Boris Khersonsky - writer, winner of the H.C. Artmann and "Literaris" award, psychiatrist, rector of the Kyiv Institute of Modern Psychology and Psychotherapy. Member of the Ukrainian PEN.
Good, good afternoon, dear friends! I am currently in Ukraine, Odesa, in my office. Because in this difficult time, we must be where is our place, where we worked yesterday, 5 maybe 10, maybe 20 years ago and do the same thing we do to the face of new challenges. Those challenges that we, frankly speaking, did not look for.
Have there been any changes in me and my homeland? Each of us has found his own way. My wife and I stay together, we stay the way we were. For us, what is going on now is the development of what began at least in 2014, and maybe earlier. 4 days taught us to be surprised, me precisely, resistantly, philosophically, at what is happening today. Because, as you understand, there have always been wars, there have always been tyrants, there have always been dictatorships, and dictatorship and war are synonymous because otherwise, the dictatorship cannot implement itself. The flow of the day remains as it was. We are not using the bomb shelter yet.
What has changed with Ukraine as a nation? I would say that no one has united our country so much, none of the presidents as the President of the Russian Federation – Putin. Now we feel like Ukrainians, even those whom I called Vata (en. - cotton), that is, those who had pro-Russian sentiments. But in the face of full-scale war, even these people, with whom I could not find common ground, not only changed their views, they did not run to meet the aggressor, no. They did not come out with bread, salt, in embroidered shirts, as I feared, no. They came out with frank words. Those who are young came out with machine guns and Molotov cocktails. Well, maybe this is the only tool that was once discovered by Comrade Molotov, which we successfully use in the struggle.
This is Ukraine, it is ready to continue to fight the aggressor. The Ukrainian nation has united, maybe become more aggressive because curse words are heard everywhere. Both girls and boys speak those words, but it is the language of strong emotions, the language of war. I still don't use curse words, but I'm on the verge.
That I wanted to tell the world community! Be with us! Be with us not physically, but at least morally! Help us meet the enemy because we meet enemies! I am grateful for everything that the world community is doing for our country. From the weapons that are now being delivered to protests in the squares, to the yellow and blue colors in the administrative buildings of different countries.
The worst thing in this war is that one of those who unleashed it, in my opinion, does not have ... He can not slow down. I think he is doing everything to increase the tension. I don't know if he can stop or not. And I am very worried that his open aggression provoked not only protests from Russian citizens, but also the so-called patriotic wave, which very often leaves a person crazy.
But hope is known to die last. So we hope, and we know for sure, that we are strong now. We are stronger than we were a week ago. I thank everyone!
Boris Khersonsky - writer, winner of the H.C. Artmann and "Literaris" award, psychiatrist, rector of the Kyiv Institute of Modern Psychology and Psychotherapy. Member of the Ukrainian PEN.
