Kora Smirinova was made possible thanks to the grant I received from the Prague Freedom Foundation to report on the Ukrainian Euromaidan Revolution in March 2014.
Kora Smirinova posted a photo of herself on Facebook on March 12th, and it wasn’t just an ordinary photo. Many girls take selfies and post duck-face pictures showing off their cleavage, but Smirnova did something a little different. She’s a modern woman and definitely no damsel in distress.
Before you read her message, note that she uses harsh language and that her anger isn’t directed at the Russian nation as a whole, it is directed at those Russians who are fighting to make Crimea part of Russia, which is she against.
This is what she wrote in her photo’s caption:
I am Smirinova, and I remember very well that my grandfather and his family came from Russia to Ukraine after the war. I am thankful that Ukraine adopted us, strangers, gave us a home, a job, protection and never offended us. In my entire life not once was I reproached for speaking my native language or singing my native songs, I was never called ‘Moskalka’ (this is a derogatory term for Russians). I was born in Poltava, Ukraine raised me as her own, and when I moved to Kiev, not once did I hear the word ‘limit’. I am 100% Ukrainian! Even though I don’t have a single drop of Ukrainian blood inside me. It doesn’t cross my mind to yell, “I am Russian, there are many Russians here so that means this land belongs to Russia!?” The other Russians in Ukraine whose memory is completely false – how is this your land? Ungrateful monsters! You are all guests here, who were given shelter and welcomed as kin. What sort of beast does one need to be to now decide to chase away and kill their host while yelling that this is their home?! Crimea is Russian? B******s with a short memory. You forgot what your fathers did to the Tatars? You forgot how much blood of the Tatar men you spilled and how many tears of grief of the indigenous population you caused? How you boarded Tatar families into trains and transported them to Siberia? You all need to spend the remaining Millennium begging on your knees for forgiveness. I am a Russian Ukrainian! I will chase bad Russians out of my native Ukraine together with my fellow Ukrainians.
P.S. Stepan Bandera is a hero of Ukraine, who spent his whole life fighting, by all means, necessary for the freedom of Ukraine. So yes, I am a ‘Banderovka’ (a term used for people who share and support Bandera’s ideals).
I had to re-read her post several times to soak it all in. Smirinova had clearly snapped with all that has been going on and this is what came out. There are many Russians who are outraged at what is going on in Crimea. There were thousands of Russian protesters in Moscow this weekend, Ukrainians had never imagined seeing so many Ukrainian flags in Moscow.
Here’s a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19liUISoAls
Originally posted here: https://olenakaguiukraine2014.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/kora-smirinova-a-russian-ukrianian/
