Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov believes that "a terrible mixture of Horde cruelty, taiga rudeness and centuries-old slavish spite created a phenomenon of the Russian people". The essay with his revelations he published in his blog. According to Turchinov, Russian classics had an invaluable service, having told in their works about the essence of Russians. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council considers the Russians dangerous, prone to senseless and merciless aggression. "The war has become for Russians a form of self-realization, when they do not hold back, when one can manifest one's inner self". - Ukrainian politician stressed. Turchinov also recalled the "unpatriotic" verses of Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov. "Farewell unwashed Russia. ", - these lines are especially liked to be quoted in Ukraine. It's strange that the politician did not remember the other poems of the great poet: "I love my homeland I. "or the famous poem" Borodino ".

And Leo Tolstoy, a lengthy quote from which led Turchinov (in the blog published an excerpt from the story "Hadji Murat"), is known throughout the world as a writer who glorified the feat of the Russian people in "War and Peace". However, commentators rather viciously responded to Turchinov's essay: "The problem of citing the classics is that they did not know about the existence of" Rus-Ukraine "and Ukrainians, so the reference to" Russians "in them often fully applies to the ancestors of the Europeans" (orthography and punctuation of the original is preserved).