And the sun came out

On Saturday, before the referendum in the Crimea, as is customary in civilized countries, they announced the day of silence. Although what to talk about here - everything is clear and without words. On the one hand, the inhabitants of Crimea seemed to be interested in, they want to see Crimea by the subject of the Russian Federation or the autonomous part of Ukraine. On the other hand, the Supreme Council of Crimea voted in advance for the decision to join the slender ranks of the Russian regions (and at the same time also adopted the Declaration of Independence).

For those who (exclusively by excusable thoughtlessness) did not understand the hint, the entire peninsula was scored with advertising shields with the Russian tricolor and slogans “Together with Russia” or “Crimea is Russia”. Visual leaflets were placed on the pillars, and did not leave the spaciousness at all for amateur performances: in a square next to the inscription “For Russia” stood a fat tick. All these precautions were unnecessary, because the vast majority of Crimeans have already decided for so long.

“I waited for this moment for 23 years,” will confidently say nine out of ten people on the street and add that Russia will not let Bandera’s peninsulas preparing to cut Crimean children, and pensions and salaries will now grow quickly and sharply. There is no point in objecting or asking clarifying questions, they believe in Russia unconditionally, and excess curiosity may go sideways (they don’t complain here, and even the drunken homeless people strive to check if you have a Russian passport or you are sent from Ukraine).

***

Saturday silence was violated by Kalashnikov armed with machine guns and not too much (contrary to the current stereotype) polite people who were in the late evening captured the Moscow Hotel. In it, as in other hotels in Simferopol, observers and journalists occupied all rooms, so the whole world became quickly known about what was happening. Flash in Moscow, like flies on honey, someone important reassured correspondents on the porch: “Nothing interesting in the hotel happens, the exercises are simply going on.”

True, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Crimea and the Minister of Defense of Autonomy, who came to the hotel, served as live evidence of the seriousness of the operation. During the "exercises", armed people without identification marks dispersed on all floors of the hotel from the fourth to the eighth.

In the elevator door opened on the fourth floor, the muzzle of the machine gun, a video operator who was traveling with me in the elevator, screamed loudly.

- Who are you? - I asked as demanding for the current situation in the most demanding situation.

“Leave here,” the machine gunner barked in camouflage form, he had a mask on his head.

“Of course, of course,” the man chattered in a suit with a badge of the observer and pressed on the fifth floor.

On the fifth floor (later it turned out that it was on the fourth floor that the epicenter of the operation) armed people were much more polite.

- Why did the whole hotel capture people with weapons?

“You will be calmer with us.” We are from the police, from Berkut, ”said the man in civilian clothes, but with a machine gun and even demonstrated the corresponding certificate. As you know, the Berkut fighters who opposed the Maidan for three months, who are considered killers in Kyiv and in the west of Ukraine and want to judge, in Crimea are almost national heroes. According to the fighter, an operation was undergoing an operation to seize an armed person who had settled in one of the rooms in Moscow.

Even the drunken homeless people strive to check if you have a Russian passport.

On the sixth floor, several armed people kept several foreign journalists under the muzzles and forced us to join them. However, they could not stand the interrogation of an arrogant naked man, so they quickly demanded to go on the elevator further.

“Wise guy, bitch,” one of the machine gunners muttered through his teeth.

On the eighth floor, I leaned out of the door, saw another group of invaders, one of which, without waiting for the question, reported: "Everything is in order." During a second visit to the coveted fourth floor, several journalists lost their flash cards with photos and videos. Everyone rudely pushed into the stairwell, and the indignant correspondent of the Los Angeles Times Sergei Loiko said: “******* (go) to their Los Angeles.”

The hotel, meanwhile, lived his life: while armed impolite people moved between the floors of march-brushes in full combat laying up the stairs, the waiters on the elevator drove the frightened guests go to the room. The occupation of the hotel lasted a couple of hours. The Minister of Defense, who stood in the lobby, explained that "the Ukrainian yoke was tired of the Crimeans," and asked "not to climb to his people." Then machine gunners began to run past him through the central entrance. One of them drove the journalist with an butt of the camera lens, threatened everyone else to “shoot” and even accidentally pushed the minister on the run. He did not even blink an eye, said that “the information [about the armed guest] was not confirmed,” and was retreated.

***

On a historical day for Crimea in the capital of Autonomy Simferopol, it was cold, drizzled. True, the lines of those who wanted to vote were still lined up among the sites, and the State Duma deputies reported in social networks and news agencies and news agencies. There were no queues at the site at the Medical Institute on Lenin Boulevard at 9 am, but the stream of people did not weaken. The former sailor, and now a pensioner Sergey, putting the ballot in the urn, said: “We finally returned home. In Russia, both the ships are more and more and more salaries. ”

“I adore Putin, he is strong, strong and real, with an unbending will,” Sergei praised his future president. He believes that "a referendum is a peaceful way to get away from [Kyiv] lawlessness." The former sailor is sure that Crimea is only the first step: “Still ahead. The workers have not yet risen in the Donbass, the Slavic soul has long and difficult for a long time, but so much Slavic blood is so shed for our original lands that it will soon begin for real. ”

Another supporter of Russia, who voted in the same site, is the 78-year-old Honored Doctor of Ukraine Ernest Legkov. “Worse than ours, they don’t live anywhere,” he says and admits that he receives a pension of 1800 hryvnias (about 8 thousand rubles). “Freedom begins where they pay normally, and we are poor people,” the pensioner adds.

"The workers have not yet risen in the Donbass, the Slavic soul has long and difficult for a long time."

An elderly woman passes by and learns Legkov. It turns out that in Soviet times, he was the head of the regional department of Crimea.

- Putin is smart, the whole Crimea worships him. I do not vote for myself, but for great -grandchildren, so that they live with dignity, ”she says.

“Ukraine historically has never been independent and united,” the honored doctor explains, he refuses to consider the actions of the Crimean authorities separatism.

There are no armed people in the plots who patrolled the center of Simferopol two weeks ago. They say that the Prime Minister of Crimea Sergei Aksenov barely managed to convince that this is an excessive measure: in Kyiv they love to say that an illegitimate referendum is held under the muzzles of machine guns. But the armored personnel carrier in the center of Simferopol was still left just in case. The holiday of many Simferopolites began in the morning, peppatriotic music played in the plots, cavalcades of motorcycles with Russian flags traveled around the city, many Ukrainian flags were sealed with Russian flags on license plates.

***

The city of Bakhchisaray, the former capital of the Crimean Khanate, is located a 30 kilometer of Simferopol. Before the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944, they made up the majority in the city, and after returning to their homeland, several distant microdistricts remote from the center were compact. Most Crimean Tatars support the Kyiv authorities and do not want to separate from Ukraine. The Majlis of the Crimean Tatar people immediately called on the referendum to boycott. According to the assurance of the deputy head of the Bakhchisarai regional Majlis, the plots that are usually opened in the Tatar microdistricts during the elections, this time did not earn at all.

In the Majlis building, several people play backgammon. "Glory to Ukraine!" - cries the winner. “Brothers, go for coffee, be a man,” one of the spectators tells the loser.

- Tell me, did you go to the referendum? I wedge in.

“No, of course,” everyone around me laughs. - We are boycotting it, we do not participate in this farce, where the result is known under the muzzles of machine guns in advance. Sergei Aksenov, nicknamed Goblin, has already stated that the entrepreneurs helped him “tigers” to buy, but it would be better to help the roads to do than to buy tanks and machine guns.

“And what do you think will be tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow the sun will come out,” says the deputy head of the Bakhchisarai department of the Mejlis and smiles. In Bakhchisarai, as in Simferopol, cloudy.

- So tomorrow Crimea will already be in Russia, and, therefore, there will always be such weather!

- We will never in Russia in our life!

- But now they will vote for this in a referendum.

- And if I come to the district administration tomorrow and say that we want to Turkey, I will make a referendum, then we will join Turkey?

At the entrance to the next to the Tatar microdistricts (it is located at the bus station) there is a sample of the bulletin with a tick already affixed near the desired option. The same hang in many areas throughout the Crimea. According to one of the observers, by two in the afternoon only two Tatar voted here. There are few voters on the site - not a single one came in half an hour. Among the members of the election commission sitting in a number of members, a young guy stands out in a sweatshirt of the Olympic Ukrainian team.

- Is it appropriate on such a day to sit in a sweater with the Ukrainian flag on the shoulder? - I ask him. The guy is embarrassed and admits that he wanted to buy a similar Russian sweatshirt ( Bosco is a designer of both teams), but did not find it.

- He is our athlete. We are not against Ukraine, it is not an enemy for us, we just want to separate, ”another member of the commission, woman, justifies.

“This is our Bandera,” the chairman of the commission jokes, but as soon as I leave a little away, he quietly asks the guy to remove the sweater.

“Let’s at least seal the Ukrainian flag with tape,” the guy sitting next to the athlete suggests even quieter.

The Bandera is finally changing into a black jacket, and Stas Mikhailov’s song “For you” plays on the site.

Another site is located in the city center, next to the mosque, but some Russians vote here, and vote actively.

“I am a Bakhchisaray native, we have always been Russians, and I am glad that I voted for Russia, since I know for sure that it will be better for us with Putin,” says a sonorous young girl.

"Let's at least seal the Ukrainian flag with tape."

On a cramped area, a huge line is built to the table with additional lists, here everyone is smiling, all for Russia. Long lines are explained by the fact that Kyiv refused to provide the Crimea with fresh voter data, so there were a lot of inaccuracies in the lists. The head of the local election commission, Mikhail Malyshev, the day before recognized the shortcomings in the lists. He said that even his mother, who died in early March, received an invitation to come to the elections. As a result, according to the leader of the Crimean Tatar people, 90 percent of the Tatars did not come to the sites, although Prime Minister Aksenov said that about 40 percent of the Tatars took part in the referendum. What are these conclusions based on is unknown.

***

In the city of Glory of the Russian Fleet Sevastopol, the townspeople already celebrated a victory in Nakhimov Square. Behind the legendary admiral, a scene was erected, on which local artists play: the song and dance ensemble of the Black Sea Fleet and a girl in short skirts from the Sevastopol Seagulls group. In the evening they are waiting for “Lube” and “earthlings”. In the crowd, women in white dishes are driven in the crowd, guys with Russian flags on their cheeks and on their forehead dance in a span against the backdrop of the poster “Sevastopol - the territory of Holy Rus'”. In general, the atmosphere that is inherent in any public event in any Russian city reigns here, the Document has not yet reached Kapkovshchina.

On this solemn day, many famous people from Russia gathered in Sevastopol. Here is the chief homophobic of Russia and the deputy of the St. Petersburg Zaborniya Vitaly Milonov walks along the embankment with the Russian flag and convinces me that observers are no longer needed in the Crimea, but you need to go to help [release] in Kharkov, Donetsk and Lugansk. Here is the former State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin, who, during the time of Viktor Yushchenko, was recognized in Ukraine by Persona Non Grata, writes stand -up against the background of the Vladimir Cathedral.

- This is the Russian Question program and I, Konstantin Zatulin. We are again in the Crimea, and although at the time of the recording of the program we do not yet know the result of the referendum, we expect his outcome, ”says a long -standing supporter of the Russian Crimea on the camera.

- Thank you for arriving. We are with you! - say the inhabitants of Sevastopol passing by.

“There was no such upsurge in Sevastopol for a long time,” the happy Zatulin smiles. I ask him if the areas of southeastern Ukraine will follow the example of Crimea. “The power in Kyiv cannot and does not want to go to a political dialogue, which leads to [complication] of the situation in other areas,” says Zatulin. He, like many in Donetsk or Lugansk, advocates the federalization of Ukraine, which, in his opinion, "" will no longer be able to remain a unitary and indivisible country. "

At the polling station at school No. 1, the leader of the biker club “Night Wolves” and a friend of Vladimir Putin, Alexander Zaldostanov, nicknamed the surgeon, suddenly arises with his impressive retinue. He often happens in Crimea and Sevastopol, once President Putin was late to meet the former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych for four hours, because along the way he drove into the camp of the Night Wolves.

- You are such a handsome man! Can I take a picture with you? - almost squealed with the joy of a middle -aged woman who surrounded the surgeon.

- My emotions go off scale. In Sevastopol, universal glee and joy, people understand that the road is opening home, ”says the surgeon and, having gone, as modestly as the surgeon can, adds:“ We also did something for this. ”

“Do not leave us, please,” someone bended.

“We were preparing for hostilities, and I would not advise Bandera scum to test Sevastopol,” the surgeon threatened the out of place and went outside. Here he promised, if necessary, to reach Kyiv. A red -haired girl with a bouquet of daffodils and a Russian flag on his knees drives up to the surgeon in a wheelchair.

“I, too, can be said, biker, I have my own transport,” the girl joked.

“Kid, we wish you to recover and transfer to a real motorcycle,” one of the bikers takes her by the shoulder.

- I really wanted to buy a motorcycle for myself, but then it became no need.

“Hold on, and the miracle will happen,” the surgeon tells her and sticks a sticker with the emblem of “night wolves” on the stroller.

***

In Simferopol, as in the entire democratic world, the plots were closed at eight in the evening. But in Simferopol, unlike the entire democratic world, the journalists unexpectedly were not allowed to attend the counting of votes. The members of the election commission said that according to the temporary regulation on the referendum, only they are present when counting the votes.

- Do you understand that now the legitimacy of this referendum is questioned?! You commit a crime that is dangerous to the state of Crimea, ”said Znak.com correspondent Ekaterina Vinokurova. She took the ban very close to her heart and, it seems, was more worried about herself, but for the fact that there will now be no international confidence in the Crimean referendum. However, the Western countries, following Kyiv, announced in advance that they did not recognize the referendum.

“Just show the decree in which this is written,” I asked the head of the commission.

- I don't have to show you anything! Look on the Internet, ”he shouted.

- Do you feel sorry for, or what?

- I don't like you!

“You are to me too, and what's next?”

-I like not like it, we don’t have to marry. We want to make sure you calculate correctly, ”Timur Olevsky reasonably remarked the Rain correspondent.

- These are your problems! I don't trust you!

“This is not a matter of trust, this is a matter of the procedure,” Olevsky pressed. Here, the video operator of “reality” Beata Buben could not stand it and laughed loudly.

-Girl, you, in my opinion, are drunk! - reacted a member of the election commission.

“And you, in my opinion, are not a lawyer,” remarked Olevsky as a member, who had previously introduced himself as such.

The members of the election commission for a long time explained to reporters that they interfered with the commission, called them “provocateurs” and began to count the votes with them finally. On the side of the election commission was Chinese and local correspondents who did not want to inflate a scandal.

- You are obvious provocateurs! You delay the work of the commission. In Russia, you would have been arrested for a long time! - the members of the election commission shouted vied with vying.

Fifteen minutes later, the police outfit arrived at the site and, not listening to the explanations of the journalists, together with self -defense representatives he harshly squeezed out the press from the site.

This incident left the question of falsifications at the referendum open (they were already announced by the Committee of voters of Ukraine). However, in a single site I was not able to see a ballot with a checkmark in a transparent urn, not at the “Russian version”. Те, кто не поддержал вхождение Крыма в состав РФ, остались дома, и фальсификации если и были, то с явкой избирателей.

***

Как и в Севастополе, в крымской столице праздновать присоединение полуострова к России начали заранее. А к девяти часам на площадь Ленина пришло не менее 10 тысяч человек. Кроме российских флагов были здесь полотнища «Офицеров России» и партии ЛДПР (никого почему-то не смущало, что цвета партии совпадают с цветами украинского флага). Со сцены объявили, что явка превысила 80 процентов, а за вхождение в состав РФ проголосовало больше 90 процентов (утром цифру уточнили до 96 процентов). Площадь встретила результат референдума ликованием, в толпе скандировали «Ро-ссия, Ро-ссия», люди смеялись и обнимались, многие пили пиво.

Собравшиеся были настолько искренне счастливы стать частью Российской Федерации, так самозабвенно размахивали российскими флагами и скандировали название страны, что трудно было поверить, что в России на такие митинги насильно загоняют бюджетников или нанимают активистов за 300 рублей с сайта «Массовка.ру». Несмотря на обстоятельства, предшествовавшие референдуму, несмотря на возможную войну в ближайшем будущем и далеко не безоблачные перспективы самого Крыма, несмотря на обилие пьяных людей вокруг, трудно было не порадоваться вместе с ними. Их мечта осуществилась.

Всю ночь в Симферополе бушевала буря, но утром в понедельник вышло солнце.