On November 21, 2013, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Independent Tatarstan in exile for sports and representative of the Free Idel-Ural movement in Poland Nafis Kashapov, who lived in Ukraine in 2013, was also an active participant in Euromaidan. He was in the team of the thirty-eighth hundred, the late Dmitry Tymchuk – colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a military and political journalist and deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. It was a group of “Information Resistance to the Putin Regime,” where most of the participants were from the city of Lviv. Nafis Kashapov wrote more than thirty posters dedicated to Euromaidan and the freedom of Ukraine. Even then, having extensive experience in rallies and pickets previously held against the Putin regime and in defence of the rights of the Tatar people, Nafis Kashapov quickly found a suitable place among the entire Maidan territory for posters that spoke for themselves.
From the memoirs of Nafis Kashapov:
“On different days, different numbers of protesters gathered. It was an almost million-strong crowd of freedom-loving people who were not afraid to fight for their rights and for their future. Some of the brightest orators speaking near me were the Klitschko brothers, Alfiya Shevchenko and Joseph Zissels – a member of the Ukrainian-Helsinki Group. Joseph Zissels, addressing the Jewish community of Russia, urged them not to succumb to the Putin regime, his slogan was: “For democracy! For the European Union!”
In those days, Russian propaganda was working hard against Euromaidan and tried in every possible way to discredit both the Euromaidan participants and the very idea of Euromaidan. They tried to intimidate the “non-Ukrainian” Maidan participants by saying that supposedly Russian-speaking people on the territory of Euromaidan were being beaten and even killed. But I, an ethnic Tatar, as an example of a Russian-speaking person, no matter how much I spoke Russian, never once experienced not only violence but even reproach. Moreover, the people of Ukraine supported the Maidan participants – they brought food, hot coffee and tea.
Also, one of the Russian fakes was that Maidan participants allegedly received money for their protests. Russia is used to judging others by itself! Some Euromaidan participants, who were not at home for two or three weeks, even ran out of cigarettes. What external financing are we even talking about ?!
Journalists from various countries were present at the Maidan. I also fell under their lens and pen. They asked me: “What do you think about Euromaidan?” I said that “Maidan is the collapse of Russia!” And that Putin’s imperial Russia will never let go of Ukraine in peace and it may be that Russia will even attack freedom-loving Ukraine and the multinational Ukrainian people ” Many of those present agreed with this opinion, but there were also those who did not agree with my opinion, arguing that Ukraine and Russia are Slavic nations and supposedly because of this Russia will not dare to attack the fraternal nation.
After my two months of protests at Euromaidan, I received information that Russian intelligence services were watching me and the option of my physical liquidation could not be ruled out.
For the sake of my personal safety, I was forced to stop my Euromaidan protests in Ukraine and leave for Poland. I chose Poland because I considered it the most hostile state towards Putin’s imperial Russia. I needed space to continue my fight against the Putin regime. And so it happened! On the fifth day of my stay in Poland, I went to a picket with three posters in front of the Russian embassy in Warsaw.
At Maidan in Ukraine, we protested together with Georgians, Azerbaijanis and Crimean Tatars. Crimean Tatars prepared pilaf and treated absolutely all Euromaidan participants. Many thanks to them for this!
One of my close friends was Vitya Zhuravlev (crane) – a good person and a sympathetic friend. After a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the “Russians” killed him just like that. He was neither a military man nor a partisan, he was an ordinary civilian.
The true essence of the Russian empire, after a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is increasingly being revealed, both for all countries of the civilized world and for individual politicians, who tried right until the last moment to negotiate agreement and democracy with the Evil Empire.
At Euromaidan, I also called on my fellow Tatars, the peoples of the Volga region, the Urals and the Caucasus to act in the same way as the Ukrainians are doing today. That is, to organize ourselves, not to be afraid of anything or anyone, and to effectively help each other. Self-organization, self-defence and mutual assistance should become our main slogans and at the same time – a means of liberating people from dictatorship!
For me, Euromaidan became an example of the fierce struggle of Ukrainian citizens on the path to a new democratic state, on the path to the European Union! Only together and united, by uniting our forces, will we defeat the prison of the nations of Russia and liberate all the nations who to this day suffer from its evil!”
From the memoirs of Nafis Kashapov about the events of the “Revolution of Dignity” on 21 November 2013.
Interlocutor: Aida Abdrakhmanova is a member of the Government of Independent Tatarstan in exile and a member of the League of Free Nations.
