Benicia resident: ‘Positive about future’ despite threat of war

When voters in Ukraine chose Viktor Yanukovych as their president in 2010, a former Russian oligarch, Boris Beresovskiy, declared the nation had elected a “mafia don.”

In the Feb. 17, 2010 edition of Ukrainska Pravda, Beresovskiy wrote, “I appeal to you, Outskirtspeople (residents of the Ukraine), without exception, to all who supported Yanukovych. You have chosen (pahan)” — a godfather. “… Yes, the younger brother of Big Brother.”

That “Big Brother” was a reference to Vladimir Putin, president of Russia.

In recent weeks, Yanukovych has been deposed, and Putin’s troops have arrived in Crimea, a semi-autonomous state within Ukraine. Tensions are high in the region, and many fear the escalating situation could lead to war.

The recent political unrest began late in 2013. Yanukovych is said to be in Russia under Putin’s protection. The Russian president’s aggressive move in Crimea has led to calls for sanctions and a boycott of the international G8 meeting in Sochi, site of the recent Winter Olympic Games.

Ignat Mayzeles, a Benicia resident, has been watching these developments with great interest. That’s because he was born in Ukraine, when it was a republic in the Soviet Union.

He noted that in broadcast interviews this week, Secretary of State John Kerry said Putin had committed “an incredible act of aggression” and a “violation of the sovereignty of the Ukraine.”

Putin and President Barack Obama spoke last week for more than an hour and a half, during which Obama said Putin’s actions are “absolutely unacceptable,” and called Putin to “roll back the invasion.”

For Mayzeles, it’s an invasion of his former homeland. “I would compare the present military campaign in Crimea with Nazi provocation on the border of Poland and Germany in 1939,” he said.

He discounted suggestions that Putin felt the need to protect Russian-speaking people as Ukraine puts its new government in place.

“Protect quite big group of Russian-speaking people from small group of Western Ukrainian nationalists from (political party) Svoboda. It sounds like a joke,” he said.

“Some Russian-speaking people residents of the Ukraine had died from heart attacks in last 24 hours just worrying how they will survive possible war and what will happen to their loved ones,” he said.

He explained, “Now Crimea is an autonomous republic within the unitary state of Ukraine, with its presidential representative, appointed by the president of the Ukraine, serving as a governor.”

He said Putin’s administration was satisfied with the governor appointed by Yanukovych, but the Russian president is worried that the new Ukrainian government could appoint a governor who favors the European Union.

Mayzeles’s wife’s brother-in-law, a resident of Odessa, has said that in the western part of Ukraine, 90 percent of the population seeks stronger ties with the European Union, though in the eastern part of Ukraine only 40 percent of the population wants stronger ties with EU.

“I strongly believe the Ukraine should have a public referendum on this issue,” he said.

Mayzeles knows this area well.

“I was born and have grown up in the Kharkov, East Ukraine,” he said. He moved to Lvov, in West Ukraine, for work when he was 22, and stayed there for many years.

“Sometimes I miss the Kharkov, but most of the time I wish to visit ancient Lvov, the city of our ancestors and a place where Ukrainian Nazis tortured and killed almost (the) entire family of my late father, Mozes Mayzeles.”

He also has happier memories of Lvov, where he met his wife, Katya, 30 years ago, and where his eldest son, Albert, was born. At times, he said, he wants to show the city to his children.

“My parents were born into Jewish families,” he said. While the family hadn’t practiced Judaism, Mayzeles said that as a youth, he experienced Russian anti-Semitism “on my skin.” He recalled that at school, he was bullied and beaten repeatedly by young Russians with anti-Semitic attitudes.

He said most Russians “did not know what ‘Jew’ means. For them, if you are a Jew, it is enough to hate you.”

Because of the prejudice, he was advised not to enroll in a university he liked. Nor could he work where he pleased.

Eventually, he sought to leave, first in 1979. Denied that opportunity, he was labeled a “refusenik.”

That had further consequences.

“I could not get a job in my occupation at all. I became an immigrant in my own country.”

However, the second time he applied for emigration, in 1989, he and his wife received permission. They came to the United States on
March 13, 1990.

They gave up much to do so, relinquishing citizenship in the Soviet Union and becoming American citizens in 1996. They’re active in their citizenship; Mayzeles noted that he and his wife “never miss the vote!”

He has visited his homeland since moving here. In 2008, he saw a country that was different from the place of his youth.

“When I was in the Lvov, West Ukraine and Kyiv, I spoke Ukrainian, and visiting Kharkov, Sumi, Poltava, East Ukraine, I spoke Russian,” he said.

He noticed poor air quality, particular polluted by car exhausts, and the poor condition of the roadways.

Some of the multistory homes needed repairs, and in the evening, no lights illuminated the streets. Vagrants were present on those streets, as well, he said.

Mayzeles said the quality of tap water was poor, too.

People traveled on old trains, trams and buses as well as cars, he said.

He discovered that the now-familiar McDonald’s restaurants had become popular, but he also noted the presence of food kiosks and small restaurants everywhere.

Other kiosks sold clothes, household items, even medication.

Churches had golden roofs; public transportation and streets had digital advertising.

Young people on the streets were attired in colorful, “quite expensive” clothing, he saw.

“My classmates looked very old,” he observed.

“Ukrainian people like Americans,” he said. “They want to be free, to love and to be loved, and to be able to earn their living. They want to work and celebrate life.”

He said a majority “respect their parents and love their children.”

Several years ago, he said, Solano County residents got to visit with Ukraine visitors when they opened their homes and became hosts to about 100 members of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra.

Mayzeles said he hopes one day Benicia will decide to become a sister city to a municipality in Ukraine.

His homeland has long been a desirable area, he said, particularly since it has port access through the Black Sea.

“When the Soviet Union was dissolved, Russian authority did not forget about Crimea and Sevastopol, and how hard (it) was to gain this access to the Black Sea,” he said.

“Even in middle school in the former Soviet Union, we were taught how Catherine the Great after the war with Ottoman Empire acquired the Crimean Port Kerch, and helped to establish formally independent Crimean Khanate that depended on Russia,” he said.

In 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union decided to transfer Crimea from the Russian state to the Ukraine, which also was part of the Soviet Union.

While some political observers have wondered whether there might be a connection between that decision and the current fluid situation, Mayzeles said, “When Soviet Central Government decreed transfer of Crimea from RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic) to the Soviet Republic of Ukraine, it was Soviet Union internal business only.”

He said the Crimean oblast became part of the Ukraine, “and Ukraine still was a part of the Soviet Union.”

Mayzeles cited a poll conducted by the Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Studies in March 2011 that indicated about 71.3 percent of the population of Crimea considered Ukraine to be “their motherland.”

But that motherland has had economic upheavals in the past several years, and Yanukovych’s administration was viewed as corrupt, Mayzeles said.

“I believe that consolidation of power in the hands of the president — the president appointed local governors, and so forth — created a golden opportunity for widespread corruption,” he said.

“Most of my friends agree that Mr. Victor Yanukovych should be prosecuted for many reasons,” he said.

He said the current Russian administration “is looking forward to restore the glory of the Russian Empire” at its height.

However, he said the Russian government-sponsored news agencies have been “very careful.” He said they “avoid comparing the ambitions and purposes of the present Russia with the dead Soviet Union.”

Even Mayzeles’s friends have mixed opinions about Putin, he said.

“Some of my friends in Ukraine consider him a savior of the Russian nation, and some of them call Mr. Putin ‘KGB Mafioso’ and equate him with Mr. V. Yanukovych.”

Putin has support among members of the Party of Regions and supporters of Communist Party, people who want closer ties with Russia, Mayzeles said.

“These people are from different religious and ethnic backgrounds, with business interests or relatives in Russia,” he said. “The vast majority of the group are Russian-speaking people and members of Russian Orthodox Church.”

Those opposing Putin’s actions are members of other political parties — Batkivschina, Udar, Svoboda, Praviy Sector — and some members of the Party of the Regions, “and all normal people,” he said.

New elections were scheduled to take place in May. Mayzeles said had Yanukovych conducted the Parliament meeting Feb. 22, 2014, Ukrainian lawmakers might have delayed any action.

“But Mr. Yanukovych suddenly disappeared, and left his party without a leader, and the opposition took control of Parliament,” he said.

If the May elections take place, he predicted a small chance of victory for such Maidan leaders as Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Vitali Klichko, Oleh Tyahnybok, Andriy Parubiy, or Dmytro Yarosh.

Meanwhile, Mayzeles said media campaigns and economic sanctions may prove the best tools in resolving the situation in Ukraine.

He described his views about some of the United States’ reactions to other volatile political situations of the past.

He said he agreed with President George H.W. Bush, who sent in the American military to save the independent state of Kuwait, but remains unconvinced that it was “absolutely necessary for George W. Bush in 2003 to send troops to Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction and oust Saddam Hussein from power.”

But he said there was “some truth” regarding Iraq weapons of mass destruction.

However, “In the case of Russian language-speaking people (being) persecuted, or (being) in danger in the Ukraine or Crimea, no truth at all,” he said. “Almost all the population of the Ukraine has members of their family who speak Russian and Ukrainian.”

Mayzeles said he has spoken with friends and relatives, and after those conversations, “I feel positive about future of Ukraine.

“I hope that all Ukrainian political parties and groups will unite to support the new Ukrainian government, and this government will be able to implement necessary reforms, create mechanisms of checks and balances that will decrease corruption and allow Ukraine to became a member of European Union, and at the same time keep friendly relationship with Russia.”