Ukrainian Builds Submarine He Saw in Dream

I kid you not! This IS a homemade submarine… a “roll your own” submersible…

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Sometimes, following your dreams can take you underwater. This, at least, was true in the case of Vasily Chikur, 48, a Ukrainian businessman who saw a submarine in a dream… and built it. Chikur hatched the idea during a birthday celebration in early 2010, when he pledged to his friends to build a helicopter and a submarine, the local news website Segodnya.ua reported. However, the Odessa resident got stuck when it came to designing the underwater vessel… until his subconscious helped him out, the report said. They quoted him as saying, “I saw my submarine in a dream, it was a very real vision. I woke up and ran to the kitchen to put down the designs, aided by a cup of tea”. The design turned out to be based on a beer barrel, and actual makers of beer barrels were employed to create the hull from Chikur’s blueprints. The vessel, which cost Chikur some 100,000 gryvnias (401,000 Roubles. 12,350 USD. 10,050 Euros. 7,900 UK Pounds), was commissioned in June, and has since executed several dives, during which it even pulled some underwater loops, according to its proud owner. Chikur is still struggling to have the vessel… the first privately-made submarine in the history of the Ukraine… registered with the bewildered state authorities, Segodnya.ua said.

16 July 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/strange/20120716/174635391.html

8 May 2012. You Can’t Make Up Shit Like This Department… Stalin Pis in the Ukraine

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On Monday, UNIAN news agency reported that activists from the Ukrainian nationalist party Bratstvo mocked Soviet leader Iosif Stalin by installing a Golden Stalin Pis Monument in Kiev and Lvov in the Western Ukraine. The 1.50-metre (@5-feet) wooden sculptures are covered in golden paint. The party also planned to unveil two similar statues in Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk. Kiev and Lvov police took down the Stalin Pis statues hours after they were unveiled. Initially, the Lvov activists planned to set up the statue on Lvov’s downtown Rynok Square, but later changed their minds.

Several Lvov journalists and local police officers gathered on Rynok Square at 14.00 local time to see the monument, however, nothing happened. Later, a young man came and invited them to come to the trade centre nearby and enjoy the sculpture. Vitaly Cherny, editor of the Bratstvo website, said, “It’s obvious that the sculpture wouldn’t have remained for long in the middle of the square, but here, we hope, it’ll stay for a while”. He emphasised that the sculpture brings up associations with the famous Manneken Pis fountain in Brussels, adding that the campaign with the golden monuments is a joke aimed to attract the attention of “mad fans of Stalin”. In late April, in an official statement, activists of the radical all-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks unveiled plans to erect monuments to Stalin in Kiev, Lvov, Odessa, and Dnepropetrovsk on 7 May, as part of Victory Day celebrations.

8 May 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/culture/20120508/173302413.html

Diocese of Odessa of the UOC MP Up in Arms at Plans to Construct a Uniate Cathedral in the City

Do you see this? It’s a photo of a Galician Uniate priest serving with the Waffen SS in World War II. That’s why most true blue Orthodox people in the Ukraine don’t want the Uniates around… they were Nazi collaborators in the past and American bum-kissers in the present. They take the West’s shilling… never forget that.

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Sources in the Diocese of Odessa of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church/Moscow Patriarchate tell us that there’s no rationale for the construction of a Uniate Catholic cathedral in their city, labelling it an aggressive and political provocation. “It’s clear that there’s no need for the construction of a Uniate Catholic church in Odessa, not at all. Odessa’s an Orthodox city”, Archpriest Andrei Novikov, the secretary of the diocese, said on Monday in an interview with Interfax-Religion. In his view, the intention of those building this facility is proselytism; they want to trick Orthodox believers into converting to Uniatism. “In Odessa, Uniate Catholics are a very insignificant minority. Amongst whom are the Uniate preachers going to gather a flock? Of course, it’ll be at the expense of the Orthodox community of Odessa; they’ll use various stratagems and gimmicks to seduce people into the Unia”, he emphasised.

Fr Andrei told us that deputies, intellectuals, and the general public, especially, the simple people of Odessa, sent numerous appeals to the diocesan administration, as they didn’t wish to see “a cathedral of a confession with a tarnished reputation, that collaborated with the Nazi occupation regime, and blessed SS troops and the fighters of the so-called ‘Ukrainian Insurgent Army’, better known as the Banderovtsy (“Followers of Bandera”) {Roman Bandera, a Galician Uniate Nazi collaborationist thug: editor}” in the historical centre of Odessa. He also expressed his amazement at the unceasing attempts of the Uniates to inflate the number of their adherents in Odessa. “Let’s be frank, all the data about a large number of Uniate Catholics in Odessa is taken out of thin air”, he said.

To back his case, Fr Andrei referred not only to numerous eyewitness accounts, but also to his personal experience. He said, “In fact, the route that I have to use to go to services passes the (Uniate) building. Normally, it’s closed. On feastdays, there are only a very few people, often, Polish Catholic nuns are sent to pad out the crowd. Was I ever surprised when I read an online interview with the ‘chancellor’ of the Uniate Catholic ‘diocese’ brazenly claiming that 300-400 people normally attend services in that same building!” In his view, “This outrageous lie was uttered in the media by a man who purports to be a priest; once again, it shows us that the Uniate Catholics don’t intend to abandon the old and trusted Jesuit motto, ‘The end justifies the means’”. He also asked us some questions, “What about these so-called Uniate human rights experts? Where were they when the Uniate Catholics looted the western dioceses of the MP? Why were they silent, these defenders of human rights and freedom of today, when, in Lvov, thousands of Orthodox believers from the canonical Church had to pray outdoors, forbidden to obtain even a small parcel of land for the construction of an Orthodox cathedral?”

27 September 2010

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=37542

Editor’s Note:

This should be a wakeup call for all of us. All of those who schmooze up to Uniates and kiss their bums should be identified, named, and held up to shame. That means Jonas Paffhausen… that means Vanya Behr and Lyonyo Kishkovsky… that means the whole scurvy establishment at New Skete… that means Frederica Matthewes-Greene (is her son a Uniate deacon? If so, that’s a double shame!) and Patrick Reardon… and it means Andrei Psaryov and Vassa Larina. The Uniates are the enemies of Christ’s Holy Church, their actions in the Ukraine confirm that. They’re a special case… Catholics and Protestants are what they are… they’re no threat to simple Orthodox believers… they’re decent people, in the main, as I said, they’re what they are, it’s obvious that they’re not Orthodox (they’re in the hands of God, which can’t be a bad thing). Uniates are ultramontane and fanatical papists who use the outer semblance of our ritual to seduce unthinking Orthodox believers into the papal confession. Don’t go to Freddie Matthewes-Green’s lectures… don’t buy Reardon’s books… don’t go to any event at SVS… don’t go to New Skete. You can support the Unia or you can support Christ… you must choose one or the other, you can’t back both. Think long and hard… ponder the fact that Paffhausen brazenly kissed the bums of the Uniates by his participation in the so-called Lumen Gentium conference. Then, do what you must… but don’t break off relations with a parish unless a Renovationist priest literally throws you out. You can bear some inconvenience for Christ’s sake… some of us have faced rather more… and are still here to tell the tale!

BMD

Let the Triumphal March of Patriarch Aleksei in Kiev Inspire Us

Valery Kaurov, head of the Union of Orthodox Citizens of the Ukraine

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The head of the Union of Orthodox Citizens of the Ukraine (SPGU), Valery Kaurov, repeatedly confronted NATO servicemen on the Black Sea coast at the head of Orthodox pickets. Several days after the beginning of the protests against Sea Breeze 2008, he was in hospital in Odessa. He was taken without warning from his hospital room to the offices of the Ukrainian MVD, where he was subjected to a lengthy interrogation. However, our Interfax-Religion correspondent, Artur Priimak, found it possible to meet with Valery Vladimirovich.

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Artur Priimak

Could you tell me the spectrum of opinion in the Ukraine before the opening of the Sea Breeze 2008 exercises? What did the people of the region affected think of the upcoming manoeuvres?

Valery Kaurov

Most people in the Ukraine expected that strong protest actions would be mounted against NATO, just as they were in 2006 in Feodosiya, so, we gathered as many people as possible to picket the Sea Breeze exercises. Unfortunately, all too many of our efforts, both then and now, were somewhat uncoordinated, but it was obvious that the protest was a success. The NATO personnel involved were uneasy, they didn’t wish to appear in public in uniform, the NATO staff did their best to conceal their plans regarding the manoeuvres, and the Ukrainian government feared us so much that they tried to muzzle the leadership of the anti-NATO protest movement. Our main success was in the promotional and outreach role of our actions. It’s now abundantly clear that the Ukrainian people are opposed to joining NATO. It is important that we caused the cancellation of the formal naval review of the NATO forces and the military parade scheduled to be held in the streets of Odessa.

Artur Priimak

Was there anyone in the Orthodox community of the Ukraine who was opposed to the United Fatherland movement?

Valery Kaurov

Our actions were purely political. We didn’t carry religious items, in accordance with a resolution of the SPGU and in keeping with a promise that we gave to the First Hierarch of the UOC/MP. Therefore, the church hierarchy refused to comment on our activity and refused to criticise it. We strictly followed the new regulations passed by the SPGU Congress in June in Kiev, we didn’t speak for the church or its hierarchy, and so, we weren’t subject to criticism as we were in December 2007.

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When baba speaks, you’d best listen! Or, you’ll get the cane! OUCH!

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As far as the second part of the question is concerned, I must say that with regret that many Orthodox organisations were preoccupied with the problem of the ideas spread by Bishop Diomid in the course of his destructive activity in the church. Also, there were groups that directly confronted the MP hierarchy, and this undoubtedly weakened the Orthodox anti-NATO front and it lessened the number of believers who came forward in our protest actions. Furthermore, there was worry caused by the anticipation of untoward events being fomented by Yushchenko and Patriarch Bartholomew concerning the creation of a so-called “United Local Church”. Therefore, believers found themselves torn between two conflicts, and most chose to fight for the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church, for that was more important.

Artur Priimak

What happened after the leadership of the anti-NATO protest action received an official warning from the Ukrainian court?

Valery Kaurov

The leadership resolved to act in such a way as to not violate the decision of the local administrative law court. We conducted two seaborne protests, and picketed the Sea Breeze 2008 manoeuvres near the City Hall, the Officer’s Club, and in the Armenian Street. The court forbade us to protest at the naval port, so, we only conducted a very short picket there to show the foreign journalists and NATO servicemen our posters and shout a few slogans. We set up a tent camp and a fixed protest site near the military training ground in Chabanka directly on the Black Sea shore. In all likelihood, our protest actions were one of the reasons that the police detained me for interrogation on 22 July 2008, four days after the end of the Sea Breeze 2008 manoeuvres, whilst I was in a hospital room of the intensive therapy wing of the Odessa cardiological clinic.

Artur Priimak

What impressions did Ukrainian Orthodox activists take away from their recent visit to Moscow, and, in particular what was their reaction to the Archpastoral Council of the MP?

Valery Kaurov

We had two main impressions. Firstly, it was necessary for us to defend the Archpastoral Council from provocations and confrontations offered by the followers of Diomid, for a majority of them came from the Ukraine. It reached the point where radical supporters of Diomid and Ippolit Khilko assaulted the loyal Orthodox picketers, which led to much coverage in the Russian media. On the other hand, we were pleasantly surprised by the actions of the kids from the Orthodox section of the youth group Nashi (Ours), and we stood together with them for two days on the picket line [in support of the Archpastoral Council]. This speaks highly of the success of the Orthodox missionary effort in Russia. Did our visit to Moscow help us? It goes without saying that it did. Any visit to its sparkling towers are always a holiday for believers! We strengthened our ties with the Rus Party as we went on a joint pilgrimage to the Nikolo-Perevinsky Monastery. Our political allies were dismayed at the situation surrounding Bishop Diomid, and, as a result, they began to understand some of the problems facing contemporary Orthodoxy. This led to them having a deeper relationship with us. It is possible that we conceived a new social and political formulation in Moscow, an ideology for the protection of Orthodoxy and a missionary counterattack to retake all the key positions [in society].

Artur Priimak

How are things in the Diocese of Odessa? There appears to be many rumours flying about concerning the imminent retirement of Metropolitan Agafangel…

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Orthodox protestors in Lvov opposing Orangies. What guts!

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Valery Kaurov

The fact is that Metropolitan Agafangel is a steadfast supporter of the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church, a determined opponent of the entry of the Ukraine into NATO, and a zealous defender of the Russian language. Not only do we in the Diocese of Odessa support him completely, he also has wide support far beyond its limits. He’s well aware of the plans of some in the Ukrainian government to attack the UOC/MP. Repeatedly, with great courage, Metropolitan Agafangel publicly voiced his opinion on these questions and unambiguously told the government that not only he would never obey a forced union with the autocephalists, other dioceses and parishes would follow him. In such a manner, he foiled the plots of the Orange faction. They tried to take vengeance on him by spreading rumours of his imminent retirement. However, the Lord is found in Truth, not in force, and he triumphed [over the Orangies]. Vladyki Agafangel prayed in the cathedral at the time of the announcement of Yushchenko’s plans to create a so-called “United Local Church” during the celebration of the anniversary of the Baptism of Russia, and Yushchenko’s efforts came to naught. There’s much grace in our metropolitan here in Odessa.

Artur Priimak

In your view, why do some “nationalistic” factions in the Ukraine, including religious organisations, support the entrance of the Ukraine into NATO?

Valery Kaurov

You’re speaking of those who support the Orange faction and everything connected with it. They hate Russia, they hate Russian Orthodoxy, and they hope that NATO shall help them with their fight. The present “nationalist” forces in the Ukraine are made up of those who attacked Moscow [together with the Poles] at time of the Great Smuta {1610s, it refers to those Little Russians who supported the False Dmitri and the Polish occupation of Moscow: editor} and they consider themselves the heirs of Pugachov and all those who rebelled against the Russian state. Those of us who live in the Ukraine find it strange that this wasn’t clear to those living in Russia until recently. Specifically, the parishes of the MP [in the Ukraine] maintain the spiritual and cultural heritage of our triune Russian people {that is, Russians, Ukrainians, and Byelorussians: editor}, we have share a common history, we pray to the same holy righteous men of God who shone forth in our common homeland, we share common Orthodox sacred objects, and we share common monasteries. We’re going to preserve this unity, and we’ll never allow anyone to break up this spiritual, cultural, and historical space.

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Defence of the Holy Trinity St Sergius Lavra Against the Poles in 1610

Sergei Milorodovich

no date

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All so-called “Ukrainian nationalists” had best understand this, for they are but Western puppets hell-bent on transforming the Ukraine into a Russophobic and anti-Russian state. They wish it to become just another bridgehead for NATO [against Russia]. These aspirations date back to the time Uniate Catholic Galicia was under the domination of Austria-Hungary and Poland, both historical enemies of Russia. Even at that date, plans were laid for the weakening and destruction of Russia, and the so-called “Ukrainian nationalists” were given an important role. The main obstacle to these plans was Holy Orthodoxy as embodied by the largest Local Church, the MP. The UOC/MP numbers more than 11,000 parishes and monasteries. It’s obvious that the sundering of the UOC/MP from the MP and the subsequent Catholic takeover of the Ukraine is the dream of the “nationalists” of all colours. To help achieve this goal, they wish to draw the Ukraine into the aggressive NATO bloc. There’s no difference in the goals of the Western “democracies”, the Galician lobby, the Orange faction, and the Ukrainian schismatics. However, we’ll resist them and we’re assured of victory! Let the triumphal march of Patriarch Aleksei in Kiev inspire us, and let us remember the words of St Lavrenty of Chernigov, as repeated by Metropolitan Kirill in front of a crowd of 100,000 on the Kreshchatka, “Russia, the Ukraine, and Byelorussia, this is Holy Russia!” {in Russian, “Россия, Украина и Беларусь… это и есть Святая Русь!” (Rossiya, Ukraina, i Belarus… eta i yest Svyataya Rus!}, it loses its poetry in translation: editor)

30 July 2008

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=interview&div=190

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For a Great, United, and Free Russia!

Dmitri Shmarin

2004

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Editor’s Note:

I’ve been accused of simplistic propaganda and being out of the mainstream by some “Ukrainian” and Ukrainophile commenters. Of course, one can’t talk to the incorrigible. My conclusions are based on knowledge of the sources in Russian, German, and English. In fact, there’s something that these people do NOT wish you to know. That is, no independent and explicitly-identified Ukrainian state existed prior to 1991, and the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia existed only between 1920 and 1940, and from 1991 onwards. These are peoples with no experience in governing themselves, and it shows. They have always been part of some larger entity. I believe that this puts these commenters to bed. I would advise these sorts not to try to comment here, for I’ll delete such, but do what I do. Run your own website; put your case out to the world. Put it forth into the marketplace of ideas. It isn’t easy, let me assure you. However, instead of attacking, give the world your case! Let it be heard! Let the devil take the hindmost, I say, and I can rest easy, for I know that I’m willing to pull on my wellies and do the dirty work necessary to get the word out. Do likewise, or, go home. That’s the way of it.

BMD