Exploring Modern Patriotism Through the Lens of Ukraine Revolutions

We don't talk enough about Maidan, but its impact has dramatically changed the country's history. What happened in both Kyiv and Odesa speaks of courage and the fight for the future. We spoke to Natalia Mykhailenko, who is currently photographing rallies in honor of prisoners and missing persons, and the director of the Odesa Regional Center for Patriotic Education, about her own history of joining the protests, her family context, and Odesa. Watch the full version on Intent and read the shortened version of the interview about adequate patriotism, the events of the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity in Odesa and Kyiv.

Talks about patriotism often go to extremes, conventionally, if you are a patriot, it means pants, Shevchenko and embroidery. What are the signs of adequate modern patriotism for you, what does it consist of?

There are a lot of answers, but I'll share my opinion. In 2007, I joined the patriotic movement for the first time. I met a unique man who is now fighting with the pseudonym Pirate. He said to me: "Natalia, do you know what a nationalist is? This is a patriot who does not lie on the couch, but does something. This is a man of action." I remember this very well.

I was a participant in the Orange Revolution, I was still studying at the Faculty of History, so I was an active patriot of Ukraine. I don't know at what point it started. Maybe when I went to visit my grandmother in Russia. Unfortunately, I have Russian relatives. I was with my sister, I was 13 years old, she was 12, and we did not accept it. It was, you know, like on the subcortex.

For me, patriotism is love for the land, for everything in Ukraine. I always separate the government and Ukraine. It upsets and touches me a lot when people start asking: "What has Ukraine given me?" - if a person doesn't understand, then he or she doesn't love it. I'm a happy person because I had the opportunity to travel. I went to the West of Ukraine, and now I really regret that I didn't discover more of the East. I have been to Kharkiv only once, and unfortunately, I have not been to Donetsk and Luhansk. I heard wonderful stories about Luhansk and the forests, and I couldn't believe that there were such things there.

These are not empty words, these are actions. Yushchenko used to say that we shouldn't speak in words but in deeds, and I say that we should speak in words and deeds.

What was your motivation for participating in civil actions?

I remember the Orange Revolution and who Yanukovych was. There was a moment when Yushchenko removed Yulia and Yanukovych became prime minister. I was just terrified. I even had to vote for Yulia, whom I never fully understood. Yushchenko is a unique person, and I have some complaints about him, but I felt that he was our man. I couldn't fully form an image of Yulia, but I voted for her because for me the arrival of the white and blue was a loss.

When Yanukovych came to power, I realized that something bad was going to happen. I could no longer be indifferent. When the Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law against the Ukrainian language came out, I cried a lot. For me, as a historian, it was a terrible moment. It seems as if times are returning, as if the Valuev Circular is returning.

Photo: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh

At the time, I worked at the Center for Ukrainian Culture. After that, the director disliked me very much. I wrote a letter of resignation at my own expense and came to the rally of Svoboda, a party I did not support very much, and I have a very specific relationship with them. I still don't know if they were truly pro-Ukrainian. Although many of my friends are now in Svoboda and even fighting, I have a lot of questions about the leadership. This is not the point. They were the only ones who held an action in support of the Ukrainian language that day. I went to the regional administration building and saw Vitaliy Ustymenko for the first time. I thought, wow, what a guy, I wish he would come to us. There was Victoria Sibir, the owner of the balcony on Deribasovskaya Street with the words "Glory to Ukraine" on it, a wonderful person, a journalist, and other wonderful people.

Yuriy Myslin and I talked about the best method of being violent. When the action ended, there was a lot of time left, and I didn't want to go home. I suggested that we sit on the stairs and picket. Vika supported me, and I am very grateful to her for that.

There were not many people, but the administration got scared and closed the doors. Then I gave an interview to Channel 5, saying that the government would disappear. She became famous all over the country. I'm very grateful to Serhiy Hutsalyuk, because they wanted to set the aunts against us. He came up and said: "Girls, if I leave now and you stay here alone, you can see a car over there, they are waiting. They will beat you up. Go away and come back tomorrow at six o'clock."

We went for over a month. I realize that we didn't do much, we just stood there with posters, constantly thinking of something, but it was a valuable experience.

Then there was another turning point - the Maidan, what were your actions then?

The Revolution of Dignity. The first day. Mustafa Nayem wrote this post then. I knew right away that I had to go to Odesa's Maidan, but I was invited to Kyiv.

That evening, when our Odessans gathered on Birzhova (then Dumska - ed.) Square, I was on the train. When I arrived, I went to the Maidan with Karina Doroshenko. At first there were very few of us. But I saw Roytburd and Klitschko. We were standing with an umbrella, it was raining, foggy.

Then I returned to Odesa. It was a Sunday. And on that Sunday, on Monday night, Oleksiy Chorny and Vitaliy Ustymenko were beaten because Oleksiy had set up tents near Duke University. They were already banning us from gathering. I will always be grateful to Oleksandr Ostapenko, who said that this is the territory where I receive my citizens as a deputy.

New Year's Eve on the Maidan. I have a unique photo of us going to the government quarter. We were so funny and naive, getting off the bus, no people, fog. And there was a fence and Berkut officers. And I realized that I wanted a photo. Natalia Zhelezoglo took our picture. A very healthy Berkut officer came out and told me to leave. I said: "Why are you forbidding me? I just want to take a picture, I'm not doing anything criminal, this is the 21st century. If I want to, I will dance."

Photo: Natalia Zhelezoglo

At that time, there was already a gap between the people and the police. I just started taking pictures, and they started banging their batons on the shields. It was a terrible sound. We ran away. It looked like we were running away, but in fact we were just leaving because we had already done our job. I realized at that moment that they would shoot. I felt the negativity in the air very strongly.

Photo: Natalia Zhelezoglo

We were on the Maidan stage. At night, from January 1 to January 2, there was a live broadcast. I was cooking borsch in an Odesa tent. I tried not to eat on the Maidan, it was uncomfortable because I didn't spend the night there. I had a place to stay and money. Those who are there all the time are fine, but I came to help. It was also a great feeling.

We realized what was going to happen. On January 16, the draconian law, as it was called, was released. I remember going and counting how much time I could serve. From that moment on, I always have my passport with me, because no one ever knows what can happen to you.

Then came one of the most horrible days. January 22, 2014, morning, the news about the murder of Sergei Nigoyan, then about Mikhail Zhiznevsky. I was in pieces, but I went to work. At the time, I worked at the Museum of Steppe Ukraine and had been preparing for Unity Day for several years, and I had to organize an event. On the Potemkin Stairs, we bought blue and yellow glow sticks, and wanted to make a chain.

Then I was impressed by Odesa residents who said they would definitely come to the event. It was snowing, and we cleared the stairs with salt. We got up and almost did everything ourselves, and I will never forget it. That day I believed that we would win. I mean, you know, at first I realized that people were being killed just for an idea, like Maksym Chaika, and then I looked at the people of Odesa.

It was a kind of shock. It's always cold near Duke in winter - frost, snow, wind. And they are standing there, and I tell them that's it, we thank you, the event is over. They didn't leave. They stood there for 15-20 minutes, just shouting: "Kyiv, we are with you." That's when I thought they wouldn't just give up. From that moment, by the way, Maidan became different, radically changed.

Then we blocked the Berkut. It was my sister's college student who called her and we went to Rozumovsky Street. It was February 18, it was scary. Again, a wall between us and the Berkut officers. One of them, a young guy, told me that she came for money. I replied that I was not here for money and added: "You are murderers".

They called me a radical. I started screaming: "Murderers! Murderers!" - but who are they? They are potential murderers, why were they sent to Kyiv? To kill people. And why did Ihor's relatives ask us to come? He didn't want to do it. It's very good that there were people who, as they say, acted in such ways. They didn't want to disobey the order, but at the same time they said: "No, we are not going." We detained them, and I'm proud of our Odessans, but our guys were beaten then.

On February 19, I was not there, I was at work opening an exhibition. That day, Maidan activists were beaten near the regional administration. Unfortunately, those who did it have not been punished yet. There are lawsuits pending. It hurts me very much that we have such a rotten judicial system. And not only that, the killers of the Maidan protesters have not been punished. I am very sorry that so much time has passed and this is not done. This, of course, touches me very much. I used to blame myself for not going to Kyiv on February 18-19.

Photo: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh

Then I realized that it was the right thing to do. Why? This is my little pain. My sisters and fellow Maidan participants, not everyone talks about those events, but we have to do it. We were witnesses, the cogs that made it all happen.

When I started working at the Center for Patriotic Education in 2016, at some point I realized that we needed a series of events dedicated to the Revolution of Dignity. I began to speak at schools and various institutions. It was hard at first, but now it has become a tradition.

If I had gone to the Maidan then, maybe I would have been on the list of the Heavenly Hundred. I'm serious, I don't know how my fate would have turned out. It turns out that I am telling my own story. I just tell it like it was, and people either understand it or not.

Марія Литянська