Taras Boyko: Russian Protestants in the USA also ecame victims of the Kremlin information war against Ukraine

There are no doubts that the Ukrainian events at the Maidan have changed not only our country, but also the position of international society. The tragedy and breakthrough of Ukrainians touched practically all the continents including America.  The director of  the Knygonosha Christian publishing house and organizer of the Kyiv International Festival of Christian book, Taras Boyko, who has just returned from the USA, told us about the American perception of the last revolution and about the local perception of so-called Slavic churches to the Maidan.

How do Americans perceive Ukrainian events? Is there a difference between the perception of Americans and Ukrainian emigrants?

Probably during the last half-year Americans received a hundred times more information about Ukraine than during the 23 years of our independence. They even started to distinguish Ukraine and Russia. That is what now strongly distinguishes the status of Ukraine in the American informational field. In Boston during the transfer to another flight, the security service found in my bag a paving stone from the Maidan, a sort of souvenir. When I explained that it was from Kyiv and asked if they had heard about the events in Ukraine, the officer affirmatively nodded and wished peace for our country. It was pleasant to hear something like that from an unfamiliar American - generally they rarely are interested in things outside of America. But I can’t say it about my American friends. They have been following the events in Ukraine from the first day of the Maidan.

In general, the American media, like Fox,and CBS, gave a fairly objective description of the situation. Concerning our emigrants, it depends on who watches which channels. Russians watch Russian programs which form a corresponding perception. That causes the inability to perceive the situation adequately and generates a lot of problems in relationships with Ukrainians. That often was taking place in Slavic churches –and even led to serious conflicts.

Tell us about such incidents.

- Personally I wasn’t a witness of any conflicts, but I heard a lot about them. There is a big society of Evangelical believers in Sacramento who emigrated in Soviet times, tens of churches. There are Ukrainians, Belarusians and Moldavians – all of them always were finding common ground and living in piece. With the beginning of that informational war, it sometimes happened that after liturgy in the parking lots there were almost fights between Russians and Ukrainians.

On March 25, I and my colleague arrived in Sacramento. We were the first live witnesses of the Ukrainian events. Anton Markov from Kramatorsk and I from Kyiv were at the Maidan from the first day. My brother, in whose house we stayed, at once called to the hosts of a few local radio shows, and they just pulled us onto the programs. There were four interviews for local Slavic and American newspapers.

It should be noted that Americans are very worried about that conflict. The Slavic community in America is very big and the armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia creates a high probability of conflicts on an international level and inside the USA. The sheriff of Sacramento (that is the capital of California) specially assembled all the heads of the local Slavic churches to prevent the development of conflicts.

Besides interviews, in a few churches after liturgy I was asked to speak about  the Maidan. I spoke about the role of Christians and about the fact that there were active representatives of probably all the churches of Kyiv and dozens from the entire country. Many emigrants perceive the Maidan as a mutiny against “legitimate” power,  that is to say a mutiny against God. But the discussions on that theme with emigrants from the Soviet Union usually finished with a question “So can the American war for independence also be considered a mutiny? Escaping from the Soviet government, “which was established by God”, you live in a country, for which you and your ancestors did nothing to make its welfare, but despite that you normally use all the results of that mutiny.  Now, when your countrymen revolt against violence and total corruption and they want to live in a normal legal state, you call it mutiny, and that means sin.”  The majority of times, after that question the discussion was stopped.

When you spoke about the Maidan, did they change their perception, did they find out something new for themselves?

- On average, Ukrainians don’t relate to Russians with aggression; we don’t see them as enemies, understanding that the evaluation of Ukrainian events which was formed in Russian society is the result of a propaganda war which unfortunately our country lost. Ukrainians understand that Russia isn’t Putin. Speaking about the source of the conflict we have in mind just one place – Moscow, the Kremlin. It was the major thought, which I wanted to tell our Russian brothers.  A lot asked about how Ukrainian pastors perceived the events.

People aren’t orientated in chronology. They don’t understand what was happening, when and why. In many people’s perception, there is a fixation on stories with “Molotov cocktails”, burning Security forces, shooting and black smoke from tires. But very few people even knew that before that there were two months of the gathering of many thousands of people, not to mention about the “dictatorial laws”, which became the detonator of the explosion at Hrushevskyy street.

I also said that for Ukrainian Christians the necessity of being at the Maidan was obvious. Because the church shouldn’t be isolated from the society, its place is where people are. Moreover, the Maidan gathered to obtain the truth, and who, if not Christians, should talk about the Truth? I spoke about priests, who stood between the army and radicals, about 100,000 Gospels of John, which were spread between protesters during one month, about prayer tents, that each hour during three months the “Our Father” sounded from the scene and that there were liturgies. For believers, these facts were serious arguments from the spiritual point of view in evaluating the events. I hope I managed to help somebody to understand all the intricacies of Ukrainian reality.

However we saw that in some of Slavic churches it was accepted as a rule generally not to talk about Ukraine. One time we stayed at one family, where we were asked not to talk on that theme.

Even at home?

Even at home. They had been steeped in propaganda to the limit. Ostensibly they realized that everything wasn’t so one-sided, but they didn’t want to burden themselves with alternative information. Their position was that all both the Russian and Ukrainian Media lied and they can’t recognize the truth anyway. It was their point of view.

Also in America "a conspiracy theory" and others secret ideas are popular enough. But what really surprised me was understanding that many Russian emigrants are in fact "the fifth column" at the States. They are people, who moved into another country, use all its blessings, but honestly disdain that country.

Then why do they stay there?

I also asked that question. The answer is practically the same all the time: "We have nothing there. We moved away in Soviet times. We have no place to return." At the same time America is evil, they are masons, they need war, they organized  the Maidan. It is not hard to understand where such information is taken — it is the effect of Russian TV. I guess that the FBI will be interested in the Russian diaspora in the context of its connection with terrorism. I see the thinking of these people; they are ready material for subversion inside the country – they have citizenship, they know the language but their hearts are in Putin’s hands.

Now what is the situation in American churches? Are they separated on the ethnic principle? What was the reaction to Ukrainian events? How was the emergence of priests on the frontline perceived?

Most Slavic evangelical churches at the States are divided by national identity. It is connected to the language of sermons and the translation of the Bible. These churches are divided not just because of some theological and doctrinal differences but also because of subculture and formal features. If that church is Ukrainian, then they, at least, pray for peace and for stopping the bloodshed.

In Russian churches, people tried not to speak about that during the liturgy. In one of those churches I heard people speaking up very negatively about Ukrainian events. “Banderivtsi” and “Pravyy sector” – that is the rhetoric of the Russian media. During the liturgy, everyone was pretending that nothing had happened. It is better not to speak about that because it is a sad theme.

After two months, we returned to Sacramento. It was calmer in May; everything became much clearer and the temperature dropped. These are for red, those are for white. The clarification of the relationships was practically finished.

Do people in churches continue to pray for peace?

Yes, they pray in churches constantly. They give the financial help and clothes. They told us that they had sent a lot of boxes with stuff to the Maidan. But a lot of people are baffled.

How do you see that?

How can I explain? In use the expression of my old friend who has lived in the USA around 20 years, America is a country where people come to become horses. Citizens of America devote 70 % of their non-sleeping time to work. And whatever qualification and specialization you have, you will gain enough money to live as good as few entrepreneurs lives in Ukraine, to say nothing about government employees or workmen. Their life goes on in a very stable rhythm. And when you look at Ukraine from the side of American stability and comfort, your perspective changes. However, there was nothing like that in Ukraine, and with the beginning of the Maidan the situation came into a critical phase. But we, citizens of Ukraine, take that for granted and take part in creating the future of our country even with the price of those victims. And being at the Maidan in the epicenter of the events, our perception of Ukraine was being formed from individuals to society, bottom-up. People began to understand the role of individuals in the history of a big country, their personal role.

But when you try to understand what is happening remotely without having information ”at first hand" and without taking part in those events, you make an analysis from the general to the personal. That means that you seem to be objective, since you receive news and analytic from different sources, but how to apply all that to yourself, what your role is in these processes, for most of Ukrainian emigrants, I guess, was completely undetermined. 

They guess that big politics is directing everything and they can't have an influence on that; separately an individual person means nothing,  since everything is being decided by someone whom they can't influence. And that obviously gives birth to uncertainty and fear. But even if that is true we shouldn't forget that all is in God's hands. And even if his plans can be obvious for someone, the Bible often shows us that God has changed his plans about people many times. Why? Maybe because a human that was given free choice by the Creator in one moment changed himself, recovered his sight or changed his way.

Exactly that is happening now in Ukraine. People started understanding the necessity for concrete persons to take part in the life of society. Americans had understood it long time ago and even had time to forget it. So what is civil society for Americans? They live in it, but don't understand its  essence. For emigrants it is a fine country after the Soviet Unon, but with what principles it was formed - no one analyses that. They will pray and help with funds, but I would call it philistine patriotism.

- And there was no person, who would come to Ukraine to see all personally?

- During the Maidan events, I didn't meet anyone of "our" Americans who would specially come to Kyiv, but I knew about some visits from Facebook. And just two days ago, I met one monk who came to Kyiv on business last year in October and after the beginning of the Maidan he returned his ticket and remained there. Now he is a missionary. That shows us one more time how important a source of receiving information is. 

- Tell us about the souvenirs which you were taking from Kyiv. What were they? 

- They were magnets, flags and ribbons bought at the Maidan, but the most valuable was a cobblestone black from burning tires. I took a few cobblestones from Kyiv for my friends. The presents were accepted with pleasure and that compensated for the overweight of my baggage. 

- How do people at the States perceive the prospects for  the resolution of the events? Now what they are waiting for?

-If our compatriots in America are worried about Ukraine’s future, they are worried about that less than we who live here. They moved away and don't return, which means that their roots are now there; they link their future and the future of their children to America.

-Time will show if somebody is ready like my new pal to leave his life across the ocean and return to Ukraine to give "body and soul" for our independence. But I know that many people are disappointed with the results of Yushchenko's presidency and think that it it impossible to cleanse that “Cossack swamp” without the intervention of God. But I guess that nobody will disagree with that.