Ukraine is a big Vradiivka. Selected passages from correspondence with Russian and pro-Russian friends. Column for Kompyuterrra #129

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Dmytro Shabanov
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A Brief Summary of the Epigenetic Theory of Evolution, or ETE for Busy People Ukraine is a Great Vradiivka. Selected Correspondence with Russian and Pro-Russian Friends The Origin of Sex, Biparentality, and Hemi-Clonal Inheritance. Problem Statement

{"translated_text":"←\nDmytro Shabanov\n→\n\nA Brief Outline of the Epigenetic Theory of Evolution, or ETE for Busy People\nUkraine is a Large Vradiivka. Selected Passages from Correspondence with Russian and Pro-Russian Friends\nThe Origin of Sex, Gonochorism, and Hemiclonal Inheritance. Problem Statement\n\n\nColumn for Kompyuterra #128\nColumn for Kompyuterra #129\nColumn for Kompyuterra #130\n\nWe are social beings. Due to our nature, the main topic we discuss is the actions of other people. The way we look at others is an important characteristic of ourselves. One can be interested in other people's actions while trying to understand them and seeking to learn something new about the world. One can also be interested while trying to help or hinder. Alas, interest can also be dictated by defensive reactions: we often discuss what others do to convince ourselves that we are behaving correctly. In recent days, I see that the interest of many people from my circle in current events in Kyiv is not cognitive, not operational, but defensive. The way they comment on what's happening, in my view, is unacceptable for cultured people.\nI will start with a simple question that is not directly related to current events. Imagine a group of citizens who, when dealing with a state institution, do not come during scheduled hours and do not write standard form applications. They try to force their way into the institution, rip off doors, break windows. How should one regard the actions of these hooligans? The answer seems simple.\nLet me clarify. There is a district center in Mykolaiv Oblast, the urban-type settlement of Vradiivka. The local police (in Ukraine — still police!) strictly controlled all life in the settlement, collecting tribute from citizens and cruelly punishing the dissatisfied. Fantasy? Recall the Russian Kushchyovka. The new police officers in Vradiivka were \"bound\" to the old-timers through joint crimes. This summer, an experienced police officer, his young colleague, and a taxi driver they involved in their shared \"fun\" caught a girl, raped her, and then allegedly killed her. Such stories had already happened in the settlement. But this victim of violence proved to be resilient. She crawled out to people and told what had happened. The police fabricated an alibi for the rapists, the prosecutor's office did not act on the complaint, the hospital falsified the diagnosis. Everything was heading toward the \"slanderer\" being prosecuted for defamation of respectable people, and her defenders being punished as an example. But unexpectedly, citizens went to storm the district police station. Do you still think they should have lined up to the police officers and prosecutors bound by blood and money? How do you now evaluate the broken doors and smashed windows? Do you agree with the MVD leadership that the main problem is the cunning of opposition provocateurs who stirred up the people against legitimate authority?\nAnd why did citizens rise up in Vradiivka, while in Kushchyovka they only endured and remained silent, even after the gang that terrorized the stanitsa was arrested? The arrest of the \"tsapki\" was not the result of public outrage, but of a coincidence: a film crew from the \"Wait for Me\" program happened to be in the stanitsa. In Vradiivka, justice (at least for one episode) was achieved by the citizens themselves. One explanation is the difference between Russia and Ukraine, the difference in the mentality of the Russian obschina and the Ukrainian hromada (an analogue of the Russian \"obshchina\" with some national peculiarities of the semantic field).\nAnd now I will tell you about the latest events in Ukraine's political life. Ukraine's choice of development toward the EU is reflected in its state documents adopted during President Kuchma's time. Decisive steps were taken by President Yanukovych. In recent months, the country was preparing to sign the association agreement with the EU. The less numerous opponents of association with the EU called for the country to join the Customs Union — some kind of reincarnation of Putin's brainchild, the USSR. If interested — compare these development vectors. I hope that those who insist on Russians and Ukrainians belonging to one people will also figure out the Ukrainian language. There are still many sections devoted to separate branches of cooperation with the EU, references to the agreement, its reviews, etc. It is obvious to me that the agreement with the EU serves our country's interests, but ultimately, for my column, this question is not so important. What is more important is: at the last moment, Yanukovych began to waver between Europe and Russia, trying to maximize financial aid for joining the EU or the Customs Union. He played this shell game so well that he confused both Europeans and Russians, and his own people, and even his own government. What strategic choice, what consideration of citizens' opinions!\nWhy does Yanukovych so desperately need foreign money? When he won the elections by a small margin, one of his pet arguments was that the arrival of professionals in power would put an end to the chaos created by the previous government. Three years have passed. All power is \"under\" the president; the constitution has been amended to sharply increase his powers. Production is falling. The national debt, whose growth was blamed on the previous government, has almost doubled. The gold reserves are simply melting away (9% of the remainder was spent in November). The country is on the brink of default. Without large external borrowings, the standard of living accustomed to before the 2015 presidential elections cannot be maintained. Why?\nThe authorities explain: gas is expensive. That's why Tymoshenko, who narrowly lost to Yanukovych in the elections, is sitting in prison for that gas contract with Russia. No, she didn't even sign it. According to the accusation, she facilitated the signing of the contract with \"Gazprom\" to boost her political authority. The contract provides for the possibility of price revision. The Ukrainian side continuously laments about the high price, but does not try to reduce it by the direct method provided for in the contract. Why? Because of the actual reason for the pre-default state. $8–10 billion per year was being extracted from Ukraine's economy. Active redistribution of property in favor of the ruling family was taking place within the country itself. The president's eldest son turned out to be an extremely successful businessman, able to double his capital in just a few months!\nThat's why Yanukovych was looking for a buyer for the country. At the last moment, he refused the agreement with the EU, promising to sign it in a few months (what those few months will change — unknown). Meanwhile, negotiations with Russia and preparation of documents for the Customs Union are in full swing. The tearing up of the agreement with the EU caused rallies in support of Ukraine's European choice. I attended such a rally in Kharkiv, and the most powerful one, as expected, began in Kyiv.\nThe Kharkiv rally plunged me into gloomy reflections: people of quite heterogeneous backgrounds gathered there. Look at my photo report from there. But this was still the first Maidan... And — believe me! — people from my circle went there not for money, not for cheap European gingerbread, but because the role of serfs in a village that the lord will sell to whoever pays more turned out to be humiliating for people with a sense of their own dignity.\nOn Friday, November 29, I was giving a report in Kyiv on the epigenetic theory of evolution — the very one to which my two previous columns were devoted. The meeting of the \"Evolution\" club took place at the Bohomolets University, near the presidential administration. After the event, some of the participants and I went to the Maidan. I was very tired and spent only a little time there. I walked around, watched, listened...\nWhat I saw most resembled student festivities. Many young people. Joyfully singing the anthem of Ukraine. Having fun with some placards. Singing something, standing in a circle and hugging each other by the shoulders. Embracing. Many beautiful girls and enthusiastic young men...\nI went to my aunt's place to drink wine somewhat upset. These idealistic student festivities won't influence anything... I couldn't have imagined what we would all learn in the morning.\nAt four in the morning, the student Maidan was dispersed. Dispersed savagely, with excessive cruelty. The Maidan was surrounded from all sides, exits blocked, and then the beating began. The \"Berkut\" — an MVD special unit, the very existence of which, it turns out, is legally questionable — did the beating. Guys tried to protect the girls, sang the anthem, asked for help — and the \"Berkut\" dragged out the idealistic youths and beat them. Beat them on the heads, beat those lying down, beat those kneeling, chased and beat those running away. The police line that was supposed to keep the youth accessible to the \"Berkut\" let some of the potential victims go — they pitied them. Here is one of the stories about these events that touched me, though far from the most terrible.\nLooking ahead, I will tell you that, having already returned to Kharkiv, I heard from colleagues that the \"Berkut\" acted correctly. There were attacks on the police before the massacre, there are even footage of people throwing burning sticks at the police. I categorically condemn those who did this. As I understood, these attacks took place in the evening. But the fact of the attacks in itself does not cancel either that the police beat not the attackers, but other people, or that the police used simply illegal means of influencing demonstrators.\nSome of the beaten youth took shelter in the Mikhailovsky Monastery. Under its walls, on Mikhailovskaya Square, the second Maidan began to gather. I went there and for some time just walked, watched, and listened. Mikhailovskaya Square was filled with a huge mass of people radiating stern determination. The main mood: \"We will not allow the authorities to beat our children.\" Mostly these were mature, cultured, decent people. I was there and saw this with my own eyes — and also read and heard what your Russian and eastern Ukrainian friends are saying about this Maidan.\n[IMG_1]\n\"Maidan-dwellers.\" \"Ukrainians wanted freebies.\" \"Aggressive marginal elements.\" \"Plebeians who fouled Kyiv.\" \"Anti-Russian fascist rabble.\" \"Shameless people who, for opposition money, are disturbing the peaceful life of the capital.\" \"Victims of provocations by untalented politicians who, like sheep, were driven in the direction specified by American political technologists\"... Aren't you ashamed to let such lies into your ears? You can agree with the protesters in their civilizational choice, or you can have a different opinion. But mocking people who are trying to protect their own dignity and defend fellow citizens who have suffered — is not nice, is dishonorable. Even an opponent, when he behaves worthily, is usually respected. Can you respect yourself while mocking and humiliating those driven by a noble impulse? Can you rejoice when someone is being beaten?\nAnd as for technologies... Obviously, in a system with a rigid vertical of power, Yanukovych stands behind the decision to disperse. After wavering between Europe and Russia, he was going to China, hoping to get loans there. He needed to show that he strictly controls the situation and is capable of stopping the protest on Independence Square in Kyiv by the same forceful technologies that worked on Independence Square in Minsk and Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. Probably, behind this were technologists who calculated that the Ukrainian people would react the same way as the Russian and Belarusian peoples had reacted. And the difference I mentioned, comparing Vradiivka and Kushchyovka, was not taken into account... And don't say that Yanukovych was \"set up.\" Half a month has passed, and none of those guilty of the brutality on the Maidan have even been removed from their positions. [On December 14, Yanukovych removed Alexander Popov from the position of Head of the Kyiv City State Administration, and Vladimir Sivkovych from the position of Deputy Secretary of of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. — Ed. note]\nYes, at the second Maidan I didn't only see this. Near it, I saw and photographed training sessions of youth brigades. Faces covered with scarves, instructors teaching how to hold a chain and break through chains... The mood is completely different, aggressive, destructive.\n[IMG_2]\nThe joyful readiness of youth brigades for a brawl is completely alien to me. But that the main mood of the rally on Mikhailovskaya was connected with a sense of own dignity and responsibility for the weaker — I saw this myself. From the combination of the firm confidence of the majority and the aggression of the minority, an impression appeared: tomorrow there will be much blood. A thought appeared — to give up my ticket home and stay in Kyiv the next day. A fear appeared: children, pregnant wife, work, promises... I left. But I left, feeling deep respect for the hromada standing in my first photograph in front of the Mikhailovsky Cathedral.\nThere was blood, but the worst was avoided. The most terrible things happened in front of the presidential administration. A group of provocateurs beat with chains, threw stones and bottles at a chain of conscript soldiers of internal troops. A video circulating on the network shows that these provocateurs were brought in buses by the police themselves. And then the provocateurs disappeared somewhere, and the \"Berkut\" broke out from behind the conscripts. Watch how it acted: there is video at the following link. They beat journalists, beat and grabbed random people, and then also photographed themselves, putting their feet on the heads of the beaten...\nI was deeply impressed by the people who, in such a situation, stood in front of the soldiers and opposed the provocators. I know that a decent person should have stood exactly there, and I'm not sure I would have had the courage to do it. That such people exist in my country gives hope for a dignified future. Look at the photograph. It shows Yuriy Butusov, editor of the publication \"Censor.Net.\" He received an open traumatic brain injury.\n[IMG_3]\nAnd here is the detailed chronicle of the provocation compiled by him. Read it — I believe him.\nHow the column has grown... I won't have time to tell about the units from the \"socially close\" that the authorities incite against the demonstrators. Nor about the polarization of clergy, some of whom line up in front of the \"Berkut,\" while others approve of the massacres. Nor about the night assault of the Maidan that happened after Yanukovych promised not to disperse it, during the presence of big shots from Europe and America in Kyiv. Nor about how the Maidan takes care of the police and soldiers sent to attack it, and who are treated like cattle. Nor about how the authorities gather paid (here it's certain) rallies in their defense and send provocateurs to the Maidan. Nor about how many Russian-speaking people are on the Maidan and how many have higher education. If interested — you're welcome to my Facebook, where I try to collect useful information for understanding. The main thing is that today Ukraine is a large Vradiivka. Don't forget this when you hear that protests are interfering with the work of communal services.\nA huge amount of \"kompromat\" is being poured on us, which should convince that the protest is the affair of spies and fools. Here, Russian political technologist Kornilov proves that Ukrainian Nazis participated in the provocations in front of the presidential administration. If that's so, it doesn't change either my disgust at provocations, or my disgust at Nazis, or my respect for the protest. Here is a video where Vladimir Klitschko arranges with the \"Berkut\" that there won't be harsh confrontation. Events on Kyiv streets consist of many episodes, and if somewhere it proves possible to convince the attackers to carry out orders formally, that's only for the best. Why the video where one of the Klitschko brothers arranges for reduced violence is considered an argument that they are inflating violence is unclear to me. Here are rumors that opposition leaders knew about the dispersal of the student Maidan. If that's true — so much the worse for the leaders, but it doesn't diminish my admiration for those who risk their heads so that citizens of Ukraine are beaten no more.\n[IMG_4]\nThe protest continues. The Maidan in Kyiv continues to stand, and next to it, the authorities are gathering an alternative rally, bringing in budget-funded workers and paid marginals from all over the country. They are waiting for provocations. A clash between the two rallies would be a good pretext for Yanukovych to introduce a state of emergency. The Maidan is trying to separate the rallies and convince those rounded up by the authorities through leaflets.\n[IMG_5]\nIf you, the reader, are a Russian citizen convinced that it is in your interests — not to let Ukraine go to Europe and return it to the new USSR, this is your choice. A cynical, selfish choice, but I won't even discuss it. I don't understand why from this choice follows a mocking, humiliating attitude toward those who are fighting for their dignity and their country? Do you think the protesters on the Maidan don't understand their own interest? Do know that Ukraine is a sufficiently educated and intellectual country... Can't you understand that the attempt to humiliate the opponent humiliates you yourself? If you are a citizen of Eastern Ukraine to whom they are trying to convince that the reason for wage delays and economic collapse is not the theft by the helm, but that protests are in their way, are you really ready to agree with obvious deception? Don't believe the tall tales about the wildness of the protesters, find out what drives them, independently! And even if you disagree with the protesters, don't descend to little words like \"Maidan-dweller\" and to gloating if the protest can be broken.\n...And if you are capable of sympathy — wish good luck to those who are now freezing on the Maidan, waiting for the next attack..."}

{"translated_text":"←\nDmytro Shabanov\n→\n\nA Brief Outline of the Epigenetic Theory of Evolution, or ETE for Busy People\nUkraine is a Large Vradiivka. Selected Passages from Correspondence with Russian and Pro-Russian Friends\nThe Origin of Sex, Gonochorism, and Hemiclonal Inheritance. Problem Statement\n\n\nColumn for Kompyuterra #128\nColumn for Kompyuterra #129\nColumn for Kompyuterra #130\n\nWe are social beings. Due to our nature, the main topic we discuss is the actions of other people. The way we look at others is an important characteristic of ourselves. One can be interested in other people's actions while trying to understand them and seeking to learn something new about the world. One can also be interested while trying to help or hinder. Alas, interest can also be dictated by defensive reactions: we often discuss what others do to convince ourselves that we are behaving correctly. In recent days, I see that the interest of many people from my circle in current events in Kyiv is not cognitive, not operational, but defensive. The way they comment on what's happening, in my view, is unacceptable for cultured people.\nI will start with a simple question that is not directly related to current events. Imagine a group of citizens who, when dealing with a state institution, do not come during scheduled hours and do not write standard form applications. They try to force their way into the institution, rip off doors, break windows. How should one regard the actions of these hooligans? The answer seems simple.\nLet me clarify. There is a district center in Mykolaiv Oblast, the urban-type settlement of Vradiivka. The local police (in Ukraine — still police!) strictly controlled all life in the settlement, collecting tribute from citizens and cruelly punishing the dissatisfied. Fantasy? Recall the Russian Kushchyovka. The new police officers in Vradiivka were \"bound\" to the old-timers through joint crimes. This summer, an experienced police officer, his young colleague, and a taxi driver they involved in their shared \"fun\" caught a girl, raped her, and then allegedly killed her. Such stories had already happened in the settlement. But this victim of violence proved to be resilient. She crawled out to people and told what had happened. The police fabricated an alibi for the rapists, the prosecutor's office did not act on the complaint, the hospital falsified the diagnosis. Everything was heading toward the \"slanderer\" being prosecuted for defamation of respectable people, and her defenders being punished as an example. But unexpectedly, citizens went to storm the district police station. Do you still think they should have lined up to the police officers and prosecutors bound by blood and money? How do you now evaluate the broken doors and smashed windows? Do you agree with the MVD leadership that the main problem is the cunning of opposition provocateurs who stirred up the people against legitimate authority?\nAnd why did citizens rise up in Vradiivka, while in Kushchyovka they only endured and remained silent, even after the gang that terrorized the stanitsa was arrested? The arrest of the \"tsapki\" was not the result of public outrage, but of a coincidence: a film crew from the \"Wait for Me\" program happened to be in the stanitsa. In Vradiivka, justice (at least for one episode) was achieved by the citizens themselves. One explanation is the difference between Russia and Ukraine, the difference in the mentality of the Russian obschina and the Ukrainian hromada (an analogue of the Russian \"obshchina\" with some national peculiarities of the semantic field).\nAnd now I will tell you about the latest events in Ukraine's political life. Ukraine's choice of development toward the EU is reflected in its state documents adopted during President Kuchma's time. Decisive steps were taken by President Yanukovych. In recent months, the country was preparing to sign the association agreement with the EU. The less numerous opponents of association with the EU called for the country to join the Customs Union — some kind of reincarnation of Putin's brainchild, the USSR. If interested — compare these development vectors. I hope that those who insist on Russians and Ukrainians belonging to one people will also figure out the Ukrainian language. There are still many sections devoted to separate branches of cooperation with the EU, references to the agreement, its reviews, etc. It is obvious to me that the agreement with the EU serves our country's interests, but ultimately, for my column, this question is not so important. What is more important is: at the last moment, Yanukovych began to waver between Europe and Russia, trying to maximize financial aid for joining the EU or the Customs Union. He played this shell game so well that he confused both Europeans and Russians, and his own people, and even his own government. What strategic choice, what consideration of citizens' opinions!\nWhy does Yanukovych so desperately need foreign money? When he won the elections by a small margin, one of his pet arguments was that the arrival of professionals in power would put an end to the chaos created by the previous government. Three years have passed. All power is \"under\" the president; the constitution has been amended to sharply increase his powers. Production is falling. The national debt, whose growth was blamed on the previous government, has almost doubled. The gold reserves are simply melting away (9% of the remainder was spent in November). The country is on the brink of default. Without large external borrowings, the standard of living accustomed to before the 2015 presidential elections cannot be maintained. Why?\nThe authorities explain: gas is expensive. That's why Tymoshenko, who narrowly lost to Yanukovych in the elections, is sitting in prison for that gas contract with Russia. No, she didn't even sign it. According to the accusation, she facilitated the signing of the contract with \"Gazprom\" to boost her political authority. The contract provides for the possibility of price revision. The Ukrainian side continuously laments about the high price, but does not try to reduce it by the direct method provided for in the contract. Why? Because of the actual reason for the pre-default state. $8–10 billion per year was being extracted from Ukraine's economy. Active redistribution of property in favor of the ruling family was taking place within the country itself. The president's eldest son turned out to be an extremely successful businessman, able to double his capital in just a few months!\nThat's why Yanukovych was looking for a buyer for the country. At the last moment, he refused the agreement with the EU, promising to sign it in a few months (what those few months will change — unknown). Meanwhile, negotiations with Russia and preparation of documents for the Customs Union are in full swing. The tearing up of the agreement with the EU caused rallies in support of Ukraine's European choice. I attended such a rally in Kharkiv, and the most powerful one, as expected, began in Kyiv.\nThe Kharkiv rally plunged me into gloomy reflections: people of quite heterogeneous backgrounds gathered there. Look at my photo report from there. But this was still the first Maidan... And — believe me! — people from my circle went there not for money, not for cheap European gingerbread, but because the role of serfs in a village that the lord will sell to whoever pays more turned out to be humiliating for people with a sense of their own dignity.\nOn Friday, November 29, I was giving a report in Kyiv on the epigenetic theory of evolution — the very one to which my two previous columns were devoted. The meeting of the \"Evolution\" club took place at the Bohomolets University, near the presidential administration. After the event, some of the participants and I went to the Maidan. I was very tired and spent only a little time there. I walked around, watched, listened...\nWhat I saw most resembled student festivities. Many young people. Joyfully singing the anthem of Ukraine. Having fun with some placards. Singing something, standing in a circle and hugging each other by the shoulders. Embracing. Many beautiful girls and enthusiastic young men...\nI went to my aunt's place to drink wine somewhat upset. These idealistic student festivities won't influence anything... I couldn't have imagined what we would all learn in the morning.\nAt four in the morning, the student Maidan was dispersed. Dispersed savagely, with excessive cruelty. The Maidan was surrounded from all sides, exits blocked, and then the beating began. The \"Berkut\" — an MVD special unit, the very existence of which, it turns out, is legally questionable — did the beating. Guys tried to protect the girls, sang the anthem, asked for help — and the \"Berkut\" dragged out the idealistic youths and beat them. Beat them on the heads, beat those lying down, beat those kneeling, chased and beat those running away. The police line that was supposed to keep the youth accessible to the \"Berkut\" let some of the potential victims go — they pitied them. Here is one of the stories about these events that touched me, though far from the most terrible.\nLooking ahead, I will tell you that, having already returned to Kharkiv, I heard from colleagues that the \"Berkut\" acted correctly. There were attacks on the police before the massacre, there are even footage of people throwing burning sticks at the police. I categorically condemn those who did this. As I understood, these attacks took place in the evening. But the fact of the attacks in itself does not cancel either that the police beat not the attackers, but other people, or that the police used simply illegal means of influencing demonstrators.\nSome of the beaten youth took shelter in the Mikhailovsky Monastery. Under its walls, on Mikhailovskaya Square, the second Maidan began to gather. I went there and for some time just walked, watched, and listened. Mikhailovskaya Square was filled with a huge mass of people radiating stern determination. The main mood: \"We will not allow the authorities to beat our children.\" Mostly these were mature, cultured, decent people. I was there and saw this with my own eyes — and also read and heard what your Russian and eastern Ukrainian friends are saying about this Maidan.\n[IMG_1]\n\"Maidan-dwellers.\" \"Ukrainians wanted freebies.\" \"Aggressive marginal elements.\" \"Plebeians who fouled Kyiv.\" \"Anti-Russian fascist rabble.\" \"Shameless people who, for opposition money, are disturbing the peaceful life of the capital.\" \"Victims of provocations by untalented politicians who, like sheep, were driven in the direction specified by American political technologists\"... Aren't you ashamed to let such lies into your ears? You can agree with the protesters in their civilizational choice, or you can have a different opinion. But mocking people who are trying to protect their own dignity and defend fellow citizens who have suffered — is not nice, is dishonorable. Even an opponent, when he behaves worthily, is usually respected. Can you respect yourself while mocking and humiliating those driven by a noble impulse? Can you rejoice when someone is being beaten?\nAnd as for technologies... Obviously, in a system with a rigid vertical of power, Yanukovych stands behind the decision to disperse. After wavering between Europe and Russia, he was going to China, hoping to get loans there. He needed to show that he strictly controls the situation and is capable of stopping the protest on Independence Square in Kyiv by the same forceful technologies that worked on Independence Square in Minsk and Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. Probably, behind this were technologists who calculated that the Ukrainian people would react the same way as the Russian and Belarusian peoples had reacted. And the difference I mentioned, comparing Vradiivka and Kushchyovka, was not taken into account... And don't say that Yanukovych was \"set up.\" Half a month has passed, and none of those guilty of the brutality on the Maidan have even been removed from their positions. [On December 14, Yanukovych removed Alexander Popov from the position of Head of the Kyiv City State Administration, and Vladimir Sivkovych from the position of Deputy Secretary of of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. — Ed. note]\nYes, at the second Maidan I didn't only see this. Near it, I saw and photographed training sessions of youth brigades. Faces covered with scarves, instructors teaching how to hold a chain and break through chains... The mood is completely different, aggressive, destructive.\n[IMG_2]\nThe joyful readiness of youth brigades for a brawl is completely alien to me. But that the main mood of the rally on Mikhailovskaya was connected with a sense of own dignity and responsibility for the weaker — I saw this myself. From the combination of the firm confidence of the majority and the aggression of the minority, an impression appeared: tomorrow there will be much blood. A thought appeared — to give up my ticket home and stay in Kyiv the next day. A fear appeared: children, pregnant wife, work, promises... I left. But I left, feeling deep respect for the hromada standing in my first photograph in front of the Mikhailovsky Cathedral.\nThere was blood, but the worst was avoided. The most terrible things happened in front of the presidential administration. A group of provocateurs beat with chains, threw stones and bottles at a chain of conscript soldiers of internal troops. A video circulating on the network shows that these provocateurs were brought in buses by the police themselves. And then the provocateurs disappeared somewhere, and the \"Berkut\" broke out from behind the conscripts. Watch how it acted: there is video at the following link. They beat journalists, beat and grabbed random people, and then also photographed themselves, putting their feet on the heads of the beaten...\nI was deeply impressed by the people who, in such a situation, stood in front of the soldiers and opposed the provocators. I know that a decent person should have stood exactly there, and I'm not sure I would have had the courage to do it. That such people exist in my country gives hope for a dignified future. Look at the photograph. It shows Yuriy Butusov, editor of the publication \"Censor.Net.\" He received an open traumatic brain injury.\n[IMG_3]\nAnd here is the detailed chronicle of the provocation compiled by him. Read it — I believe him.\nHow the column has grown... I won't have time to tell about the units from the \"socially close\" that the authorities incite against the demonstrators. Nor about the polarization of clergy, some of whom line up in front of the \"Berkut,\" while others approve of the massacres. Nor about the night assault of the Maidan that happened after Yanukovych promised not to disperse it, during the presence of big shots from Europe and America in Kyiv. Nor about how the Maidan takes care of the police and soldiers sent to attack it, and who are treated like cattle. Nor about how the authorities gather paid (here it's certain) rallies in their defense and send provocateurs to the Maidan. Nor about how many Russian-speaking people are on the Maidan and how many have higher education. If interested — you're welcome to my Facebook, where I try to collect useful information for understanding. The main thing is that today Ukraine is a large Vradiivka. Don't forget this when you hear that protests are interfering with the work of communal services.\nA huge amount of \"kompromat\" is being poured on us, which should convince that the protest is the affair of spies and fools. Here, Russian political technologist Kornilov proves that Ukrainian Nazis participated in the provocations in front of the presidential administration. If that's so, it doesn't change either my disgust at provocations, or my disgust at Nazis, or my respect for the protest. Here is a video where Vladimir Klitschko arranges with the \"Berkut\" that there won't be harsh confrontation. Events on Kyiv streets consist of many episodes, and if somewhere it proves possible to convince the attackers to carry out orders formally, that's only for the best. Why the video where one of the Klitschko brothers arranges for reduced violence is considered an argument that they are inflating violence is unclear to me. Here are rumors that opposition leaders knew about the dispersal of the student Maidan. If that's true — so much the worse for the leaders, but it doesn't diminish my admiration for those who risk their heads so that citizens of Ukraine are beaten no more.\n[IMG_4]\nThe protest continues. The Maidan in Kyiv continues to stand, and next to it, the authorities are gathering an alternative rally, bringing in budget-funded workers and paid marginals from all over the country. They are waiting for provocations. A clash between the two rallies would be a good pretext for Yanukovych to introduce a state of emergency. The Maidan is trying to separate the rallies and convince those rounded up by the authorities through leaflets.\n[IMG_5]\nIf you, the reader, are a Russian citizen convinced that it is in your interests — not to let Ukraine go to Europe and return it to the new USSR, this is your choice. A cynical, selfish choice, but I won't even discuss it. I don't understand why from this choice follows a mocking, humiliating attitude toward those who are fighting for their dignity and their country? Do you think the protesters on the Maidan don't understand their own interest? Do know that Ukraine is a sufficiently educated and intellectual country... Can't you understand that the attempt to humiliate the opponent humiliates you yourself? If you are a citizen of Eastern Ukraine to whom they are trying to convince that the reason for wage delays and economic collapse is not the theft by the helm, but that protests are in their way, are you really ready to agree with obvious deception? Don't believe the tall tales about the wildness of the protesters, find out what drives them, independently! And even if you disagree with the protesters, don't descend to little words like \"Maidan-dweller\" and to gloating if the protest can be broken.\n...And if you are capable of sympathy — wish good luck to those who are now freezing on the Maidan, waiting for the next attack..."}

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Dmytro Shabanov
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A Brief Summary of the Epigenetic Theory of Evolution, or ETE for Busy People Ukraine is a Great Vradiivka. Selected Correspondence with Russian and Pro-Russian Friends The Origin of Sex, Biparentality, and Hemi-Clonal Inheritance. Problem Statement

{"translated_text":"←\nDmytro Shabanov\n→\n\nA Brief Outline of the Epigenetic Theory of Evolution, or ETE for Busy People\nUkraine is a Large Vradiivka. Selected Passages from Correspondence with Russian and Pro-Russian Friends\nThe Origin of Sex, Gonochorism, and Hemiclonal Inheritance. Problem Statement\n\n\nColumn for Kompyuterra #128\nColumn for Kompyuterra #129\nColumn for Kompyuterra #130\n\nWe are social beings. Due to our nature, the main topic we discuss is the actions of other people. The way we look at others is an important characteristic of ourselves. One can be interested in other people's actions while trying to understand them and seeking to learn something new about the world. One can also be interested while trying to help or hinder. Alas, interest can also be dictated by defensive reactions: we often discuss what others do to convince ourselves that we are behaving correctly. In recent days, I see that the interest of many people from my circle in current events in Kyiv is not cognitive, not operational, but defensive. The way they comment on what's happening, in my view, is unacceptable for cultured people.\nI will start with a simple question that is not directly related to current events. Imagine a group of citizens who, when dealing with a state institution, do not come during scheduled hours and do not write standard form applications. They try to force their way into the institution, rip off doors, break windows. How should one regard the actions of these hooligans? The answer seems simple.\nLet me clarify. There is a district center in Mykolaiv Oblast, the urban-type settlement of Vradiivka. The local police (in Ukraine — still police!) strictly controlled all life in the settlement, collecting tribute from citizens and cruelly punishing the dissatisfied. Fantasy? Recall the Russian Kushchyovka. The new police officers in Vradiivka were \"bound\" to the old-timers through joint crimes. This summer, an experienced police officer, his young colleague, and a taxi driver they involved in their shared \"fun\" caught a girl, raped her, and then allegedly killed her. Such stories had already happened in the settlement. But this victim of violence proved to be resilient. She crawled out to people and told what had happened. The police fabricated an alibi for the rapists, the prosecutor's office did not act on the complaint, the hospital falsified the diagnosis. Everything was heading toward the \"slanderer\" being prosecuted for defamation of respectable people, and her defenders being punished as an example. But unexpectedly, citizens went to storm the district police station. Do you still think they should have lined up to the police officers and prosecutors bound by blood and money? How do you now evaluate the broken doors and smashed windows? Do you agree with the MVD leadership that the main problem is the cunning of opposition provocateurs who stirred up the people against legitimate authority?\nAnd why did citizens rise up in Vradiivka, while in Kushchyovka they only endured and remained silent, even after the gang that terrorized the stanitsa was arrested? The arrest of the \"tsapki\" was not the result of public outrage, but of a coincidence: a film crew from the \"Wait for Me\" program happened to be in the stanitsa. In Vradiivka, justice (at least for one episode) was achieved by the citizens themselves. One explanation is the difference between Russia and Ukraine, the difference in the mentality of the Russian obschina and the Ukrainian hromada (an analogue of the Russian \"obshchina\" with some national peculiarities of the semantic field).\nAnd now I will tell you about the latest events in Ukraine's political life. Ukraine's choice of development toward the EU is reflected in its state documents adopted during President Kuchma's time. Decisive steps were taken by President Yanukovych. In recent months, the country was preparing to sign the association agreement with the EU. The less numerous opponents of association with the EU called for the country to join the Customs Union — some kind of reincarnation of Putin's brainchild, the USSR. If interested — compare these development vectors. I hope that those who insist on Russians and Ukrainians belonging to one people will also figure out the Ukrainian language. There are still many sections devoted to separate branches of cooperation with the EU, references to the agreement, its reviews, etc. It is obvious to me that the agreement with the EU serves our country's interests, but ultimately, for my column, this question is not so important. What is more important is: at the last moment, Yanukovych began to waver between Europe and Russia, trying to maximize financial aid for joining the EU or the Customs Union. He played this shell game so well that he confused both Europeans and Russians, and his own people, and even his own government. What strategic choice, what consideration of citizens' opinions!\nWhy does Yanukovych so desperately need foreign money? When he won the elections by a small margin, one of his pet arguments was that the arrival of professionals in power would put an end to the chaos created by the previous government. Three years have passed. All power is \"under\" the president; the constitution has been amended to sharply increase his powers. Production is falling. The national debt, whose growth was blamed on the previous government, has almost doubled. The gold reserves are simply melting away (9% of the remainder was spent in November). The country is on the brink of default. Without large external borrowings, the standard of living accustomed to before the 2015 presidential elections cannot be maintained. Why?\nThe authorities explain: gas is expensive. That's why Tymoshenko, who narrowly lost to Yanukovych in the elections, is sitting in prison for that gas contract with Russia. No, she didn't even sign it. According to the accusation, she facilitated the signing of the contract with \"Gazprom\" to boost her political authority. The contract provides for the possibility of price revision. The Ukrainian side continuously laments about the high price, but does not try to reduce it by the direct method provided for in the contract. Why? Because of the actual reason for the pre-default state. $8–10 billion per year was being extracted from Ukraine's economy. Active redistribution of property in favor of the ruling family was taking place within the country itself. The president's eldest son turned out to be an extremely successful businessman, able to double his capital in just a few months!\nThat's why Yanukovych was looking for a buyer for the country. At the last moment, he refused the agreement with the EU, promising to sign it in a few months (what those few months will change — unknown). Meanwhile, negotiations with Russia and preparation of documents for the Customs Union are in full swing. The tearing up of the agreement with the EU caused rallies in support of Ukraine's European choice. I attended such a rally in Kharkiv, and the most powerful one, as expected, began in Kyiv.\nThe Kharkiv rally plunged me into gloomy reflections: people of quite heterogeneous backgrounds gathered there. Look at my photo report from there. But this was still the first Maidan... And — believe me! — people from my circle went there not for money, not for cheap European gingerbread, but because the role of serfs in a village that the lord will sell to whoever pays more turned out to be humiliating for people with a sense of their own dignity.\nOn Friday, November 29, I was giving a report in Kyiv on the epigenetic theory of evolution — the very one to which my two previous columns were devoted. The meeting of the \"Evolution\" club took place at the Bohomolets University, near the presidential administration. After the event, some of the participants and I went to the Maidan. I was very tired and spent only a little time there. I walked around, watched, listened...\nWhat I saw most resembled student festivities. Many young people. Joyfully singing the anthem of Ukraine. Having fun with some placards. Singing something, standing in a circle and hugging each other by the shoulders. Embracing. Many beautiful girls and enthusiastic young men...\nI went to my aunt's place to drink wine somewhat upset. These idealistic student festivities won't influence anything... I couldn't have imagined what we would all learn in the morning.\nAt four in the morning, the student Maidan was dispersed. Dispersed savagely, with excessive cruelty. The Maidan was surrounded from all sides, exits blocked, and then the beating began. The \"Berkut\" — an MVD special unit, the very existence of which, it turns out, is legally questionable — did the beating. Guys tried to protect the girls, sang the anthem, asked for help — and the \"Berkut\" dragged out the idealistic youths and beat them. Beat them on the heads, beat those lying down, beat those kneeling, chased and beat those running away. The police line that was supposed to keep the youth accessible to the \"Berkut\" let some of the potential victims go — they pitied them. Here is one of the stories about these events that touched me, though far from the most terrible.\nLooking ahead, I will tell you that, having already returned to Kharkiv, I heard from colleagues that the \"Berkut\" acted correctly. There were attacks on the police before the massacre, there are even footage of people throwing burning sticks at the police. I categorically condemn those who did this. As I understood, these attacks took place in the evening. But the fact of the attacks in itself does not cancel either that the police beat not the attackers, but other people, or that the police used simply illegal means of influencing demonstrators.\nSome of the beaten youth took shelter in the Mikhailovsky Monastery. Under its walls, on Mikhailovskaya Square, the second Maidan began to gather. I went there and for some time just walked, watched, and listened. Mikhailovskaya Square was filled with a huge mass of people radiating stern determination. The main mood: \"We will not allow the authorities to beat our children.\" Mostly these were mature, cultured, decent people. I was there and saw this with my own eyes — and also read and heard what your Russian and eastern Ukrainian friends are saying about this Maidan.\n[IMG_1]\n\"Maidan-dwellers.\" \"Ukrainians wanted freebies.\" \"Aggressive marginal elements.\" \"Plebeians who fouled Kyiv.\" \"Anti-Russian fascist rabble.\" \"Shameless people who, for opposition money, are disturbing the peaceful life of the capital.\" \"Victims of provocations by untalented politicians who, like sheep, were driven in the direction specified by American political technologists\"... Aren't you ashamed to let such lies into your ears? You can agree with the protesters in their civilizational choice, or you can have a different opinion. But mocking people who are trying to protect their own dignity and defend fellow citizens who have suffered — is not nice, is dishonorable. Even an opponent, when he behaves worthily, is usually respected. Can you respect yourself while mocking and humiliating those driven by a noble impulse? Can you rejoice when someone is being beaten?\nAnd as for technologies... Obviously, in a system with a rigid vertical of power, Yanukovych stands behind the decision to disperse. After wavering between Europe and Russia, he was going to China, hoping to get loans there. He needed to show that he strictly controls the situation and is capable of stopping the protest on Independence Square in Kyiv by the same forceful technologies that worked on Independence Square in Minsk and Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. Probably, behind this were technologists who calculated that the Ukrainian people would react the same way as the Russian and Belarusian peoples had reacted. And the difference I mentioned, comparing Vradiivka and Kushchyovka, was not taken into account... And don't say that Yanukovych was \"set up.\" Half a month has passed, and none of those guilty of the brutality on the Maidan have even been removed from their positions. [On December 14, Yanukovych removed Alexander Popov from the position of Head of the Kyiv City State Administration, and Vladimir Sivkovych from the position of Deputy Secretary of of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. — Ed. note]\nYes, at the second Maidan I didn't only see this. Near it, I saw and photographed training sessions of youth brigades. Faces covered with scarves, instructors teaching how to hold a chain and break through chains... The mood is completely different, aggressive, destructive.\n[IMG_2]\nThe joyful readiness of youth brigades for a brawl is completely alien to me. But that the main mood of the rally on Mikhailovskaya was connected with a sense of own dignity and responsibility for the weaker — I saw this myself. From the combination of the firm confidence of the majority and the aggression of the minority, an impression appeared: tomorrow there will be much blood. A thought appeared — to give up my ticket home and stay in Kyiv the next day. A fear appeared: children, pregnant wife, work, promises... I left. But I left, feeling deep respect for the hromada standing in my first photograph in front of the Mikhailovsky Cathedral.\nThere was blood, but the worst was avoided. The most terrible things happened in front of the presidential administration. A group of provocateurs beat with chains, threw stones and bottles at a chain of conscript soldiers of internal troops. A video circulating on the network shows that these provocateurs were brought in buses by the police themselves. And then the provocateurs disappeared somewhere, and the \"Berkut\" broke out from behind the conscripts. Watch how it acted: there is video at the following link. They beat journalists, beat and grabbed random people, and then also photographed themselves, putting their feet on the heads of the beaten...\nI was deeply impressed by the people who, in such a situation, stood in front of the soldiers and opposed the provocators. I know that a decent person should have stood exactly there, and I'm not sure I would have had the courage to do it. That such people exist in my country gives hope for a dignified future. Look at the photograph. It shows Yuriy Butusov, editor of the publication \"Censor.Net.\" He received an open traumatic brain injury.\n[IMG_3]\nAnd here is the detailed chronicle of the provocation compiled by him. Read it — I believe him.\nHow the column has grown... I won't have time to tell about the units from the \"socially close\" that the authorities incite against the demonstrators. Nor about the polarization of clergy, some of whom line up in front of the \"Berkut,\" while others approve of the massacres. Nor about the night assault of the Maidan that happened after Yanukovych promised not to disperse it, during the presence of big shots from Europe and America in Kyiv. Nor about how the Maidan takes care of the police and soldiers sent to attack it, and who are treated like cattle. Nor about how the authorities gather paid (here it's certain) rallies in their defense and send provocateurs to the Maidan. Nor about how many Russian-speaking people are on the Maidan and how many have higher education. If interested — you're welcome to my Facebook, where I try to collect useful information for understanding. The main thing is that today Ukraine is a large Vradiivka. Don't forget this when you hear that protests are interfering with the work of communal services.\nA huge amount of \"kompromat\" is being poured on us, which should convince that the protest is the affair of spies and fools. Here, Russian political technologist Kornilov proves that Ukrainian Nazis participated in the provocations in front of the presidential administration. If that's so, it doesn't change either my disgust at provocations, or my disgust at Nazis, or my respect for the protest. Here is a video where Vladimir Klitschko arranges with the \"Berkut\" that there won't be harsh confrontation. Events on Kyiv streets consist of many episodes, and if somewhere it proves possible to convince the attackers to carry out orders formally, that's only for the best. Why the video where one of the Klitschko brothers arranges for reduced violence is considered an argument that they are inflating violence is unclear to me. Here are rumors that opposition leaders knew about the dispersal of the student Maidan. If that's true — so much the worse for the leaders, but it doesn't diminish my admiration for those who risk their heads so that citizens of Ukraine are beaten no more.\n[IMG_4]\nThe protest continues. The Maidan in Kyiv continues to stand, and next to it, the authorities are gathering an alternative rally, bringing in budget-funded workers and paid marginals from all over the country. They are waiting for provocations. A clash between the two rallies would be a good pretext for Yanukovych to introduce a state of emergency. The Maidan is trying to separate the rallies and convince those rounded up by the authorities through leaflets.\n[IMG_5]\nIf you, the reader, are a Russian citizen convinced that it is in your interests — not to let Ukraine go to Europe and return it to the new USSR, this is your choice. A cynical, selfish choice, but I won't even discuss it. I don't understand why from this choice follows a mocking, humiliating attitude toward those who are fighting for their dignity and their country? Do you think the protesters on the Maidan don't understand their own interest? Do know that Ukraine is a sufficiently educated and intellectual country... Can't you understand that the attempt to humiliate the opponent humiliates you yourself? If you are a citizen of Eastern Ukraine to whom they are trying to convince that the reason for wage delays and economic collapse is not the theft by the helm, but that protests are in their way, are you really ready to agree with obvious deception? Don't believe the tall tales about the wildness of the protesters, find out what drives them, independently! And even if you disagree with the protesters, don't descend to little words like \"Maidan-dweller\" and to gloating if the protest can be broken.\n...And if you are capable of sympathy — wish good luck to those who are now freezing on the Maidan, waiting for the next attack..."}