it is so difficult for our students to study at European universities. Our students are accustomed to helping each other with notes and being ready to help. Europeans study separately; it is not customary for them to copy and help each other.

We don't respect anyone. And myself too. We somehow even managed to get used to rudeness; we are not surprised by shortchanges and bad prices in the store and at the market, lack of rights before the law, or an unrealistic utility bill.

As for the elderly, ours stand resignedly in queues to receive pensions and subsidies; They count kopecks when buying bread and milk because they help their children and grandchildren. And older citizens of Europe travel around cities and villages and relax in their own country houses.

In Europe, it is customary to contact the police and report anything suspicious around you. This is not accepted among us; such an act is contemptuously called “knocking,” although for security reasons in modern realities this may simply be necessary.

3. Relations with the law

We don't trust law enforcement, we don't trust the government. That's why we don't follow the laws, we don't really know them. And they don’t always work for us. Another classic M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote: “The severity of Russian laws is softened by the optionality of their implementation.”

We do not know how, do not want and are afraid to defend our rights. Because this is such a problem that it almost always costs “you more.” And not only does it not bring the expected results, but none at all. Therefore, we have no rights.

Europeans have rights. And if they are affected, police stations and courts will be inundated with allegations of rights violations. And when prices for the same gasoline increase, which sometimes happens in their country, Europeans will take to the streets to protest without bribery or incitement from outside. The law works for them. This means that the average citizen is protected there.

4. Traditions, habits and life values

The most important value in Russia is security. We are careful and blow on the water. We are afraid of consequences, even if we are right. We value order more than freedom. And we can be understood. We need stability, because we are mortally tired of chaos and chaos in all areas of life.

Everything new frightens us beyond words. We are afraid of him. Because with the arrival of something new, we don’t get any better. And things are getting worse than they were. “We wanted the best, but it turned out as always” is one of the most famous catchphrases of Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin, who said it when he was Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation at a press conference on August 6, 1993. This is how he characterized the implementation of the 1993 monetary reform.

In Europe, novelty is valued, immediately adopted, put into practice, and life becomes better and easier for Europeans. They don't need stability. They have it, they have long been accustomed to it.

They are independent and decisive. Initiative is held in high esteem. In our country, it is punishable and, again, costs “more to ourselves,” so we prefer to “keep a low profile.” And we wait for a miracle, as it is colorfully described in our fairy tales about a goldfish, at the behest of a pike, about a humpbacked horse, etc.

We don't like rich people. Some don’t like it because of the nature of the Russian soul, which despises traders in principle, some because of banal envy, some believe that you can’t get rich with honest work. And in Europe they try to be rich, they strive for it.

5. Space and open spaces

We have different attitudes towards space. Europeans are used to living in a very limited space, crowded. Therefore, for some reason, it seems that the Russian proverb “in trouble, but not in offence” applies more specifically to Europeans. We are still used to the fact that there is a lot of space and we don’t have to be too crowded in a cafe, in a store, at the airport, in a theater, in public transport, etc. But Europeans do not notice the cramped conditions and feel cramped like a “fish in water.”

They say that the word “prostor (open spaces)” exists only in Russian, and it is difficult and impossible to translate it into European languages.

6. Written and oral culture

We have adopted oral, that is, it is not considered shameful to repeat orally what has already been written somewhere.

The Germans have a written culture; it is not customary to ask questions there. For this reason, it can be very difficult for our students to get used to studying at universities.

The fact that it is customary for the Germans to send many documents by mail in written form is another evidence of the Germans' written culture.

Like ours, it is an oral culture. They prefer live communication, they talk a lot, including Spanish officials. “What about talking?” – this has long become a habit for the Spaniards, that is, second nature.

It turns out that we have no similarities with Europeans? And there is nothing that unites us?

This is wrong. There are similarities. They consider us strangers. We them too...

Having common roots, the Russian and Ukrainian languages seem very similar at first glance. But that's not true. In fact, they have more differences than similarities.

Some roots

As you know, Ukrainian and Russian languages belong to the same group of East Slavic languages. They have a common alphabet, similar grammar and significant lexical uniformity. However, the peculiarities of the development of the cultures of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples have led to noticeable differences in their language systems.

The first differences between the Russian and Ukrainian languages are already found in the alphabet. In the Ukrainian alphabet, which took shape at the end of the 19th century, unlike the Russian one, the letters Ёё, Ъъ, ыы, Ее are not used, but there are Ґґ, Єє, Іі, Її, which are not in Russian.

As a result, the pronunciation of some sounds of the Ukrainian language is unusual for Russians. Thus, the letter “Ї”, which is absent in Russian, sounds approximately like “YI”, “CH” is pronounced more firmly, as in Belarusian or Polish, and “G” conveys a guttural, fricative sound.

Similar languages?

Modern research shows that the Ukrainian language is closer to other Slavic languages - Belarusian (29 common features), Czech and Slovak (23), Polish (22), Croatian and Bulgarian (21), and it has only 11 common features with the Russian language.

Based on these data, some linguists question the unification of the Russian and Ukrainian languages into one language group.

Statistics show that only 62% of words are common to the Russian and Ukrainian languages. According to this indicator, the Russian language in relation to Ukrainian is only in fifth place after Polish, Czech, Slovak and Belarusian. For comparison, you can note that the English and Dutch languages are 63% similar in lexical composition - that is, more than Russian and Ukrainian.

Parting of the ways

The differences between the Russian and Ukrainian languages are largely due to the peculiarities of the formation of the two nations. The Russian nation was centrally formed around Moscow, which led to the dilution of its vocabulary with Finno-Ugric and Turkic words. The Ukrainian nation was formed by uniting southern Russian ethnic groups, and therefore the Ukrainian language largely retained its ancient Russian basis.

By the middle of the 16th century, the Ukrainian and Russian languages had significant differences.

But if the texts of that time in the old Ukrainian language are generally understandable to modern Ukrainians, then, for example, documents from the era of Ivan the Terrible are very difficult to “translate” by a resident of today’s Russia.

Even more noticeable differences between the two languages began to appear with the beginning of the formation of the Russian literary language in the first half of the 18th century. The abundance of Church Slavonic words in the new Russian language made it difficult to understand for Ukrainians.

For example, let’s take the Church Slavonic word “thanks”, from which the well-known “thank you” arose. The Ukrainian language, on the contrary, has retained the old Russian word “dákuyu”, which now exists as “dyakuyu”.

From the end of the 18th century, the Ukrainian literary language began to take shape, which, being in line with pan-European processes, gradually got rid of connections with the Russian language.

In particular, there is a rejection of Church Slavonicisms - instead, an emphasis is placed on folk dialects, as well as borrowing words from other, primarily Eastern European languages.

The following table can clearly show how close the vocabulary of the modern Ukrainian language is to a number of Eastern European languages and how far it is from Russian:

An important feature of the Ukrainian language is its dialectical diversity. This is a consequence of the fact that certain regions of Western Ukraine were part of other states - Austria-Hungary, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia. Thus, the speech of a resident of the Ivano-Frankivsk region is not always understandable to a resident of Kiev, while a Muscovite and a Siberian speak the same language.

Game of meanings

Despite the fact that the Russian and Ukrainian languages have quite a lot of common words, and even more words that are similar in sound and spelling, they often have different semantic connotations.

Take, for example, the Russian word “other” and its related Ukrainian word “inshiy”. If these words are similar in sound and spelling, then their meaning has noticeable differences.

A more accurate correspondence to the Ukrainian word “inshiy” in Russian would be “other” - it is somewhat more formal and does not carry such emotional and artistic expressiveness as the word “other”.

Another word – “sorry” – is identical in both languages in spelling and pronunciation, but differs in semantic meaning. In Russian it exists as a predicative adverb. Its main task is to express regret about something, or pity for someone.

In the Ukrainian language, used as an adverb, the word “sorry” has a similar meaning. However, it can also be a noun, and then its semantic shades are noticeably enriched, becoming consonant with such words as sorrow, bitterness, pain. “Oh, it’s a pity now all over Ukraine.” In this context, this word is not used in Russian.

Western style

You can often hear from foreign students that the Ukrainian language is more close to European languages than Russian. It has long been noted that translating from French or English into Ukrainian is in some respects easier and more convenient than translating into Russian.

It's all about certain grammatical structures. Linguists have this joke: in European languages “the priest had a dog” and only in Russian “the priest had a dog.” Indeed, in Ukrainian in such cases, along with the verb “is”, the verb “to have” is used. For example, the English phrase “I have a younger brother” in Ukrainian can sound both like “I have a younger brother” and “I have a younger brother.”

The Ukrainian language, unlike Russian, adopted modal verbs from European languages. Thus, in the phrase “I may tse zrobiti” (“I must do it”), modality is used in the sense of obligation, as in English – “I have to do it.” In the Russian language, a similar function of the verb “to have” has long disappeared from use.

Another indicator of the difference in grammar is that the Russian verb “to wait” is transitive, but the Ukrainian “chekati” is not, and, as a result, it is not used without a preposition: “I’m waiting for you” (“I’m waiting for you”). For comparison in English – “waiting for you”.

However, there are cases when the Russian language uses borrowings from European languages, but Ukrainian does not. Thus, the names of the months in Russian are a kind of tracing paper from Latin: for example, March - martii (Latin), März (German), march (English), mars (French). The Ukrainian language here has retained its connection with the Slavic vocabulary - “berezen”.

The Ukrainian “independent” national idea can be described with the words “we are not Russians, we have nothing in common with Russians.” Or exactly the opposite - “The Russians stole everything from us, including our self-name. In fact, we are the real Russians, and the Muscovites are the essence of the Finno-Ugric people.”

This is precisely the interpretation that the most ardent “Ukrainian nationalists”, in fact, Galician Nazis, adhere to, uniting in this with the same Nazis in Russia. This determines the presence of the latter in the punitive regiment "Azov", fighting under flags with the emblem of the SS division "Das Reich". By the way, according to the first commander of the then Azov battalion (now a member of the Ukrainian parliament) Andrei Biletsky, half of the battalion is Russian Nazis, many are Russian citizens.

Perdimonocle..!

Therefore, in order to understand what this “Ukrainian idea” is, we will have to go from the opposite and first determine what the Russian national idea is.

So. First of all, nationalism is alien to the Russian national idea. It sounds like a pun, but it's true. For a Russian person, it is absolutely unimportant what nationality another person is. Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont - Russian poet, Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly (born German Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly) - Russian commander, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol - Russian writer, although he had Polish roots, Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (born Armenian Hovhannes Ayvazyan) - Russian artist . There are not thousands of examples - millions.

The main thing, as they say, “is that the person is good.” And if a person is good and has a heart for Rus', they will willingly recognize him as one of their own, not paying attention to his place of birth and pedigree. Moreover, the first-generation immigrants themselves, who served for the good and became the pride of Russia, quite sincerely considered themselves Russians.

Russian people are internationalists by nature. Just like nationalism, racism and any other forms of segregation of a person by the shape of the skull, the shape of the eyes or the color of his pants are alien to him. Just like any xenophobia in general, including anti-Semitism. All kinds of nationalists, Black Hundreds, racists and other xenophobes are renegades, apostates from the idea of the Russian world.

Another characteristic feature of the Russian person is the thirst for justice - of course, for everyone. Therefore, Russian people - I mean those who correspond to the Russian national idea - can have any nationality, race and religion.

Just remember the Armenian genocide at the beginning of the twentieth century. Seemingly infinitely distant and different from the Russians, the Armenian people found refuge from the Turkish sabers in Russia. And not only in the Caucasus - it was Moldova and Little Russia that took over the bulk of the Armenians.

Another typical example, carefully hushed up by “civilized” Europe. Everyone knows about the persecution of Jews in Russia. However, it was the Russians, the Soviet Union, who created the state of Israel, which at that time was very disliked by the United States and Great Britain. And, despite the millions of Jews who moved there from the USSR, almost a quarter of a million people who call themselves Jews live in Russia today (2010 census). But in neighboring Poland, an EU member, the situation is different. Before the outbreak of World War II, approximately 3,474,000 Jews lived there. During the war, about 2.8 million Jews died in Poland, which is almost half of the total number of Polish citizens killed. And after the end of the war, only about 380,000 Polish Jews remained alive. All Jews liberated from concentration camps were immediately deported by the Poles. The rest - gradually.

They are silent about this, but Jewish pogroms in Poland were a normal occurrence. The most famous pogrom was on July 4, 1946 in the city of Kielce, when out of 200 Jews who survived the war, the townspeople killed 40 (according to other sources 47) and wounded 50 people, including pregnant women and children. And this is just one of many examples. Today, about a thousand Jews live in Poland (according to the Polish census of 2002, 1,133 Jews lived in the country). Agree – there is a striking difference between a “civilized European nation” and “Russian barbarians”!

Note. Possessing the largest territory in the world, possessing this territory for a much longer period than the United States, the Russians did not destroy a single people, even the smallest. More than a hundred still inhabit Russia today and, unlike the USA, Australia, Britain, and any other empire, Russia did not “multiply them by zero” and did not transplant the remnants of nationalities into ghettos and reservations. On the contrary, she spent money on creating alphabets and writing for them, published books, newspapers, and in every possible way promoted “original talents.” And even today there are a lot of privileges for the small peoples of Russia, including the slaughter of whales, which is prohibited for everyone else. And there is no need to talk about quotas in universities and government bodies. Often and densely, even contrary to common sense, exclusively “local personnel” were recruited into the “local” governing bodies.

So the outbreaks of nationalism in Russia look terrible only until you compare similar ones in other countries. A textbook example: the founder of the Russian literary language was a descendant of an Ethiopian, the godson of Peter the Great, Ibrahim Hannibal, and Ibrahim (Abram) Petrovich himself became the first black Russian general. By the way, can you tell me when this became possible for blacks in Blessed America? I remember they were driven after the war. And not just the Ku Klux Klan. That's the same...

Okay, Pushkin. And Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko? Was he considered a foreigner? Non-Russia? No, everyone took part in his fate and the development of his talent as an artist and poet - from ordinary officers who gave money for the first edition of "Kobzar" and created all the conditions for creativity for a common soldier, to the imperial family, which raised money for his ransom from the serfs, about which This is evidenced by the corresponding entries in the Chamber-Fourier journal.

For Russian people, such concepts as truth and the desire for justice are very important. It was precisely for violating this unconditional imperative that Taras Shevchenko was punished when he went against justice and repaid the empress with black ingratitude, insulting her and ridiculing the nervous tic that Maria Feodorovna suffered after the Decembrist uprising. He did not live by the truth. The spontaneous and unconscious desire for the highest justice is a very characteristic feature of the Russian soul, which has never found understanding in Western European culture.

Maybe not very accurately, but close to the emotional impulse, one of the little-known literary heroes described this difference:

"We were never shy about being idiots. When everyone around us believed in the Market, we believed in God. When everyone believed in Law, we believed in Love. When everyone believed in Order, we believed in Purity and Grace. We were never afraid to be a little ... holy fools. Ivan the Fool always goes hunting on the Little Humpbacked Horse, in a holey caftan and a hat askew, and returns with the king’s daughter and a chest of gold. And all because Ivan the Fool does not require the most modest opinion of himself. from the world of victories and doesn’t even hope to win. He doesn’t care about success, justice and even the Tsar’s daughter. But Heaven entrusts him with victory, Because they know that only Ivan the Fool will manage this victory correctly, and the Tsar’s daughter will like it with him. I'll definitely like it..."

That’s why the matrices of the “Russian” and “Soviet” worlds so easily connected, and that’s why the Russians liked the idea of building communism so much. Therefore, the first socialist state arose in Russia.

Russian people are by nature a seeker of truth, including both the search for scientific truth and the search for social justice. And the word “pravda” itself in Russian has the meaning “truth” and “justice”. Let me emphasize, in order to avoid misunderstandings, that we are talking specifically about the people and the core idea, and not about individuals - “every family has its black sheep,” as we know.

Russian people are decent and honest. It was not for nothing that for the Hanseatic merchants the word of honor of a Russian merchant was firmer and more reliable than any other guarantee. This is despite the fact that trading is a very specific type of activity, the traditions of fraud and cheating go back thousands of years.

A truly Russian person is honest both to others and to himself. And the concepts of “honesty” and “honor” in the Russian language are not without reason the same root. Therefore, the Russian hero never stabs his opponent in the back or shoots on the sly, and does not even lie to the enemy. The phrase of Svyatoslav Igorevich, the prince of Novgorod and Kyiv, who used to warn the enemy with the words: “I’m coming to you,” has become a textbook phrase.

A hero, in the Russian understanding of this concept, can be neither treacherous, nor insidious, nor cowardly.

Would you say this is the case everywhere? But no - compare with the “heroes of independent Ukraine”, who constantly betray, plot and run away, abandoning their own comrades to the mercy of fate. I would like to emphasize that it is “unfair”.

Now many equate the concepts “Russian” and “Orthodox” - but this is as deceitful as insisting on an exclusively national characteristic.

A truly Russian person is not an adherent of clericalism

He may be an atheist, or he may be a devout believer, but any violations of justice, including on the part of church leaders, outrage him - therefore, he does not support the idea of giving church members more power, rightly recalling the biblical “To God is God’s, to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” ".

In "Walking Beyond Three Seas" by the Russian merchant and traveler Afanasy Nikitin - I hope there is no doubt that he is truly Russian? – there are entire pieces of text in Arabic, Persian and Turkic, which are either Orthodox prayers or appeals to Allah. For the Russian man Afanasy Nikitin, it made no difference what to call his god - God or Allah...

Well, even children know that there is a whole layer of Russian folk tales with a strong anti-clerical theme. “Servants of God” appear in fairy tales every now and then as greedy, stupid and unscrupulous, using the religiosity of peasants and quotes from the Bible in the name of their own selfish interests.

Russian people are modest. It is not for nothing that in the Russian language there is no future tense singular form for the verb “to win”. A Russian can say “I won” or “We will win”, but cannot say: “I will win”, “I will run” or “I will win” - it even sounds wild and ignorant.

Not in Russian

Peacefulness and good nature - these traits of Russian people are most often subject to slander. It is not surprising: the entire Russian Empire was created not so much by the sword, but by friendliness and care for the “conquered” peoples. A huge territory inhabited by a hundred peoples, no matter how much the enemies and envious people wanted it, did not want to crumble on its own under the weight of national and religious contradictions, and the West had to make enormous efforts in order to tear off at least a small piece, at least one people, from Russia. .

The same rare cases when Russia, the Russian people, conquered new territories in battle, as a rule, there were either cases of the return of primordially Russian lands - as was the case with the territory of the future Ukraine, or they were provoked by “victims of aggression” - as was the case with Crimea , whose population drove into slavery the inhabitants of the south of Great Russia and Little Russia for several centuries...

But even in the case of the return of their lands, the Russians often preferred to buy them back rather than recapture them. The Baltic lands were bought, Kyiv was bought from the Poles. That, however, did not stop the descendants living on these lands from trumpeting false tales about the “Russian occupation” to the whole world. Although it would be worth remembering the Balts that it was the Russians who gave the Lithuanians their capital with a third of all current lands. And without the Russians, neither Latvia, nor Estonia, nor Finland would definitely have arisen.

As well as the Georgians saved from complete destruction by the Ottoman Empire, whose ancestors turned to the Russian Tsar with a request to include the Georgian kingdom into Russia. “Grateful Descendants” say that the Russians cowardly occupied them.

And they modestly keep silent about the fact that the titles of all the princes, who were like uncut dogs in little Georgia, were recognized by the “occupier” empire, risking the devaluation of its own aristocracy. That Georgia, especially during the Soviet period, was spoiled with attention and benefits - bypassing the “titular nation,” by the way. By the way, like the Baltic states, after joining the EU it turned from the darling of the USSR, its “showcase” into a pariah of Western Europe, losing a third of its population.

And how much effort and money did Russia spend on the education of the “conquered peoples”, on the construction of their schools, hospitals, theaters, libraries, and universities? Of course, the “conquered” reciprocated to the “occupiers”, replenishing the elite of the empire - the elite in the best sense of the word - becoming Russian scientists, writers, military leaders, actors, artists, musicians, etc. Remember the joke “the great Russian artist Levitan was born into a poor Jewish family”?

Courland German on his father’s side and Livonian on his mother’s side Barclay de Tolly, Georgian Bagration, a whole host of artists, statesmen and military leaders of Tatar origin...

Russian generosity, openness and breadth of soul are also evident in migration policy. Swedes, Germans, Danes, Scots, French willingly entered into the service of Russia, the Russian people, the Russian world... And they themselves became Russian.

Vitus Bering, Vladimir Dal, George Lermont (ancestor of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov), Karl Bryullov... Abram (Ibrahim) Petrovich Hannibal, again...

Now let’s look at the “Ukrainian national idea” - that is, the idea of that part of the Ukrainian people that insists on the differences between Ukrainians and Russians. Modestly keeping silent about the fact that this “Ukrainian” idea is essentially a Galician idea, which has been imposed on the whole of Ukraine without much success for a quarter of a century. It was the adherents of this Nazi-Russophobic ideology who first demanded the bloodless Orange coup of 2004, and 10 years later the bloody one last year. Thus putting an end to the “UKRAINA project”.

The idea is really not Ukrainian at all - it was brought from outside by the Poles and Austro-Hungarians and was planted in Galicia from the end of the 19th century, on lands seven centuries separated from the Russian world and Rus'. The idea of separateness and otherness of Ukrainians was propagated by fire and sword; everyone who tried to preserve the faith of their ancestors and their Russian identity was destroyed and expelled. Proof of this is the first concentration camps in Europe, Thalerhof and Terezin, created specifically and exclusively for Russians. There was no need to blow up anything - it was enough to be Orthodox and/or Russian for a sentence. And many did not even live to see the trial, being beaten to death on the streets of their cities and villages. Those who were not physically destroyed fled. Before the First World War - to the same Canada and the USA, after it began - hundreds of thousands left their lands along with the Russian army. The remaining generations were brought up precisely as cannon fodder for Western Europeans in wars with Russia. This is how the first SS units were born in Galicia during the First World War - the Sichi Riflemen. Then transformed during World War II into the 14th SS Division "Galizien".

It is not surprising that an idea built on negation and destruction received corresponding, negative (to put it mildly) features.

“Shchirye”, they are also “Svidomye”, they are also “unfair” Ukrainians, they are “Mazepa”, “Ukrainian”, “Bandera” et cetera, trying to emphasize the differences from the Russian people, the Russian world, the Russian mentality, they went out of their way out" in order to instill in themselves and their descendants such qualities as belligerence and aggressiveness combined with cowardice - so that they are not confused with the brave and peace-loving "Muscovites"; greed - in contrast to Russian generosity; betrayal and treachery - in contrast to the desire for inherent Russian honesty and decency; distrust and deceit - in contrast to Russian openness, truthfulness, and honesty...

Apparently, “Svidomo” consider these qualities to be positive, otherwise why are they not ashamed of their “heroes” having them? The corresponding “heroes” of Svidomo-Ukrainians are the first separatist Prince Danilo Galitsky, the pathological traitor Mazepa and the sadistic cat-catcher Bandera, the narcissistic ungrateful egoist and drunkard Shevchenko, Hitler’s henchmen Uniate Sheptytsky, Hauptmann Shukhevych, the Austrian officer Konovalets and the already mentioned sickly runt Bandera; all sorts of Grushevskys, Petlyuras, Skoropadskys; senseless sacrifices brought to the altar of “Ukrainianism” - at the beginning of the twentieth century these were the “heroes of Krut”, almost a century later - the notorious “heavenly hundred”, killed, moreover, solely to create another necrophiliac cult.

What did those who are today not entirely correctly called Banderaites (more correctly, Galician Nazis) build? Anything? Nothing! Even the famous “First Ukrainian beer since 1715” and the rest of Lviv were not built by them - until the annexation of Galicia to the Ukrainian SSR in 1939, the share of Ukrainians in the city’s population was less than 7 percent.

The words from a letter from one of the residents of the Right Bank, understandable even without translation, sound like a cry from the soul:

"How did it happen that the Ukrainians were inspired by their heroes and began to praise the Galician heroes? The Banderas came out of the Polish dupa, wore trousers, vishivanka, shook the saddle and began to rap more Ukrainians and the Cossacks spat on their marshals and began to love Hauptmann Shukhevych. The Sumy residents spat on the hero Kovpak and began to serve with the military villain Banderi.

Before speaking, Ukraine is not over everything. God is above everything, the truth is above everything, what else is above everything, and not the bullshit Bandera chants. Nothing. The time will come."

And what happened to that part of the Ukrainian people who either considered themselves part of the Russian world, or, at least, had nothing in common with Russophobes?

Nothing special - such Ukrainians, and the vast majority of them (!), differ from Russians only slightly: only in small ethnic features such as the Little Russian dialect (language), differences in some customs and costumes, the ability to cook borscht and love for lard. In the same way, residents of Arkhangelsk differ from Smolensk residents, Kursk residents from Novgorod residents, residents of the Far East from Siberians, and those from Ryazan residents, and all together from St. Petersburg residents. Which does not mean (as much as some would like it) that all these people belong to different “nations”. Again, today there are fewer differences between the residents of Sumy and Odessa from the residents of St. Petersburg and Voronezh than between the residents of Kiel and Munich. Who do not understand each other at all, while being considered to belong to the same - German - nation, speaking the same German language.

The mentality of the majority of Ukrainians (with the exception of the Galicians, who, to avoid confusion, should be separated from the Ukrainians) is the same as that of the Russians - it is not surprising that they left a mark on the history, culture, science and politics of Russia and the USSR.

Writers Gogol, Franko (by the way, when he was called a “Ukrainian,” he considered it a mortal insult: he considered himself a Rusyn), Ostap Vishnya, Korolenko; Chancellor Bezborodko; military leaders of the Civil War - Shchors and Parkhomenko, partisans of the Great Patriotic War Sidor Kovpak and pilot Kozhedub, Vershigora, Koshevoy; winner of the “space race” Korolev, USSR pilot-cosmonauts No. 4 Pavel Popovich and No. 84 – Yuri Onufrienko; philosopher Skovoroda; composer Lysenko; film director and actor Leonid Bykov; outstanding teachers Makarenko and Sukhomlinsky; legendary strongman Poddubny; actors Grinko, Stupka, Brondukov; singers Solovyanenko, Bogatikov...

The list goes on and on. There are much more of them, the real heroes of the fatherland, than the “heroes” of the Svidomo, anti-Russian world. There are millions of them (that is, us).

And this is not surprising.

The idea of isolation of Ukrainians from Russians has never been very popular in society, reaching its maximum only during the period of Russophobic hysteria, and has always been not just supported, but imposed from the outside.

The Ukrainian people, or better yet, Little Russians, are part of the united Russian people. With the exception of people poisoned by “Ukrainianism”, “Svidomism”, the idea of “independence”, members of the sect of Ukrainian nationalists - in fact - Galician Nazis.

No one in their right mind would be inspired by their ideas and ideals. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the ranks of neo-Nazis masquerading as “Ukrainian nationalists” there are so many thieving, greedy, stupid, aggressive sadists, criminals, and simply mentally ill people (just remember Irina Farion). Now do you understand why at the very top of the elite they have people like Lyashko, Portnikov and Avakov, Tatyana Chernovol and Klitschko, Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk? For more than a hundred years, negative selection went on, the “best of the worst” were selected.

And ordinary supporters of the “Ukrainian idea” also focus on the “elite”. Well, it is clear that with such “standards” the quality of the rest of the human material for cultivating “Ukrainianism” will be appropriate. That is, the rabble selected from the dregs of human society will be even nastier. That is why they scream “Muscovites with knives,” roll officials in garbage cans, jump in crowds to the shouts of “whoever doesn’t gallop is a Muscovite,” and the authorities encourage this in every possible way and are happy that they are supported by such outspoken rednecks.

Therefore, it is naive to expect that all kinds of “pravosek” and “national guard” will be angels in the flesh. More precisely, they will be “angels,” but of a completely different kind - approximately the same as, according to biblical legend, the fallen angels who followed the lead of the former angel of light Lucifer became. Demons. This is a good illustration of the “Ukrainian idea”. Its supporters are divided into two groups - some are like demons, others are like demon-possessed.

And if the latter can still be saved, then the former will have to be destroyed. Alas, the rest of the analogy does not work, and neither crosses, nor holy water, nor prayers have any effect on the possessed by the “Ukrainian idea.”

It will take a long and difficult time to drive out evil spirits, and in other ways. Aspen stake. But that's a completely different story...

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