The “Russian Spring” came to the frontline town of Toretsk in Donetsk Oblast already in the winter of 2014. (Before the Ukrainian de-communisation laws of 2016, the town was still called Dzerzhinsk, in honour of the founder of the Soviet secret service, Felix Dzerzhinskiy). Instructed by agitators from across the border, residents of the city and of surrounding towns proclaimed from a stage on the central square “the benefits of separation of Donbas from Ukraine” about the “evil banderovtsi” and about “the illegal government in Kyiv”. Although at this point there was no shooting yet, the line between war and peace was beginning to grow thinner and thinner.
At the beginning
In the spring of 2014 the media first started to speak about the inhabitants of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts who were “calling for the war to start”. There were a couple of factors behind these dangerous tendencies. Russian media were drawing a convincing picture of a “turnout of the millions” for the so called referendum on May 11, 2014. Unfortunately, a number of Ukrainian media also helped to spread this story without going to the region and checking on the alleged millions of people lining up to vote. How else could one understand why, without being hindered, citizens of a neighbouring country could openly call for a violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine?
The factories and mines around which Toretsk was once built are all somehow connected to coal mining. The organizers of the “Russian spring” in Toretsk relied heavily on the miners or more generally on the workers of state-run industries. The demonstrations under the slogan “lets separate Donbas” needed some critical mass. The author witnessed how it was gathered out of budzhetniki, workers paid out of the state budget, with the help of trade unions.
Already in April 2014, during such a demonstration, the Russian tricolour was ceremonially raised above the city’s central square. On the internet, there are hundreds of pictures of a cheering mass that lines up to kiss the Russian flag. A collective “A-a-a-a-kh” carried through the crowd on the central square in this moment. Some people started to applaud, but the majority was frightened.
One irritated woman standing next to me was thinking out loud,
“what’s Russia got to do with it? Was it ever good there when you went to earn money, eh? They think we are not even people here.”
This is how the “Russian Spring” began in Toretsk.
The “Referendum”: who voted how and for what
Many of the city’s residents to the very day of the “referendum” did not fully understand what they were asked to decide about. People came to the newspaper where I worked at the time to find out what was going on, how it would be best to react and what could be expected from the future. Nobody had clear answers.
The citizens of Toretsk could not, by themselves, resist the occupation of the city. And the inaction of the police shattered whatever little hope there was left. Someone tried to express their opinion about an “independent Donbas” by throwing eggs at one of the “polling stations”. The commanders of the “DPR” were quick to declare the incident a “terrorist attack”.
Of the 46 polling stations for the “referendum” on May 11, 2014, only 14 were open. The municipal administration refused to hand over the voters registers to the “commanders of the DPR”. Eventually, everyone who had voted was registered by copying their names into a list by hand.
I can remember the reports about the long waiting lines on that day. One could get the impression that only the lazy did not come to vote. In fact, these long queues appeared only for a short time. In every polling station there was a jostle for half an hour or so after which calmed down again.
For comparison: Usually elections in the 46 polling stations of Toretsk last from 8 am to 8 pm, during which time the crowd of voters hardly ever thins out and the members of the election commission struggle to enable everyone to cast their votes. During the “referendum”, already around 3pm all the 14 polling stations were empty. This is already taking into account the pressure of round-the-clock agitation.
In one of the polling stations, just after midday, I encountered the following situation: The “commission members”, realizing that there were disastrously few voters, filled in the “ballot papers” in a feverish rush in the name of some of their acquaintances. The ballot papers were spat out by a printer right on the spot. The “members of the commission” needed to hand in impressive lists. According to one of the “chairmen” of such a commission, the length of that list had a direct impact on the remuneration of the “services” of those who had agreed to help create an “independent Donbas”.
There was also another way of voting: someone would bring in orderly stacks of other people’s passports. The personal data in them was then copied into a voter’s list and the “commission members” filled in the ballot paper right away and without even trying to hide it. Among the voters there were also minors, some teenagers too young to have a passport.
“Well, even if they are not yet 16 but in their soul they feel an urge to vote, how could we not let them?” one “chairwoman” explained.
“We tried to believe in a miracle” – Toretsk citizens looking back
At its fourth anniversary Toretsk inhabitants share some memories about the time of the referendum (for their safety their names have been changed). Although their opinions widely differ, they are all united by their common desire for peace in their city that now already four years has survived in immediate proximity to the contact line.
Dariya, teacher:
“We tried to believe in a miracle. We thought Kyiv will make some courageous decisions and finally drive this scum out of Donbas. But nothing happened, and I think everything became only worse. I find it difficult to believe in anything right now.”
Anna, seamstress:
“I love my city and I am just frightened by what is going on, that we have become so afraid of each other, so alienated from one another. Before the war we didn’t even care so much who held which views and I think we lived not so badly then.”
Sergey, miner:
“I remember everything very well: how they called us to the checkpoints, how they demanded that we flood the mine and grab a gun, how they frightened us with the “bandervotsi” that would come here and kill our grandfathers, our wives and children. Now it is easy to put the blame on us, but where were all these smartasses back then? It is very hard to explain to someone, who has not gone through war, how it feels if the world around you starts changing rapidly and you no longer understand what is going on.”
Evgeniy, construction worker:
“I look at what is going on in Ukraine now, all that chaos and strife, how badly they treat the displaced people, how they look at the inhabitants of Donbas as traitors… It makes me really angry. I hate this government. I can see however, that the ‘DNR’ is no solution either. These ones here are nothing really and those over there are for Russia, which I don’t need at all. You know, we only want peace, we no longer want to hear these explosions”.
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The Secretariat of the Coalition «Justice for Peace in Donbas»
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