Euromaidan - Zaporizhzhya Sich of the 21st century

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Cossack Sich Is a traditional form of self-organization of Ukrainian society. Surprisingly, even in the 21st century, Ukrainians in a matter of days were able to create a fortified fortress with a paramilitary position inside, moreover, in the very center of the capital of this state - in Kiev. It is, of course, about Euromaidan camp, inhabited by thousands of people from all over the country.

A month ago, it was impossible to imagine that the central street of Kiev, the legendary Khreshchatyk, would one day be blocked by formidable barricades designed to protect the right of Ukrainian citizens to peaceful protest. These designs look very surreal. Everyone understands that they have no place here, but political realities demand that they continue to be here - the authorities have already twice tried to disperse Euromaidan by force.

Within the territory of Euromaidan, several different layers of life are surprisingly combined at once. Some people stand at the stage, listening to speakers and music. From time to time, prayers are held on this site, both from individual representatives of Christian churches, and joint - protest actions have united people from all over the country belonging to different religious groups.

Once an hour, Euromaidan performs the National Anthem of Ukraine. All people in the territory free of official power, whatever they do, stand at attention, turn around to face the Maidan and sincerely, proudly sing the main song of their country.

In the tent city, which surrounded the Maidan from all sides, life goes on around the clock. People prepare food for thousands of people, socialize, sleep off after being on duty at the barricades, prepare firewood or renew fortifications.

Behind the barricades on the unfenced part of the Maidan is the stage of the Free University. A significant part of the protesters are students, and teachers of various disciplines read lectures here for everyone during the day - the education process should not stop even during the revolution.

The building of the Kiev city state administration, seized by the participants of the Euromaidan, has a life of its own. One of the headquarters of the revolution is located here. Here you can eat, sleep, receive first aid, meet with deputies, listen to music. At the same time, the demonstrators occupy only the first two floors - the rest are blocked by the self-defense units of the Maidan in order to avoid possible looting. True, recently in the Kyiv City State Administration they caught two thieves stealing from sleeping demonstrators. They were forced to repent on their knees, wrote "THIEF" on their foreheads, and were sent home. They do not like drunks here either. Everyone who is going to enter the KSCA is asked to breathe by the guards. The Ukrainian revolution is being done exclusively on a sober head.

The side approaches to the building of the Kyiv City State Administration are fenced with barbed wire. And behind them, right in the middle of revolutionary events, ordinary city life flows. On the territory of the Kiev Sich there are shops, coffee shops and restaurants, bank branches and even fashionable boutiques. Someone sells coffee and mulled wine, someone makes cartoons of passers-by. A children's carousel is spinning and souvenir sellers are working. And all this is in the midst of barricades, tents and tens of thousands of protesters.