One story of one photo
Today is the 30th anniversary of our daughter Nastuni. We will say many words to her - kind, intimate, felt - in a small family circle. But now I want to congratulate her publicly.
To make this possible, I have to thank many people - Alla Chigrin, Larisa Nadtochiya, Sergei Demsky, Marina Rudenko, Victoria Shvedova, and, in fact, Vasily Artyushenko, the author of the photo you see.
What is a photo and what is the connection?
This photo was taken on July 16, 1990. On this day, the Declaration of Sovereignty of Ukraine was adopted. We - and our family - my husband, daughter and I - like many of our brothers and sisters from UHS, Rukh and, as they say today, non-associates - stood under the walls of the Verkhovna Rada, waiting, believing, hoping and caring.
And here it is! We wanted to express our attitude, our support to the People's Council, which, despite the pressure of the "Group 239", was able to achieve the adoption of this document. Our reaction was emotional, human and real - we bought a whole bundle of daisies and asked the guards of the "perimeter" of the Verkhovna Rada to let the children in - we also found a boy of the same age. Of course, I didn't have to find it :), because she was always active in our "extremist" (that's what we called our political activity, mocking the fact that in those days our absolutely peaceful actions were called extremist power - you don't miss anything in the eye by analogy today?). The boy, however, quickly escaped. And Nastunya greeted each deputy with the words "Glory to Ukraine! Thank you for voting for independence! ” Yes, it is for independence, because for us the Declaration of State Sovereignty was another step towards the independence we sought, for which we worked as hard as we could.
Deputies reacted differently to such a "cherry smile" with daisies. Some rejoiced and answered "Glory to the heroes!", Others muttered something, looked around, but still took flowers from the child.
At the time, we didn't pay attention to whether or not someone was filming it. And a few years later, on one of the anniversaries of the adoption of the Declaration, either in 1995 or 2000, the newspaper "Voice of Ukraine" suddenly came into my hands. On the first page there was a photo of a girl looking at the half-open door of the Verkhovna Rada, and under it a caption that on the day of the adoption of the Declaration a girl was handing out flowers to deputies. Something "touched" me both in the photo and in the information. And suddenly I realized - this is our Nastya !!! AT! And I remember the dress - my older sister gave it to me from her daughter. And there weren't many children there that day.
There was no end to the surprise, I showed the newspaper to my husband and he also said - oh, that's Nastya! Then we didn't get together, didn't think of anything, didn't find a photo or a photographer. I wanted to do it last year before the 20th anniversary of the Declaration, but it has only just happened. That's why at the beginning I thanked everyone who joined this "mother's investigation".
That's why we congratulate you with dad, baby, with this photo! May your patriotism, your desire for justice, your convictions always be strong!
Look to the future with interest, and to the past with respect!
Listen to the voices of loud and quiet voices, as your great-grandmother once heard! Have time to do good, and be close to your loved ones in thought, and when necessary - then in body.
Be happy, take care of happiness, take care of yourself! Loving you dad and mom April 5, 2011