The American fantasy Clifford Simak, who is often called "Simak" in the post-Soviet space, published his story "Target Generation" seventy years ago, back in 1953.
The story describes an earthly ship sent to another star system thousand years ago. During this time, forty generations of people have changed on board. The real purpose of the ship has long been forgotten, scientific knowledge is lost and replaced by myths. Passengers consider the ship to be the stationary center of the universe around which the stars move.
But the centuries -old journey is coming to the end. Before the finish, the main character, secretly trained in literacy, reveals instructions from distant ancestors and learns the truth. And at the same time he realizes that the loss of knowledge about the true purpose of the ship was inevitable:
"Could people live a thousand years on the ship if they knew its purpose and purpose? The first few generations people lived in a close circle of their little civilization, and that was enough for them. ”
Simak's fantastic story is in many ways in line with modern domestic reality.
Today's Ukrainians perceive themselves as Target Generation. As a generation that has reached the goal to which Ukraine has come for centuries. This goal is to liberate from imperial influence and gain full independence.
In the 21st century, Ukraine succeeded in what remained unattainable during the past eras. From the height of today, this historical path seems thorny, but defined in advance. And, of course, modern defenders of independence want to believe that they realize the cherished desire for previous generations of Ukrainians. But there is one delicate problem.
Unfortunately, with historical continuity, everything is not as smooth as we would like. In 1917-1920, the UNR resistant supporters were less than Ukrainians ready to accept Soviet power. In the 1940s, the UPA fought much less in our compatriots than in the Stalin army. And in stagnant times, a few dissidents were lost against the background of mass conformism and mass loyalty to a totalitarian regime.
There were no better things in more distant epochs. The nineteenth century Ukraine knew nothing comparable to the Polish national uprisings of 1830-1831 or 1863-1864. And the largest folk speech of the eighteenth century - Koliyivshchyna - and completely played in the hand of Russian imperialism.
In short, the biological ancestors of current Ukrainians have not always shared the beliefs and aspirations of their descendants. Therefore, looking back, do we face the inevitable question: how to evaluate the part of Ukrainian ancestors whose behavior clearly disagreed with our own values?
Is it necessary to renounce them strongly, to expose them to Kenseling, and to deprive them of any meaning? Or is it better to do in a different way-to try to fit them in our outlook today? To attribute the desired motivation to the ancestors? To declare them secret fighters for Ukrainian independence, who managed to disguise their true motives very well?
An example of the second approach is the epic with the Kiev Motherland. In 2023, a political decision was made to preserve and rethink the Soviet Kolos-and immediately appeared a corresponding ideological justification. It turned out that from the very beginning the steel "Lavrentievna" was not a model of totalitarian official, but the epitome of the Ukrainian national spirit. It is a fica in the pocket that Kyiv is a supplement for Moscow in stagnant Brezhnev times.
In principle, this approach is universal. Suppose a political decision to preserve and rethink the scandalous monument of Shchors in the capital will be made tomorrow. Of course, in this case, it will immediately find out that the pompous monument is filled not by the Soviet but hidden by the anti -Soviet spirit. And that under the guise of Shchors, sculptors Borodai and Lysenko perpetuated the memory of the freedom -loving chieftains of the Ukrainian National Revolution ...
The charm of state historical policy is that, if desired, it makes it possible to prove absolutely everything. The main thing is that this desire arises. And many of us would like to imagine all Ukrainian ancestors as their own like -minded people.
Is there an alternative solution - less comfortable but more honest? Is it possible to reconcile with an ambiguous Ukrainian past without crossing the whole segments of this past and not trying to recycle them with a retroactive number?
Theoretically - yes. However, then we will have to admit that in the XVIII-XX centuries, most Ukrainian ancestors were reminiscent of the characters of Clifford Simak, who considered their own ship to be a fixed center of universe.
Unlike us, they did not consider the history of Ukraine as a consistent movement for independence: the stay of Ukrainian lands in the Russian and then the Soviet Empire seemed something natural and normal to them. They did not know anything else and did not seek to find out. Having lived their little life against the backdrop of long -term historical processes, landed and idle residents could not appreciate their real importance.
But even if millions of Ukrainians from the past did not participate in the national liberation struggle, they still got a responsible and necessary historical mission. The same mission, which was performed by many generations of passengers of a ship near Simak: for hundreds of years they performed carriers of life. The importance of this historical role should not be underestimated.
In order to become a carrier of Ukrainian life in the 1930s or 1940s, the landing inhabitant had to go through a real hell. But the idle Ukrainian ancestors coped with this task, and only because of this were their advanced descendants - the current defenders of independence.
Today, many of us have the right to look at our biological ancestors from above. We see and know what they have not seen or knew. We understand what they could not understand. We have a historic window of opportunity that they did not have.
Modern Ukrainians have become a generation that has achieved a goal - and Ukrainians from the past have often not even thought about this purpose.
But if it were not for them, modest carriers of life, we would not exist in the 21st century, would not be proud of our own achievements and would not be viewed as Target Generation.
And it is worth remembering.
