Paweł Pieniążek - Greetings from Novorossiya - Eyewitness to the War in Ukraine

MAY 11, 2014. Some residents of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions decided to participate in the referendum. Its purpose is to “officially” bring into being two parastates: the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic. Everything seems quiet and the voting is not interrupted by any incidents. However, when you go to the State Regional Administration occupied by the separatists and the Central Electoral Commission that they have established, you will understand that this peace is not completely spontaneous. Order is maintained by armed men, who seem to have multiplied since March. They don’t tolerate any opposition. Therefore, those who don’t vote stay at home or pack their bags to move to a more peaceful location.

“You must have a lot of confidence to defend the Ukrainian state,” a lady journalist tells me. She is right. Although separatists were in the minority, nobody stands in their way. It is probable that no one would have interfered with the referendum, even if its champions had not been armed. Since the fall of the Yanukovych regime, the Ukrainian state has not existed in Donbas.

People are queuing up in front of the very few polling stations. These are Donetsk residents who want to take part in the referendum. What will happen next?

“I don’t know,” replies almost every single person I ask. For many of them it is simply an opportunity to express their disagreement with Kiev’s politics, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they want their regions to separate from Ukraine. They often talk about federalization, but in fact they would be happy with simple decentralization. They claim they want a stronger say in electing the authorities and that the referendum is a means to achieve this. And what about Russia?

“Those who want to join Russia must have been paid off,” says seventy-five-year-old Natalya on her way to the polling station to vote for the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic. Among the people who have already voted or are about to do so, there are some who believe that their choice is a step toward Russia. I hear this from quite a few Donetsk residents.

Up to the beginning of May it was not obvious if the referendum would take place at the appointed time. Its fate was uncertain until the very end, although it had been planned at the beginning of the pro-Russian events in Donbas. Even in mid-April the Communist Anatoly Khmelovy from Slovyansk maintained that there would be only one question: about federalization. Then it was said that the referendum would be about regional independence. At another point I heard there would be three questions: about independence, about joining Russia, and about remaining in Ukraine. In Donetsk there were rumors about two referenda. The former was to be about independence, the latter about joining Russia. In the end this project was abandoned.

“Here everybody wants to be part of Russia. This is one of the main slogans raised during the marches,” explains Myroslav Rudenko a few days after the referendum. He represents the self-proclaimed authorities and walks around in a T-shirt with the image of the “people’s governor” Pavel Gubarev on it. It’s true that you could hear this expression quite often during the demonstrations. But only a marginal group among the Donbas residents participated in the protests. After talking to them for a moment I realized that only a few of them actually wanted to become Russian citizens. Yet to the unrecognized authorities this is irrelevant, as is the Kremlin’s lack of full enthusiasm for incorporating Novorossiya into the Russian Federation.

The separatists instantly rejected Kiev’s proposal to organize an all-Ukrainian referendum on federalization. (According to Ukrainian law, a referendum can only be held on a nationwide basis.) In the beginning of April the Ukrainian Center for Public Opinion Research (Rejtinh) conducted a survey in which Ukrainian citizens (including residents of Crimea) were asked what kind of state Ukraine should be. The results: 64 percent of respondents opted for a unitary state, 14 percent supported federalization, 10 percent wanted a unitary state but without Crimea, and only 1 percent wished for Ukraine to break up into several states. In Eastern Ukraine the results were, respectively, 45 percent, 26 percent, 8 percent, and 4 percent. The research sample consisted of twelve hundred people. Later research can’t be treated seriously because the territories controlled by separatists were not included.

When at seven in the morning I walk to the polling station to watch the referendum, streets in Donetsk are almost empty, as they usually are on a Sunday. Apart from occasional trolleybuses moving at a snail’s pace, I don’t see any vehicles or people. The sun is rising slowly, heralding a pleasant day. When I arrive at the location it is a quarter to eight. All stations will open in fifteen minutes. This one, like many others, is situated in a primary school. People are gathering. Right now, there are twenty, but newcomers keep arriving.

Olha is among them. She is a doctor, about forty. “I couldn’t sleep. I was so eager for this vote,” she explains, excited. She claims that all her relatives and friends will take part in the referendum. Why? “Nobody wants to live with fascists.” That’s how she describes the advocates of a united Ukraine.

This opinion is shared by Valentina, Olha’s neighbor, who is a little older. She can’t say that her entire family is going to vote. Valentina’s relatives don’t live in Donetsk but in Kiev, and what is worse, they support the “fascists.”

“I don’t want to know them anymore, I have broken all contact,” she says frankly. Valentina’s behavior is not unusual. No Ukrainian conflict has ever shaken society as this one has. Many people like Valentina declare they will never speak with their relatives again because there is nothing to talk about. The proponents of a united Ukraine act in a similar manner. They don’t want to deal with those who take the Russian side. The champions of the Donetsk People’s Republic are nicknamed “the zombified,” which means made totally stupid by Russian propaganda. There are instances in which after a few months of silence somebody’s uncle or aunt calls from Crimea, Rostov, or the vicinity of Moscow. They have simply packed up and left, without notifying anybody. They believe that in Russia and in occupied Crimea war will not happen.

At eight o’clock the station is still closed because two thousand ballots are not there yet. “They are coming,” explains Larisa, a member of the polling commission. She assures me that there is nothing to worry about because the commission is very experienced. Its members have been participating in elections organized by the Ukrainian state for many years. In fact, at first glance everything looks as if official elections are taking place, except for the missing ballots and the lack of Ukrainian state symbols in the polling station. When the delayed ballots finally arrive, the commission members start counting them immediately. They do it very quickly and the voting may begin.

Two see-through ballot boxes stand in the middle of the room. Such are always used in Ukraine to make elections more transparent. Because of this, however, people are under more pressure since it is very easy to see if a voter made the “correct” choice. The official forms for authenticating the vote—the protocols—have been dropped in the ballot boxes, then the boxes have been secured. On the right side there are voting booths where you can tranquilly answer a rather awkwardly phrased question: “Do you support the independence act of the Donetsk People’s Republic?” The commission’s tables are behind the booths. There you can find your address and get a ballot.