Homeland|The Russian attack
Some Russians living in Finland are deeply ashamed of the war of aggression launched by their country of birth. Some are proud of their president.
In Joensuu resident junior researcher at the University of Eastern Finland Gleb Jarovoi woke up on Thursday morning at six, picked up the phone and saw that his homeland, Russia, had launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine.
Jarovoi’s first thoughts after that were: How do I send children to kindergarten and school? How can I look people in the eye?
Gleb Jarovoi
No Jarovoi could. As the daycare worker smiled and said tomorrow, Jarovoi waved his hand and walked away. At the age of nine, he tried to say something to accompany the school day, but there were no words.
“I helped him on the back of the bike and he drove off,” Jarovoi says over the phone.
“I’m so ashamed and guilty.”
Jarovoi says that a number of Finns are planning an anti – war demonstration in Joensuu immediately on Thursday. A larger number of people plan to take part in a demonstration at the Russian Embassy in Helsinki.
“It’s late now and nothing else, but of course we’re going. I take my sign that says it’s a shame to be Russian. ”
According to Jarovoi, the shame is so overflowing that he sits at the door in his office and hopes no one will come to talk. Next week, he should start teaching a course on global conflicts. It feels hard to walk into a lecture hall in Russian at a time like this.
“It’s clear now [Venäjän presidentti Vladimir] Putin is the 21st century Hitler”Jarovoi says.
“All the people who voted for him will go down in history as supporters of this shit. There is no excuse for this. ”
Olga Davydova-Minguet
Jarovoin colleague, professor at the University of Eastern Finland Olga Davydova-Minguetin the answer to HS’s question about the thoughts evoked by the attack begins with a sigh of grief, disappointment, and worry.
“When I came from the morning run with the dog, I heard the man listening to Yle’s news and I realized it had happened now,” he says.
“I didn’t have to ask anything. The fact that the news was on was a sign of that. ”
Davydova-Minguet wrote to a friend in Kharkov, Ukraine, and heard that this had awakened from five in the morning to a bang. The friend was paralyzed and could not even pack the backpacks for himself and his 13-year-old son as instructed. The friend is a single parent and does not have a car.
“I have been asking for many days if he has an escape plan. But he answers by asking that how? How could he get away? ”
A friend’s window shows a border guard office that had reportedly burned documents all morning.
Mixed Jarovoi that Davydova-Minguet oppose the war and the leadership of her native country. But they belong to Bubble, Jarovoi says. Through it, you can see that there are also opposite opinions among Finno-Russians.
On Wednesday, Russia celebrated Fatherland Defenders Day. Davydova-Minguet says she was also sent nationalist congratulations and memes.
“There’s a lot in them that our press is the best and real man,” he says.
“I couldn’t tell people you were sane when you sent this.”
Jarovoi had written to his family’s extensive group message chain that he was ashamed of Russia. The group includes people on both sides of the Finnish-Russian border. It is also divided by the spiritual boundary.
“Some relatives said they were proud. I had to end the debate on that. ”
Jarovoi is happy about one thing. About leaving Russia.
“Here, my children grow up to be normal people. To be open and critical. ”
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