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6 No.40 JUNE 26, 2018 CLOSE UP WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA Welcome to Halych! The new issue of Route No. 1 calls on you to visit a historic Ukrainian town By Daria TRAPEZNIKOVA, The Day “There are a lot of cities, such as Polish Krakow and our Kharkiv, which used to be capitals and still remain major industrial or cultural centers that continue to develop. But Halych was forgotten and did not develop for years to come. Moreover, we were forced to forget our history and achievements of our ancestors,” Halych Mayor Orest TRACHYK says. Route No. 1’s creative team is changing this tendency by dedicating the next issue of the glossy to the raion center in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, which once was a princely capital and gave the name to a whole region. Halych, situated on the way from Lviv to Ivano-Frankivsk, can become a tourist attraction on this itinerary. In spite of a small size, the town still can surprise travelers with a harmonic combination of ancient architectural monuments and nature spots of indescribable beauty. Memories of the past are closely guarded, and customs and artistic achievements are being revived here. From time immemorial, different peoples and religions have peacefully coexisted on these territories. This left an imprint not only on museum expositions, but also on traditions, everyday life, and cuisine. Therefore, “tasty” discoveries are awaiting readers not only on culinary pages. There are also many interesting things in the villages of Halych raion and on the banks of one of Ukraine’s largest rivers, which flows to the sea through the town. Why do Galicia residents and tourists love the Dniester and its tributaries so much, which of the Galician “places of strength” is the strongest, what benefits will, in the view of the Halych mayor, the district’s inhabitants derive from the unification of the neighboring villages into one commune? The fresh issue of Route No. 1 is all about this. You can find it at newsstands or make an order on Den’s website or by the sales section’s phone (044) 303 96 23. By Svitlana AHREST-KOROTKOVA The Folio publishing house introduced to the Ukrainian reader for the first time one of the most famous and globally published Israeli writers, Meir Shalev, whose novel My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner has appeared in the series “Map of the World,” translated by Volodymyr Verkhovnia. The writer’s great sense of style, unusual imagery, humor and selfirony, impeccable plot designs and high intelligence won my heart long ago. And I know I am not alone. Shalev was a guest of the Book Arsenal festival, and I am grateful to the Embassy of Israel in Ukraine for the opportunity to communicate with him. ● THE FIRST UKRAINIAN IMPRESSIONS My dear Mr. Shalev, let me greet you in Ukraine. Your books are widely known in the world, and have been released in Russian translations many times. Now is the first time that a book of yours reached the Ukrainian reader. What is your opinion of this translation, and how did you find working with the Ukrainian book market? “I cannot, unfortunately, evaluate the quality of the Ukrainian translation. Apart from Hebrew, I know only English, and do not speak other foreign languages. Given that the publisher was interested and published my book, I trust that he made every effort to ensure that the translation was a high-quality one. As for the Ukrainian book market, I flew to Ukraine for the first time to visit the Book Arsenal, and I really liked the location. It is a very beautiful building. I was to book fairs and festivals all over the world, but nowhere had seen so comfortably organized space, or such a beautiful children’s section, because I also write children’s books. I was impressed by the Book Arsenal’s children’s playgrounds, interactive books and exhibitions. This is one of the most beautiful and best-organized festivals.” ● LITERATURE AND FAMILY AFFAIRS I read your novel The Blue Mountain for the first time, and my feelings from it and its structure, its construction of images and thoughts have brought to my mind a comparison with my favorite writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. “I am pleased.” A writer usually, like any creative individual, starts with themselves, describing the events of their life, what happened to them. What I know about you contradicts this norm. You are not engaged in agriculture, are absolutely secular, do not really observe all the rituals. Where do these contradictions “Our family still makes borscht...” Works of Meir Shalev, one of the most famous Israeli writers, have been translated into 16 languages. Recently, one of them appeared in Ukrainian for the first time come from: the image of the Land of Israel itself or from your worldview? “I just invent some stories, they are fruits of my imagination. I also use for my narrative some family stories. Yes, I am not a farmer, but my entire maternal family were farmers and have stayed in business. I came down to their farm during every school vacation when I was a child. I am well aware of what farming was like 50 years ago. My greatest inspiration is the narration talent in our family, which was passed on in my mother’s line. All my paternal family members were intellectuals, urbanites, critics, scholars of literature, writers, and researchers. Meanwhile, my mother’s family, when they gathered at the farm, especially women, they preserved fruits, salted cucumbers, and told some stories all the time, while I sat and listened. When I began to write, fragments of these stories surfaced in my mind, as they had gotten deeply rooted in memory, and they were of use to me.” Being the son of a famous person and working in the same line is very difficult, because your father was a famous Israeli writer. Did it help or hamper you? How did you manage to avoid unconscious pressure? “Father did not hamper me, rather, he helped, because he told me: ‘write, write,’ whereas at that time, I was not even going to start writing. I read a lot and loved books. Father suggested that I try my hand. However, I was fascinated by something completely different, and when I finally wished to write, I first published two children’s books at 35, and my first ‘adult’ publication appeared when I was 40. It was too late to either benefit from the glory of my father or worry about it somehow. My father published only one novel, but it was a very successful one. I think that I have my own style, so the influence of my father as a writer on me and my style is virtually negligible.” ● FROM WORD COOKERY TO EVERYDAY GIMMICKS An integral part of your style is describing food, which in Israel is a kind of “religion,” or as I put it, a “national entertainment.” I remember the description of the process of eating olives by the grandfather in The Blue Mountain, I also remember the simple meal which the grandmother instantly cooked in A Pigeon and a Boy. This magic of food is present in every work of yours. And what does this cooking atmosphere mean for you? “What is happening in Israel with food and around food is exaggerated and somewhat even vulgar. We have endless cooking shows, restaurant cuisine, high cuisine, dishes from the chef. I love the food that is cooked at home. There are several ‘secret’ Photo by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day recipes that came to me from my mom and aunt. I was married to a woman from the Sephardic community, her family had come from Bulgaria. The Bulgarian cuisine is also extremely interesting, being half Turkish and half Greek. Homemade food has a soul. I describe it in my novels. Frankly speaking, my grandmothers did not cook very well. It was even outright bad in the paternal line. Meanwhile, my favorite Grandma Tonya cooked well, but there was nothing special about it. With each new generation, we perfect the culinary arts. My son cooks better than me and my wife, my brother cooks better than mom. There is still potential for development, so the next generation will surprise us with their culinary skills.” ● LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM You devoted yourself to literary work and at the same time became a prominent columnist for a famous publication. Where, in your opinion, is the watershed between journalism and literature? “The watershed runs exclusively between midnight on Wednesday and morning on Thursday. I am not a journalist, I do not run about, I do not look for news, I work at home as a columnist, and when the editor calls me: ‘Go there, look at it, and tell about your impressions,’ I say ‘No.’ True journalism has nothing to do with reality. I sit down to write a column on Thursday morning, I submit it the same evening, and it appears in the newspaper on Friday morning. After that, I forget about journalism and devote myself to literature until next Thursday.” Do you feel that all the literary genres that exist today, with all their diversity, are laid down in the Ancient Book? “All world literature began with the Bible and Greek mythology, as the story of the voyage of Odysseus is very widely used in modern literature. But speaking of the Old Testament, I love it, because it does not delve into psychology. It is just stories, a great text. For example, look at the story of Jacob and Rachel. He first saw Rachel and wept. Were a modern author to write about this, they would have typed a whole chapter about what happened, what he thought, how and who perceived it. And here, it is just one sentence: ‘Jacob saw her and wept.’ And the reader should think: why? Millions of beautiful women were around for centuries throughout history, but no one walked and wept in the streets because of them. That is, this is a little discovery that the reader has to make on their own. The Bible does not delve into psychology as it tells its story.” ● A BIT OF ACTION FOR A SEDENTARY WORKER Are you still a brave biker who takes part in various competitions? “I have never been a biker, I like to drive a motorcycle and can do it, but I have never competed. I did participate in an SUV rally, though. I am a very good driver and still go to the desert with my friends, staying there for the night. It was while driving an SUV that I participated in competitions. But it took a lot of time, technical training was needed. I decided that I could be either a driver or a writer. I had to leave the races. I did not do this to get some experience, it is my hobby.” ● ATTEMPTING TO DRAW PARALLELS For me, the rise of Israel and how it lives today is a very colorful and vivid example of how individual people can build their own country, provided they are actively optimistic. Does the hybrid war in Ukraine bring to mind some sort of comparison with your country somehow? “Optimism is indeed our immense feature. After so many years of scattering, pogroms, and expulsions, we have remained alive. This is already a sufficient reason for optimism. I am not familiar enough with the political situation in Ukraine to analyze it, but I can give one piece of advice, based on the Israeli experience: you are very fortunate that there is no religious component in your conflict. But judging by what I have seen – even if this is limited to the space of the Book Arsenal – your country is quite self-sufficient and self-identified.” Do you see a common future, some more cooperation? Will you come to the nearest book fairs in Ukraine? “If they translate more of my works, I will be glad. But I would prefer that the next translation be The Four Meals, because it is a romantic, gentle, meaningful book. And immediately after it, I would like to see Two She-Bears translated, just for the sake of contrast, because it is tough, rough, and completely different. I will be pleased to come and launch each new translated book. There are only two conditions – I will come in the summer, because the winter is very cold. And secondly, I want to be treated to a borscht meal. (Laughs.) Our family still makes borscht.”
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA CULT URE No.40 JUNE 26, 2018 7 By Dmytro DESIATERYK, The Day, Dnipro – Kyiv Photos by Yurii STEFANIAK I’d long known about Ukraine’s first Anti-Terrorist Operation Museum in Dnipro before visiting it this year. It’s official title reads: “Museum [dedicated to] the Civil Feat of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast during ATO Events” and it is formally one of the Dmytro Yavornytsky National History Museum’s six branches. The exposition consists of the indoor diorama “Battle of Dnipro” and the outdoor display “Donbas Roads.” The diorama was opened on May 25, 2016, and the indoor exhibit on January 23, 2017. The main exposition occupies 600 square meters of the diorama’s ground floor. Among the 2,000 items on display are documents, photos, war decorations, personal effects of ATO officers and men, weapons, and medical instruments. The multimedia room (movie theater) offers three panoramic documentaries (two in Ukrainian and one in English) about combat operations in the east of Ukraine. The outdoor display shows a BMP- 2 infantry fighting vehicle, T-64 tank turret, PM-43 regimental mortar, other weapons, an UAZ-452-truckmounted ambulance, and a concrete mock-up of a roadblock. Practically all items on display are from battlefields. The central part of “Donbas Roads” is occupied by the sculptural composition “A Soldier and a Girl” and [a section of] a highway with road signs with the names of towns in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Behind the armored infantry vehicle is a large metal structure portraying the debris of Donetsk Airport, a monument to the Ukrainian heroes who defended the airport for 242 days. The diorama’s ground floor has a lobby, a video hall (former movie theater for lectures illustrated by documentaries), and the Hall of Memory (former exhibition hall with a wall with pictures of heroes who forced the Dnipro River during WW II). In the lobby, items on display are mounted on metal structures symbolizing the ruins of Donetsk Airport. The walls are covered by camouflage netting. There are large thematic stands that tell about servicemen, volunteers, medics, resettlers from the enemyoccupied territories, chaplains, and media people in the field. The Hall of Memory has over 500 photos of officers and men killed in action who were born and lived in Dnipropetrovsk oblast. There are glass cubes with personal effects of 50 KIAs, including war decorations, documents, books, parts of uniform and equipment, some showing where they were hit by bullets or shell fragments. I was born and grew up in Dnipropetrovsk oblast, so I can’t help being emotional. The Battle of Dnipro Diorama is essentially and actually a sample of pompous clumsy Brezhnev propaganda (Leonid Brezhnev visited the place in the early 1980s, shortly before his death). The key element is a diorama portraying the forcing of the river near Dnipropetrovsk, executed in the true style of socialist realism, with a bulky foreground made of dummy blocks and trees. What attracted us kids at the time was, of course, the display of Soviet materiel ranging from an ancient howitzer to a jet fighter. We were thrilled to explore each item and no one knew – or cared to know – whether it had actually been used in combat. The ATO Museum has breathed a new life into this mass of granite and steel. Vehicles riddled by bullets, road signs with familiar placenames, KIAs’ personal effects, a panoramic movie theater – all this well Ukraine’s first ATO museum planned and multifaceted design makes one feel like reading a war novel or watching a war blockbuster, even taking part in a war scene, and certainly makes this museum one of the best in Ukraine. I spoke to a museum official and asked how the project began. “Natalia Khazan, a volunteer of the Ukrainian Defense Foundation, was among the first to conceive the idea,” the man said. “There were also servicemen, volunteers, and medics who had fought in the first battles of 2014-15. Even then we had quite a few items on display and eyewitness accounts. Our region is the closest to the front. We started on the project in February 2016. First, it was an outdoor interactive exposition meant for children, so they’d know who was fighting, with what and why. We used the History Museum’s downtown junkyard and commissioned Kyiv artist Viktor Hukalo to make the design. The first exposition occupied 1,000 square meters. Just imagine: the project was conceived in February and was launched on May 26. Three months of hard and enthusiastic work! The idea was approved by authorities on all levels. The title ‘ATO Museum’ is a popular one, compared to the official ‘Civil Feat of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast during ATO Events.’” What was the main concept? “Honor the living and pay homage to the dead, from day one. We wanted people to see the courage and feats of arms performed by our officers and men. We walk down peaceful streets with a clear sky above, and we tend to forget that a war is being fought some 60 miles away. “The history of this war is illustrated in several sections. We place no emphasis on one group of people compared to the next. Servicemen, temporary displaced persons, volunteers, chaplains, medics, journalists, the whole of Ukrainian society, all of Ukraine that’s resisting the enemy. The main thing is to show the truth about this war. We combine outdoor with indoor displays. The outdoor part has large items on display and introduces the visitor to the war theme. The main exposition has three sections, including an interior one with six thematic blocks, the Hall of Memory where we pay homage to the KIAs, and a movie theater.” Which of these sections do you consider to be the most important one? “They’re all important. Whereas the Hall of Memory leaves your nerves on end, the movie theater is the heart of the exposition. As many as 560 residents of Dnipropetrovsk oblast have been killed in action and the Hall is dedicated to them. It wasn’t planned as an exhibition room, but then relatives and comrades-in-arms of KIAs started bringing various items. This part of the museum is an especially vivid evidence of the scope of this war and the level of [Russia’s] aggression. Visitors step inside and see photos lining the wall from floor to ceiling, 50 show window cubes that tell the story in no uncertain words. “The movie theater offers documentaries in Ukrainian and English, each lasting 30 minutes. They are made so no one leaves the audience unperturbed. They show all people – servicemen, medics, volunteers, chaplains, journalists – whose photos and stories are included in the exposition. The movie theater is modern equipped, with 10 projectors securing a panoramic 360 o view. Kyiv is probably the only other place where such equipment is used. The technical aspect of the project was very complicated, considering that most video material originated from servicemen’s smartphones and had to be processed to be projected on the big screen, but we solved that problem.” What about the documentary in English? “Our museum is a mandatory part of the itinerary for all official delegations, including members of parliament, ministers, ambassadors, and presidents. This is proof that we did everything the right way.” How many visitors so far? “Our estimates show over 160,000 in 2016-17. The important thing is that admittance is free. There are very many young people among the visitors as the museum is part of the high school curriculum. There are interesting related patriotic projects like the one known as ‘The Roads of Heroes’ when groups of high school students come to Dnipro from various parts of the region and visit the military base of the 25th Brigade. There they are shown personnel’s daily routine, materiel, meet with war heroes. In the end, they visit the museum and walk down the Alley of Memory near the building of the regional state administration. They spend a day doing very informative sightseeing. Our museum is modern also because it operates on an interactive basis.” Any items on display that have a special meaning for you? “They all do as each has a special history. We receive them from the demarcation line. There are no dummies. Each item on display is genuine. I’ll repeat myself: the Hall of Memory is of the utmost importance to me. Everything there is permeated with human pain. How will I ever forget a postcard from the mother of a fallen soldier. She wrote she didn’t need any documents confirming receipt, that one had to realize that her son would never read her happy birthday postcard. Another woman brought her son’s combat fatigues and asked the clothes to be displayed so one could see the caliber of the enemy bullet that had killed him. “There is a letter from a sixyear-old girl whose father was killed in action in July. She was to enter Grade 1 on September 1. She addressed her letter to other children her age, saying your daddies will take you to school on September 1, but my dad died in the war. “There are shell fragments and bullets we received from the Mechnikov Hospital. They are displayed along with excerpts from case histories. This is something we must remember.” I noticed that ATO vehicles are displayed alongside dummies from the ex-Soviet exposition dedicated to WW II, and that the rest of the museum is inside the building with Brezhnev’s monumental diorama. An interesting combination, isn’t it? “There is ideology and there is paying tribute to the fallen heroes. Another thing that makes our museum different from others is that it doesn’t impose any ideology on the visitor. The whole project is the result of a dedicated effort by hundreds of people. Some would come up with ideas, others would bring items to be put on display… There is no drawing any lines in such diversity and that’s why there is no officialism. Our museum is not a propaganda facility. We’re trying to be as unbiased as absolutely possible and we are grateful for every visit. We can see a new level of communication and mutual assistance. Our museum is one big symbol of Ukraine. There was the Battle of the Dnipro during WW II, there is a battle for the city of Dnipro going on. This is our cause. Ukraine will be there for as long as there is Dnipro.”
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