For those who are curious: no, I wasn't around.
On March 14, activists from the PSPU and the Proryv youth movement (name means 'Breakthrough!') gathered in Simferopolto barbecue Ukrainian history books written since the country declared independence from the Soviet Union nineteen years ago. Marching through the Crimean capital, they carried banners that read “Give our native Russian language state status” and “Yanukovych – Don’t sell out our goal: Union with Russia.” The photos show some of the demonstrators extending their right hands upwards and to the right – just like the Nazis used to. The history texts were brought in by wheelbarrow and burned with the statue of Lenin looking on in approval.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Word of the day: biblioclasm
Kyiv Scoop describes a collective burning of Ukrainian history books that took place on Sunday here in the center of Simferopol. Click through for photos.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I was going to ask you if you saw that go down! I went checked out one of their demonstrations last year, and though it didn't involve any book-burning, it was still pretty freaky. There was another demonstration in front of the Verkhovna Rada last year where they burned an American flag, but I missed out on that one. It was probably for the best that I wasn't there.
This is just ONE of many examples of the ugly face of identity politics here in the FSU.
Post a Comment