Scots piper connects with war torn Ukrainian family.

Jimi McRae meets Irina Kalinovskaya in the Russian city of Samara. According to some estimates Irina is one of almost two million Ukrainian refugees currently living in Russia.

                            

   

Jimi with Irina's daughter Aleona and Aleona's husband Alastair at their home near Fyvie in Aberdeenshire.

 

When a Scottish bagpiper performed at a music festival on the banks of the River Volga last year two of the loudest cheering members of the audience had already made a special connection with his homeland.

 

For their daughter and grand-daughter called Aleona had previously married a Scotsman and now lived just a few hours drive from Jimi's home in Edinburgh.

 Irina Kalinovskaya (68) and her mother Victoria (96) both refugees from the current conflict in Ukraine, were watching the entertainment in the main square of Russian city Samara when Jimi took to the stage to perform a medley of well known Scottish, Eastern European and Russian folk tunes on his bagpipes. 

Jimi was one of several international performers taking part in the inaugural Anti- Fascist Music Festival 'Here We Stand'. Other participants included acts from France, Italy, Serbia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Russia.

 

Irina videoed Jimi's performance and also recorded footage of him shown later on Samara TV before emailing it to Aleona in Scotland. "My husband Alastair and I were blown away when we watched it" said Aleona. "The pipes sounded fabulous and it made us so proud and very happy.

"We'd both been worried sick about mum and granny ever since they were forced to flee their home in eastern Ukraine in September 2022 but Jimi had made them so happy. They were thrilled."

Aleona (42) and Alastair (55) contacted Jimi to say well done. A friendship developed and Jimi visited the couple at their home near Fyvie in Aberdeenshire. He also ensured Irina and Victoria had concert tickets for his second visit to Samara the following year.

"I was just glad to help out" said Jimi. "Aleona's Granny is 96. Can you imagine being that age and being forced to flee your home? I'm just happy to have helped put a smile back on their faces for a wee while."

 

Aleona said Irina, Victoria and herself hailed from the town of Volchansk in the Kharkov region of Ukraine close to the border with Russia. The family have lived there for generations.

 

“When Russian forces entered Volchansk on the 22.02.2022 residents were frightened at first but soon realised there was no threat and people went to greet them” said Aleona. "The Russians quickly restored electricity and gas to the town which had been cut off by Ukrainian forces. They kept the town clean and in order and started to hire people for councils and schools. They also installed air defences to protect the town from Ukrainian missiles.

 

"Things were looking good. We all thought the town was finally safe from the Ukrainian regime. Since the 2014 coup there had been a really hostile atmosphere in town. Speaking Russian was banned in public places and the Ukrainian language was forced on everyone, particularly those working and studying. But things were looking better. I had even booked a trip back home in time for Granny's birthday."

 

In September 2022 Ukrainian forces launched a counter attack in the Kharkov region and word spread that the Russian forces were making a strategic withdrawal.

 

"When people saw the forces leaving they started to run for the Russian border which is only a few miles away" added Aleona. "Everybody feared reprisals from the Ukrainian regime. Granny and mum left with nothing but the clothes they had on. This was my Granny's second evacuation of her life. She had already survived fleeing the Nazis in WW2.”

 

Jimi on stage in Samara.

 

Irina and Victoria were granted refugee status by Russian authorities and given temporary accommodation in a refugee camp in Samara. They are now into their third year of life there. 

 

"Mum and Gran are very grateful for the help and support they have received but miss their home. I am also very far from them and it is so difficult” added Aleona. 

 

“We were all looking forward to the day when we could return to Volchansk but our town has been turned to burnt rubble. There is nothing to collect. Even the graves of our ancestors have been desecrated and turned inside out. So no, we can never go back. There is nothing for us there."

Jimi said he had met many Ukrainian refugees during his travels in Russia. The precise number of refugees in Russia is unknown but some estimates put the figure as high as two million. "As far as I know that's higher than any other country" added Jimi.

"From Murmansk in the north to Samara in the south I have been approached by a lot of Russian speaking Ukrainians who wished to thank me for being there. Many of the younger ones speak good English so communication is easy. From what I have seen with my own eyes the vast majority of Ukrainian refugees in Russia are women, children and the elderly."

 

Jimi first visited Russia in October 2022 when he was invited to pipe at a week long memorial event in Murmansk commemorating the 80th anniversary of the first wartime arctic convoy to sail from Scotland to Russia. Two of Jimi's great-uncles served on the arctic convoys. One survived the war the other did not.

 

A video diary of the visit to Murmansk put together by Jimi can be viewed here: 

https://youtu.be/HKKcPP28OIg

 

"I do realise that my trips to Russia could be construed as controversial but I'm a humble bagpiper, not a politician, and I'm just doing what I can to try and help prevent WW3 and what will surely be, in a biblical sense, the end of days. How close is doomsday?" said Jimi.

"I studied WW2, particularly the war on the Eastern Front, in considerable detail when I was younger. All my adult life I have known about the immense and decisive contribution made by the Russian people to the great Allied victory over the Nazis. I feel very honoured and frankly quite blessed to have been granted the opportunity in my late middle age to go there and say thank you in person."

 

Alastair and Aleona Christie enjoying a cup of tea at their home in Aberdeenshire.