After a series of defeats of the Russian army in Ukraine, in particular in the Kherson Region, the Crimean collaborators realized the inevitability of the deoccupation of the Ukrainian peninsula and put pressure on the Crimean Tatar people in various spheres of public life at the behest of the Kremlin.
One of these spheres was the cultural life of the occupied Crimea, in which new negative processes began to take place from the end of November last year. As of March 2023, these processes have significantly intensified and scaled up, which is also due to a sharp surge in pro-Ukrainian sentiments on the peninsula.
In response to this, the Crimean collaborators started pressure on the “cultural front” and intensified the destruction of the cultural heritage of the occupied Crimea and the influence on the consciousness of the people through their traditions and customs. Specific facts and the situation as a whole were investigated by the experts of the Association of Reintegration of Crimea.
The activation of the pro-Ukrainian movement “Yellow Ribbon” scared the illegal “head of the Crimea” Serhey Aksyonov for a reason. In a “video appeal” at the end of last year, he began to openly criminally threaten Crimean residents who will support anti-Russian sentiments and condemn the war against Ukraine.
The main criminal “argument” is illegal “criminal liability” and “closure of business” for any manifestation of support for Ukraine. The reason for such threats was a video from a Crimean wedding where the guests danced to the song “Chervona Kalyna” (“Red Viburnum”) [1].
That is, for Kremlin proteges in the occupied Crimea, even songs are considered as a threat to their “personal security”. In order to identify Crimean residents with a pro-Ukrainian position, the Crimean collaborators even ordered the creation of special telegram channels for denunciations, which are apparently “in demand” among the collaborators of the occupied peninsula.
Today, the key “message” of the Crimean collaborators is that everyone who supports Ukraine should “go to the state” they love so much and listen songs about it. Local puppets criminally talked about it many times [2]. However, the situation lies not only in the fact that Crimea is Ukraine, and if someone does not like it, then he should leave the peninsula, but also in the fact that the aggressor does not release Crimean residents to the territory controlled by the government of Ukraine, but on the contrary does everything to prevent this, in particular, by carrying out repressions and covert criminal “mobilization”, which has only intensified since the beginning of 2023.
As part of the cultural genocide, the collaborators began to actively destroy the historical monuments of the Crimean Tatar people, thus trying to take revenge on the Crimean residents who never recognized the occupiers and their proteges. So, recently there was information about the destruction of the Golden Cabinet of Kirim Gerai Khan in the Khan’s Palace in Bakhchisarai. In particular, the occupiers illegally dismantled the roof and colored stained-glass windows, which poses a threat to the monument of national importance, which is included in the preliminary list of UNESCO World Heritage [3].
It should be noted that the Crimean collaborators encroach not only on the culture of the Crimean Tatar people. They actively act in the direction of the illegal “spread of culture” of the aggressor state to the citizens of Ukraine. In particular, it became known that a “network of camps” was created on the territory of the occupied Crimea for the illegal cultural and ideological “re-education” of Ukrainian children from the newly occupied territories.
We are talking about more than 6,000 children aged 4 to 17, whom the occupiers later criminally plan to “hand over for adoption” to the citizens of the aggressor. The main criminal purpose of such “camps” is the planting of aggressor’s “cultural values”, which, according to the Kremlin, should “change the attitude” of children towards the Soviet past and Russia [4].
In these “camps”, children are criminally imposed a Russian-centric “cultural education”, which is based on statements about the alleged “exceptionalism” of Russia and the “uniqueness of its history” [5]. As a result, the “students” of such camps must, according to the criminal plan of the aggressor, dream of the “revival of the USSR”, even if they have to give their lives for Putin’s regime.
In this way, the Crimean collaborators are criminally trying to eradicate Ukrainian culture from the population of the newly occupied Ukrainian territories. In their criminal opinion, this will supposedly “help avoid de-occupation” and save their lives. For this, they are ready to criminally destroy the culture of the Crimean residents themselves and replace it with Russian narratives.
A separate “line of activity” of Crimean collaborators in this area is attempts to discredit show business stars who condemned the war against Ukraine and left the Kremlin’s control. The purpose of such activity is twofold. First, Serhii Aksyonov and company are trying to please the Kremlin once again by demonstrating their “loyalty”.
Secondly, the pro-Russian traitors plan to get financial benefit by taking advantage of the fact that some singers and artists have fallen into the “Kremlin’s disfavor”. Let’s focus on this issue in more detail, because it vividly reflects the mood of the Crimean collaborators and shows their level of cynicism.
The fact is that Serhiy Aksyonov illegally and manipulatively called “world show business stars to Crimea” from the beginning of the Russian occupation. Then he criminally announced his fake intentions to “build a Beverly Hills analog” on the occupied peninsula, promising the stars supposedly “favorable conditions and maximum comfort” [6]. However, later it became obvious that the world condemned the occupation of the Crimea, and no star who values his reputation will come to the occupiers for a “concert” or “sports competition”.
For a while, the Russian occupiers had to abandon this idea, but after the start of a full-scale invasion, it was somewhat transformed and received a “second wind”. On the part of the Crimean collaborators, insults began to be heard against those show business stars who refused to support the war against Ukraine. In particular, Serhiy Aksyonov called such stars “traitors” who, as it were, “used the support of the state for years, and in the end betrayed it”.
It is quite strange to hear such insults from the “main” separatist, who really betrayed Ukraine after many years of using its opportunities, and moreover, fully supported the war crimes of the Russian regime. At the same time, he insists on the need to “remove all titles and regalia” of cultural figures who did not support Russian aggression.
It is not clear why the criminal “head of Crimea” believes that he has the right to make such statements, especially considering the fact that he himself may soon be imprisoned for many years for treason and complicity in Russian war crimes. In his “interview”, Serhiy Aksyonov also stated that the disgraced stars may “have problems” if they plan to visit the occupied peninsula. Such statements come from Crimean collaborators for a reason, because behind them are their own criminal interests. The analysis of telegram channels controlled by the aggressor from the occupied Crimea allows us to clearly outline the scope of these interests.
First of all, it is about the desire to create illegal “production centers” on the peninsula, which will “stamp” the “stars”, needed by the Kremlin, who will supposedly “replace the cultural elite” that left the aggressor’s control after the war against Ukraine. According to the aggressor’s criminal plan, these “centers” should be created on the basis of the “television channels” of the occupied Crimea and promote fake “stars” at various “music festivals”.
That is, the Crimean collaborators understand that the aggressor “lost” a significant part of cultural figures, and that they need to be “replaced with something”. Of course, we are talking about pseudo-stars who will sing fake songs “about the great war” against Ukraine. However, in the conditions of total propaganda, which prevails in the aggressor, Serhiy Aksyonov and the company understand that this is a “good business” that can give extra profits, especially in conditions of total isolation of the “cultural life” of the occupiers.
It should be noted that they already have certain criminal “practices”, because “telemarathons” are constantly running on pocket television channels, which mainly consist of songs that criminally “glorify” the Russian army and spread the language of enmity and hatred in every possible way. This fake “culture” is definitely what the Kremlin needs.
For example, let’s cite the criminal song of the “Blue Berets” group about how “a wife accompanies her husband to the war against Ukraine” and “promises to wait for him with victory”. The criminal purpose of such illegal songs is to make Russians and Crimean residents perceive aggression as something seemingly inevitable but allegedly “very justified”. That is, we are talking about a banal criminal “idealization” of the genocide of the Ukrainian people and the Kremlin’s war crimes. Moreover, such “telemarathons” have already become a forced “integral part” of the fake “cultural life” of the population of the occupied peninsula.
Crimean collaborators not only plan to “create” their own show business stars to promote the war. They are actively attracting already existing “Kremlin supporters” from the regions of Russia itself. In particular, recently the adept of the “Russian peace” violinist Petro Lundström illegally visited Dzhankoy, and also gave a concert on the border of the temporarily occupied Crimea and the Kherson region. Of course, such illegal “concerts” do not do without criminal slogans about the supposedly “exceptional role of Russia in the history of mankind” and fake “laudatory odes” to the Crimean collaborators, who supposedly “protect” Crimean residents in difficult times.
The criminal “authority” of Crimea is actively promoting another idea, which also quite clearly demonstrates the desire to illegally “pay favors” in front of curators from the Kremlin. The traitors propose to “make changes to the civil legislation” of the aggressor in order to “remove the copyright of representatives of the cultural elite” who condemned the war against Ukraine.
The essence of the criminal “proposal” is to first classify specific individuals as “foreign agents” and then, on this basis, “to make the results of their creativity public property”. That is, the Crimean collaborators, together with the Kremlin, want not only to deprive persons who disagree with the regime of “ranks and regalia”, but also to leave them without funds, because it will not be necessary to pay money for the authorship of a song, film and other work.
For the civilized world, this is an unprecedented thing, because intellectual property is inviolable and cannot be appropriated under any circumstances. It should be noted here that such an idea is promoted precisely through the Crimean collaborators, whom the top of the Russian government is used to using in its own interests.
Probably only traitors can talk about the need to “separate creativity from the author”, if the latter believes that Russia should not kill Ukrainians. Therefore, it is quite likely that the songs of Max Pokrovsky or Alla Pugacheva will be sung by completely different singers, who will be assigned by the state to sing so-called “folk songs”, which actually have a well-known author.
Another direction of the so-called “cultural front” of the Crimean collaborators is “art”. In this area, they also try to manipulate facts and create their own parallel “reality”.
In particular, the Crimean collaborators were very affected by the fact that the Metropolitan Museum in New York justifiably called the artist Ivan Aivazovsky as Ukrainian one. Through their protégés, they began to spread the narrative that Russian culture is supposedly “an integral part of world culture”.
Thus, the illegal “director of the Aivazovsky Feodosia Art Gallery” Tetiana Hayduk even mentioned how the artist had an exhibition in America in 1892. So, even in such cases, the Kremlin tries to manipulate history and twist the facts in a favorable light. Criminal Serhiy Aksyonov also “commented” on this issue.
Also, Crimean collaborators do not stop criminal encroachments on “Scythian gold”. In particular, Andrii Malgin, the criminal “director of the Tavrida museum”, said that “there will be an active challenge” to the court’s decision in this process. In turn, the Russian ambassador to the Netherlands, Oleksandr Shulygin, said that lawyers are allegedly “afraid to cooperate” with the illegal “museums” of the occupied Crimea. The reason for this is apparently the “numerous sanctions” against the aggressor state introduced by the European Union. In fact, this position of a number of foreign lawyers is due to the world community’s non-recognition of the occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014, and the occupier himself became the reason for it, declaring non-existent structures as “plaintiffs” in The Hague.
Ukrainian experts believe that cultural imperialism, which Russia is pushing through Crimean collaborators, is determined by the principle of “otherness”. That is, for the aggressor, any culture and history other than the Russian one is supposedly “hostile” and “such that is subject to eradication”.
At the same time, Crimean collaborators manipulate historical and cultural monuments. For example, they preserve the sights around which the occupiers seek to “legalize” their presence on the peninsula, while others are uprooted.
Experts call such an approach cultural appropriation, in the framework of which the objects and traditions that are the basis of Crimean culture are devalued and destroyed. An interesting example of cultural appropriation is the exhibition of the alleged “Crimean Tatar costume” on the Palace Maidan in Bakhchisarai. In fact, this costume has nothing to do with the traditions of the Crimean Tatars. Also, the occupiers held “celebrations” in the Khan’s Palace, which are not characteristic of Crimean culture [7]. So, we are talking about the replacement of concepts, that is, real cultural traditions are replaced by analogues adapted to the needs of the criminal regime.
All these activities take place “under the patronage” of Crimean collaborators, who, together with the occupiers, carry out the destruction of the culture of the freedom-loving Crimean Tatar people. The apogee of the latter’s cultural genocide is the support of the criminal “authority” of Crimea for the idea of introducing censorship.
At the end of last year, the criminal “speaker’s adviser” of the occupiers, Svitlana Savchenko, announced the corresponding “decision”. In her illegal opinion, censorship is needed in order to “cleanse the cultural field” of such manifestations of creativity that “threaten Russian society”. It is significant that the criminal “official” declared the need to “direct budget funds” exclusively to “cultural projects necessary for the state” [8].
It should be assumed that we are talking about a certain point where the interests of the Crimean collaborators and the Kremlin converge. The first are interested in embezzling “budgets for culture”, and the second – in establishing total control over the cultural life of the occupied peninsula.
Such “symbiosis” is a significant challenge for Ukraine, as culture is considered an important element of national security. In particular, it affects the self-determination and preservation of the identity of the Crimean Tatar people. The connection of Crimeans with Ukraine depends on the categories of culture.
Understanding this, the Crimean collaborators methodically destroy the cultural traditions and heritage of the occupied peninsula, criminally imposing their own, pro-Russian narratives. Crimeans are actively resisting this and are trying to systematize information about individual facts and events and pass it on to the Ukrainian authorities.
It is obvious that in the near future documentary evidence of the cultural genocide of the Crimean Tatar people will become the foundation of the evidence base in post-war trials.
Sources:
- https://zmina.info/news/aksenov-vyznav-posylennya-proukrayinskogo-ruhu/
- https://24tv.ua/yidte-krayinu-yaku-tak-lyubite-aksonov-prigroziv-zhitelyam-krimu_n2156233
- https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/columns/2023/02/7/7388181/
- https://uainfo.org/blognews/1676442144-u-rf-ta-okupovanomu-krimu-die-merezha-taboriv-dlya-perevihovannya-.html
- https://vechirniy.kyiv.ua/news/78688/
- https://ukranews.com/news/353414-aksjonov-zovjot-predstavyteley-myrovogo-shou-byznesa-poselytsya-v-krymu
- http://svitlytsia.crimea.ua/?section=article&artID=24806
- https://crimea.suspilne.media/ua/news/9754
