November 21, 2013 – beginning of Euromaidan

21.11.2022

“In Ukrainian cities and villages, a square in the center was traditionally called a square where people gathered to communicate, resolve public and private business matters, and have fun. The word entered the Slavic languages together with other borrowings from the languages of the steppe nomads.”

(from the Interpretive Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language)

 

“Take me across the maidan,

Where everyone celebrates, fights and fights,

Where sometimes neither myself nor I can be heard.

Take me across the maidan.

Take me across the maidan,

Where I sang all the songs I know.

I will enter the silence and die there.

Take me across the maidan”

(Vitaly Korotich)

The events that began on November 21, 2013 led to such a turning point in the history of Ukraine that, without exaggeration, can be called a cornerstone in the people's struggle for freedom and democracy, the free life of all peoples who make up Ukrainian society.

Euromaidan, Revolution of Dignity – this is how people will call the confrontation in many cities of Ukraine, first of all in Kyiv in the fall of 2013 - winter of 2014. It is from these days that the beginning of the existence of Ukraine as a state based on European democracy and fighting for a just world order will be counted in the future. It was as a result of these events that the destruction of the influence on the world of the “russian Empire” and its ideological collapse began.

Even now, a significant number of people do not realize the significance of those events. The Russian propaganda machine and admirers of Sovietism inside Ukraine have spread a large number of fakes about the Revolution of Dignity and the people who participated in it, from theories about the organization and financing of the protest movement by American special services, stories about the burning of “Berkutov” on the Maidan and “spiked” oranges from Liudmyla Yanukovych to allegations about drug addicts and drunkards who participated in it. Some of them try to downplay its importance, others accuse Maidan residents of further annexation of Crimea and further war in Donbas.

In fact, at first these events did not seem so important.

After a week of numerous but scattered demonstrations against the curtailment of European integration by Viktor Yanukovych and his cabinet headed by Mykola Azarov, special forces of “Berkut” beat students who came out for a peaceful demonstration.

Soon, rallies and strikes spread to many cities of Ukraine, gathering a lot of people.

In response, the authorities involved Antimaidan together with “aunties”, as well as kidnappings, beatings, illegal arrests and murders.

Instead, the number of Protestants only increased. One day, about 1 million people gathered on the Maidan. People from different cities of Ukraine, representatives of different ethnic groups and beliefs stood side by side. A Jewish hundred was also formed.

Hundreds and thousands of people fought with cobblestones, sticks and plywood shields with armed security forces. But it was very difficult to defeat the repressive machine.

There was still blood, there were deaths, there was the Heavenly Hundred.

And then - our Victory. Ukraine woke up new.

There were still many trials, there will be many new ones. putin's russia cannot tolerate the existence of a country where there is a “cherry garden near the house”, where people want to be free, where such an explosion of expression of will as Euromaidan can happen.

Russia wants to destroy Ukraine. But it will be defeated, because Ukrainians know what the will is and have gone through the crucible of trials – first of all, through the Maidan.

Pavlo Pollul