#1_1-8

JANUARY 16, 2018 ISSUE No. 1 (1133)
Tel.: +38(044) 303-96-19,
fax: +38(044) 303-94-20
е-mail: time@day.kiev.ua;
http://www.day.kiev.ua
Sketch by Viktor BOGORAD
Not just Javelins
Valentyn BADRAK:
“It is important for Ukraine
to build on the American
anti-tank missiles
deliveries and become
an ally of the US”
Continued on page 5
Photo by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day
We need clear
guidelines
The Verkhovna Rada is
to consider a bill
on the restoration
of sovereignty of Ukraine
on January 16
Continued on page 7
THE WAYS OF THE “PHILOSOPHY
OF COMMON SENSE”
Continued on page 6
Serhii SEKUNDANT on how to learn to distinguish the truth
from lies and drop the stereotypes of totalitarian mentality

2
No.1 JANUARY 16, 2018
DAY AFTER DAY
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
REUTERS photo
A “nation of immigrants”
is preparing for reform
#Oprah 2020
TV star and media mogul
Oprah Winfrey’s Golden
Globes speech is
considered her first step in
the next presidential race
By Anastasia RUDENKO, The Day
Oprah Winfrey has received
the Cecil B. DeMille Award
for outstanding contributions
to the world of entertainment.
The speech the
celebrity delivered from the stage is by
far the most significant one throughout
the history of the Golden Globes
ceremony.
In her emotional address, Winfrey
mentioned Recy Taylor, a black woman
who had died 10 days before. She was
kidnapped and raped by white men in
1944. Although she told about this
crime, the rapists were never prosecuted
because, to quote Winfrey, “justice
wasn’t an option in the era of Jim Crow.”
The TV presenter said proudly that
those days were undoubtedly gone now.
“So I want all the girls... to know
that a new day is on the horizon! And
when that new day finally dawns, it will
be because of a lot of magnificent
women, many of whom are right here in
this room tonight, and some pretty
phenomenal men, fighting hard to
make sure that they become the leaders
who take us to the time when nobody
ever has to say ‘me too’ again,” she said.
Following this brilliant speech,
Western political media and celebrities
launched the hashtag #Oprah2020,
journalists and columnists rushed to
compete in eloquence, assessing the
legendary TV presenter’s prospects in
the election race. At the same time, the
column of Ashley Feinberg in The Huffington
Post suddenly became one of the
most often quoted sources. “If we are to
be ruled by political dilettantes, some
people seem to think, why not a dilettante
beloved by all? Because Oprah is
the antithesis of Trump: a well-spoken,
incredibly smart and confident black
woman who energizes people not with
hatred and anger but with hope and vision,”
the article says. However, “Oprah
and Trump aren’t so different in their
relation to their fans. They both offer
catharsis on the cheap, with Oprah as
the liberal-values alternative to Trumpism
– a better, more humane alternative,
certainly, but the choice of a people
determined to suppress the real
conflicts at the heart of the country.”
“Fortunately, we live in a world
where we do not have only two options...
The answer is to elevate politicians
who do the politics better than the
other guys. Liberals who think their
program will prevail because of the
nobility of their character have had the
run of the Democratic Party long
enough. Time’s up on them, too,” the
columnist says.
By Natalia PUSHKARUK, The Day
Recently, lawmakers from both
major American parties –
Democratic and Republican –
agreed at a White House
meeting with President Donald
Trump to work together on
drafting a bill on immigration. According
to the Voice of America, their
effort will focus on ways to address
four major issues, including border
security, “chain migration” (legalization
of one’s residence in the US
through family connections), the
future of the visa lottery and the
“dreamers” (migrants who entered the
US illegally as children).
According to Reuters, Trump has
said he would sign a bill that would
provide a legal status to hundreds of
thousands of unregistered “dreamers”
if the document would contain
provisions on border security, including
the financing for a Mexico
border wall. “Now, that doesn’t
mean 2,000 miles of wall because you
just don’t need that... because
of mountains and rivers and lots of
other things,” said Trump and
added: “But we need a certain portion
of that border to have the wall.
If we don’t have it, you can never
have security.”
● “THE PRESIDENT IS
SHIFTING FROM A RADICAL
TO A PALLIATIVE STANCE”
The Day began a conversation
with Professor Oleksandr TSVIET-
KOV, an Americanist from Hrynchenko
University of Kyiv, by asking
how important and timely this reform
was for the US.
Expert: “The US government is looking for
new solutions to domestic policy issues”
“This is a difficult time, especially
for the White House and the political
establishment in Washington. All
recent events took place against the
background of the release of Michael
Wolff’s book offering an inside view
of the White House and a critical picture
of the formation of the political
course of the country through the
White House. In addition, no one has
ever stirred up the audience during
the Golden Globes award ceremony as
much as Oprah Winfrey did this time,
who, with her passionate speech, disturbed
the entire political milieu. She
took a stand against sexual harassment
and racial discrimination, which
was picked up by the Time’s Up feminist
movement. All this has become
the background for a political debate
on immigration.
“The thing is, when Trump was
still fighting for the presidency, he
proposed a drastic, radical approach
to immigration issues, in particular,
by taking a harsh stance on the issue
of the deportation of illegal immigrants,
who number up to 11 million
in the US.
“As of now, the two major parties
have agreed on a palliative measure, I
mean postponing for some time the
consideration of the so-called DACA
(Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals),
or in other words, delaying
the resolution of the deportation issue
regarding migrants who entered
the US illegally as children. The presidential
position on this issue has
changed. There are now three poles
emerging in the Washington political
establishment: the Republican and
Democratic parties in Congress and
the position of the president, who is
shifting somewhat away from his
previous stance, from a radical to a
palliative one.
“All this is superimposed on a new
issue – the forthcoming grand immigration
bargain that will apply to all
illegal immigrants, that is, more than
11 million residents of the US. This is
a very high-profile issue for that
country, and a shift in the president’s
position may well become that additional
factor that will resolve the issue
that the previous three presidents had
failed to resolve.
“Therefore, this kind of change of
course and such an opportunity
emerging against the background of
obstruction in political life regarding
the White House and the political establishment
draws attention.”
Trump insists that the bill should
include a provision for a wall to be
built along the border with Mexico. In
your opinion, which aspects should
this migration reform take into account?
“The wall is a tribute to the president’s
previous radical speeches,
after all. The question of child illegal
migrants will be of greatest importance,
and it is likely to be resolved in
accordance with the two parties’ approaches,
as well as the forthcoming
A “roof” over international journalism
Den has been honored with an award for coverage of international topics
Photo by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day
By Natalia PUSHKARUK, The Day
On January 10, this newspaper
received a certificate
from the Ukrainian Prism
Foreign Policy Council for
covering the field of international
relations and foreign policy in
our publication. When presenting the
award, chairman of the Ukrainian Prism
Foreign Policy Council Hennadii
MAKSAK said: “We sum up annually
what happens in foreign policy. This
year, since we marked the centennial of
Ukrainian diplomacy in it, we decided
to conduct an expert survey and ask not
only which diplomats were doing better
in their jobs, but also which journalists
were more professional in the field of
external relations. It is important to
keep making such assessments, because
we must understand who are doing
their jobs professionally, and in which
fields.”
“It is obvious that the newspaper
Den, and, in particular, our international
affairs editor Mykola Siruk, is
what holds the ‘roof’ over international
journalism,” Den’s editor-in-chief
Larysa Ivshyna said during the event.
“I do not like when people say sometimes
that there is no international
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS EDITOR OF THE NEWSPAPER DEN MYKOLA SIRUK
DURING A TRIP TO ISRAEL IN OCTOBER 2009, SURROUNDED BY ISRAELI
FEMALE SOLDIERS IN THE NEGEV VALLEY, NEAR THE GRAVE AND HOUSE
MUSEUM OF THE FOUNDER OF THE ISRAELI STATE DAVID BEN-GURION

WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
DAY AFTER DAY No.1 JANUARY 16, 2018 3
agreement on 11 million migrants.
This is the most powerful agreement
that can be achieved. There
is still no certainty that this will
happen, but it is a realistic
prospect now. And this is so serious
that we are seeing changes in
the positions of the conservatives,
in their approaches to this issue,
there are some disappointments.
For example, most likely, Steve
Bannon’s strong career is over, as
he has been removed from an editorial
position in his Breitbart
News magazine. In general, all
these events indicate that the US
government is looking for new solutions
to domestic policy issues;
it now needs to achieve some positive
results, and the situation is
being used by both parties to address
issues that have been pressing
over recent years. It must be
understood that this is happening
in America, a nation of immigrants.
That is, this issue is of
great concern to many.”
US media have started to discuss
possible presidential ambitions
of TV host Oprah Winfrey. In
addition, the White House has
confirmed that president Trump
will take part in the 2020 presidential
election. What does such
news mean?
“Of course, 2020 is still a long
way off. However, Winfrey’s
speeches touch upon the most
pressing issues on America’s agenda,
including sexual harassment,
support for the feminist movement,
and protests against racial
discrimination, as she is African
American. She embodies those political
issues that are now the talk
of the country.
“Particular attention is also
drawn to this issue due to the fact
that, although the presidential
election will take place in 2020, the
midterm congressional election
will occur in 2018. Both parties
will compete to shape the political
agenda for the midterm election.
They are looking for leaders who
will be able to help them achieve
positive results. For the Democrats,
this is a moment when they
can reform and tune in for a new
leader.”
journalism in Ukraine. Perhaps it is
not good enough for such a great
country as ours. But it did and does
exist. It comes with uneven quality
and quantity, but it does exist due to
the fact that there are true authorities
who learn themselves and teach
others,” she said. According to the
editor-in-chief, the publication of
Den’s Library books – Two Rus’es;
Wars and Peace, or Ukrainians and
Poles: Brothers/Enemies, Neighbors;
The Power of the Soft Sign; Return
to Tsarhorod; My Sister Sofia... – “all
hold the perimeter of our international
relations.” “Instead of the
state and the ‘grant society,’ it is us
who do something that then comes to
define a new cultural policy in
20 years,” Ivshyna emphasized.
“Creative and professional atmosphere
prevalent in the newspaper
Den is an incentive for highquality
international journalism,”
Mykola Siruk noted in turn.
The Ukrainian Prism Foreign
Policy Council is a network of nongovernmental
think-tanks whose
purpose is to participate in the establishment
of democratic foundations
for the development and implementation
of foreign and security
policies by state authorities of
Ukraine, implementation of international
and national projects and
programs aimed at improving foreign
policy analysis and expertise,
and strengthening the participation
of the expert community in the decision-making
process in the fields
of foreign policy, international relations,
and public diplomacy.
By Natalia PUSHKARUK, The Day
The Polish government saw a
sweeping reshuffle recently.
As Prime Minister Beata
Szydlo resigned on December
7, Mateusz Morawiecki
was appointed to this office. He has
decided only now to make changes in
the Polish Cabinet of Ministers.
Gazeta Wyborcza has published
the new Cabinet lineup. In particular,
Poland’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs is now headed by Jacek Czaputowicz,
until recently a deputy
minister. He replaced Witold
Waszczykowski who went on record
as making many harsh statements
about Ukraine. Mariusz Blaszczak
and Joachim Brudzinski became
ministers of defense (instead of Antoni
Macierewicz) and of the interior
(instead of Mariusz Blaszczak),
respectively. The ministers of the
environment, public health, and finance
were also replaced.
The Day requested some Polish
and Ukrainian experts to explain
what the reshuffle will lead to and
what it means for Poland, the EU,
and Ukraine.
● “THE CURRENT CHANGES IN
THE GOVERNMENT MAINLY
FOCUS ON THE DOMESTIC
MARKET AND RELATIONS
WITH THE EU AND NATO”
Michal KOBOSKO, director, Poland
office, US Atlantic Council:
“What has occurred in Warsaw
is a really serious and sweeping governmental
reshuffle. We did not
expect so many changes. Only yesterday
we expected three or four
misters to be replaced.
“Some important offices, such
as foreign and defense ministers,
will be held by other people. I think
these changes are the most important
because, from the international
viewpoint, these officials are responsible
for foreign policy and national
defense. It is really important.
Antoni Macierewicz was a very
controversial minister of national
defense. Many people thought that
Mr. Kaczynski would not be strong
enough to dismiss Mr. Macierewicz.
In all probability, Polish President
Andrzej Duda demanded that the
defense minister be dismissed because
there was a never-ending conflict
between the president and
Mr. Macierewicz. So it is a very positive
signal for President Duda who
is commander-in-chief of the Polish
armed forces.
“But this reshuffle leaves a lot of
questions unanswered. Antoni
Macierewicz is a strong personality
The Day’s experts comment
on Polish government reshuffle
REUTERS photo
Positive steps
who holds strong positions inside the
ruling PiS [Law and Justice. – Ed.]
party. I don’t know what offer was
made to Mr. Macierewicz. I think
they will offer him something in parliament
or some other official position
because he may come into a new
conflict with Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
He was dismissed today, and it is
important information for the ministry
of national defense and the
Polish army, where there are a lot of
internal conflicts. Minister Macierewicz
fired a lot of generals – a
third of general’s positions have
been vacant in the Polish army in the
past few months. The new defense
minister is to fill these vacancies.
“Another major replacement is
the minister of foreign affairs. Minister
Waszczykowski was in conflict
with many other ministers, countries,
and especially with the EU. He
was very controversial and provocative
in his interviews. And although
he is an experienced Polish diplomat,
he failed to shape his own policy
instead of pursuing the foreign
policy of Mr. Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
“So I think it is good news that
Minister Waszczykowski has left office.
We don’t know so far how the
new foreign minister Jacek Czaputowicz
will fare, whether he will
be different in his first steps, decisions,
and statements because, after
all, it is Jaroslaw Kaczynski who
makes final foreign-policy decisions.
“As for the Polish-Ukrainian
relations, President Duda recently
paid a successful visit to Kharkiv
and had a good meeting with President
Poroshenko. We hope this is a
chance to turn over a new leaf. I’d
like the new foreign minister Czaputowicz
to make a statement that
will normalize our relations. I cannot
be sure that this will happen.
We don’t know yet what kind of
foreign policy this new government
will pursue and whether it will differ
considerably from that of the
previous cabinet. So far, I can hear
no angry reports that signalize that
Poland is going to speak with
Ukraine in a new manner and there
will be some breakthrough again.
“In its foreign policy, the previous
government did not seem to
show much interest in Ukraine.
Now I think that Prime Minister
Morawiecki is aware of how important
it is for Poland to maintain
good working relations with Kyiv
and that he will pay a visit to Kyiv
in the near future.
“The current changes in the government
mainly focus on the domestic
market and Poland’s relations
with the EU and NATO. This explains
the replacement of the ministers
of foreign affairs and the environment
– Minister Szyszko lost his
office because the EU criticized him
openly and harshly. The minister of
defense, whom NATO criticized for
being problematic, was also dismissed.
“As for a likely change in the
Poland-EU relations, the first
step will be taken this evening
[January 9. – Ed.] – Prime Minister
Morawiecki is leaving for Brussels
to meet Jean-Claude Juncker and
Frans Timmermans in the European
Commission. They will be discussing
the debates on Article 7 the
EC initiated before Christmas.
Mr. Morawiecki will be discussing
with EU officials whether Poland
will obey EU regulations and meet
its expectations, observe the rule of
law – the things that stirred up biting
EU criticism. It will be difficult
for Prime Minister Morawiecki to
change anything in Brussels. I am
sure he will use the cabinet reshuffle
to convince our European
friends that Poland is doing the
needful and making important
changes in the government. It is a
signal to Brussels that Poland
wants to cooperate more closely
with European institutions. It is
common knowledge in Brussels
that, unfortunately, Premier
Morawiecki is not the one who
makes final decisions. He is not
flexible enough, but he is free to
deal with any matters, including
Poland’s relations with the EU.
“The old government had
two years to closely cooperate with
European institutions, but this
time was wasted. It is important
that there have been some
changes. At the same time, it is
difficult to believe that the new
government will radically change
its policy in the relations with
Brussels. I don’t expect many
great changes. I can expect that
the tone of discussions will be
slightly different. But we cannot
expect any major changes until
Mr. Kaczynski changes his opinion
about the EU.”
● “WE CAN EXPECT SOBER
AND BALANCED
DECISIONS”
Oksana YURYNETS, co-chairperson,
Group for Inter-Parliamentary Ties
with the Republic of Poland; Member
of the Ukrainian Parliament:
“This reshuffle is a very positive
thing. Mr. Waszczykowski
used to make all kinds of statements
and things that were unclear
to and unacceptable for
Ukraine. The situation is different
now, and changes have been made.
We can surely forecast that there
will be a new positive demand for
international relations, particularly
in the context of Ukraine and
Poland.
“The newly-appointed foreign
minister is a career diplomat who is
not too much politicized and is taking
a pacifist attitude. He carved
out his career gradually. It seems to
me that now we can expect to see
very sound diplomatic steps, sober
and balanced decisions – the things
that we need today.
“As for expectations, we should
take into account that Poland is a
parliamentary-presidential republic,
where people can be MPs and
deputy ministers at the same time.
Therefore, it may be easier for our
group to pay visits of friendship
and hold an assembly. This foreign
policy should be pursued in the
shape of correct and well-balanced
diplomatic steps, which both the
Polish and the Ukrainian sides
need.
“Of course, we expect to make a
fresh positive start. For the Polish-
Ukrainian Assembly, scheduled for
December 11-12, was canceled because
there was a government
reshuffle and some MPs were also
busy as cabinet members. I hope
the group will resume work this
year. The group is chaired by the
parliament vice-speaker on our
part and the Sejm deputy speaker
on their part. Incidentally, Mykola
Kniazhytskyi, the co-chairman,
and I sent an inquiry of our friendship
group to Warsaw almost two
months ago, and we are still waiting
for an answer. Maybe, some direction
of strategic communication
with Ukraine will be found right
now. I am convinced that we will
never fall apart, and we need communication,
a dialog, today in order
to fill the vacuum, which has
formed in the past few months,
with information. Besides, it is
good that the presidents of Poland
and Ukraine made a constructive
visit to Kharkiv. They drew up a
certain road map, and parliament
and the Cabinet should now set
such new and extremely important
directions of work as cooperation
within the limits of Euro-regions
and cross-border cooperation.
Poland is a strategic EU country,
in fact our gate to Europe, so there
are very many things to do. For
this reason, changes in other ministries
are equally crucial, for this
will help find out what is to be done
if a proper international policy is
pursued. There is very much work
to do, and the guidelines for the
next year were in fact drawn up at
the end of the last one.”

4
No.1 JANUARY 16, 2018
TOPIC OF THE DAY
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
By Ivan KAPSAMUN,
Valentyn TORBA, The Day
Russia’s hybrid war against
Ukraine has several dimensions.
The aggressor is
making use of not only weapons,
but also humanitarian
issues, such as, mainly, political and
historical memory. Accordingly, a
timely reaction and right accents are
of great importance. Den/The Day
has been writing about this for many
years, in fact substituting the
government in pursuing this
humanitarian policy. We have always
emphasized that Ukrainian statehood
has ancient roots. Kyivan Rus’, the
Principality of Galicia-Volhynia, the
Lithuanian-Ruthenian State, the
Cossack Hetmanate, the 18th-19thcentury
national liberation movement,
the 1917-21 Ukrainian Revolution,
and the dissident movement in the
USSR were milestones in the making
of and the struggle for an independent
Ukrainian state.
Volodymyr Viatrovych, director
of the Ukrainian Institute of National
Remembrance, highlighted
some key points the other day. The
historian emphasized in a 5th Channel
program: “It is important for us
to say that the Ukrainian state is not
something that happened accidentally
in 1991. The Ukrainian state is
the result of quite a long struggle of
the Ukrainians for their independence.
It is a major informational effort,
and it needs to be reinforced.
This will make it clear that presentday
Ukraine is the UNR’s successor
and explain what the Soviet period
was really about. Politicians are
more and more often making the
statements that have long been
heard from historians. I mean Soviet
occupation, the establishment of a
Bolshevik and then a communist occupation
regime…” Viatrovych also
pointed out that the 1991 Act of Declaration
of Ukraine’s Independence
does not need to be revised, but it
would be better to speak of the
restoration, not declaration, of
Ukrainian independence.
Moscow reacted immediately.
“Speaking of this seriously, not only
Crimea but a half of Ukraine should be
returned to Russia because Kharkiv,
Dnipropetrovsk, and the Donbas were
not part of Ukraine before the establishment
of the Soviet Union,” said
Leonid Kalashnikov, Chairman of the
State Duma Committee for the CIS,
Eurasian Integration, and Links with
Compatriots (ria.ru).
The Russian leadership always interprets
history in its own, warped,
way. Indeed, a number of territories,
including Western Ukraine, Bessarabia,
and Crimea, were made part of
the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet era,
but Russian politicians forget, for
some reason, that all these territories
used to be part of the Ukrainian National
Republic, the Western Ukrainian
People’s Republic, Carpathian
Ukraine, and Skoropadsky’s Ukrainian
State, not to mention the earlier
periods. Moreover, Ukraine once included
some territories of today’s
Russia, such as Kuban and western
parts of Belgorod and Voronezh
oblasts. Therefore, these Russian
claims, particularly about Kharkiv,
Dnipro or the Donbas, a part of which
Russia occupied in the present day,
are groundless.
Who was the occupier,
pational in respect of our primordial
Russian lands,” Aleksey Shiropaev
wrote on his FB page.
What do some well-known historians,
lawyers, and politicians think
of this?
● “I THINK THERE REALLY
WERE SOME ELEMENTS
OF OCCUPATION
IN SOVIET UKRAINE”
Leonid KRAVCHUK, first President
of Ukraine:
“It is a very difficult question
whose successor Ukraine is. But in
purely legal terms, there are signs of
Ukraine’s occupation. We searched –
painstakingly but in vain – for a document
on the establishment of the
USSR in 1922. No one knows who
adopted and signed it. This means
that no legal procedures were observed
when the USSR was being
formed. Secondly, no announced and
signed documents were available in
international organizations, including
the League of Nations. In other
words, the norms of international
law were not observed either. So we
But all the Russians are not the
same. “Recognizing the whole period
of Ukraine’s stay in the USSR as occupation
is a very important, crucial
step on the road of present-day
Ukrainian nation formation. We,
Russians proper, must accept and welcome
this attitude unless, of course,
we want to identify ourselves with the
imperial Bolshevik power – all the
more so that Red power was also occucannot
say that the world community
recognized the formation of the
USSR to any extent. Putting all this
together, we will arrive at the conclusion
that there are no juridical
grounds to claim that Ukraine, as a
state that had existed for a long
time, legitimately and voluntarily
joined the USSR. As for the current
independence of Ukraine, there are
all the relevant documents that provide
a legal basis for considering
Ukraine a state. I think there really
were some elements of occupation in
the Soviet-era Ukraine.
“Let me turn to my own life experience.
When still a child, I saw several
occupations. The first occupation
was carried out by Poland, when Pilsudski
gave some Ukrainian lands to
his favorites. We called them ‘osadniks’
(‘settlers’). Then there was a Soviet
occupation. The third occupation
was German. The fourth occupation is
what we can see now – the occupation
of Crimea and a part of the Donbas.
Let us be frank: if foreign troops come
to our land and set up their order, this
is called occupation.
“As for whose legal successor
Ukraine is, it is rather a difficult
question to me. The independent
Ukrainian state was established in
1991. We sometimes hear some historians
speak of the restoration of
or On our political legacy again
Ukrainian statehood. This immediately
raises a question – restoration
of which state? Which period should
we refer to? If we ‘dig deep,’ we will
see that our political subjectness
spans for much more than 25 or 100
years. Then we should begin from the
period of Kyivan Rus’. It would be a
good idea to find this truth. But
when we speak of the restoration of
statehood, we should be clearly
aware of what is to be restored. Even
if this state was not within the present
limits, it was a subject.”
● “WHENEVER WE SPEAK OF
RESTORING STATEHOOD,
WE MUST REFER TO
THE UKRAINIAN
NATIONAL REPUBLIC”
Stanislav KULCHYTSKYI, Doctor
of Sciences (History); professor;
department head, Institute of
the History of Ukraine, National
Academy of Sciences, Ukraine:
“Whenever we speak of restoring
statehood, we must refer to the
Ukrainian National Republic. Soviet
quasi-statehood was not genuine
statehood, although we seemed to
have a constitution. But that constitution
did not reflect [communist]
party dictatorship. Soviet power was
two-tiered – it was the rule of the
party on the one hand and of the Soviets
(councils) on the other. Dictatorship
played the main role at the
time. Gorbachev broke the link between
the party committees and the
Soviets. The Soviets thus gained sovereignty.
Before that, party committees
had been nominating candidates
to the Soviets, although there
was an outward imitation of free
elections. The grassroots also gained
sovereignty. Earlier, the grassroots
had gained sovereignty after the
downfall of autocracy, but they
quickly lost it after the Bolshevik October
1917 coup, only to regain it in
1989, when the first free elections
were held. The year 1990 saw the
first free elections to the constituent
republics’ Soviets. This triggered the
collapse of the Soviet Union.
❷ What about the borders? Suppose
the UNR borders are an alternament
thus legalized the occupation. I
fully accept this term. Soviet power finally
took root in the early 1930s during
the Holodomor. The liberation
movement ground to a halt, only to revive
when dissidents emerged. Therefore,
governmental structures were
nationalized, and it would be wrong to
speak of occupation in the pure sense of
the word in this case. As for Western
Ukraine, the occupied status existed
there until 1991. Western Ukraine is
particular in that it lived under Soviet
power one generation less than the
other regions of Ukraine. This also
had an impact on the 1991elections,
when western Ukrainians in fact
formed an anticommunist government.”
● “SEVENTY YEARS OF
SOVIET UKRAINE WAS NOT
AN EMPTY VACUUM”
Viktor MUSIIAKA, Professor, Kyiv
Mohyla Academy; Member of
Parliament, 2nd and 4th convocations:
“The question of referring our
statehood to the UNR or any other historical
period is important in a histo-
“There is one more point here. In
the first years, Soviet power was totally
occupational. Then there came
some complicated and interesting
processes, such as Ukrainization,
when the Kremlin was trying to instill
its authority in Ukraine. Those
processes began to strip Ukraine of
the signs of occupation. The governrical
and political context. But we
should not consider the existence of
the Ukrainian SSR as a historical hole
that allegedly does not exist. Otherwise,
we may in fact get lost in a maze
without a way out. In 1991, when
Ukrainians voted for their independence,
they did not begin from scratch.
There had been a long period of our
formation. Seventy years of Soviet
Ukraine was not an empty vacuum.
The Constitution of the Ukrainian
SSR was renamed as Constitution of
Ukraine with a number of changes.
Approaches to ownership were radically
changed, but we must remember
that the legal basis remained the
same. When the current Constitution
of Ukraine was being adopted in 1996,
MPs were guided by the provisions of
the previous constitution which says
that a new constitution and amendments
to it are to be passed by the
Verkhovna Rada. In other words, we
did not carry out a revolution but used
what had been achieved before.
“As for the UNR, we should take
into account how long it existed and
how it was being established. There
were a lot of controversial points
there. From the very beginning, the
socialists who formed the UNR were
not for the full independence of
Ukraine. Its first decrees spoke of autonomy
within the Russian Empire and
then the Russian Federation. Independence
was mentioned in the last decree.
So, when we refer to that period,
we should also take public opinion into
account. I don’t think Ukrainian society
is taking an unequivocal attitude
to this question. Even the Venice Commission
affirms that the Soviet period
of our history should be taken into account
in legal terms.”
● “WE SHOULD FIRST ANSWER
TO OURSELVES SOME
FUNDAMENTAL, BASIC,
QUESTIONS”
Ihor SIUNDIUKOV, editor, “History and
I” section, newspaper Den:
“Before accepting or rejecting
the statement that 1920-91 were
years of occupation in the history of
Ukraine and, accordingly, such a
quasi-state as the Ukrainian SSR was
‘occupational,’ we should answer to
ourselves some fundamental, basic,
questions:
❶ Do we take into account all the
states or quasi-state formations that
existed on the territory of Ukraine
(Kyivan Rus’, the Kingdom of Rus’,
the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the
Cossack Hetmanate State, the UNR,
Pavlo Skoropadsky’s Hetmanate, and
the Ukrainian SSR (a crucial point!)),
using and drawing the best of each of
these institutions and learning their
sometimes horrible experience, or do
we let only politically ‘suitable’ pages
into history?
tive to the era of occupation – but
they do not coincide at all with the
borders of the current Ukrainian
state. They are essentially more modest.
Should we return this ‘difference’
to Russia, the successor of the
empire? In the long run, the borders
of Skoropadsky’s Hetmanate are incomparably
more legitimate. (Incidentally,
the hetman used to take effective
measures to make Crimea and
Kuban part of Ukraine.) This is an
extremely difficult, delicate, and
ticklish issue which must in no case
be ignored.
❸
If there was occupation,
there inevitably were collaborationists
(‘quislings’). Who was
among them? Mykola Skrypnyk,
Mykola Khvyliovy, Yurii Kotsiubynsky,
or the ‘activists’ who
would take the last food from their
Ukrainian brothers in 1933, or
Petro Shelest, Maksym Rylsky,
Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Mykola
Bazhan, who had to be loyal, at least
outwardly, to the regime in certain
(sometimes long) periods? And
Mykola Amosov, Oleh Antonov, Viktor
Nekrasov, and other prominent
ethnic Russians – were they ‘occupiers’?
And what is more, would the
occupation have been possible without
support from at least a part of
Ukrainian society?”

WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
TOPIC OF THE DAY No.1 JANUARY 16, 2018 5
VALENTYN BADRAK
By Ivan KAPSAMUN, The Day
Having decided to provide
arms to Ukraine, the US is
worried about the possibility
of US military technology
falling into Russian soldiers’
hands. This is stated in the article
“U.S., Ukraine Try to Ensure Weapons
Don’t Fall to Enemy,” which
appeared in The Wall Street Journal.
The publication notes that for that
reason, the Javelin anti-tank missiles
(ATMs) are supposed to be kept at the
Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF)’s
depots in permanent bases located far
back from the frontlines. Also, American
soldiers, who are now training
Ukrainian servicemen at the Yavoriv
Combat Training Center, could soon
move to training centers in Central
Ukraine as well, to regularly check
and count these arms. So, how
substantiated are the fears of Americans?
Are there reasons for this? We
discussed it with Valentyn Badrak,
who serves as director of the Center
for Army Research, Conversion and
Disarmament.
● “THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
DOES NOT ACCEPT THE
PUTINIST KREMLIN’S
ATTEMPTS TO IMPOSE
A REVISION OF
THE SECURITY SYSTEM”
“Yes, the reasons do exist. For the
US, Ukraine remains a country that
did not seize a historic opportunity,
although it had every reason to become
a political and economic regional
leader after the collapse of the USSR.
We did not seize it ‘because of the human
factor.’ Leonid Kuchma’s multivector
approach turned out to be a
case of spinelessness that transformed
into unstable foreign policy of his
pupils and made the situation into a
confirmation of Samuel Huntington’s
conception of civilizational fault
lines. As you know, Huntington drew
one of them between Western and
Eastern Ukraine. Therefore, the US
leadership, by and large, does not
trust our government and is not convinced
that Ukraine has become an asset
to it. Not in the sense of ‘distrusting
Petro Poroshenko,’ but in the
sense of being uncertain whether a
significant disappointment among
Ukrainians in the current government
might not lead to a pro-Russian politician’s
taking lead. Of course, with
support from Russia, whose political
representation in Ukraine remains
strong.
“The US is well aware of the position
of the Ukrainian authorities
and develops its own position accordingly.
President Poroshenko
opted for a strategy of palliative action
in the struggle against the enemy,
and the US is also implementing
a half-hearted action strategy. The
US, and maybe Canada, are the only
Western nations who are really interested
in making Ukraine into a
strong buffer between the West and
Russia. All other NATO countries,
except Poland and the Baltic States,
will do nothing for the real strengthening
of Ukraine.
Not just Javelins
Valentyn BADRAK: “It is important for Ukraine to build on the
American anti-tank missiles deliveries and become an ally of the US”
“Therefore, deliveries of Javelin
ATMs are a symbolic step. They offer
psychological support to Ukraine and
serve as a signal for Russia that the
US government does not accept the
Putinist Kremlin’s attempts to impose
a revision of the security system.
More so given that these weapon systems
cannot strategically influence
the course of the war, it is just that
the word ‘Javelin’ has become a
mantra that everyone repeats and
everyone listens to. It is important for
Ukraine to build on this situation and
become an ally of the US, similar to,
say, Israel or Poland.”
● “THE U.S. IS WELL-
INFORMED ABOUT
NUANCES OF UKRAINE’S
PERSONNEL POLICY
IN THE FIELD OF SECURITY
AND DEFENSE”
Also, WSJ writes that American
weapons falling into enemy hands “is
not a theoretical problem.” It notes
that, after the US delivered shortrange
counter-battery radars to
Ukrainian military in 2014, some
components at least of one of these
radars were captured by combined
Russian and separatist forces during
fierce fighting near Debaltseve. What
do you know about this?
“This is more a ‘technical’ issue,
which depends on many factors. But it
is also a legitimate question. Since the
Ilovaisk debacle, the Ukrainian army has
become stronger by an order of magnitude,
and this is true. But it happened because
our people ceased to be pacifists
and learned to respond quickly to bombardments
and sudden offensive actions
of the enemy. At the same time, the
US government is well-informed about
the nuances of Ukraine’s personnel
policy in the field of security and defense.
Speaking of the UAF, experienced
and talented fighters have been
given brigade-level commands, and in individual
cases combat arm-level commands.
Under conditions where the
automated command and control system
has not been fully created, to say the
least, and Russia has already completed
its cycle of preparations for a largescale
war, no one is immune from
Vladimir Putin embarking on another
military adventure after the presidential
election. Of course, if he succeeds in
maintaining control of the situation.
Were Putin not in the Kremlin, but in
Bankova Street, he would have ceased to
be the head of state a long time ago, but
unfortunately, Russians have an Asianlevel
store of patience. So, we see that a
‘technical’ scenario is possible as well.
Meanwhile, the US government would
justly regard Javelin systems falling into
the hands of Russian terrorists as a defeat
in its symbolic clash with the Krem-
lin in a ‘disputed’ area. However, the US
government needs to supply such
weapons to Ukraine as much as Ukraine
needs to obtain them. Financial expenditures
are small, but they may have an
oversized effect if they strengthen the
anti-Russian sentiments of Ukrainian society,
improve the morale of the military
and eventually turn Ukraine into a powerful
and well-protected player in the
Western camp. In addition, the likely
technological loss on the US’ part in the
event of the FGM-148 Javelin falling into
the hands of Russian troops in the
Donbas is significantly exaggerated, as
this is a late 1980s design, although a
powerful one. US troops have been receiving
these anti-tank systems since the
late 1990s.”
● “TALENTED DESIGNER
OLEH KOROSTELIOV HAS
CREATED A SCHOOL
OF PRECISION WEAPONS
DESIGN RIGHT BEFORE
OUR EYES”
It is known that this year, the
Ukrainian army introduced the Korsar
light man-portable missile system,
which, according to experts, is little
inferior to the American Javelin. I
would like to hear your comparative
assessment of these missiles. If the experts
are right, were the Ukrainian
military-political leadership’s steady
requests for the American side to provide
the aforementioned anti-tank
weapons really justified?
“Despite the fact that many consider
Javelin ATMs to be more technologically
advanced and even say that the
Javelin and the Korsar ATM belong to
different generations, I do not think so.
Technologically, the Korsar is a highprecision
weapon capable of killing any
tank or self-propelled gun with one shot
at a distance of 2.5 km (although it is really
difficult to find such a long line of
sight, and in most real combat cases, it
is sufficient to hit the target from a distance
of one and a half kilometers). By
the way, the Javelin has the same range –
up to 2.5 km. It should be understood
that the key point of the modern battle
REUTERS photo
is the training of soldiers and the willingness
of the government to saturate
the combat zone with domestic ATMs,
which are also not that cheap. In fact, the
media should have started promoting
and broadcasting cases of hostile weapon
platforms being hit by these missiles long
ago. The fact that Javelin systems are capable
of hitting vehicles from the upper
hemisphere is a clear technological advantage.
For guiding and firing missiles,
the Javelin uses an infrared fire-andforget
homing system, while the Korsar
uses semi-automatic laser beam guidance
(that is, after the shot, the operator
needs to keep the target in the crosshairs
for 8 to 12 seconds). One of the technological
advantages of the Javelin ATM
is the availability of a ‘soft’ launch,
which allows a shot to be made even from
closed and confined premises. As an obvious
disadvantage, experts list the fact
that the missile’s homing system needs
to be pre-cooled for not less than 25 to
30 seconds. In addition, experts insist
that the effective use of Javelin systems
is possible only for personnel who have
been through a training course for ATM
operators. But in general, both ATM
types can be seen as comparable, and
looking at the price, the domestic design
costs just a fraction of its counterpart.
The cost of one American ATM can be as
high as 50,000 dollars, and the export
price of one launcher with missile complement
can be as high as 170,000 dollars,
while other sources cite ‘more than
200,000 dollars,’ while the price of a
complete Korsar is estimated at about
130,000 dollars, and a missile costs just
20,000 dollars. In addition, it is important
to take into account a number
of factors, of which the most important
is domestic arms self-sufficiency. When
we buy the Korsar, which was introduced
in August 2017, we invest in the
development of domestic precision
weapons. In fact, talented designer
Oleh Korosteliov has created this school
of design before our eyes; he is the
general designer and general director of
the Luch State Design Bureau in Kyiv.
The support for this school is directly
related to the creation of a cruise missile,
a new powerful multiple rocket
launcher and even a domestic midrange
surface-to-air missile system. It
should be added that the Korsar ATM
can be used as part of combat modules,
that is to say, it can be installed on all
types of armored vehicles operated by
the UAF. So, the importance of the present
moment is in combining American
assistance, technology, support with
Ukrainian consistency in the development
of weapons. Therefore, in fact, the
Javelin and the Korsar systems ideologically
and technologically complement
each other in the UAF.
“I would like to raise another point
to create a full panorama of shortrange
precision weapons being developed
in Ukraine. Besides the Korsar,
Ukraine has other guided ATMs – the
Skif and the Stuhna-P (they have essentially
the same characteristics, but
the Skif uses the PN-S control system
which is produced by the Belarusian
Peleng JSC). So, this ATM is capable
of ‘killing’ enemy targets from a distance
of five kilometers, and remote
control is available as well. By the
way, Skifs are used by a number of
states (thanks to Ukraine’s strong exports),
and in 2017, the Luch Design
Bureau continued to supply Stuhna-
P missile systems, delivering about
300 RK-2 missiles ahead of schedule
‘with the number of launchers specified
by the customer,’ as noted in the
media. Both the Korsar and the Skif
can be used to defeat low-heat targets
as well, that is, pillboxes and other engineering
structures, while the
Javelin cannot do it.”
● “RUSSIA HAS NO ATMS
OF THE JAVELIN’S
TECHNOLOGICAL LEVEL,
THEIR VERSIONS OF THE
KORNET SYSTEM ARE
EQUAL TO OUR SKIF”
Speaking of the American
Javelin or the Ukrainian Korsar, can
Russia counteract them in any way?
What weapons do they have now with
regard to light man-portable missile
systems?
“Russia has no ATMs of the
Javelin’s technological level, their
versions of the Kornet system are
equal to our Skif. The Kornet missile
is also a laser beam rider and is more
versatile, but it still belongs to the
generation 2+, while the Javelin is a
third-generation system. But I want
to emphasize once again: in the current
war, everything depends on the
training of firing teams, the mobility,
the ability of the state to provide
troops with comprehensive logistics,
rather than an individual element.”
After it became known that the
US would deliver lethal weapons to
Ukraine, after all, the Kremlin offered
predictably sharp criticism,
threatening bloodshed in the Donbas.
In your opinion, what can Russia do,
after all, as we remember the Kremlin’s
earlier statements on this issue?
“All sides have long been accustomed
to the Kremlin treating
Ukraine as a battlefield in its rivalry
with the West and a testing laboratory
for its military machine. We know
the limits of Putin’s actions. He has
long crossed multiple ‘red lines’ and
been working to destroy the independent
state of Ukraine. Therefore,
the only way left open for us is to be
unafraid and get stronger, to be prepared
as much as possible to repel the
enemy. For any other approach
amounts to surrender.”

6
No.1 JANUARY 16, 2018
CLOSE UP
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
By Roman GRYVINSKYI, The Day
● “INDUCING PHILOSOPHICAL
THINKING IS ONE OF
THE FACTORS THAT CAN
CHANGE A NATION”
Mr. Sekundant, we have seen the
development of public philosophy in
Ukraine in the past few years.
Philosophers deliver public lectures
and debates in the media, including
the newspaper Den/The Day. The
journal Filosofska Dumka has even
devoted one of its issues to this. What
do you think is the mission of a public
intellectual in Ukraine today? What
prospects and perhaps risks does this
trend open?
“Public philosophy is rather a rare
phenomenon. It is usually political
scientists and sociologists who go public,
whereas the philosopher is a more
profound person and, therefore, the
public finds it more difficult to apprehend
him or her. But this trend really
exists and is rather new for Ukraine.
Andrii Baumeister, Oleh Khoma, Oleksii
Panych, Mykhailo Minakov are just
a few names that came to my mind. It
is a very useful phenomenon, and I can
only welcome it. But I don’t know if the
audience will grasp what these people
want to put across to it. The point is
that audiences are accustomed to ‘nonphilosophical’
communication. The
philosopher is supposed to disclose the
root causes of the phenomena we come
across. And it is a great art to speak
about profound things in simple terms.
Luckily, people endowed with this talent
do occur, albeit rarely.
“There has always been a problem
of failing to understand things, including
philosophy. Sometimes it
seems to me that many philosophers
became great only because they did
not manage or, maybe, did not want to
understand their predecessors. For
example, Kant seems to have read neither
Wolf nor Leibniz in detail.
“It is a question of an important
historical factor, not of risks. But for
an extensive popularization of philosophy
among the masses, the formation
of such philosophy-minded nations as
India, Greece, and – in the Enlightenment
era – Germany would have been
impossible. In the 18th-century Germany,
almost every provincial newspaper
had a huge philosophical section.
German burghers were thus discussing
philosophical problems and
gradually got accustomed to philosophical
thinking.
“Some Kyiv philosophers complain
that too many philosophy departments
have come up in Ukraine
today, which is a profanation of philosophical
education. It is partly true,
but, on the other hand, the more people
are involved in the philosophical
process and thinking, the better. It is
one of the factors that help change the
nation.
“For the totalitarian past is still
weighing upon our society – people
are afraid to think independently. We
are very dependent and have a lot of
complexes. This is illustrated, in particular,
by the quality of dissertations,
most of which are rather superficial
and distracted from real problems.
At the same time, the interest of
the broad masses in philosophy is supposed
to promote transformation of
academic philosophy which customarily
popularized the postulates of
Marxism-Leninism in the Soviet era
and is still eschewing the pressing
problems of man and society.”
● “WE HAD A CHANCE TO GO
A DIFFERENT WAY IN THE
1990S, BUT WE MISSED IT”
Do you think philosophy has had
a strong impact on the identity of a
contemporary human being? Is it true
that the formation of certain philosophical
ideas can become an important
historical and cultural factor for
not only intellectuals, but also society
as a whole?
The ways of the “philosophy
of common sense”
Serhii SEKUNDANT on how to learn
to distinguish the truth from lies
and drop the stereotypes
of totalitarian mentality
Societal interest in philosophy and its more a more noticeable presence in public space raises the
following questions: can philosophy become if not the motive force then at least a factor of social
transformations in a country? What efforts should the professional community make to this
end? Does the philosophical perspective really offer a more comprehensive and unbiased
assessment of the ongoing processes? In search of answers to these questions, Den/The Day
continues a series of philosophical dialogs with a well-known Ukrainian researcher Serhii
SEKUNDANT, Associate Professor, Doctor of Sciences (Philosophy), head of the Department of
Philosophy and Common Humanitarian Knowledge at Odesa National Illia Mechnikov University.
“German philosophy was very
academic, scholastic, and, in general,
distracted from real practice. But in
the era of Enlightenment, philosophers
deliberately turned to rather
broad masses of the population. In the
17th century, German thinker Christian
Thomasius developed the ideas of
‘court philosophy.’ The new philosophy
was to be of practical use in life.
Incidentally, this occurred well before
the French Revolution. The thinkers
of that epoch knew that the grassroots
needed some ‘simple truths.’ This philosophy
appeals to common sense. Unlike
to, say, Leibniz, Thomasius was
known to the general public. It was
later Christian Wolf who began to
popularize his philosophy that comprised
a mathematical method and the
ideal of strict thinking. Philosophy
was being simplified – abstract speculations
were giving way to a simplified
logic, a simplified, albeit based on
common sense, theory.
“Today, too, Germans always appeal
to common sense in conversations.
Soviet people, on their part,
lived in ideocracy, in an ideologicallyoverburdened
spiritual atmosphere.
We still continue to think in these categories
and cannot see where there is
or there is no common sense. Our society
is bereft of normal legal awareness.
The right to a fair trial is a natural
human right. If this right is not
exercised, there is in fact no state. If
courts pass judgments ‘by a phone
call,’ no reforms will be possible. It is
absurd and unclear to Europeans why
Ukraine has been unable to establish
an anticorruption court in the past
four years. I’ve spoken a lot with Germans
– they find it difficult to understand
why we are not fighting for our
rights, why this is not a top-priority
problem for society.
“As our awareness is overburdened
with false stereotypes, such a
simple ‘philosophy of common sense’
is badly needed today. It would be a
very good idea to include the postulate
on natural human rights, drawn up by
European philosophers in the 17th-
18th centuries, into the school curriculum.
In this connection, society
should have a demand for academics
who study the modern history philosophy.
Among them is also Andrii
Baumeister who focuses on medieval
philosophy, for Thomas Aquinas was
a very systematically- and adequatelythinking
person. If a philosopher adheres
to these principles of common
sense, if he is a religious and ethical
person, his teaching has rather a
sobering impact on society. We are so
much used to fearing, deceiving, and
lying that we have stopped distinguishing
between the truth and the
lies, between real and fake reforms.
This is the result of the absence of
common sense.
“Profound truths are very simple.
But, to understand them, one must often
have a certain insight. An individual
should understand that he or she
cannot be an instrument in someone
else’s hands. The Kantian imperative
says: it is your life, and you must not
waste it to satisfy someone else’s ambitions.
And our politicians are usually
oligarchs for whom a party is just
part of the business empire. They control
the media, courts, police, and the
prosecution service. It is Kuchma who
created this system. We had a chance
in the 1990s to go a way other than
that of Russia, but we missed it. The
Czechs invented voucher privatization,
but Kuchma, the premier at the
time, carried it out according to the
Russian not the Czech, scenario.
When he came to power, he introduced
‘manual control’ of the Prosecutor
General’s Office. Serhii Horbatiuk
says this has never occurred before.
And now Kuchma represents
Ukraine at international negotiations.
Sometimes the impression is that we
are living in a totally absurd country.”
A few primitive translations of
philosophic classics appeared recently
on our book market, and still more
new books are expected soon. At the
same time, a lot of utterly weak translations
still remain on library shelves.
When do you think we will be able to
see high-quality publications of basic
philosophical texts in the Ukrainian
language? Will the newly-established
Ukrainian Institute of the Book be
able to help speed up this process?
“Low-quality translations are a
problem indeed. Incidentally, this also
concerns Russian-language texts.
“Undoubtedly, there should be a
certain culture of translation. The
translator must convey the inner
sense of the text. To do so, he or she
needs to understand the context very
well. He or she must know very well
not only the grammar rules of the language,
but also the philosophy and the
terminology of a certain period.
Therefore, to become a good translator,
one must work in a certain narrow
field for many years.
“The philosophers who call for external
control over the work of translators
may be right to some extent.
But this facility’s prerogatives should
be confined to reviewing only. If one
has decided to translate a book, we
must not forbid them to do so. At the
same time, no one can forbid other experts
to criticize a superficial or weak
translation. It is also up to everybody
to agree or disagree with this criticism.
“Translation is always a creative
process. All the well-known thinkers
were guided by their personal vision
and interpretation of their predecessors’
philosophy. Should we reproach
them for this? I don’t think so. Maybe,
if Kant had read Leibniz and Wolf attentively,
he wouldn’t have been the
one we know – there would have been
neither Critique of Pure Reason nor
any other works.”
● “MOST OF THE UKRAINIAN
INTELLECTUALS ARE
REACTIONARY”
Do you think Ukraine and
Ukrainian society are today an organic
part of Europe (Europe as a cultural
and historical phenomenon, not
a set of bureaucratic structures)?
“The mentality of Ukrainian society
is quite dissimilar. In contrast to
us, residents of the country’s south
and east, Western Ukrainians have a
European mentality. Kyivans and residents
of Central Ukraine have a mentality
and culture of their own, also
close to European. It is totalitarian
mentality that prevails in the south
and east – so it is very difficult to drop
the stereotypes of totalitarian awareness.
And the point is not in the absence
of a wish but in historical determinism
– this is handed down from
generation to generation. As for
me, the possibility of traveling to
the West played a crucial role: I have
visited Germany many times.
“Today, the situation is particularly
sad in the provinces – people are
very fearful there. Incidentally, there
is in fact no such thing as provinces in
Germany. But in Ukraine, like in Russia,
this difference is very essential.
Nevertheless, I think the Ukrainians
are a European nation. In Odesa, too,
there are European-minded people,
but they are in the minority – most of
them are intellectuals.
“We must go to Europe. But when
the president begins to create a police
state and allocates money not for the
army but for the police and other institutions
that are supposed to protect
the ruling clan, this brings us closer to
Russia than to Europe. One can unconsciously
act in favor of his enemies
against whom he is ostensibly fighting.
In my view, the leadership that is
killing education and research is a
more formidable enemy than Putin.
Instead of ensuring national security,
the SBU defends the interests of oligarchs,
particularly the local and regional
ones. Saakashvili did not exaggerate
when he said that Odesa is today
controlled by bandits, interclan rivalry
is rife, and corruption is all-embracing.
Unfortunately, in Odesa
Poroshenko has sided with local oligarchs
Kivalov, Trukhanov, and
others who were taking overtly pro-
Kremlin attitudes on the eve of the
second Maidan. Patriots are being imprisoned
today, while wrongdoers are
being freed.
“All these facts make me think
that the FSB [Russia’s Federal Security
Service. – Ed.] is controlling
Ukraine as before – and it is not an exaggeration.
The leadership is trying
not only to keep the criminal oligarchic
system intact, but also to restore
the Russian model in Ukraine.
And this model is an authoritarian
dictatorship of criminal oligarchy,
when one person, Putin, has created
and controls all the criminal oligarchic
groupings by way of the FSB.
Putin would like to see the same system
in Ukraine because it is much easier
to influence a country from the
outside if it is run by an authoritarian
leader. An attempt to pull off this
kind of deal in the US failed – American
civil society did not allow doing
this. Once it became known about
Trump’s ties with Russia, he had two
options left – either an impeachment
or renunciation of all his commitments
to Putin.
“One of the functions of philosophy
is to promote a normal civil society
in Ukraine. But, unfortunately,
most of Ukrainian, as well as Russian,
intellectuals are reactionary.
It’s beyond my comprehension that a
philosopher, if he is an honest person,
can support outright corruptionists.
Intellectuals must think independently.
This kind of people can
be counted on the fingers of one hand
today, while the rest are afraid. They
are afraid to lose the job, they fear
that somebody will gain a ‘wrong’ impression
and an official will punish
them. It is philosophers, rather than
artists and musicians of the
Vakarchuk type, who should determine
the society’s way of thinking.
But, to be able to do so, they should
be taken out of ‘serfdom.’
“Yes, reforms are really being carried
out: the current parliament has
passed more laws on this country’s democratization
than all the previous
ones combined. But this is not enough,
for the reforms do not work. We need
an anticorruption court, and there
must be an inescapable punishment
for corruption-based crimes. Even in
Russia a former economy minister was
imprisoned, whereas in Ukraine corruption
is ostensibly being fought, but
nobody was put behind bars. It’s just
a simulation.”
● “I BELIEVE WE WILL NEVER
RETURN TO THE RUSSIAN
EMPIRE”
What was the year 2017 like for
you personally?
“The best news for me and our department
is that the philosophy and
history faculties have been merged in
one. Every cloud has a silver lining,
you know. Merging history and philosophy
opens up vast prospects to us.
The history of philosophy in Europe
has long been the basis of philosophical
education. You can’t possibly understand
philosophical problems,
think creatively, and offer rational arguments
unless you know the history
of philosophy. Our former dean, a
chemist by education, was unable to
understand why specialization was
needed at the philosophy faculty, and
the majority of our faculty’s academic
board members backed him in this. I

WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
CLOSE UP No.1 JANUARY 16, 2018 7
hope historians are aware of why
students need to know history in
general and the history of philosophy
in particular. Whenever people
gain independence, they always
find new opportunities.
“I am an optimist by nature –
like Leibniz, I am sure that we are
living in ‘the best of all possible
worlds.’ At the unification ceremony,
our rector, Ihor Koval, quoted
Winston Churchill quite to the
point: ‘an optimist sees the opportunity
in every difficulty.’ It is in
this key that one should interpret
critical remarks in our conversation.
“Undoubtedly, the current
leadership has done what all the
previous ones failed to do. There is
certain progress, and it would be
wrong to slow it down – I believe
we will never return to the Russian
Empire. In spite of all the
alarms, I don’t think Russia will
try to continue its advance and
seize Ukraine. If people knit together
on the basis of the rejection
of and hatred for others, they are
sick people in a sick society. Unfortunately,
today’s Russia is predominantly
a sick society. Ukraine
must not become a similar one. As
a separate nation and state,
Ukraine needs its own values –
more exalted than those of imperial
awareness.”
■ The Day’s REFERENCE
Serhii SEKUNDANT graduated
from the Philosophy Faculty
and the Candidate and Doctor of
Sciences School of Moscow Mikhail
Lomonosov State University. He
began to work at Odesa Illia Mechnikov
State University in 1982.
Successfully defended the Candidate
of Sciences dissertation “The
Problem of Proving Scholarly
Knowledge in the Methodical Philosophy
of Hugo Dingler” in 1983
and the Doctor of Sciences dissertation
“The Normative and Critical
Foundations of Leibniz’s Epistemology”
in 2015. Teaches the
courses “Philosophy of the East,”
“German Classical Philosophy,”
“The Problems of Indian Philosophy,”
“The Philosophical and
Methodological Problems of Historical
and Philosophical Research,”
“Phenomenology of
Husserl,” “Contemporary Concepts
of the History of Philosophy,”
and “The Theory and Practice
of Argumentation.” The
sphere of academic interests: the
history of philosophical methodology,
logic and epistemology; the
theory of argumentation; philosophical
and methodological problems
of the history of philosophy;
researching the nature of philosophical
and religious knowledge;
the making and the specifics of ancient
Indian philosophy and religion;
a comparative analysis of the
philosophical and religious tradition
in the East and the West.
Author of over 100 scholarly publications.
Author of two individual
monographs: Critique and Method.
The Problem of a Critical Method
in 17th-18th-Century German Philosophy
(Kyiv, Dukh i Litera,
2012) and Leibniz’s Epistemology
in its Normative and Critical Foundations
(Odesa, Pechatny Dom,
2013). Member of the Philosophy
Faculty’s Academic Board, co-organizer
of the international school
of religious studies “Vaishnavism
Across the Centuries,” director of
the German Philosophy Research
Center at the Philosophy Faculty
of Odesa National Illia Mechnikov
University. Winner of the National
Philosophy Prize 2016 (established
by the Hryhorii Skovoroda
Institute of Philosophy, the
Ukrainian Philosophical Foundation,
and the N.V. Panina Sociological
Center) in the Maria Zlotina
nomination “For Best Philosophical
Monograph.”
(To be continued)
By Valentyn TORBA, The Day
This Tuesday, the Verkhovna Rada is
to consider the bill No. 7163,
dealing with the restoration of
Ukraine’s sovereignty. This document
is sometimes referred to as
the “reintegration” bill, although its very
title clearly points to the fact of occupation.
This draft law has seen many changes
over the long time it has been in preparation.
However, are the Ukrainian
government and public really aware of all
the subtle and painful nuances associated
with the very process of restoring the
territorial integrity of our nation?
Let us recall that the Verkhovna Rada
passed the bill, initiated by President of
Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, in the first
reading on October 6, 2017. This document,
in particular, regulates the legal basis
for the use of the Ukrainian Armed
Forces in the east of the country and officially
labels the Russian Federation as
the aggressor.
In turn, the Verkhovna Rada Committee
on National Security and Defense inserted
238 amendments into the bill back
on November 15, 2017. Importantly, the
MPs stressed the need to emphasize not only
the issue of the occupied Donbas, but that
of Crimea as well. Thus, the committee decided
to insert into the document the mention
of Russian-annexed Crimea and to add
to the preamble a reference to the date of
occupation, which is considered to start on
February 20, 2014. Also, a mention of the
Minsk Agreements has been erased from
the bill, since, according to experts, it
could have come to be treated as a legal
recognition of their legitimacy.
On January 10, President Poroshenko
met with representatives of Ukraine in the
Trilateral Contact Group on the Peaceful
Settlement of the Donbas Crisis. It is indicative
that such a meeting took place just
before the vote on the draft law on de-occupation.
Leonid Kuchma, Iryna Herashchenko,
Yevhen Marchuk, Volodymyr
Horbulin, and other figures took part in the
event.
Herashchenko stresses that for the humanitarian
group, the second wave of
hostage release is a key priority for the near
future. Let us recall that former Prime
Minister of Ukraine, Head of the SBU,
Minister of Defense and Secretary of the
National Security and Defense Council
Yevhen MARCHUK, currently serving
as a representative of Ukraine in the Tripartite
Contact Group in Minsk, noted at
the International Conference on Maritime
Security last December that Ukraine and
the rest of the world needed to seize every
opportunity for maintaining dialog with
the Russian Federation. Marchuk then
compared a totally isolated Russia to a
black hole. Such a state of affairs, in his
opinion, may have much too negative consequences.
● “WE HAVE NO PRESCRIBED
MECHANISM FOR THE
RETURN OF OUR LAND”
“I can clearly say that the draft law on
de-occupation must be adopted, no ifs or
buts about it,” The Day heard from member
of the coordination council of The
Power of Law NGO, former head of the
Luhansk Oblast State Administration Iryna
VERYHINA. “We need it, if only to finally
call the war a war. From this term,
everything else is derived, including in the
legal field. I emphasize, we are not conducting
some anti-terrorist operation
(ATO), but waging a real war. And we also
have to determine in the legal field
that a part of our territory is occupied. I
emphasize that it is occupation of Ukrainian
territory by the Russian Federation,
which should carry the corresponding legal
consequences. The only thing that
worries me is that we have no prescribed
mechanism for the return of our land. That
is why we in the Power of Law NGO have
created an appropriate public platform
for de-occupation and reintegration of
our territories. Together with the public,
we have to find the appropriate ways of
restoring our sovereignty. As we have
seen, the public is often more active than
state institutions. Perhaps the process of
returning the territories will not happen as
quickly as we would like. But this will surely
happen. And here it is important not to
We need clear guidelines
The Verkhovna Rada is to consider a bill on the
restoration of sovereignty of Ukraine on January 16
forget that the occupiers must compensate
for damages suffered by Ukrainians. After
all, it is Russia that is to blame for material
and moral losses suffered by millions
of Ukrainians. And that is why Russia
should compensate them in full. I would
like to emphasize that Crimea and the
Donbas cannot be treated separately. The
sovereignty of our state is held sacred by
Ukrainians. It affects not only certain
territories, but also the integrity of the
state as a whole. Therefore, this bill should
have been passed a long time ago. Unfortunately,
there are certain political speculations
around it. It should have been enacted
as early as last year, but we see that
political horse-trading is continuing.
Everything depends on the will of the
president. If he makes a decision, then the
bill will be passed into law. It turns out that
we can trade with the occupier nation, but
cannot call the war a war. And it is internally
displaced persons (IDPs), once again,
who become hostages of such a policy. I
would like to emphasize separately that I
want to see IDPs getting back their voting
rights at the legislative level. This is a big
problem, because we have a lot of Ukrainian
citizens who are effectively barred from influencing
the nation’s politics.”
● “THE GOVERNMENT IS JUST
FAKING ATTEMPTS TO
RESTORE THE TERRITORIAL
INTEGRITY OF OUR STATE”
In his turn, Candidate of Law, senior
research fellow of the Koretsky Institute
of State and Law of the National
Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Mykola
SIRYI emphasized in his comments for
The Day the basic conceptual tasks associated
with the restoration of state sovereignty:
“Even if we are talking about a
purely legal aspect of the issue, we still
have to proceed from the objective of
restoring the territorial integrity of this
country,” Siryi said. “This is the basic
question from which all other means of its
implementation should derive. So far, I do
not see an answer to this question being offered.
We often talk about the international
community now, which seems to be
the guarantor of this objective being
reached. Of course, this is an important
tool, but it cannot be, so to speak, the principal
one. The real basis is our desire to restore
sovereignty. Therefore, any talk of
reintegration without a clear strategy
for the restoration of sovereignty is somewhat
meaningless. The only goal that
this bill can achieve is the recognition of
the fact of occupation of our territory. The
Ukrainian state should establish the nature
of relations with Ukrainians who
have found themselves in the occupied territory,
which would bring us closer to
restoring the territorial integrity of our
state. This is the crux of the matter, and
it is in this context that legislative and executive
decisions should be made. So far,
it seems that the government is just faking
attempts to restore the territorial
integrity of our state. They are making
waves in the media space, but it does
nothing to restore the abovementioned integrity.
We must clearly understand that
we have now two levels of relations – with
the aggressor and with the people who live
under occupation. This requires a clear
strategy at the national level and principles
that need to be unfailingly respected.
The aggressor will abandon our territories
when it really feels our strength. And we
must demonstrate our ability to protect
ourselves in every possible way. Ukrainians
who find themselves in the occupied
territory, in turn, should feel that the
greater Ukraine has not forgotten about
them. Their connections with the greater
Ukraine should not weaken, but, on the
contrary, grow stronger. For example, the
question arises: where will children who
remain in the occupied territory go to
study? We must also give a thought to the
situation where people are forced to go to
the occupied territory because of family
circumstances. In which hospitals should
they be treated, Ukrainian or Russian
ones? All these questions should be answered
by the Ukrainian state. And the
context for these answers, I emphasize,
should be making Russia to perceive
Ukraine as a serious military adversary.”
● “WHILE PERFECTING
THE DRAFT LAW ‘ON
DE-OCCUPATION,’
NOBODY HAS CROSSED
THE RED LINE”
International lawyer Volodymyr VA-
SYLENKO, who has been directly involved
with drafting the bill “On the Peculiarities
of State Policy on the Restoration of the
State Sovereignty of Ukraine over the
Temporarily Occupied Territory of the
Donetsk and Luhansk Regions of Ukraine,”
has noted that, despite attempts to radically
remake the bill, it has not undergone
any major changes.
THE DAY AFTER ANOTHER SHELLING. AVDIIVKA, FEBRUARY 2, 2017
“Talking about the draft law on de-occupation,
which has been published on the
website of the Verkhovna Rada, I should
say that it is acceptable in principle,” Vasylenko
commented for The Day. “However,
it needs some cosmetic clarifications
that should improve the legal technique
on the issue. The fact that this bill has
been met with unconstructive noise means
that Russian agents in Ukraine are working
at full capacity. For them, the adoption
of this bill is a thorn in their side, because
it is this bill that, if adopted, will
effectively protect the interests of
Ukraine. After all, this bill clearly defines
the real state of affairs, namely the reality
of the war and the occupation of
Ukrainian territories. Prior to this, there
was a fog of definitions in which it was
unknown who fought whom, and the
Russian Federation in general seemed to
have nothing to do with it. Worse still, the
Russian Federation is artificially positioning
itself as a peacekeeper who only
seeks to help Ukraine. This is wrong, and
we have to make it clear on all levels, including
in the legal dimension. As for the
draft law itself, in fact, there have been
many amendments proposed to it. Those
passing the common sense test have been
inserted into it. A lot of compromise
proposals have made it to the text as well.
There is nothing strange about this, and
this work does not contradict the essence
of the law. I hope that the draft law will
be adopted on January 16. It should be
noted separately that the just-mentioned
bill makes no mention of the Minsk Agreements.
But this does not mean that
Ukraine refuses to comply with its obligations.
At the same time, we must understand
that the security issue must be
resolved first and foremost in the framework
of the Minsk Agreements. The second
point is that all political issues should
be dealt with on the basis of universally
accepted principles of international law.
In the process of drafting the bill, I have
really had to persuade some politicians of
the need for appropriate wording. I have
also had to make certain compromises, but
nobody has crossed the ‘red line.’”
Thus, this week, the Verkhovna Rada
will have an opportunity to put an end to
the abstract definitions that have plagued
Ukraine since 2014. The ATO will then be
officially called a war, and the de facto occupation
will be de jure recognized as
such. This, in turn, should also affect the
legal aspect of the matter, since the wording
and definitions used determine the consequences
in terms of bringing claims of
damage against the aggressor. As practice
shows, NGOs take initiative and come
ahead of government representatives in
this field.
Photo by Yevhen MALOLIETKA
XIX INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
PHOTO — - 2017

8
No.1 JANUARY 16, 2018
TIMEO U T
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
Malevich: the second death
Photo from the website WIKIART.ORG
KAZIMIR MALEVICH, SELF-PORTRAIT (1933)
By Dmytro DESIATERYK, The Day
Ukraine rightly counts the genius of avantgarde
Kazimir Malevich (Malevych)
among our own artists. He was born in
Kyiv in 1878, and spent his childhood in
Podillia (Yampil), Kharkiv (Parkhomivka,
Bilopillia), and Chernihiv (Vovchok, Konotop)
governorates. The artist began to paint in Kootop,
inspired by folk embroidery and decorative
paintings. He studied under Mykola Pymonenko at
Kyiv Art School (1895-97). In 1927-30, he taught
at Kyiv Art Institute, where the faculty then
included Mykhailo Boichuk, Viktor Palmov, Fedir
Krychevsky, Vadym Meller, Oleksandr Bohomazov,
and Vasyl Kasiian.
At the same time, Russia, too, is entitled to
consider him as one of its own, as it was there that
he created most of his paintings, including the famous
Black Square, and his exhibitions took place
there. Malevich died there as well in 1935. The urn
with his ashes was buried in the village of Nemchinovka,
Odintsovo District of the Moscow Region,
near the oak where the artist liked to rest. A
wooden cubic monument with a black square was
erected above the grave.
During the war, the grave was lost. Later, its location
was identified by a group of enthusiasts in a
collective farm arable field, so
the commemorative sign, erected
in 1988, had to be placed on
the edge of the forest, approximately
two kilometers from the
actual burial place. It is a white
concrete cube with a red square
on the front side.
However, what the communists
began, the Putin-era
“capitalists” have successfully
completed. The field, the forest,
and Malevich’s burial place
have all been repurposed for
property development. Construction
of the “elite” (of
course) residential block Romashkovo-2
is already close to
completion. The developer denies
all accusations, arguing
that he did not know anything
about the grave. Whether he
knew or not, Malevich’s burial
place was not a protected site at
the time of him obtaining a
building permit.
So, we can state that Malevich
died the second death in
Russia – under road rollers and
bulldozers, under cubic meters of concrete and
bricks. In the end, Moscow’s parasitic bourgeoisie
needs somewhere to live. Why should a grave be out
of bounds?
It brings to mind another scandal that happened
in the beginning of 2015 and had to do with the famous
philosopher Immanuel Kant. A photo then appeared
online of the ruins of a house in Kaliningrad,
Russia (formerly Konigsberg), where the author of
Critique of Pure Reason once lived, carrying an inscription:
“Kant is a loser.”
Is not he? Well, really? For the Putinist regime,
which thinks nothing of human individuality, value
of personality and equality of rights, both Malevich
and Kant are losers, that is, stupid, unnecessary
people. One can pour a layer of concrete over
their graves, why not?
Coming back to Ukraine: in fact, we do not
have much to boast about either. Yes, Kyiv does
already have Malevycha Street (renamed as late as
2012), and a non-descript commemorative sign was
erected in Volodymyro-Lybidska Street of the
capital in 2008, which is collapsing little by little,
and that is all. We have neither a museum nor special
tours, nothing.
And now the former imperial center offers us an
opportunity to look decent, even if only by contrast.
All that is needed is a bit of money and desire.
Photo by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day
KYIV DOES ALREADY HAVE MALEVYCHA STREET (RENAMED AS LATE AS 2012), AND A NON-
DESCRIPT COMMEMORATIVE SIGN WAS ERECTED IN VOLODYMYRO-LYBIDSKA STREET OF THE
CAPITAL IN 2008, WHICH IS COLLAPSING LITTLE BY LITTLE
The magic of kindness
Emma Andijewska’s painting poses a real
esthetic mystery to many spectators
By Roman YATSIV
Illustration courtesy of the author
The uncanonical painting of Emma Andijewska
(Andiievska), invisibly tied up with the willful
whirlpools of the author’s existence, poses a real
esthetic mystery to many spectators. A
commonplace person may find it totally
impossible to interpret every subject or symbol of her
pictures. Searching for a “grain of truth” in the
outlandish and grotesque imagination world of a
unique painter and poetess, anyone may well get lost in
the unusual surroundings and ask other wayfarers to
help trace the sources of this metaphorical road.
Emma Andijewska, one of the most brilliant artistic
individualities of today, is really “merciless” as well
as candid. The mistress has been nominated for the
Shevchenko Prize for the books Cities-Jacks, Clockless
Time, Landscapes in the Drawers, Marathon, and
Everyday Life: Periscopes.
Andijewska is undivided in her passions and categorical
in her judgments; she is a bold pioneer on the paths
of verbal and visual forms that shape her inimitable disposition;
she continues to captivate and surprise, creating
painting cycles with an unheard-of speed. For Emma, the
very strategy of painting radically differs from the methods
of the vast majority of artists who plan, sketch, and
sometimes rack their brains over the choice of formal instruments
to implement a pre-considered idea. This path
would run counter to Andijewska’s inner nature. She has
been painting since she began to write poems and short
stories, stubbornly overcoming stereotypes and the
slightest hesitations about any “academic rules” in art.
She paints when the reactor of her existence generates
a great deal of energy which is to be put into a structured
poetic or painting form. Therefore, Andijewska has been
revealing her own world-view for many decades in two
concurrent dimensions, which shapes her integral poetic
and philosophical image.
It is rather difficult to systemize Andijewska’s artworks
(thousands of pictures and drawings) in terms of
genres and formal expressive means. It is a good idea
to scrutinize her art in the dynamics of the author’s passion
in general, when certain associations were being
born, senses were forming, new ways of mental organization
were being sought. From the first solo exhibit
in Munich (1956) until the next one in New York
(1989), poetry and prose books were outrunning paintings,
but that period saw the birth of a large number of
allegoric characters which filled the mystifying author’s
subjective reality all over the space of her artistic experiences.
By the late 1980s the ratio of painting had
risen so much that Andijewska began to produce not only
poetic books, but also what can be called “visual poetry
albums,” with due account of the genres and
themes of those publications.
What are these books about, why are they important
to the authoress, and how can we qualify Andijewska’s
painting canvases? To answer these questions, one
should abstract away again from customary approaches
to other artists’ painting practices. The motivational factor
for the artist is not setting a certain professional goal
but expressing something that is immanent, specific, and
typical of the author’s existence, of a certain emotional
condition, or irrational in the metaphysics of time or
place. Undoubtedly, the world order in Andijewska’s
artistic space derives from her mythological thinking and
is kept afloat by a specific poetic world-view and a sharp
visualization of the invisible.
Whenever you want to systemize the themes and
genres of Andijewska’s paintings, you face the following
problem: where, when, and how did the basic form
emerge – the form that gave birth to characters, objects,
and some quaint creatures with which the authoress
models certain mythological plots? Naturally, fictional
images are neither concretely emotional, nor decorative,
nor provocative. And their symbolism is also entirely
different from the classical interpretation of this
historical art term. The “population” of Andijewska’s
imaginary world is, above all, kindhearted (the mirror
reflection of the authoress’ value-oriented imperative).
The artist “describes” with a shade of humor her
daily routine and hyperbolizes secondary (by the hierarchy
of meanings) details. In the 2001 issue of the Munich-based
publication In Bild, prepared together with
German photo artist Lisa Pfahler-Scharf, Emma shows
self-portrait-style paraphrases with her own pictures,
which proves organicity of the cherished poetic world
with her personal lifestyle, character, self-irony, and
burlesque. It is not necessary to call all the elements of
this plastique syntax skillfully designed in both light
and color. Round shapes developed into the formless
masses of figures and heads that featured “wrongly” set
kind and sorrowful eyes. Hermetic dynamic structures,
reinforced with an expressive color, became the
“banquet” of the painting temperament of Andijewska
as a self-sufficient poetess and artist who is frank in her
judgments and creative manifestations.
At the same time, Andijewska changes the structure
of a metaphysical environment in another group
of pictures, expressing more complicated philosophical
senses. It is particularly noticeable in the “Crucifix” cycle
of drawings (2014-15), where a New Testament subject
is treated in a rather unexpected way, and in “The
1,001st Night” (2008-10). Yet, regardless of the thematic
factor in painting, graphic artistry, and carpetmaking,
which the artist also turns to, one can always
see the sign of magic which combines the various
states of her existence, the different levels of reacting
to life, the different intonations of joy and sadness that
accompany the life path of a great Ukrainian lady. By
conceptual indications, the art of Emma Andijewska
draws remote formal parallels with abstract expressionism,
lyrical abstraction, and informalism (art informel),
but none of these art trends in the second half
of the 20th century comprises a concentrated poetic component
which is the quintessence of the phenomenon of
Andijewska – an inimitable and unsurpassable person
on the all too complex platform of world perception.
Roman Yatsiv is a pro-rector of the Lviv
Academy of Arts
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