Letter from Crimea: Bitter divide laid bare by old soldier’s fireside tale

“There were these young men, sitting in a bar, loud, drinking and laughing. One of them said, ‘We are unlucky; if our stupid grandfathers had not won the war we would be drinking good German beer instead of this piss.’ Then they laughed again, can you imagine?” Nicolai Bogoluyvov shook his head, the recollection from the visit to Kiev still making him visibly angry.

He had served in the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan and had the campaign medals on his dusty brown overcoat to prove it. His father had been wounded fighting Hitler, an uncle died in the advance to Berlin. Late last night the former artillery sergeant was haunched beside a fire, in the field outside a Ukrainian army base, in support of Russian troops seeking to disarm the garrison inside.

The stand-off at Perevalne had drawn crowds yesterday from both sides of the bitter divide in Crimea — the majority of whose population, of Russian extraction, are expected to vote in a referendum for secession from Ukraine, paving the way for rule by Moscow. Heated arguments and a few scuffles had taken place, without interference from the Russian and Ukrainian soldiers outside and inside the gates. Now a handful of opposing protesters were left, separated by the road into the base, and very different views on Ukraine’s place in the world.

Those showing solidarity with the soldiers inside were a mixed group of women and men and two priests. The clerics, from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, stressed they desperately hoped for peace; their voices in prayer floated across to the Russian supporters, almost all of them men.

Some of these did not look much different from rednecks in America, florid-faced, tattooed, beer bellies hanging over their jeans and combat trousers. Instead of castigating “pinkoes and commies and the media” their grouse was against “Nazis and fascists and the media”.

The complaint here was that the views of those who wanted to unite with Russia were being ignored, while the “criminals of the Maidan”, Kiev’s Independence Square and the centre of protests that overthrew Viktor Yanukovych, were being lauded as heroes. There is indeed an argument that views of Russian speakers have not been adequately expressed in the international press. Some of those beside the fire were too drunk and bellicose to do so last night; but they quietened down when the old soldier, Mr Bogoluyvov, told them to do so.

He was keen to remind the West of what was at stake: “Maybe people in London and Paris have also forgotten about the fight against the Nazis; but you still need Russia for Syria, there’ll be no settlement, peace, in Syria without us.” Another man, engineer Vladimir Churkin, suggested loudly that people should go and join Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to beat al Qaeda. “America and Britain made a big mistake supporting them in Afghanistan, they are making a big mistake supporting them in Syria, and now they are supporting the fascists in the Maidan and the Muslim extremists right here,” he said. This last reference was to the Crimean Tatars, who oppose joining Moscow.

Speaking later, Father Ivan, parish priest of St Mary Pakrova Savatoi by the garrison gate, said there was little evidence of radicalisation in the Tatar community: “But it is easy in this atmosphere to say your opponents are devils. Then ugly words turn into ugly action, that is what we fear.”