Callsign Woland - Valhalla Express: The story of the activist of Ukrainian nationalist movement, who has gone through street clashes and Maidan to military operations on the Eastern front against Russian aggression

VALHALLA EXPRESS

AZOV CIVIL CORPS LIBRARY

Azov Memories Series

Callsign "WOLAND"

Autobiographical Story

The Third Edition

2017

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There is the Last Judgement of the highest probe.

Where Ill be judged and crucified.

And all the rest are fury and poison,

Pride, vanity, and desperation.

Vis Vitalis, 1995

THE MAIDAN

I often hear the phrase: "The Maidan right in the center of the city.

UKRAINIAN ALTERNATIVE

Children are always vexed

By their age and their everyday

And we fought to scratches,

To mortal resentments.

But our mothers

Patched our clothes in time

Whereas we swallowed books,

Getting drunk from the words.

Ballad of Strife

Vladimir Vysotsky

I do not know how it happened to me. I was not bad at school. I even was awarded a medal for an excellent study. Then I was accepted to a good university. Oh, yes, and my family was normal, no one beat me and did not infringe me, and everything was fine. Maybe not perfect, with the nuances, but it's like everywhere else so that there are no silly references to childhood. I had dreams about family, work, a car... I imagined myself to be an engineer, to work hard for the people good, to get a decent salary bring it home, and it is enough to provide for a family, and everything would be wonderful everywhere, nice people around, justice and living in great comfort, but... But in fact, life is a little different. At the university, I immediately faced with corruption, although at that time I did not recognize it. Not local? Do you want to live on a college campus? It is possible, but you need to give some money to the campus commandant. Otherwise, there will be no rooms for you. So I started to rent an apartment, there was nothing wrong with that, but it cost money, and some of the apartments were far from the place of my study. It wasnt a problem. The study itself was fun, until the end of the term when some professors told us that the syllabus isnt a green color but a color of a US dollar and it had to be taken into account. And we took it into account up to the possible level. Several terms passed like this, some with difficulties some normally. For me, then, however, it was a mystery why some of my classmates used to appear only for the examination period driving expensive cars and still receive the excellent grades.

After a while, my time came to settle in a campus building. A wonderful inexpensive place was situated near the university buildings. All my friends were living nearby, not very chic, but for life, it was good enough. Although I did not understand why it took me almost a year to wait, because there were free rooms, and in some rooms, there were people who did not have anything to do with the university. There was another campus building next to us, more attractive. However, it was not for ordinary people, but for foreign students, more about it further.

Thus, time went by studying, working out, doing gigs and sports, and street fights as well. It continued up to the third year. Then we started to study the course of Cultural Studies. It seemed to be a great subject, but it wasnt. The professor was a Russian woman, and in the course of every lecture, she tried to convince us that the "Khokhly" helped me, to get that book. The book did go well on the first read there were a lot of strange words and all the talks about subjects I was not competent in, however, the sections on politics and propaganda were pretty good. Yeah, that wasnt the first book I had read in my life. I loved reading, and I had a lot of books. That was the first book of this kind of where my life will lead me further. Ironically my favorite professors lead me to this book. I read it and forgot it... for a while.

Then there was an incident that confused me. I already said that our campus building was next to another one the same building, but for foreigners, where largely the Turks lived. They had a strange lifestyle they did not attend the lectures, they used to spend their time in the cafes, and they spent their money which they had a lot. Some even started their own business on campus territory hookah cafe, etc. They all got excellent grades, but when I talked to one of those "A" grade students, so he after four years of studying on technical university did not know what a discriminant was and how to calculate it. It seemed to be strange. Generally, why was it necessary to provide the foreigners with housing if they had enough money to buy an apartment, while your countrymen rent an apartment spending took last of his or her money on the outskirts of the city? Anyways. Once at evening a girl who lived a few floors above, came to us all beaten and crying. She said that those Turks, from another building, raped her. Well, the thing was our beautiful ladies had a habit of being close to those "people." I did not know their motivation most likely money. But this was a completely different story, that girl was not seen there to have such contacts. She studied and lived on campus and simply got dragged into the car when she walked to the campus after classes. What happened next, no need to tell. So what we were supposed to do? At that time, there were no preconditions for racial issues; just some people did a very bad thing with a person we knew, no one considered nationality of the offenders if they were Ukrainians, our reaction would be the same. We gathered a lot of men, almost all the guys from our campus building, and went to our overseas friends. Those, to put it mildly, did not expect such a turn apparently, this is not the first time they have done such a thing and got away with it. Not at this time. There was a big fight, with use of knives, bottles and armature wires. All this was stopped only by the police. Many of the Turks went to the hospital and then home to Turkey.

It seems that everything was fair, and I think even too easy because the bruises and their bones will heal, however, a question if the girl will recover and live with this. But justice in our country meant something else. The criminal cases were opened on many Ukrainian guys involved in that conflict, and many were expelled from the university instantly, the rest expelled later, even under different pretexts. This girl was also kicked out from the university, and her case disappeared from the police. What happened to the Turks? Nothing at all! Those who were hurt a lot left home to Turkey, and the rest moved to another campus building further from us. The university apologized to them for such behavior of Ukrainian students, and the police threatened to punish all Ukrainians. And how is this called? In your house came an alien, dishonored your relatives, you answered adequately, and you get punished? Imagine if this situation occurred in Turkey. Would many Ukrainians have escaped to home? Would someone apologize for them? That time the thoughts began to creep in that something is not right, not everything is as beautiful as the TV says, and good does not always win, as taught in childhood.

I got expelled from University at the next term. There was not everything clear about it. Even I passed all the exams, but the results werent filled into to the exam list. Only the deputy dean was smiling when he met me. So, at the end of my studies, I switched to the distance study. I had to find a job. There were still some illusions that if you worked well, everything in your life would be fine. Intelligent people are always valued, and I was not a fool. It was a rather boring period, the jobs changed one after another: from a shop assistant to the sales manager, from the merchant to the supervisor. That time made clear if work honestly, you cannot earn money in this country. If you want to be richer than others, you have to deceive others and play a double game. Not those who work more and better make more money, but the one who has connections, who has wealthy relatives, the one who gets into bed with someone influent stole, killed or deceived earned much more. Such a flight of human vices on the way to their happiness.