Today marks three years since the day when journalist, editor-in-chief of the online publication "Ukrainska Pravda," Heorhiy Gongadze, mysteriously disappeared. I am ready to agree with many politicians and other people not far removed from Ukrainian politics that this tragedy changed Ukrainian society. But the question is different. How do these changes manifest? How did they influence modern Ukrainian history? Has this tragedy become a motive for some actions in Ukrainian politics and journalism, or is it simply one of the moments in our semi-tragic history that should be forgotten as quickly as possible? I will try to give answers to these questions from the point of view of a Ukrainian who cares about what is happening in his own state.
Since the earliest times, the development of the Ukrainian state proceeded in such a way that one constantly had to fight for this state. I will not list all the historical facts of such a sinusoidal development. But finally, at the end of the 20th century, Ukrainians received their own independent state, whose existence, it seemed, was not threatened by any external factors. At the same time, an internal threat to Ukrainian statehood appeared. The leadership that remained in power, it seems, set itself the goal of destroying what remained of Ukraine and the Ukrainian nation after the 70-year Soviet regime.
The deep economic crisis, of course, did not contribute to the unification of the nation. The three components of any state: power, business, and, properly speaking, society — more closely resembled the swan, the crayfish, and the pike, which moved in different directions. A large state in the center of Europe at the end of the 20th century resembled an underdeveloped country of Latin America at the beginning of the 20th century with all the existing attributes of the "period of primitive accumulation of capital." And, as is known, the attributes of such a period are total corruption, contract killings, the absence of freedom of speech and free elections. In the Ukrainian case, total indifference of the people to their future and the sheer demagogy of the authorities, who constantly tried to pass off wishful thinking as reality, were added to this list.
I did not want to name the names of politicians, but attentive readers will read them between the lines. It seems that after the 1999 presidential elections, the situation in Ukraine began to inspire some optimism. Europe and the United States looked upon us favorably, manifestations of freedom of speech were beginning to appear, and even the 1999 elections could not be called undemocratic and non-transparent, although the result was predicted in advance.
But, never having gotten on its feet, Ukraine, or more precisely the Ukrainian authorities, showed its true face. Already after three years one can assert that September 16, 2000 became a day of public shame for the Ukrainian authorities. Journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, who dared to publicly criticize the current authorities, was simply deprived of his life. Under other circumstances, this murder could be interpreted differently, but in a country that considers itself democratic, the authorities should not have "shifted the blame," but instead quickly found the murderers and those who ordered the crime. But for three years we have been observing inept statements about solving this crime and attempts to wash the authorities clean of the stains of the innocent journalist's blood.
The consequences of this crime became simply catastrophic for these authorities. The appearance of the Melnychenko tapes, the "chain mail" scandal, the drop in the level of trust in the authorities to the lowest level, and as a finale, the political reform, which has already taken a year of Ukrainian politicians' lives and which is called upon to preserve this power for an unlimited term.
It is worth criticizing also the actions of certain politicians who decided to earn political dividends from a person's death and who for three years have been exploiting this topic as a trump card in the struggle against the authorities (or for power). They tried to bring the people out into the streets, but the results are also known to us. The following question arises: Do we have a completely indifferent people, or do we have inept politicians? It seems to me that one can answer both parts of the question affirmatively. So today another wave of small-scale rallies will roll across the country, but their result has long been known: local politicians will remind everyone of their existence, once again call for a change of power, the authorities in turn will again quietly laugh at such an opposition, the mass media will merely mention the anniversary of their colleague's death, but, as always, will not give an assessment to those who should have long ago solved and closed this case, and the people will continue to not give a damn about everything...
And the conclusions:
for the authorities — solve this high-profile crime, name the real masterminds, and you will cleanse yourselves before your own people and the international community;
for the journalistic fraternity — find the strength within yourselves not to remain silent, but to objectively cover all events related to the investigation of your colleague's death, because no one wants to be next;
for politicians — do not speculate on someone else's death and do not try to bring people out into the street, work within the environment of the intelligentsia, develop a real program for Ukraine's exit from this abyss and implement it in life;
for the people — do not be indifferent, because in 10 years there have become 4 million fewer of us.
And I will allow myself to suggest that a true Ukrainian, Heorhiy Gongadze, least of all wanted the case he initiated to be put on hold.