Seven years ago, these days began the events that led to tectonic shifts in the history of our country. After the government of Mykola Azarov suspended the European integration course, spontaneous protests began across the country demanding the signing of an association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union. When I first came to the meeting of the citizens of Dnipropetrovsk, an action was going on on the European Square to collect and hand over to President Viktor Yanukovych ballpoint pens for signing the agreement on the association of Ukraine with the EU at the summit in Vilnius. At the same time, representatives of the executive service announced the court's decision to ban mass events in the central squares of the city to raise awareness of the fact that we are acting illegally. At first there were few people, almost everyone was familiar to me: public figures, students of the Faculty of History, my son's classmates. It even seemed that there were many more police in the European Square than there were protesters.
Remembering the experience of 2004, they set up tents, but the next day they were visited by guys of athletic build, the so-called "titushky". (During the winter session, one of the part-time students who came from Kyiv admitted to me that they "brought order there"). These exiled young men destroyed the tents, injuring the people who were there. However, the customers of the action only achieved that the Maidan residents became more determined and persistent. Since then, more and more people came to the Maidan, especially for Sunday meetings.
Soon the city authorities organized a fair on the European Square, where the protesters gathered. Entrepreneurs later told us that they were offered free places to trade anything. So another place of protest was determined - near the monument to Chkalov in Globa Park. And from there a large column of people walked along the avenue to the "European", and traders quickly collected goods and evaporated.
"Dnipro, get up! Dnipro, get up! ” The column chanted tirelessly. And the Dnipro rose, of course, in some of its most sensitive and radical parts. The geopolitical dimension of events also emerged. It became clear that "both west and east" (according to Lina Kostenko) will no longer exist, it's time to decide: either - or. Eastern civilization, both then and today, insistently promoted the long-outdated "staples of the Russian world" and, most importantly, clearly radiated aggression; instead, the West attracted a rational model of development.
When students were beaten on the night of November 30 on Kyiv's Maidan, it became clear that the authorities had crossed the line of common sense. Then they said: "the vegetables are ripe, it's time to clean up" - that is, Yanukovych and his team "Donetsk" should go not in 2015 in the presidential election, but a little earlier. When - no one could say then, but it was only a matter of time and human effort. We stood every day, every weekend there was a chamber. There were people who received an iron motivation, which was only partially related to the European vector of development. After all, it was about more - protection of one's own dignity. For this reason, people were ready not to retreat, despite the frosty weather and further dangers. Ahead were pickets by the authorities, TV and radio companies, police stations, trips to Kyiv's Maidan, persecution of protesters, and mourning services for the dead. Dnipropetrovsk Maidan residents were among the organizers of the fourth Cossack hundred Maidan defense in Kyiv; they also created the first volunteer battalions. All this time, the citizens of Ukraine, as well as external observers, were intimidated by "Bandera", "fascists", Jewish pogroms. However, something went wrong: the Jews actively supported the Maidan and, together with the Ukrainians, fearlessly uttered Bandera's slogans. A Jewish hundred was organized in Kyiv, which even included Israeli citizens.
Seven years have passed. There is a crazy information campaign against Maidan. Opponents are eager to reduce those events to a petty political intrigue in the struggle for power. But we have a memory of those fantastic times. We were united by faith in our own strength, high energy of love for the Fatherland…
We stood for our own Dignity.