 Igor Zahrebelny was born on May 26th 1988. Igor studied at the Poltava Pedagogical University (History Department) and is currently writing a PhD thesis. He has been an active participant of the nationalist movement since his teens and due to his revolutionary activity was sued at law twice. He spent 9 months in prison for setting fire to the Communist Party office. Igor is a participant of the revolutionary events that have taken place in Kyiv. He is also taking part in the war in the East of Ukraine. He is one of the most popular conservative-revolutionary writers of the present time and the author of "Nationalism vs Modern" in particular. The book is dedicated to Dmytro Dontsov, the classic of Ukrainian nationalism.
1. Media says that "pro-Western" forces have won the parliamentary elections. What is your opinion about this?
Pro-Western nature is far from being the main feature of the forces you have mentioned. First of all, they are transmitters of the liberal paradigm and representatives of the oligarch clans. Of course, they are mostly focused on the West but these people are not anti-Russian for sure. For example, the current president Petro Poroshenko is pursuing a capitulatory policy towards Russia. At the same time, he is having business in Russia. The same story is with the previous president Victor Yanukovych. He was not fully pro-Russian. The fact that oligarchic forces gained victory is a predictable consequence. They have spent dozens of millions of dollars for the pre-election propaganda. They are controlling mass media. They could not but win the election race. There was no other way for them!
2. Is it a failure for Ukrainian nationalists?
Not really. This is a tactical defeat only. Of course, it would be nice to have a fraction in the parliament but it’s a naïve way to think that nationalists could have gained absolute victory in the elections. Revolutionaries do not win during the parliamentary elections. The only way for them to win is to gain complete victory of Revolution.
3. Why didn’t the nationalist Party “Svoboda” manage to pass the 5% barrio during the elections?
Speaking on this issue one should mention 3 main reasons.
- “Svoboda” [“Freedom”, trans. from Ukrainian – auth.] has established a poor reputation on the local level. For example, “Svoboda” had been strongly supported in the Western Ukraine and it was a dominating party there but due to the fact that its deputies and city mayors were often involved into corruption scandals trust faded away. To say more, all those deputies and mayors who were to solve some local problems didn’t cope with the task. Therefore, they did not justify the trust of voters.
- “Svoboda” haven’t proven to be a true nationalistic party this winter because of its passiveness and compromises with the regime of Yanukovych.
- Despite the two points above, I still believe that “Svoboda” has collected 5 or 6% of votes. This guess is proven by asking voters about their choice at the exit from the polling stations (the so-called ekzytpol). However, 1-2% of votes received were stolen because of election results falsification. I think it was a concession of Poroshenko to both Moscow and Washington/Brussels. Yes, I admit that “Svoboda” has to work on its perfection and improvements, but it is still a nationalist party and this worries Moscow and the West, as well as our internal liberals.
4. Do you think Ukrainian nationalists can unite some time?
In theory they can. But it must be a technical association of nationalistic forces. There are a lot of people in “Svoboda” who have no right to be called nationalists. There is one option for the union: the “Right Sector” and “Svoboda” can merge but only after internal lustration of the letter one.
5. Is there a risk of "russophobia", as pro-Russians claim?
Russia is a country where multiculturalism reigns. Eid al-Adha (Kurban Bayram) is celebrated in the streets of Moscow in the same way and with the same great scope as in numerous cities of Western Europe. Russians are dying out in the demographic sense and keep degrading morally. Russian nationalists are aware of this problem and support the idea of Russia’s destruction as an empire in order to build their own national state on its bones. Therefore, many Russian nationalists are fighting for Ukrainian side.
As for the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine which takes Putin’s side, I can describe them as ethnic marginals, the identical base for which is Bolshevism. I want to stress that we are now talking about a part of the Russian-speaking population, not all of it. The majority of Russian-speaking citizens are true patriots of Ukraine. We are like Ireland in this case, but, unlike Ireland, more than half of OUR people speaks our native language, not the language of the invader.
6. Are Ukrainian nationalists financed by the USA or the European Union (according to the words of pro-Russian people)?
Unfortunately or luckily we aren’t. And I am quite serious saying “unfortunately or luckily”. As we are now waging the war and going through a difficult period, some external help would be appropriate. For instance, we could profit if the Republicans from the USA were in power now. I understand what an evil thing is neo-conservatism. However, purely pragmatic alliance against Russia is theoretically possible. This could be compared with USA’s funding of Afghanistan’s Islamists in the war against the USSR. No shared values, just a common enemy. But Republicans are not in power now. This is the first point.
Secondly, the USA and Russia are not true enemies from a global perspective. They are just competitors. So the idea above is to be considered as fiction, no more, no less. I believe that most Western politicians are afraid of Ukrainian nationalism. The main source of funding for the “Right Sector” is SME (small and medium business).
7. Is the "Ukrainian nationalist revolution" a dream?
National revolution is a dream and a realistic goal at the same time. Every true nationalist is dreaming of such a revolution which is able to build nationalist Ukraine. Nationalist Ukraine is a country where oligarchy would be fully eliminated, where there would be no place for parliamentary democracy, where conservative values would dominate and power would belong to the aristocrats of the spirit. Some even dream of an archeofuturist project based on the idea of three castes. There is a chance to build such a state in a revolutionary way. But it is so tiny! We must remember that we had a chance to make a forceful seizure of power in February-March 2014. But Russian aggression didn’t let it happen. Seizing power was a very risky thing at that moment.
Meanwhile, the nationalist revolution is a kind of a benchmark for tracking evolution. For example, it was this way during the fight against Yanukovych. Nationalist revolution didn’t take place, but we have gained a number of tactical victories like Yanukovych removal, strengthening of our own positions, attacks on the Communists.
8. How do you see the future of Ukraine?
Ukraine is meaningful only as an anti-liberal, conservative-revolutionary state. In general, ANY policy of our time is to be like that. Otherwise its existence does not make sense. There is no place for nations, religions, traditional families or even a person within the "new world order". Modern Liberalism wants to substitute a man with a post-man. Jean Baudrillard called Michael Jackson the harbinger of such a man. Nowadays Conchita Wurst is such a person. But Conchita Wurst isn’t a peak of degradation. It will be even worse in the nearest future. Thus, Ukrainian nationalists should do all their best to win and construct nationalist Ukraine. But no one knows for sure whether we succeed to do this.
First of all, I am a Catholic, and only then I am a nationalist. So I consider faith, sincerity and sacrifice to be the most important things ever. We must do our best and the Lord will reward us for these efforts in the eternal life. But we can’t know for sure whether he rewards us during our earthly life. The Revelation says that the Lord will let the Antichrist conquer righteous men. Perhaps such times have already come, and there will be no restoration of the traditional order. So the most important thing for us is loyalty to our ideas and fight for them.
| 
