Today, 23 February, is the anniversary of the City of Sevastopol cementing it’s course of leaving Ukraine. I personally think that soon this will be a holiday in this City but time will tell.
I have written enough over the last almost four years on Saker’s blog that I don’t think I need to fill most of you in on the events leading up to the 23 February Meeting in Naxhimova Square in City Center that saw the refusal of the local government to accept the coup installed government in Kiev and the appointment of a new interim government for Sevastopol plus the rather pointed subjugation of the local police with SBU being relegated to virtual prisoners in their HQ at the top of Ulitsya Lenina.
However, a number of events led up to that fateful meeting. First, what is now known as the Korsun Massacre wherein 9 bus loads of Krimea and Sevastopol citizens who had been in Kiev protesting against the riots in the central square were tracked during their journey from Kiev to Krimu and stopped in Korsun on 20 February 2014. There they were beaten, many severely, 11 were killed and hastily buried at the roadside. They managed to return to Krim and Sevastopol over the next two days. That massacre, performed right in front of local and not so local police and SBU operatives by Right Sector, galvanized many of the citizens of Sevastopol and Krimea who knew that instant what was in store for this peaceful island and city. I will not post a link to the massacre, it’s pretty gruesome for most of you, but the videos are readily accessible on Youtube.
Second, our Berkut and Militsiya units who had been in Kiev for the duration of the riots and coup, only to be betrayed by the president as he fled and left to their fate with no orders of any kind, arrived in Sevastopol on 22 February, still bearing the grime and smell of Kiev and bringing their wounded with them after fighting their way back home. They were greeted with a hero’s welcome by their families and quite some thousands of Sevastopol citizens. It was patently obvious what they had been through and the fate that awaited Sevastopol if she did nothing. Three days later Berkut went to the barricades at Sevastopol and Krimea borders, armed.
After these two events plus ever increasing vitriol from the new Kiev regime laced with absolutely clear threats to all the citizens of both Sevastopol and Krimu, the citizens of Sevastopol reacted with an in excess of 50,000 citizen spontaneous open air meeting on Naxhimova Square in City Center, directly across the street from City Administration HQ, on 23 February 2014.
The three resolutions passed by the crowd in Russian and English.
1. Currently there has been a coup in Ukraine. The power was seized by Ukrainian nationalists, who immediately began repressing the militia and political opponents.
2. The activities of the Verkhovna Rada are illegitimate – the Sevastopolis do not recognize it. In order to return the situation to the legislative field, we demand that the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of the Party of Regions and the Communist Party of Ukraine act accordingly and leave Verkhovna Rada.
3. To direct the elected city head immediately to proceed to the formation of the city executive committee, detachments supporting the protection of law and order and the creation of the municipal police in order to ensure the normal life of the city.
The above is the short version, here is the long version which covers the main parts of the meeting plus a few events after the meeting.
After this meeting, the fate of Sevastopol and Krimea was sealed. There was a very great number of additional happenings between this meeting and the referendum of 16 March 2014 wherein both entities voted to leave Ukraine, some violent and some deadly leading to our 11 dead from the entire event.
The end result, 18 March 2014, Moskau, Russia.
Now, four years later, peace reigns in our little village of Sevastopol and on the Island of Krimea. We will be away for most of the day, the annual, on this day, celebrations of 23 February 2014 will take place at both Naxhimova Square in City Center and 35th Battery Museum in Kozachka Region. We will be at Battery.
Auslander
I am extremely pleased that Crimea was reunified with Russia, where it belongs. The West went out of it’s way to nullify this, stating that Crimea was “annexed” by Russia, which is absurd. Crimea was indeed annexed, but by Ukraine in 1954 and reunited with Russia in 2014. The West even pronounced the Crimean referendum to be illegal, stating, among other things, that Russian troops in Crimea “forced” Russians to vote for reunification with Russia. Never in my life have I heard anything so completely and utterly absurd, contrary to basic logic. It is ofcourse a different matter that NATO is furious, as it could not grab the Russian Naval Base of Sevastopol. NATO also forgets that in 1999 it attacked the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, made up of Serbia and Montenegro, and invaded the Serbian Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, which it then recognized as “sovereign”. That attack was made without declaration of war.
The West better accept the fact that there is nothing to discuss when Crimea is in question. It’s Russian territory. Period.
B.F.
I must agree that during the 2014 Referendum there were heavily armed Russian guards at our local polling station and the tanks and BTR’s with the hordes of glowering Russian troops were masterfully camouflaged to look like trees and bushes in the school yard of the station.
There were five tough looking young lads lolling around, all with some kind of white armband on that said ‘Opolchensya’ and they had the most dangerous weapon known to mankind….one radio. The lads were local teenagers, members of Opolchensya, the local self defense corp. When possible local teenagers were used by Opolchensya for local neighborhood eyes and ears because these boys know ever back alley, every loose fence board, every rabbit run, every pretty young girl and every dog in the area. Their mothers and grandmothers were not far from them and any transgression they made, which were precisely zero, would have brought the wrath of Grandma on their heads. They stayed minimum 30 meters from the main entrance of the school, just inside of which was the voting area, spoke to no one and just watched the area. Their orders were to keep their eyes open and at any hint of trouble of any kind they were to call in the problem and back off until help arrived.
There was also one armed Militsiyaneer, he must have been every bit of 20, and he did have his service pistol in it’s holster at his side. It had no magazine in it, I notice things like that. He stayed about 15 meters from the entrance and looked pretty miserable in the cold and damp of that day, so much so that the local lovelies kept him supplied with hot tea all day.
To vote here, the rules are quite strict. There is no ‘early voting’, it is your duty to vote on the proper day and that day only. You go in to the voting area, go to the line that has your last name initial on it, and present your internal passport. No internal passport, no vote. Period. All the lines have a copier at the desk and your passport front page with your photo and informations is copied and the page that has your propeeska, your official wet stamped address registration, is copied. If your propeeska is not for that voting station, you are invited to go to the correct station to vote. Period. No argument.
Your name is checked on the voting list and checked off that you voted. You are then handed your paper ballot and directed to the voting booths. If your name is not on the voting list, you don’t vote. It is your duty to make sure you are on the voting lists before the election, not the election committee’s job to chase you down.
For the referendum, it was almost a holiday aura. People were smiling and happy and most did exactly what my charming bride did. When handed her ballot she did not bother to go to the voting booth, she marked the ballot right there at the table, took it to the locked, sealed and guarded (unarmed guard) clear plastic ballot box in the center of the room and, not bothering to fold the ballot, deposited it in the box. Every voter we saw that day, and we went to four other precincts after she voted, did exactly the same, marked the ballot at the registration desk and put in the ballot box without folding it. We went for her to vote after Church that day and we knew just about everyone we saw at the polling station. My wife actually with a big smile held up her marked ballot for all to see, as did each and ever voter we saw at our precinct, to the cheers and applause of our neighbors. After, we went outside where a long table had been set up under shelter, said table bending with cakes, pastries, blinyi, tea and coffee brought by the local women including my bride. Quite the happy day in actual fact. The West can say what they want, reality is the Russian, or any, Army could not have kept the citizens from voting. Period.
V V Putin recommended to ‘nato’ that they not do what they did in Kosovo, that it might set a precedent. They did not listen as we all know and after bombing the heck out of Serbia they took Kosovo and with no vote by the locals made it an ‘independent’ country.
Oddly, ‘nato/us’ did not see the precedent and pilloried Russia for ‘annexing’ Krimea and Sevastopol, two separate entities. As for Krimea and Sevastopol themselves, Krushchov gave the Administration of the two areas to SSSU, not the actual entities, and he did so in violation of quite a number of SSSR laws, some of which are the citizens affected have to vote for such a change, both sides, and before that the idea has to be put to Politburo and Soviet in Moskau and the two affected entities. None of these lawful steps were taken, Krushchov simply did the deed and after the fact went to Politburo for the rubber stamp approval. Ergo, the entire process was illegal and any results after the illegal acts were illegal also.
Sevastopol and Krimea were the goal of the entire maidan debacle. US/nato cared not one whit about Ukraine, the prize was Sevastopol Harbor and the unsinkable aircraft carrier of the Island of Krimea. They failed and have been having daily temper tantrums since. They will never lift the sanctions against either Krimea/Sevastopol or Russia for the events of early 2014.
Auslander
Author
Sevastopol, The Third Defense. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079KRPLS4 Book 1, A Premonition, The Move South
Never The Last One https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZGCY8KK A Deep Look In To Russia, Her Culture And Her Armed Forces
Auslander
Thank you for your reply. I really enjoyed reading it. I am so pleased that Crimea has been reunited with Russia, and I hope that all other Russian historical territories in Ukraine will also be reunited.
Yes, NATO bombed Serbia, but it payed a heavy price (I am Serbian by the way). When the bombing offensive began, NATO assumed the Serbs would immediately surrender. They did not. We shot down 137 NATO aircraft and 25 helicopters, mostly with Russian equipment. Among the aircraft we shot down was one F-117 (seen on TV) and one B-2 (not seen on TV). The Americans still refuse to admit they lost it over Serbia, claiming it crashed in the US. The name of that B-2 is “Spirit of Missouri”.
I have never been to Russia. When I do come, I will certainly visit the Crimea. Greetings.
Slava drug !
My family is Russian Bessarabian (Moldowa) / Kosak.
My greatgrandfather was Montenegro Serb and went to Bessarabia to marry my greatgrandmother.
Again just as my ancestors for 2-300 years did , we have to liberate South Russia,
Malo Rossia, up to the river Pruth and get south Bessarabia back again from bolshevik Chrustschow theft
(same he did with Krim ) . Chiveli !
Wow Auslander I just LOVE to read your articles and responses as your words here in particular describe the kind of co-mm-unity I can only dream of.
Maybe my peasant elders and ancestors in The Netherlands lived in such communities, but yours is alive and functioning today.
Thank You so very much for describing for, and informing all who come to this Vineyard, the dynamics of a Village where every person and child has an interrelated role for the health and good of all: the hands and feet, eyes and ears etc of the Body of Christ.
Blessings on all You do
Babushka
I’ll second the motion!
Fancy living in a community like that.
In Geelong where I reside, and in most urban parts of Australia we are but caged battery hens, let out daily to work (lay eggs) for our masters, very rarely having time and effort to get to know our neighbours; just sit in your cage and work at any job or mostly part-time jobs for the uneducated.
Our children suffer through lack of employment opportunities, and this was recognised thirty years ago by the then Victorian Premier, Joan Kirner, whose response was to keep children at school longer so as to hide the youth unemployment problem.
Our federal government has been collecting taxes to pay for our ‘retirement pension’ since 1947, but our government just couldn’t keep their greedy hands off that money and stole it. Then they decided it was to go, not to those who earned it but rather only those who ‘really needed it’ and then in 1993 the Treasurer decided we needed a ‘private superannuation scheme’ where the bankers could rip us off even more. Now only the destitute are entitled to receive a minimum pension that every worker is still paying for.
So to hear of communities that are still functioning like they should is ‘bloody magic’
May God bless those people and protect them from the gods of Mammon.
“Sevastopol and Krimea were the goal of the entire maidan debacle. US/nato cared not one whit about Ukraine, the prize was Sevastopol Harbor and the unsinkable aircraft carrier of the Island of Krimea. They failed and have been having daily temper tantrums since. They will never lift the sanctions against either Krimea/Sevastopol or Russia for the events of early 2014.”
Excellent summary and a most impressive account of the referendum proper! For the Crimean Russians, NATO most likely was contemplating the heinous Diego Garcia precedent set in the 1960s when the peaceful inhabitants of that island were expelled with utmost callousness and sadist brutality as the US had decided to build its military base there.
I am no foe of Russia, in fact I dont consider myself a foe of anyone. The climate here in Sweden has become more skeptic to what ever is reported from Ukraine. People are increasingly suspicious of the Kiev mafia, which is good. Ukraine is a perfect exsample of democratic rule not functioning. It could have been so easy, recognize the Russian language and minorities rights. It is not difficult, Spain tried with the Catalans, but people will be stupid. However the cessation of Crimea was legal, the Catalans dont have tha’t option. The foking idiots themselves voted themselves out of that right in 1975, with the Spanish new constitution.
The people of Ukraine and Catalonia are like mushrooms : Fed shit and live in the dark.
Was at meeting last week in local offices of Social Democratic party in Sweden: 22 participants, 16 other than Swedish origin, 14 middle east, to nordic. All of these guy’s and gal’s were more fluent than me, despite some had not had residency for 2 years. These people are an asset, a huge asset, doctor and civil engineer among them. And they embraced the Social Democratic idea, all is not lost! We will stem the vile right tide!
Den Lille Abe
There is no way that “democratic rule” can function in Ukraine, as the country was not expected to be democratic, being led by neo-Nazis. The only people permitted to participate in elections were those that participated in the coup d’etat against Yanukovich in 2014. For every one candidate that was accepted, three were refused registration as candidates.
As for Sweden, I sincerely hope that “all is not lost”. I have severe doubts that this is the case.
Hello again B.F
You should come visit me and the party. No no is not lost. Ukraine is a foking mess, we even know that. Atuff Ukraine, failed state, the people will revolt at some time , I hope.
But we are qite peace ful here in Sweden, except gang shootings. Which funnily enough almost involve former Yugoslavs, weird aint it? The Croats and and Serbs have not quite settled differences.
But the mooslims, peacefull, enough.
Den Lille Abe
I am afraid I cannot accept that. Croats and Serbs went to Sweden to make money, not to fight each other. I have yet to hear of one case where they fought each other, and I know people who lived there. Muslims peaceful ? Hmmmm. Look what your own Swedes are writing, on condition you really are a native Swede.
Dear B.F.
It’s funny you should say that. In the 1970’s and 80’s football matches, or what we call soccer matches between the Serbian and Croatians teams were full of hatred and extra police were needed to try and keep the peace; they rarely did. But then that stopped. In about 1998 I visited a factory and the Serbian owner cried that it was they, the Serbians who were the aggressors in the war. I guess he believed our MSM of that time.
But the reality is that I have never heard of the violence or that hatred between these two people that I saw in my youth.
Sorry dude but you are talking absolute nonsense. Same goes for your comment on Serbs and Croats below and your “peaceful yugoslav Muslims”. … my head is spinning when I read such crazy fiction.
Either you’re not from Sweden and never knew any Yugoslavs, or you are just a propaganda bot.
Removed personal disrespect and profanity -MOD.
This “lille abe” writes to much non sense he/she must be som kind of troll (watch out Mod). I am very acquainted with all nordic countries (lived and worked in all 3) and just about every average human being here realizes that crime has increased and is directly correlated to inmigrants by statistics, specially refugees, inmigrants from ME countries, and Afghanistan. I do not want to sound racist but this is the reality. It includes all kinds of crime rapings, gang related shootings, killings, etc. When reporting crime the MSM (specially in Sweden) avoids very often to report ethnicity as a way not to show that governments policy on integration became a failure. Nordic MSM is very “good” in reporting all kinds of negative stuff on Rusia, Putin of course. As a result peoples trust on MSM is diminishing and instead looking for informations on alternative sites like for instance something called Samhällsnytt, Fria tider, etc some of them are rather extreme right oriented but it is all governments fault. They have become the perfect lackeys of the US-NATO maffia and they serve just to their masters not their own people.
Oscar
Yes, what you have written has been confirmed to me by both Norwegians and Swedes. Immigration is destroying Scandinavia, especially Sweden. Norway is in somewhat better shape. In Sweden the elite is obviously under foreign control. And yes, the media in Sweden is concentrating on Russia, as if Putin wants to invade multicultural Sweden run by feminists. Even Russians are laughing at this nonsense.
Well, I doubt that the emperor and its poodles really know the history and the tradition that chernomortsy (Blak Sea Marines) and Sevastopol have in Russia. All they have to do is ask the Germans. I believe that one day, when Kiev makes a stupid move even Odessa will come back to mother Russia/
Anonius
Kiev always conveniently forgets how much Russian land it appropriated during the communist period.
The vicious assassination of Berkut at Maidan by snipers was well-documented by RT Ruptly crews.
The vicious and deadly attack at Korsun was also on RT. I remember the gory video images.
Of course, only the ignorant and brain-massaged would think the reaction across Donbass and Krim should have been to lay down and get slaughtered like the others up North and in Kiev.
The junta split up Ukraine. It broke along old lines that were scotch-taped together by Russian-hating Communists of the USSR. In 1954 the fate of Crimea was sealed. Only time would tell when it would return to Mother. Why? It was 95% Russian and it contained the home of the Black Sea Fleet. Inevitable doesn’t fully describe its destiny.
I want to thank Auslander for this compendium article with documentary videos so we have an archived synopsis of the history, and undeniable truth package of the first days and why they led to Crimea going home to Russia.
Spread the link to the social media so the Truth will squeeze the lies out of the discussion of what happened and why.
Dear Auslander,
23rd February is already an appropriate holiday for Sevastopol and Crimea. It is already День защитника Отечества (Defender of the Fatherland Day) very appropriate for the citizens of both Sevastopol and Crimea.
Стивен.
Steven
Yes, I know. It’s actually a triple day, 100th Anniversary of Red Army, Fourth Anniversary of Russian Spring and Soldier’s Day, IOW Defender of the Fatherland Day. We spent all day at 35th Battery Museum, honoring our veterans of all wars, 7 of whom in attendance are Hero of Soviet Union or Hero of Russia. We honor all of our soldiers including those currently serving. Four sons of those in attendance today are currently deployed and we know all four boys. We also honored, and honor, our fallen.
Us/nato were insane to think that we would not defend against the junta they installed in Kiev, one can only think that us/nato believed, and believe, their own propaganda. They were and are wrong.
Auslander
Author
An Incident On Simonka https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ERKH3IU NATO Is Invited To Leave Sevastopol, One Way Or The Other.
Sevastopol, The Third Defense. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079KRPLS4 Book 1, A Premonition, The Move South
Reuniting Krimea was a strategically wise move from Russia and a humanitarian one, as the people of Krimea were not subjected to the « creative chaos » imposed on banderist Ukraine and Novorussia.
Happy to see the energy, pride and resolve of those people in Sevastopol, may God protect them all!
I am worried regarding the post-Putin era, given that russian ruling classes share a few traits with those from the arab neocolonized space (there is no arab world anymore, just a chaotic space as those ruling the fragmented entities in this space want nothing but reinforcing the « divide et impera » of the anglozionist empire and profiting from it)
God help us all…
A flag you might perhaps recognise Auslander – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3gHcI6l7WI at 8.03
Стивен.
Pls explain!? At 8.03? 8’03”? That’s the end of the video.
It’s actually at 5.07. My apologies.
That is the Sevastopol Flag.
Greetings from Vietnam. The inflight video showed images of VVP. Will have more to report of Russia and Vietnam whwn return home. Cheers all.
Happy anniversary Crimea.
Thanks! Great day was had by all, but a bit tiring! Enjoy Vietnam! It’s snowing here this morning, unheard of in late February. For the last 11 years I’ve been mowing grass by now. Not this year!
Auslander
thanks for this article that is also a reminder of this horror
actually I was aware of the bus accident as it happened
the problem is that the evil empire will not stop here
these ziomonsters need to be stopped violently anything else won’t make sense
wow that first video is really moving – God Bless the Berkuts –
here is a link to that FANTASTIC movie – The Way Home – its subtitles – but its SO GOOD that the subtitles are not a problem –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t42-71RpRgI
You should have been there. Many of them were moved to tears at their welcome home. The Kommandeer’s voice was hoarse from the smoke and fumes plus yelling orders over the noise and mayhem of that last day.
Thanks, great documentary indeed.
Be safe