Kharkiv is the second biggest city of Ukraine, situated in the East of the country, close to Russian border. Nevertheless, Kharkiv is a Ukrainian City, and first of all, in the modern sense of “Ukrainianship”: Kharkiv is foreign to imperial thinking. Freedom-loving and responsible people live in Kharkiv: they do not agree to delegate the decision making on their fate to the totalitarian foreign state and its absolute ruler.
For more than three months every day peaceful Kharkiv EuroMaidan has been gathering near the monument to famous Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. Recently, in the first half of March, the Kharkivites have conducted more than 20 mass rallies in support of peace and the integrity of Ukraine. The major event was on 9th of March, when 15 000 Kharkiv citizens went down Sumska, the main street of Kharkiv, participating in the Peace March devoted to the 200-year anniversary of Taras Shevchenko.
Kharkiv is a multicultural and multinational city. Kharkivites have never permitted and will not allow national hatred: even in the current tense situation when Russian media needed a provocative picture, they were forced to issue a clash of gangs at night March 14 – 15 for interethnic conflict. According to the data of the research conducted by the Razumkov Centre’s Sociological Service only 9% of respondents in the Eastern Ukraine would like to see their region separating from Ukraine and joining another state.[1]
Kharkiv is famous for its Universities, it’s the students’ city, and it is not surprising that Kharkiv is considered as the intellectual center of Ukraine and the center of IT. On the 5th of March, the Council of Rectors of universities and senior colleges of Kharkiv region appealed to the President of the Russian Federation with a demand to stop Russian aggression. Statements of support for peace, integrity of Ukraine and refusing of Russian help have been announced by Kharkiv prominent theatre figures, writers, intellectuals, civic activists – by means of video clips and posts in social networks. It is particularly important to hear a call for peace from Kharkiv veterans of the Great Patriotic War. The position of Kharkivites can be also proved by the lack of Russian symbols and Russian flags in the daily life of the city with the exception of rare and unpopular pro-Russian rallies.
On the 11th of March 2014 the UN delegation visited Kharkov. During the visit the following issues were discussed: the situation on human rights protection in Ukraine, the current political situation in various regions of Ukraine and implementation of the UN recommendations to the Government of Ukraine for domestic and foreign political stabilization. Leaders of the city and region have expressed interest in supporting Ukraine and our region by international organizations, and, in particular, from the European Union. At that meeting, the new Governor of the Kharkiv region Igor Baluta noted: “Do not think that here someone is being harassed. We have no problems with Russian language or other cultural issues. In this difficult situation, the threat to the territorial integrity of Ukraine encourages unification of the Ukrainian people”.
Kharkiv is Ukraine. Not only because mainly Ukrainians lived there in the XVII century, and the “Great-Russian” people, mostly soldiers, were free-flowing here; not only because the first bust of Taras Shevchenko was installed in Kharkiv, but primarily because we want to build our future in Ukraine – a civilized European country.
Many of us are busy with “people’s diplomacy”, explaining to friends and relatives in Russia the situation in the Ukrainian Kharkiv. Every day we reach the small success in preserving the peace. It is very difficult for us to resist the huge propaganda apparatus of the Russian Empire in the information war, but we don’t give up.
Natalka Zubar, Maidan Monitoring Information Center
Oleg Zakapko, Coordination Council of Euromaidan Kharkiv
Taras Danko, Kharkiv Branch of Ukrainian Movement “We are Europeans”
Nadia Savinska, Kharkiv Branch of Democratic Alliance
Olena Rofe-Beketova, Iryna Markevych, independent activists
[1] The research was conducted from 21 to 25 December 2013. The sample consisted of 2,010 respondents aged over 18 years old in all regions of Ukraine, Kyiv and Crimea representing an adult population according to the main socio-demographic indicators. The survey was done in a multistage random sampling design, based on quota method of respondent recruitment at a final stage. The sampling error does not exceed 2.3% with the probability of 0.95.