Then we returned to Kyiv. And my Jewish family was raising me like a slave. "Quieter than water, lower than grass." My mother’s three brothers got [arrested] in [19]38. In [19]37–38. My mother was even expelled from the Party because it came out that something had happened. My father, the chief accountant at the Darnytsia branch of the state bank, was considered a VIP in the neighborhood by our standards. He had serious problems at work. And I was told, “If you find something — stay silent, if you lose something — stay silent, if you learn something — stay silent, if you see something — stay silent. Always stay silent.” My father even had some trouble because of me. Once, I asked my history teacher, “You’re talking about Budyonny’s 1st Cavalry Army. Was there a second one?” There was, but it was under an information ban. Someone reported it, and my father got reprimanded by the district Party committee. About Alexander Nevsky. These Germans were idiots. In armor, onto the ice. Horses were armored, they were armored, everyone was armored. Of course, the ice gave way. And I was the one blamed. Accused of revising Soviet history. So my father was extremely protective of me. And in the morning of May 12, [19]48, I was supposed to... We used to get the newspaper before breakfast, because it was essential to read the front page, even during, before, or after breakfast to know what ideas to take to work. That’s how it was back then. My father hid the newspaper from me, “Take yesterday’s one.” I needed it for a political briefing. I did the briefing, everything. Then I found that day’s newspaper at the neighbors’. The Pravda newspaper. Turns out, it had a congratulatory message from the Soviet government and Stalin personally to the people and state of Israel on the occasion of its founding. And my father really didn’t want me to know about it, because I already knew what “kikeface” meant. That’s what they called me, they beat me. I fought back. We fought. But I didn’t understand the essence of Jewishness, of Judaism. Later, I began to learn more about it. And already as a student, I answered the main question. How did the Jews manage, after 2,000 years, to achieve the idea of creating their own state?
In the early sixties — just to finish this topic — I was rafting down the Chornyi Cheremosh with friends. We stopped. And along the Cheremosh, wherever you go, it’s someone’s property. Hamlets, hamlets… The owners showed up, one of them with an automatic rifle. “Who are you?” We felt the tension. It was night, you’re not going anywhere on a raft. And staying there… I started talking to them. Not in Ukrainian, but as they do in Kyiv. The conversation went like this, “Guys, we Jews spent 2,000 years striving for independence and we created our state. We totally understand your desire to create an independent Ukrainian state. That’s where we should have mutual understanding.” What a drinking party it was! How they got the idea, that simple idea, as plain as day. They didn’t let us leave for a couple of days. And there, for the first time, I read samizdat writings of Bandera, Hrushevsky, and many others. Some excerpts. And when my former sworn friends call us “Banderites”... (they say “Benderites,” they can’t even pronounce it), I say, “Have you read them? Just read. You won’t? Then shut up.” I actually used a different word. My wife Alyona always holds my hands and covers my mouth so I don’t say something too harsh, because they’re all still my friends, but they’ve become divided. By principles. And when Mr. Putin — for which I sincerely thank him, I say this responsibly — said in [20]14 that a Judeo-Banderite junta had come to power in Ukraine, I realized who I was socially. I am a Judeo-Banderite. And I’m proud of it. The only smart thing he’s ever said in his life was that phrase.
The year was 1968. There’s a photo where we’re in hiking, ski gear. The settlement of Kozhym-Rudnik, a mine where they extracted piezo raw materials — rock crystal. No radio station in the world back then worked without piezo raw materials. Some old man was hovering around us, pretty spry. Watching us. I caught him. “Old man, what do you need?” I asked the director of the geological team — he was also the head of the mines, chief engineer or whatever his title was. “Who is that?” — “That’s our Bandera.” “Bendera,” they say. “Thanks to him, we’re alive.” — “What do you mean?” Turned out, he was a professor at Lviv University, an expert in mechanical engineering and cold metal processing, and all sorts of other things. They let him work there are a mechanic. Later, when we talked… As soon as the Soviet authorities came to Lviv, within months, the entire university faculty was arrested. Some were killed, some executed, and he was exiled to the north. As a mechanic, and not [allowed to be promoted]. But he was such a specialist that all the equipment under his watch always worked. He improved its speed, quality, everything. And no matter how hard this Otsekhovych tried to promote him to at least a foreman — it was forbidden. He was under a ban. So he made him… made him a foreman about two or three years before we came. So he could receive a higher pension. We talked a lot with him. He told us everything about the disaster that happened to Lviv University. They had greeted the Red Army as liberators from the Poles. Everything was fine. And then — bam, no one left. “Why don’t you go back to Lviv?” There was no one left. Everyone disappeared somewhere. All his loved ones, friends — gone. It hurt. But there, he had already built a family. Kids, grandkids. We tried hard to convince him to come with us. “We’ll take you to Lviv, we’ll cover everything.” He said, “Guys, I can fund your whole expedition myself, I make as much as all of you combined.” Even as a mechanic. But never mind. That’s the story. That’s the story I witnessed firsthand.
And then it moved forward. Turned out Professor Povstianyi, a top combustiologist in Ukraine, a burn specialist, talked to us, “This membrane — try it.” A boy with third-degree burns, 65% of the body, [expected] fatality. He wrapped him in our film. That person is still alive. And he started using it as a burn treatment. We made it at our production facility, in the pilot workshop at our institute. Doctors used it very effectively. Now the chief burn specialist of Ukraine, chief combustiologist, professor... I used to know him, I know him... he remembers it all. He's the main, main student of Povstyaniy. [He was was all for it,] “Let’s do it, let’s do it.] But our Ministry of Health, during Kuchma’s time, when gangsters came to power thanks to Kuchma, there was this guy Kharlamov, chief engineer of one of the departments dealing with medical polymers, who said, “Guys, how much does your film cost?” Well, $1.50 per square meter. Wrapping an average-sized person takes 1.5 square meters. How much does Ukraine need? $50,000, $60,000… “But I,” he says, “buy analogs for millions. Worse ones. But I get kickbacks.” He told us that openly — me and Valera [Valerii Irklei]. And they killed the production. When the chemical fiber plant shut down, we tried to keep it going — no orders, no volume. Everything was shut down. Only the technical specifications and regulations remained. The few sheets I managed to save at home… A simple example: my sister-in-law spilled a pot of boiling herb water on herself. We applied the film — pain gone in three minutes. It reduced the swelling. Professor Symorod, a surgeon at the medical continuing education institute, prepared a dissertation for a surgeon using this film. We used this film. There was a fresh wound, [the film] was applied until healing. You could shine blue or red light through it, speeding up the process, and so on. All that film I had — almost all of it, there’s barely any left— I passed through my family doctor, who knows a military surgeon. The latter said it was great stuff. Valera came up with it.
Yurii Kleiner is a scientist, educator, and researcher. He was born into a Jewish family on September 6, 1935, in the town of Lypovets, Vinnytsia region. The family of his mother, Dora Yuriivna Kolnytska, faced persecution and repression by the Soviet authorities, though she herself managed to avoid arrest. In 1941, the Kleiner family escaped from the German occupation authorities, who had established a Jewish ghetto in Lypovets. The family spent the entire war in evacuation. From an early age, Yurii Kleiner experienced ethnic discrimination, but he never tolerated it passively. While studying at the Moscow Textile Institute, he also studied the history of the Jewish people, and later developed an interest in the true history of Russia, recognizing that the narrative presented by Russian and Soviet scholars was riddled with distortions. Yurii built a professional career as a specialist in synthetic fibers. Together with his friend and supervisor Valerii Irklei, he worked on the development of high-tech products for various industries — from casings for the food industry to membranes for hemodialysis and burn treatment films. At the same time, he led the Kyiv Tourism Club and contributed to the development of the bard song genre during the Soviet era. As of 2023, Yurii Kleiner continues to live in Kyiv. He supports young scientists whose innovations bring Ukraine closer to victory, and he regards Ukraine as an example for the entire world.
