Apparently, EuroMaidan is a powerful aphrodisiac. Photos of couples hugging as they sit on makeshift benches by the fire barrels and sip hot tea have already become legendary. Some of those couples met, literally, on the barricades.
“We met 15 minutes ago, but it was definitely love at first sight,” says 19-year-old Oleh Klichko as he plants a kiss on his companion’s cheek. She blushes and hugs him back. Klichko is from Ivano-Frankivsk, and he met 17-year-old Katya Kornilova right here on Maidan, where she came to defend Ukraine’s European choice, and make friends.
While for some Maidan may be a passing romantic moment, for others it seems to be a little more than that. Mykola Mureniuk, a 30-year-old handyman from Ivano-Frankivsk has been on Maidan since the early days and was among protesters beaten by riot police on Nov. 30. “Then I promised that I am not here for fun or girls, but seems like there was a gift waiting for me,” he says, with his voice radiating warmth.
When the protests started on Nov. 21, in the wake of the government’s decision to halt preparations for signing a major pact with the European Union, Mureniuk took up the duty of chief volunteer of the stella area on Independence Square. He had to pick women to help at the kitchen, and that’s when he met Alla Dychenko from Kyiv.
“Frankly speaking, I didn’t even remember her name,” he says. “But she hung around, and in a couple of days I saw her talking to another woman and pointing at me. And I came up to ask what that was about.”
The answer was pretty straightforward. “She said she showed her mom the guy she fell in love with,” he grins.
Mureniuk says he is now worried about the future, since he has no job at the moment, despite his two degrees, while the woman of his choice and her family run two small businesses. “Besides, at some point I’ll have to go home anyway, but I just don’t want to think what life will be like without her,” he says.
Social psychologist Oleh Pokalchuk says that an explosion of emotions is pretty common for adrenaline-driven events like Maidan. “All feelings get aroused at all mass events, as the possibility of danger shared by thousands of people causes increased secretion of testosterone and other endorphins and that’s how mass protests accelerate personal feelings,” Pokalchuk explains.
But it does not necessarily mean that love will deflate along with the crowds, he says. Its longevity is only determined by people’s will and expectations.
Yuri Rudnytskiy from Kyiv and Lviv-native Olesya Isayuk, for example, expect to get married soon. “We knew each other for over a year, were close friends, at least I didn’t have secrets from him,” Isayuk says. “But then somehow our feelings changed and on one of Maidan nights I found myself saying it out loud, I said I would be waiting for him… Have no idea how I dared, might be the Maidan effect.”
Rudnytskiy proposed two days later. “Of course I was thinking about her earlier, but I had so many fears,” he confesses. “I’d been married before and I am 22 years older than Olesya, I thought it was a very big deal.”
Both Rudnytskyi and Isayuk are academics and claim they are ready for any potential outcome of Maidan. “We understand that this battle will not be easy and everything is possible, but we are already thankful to EuroMaidan...Oh I am just so happy,” Rudnytskyi says.
Sometimes, there is real drama taking place on Maidan. On the morning of Dec. 11, after the police demolished the protesters’ barricades near governmental buildings, 24-year-old Kyivan Lida Pankiv got a text message.
“I remembered your number, but not your name. I stood in front of you with a shield last night, first I thought you are crazy, but then, when you and your friend stopped us, I realized I want to marry you,” the message read. It was signed as “Dima” and apparently came from a policeman who stood in front of her on the night of major clashes between the protesters and riot police.
“First you will have to lower your shield,” Pankiv replied.
That night, she and her friend were between the protesters and the rows of regular police on Luteranska Street, who were defending the yard where the riot police units were stationed.
“We were just trying to calm them down and tell them what exactly is going on at the barricades, so they would know and pass the message so that riot police would not be released,” Pankiv recalls.
The man who was so impressed with her actions has not given up on those marriage plans, Pankiv says. And although her heart belongs to someone else, Pankiv says she is happy to know that there are people like that man in Ukraine’s police force.
“When are you going home, Dima?” she asked him, when they finally met in real life, and in civil dress. “When you guys here get what you want,” he replied.
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at shevchenko@kyivpost.com Kyiv Post
