We repeatedly argue about the Crimea in the dichotomy "pro-Russian" and "pro-Ukrainian". Forgetting that the lion's share of the Crimeans does not care what flag to live under, Pavel Kazarin writes for the Crimea. Realities.

In February 2014 - before the seizure of administrative buildings in Crimea - the Kiev International Institute of Sociology published the latest Ukrainian opinion poll. 41% of the inhabitants of the peninsula supported the unification of Ukraine and Russia in one state. Someone may think this figure is big - and he will be mistaken.

Because most Crimeans received information about what is happening in Kiev from the Russian media. By February 2014, for three months, the peninsula had pumped hysteria and neuroses. Without restraint, without breaks and days off prepared the ground for the invasion that occurred at the very end of winter. And even at the same time the proportion of those who were ready to support the new flags did not exceed the symbolic 50%.

Because for most Crimeans, the priorities were safety and household comfort. At the very beginning of the annexation, when the scenario of the Kremlin was not understood, when the prospect of fighting for the Crimea was spoken seriously - it was the Russian soldiers who were perceived as the force that could destroy the security loop. And the most frequent philistine intonation of the Crimean users of Facebook was reduced to a rhetorical "we do not need Russia, but the world".

The hysteria left at a time when it became clear that no war was planned. That the scenario for changing flags will be relatively peaceful, and the total number of deaths will not exceed a few people. At that moment the main part of the Crimeans calmed down and again took up everyday life. Thus, which for an average citizen is always more important than a flag.

Someone will say that three years have passed since that time, for which Russian propaganda only strengthened the propaganda component. That the intensity of brainwashing has not left a chance for the indifferent. That recruiting in the "Russian world" was total. Tells - and will be wrong.

Because all the widespread Russian propaganda was able to mobilize for the war in the Donbass only a few tens of thousands of Russian volunteers. Those who like Motorola - threw their own car wash to try their luck in the war with the Ukrainian army. 30-40 thousand for 145 million Russia - this vanishingly small value. It is because of its meagerness that the Kremlin was forced to start employing a cadre of Russian military personnel.

It turned out that the "popular impulse of passionaries" even after massive information processing does not exceed the population of the regional center. That the "crucified boys", "fascists" and "Bandera" managed to convince only a relatively small number of Russians to take up arms. And this is in a situation where the entire infrastructure for the transfer of volunteers to the Ukrainian Donbass existed in Russia in fact at the state level.

Russian cultural expert Andrei Arkhangelsky writes that 95% of Russian residents are absolutely de-ideologized. That ideals - liberal or imperial - have a vanishingly small proportion of the population. That propaganda, although it enters houses, is rarely able to make the average person sacrifice this very way of life.

And to think that Crimeans in this sense somehow strikingly differ from Russians, it would be naive. They just as in the mass just adapted to the new reality. In which they need to raise children, look after the old people, pay loans and save on leave. The ardent pro-Russian in the Crimea are in relation to the indifferent in exactly the same minority, in which there are also the ardent pro-Ukrainian inhabitants of the peninsula.

Today, those indifferent can be afraid of the idea of ??the return of Ukraine. Just as they were frightened by the thought of the coming of Russia.

Because neither then, nor now they understand the scenario, which will accompany this next change of flags. They are afraid of a possible war, a breakdown in the usual way of life, violation of the safety circuit. But their loyalty is loyalty not to the flag, but to comfort. Which is always relative. And they are not ready to defend their loyalty at the level of armed resistance, but only at the level of the opinion poll and the bulletin.

And this is all you need to know about the "Crimean unanimity".