Meshchansky court of the Russian capital sentenced former director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature Natalya Sharin to four years in prison conditionally. Sharin was found guilty of "committing acts aimed at inciting national hatred and enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity". If you specify the sentence, during searches in library funds, Russian special services found books that were considered to be propagandizing the national differences. Sharina and other employees of the Library assure that there were no these books in the library collections at all, that they were planted. But we will admit even that the books were - the library for that and the library, in order to offer readers different literature, the times of "special security" as if long ago passed. The books that got into the library funds, in any case, passed the initial examination - and it is clearly not the fault of the librarians, especially the Library's director, that the ideas about extremism in the Russian authorities change from day to day.

At first glance, it might seem that Moscow condemned the Ukrainian activist. But even this is not so. Sharina has never been a Ukrainian activist, she has absolutely nothing to do with Ukraine and does not know the Ukrainian language. She is an ordinary Moscow librarian. It appeared in the Library of Ukrainian Literature is very simple and it is related to the specifics of the library itself.

The whole point is that no Library of Ukrainian literature in Moscow - as, indeed, in Russia as a whole - has ever been. This library began to be created for its own resources already during the years of perestroika by the activists of the Ukrainian cultural associations that have just been created in the Russian capital - the Society of Ukrainian Culture "Slavutich" and the Ukrainian Youth Club. At first it was just a department in one of the district libraries. But books became more and more, they were sent from Ukraine by citizens and publishing houses. And then the government of Moscow decided to place the library in a new building in the center of Moscow and turn it into an independent institution. However, as the country became "tuned", the independence of the Library of Ukrainian Literature began to raise questions. And then a new director was appointed - Ekaterina Sharina. Its task was to "clean out" the Library of Ukrainian activists and turn it into an exemplary institution of culture that would attract not Moscow's Ukrainians - potential "nationalists" but ordinary Muscovites. Well, which would show Ukraine the way it is perceived today in the Kremlin - as a "continuation of Russia". And Sharina coped with her task. Ukrainian activists, including the founder of the library Yuri Kononenko, she successfully expelled. Library funds reformatted - many valuable books, newspaper and magazine files were lost. In the staff of the Library were taken quite different people - some of them were indifferent to everything Ukrainian, others all Ukrainian hated. One of these workers wrote a denunciation to Sharin either himself or at the instigation of his "curators" from the special services. And since the case was already after the Russian attack on Ukraine, the denunciation was given a move - the FSB needed proofs of Ukrainian extremism, and it was not possible to find them.

And then Sharin was arrested. They were arrested not because there were some "wrong books" in her library. They were arrested not because she was a Ukrainian activist. They were arrested simply because the name of the cultural institution, which she directed, was the word "Ukrainian". At the same time, Sharina never aspired to run the Ukrainian library. She was given an assignment, which she conscientiously carried out. And after that, they also condemned her for the same thing.

That's why the case of Sharina so resembles the Jewish processes of the late 40's - early 50's, and the Putinization - on post-war Stalinization, insanely twisting nuts. Let's remember the story. The Jewish anti-fascist committee was created not by itself, but by the decision of the Central Committee of the Party to demonstrate the unity of the position of the Soviet people of all nationalities and to raise funds for the Red Army in the West. Members of this committee entered it on the direct orders of the Soviet authorities. And they conscientiously performed their work, believing that they were working for their country. And hardly anyone saw in the execution of this party assignment any danger for their own life - they were invited to this committee, they were praised for what they were doing, they did not step back from the party directives. And then, when Stalin, outraged by the "disobedience" of the young Jewish state, finally decided to become Hitler and put out blunt anger on his Jews, a wave of anti-Semitism. And the work of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was concocted precisely because the name of the organization was the word "Jewish". And the word "Jewish" appeared because the authorities wanted it. The circle is closed.

At the same time, as is known, almost all. The great actor Solomon Mikhoels, who was villainously murdered in Minsk, did not escape the sad fate - although at the time of his destruction no one had said directly that his only fault before the authorities was that he was a Jew, as the only wine Sharina had was that she Director of the Ukrainian Library. And only then quite "legally", according to the verdict of the court, Jewish writers, scientists, public figures. Among them, among other things, is the poet Itzik Fefer, who has always cooperated with the special services and was delegated to the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in order to supervise his colleagues. Fefer did not save his direct duties. His main fault was that he was part of a committee called the Jewish Committee, and in general was a Jewish poet. By the time of his death, this was already the most real "thought-crime". And in this sense, the "thought-crime" of Fefer and other executed members of the Jewish anti-fascist committee is no different from the "thought crime" by Sharina, whose entire guilt lies only in the fact that she headed a library called the Ukrainian.

The continuation of this story is also very similar. It is not necessary to think that the authorities of an authoritarian state are satisfied simply by the trial and punishment without guilt of the guilty. After all, they need not just sentence people, they need to destroy civilization, culture - and judicial verdict is only a "legal" basis for further barbarism, which Russia is so famous for. The murder of members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee is the killing of Jewish culture. After the destruction of the members of the committee, the Soviet authorities destroyed almost all the Jewish cultural institutions that remained in the country. The newspapers and theaters, scientific institutes and publishing houses were closed, the Yiddish language was practically destroyed - even the performance of songs on it for many years was a real creative feat, on which few. The Library of Ukrainian Literature, Destroyed by the Wayinists, has the same sad fate. She was not replaced by a director, no. It was simply destroyed, transferring the remains of library funds to the Library of Foreign Literature named after M. Rudomino. It is clear that in the huge funds of this institution carefully collected by ordinary people with the help of Ukrainian cultural institutions books, magazines and video funds will simply dissolve. Nothing "criminal" Ukrainian in the cultural life of Russia will be no more - as in 1948 there was nothing "criminal" Jewish.

Original.