Editor's Note: The letter below is from IRgA member Vladimir Prikhodko, owner of Imatek, Ltd., a reprographics shop in Kiev, Ukraine. IRgA managing director Ed Avis wrote to Mr. Prikhodko last week about the situation in his country, and the letter is his response. If you wish to email him to show your support, please do so: pri@imatek.com.ua
Dear Mr.Avis!
Thank you for letter. Recent problems affected all businesses in Ukraine. Business of my companies almost stopped.
But everybody is ready to wait.
As for me, at my 54 years this event reloaded my life .
I waited for this event exactly for 40 years. I was born at Soviet regime, but after its fall I still filled me damaged by this ideology and its impacted to millions of normal people. I happy with this revolution. It not only political event, but also a social.
In 3 monthes millions of peoples changed. In better way - a lot of smiling faces, and need to help each other.
Ukraine bacame absolutely different in this short period of time - like in 30-40 years of normal evolution.
This events in Kiev falled me as a gigatic ocean wave. I'm invalide person and could not participate in this event directly.
But I paricipated as I could.
February, 20 was dramatic day, when soldiers started to attack people. I was in Maidan and gone to barricades. But 2 militiamen stopped me. They saw that I was on crutches and stopped me. In the battle was a short break and they brought me back to my car, which was 200 meters nearby. I had a large thermos in the car and I invited them to have a cup of coffee. They asked to turn some music . I turned on the Stairway to Heaven. They were silent, they drank coffee and listened, then shots rang out and they went to the battle. Half an hour later I saw that one of them was killed. Sniper killed him in the eye. Oter one was wounded in the heart, through the wooden shield, and then died in the hospital.
These were special people. They knew that they would be killed. They had wooden shields and biker helmets. On that day, February 20, everyone realized that the soldiers will shoot. Primary on Maidan was 50,000 people. Many left, after real army shots. It was left several hundred of heroes and they went into battle. They were ready to die. And they won steel weapons with their wooden shilds.
in 2 months on the Maidan in Kiev city center was killed 106 people. People called them Heaven’s Hundred. I participated in the funeral of 30 people in February. All this squadron were not militants, they were simple, but special people and heroes, they were diamonds of mankind. Most of them before battle, declared a poetry of Shevchenko. For some months I saw really great people, more than in my life before.
https://www.facebook.com/theheavenshundred about these brilliant people
Crimea.
The Russian agression after these events just a chance for Putin to throw it back, to soviet mentality. Crimea is a special region, not because of ethnical russians, but because of special mentality of its inhabitants. 80% of russians appeared here 60 years ago. Most of them were KGB members and their relatives which received some peices of land for free from Stalin. For many years they saved their marginal mentality with demand for special preferences from all governments... In short, I think that Crimea will be back to Ukraine in 5-8 years. They will be impacted by policy of "second sort" citizens which now cultivated in Russia (like Chechen or Tatar in modern Russia).
Vladimir