MyDearFriend!
When I say it hurts to see the beautiful faces of my Moscow friends on the background of beautiful Crimean landscapes, you ask me whether my words refer to your Simferopol photo. Honestly speaking, yes, they do.
You look wonderful on that photo; time hasn’t touched your beauty. The landscape is amazing, too. The Crimea is so good at this time.
But I am afraid, the figure and the ground do not match as Gestalt psychologists say. Your photo is not the only one I can see on the background of landmarks of the territory occupied by Russia but somehow, I was especially unpleasant to see your photo.
Today for me personally, the Crimea is a forbidden territory. At the same time, a large part of my life has been connected with the peninsula. I was hiding from the KGB there in 1982-83. There I made friends with wonderful colleagues in the Simferopol Psychiatric Hospital, where I had a six-month training. In addition, Koktebel, of course, and the Voloshyn House and the Voloshyn Competition. I was twice the laureate, and I had been awarded diplomas I do not remember how many times.
It was right there, I think, that we became friends one day.
Out of principle, I do not take part in this competition. It is my personal decision and I can not restrict others from participating. However, I can not welcome participants and winners either. Sorry.
I can hardly tolerate it when some of my colleagues say the Crimea is the territory of the poets and it does not matter what country is ruling there. No, gentlemen, now the Crimea is the territory of the military, it is the military of the Russian Federation. You will not build an ivory tower – they will not let you. And, fortunately for elephants, there is no raw material for this building.
That was the place where they arrested Oleg Sentsov, a writer and film director and other civil society leaders. That was the place where the Crimean Tatars passed into nothingness, where the Ukrainian guys were singing “Glorious spirit of Ukraine shines and lives forever “, while the occupants were flying their flag above the Naval Academy.
One could also see huge billboards there. The Ukrainian Crimea on those billboards was covered with the brown paint with swastika upon it… That was the place where they shed as much shit and malicious joy as I haven’t seen since the Soviet period.
It is true, Ukrainian citizens are still visiting the Crimea. That’s a bit weird, to begin with, and yet they are visiting the territory of their own country. And you are going to the Crimea occupied by your country. Аnd your photo on the background of «the war trophy» doesn’t make me happy.
I will continue
Yours,
Borya