Recently there was a photo posted in the Internet of Oleg Tsaryov with his son taken on September 1 at some school in Crimea… If you forget for a moment (if it is possible to forget) who Tsaryov is and what “tsar’s” did to us, in this case there is nothing special in the photo, just a father and his son…

But there is some kind of ultimate sadness on both faces. You can even think for a moment that such people as Tsaryov can think or regret. But that’s only for a moment, after that you start to remember who the father of that boy is and understand that he can feel like regular people and his heart starts to beat only in exceptional cases. I would never try to explain something to Tsaryov, that would be stupid and useless, but looking into the eyes of the child, I would try to explain something…

The son is not responsible for his father, but you will never be able to get rid of “Tsaryov’s son” stigma, people are going to look at you like that till the end of time and anything you do will be analyzed based on that. You have very sad face, maybe because the summer is over and you have to go to school, usual thing in such cases. I want to sympathize for you, I always feel sympathy for kids when the summer is over. But I would like to tell you about something else.

For sure this is not good to say something bad about a father when his child is around (I would be very angry if somebody would say something bad about me when my son is nearby). Adults usually say in such cases if you want to tell me something, tell it to me, my child has nothing to do with that. But you should get used that people will remember who your father is looking at you and they will be think what they would tell or do to your father… There is nothing to do about it. Your father should have thought about that before, but before the situation was different and it was cool to be “Tsaryov’s son” and your father behaved himself based on that and did what he did.

And as a result of his political activity the faces of many children now look much sadder than your faces. And if many people are glad to see sadness on your father’s eyes (as I told you there is nothing to do about it, you will always see that), it’s not pleasant to see sadness on a face of a child. I imagined faces of many kids who were getting medals for their fathers, because their fathers were killed, and their death is the result of your father’s activity. I remembered faces of children who were taken out of Lugansk at the beginning of last summer under shelling, it’s impossible to describe what I saw in their faces. Your father is good, he took you away far from the shelling, that is right, but many had no time to do that, they had to survive somehow, waiting for a mine or a shell or something else landing nearby. Something was flying not far from my house, and one time it landed really close. And you know what I had to do? I had to put bags with sand into the windows, so if it lands, the broken glass can’t hit my family. And my son is a little older than you and he loved to play on the windowsills at that time (the windowsills in our house are big and you can place a lot of stuff there). And now the windowsills had sand bags on them and he couldn’t play in the places he used to, and I had to give him a windowsill in another room (I sealed the window with metal shields from the outside). I told my son to move there and I was explaining to him for a long time that if he hears some sound, like something is flying, he should get away from the window and hide behind the wall (we have thick walls in our house and it’s safer behind them).

I won’t lie to you, I don’t like your father very much and if I have a chance to meet him I will probably do something to him that you will become an orphan after that. Why? As a result of his work (all parents go to “work”, right?) my son could and still can become an orphan or I could become a father of a cripple, or I could… No, I think, it’s better not to finish that phrase. And also because we have more orphans here and that is a result of your “father’s work”, few thousands orphans more, from the side of those who liked your father and from the side of people like me who doesn’t like him a lot.

My son is lucky, he can’t live in our house that we almost fixed completely, but he has father and mother and none of us got wounded or crippled. He is lucky in that sense, but many were not so lucky. He was lucky because when it became really dangerous to stay in our house, I took him away to a safe place, same as your father did. And now his biggest problem is that he can’t play in his room, his family changes homes and cities periodically, he can’t get long term friends for that reason, no same teaches, always different school and so on. But that is nothing compare to what could happen and what happened to many other children and parents.

Usually when I say goodbye to someone else’s children I tell them be good and listen to your parents… And I can’t say something different to you, your father wishes only good things for you. But I don’t quit understand what he wishes for other children. And you be good and listen to your parents.

Heorhii Sushchenko for Informator.lg.ua