ODESSA, Ukraine -- Odessa, the Black Sea city of one million people noted for its seaside holidays and distinctive sense of humor, is deep in mourning this week as funerals take place for the 46 people killed in street fights and a fatal fire on May 2.
Odessans pride themselves on tolerance of different viewpoints and their
ability to come to an agreement on just about anything.
But those qualities
were little in evidence on May 2, when what was supposed to be a peaceful march
of football fans in support of a united Ukraine turned into an hours-long
street battle that ended when the Trade Unions House as set on fire with
hundreds of anti-Ukrainian government demonstrators inside. Thirty-six people died
of smoke inhalation and burns, or when they jumped from the windows.
Who or what
exactly caused the fire, and why those inside were unable to escape, remains
unclear. But in the aftermath, one unhappy question can be heard everywhere:
How could this have happened in our city?
At the
funeral today of 26-year-old Andrei Brazhevsky, a large memorial sign said that
he was “killed by neo-Nazis.”
Computer programmer Brazhevsky had been a
supporter of communism, said work colleagues at the funeral, but they could not
believe he was an extremist, remembering him instead as thoughtful and
passionate about justice.
Relatives
said they had phoned Brazhevsky on the afternoon of May 2 begging him to leave
Kolykova field, but he refused. He died jumping from a window of the burning
building.
Speeches swiftly turned political, as friends and relatives called on people
not to vote in the May 25 presidential elections, or said that Odessa should
fight “like Sloviansk” (the Donetsk Oblast city held by armed rebels) to oppose the
Ukrainian government and fascists. “They say Odessans are patient,’ said one
man. “I say we’re cowards.” Several anti-government protesters who were also in
the burning building attended the funeral.
At another
funeral at the House of Officers, former military officer Alexander Sadovnichy
died fighting fascism, said his former classmate Maria Modestova.
“He was
from a military family,” she said. “His whole family had been through wars; the
first world war, the second world war, and their first words were always – let
there be no war. They all hated fascism, and Alexander hated fascism too. He
died so there would be no fascism in Ukraine.”
Sadovnichy,
born in 1954, was a frequent visitor to the anti-government protest camp that
had stood outside the Trade Unions House on Kolykova field for two months
before an angry crowd dismantled it on May 2.
“I was also
there a few times. People are saying they were terrorists there but it’s not
true,” said Alexander Boyko, a friend of Sadovnichy’s son. “It was just people
standing up for their rights. They didn’t support the Kyiv government and
thought it was illegitimate, they thought it was wrong to join the EU because
we’re Slavs and Russians are our brothers.”
Vera
Rudakova-Grizlo, another of Sadovnichy’s classmates from when they studied together
in school in Tiraspol, had come from Tiraspol for his funeral. Tiraspol is now
in Transnistria, the Kremlin-backed breakaway republic that supports Russia.
The Ukrainian
authorities have said that some of those who died in the fire were from Russia
or Transnistria and had come to Odessa to instigate the violence.
Sadovnichy, however, had lived in Odessa for more than 20 years.
Rudakova-Grizlo
said that many more classmates would have come from Tiraspol for the funeral
but that men with Russian passports were unable to cross the border into
Ukraine, so she had come alone. We’re all one big nation,” she said. “Russians,
Ukrainians, Belarusians, even in Transnistria.”
At both
funerals, people were united in the belief that the May 2 violence had been
instigated from outside– although who by was not so clear.
“It was a
seriously planned provocation,” said Modestova. “Odessa had nothing to with it. Odessans are kind people who
help each other.”
And despite
the anti-Ukrainian government stance of victims of the May 2 violence,
there were signs that Odessa’s traditional tolerance of multi-faceted points of
view has not quite disappeared.
Brazhevsky was buried with a St George’s ribbon around his shoulders and a red Communist flag over his coffin.
Meawnhile, at
Sadovnichy’s military funeral, officers walked in front of his coffin with the
Ukrainian flag.
Editor’s Note: This article has been produced with support from the project www.mymedia.org.ua, financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, and implemented by a joint venture between NIRAS and BBC Media Action.The content in this article may not necessarily reflect the views of the Danish government, NIRAS and BBC Action Media.
