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JUNE 26 2018 ISSUE No. 40 (1172)<br />
Tel.: +38(044) 303-96-19,<br />
fax: +38(044) 303-94-20<br />
е-mail: time@day.kiev.ua;<br />
http://www.day.kiev.ua<br />
Dear readers, our next issue will be published on August 2, 2018<br />
REUTERS photo<br />
Photo by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day<br />
On trusting each other<br />
Gerhard GNAUCK:<br />
“I hope Germans<br />
will understand what<br />
a difficult way<br />
Ukrainians had to go”<br />
Continued on page 4<br />
Photo by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day<br />
Belated but<br />
Traditionalists and innovators<br />
indispensable<br />
On the<br />
All-Ukrainian<br />
Triennale<br />
“Graphics 2018”<br />
Continued on page 8<br />
What do The Day’s experts think of the new<br />
Law “On National Security of Ukraine”?<br />
2<br />
Continued<br />
on page
2<br />
No.40 JUNE 26, 2018<br />
DAY AFTER DAY<br />
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA<br />
By Ivan KAPSAMUN, Valentyn TORBA,<br />
photos by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day<br />
Anew security law, “On<br />
National Security of<br />
Ukraine,” was passed in<br />
Ukraine last Thursday,<br />
with 248 MPs voting for<br />
the presidential bill. The previous<br />
law, “On the Fundamentals of<br />
National Security and Defense,” had<br />
been adopted as far back as 2003.<br />
According to Ihor Smeshko, former<br />
chief of the Security Service of<br />
Ukraine, the latter was “reasonable<br />
and balanced enough.”<br />
“The law was passed when General<br />
Yevhen Marchuk was Secretary<br />
of the National Security and Defense<br />
Council and I was his first deputy<br />
and, therefore, directly participated<br />
in drawing up the law. So, I wonder<br />
why we were never asked, as experts,<br />
to voice our opinion on the new<br />
bill. As is known, it calls for repealing<br />
three laws now in force,”<br />
Smeshko told The Day (article “On<br />
unity,” No. 21, April 3, 2018).<br />
The laws in question are “On the<br />
Fundamentals of National Security of<br />
Ukraine,” “On Democratic Civilian<br />
Control over the Military Organization<br />
and Law-Enforcement Bodies<br />
of the State,” and “On the Organization<br />
of Defense Planning.”<br />
What is written in the new law?<br />
Firstly, it lays down the basic principles<br />
of national security and defense,<br />
the objectives and guidelines<br />
of governmental policies which will<br />
guarantee society and every individual<br />
protection against dangers.<br />
More in detail, it specifies the President<br />
of Ukraine’s powers to exercise<br />
strategic command of the National<br />
Guard via the General Staff of the<br />
Ukrainian Armed Forces when martial<br />
law has been declared.<br />
The law also sets out that the<br />
minister of defense and his deputies<br />
are to be appointed from among civilians<br />
and that the offices of Chief of<br />
the General Staff and Commanderin-Chief<br />
of the Ukrainian Armed<br />
Forces will be separated. The Armed<br />
Forces’ commander-in-chief is to be<br />
appointed and dismissed by the president<br />
at the formal request of the defense<br />
minister to whom he is subordinated,<br />
while the chief of the General<br />
Staff is subordinated to the<br />
Armed Force’s commander-in-chief.<br />
The document is the first step in<br />
bringing the uniformed services into<br />
line with NATO standards. In particular,<br />
the status of the Security<br />
Service (SBU) is changing – from now<br />
on it will be a special body with lawenforcement<br />
functions, which ensures<br />
state security, while strictly observing<br />
the rights and freedoms of<br />
man and citizen. Investigating economic<br />
crimes is now beyond the<br />
SBU’s competence.<br />
However, this triggered heated<br />
debates in parliament. Particularly,<br />
MPs Hanna Hopko and Svitlana Zalishchuk<br />
insisted that changes about<br />
stripping the SBU of the function to<br />
combat corruption and organized<br />
crime be introduced directly to the<br />
law on the Security Service, but none<br />
of their amendments were supported.<br />
The law separates defense forces<br />
and security forces. From now on, defense<br />
forces are to take relevant<br />
measures to ensure defense of the<br />
state and military security, whereas<br />
security forces are supposed to ensure<br />
Ukraine’s state and community security.<br />
Besides, the Law “On National<br />
Security of Ukraine” introduces<br />
democratic civilian control<br />
over the security and defense sector,<br />
including on the part of the Verkhovna<br />
Rada and the public.<br />
The document says that allocations<br />
for the security and defense sector<br />
should make up at least 5 percent<br />
of the planned GDP, of which 3 percent<br />
will be spent on funding the<br />
Armed Forces.<br />
Ihor Smeshko is rather critical<br />
of the new law. “I can conclude<br />
from what I saw that it is in fact a<br />
collection of political slogans that do<br />
not explain the essence of the law’s<br />
name and considerably worsen governance<br />
in the sphere of defense<br />
and national security,” he says.<br />
(For more details, see the abovementioned<br />
interview.)<br />
Logically enough, the pro-presidential<br />
PPB faction came to a positive<br />
conclusion. According to MP<br />
Ivan Vynnyk, the bill signals the beginning<br />
of the Ukrainian army’s<br />
transition to NATO and EU standards.<br />
“An essential innovation is<br />
introduction of parliamentary and<br />
civil control over the Armed Forces<br />
and volunteer formations,” the party’s<br />
press service quotes the MP as<br />
saying.<br />
What do The Day’s experts think<br />
of the new draft law?<br />
● “IT WOULD HAVE BEEN<br />
BETTER TO PASS THIS LAW<br />
IN THE VERY BEGINNING”<br />
Dmytro TYMCHUK, Member of the<br />
Ukrainian Parliament:<br />
“The law on national security<br />
should lay the groundwork for all<br />
the reforms associated with the security<br />
and defense sector and aimed<br />
at Euro-Atlantic integration. We<br />
are really in the mess, for we have<br />
put the wagon ahead of the horse.<br />
There was a Ministry of Defense<br />
concept, and there was a Strategic<br />
Bulletin – already a road map for<br />
THE LAST CORRECTIONS<br />
carrying out reforms in line with<br />
Belatedbut indispensable<br />
What do The Day’s experts think of the new<br />
Law “On National Security of Ukraine”?<br />
NATO standards. These documents<br />
are being actively implemented today,<br />
and military control bodies<br />
are being reformed. But it is all details.<br />
We need a law that will basically<br />
determine interconnection between<br />
reformation processes and<br />
become a reference point of sorts for<br />
reforms in the sectors of security<br />
and defense. And it is very important<br />
to provide for the security and<br />
defense sector. It should be a single<br />
MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT AFTER VOTING FOR THE LAW ON NATIONAL SECURITY<br />
body. The problem of interaction between<br />
the uniformed services has<br />
been very acute since the first days<br />
of Russia’s war against Ukraine.<br />
But, of course, it would have been<br />
better to pass this law in the very beginning.<br />
We are late here to some<br />
extent.<br />
“To tell the truth, there is a traditional<br />
rivalry between special services,<br />
between intelligence and other<br />
branches… And this rivalry has existed<br />
since the beginning of independence.<br />
Nobody wants a rivaling<br />
body to penetrate into an alien territory<br />
and begin to establish their own<br />
order. It is this approach that hinders<br />
interaction. Now our goal is to<br />
break these stereotypes and switch<br />
to NATO standards in the finest<br />
sense of the word. It is not the compatibility<br />
of gun calibers that matters<br />
to NATO. What really matters to<br />
them is effectiveness of defense and<br />
security in the country as a whole.<br />
The No. 1 thing is to standardize legislation,<br />
which we are busy with<br />
now. One should also take into account<br />
that NATO standards have<br />
been honed for dozens of years and<br />
are the most effective, and we need<br />
them not only for moving towards the<br />
Alliance but also, and first of all, for<br />
boosting the effectiveness of our security<br />
and defense sector.”<br />
● “IN REALITY, THIS LAW SETS<br />
OUT A RIGID CHAIN OF<br />
COMMAND FOR TWO<br />
PEOPLE – THE PRESIDENT<br />
AND THE RNBO<br />
SECRETARY”<br />
Valentyn NALYVAICHENKO, former<br />
chief of the Security Service of<br />
Ukraine:<br />
“In the text of the Law on National<br />
Security, I first of all see the<br />
increase of the existing and the provision<br />
of new supervisory powers of<br />
the National Security and Defense<br />
Council (RNBO) secretary. I can see<br />
strict subordination of security and<br />
defense powers to the president and<br />
the RNBO secretary.<br />
“Secondly, whether or not parliament<br />
wanted it, it is unexpected to<br />
me, and I don’t think it is a right<br />
measure – parliament gave up supervision<br />
over almost all the governmental<br />
bodies in the defense and<br />
security sector, including the SBU. It<br />
is accountability and many other<br />
ways of control. The law demands<br />
that all security agencies submit a<br />
written report to parliament once a<br />
year only. This innovation considerably<br />
narrows parliamentary control<br />
over the security and defense sector.<br />
“Thirdly, societal control. In reality,<br />
this law does not introduce<br />
any forms of societal control. On the<br />
contrary, it narrows them. Societal<br />
control is confined to participation in<br />
discussing certain matters – no more<br />
than this. I remind you that societal<br />
control in accordance with European<br />
norms is a possibility to monitor the<br />
legality of all the law-enforcement<br />
and security bodies’ activity. The<br />
law absolutely ignores this important<br />
moment. I think our European partners<br />
will first of all criticize us for<br />
failure to introduce this kind of societal<br />
control.<br />
“Fourthly and mainly, my expert<br />
opinion is that lawmakers did<br />
not dare write in the passed law that<br />
protecting the security of every individual<br />
is the No. 1 task of security<br />
and defense bodies. I emphasize this.<br />
This law is about national security,<br />
but where is security of the Ukrainian<br />
citizen?<br />
“In general, what is written in<br />
this law concerns the activities of<br />
RNBO. There is nothing new in it. In<br />
reality, the current law on national<br />
security set out a rigid chain of command<br />
for two people – the president<br />
and the RNBO secretary. But it still<br />
says nothing about counterintelligence<br />
or an antiterrorist center. Instead,<br />
this law simply repeats provisions<br />
of the existing laws – a juridical<br />
tautology of sorts.”
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA<br />
DAY AFTER DAY No.40 JUNE 26, 2018 3<br />
By Natalia PUSHKARUK, The Day<br />
Recently, President of<br />
Ukraine Petro Poroshenko<br />
made two new appointments<br />
to the Ukrainian<br />
diplomatic service: he<br />
approved the appointment of retired<br />
Ukrainian army commander<br />
Lieutenant-General Petro Lytvyn<br />
as our ambassador to Armenia,<br />
and that of Ihor Tumasov as ambassador<br />
to the Republic of Peru. The<br />
decrees have been made public on<br />
the website of the Presidential<br />
Administration.<br />
The decision to appoint Lytvyn<br />
caused a wave of dissatisfaction.<br />
After all, the official biography<br />
of Lytvyn makes clear that he graduated<br />
from Kyiv Armor Engineering<br />
Academy, the National Defense<br />
Academy of Ukraine and<br />
served in various officer postings.<br />
However, it lists no experience in<br />
the diplomatic service. In addition,<br />
there have been numerous<br />
damaging media reports, most recently<br />
repeated by MP Yurii<br />
Bereza, who said in the chamber on<br />
June 20: “This is the Lytvyn who<br />
abandoned his soldiers in the Sector<br />
D in eastern Ukraine. This is the<br />
Lytvyn whose actions might have<br />
cost me and my brothers-in-arms<br />
our lives.”<br />
It is worth recalling that the<br />
Lytvyn family is quite prominent in<br />
Ukrainian politics. Petro Lytvyn’s<br />
brothers Volodymyr and Mykola also<br />
held high positions. Volodymyr<br />
Lytvyn was speaker of the Verkhovna<br />
Rada and chief of the Presidential<br />
Administration, while General<br />
of the Army of Ukraine Mykola<br />
Lytvyn served as chairman of the<br />
State Border Guard Service. “I<br />
want to remind you that we have a<br />
‘heroic’ little family here, with<br />
one of its members sitting here in<br />
the chamber, who welcomed the<br />
Kharkiv Agreements and has attacked<br />
the Ukrainian state and<br />
Ukrainians every time he has spoken...<br />
And another hero is the newly<br />
appointed ambassador of<br />
Ukraine to Armenia,” Bereza noted<br />
in his speech as well.<br />
“Mr. President, look into the<br />
eyes of the mothers of those who<br />
have not returned from this war..,”<br />
the MP continued. “Lytvyn’s appointment<br />
confirms the thesis that<br />
there is corruption in this chamber...<br />
Unfortunately, the aggressor<br />
state spends a lot of money to ensure<br />
that such people as Lytvyn retain<br />
influence on the government<br />
policy of Ukraine. I would like to<br />
appeal once again to Foreign Minister<br />
Pavlo Klimkin. Friends, you<br />
have crossed the line... I know that<br />
such a person would not have been<br />
allowed to become ambassador in<br />
any other country. Shame on you.”<br />
Chairperson of the Verkhovna<br />
Rada Committee on Foreign Affairs<br />
Hanna Hopko has criticized<br />
the president’s decision as well.<br />
She reminded those present that<br />
her committee had been advocating<br />
the norm requiring candidates for<br />
ambassadorial positions to undergo<br />
preliminary consultations, so as<br />
to allow the committee to “sift out<br />
unprofessional people who bring<br />
dishonor to Ukraine.” “Instead,<br />
we have seen Poroshenko appointing<br />
his own associates. Are we really<br />
so short of people? Is the<br />
Ukrainian diplomatic service totally<br />
lacking people who can represent<br />
Ukraine with dignity? We<br />
saw other personnel appointments<br />
before. I now understand why<br />
Poroshenko has vetoed the Law of<br />
Ukraine ‘On the Diplomatic Service,’<br />
which we approved here on<br />
April 5 with 276 votes in favor. He<br />
did not like consultations in the relevant<br />
committee. And this is not<br />
about specific people serving on the<br />
committee. This is about institutions,<br />
about the principle which<br />
“Are we really so<br />
short of people?”<br />
people fought for after the Maidan,<br />
I mean ensuring that the institutions<br />
defend human rights regardless<br />
of who occupies what position,”<br />
she said.<br />
How are experts commenting on<br />
this appointment?<br />
● “WE SEE A WEAK<br />
CANDIDATE AND A WEAK<br />
POLITICAL DECISION<br />
WHICH REFLECTS A<br />
SYSTEMIC PROBLEM”<br />
Bohdan YAREMENKO, chairman of the<br />
board at the Maidan of Foreign Affairs<br />
Foundation:<br />
“Appointment of Petro Lytvyn<br />
as ambassador of Ukraine to Armenia<br />
illustrates a systemic problem<br />
plaguing foreign policy governance<br />
in Ukraine. In accordance<br />
with the Constitution, the president<br />
of Ukraine, unusually for<br />
mixed parliamentary-presidential<br />
systems, has been given executive<br />
powers: he not only represents<br />
Ukraine in international relations,<br />
but effectively manages all foreign<br />
policy activities, and also very<br />
carefully protects his right to stay<br />
uncontrolled.<br />
“Recently, the parliament attempted,<br />
with the law ‘On the<br />
quainted with a matter, while consultations<br />
are a form of approval,<br />
and hence a form of control. We,<br />
meanwhile, do not have public and<br />
parliamentary control over foreign<br />
policy activities. Therefore,<br />
the president, guided by the belief<br />
that he is constitutionally empowered<br />
to do so, makes decisions at his<br />
own discretion.<br />
“In this case, this decision is<br />
subject to criticism in every regard.<br />
Firstly, the candidate itself<br />
looks suspicious. Why is a soldier<br />
getting appointed, and not a<br />
diplomat, who knows the Armenian<br />
language or understands the<br />
intricacies of the diplomatic service?<br />
Is not there a better candidate?<br />
Moreover, that soldier has,<br />
unfortunately, a very problematic<br />
reputation, which is associated<br />
with the Ilovaisk tragedy. In addition,<br />
he is a brother of<br />
Volodymyr Lytvyn. Obviously,<br />
this appointment is based precisely<br />
on such connections and<br />
nepotism. He has no professional<br />
qualities, knowledge, skills needed<br />
to serve as an ambassador, especially<br />
in such a complex country<br />
with which we have a lot of fundamental<br />
disagreements. I do not<br />
understand why his candidacy is<br />
Diplomatic Service,’ to enact provisions<br />
requiring consultations in<br />
the parliamentary committee when<br />
appointing ambassadors, but the<br />
president has vetoed it. However,<br />
he made a counter-proposal to present<br />
candidates for ambassadorial<br />
positions to the committee, but<br />
presentation and consultations are<br />
different things, since presentation<br />
is just a way to get people acany<br />
better than the candidacy of<br />
any department head in the Ministry<br />
of Foreign Affairs.<br />
“Secondly, why is our ambassador<br />
getting appointed to Armenia<br />
at all? After all, that country,<br />
which is an ally of Russia, officially<br />
voted against the UN resolution<br />
that supported the territorial<br />
integrity of Ukraine, and<br />
therefore, Armenia does not rec-<br />
Hanna Hopko, other politicians and experts have sharply criticized the<br />
appointment of career soldier Petro Lytvyn as ambassador to Armenia<br />
Photo by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day<br />
ognize the territorial integrity of<br />
our state. Thus, the absence of a<br />
Ukrainian ambassador there can<br />
be considered a way of expressing<br />
disagreement with its position.<br />
This is a weak demarche, but a demarche<br />
nevertheless.<br />
“That is, we see a weak candidate<br />
and a weak political decision<br />
that cannot be explained, because<br />
we are completely in the dark about<br />
personnel selection with its defining<br />
principles and criteria, since it<br />
happens behind closed doors and<br />
shuttered windows in the Presidential<br />
Administration.<br />
“All this testifies to the fact<br />
that the diplomatic service is in a<br />
state of decay, and it is probably<br />
already as bad as it gets. The foreign<br />
policy service has turned into<br />
a PR department for the president.<br />
And this is not only about<br />
Poroshenko, such a situation took<br />
shape quite a long time ago, and it<br />
was like this, in fact, with all the<br />
presidents. The president has the<br />
right to appoint ambassadors at<br />
his own discretion, but whether<br />
this is reasonable and what criteria<br />
are used in exercising this<br />
right, we do not know. And this is<br />
a big problem.”<br />
● “GIVEN THE BAD PUBLICITY,<br />
THE PRESIDENT WOULD DO<br />
WELL TO EXPLAIN TO THE<br />
PUBLIC WHAT THE<br />
DECISION WAS BASED ON”<br />
Vasyl FILIPCHUK, chairman of the<br />
board at the International Center for<br />
Policy Studies:<br />
“There are two major ways of appointing<br />
ambassadors around the<br />
world. For example, in the US, these<br />
are mostly purely political appointments,<br />
while in European countries,<br />
ambassadors are appointed from<br />
among career diplomats. In Ukraine,<br />
as a rule, ambassadors are appointed<br />
from among high-level career<br />
diplomats who have worked for a certain<br />
time in the diplomatic service<br />
and meet the requirements for an<br />
ambassadorial posting. Still, a certain<br />
part of the appointments is political<br />
by nature: people who have a<br />
certain political weight get appointed<br />
to such positions.<br />
“It is unclear what was the logic<br />
behind the appointment of this<br />
person as ambassador to Armenia.<br />
On the one hand, he is definitely not<br />
a career diplomat who has gone<br />
down the diplomatic service path and<br />
can occupy this post. On the other<br />
hand, he is not a politician either.<br />
This is the result of some personal<br />
decisions on the part of the president.<br />
Considering the problematic<br />
qualities of this person, he probably<br />
had some compelling reasons to<br />
make this appointment.<br />
“Indeed, Armenia is not a G7<br />
country and not one of Ukraine’s<br />
Top 5 priorities. Still, it is an important<br />
country for us: we have a<br />
large Armenian community, there<br />
are certain interests, we have a<br />
partnership with Azerbaijan, and<br />
Azerbaijani-Armenian relations<br />
are very complicated. Therefore, a<br />
highly skilled diplomat should be<br />
appointed to this post. Requirements<br />
are very high there. Everyone<br />
in the diplomatic service remembers<br />
former Ambassador Oleksandr<br />
Bozhko, who served in Armenia<br />
for a long time and worked to<br />
maintain good relations between<br />
our two countries.<br />
“Given the bad publicity, the<br />
president would do well to explain to<br />
the public what the decision was<br />
based on. This is not a personal patronage<br />
service for the head of state<br />
or a position at his factory. These are<br />
government positions that require<br />
nation-level thinking and statesman-like<br />
responsibility. It is doubtful<br />
whether the criteria of statesman-like<br />
responsibility were in fact<br />
met with this appointment.<br />
“The question is important and<br />
significant in public opinion, therefore<br />
the president should explain to<br />
the public why he has made such an<br />
appointment, and what determined<br />
his decision.<br />
“Another aspect is that this decision<br />
calls into question the credibility<br />
of the diplomatic service. We<br />
have a lot of good, high-quality career<br />
diplomats. The ambassadorial<br />
position is not a sinecure. However,<br />
the impression is that it is precisely<br />
that: if you are a good friend of the<br />
president, but he cannot get you a position<br />
here, then you can go serve as<br />
an ambassador for a good salary,<br />
plus you get to use an ambassadorial<br />
residence, a car, a chauffeur, and<br />
so on. The impression is that decisions<br />
are made sometimes to satisfy<br />
one’s friends’ avarice. I really do not<br />
want this to be true.”
4<br />
No.40 JUNE 26, 2018<br />
TOPIC OF THE DAY<br />
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA<br />
By Serhii MORUHIN<br />
Now, four years after the<br />
beginning of Russian aggression<br />
against Ukraine,<br />
we know like never before<br />
how important the reputation<br />
of our country abroad is. It is<br />
ordinary Europeans – Germans,<br />
Dutchmen, Frenchmen, Poles, et<br />
al. – who determine the policy of their<br />
countries. What they think of<br />
Ukraine makes a direct impact on<br />
high-placed politicians. On the other<br />
hand, Ukrainians are part of<br />
European civilization. Our history is<br />
bloody and tragic, we were torn away<br />
from European culture for a long<br />
time, and we lost a lot of lessons<br />
history taught to European countries.<br />
Now, after 26 years of in-dependence,<br />
Ukraine is only beginning to<br />
blaze the trail to Europe, and we<br />
must learn to understand Europeans<br />
better and improve the way we tell<br />
them about ourselves.<br />
Gerhard Gnauck is a German<br />
journalist who worked for the most<br />
influential publications. He currently<br />
contributes to the newspaper<br />
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and<br />
has been taking interest for many<br />
years in what occurs to the east of<br />
Germany. Herr Gnauck agreed to<br />
answer The Day’s questions.<br />
● “THOSE EVENTS<br />
‘PROGRAMMED’ MY<br />
INTEREST IN UKRAINE”<br />
Herr Gnauck, the Ukrainians<br />
are accustomed to Western Europe<br />
taking not so much interest in<br />
Ukrainian events. Why did you<br />
choose this subject?<br />
“My family is historically linked<br />
with Ukraine. My grandmother was<br />
born in Podillia, not far from Kamianets-Podilskyi.<br />
They were Polish<br />
and ran away from there in 1920. My<br />
grandfather, a German, was killed in<br />
Ukrainian Volyn on the eighth day of<br />
invasion in 1941. My father and I<br />
once came here to find his grave. All<br />
this could not help but stir up my interest<br />
in Ukraine. My mother is Polish<br />
and father is German. They took<br />
an active part in human rights struggle<br />
in the 1970s-1980s, and I heard<br />
such names as Hryhorenko,<br />
Dzhemilev, Stus, and others, since I<br />
was a child. Then I happened to travel<br />
to Ukraine in 1989 for the first<br />
time as part of a group of students<br />
and two professors. It was very interesting:<br />
we visited Chornobyl and<br />
the Bykivnia forest, the place of<br />
mass-scale executions of repression<br />
victims. All those events ‘programmed’<br />
my interest in Ukraine.”<br />
You were prepared for the events<br />
that followed the collapse of the Soviet<br />
Union and the emergence of independent<br />
Ukraine. But you were<br />
clearly in the minority in Germany.<br />
What is the attitude of Germans to<br />
our state?<br />
“I cannot possibly speak on behalf<br />
of all Germans, for I am just a journalist.<br />
Besides, I am dealing with foreign-policy<br />
matters very much. And,<br />
in general, it is an important topic,<br />
but I can outline several points that<br />
I think are characteristic. If you remember,<br />
there was a very well-known<br />
German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich<br />
Genscher. He recalls in his<br />
memoirs that he wanted to fly to<br />
Ukraine in July 1991, when he was on<br />
a fact-finding tour of the East. But,<br />
not to complicate relations with<br />
Moscow, Gorbachev, the delegation<br />
first flew to Kazakhstan and then, as<br />
if on the way back, visited Ukraine.<br />
I recalled these impressions of Genscher<br />
a few years later, in 1997,<br />
when I accompanied German President<br />
Roman Herzog. Again, we first<br />
flew to Kyrgyzstan and then to Kyiv.<br />
I remember speaking with a deputy<br />
minister, and he said German dele-<br />
gations had been visiting Ukraine in<br />
the mid-1990s and offering aid, particularly<br />
in the agrarian sector. But<br />
it was very difficult to speak to some<br />
of the Ukrainian officials, and nothing<br />
came out of that. It was also<br />
very important that the Soviet Union<br />
collapsed against the backdrop of a<br />
bloody conflict in former Yugoslavia.<br />
By contrast, the USSR broke up in a<br />
very peaceful way, thank God, but, as<br />
is known, there still were conflicts in<br />
Transnistria, Transcaucasia, and<br />
other hot spots.”<br />
Gerhard GNAUCK: “I hope Germans will understand<br />
what a difficult way Ukrainians had to go”<br />
● “I PERSONALLY, AS AN<br />
EYEWITNESS, WOULD<br />
EQUATE THE IMPORTANCE<br />
OF THE ORANGE<br />
REVOLUTION WITH THAT<br />
OF THE FALL OF THE<br />
BERLIN WALL”<br />
So, Europe did not pay much attention<br />
to Ukraine because it neither<br />
benefited from nor was harmed<br />
by the latter?<br />
“There were always some conflicts<br />
that attracted attention. And then<br />
the year 2004 came. I personally, as an<br />
eyewitness, would equate the importance<br />
of the Orange Revolution with<br />
that of the fall of the Berlin Wall.”<br />
It is high praise, especially from a<br />
German.<br />
“I can say this as a journalist, as a<br />
citizen. Along with the fall of the<br />
Wall, it is the most important event I<br />
was personally present at. I can remember<br />
my former classmate telling<br />
me how he perceived this. In Germany,<br />
Ukraine was on every TV<br />
screen. It suddenly appeared and<br />
stayed on for two or three weeks so.<br />
Then, also suddenly, it disappeared.”<br />
How did ordinary Germans react<br />
to this?<br />
“As to something uncommon, interesting.”<br />
So the Germans “discovered” the<br />
2004 Ukraine?<br />
“Yes. You should understand the<br />
importance of what occurred in 1989<br />
for the Germans. It was what the opposition<br />
in East Germany began with –<br />
election monitoring and the struggle<br />
against election rigging. Those were<br />
very easy-to-grasp things. And here,<br />
peaceful civilians are standing in the<br />
cold – every journalist noted at the<br />
time that it was very cold, especially<br />
for the Germans. And the people<br />
achieved their goal, which was also a<br />
very positive event. Then came the period<br />
when ministers of various coun-<br />
tries – for example, Germany and<br />
Poland, or Germany, Poland, and<br />
France – traveled to the East to jointly<br />
address some problems. I would<br />
single out the Polish minister Sikorski<br />
and Steinmeier who is now the<br />
President of Germany.”<br />
● “THE GERMAN MEDIA ARE<br />
AWARE THAT IT IS A<br />
CONFLICT BETWEEN<br />
UKRAINE AND RUSSIA, NOT<br />
A CIVIL WAR”<br />
But the year 2004 is not our last<br />
revolution, is it? The 2004 events<br />
continued in 2013-14. Ukraine was on<br />
every TV screen again. How did the<br />
German public react to this?<br />
“First of all, when there was a<br />
peaceful phase of the face-off, things<br />
were very easy to grasp. Peaceful<br />
civilians stood up for their rights,<br />
Euro-integration, etc., and it was<br />
viewed positively. No matter what<br />
the German media wrote, everything<br />
was good before the bloodshed. I even<br />
remember quite an unbiased report on<br />
Ukrainian nationalism. Nationalism is<br />
a very sensitive matter in Germany,<br />
but in this case everything was very<br />
well balanced, much to my surprise.<br />
Then TV showed the footage of tires<br />
burning on Hrushevskoho St. As far as<br />
I know, there was only one place,<br />
where tires were burning – the whole<br />
city was not on fire. But, naturally,<br />
such pictures produce a negative effect.<br />
The next footage: a shootout on<br />
Hrushevskoho St. and a major bloodshed<br />
on Independence Square and Instytutska<br />
St. I personally think this<br />
greatly influenced the perception of<br />
Ukraine – it began to be associated<br />
with violence. ‘Who started it? Who<br />
is to blame? All are more or less guilty.<br />
Radicalization, escalation, you<br />
know…,’ viewers used to say. This<br />
must have been the turning point in<br />
German public opinion – there was a<br />
violent conflict on the streets.”<br />
Did German public opinion turn<br />
away from Ukraine?<br />
On trusting each other<br />
Photo by the author<br />
“Of course not. I must tell those<br />
who are scathingly criticizing the<br />
German media that it is not quite so.<br />
There were about 30 major talk shows<br />
on German TV about the situation in<br />
Ukraine. This means that this problem<br />
really worried everybody. I remember<br />
a talk show hostess I know asking<br />
Angela Merkel if the Minsk Agreements<br />
would be followed by Minsk 2,<br />
Minsk 3, and so on. And Madam Chancellor<br />
had to answer – she said there<br />
was no other way out; it’s better this<br />
way than another. There was also a<br />
talk show attended by the minister of<br />
defense. The question was about kidnapping<br />
Bundeswehr soldiers who<br />
were part of the OSCE mission. Madam<br />
Minister answered that it was not accidental<br />
and the conflict was growing.<br />
We can also recall that there were several<br />
German journalists at the Ukrainian<br />
army barracks in Crimea, when the<br />
‘little green men’ were going to take<br />
them by storm – they came out only<br />
when there was a real danger that they<br />
will suffer. And some of my colleagues<br />
received mailed threats of bodily harm<br />
for spotlighting the Ukraine conflict<br />
from an excessively ‘anti-Putin’ position.<br />
This looked very strange because<br />
we had previously thought that<br />
threats could only be issued against the<br />
journalists who write about the mafia,<br />
not about politics. Some politicians<br />
said important words. President<br />
Joachim Gauck said in Gdansk: history<br />
teaches us that when we try to appease<br />
the aggressor, this will only whet his<br />
appetite, and he will want still more.<br />
Or take the Minister of Finance, Wolfgang<br />
Schaeuble. Once the aggression<br />
in Crimea began, he said, speaking to<br />
schoolchildren, that it was comparable<br />
to 1938 [the annexation of Germanspeaking<br />
regions of Czechoslovakia. –<br />
Ed.]<br />
But we sometimes also read different<br />
opinions in the German press.<br />
“There are various opinions. But,<br />
on the whole, the German press is<br />
unanimous that Crimea was annexed –<br />
it is an undeniable fact. This formulation<br />
is used by the information agencies<br />
that set the tone in the journalistic<br />
milieu. Certain media try sometimes<br />
to present the conflict as a<br />
‘proxy war’ between puppets on both<br />
sides, a clash between Putin and God<br />
knows who in the West because Trump<br />
can hardly make the grade of a global<br />
villain. But it seems to me that, on the<br />
whole, the German media are aware<br />
that it is a real conflict between<br />
Ukraine, as a nation and a state, and<br />
Russia, as a state, and that it is not a<br />
civil war, but one brought in from<br />
abroad.”<br />
● “I SHARE YOUR FEARS THAT<br />
‘NORD STREAM 2’ IS<br />
INTENDED TO HINDER THE<br />
TRANSIT OF GAS ACROSS<br />
UKRAINE”<br />
Ukraine suffers very much from<br />
Russian propaganda. Since 2014, or<br />
even earlier, Russia has been spreading<br />
biased, sometimes fabricated,<br />
information about predominance of<br />
the far Right, the oppression of minorities,<br />
and all kinds of provocative<br />
fakes. To what extent strong is the<br />
stereotype of Ukraine as a country,<br />
where nationalists rule supreme and<br />
ethnic minorities are harassed, and<br />
to what extent do the Germans believe<br />
these allegations? To what extent<br />
harmful are such excesses as, for<br />
example, the devastation of a Roma<br />
camp and similar stories?<br />
“I see. As you know, this story began<br />
in 2003-04. The first to criticize<br />
Chancellor Schroeder for this project<br />
was Polish President Kwasniewski.<br />
They even fell out over this. Schroeder<br />
signed this agreement as a chancellor<br />
and then, after the elections,<br />
assumed a top executive office in<br />
Nord Stream. All this occurred well<br />
before the 2005 elections. The elections<br />
catapulted Angela Merkel to<br />
power. It was too late to go back, for<br />
major German companies were involved<br />
in this. Let us recall that the<br />
world was different at that time.<br />
Russia was different, too. The Kremlin<br />
leadership may have been preparing<br />
for this kind of scenarios, but in<br />
that period, the first four or five<br />
years, everything looked nice and<br />
comely.”<br />
Still, I would like to know the extent<br />
to which German people are<br />
aware of the threat the commissioning<br />
of Nord Stream 2 poses to<br />
Ukraine.<br />
“Unfortunately, many articles<br />
I’ve read in the past few months allege<br />
that Poland and Ukraine are<br />
protesting against building the second<br />
segment of Nord Stream because<br />
they are afraid to see their gas transit<br />
capacity reduced. But Gazprom<br />
and President Putin emphasize that<br />
the quantity of the gas transported<br />
now across Ukraine will remain unchanged.<br />
German newspapers wrote<br />
that Ukraine and Poland were afraid<br />
to lose revenues or even were ‘afraid<br />
of being offended.’ This essentially<br />
distorts Ukraine’s position and presents<br />
the two states as hurt children.<br />
But, on the other hand, the current<br />
security situation totally differs<br />
from the one 10 years ago. Now there<br />
are interconnectors, and gas can run<br />
in the reverse mode to Ukraine<br />
through Poland and Slovakia. The<br />
seller is not Russia, not Gazprom, but
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA<br />
TOPIC OF THE DAY No.40 JUNE 26, 2018 5<br />
a certain European company. This<br />
is an element of security for<br />
Ukraine because it will depend<br />
less on Russia.”<br />
But it is not only about money.<br />
Ukraine insists that Nord<br />
Stream 2 may stop the transit of<br />
Russian gas across our country,<br />
which will give Putin a free hand<br />
for military expansionism in<br />
Ukraine because in this case intensification<br />
of the military conflict<br />
will no longer counter Russian<br />
commercial interests.<br />
“I share your fears that Nord<br />
Stream 2 is intended to hinder the<br />
transit of gas across Ukraine.<br />
Some German publications have<br />
admitted in the past few weeks<br />
that it is not a purely economic<br />
project, as politicians have been<br />
reiterating for years. Merkel said:<br />
yes, there is a political component,<br />
and we will see to it that the<br />
transit of gas through Ukraine<br />
continues. Then Putin said: yes, I<br />
also support this. But these are only<br />
words so far.”<br />
● “THE MORE COMMON<br />
VALUES UKRAINIANS<br />
AND GERMANS WILL<br />
HAVE, THE FASTER<br />
MISUNDERSTANDINGS<br />
WILL BE VANISHING”<br />
Sometimes the impression is<br />
that European politicians and Europeans<br />
in general are taking a superficial<br />
attitude to Ukraine’s<br />
problems and do not want to look<br />
into essential details. This brings<br />
about misunderstandings and tension<br />
where it can be avoided. They<br />
often fail to understand that we<br />
are still halfway on the road the<br />
Western world has already<br />
passed. Do you think this kind of<br />
misunderstanding really exists?<br />
“If you have a goal, you should<br />
approach this goal step by step.<br />
Ukraine is striving for the European<br />
Union, where there are good<br />
living standards, etc. This is what<br />
you, Poles, and other nations have<br />
been aspiring for. Of course, European<br />
institutions, the European<br />
Union, assess one country or another<br />
on the basis of how closely<br />
they have approached their standards.<br />
And it is, after all, your<br />
wish – the wish of Ukraine – to approach<br />
European standards. Economic<br />
development, wellbeing,<br />
adequate administration, transparency,<br />
zero corruption is our<br />
common basis on which we can cooperate.”<br />
In other words, to be better<br />
appreciated by Europeans,<br />
Ukrainians must look more like<br />
Europeans?<br />
“This is an eternal problem<br />
with new candidate countries.<br />
Poland also went through this. If<br />
a country wants to join the European<br />
Union, this does not mean<br />
that the EU will begin to move in<br />
order to meet you halfway. The EU<br />
cannot possibly introduce corruption<br />
or begin to spoil its highways<br />
for the sake of Ukraine. It is<br />
absurd. The European Union is a<br />
set of standards, rules, and values.<br />
If you share these values and introduce<br />
certain standards in your<br />
country, it will mean movement<br />
towards and integration into Europe.<br />
Naturally, the more common<br />
values, for example, Ukrainians<br />
and Germans will have, the faster<br />
misunderstandings will be vanishing<br />
– this will mean that Germans<br />
and Ukrainians trust each<br />
other more and attitudes will,<br />
naturally, also improve. So, I hope<br />
Germans will understand what a<br />
difficult way Ukraine and<br />
Ukrainians had to go and will<br />
highly appreciate it.”<br />
By Volodymyr BOIKO, historian<br />
The Institute of Ukrainian History<br />
of the National Academy<br />
of Sciences of Ukraine and the<br />
Institute of Historical Studies<br />
of the Bulgarian Academy of<br />
Sciences are parties to the signed<br />
agreement. Besides interaction of<br />
these institutions themselves, it seeks<br />
to strengthen Ukrainian-Bulgarian<br />
ties in the areas of science, education,<br />
and culture. First of all, it deals with<br />
the need to create a commission of<br />
Bulgarian and Ukrainian historians,<br />
which should be composed of leading<br />
scholars from both academies, wellknown<br />
students of Bulgarian and<br />
Ukrainian issues, and follow the<br />
example set by the Ukrainian-Polish<br />
body. Unlike the latter, it is unlikely<br />
that the future commission will have<br />
to consider diametrically opposite<br />
views on past events (such differences<br />
just do not exist in this case). At the<br />
same time, such a commission can<br />
become the basis for new contacts.<br />
Developing them, holding scholarly<br />
exchanges and bilateral consultations,<br />
as well as joint conferences, seminars,<br />
summer schools, roundtables, and<br />
documentary exhibitions – all this<br />
forms the next priority set out by the<br />
parties. Likely directions of cooperation<br />
currently include advising<br />
postgraduate students of the other<br />
party as they write their theses, joint<br />
publishing projects, exchanging<br />
research literature, and submitting<br />
articles to the other party’s publications.<br />
The above list is not exhaustive.<br />
Tentative topics of research<br />
projects include: various aspects of<br />
Ukrainian-Bulgarian relations, the<br />
Ukrainian historiography of Bulgaria<br />
and Bulgarian historiography of<br />
Ukraine, research sources available in<br />
both countries, the history of Bulgarian<br />
settlements in Ukraine and<br />
Ukrainian ones in Bulgaria, Ukrainian-Bulgarian<br />
relations within the<br />
international system, and prominent<br />
figures of the shared history.<br />
BulgariaandUkrainein<br />
the history of Europe<br />
The two countries’ institutes of history have<br />
signed a cooperation agreement in Sofia<br />
The signing of the agreement became<br />
possible due to the History of<br />
Diplomacy and International Relations<br />
Scholarly Society initiating the<br />
conference “Bulgaria and Ukraine in<br />
the History of Europe,” which was<br />
held in the Bulgarian capital. Supported<br />
by the Ministry of Foreign<br />
Affairs of Ukraine, the Embassy of<br />
Ukraine in Bulgaria, and other partners,<br />
it became an exceptional phenomenon,<br />
as Sofia had never seen<br />
20 Ukrainian historians visiting at the<br />
same time. As noted at the opening,<br />
the names of Ivan Shishmanov and<br />
Mykhailo Drahomanov are equally<br />
close to the hearts of Ukrainians and<br />
Bulgarians. In recent years, Ukrainian-Bulgarian<br />
relations have been developing<br />
rapidly, increasing the mutual<br />
interest of the two peoples in each<br />
other. The book My Sister Sofia...,<br />
which appeared in Den’s Library series<br />
two years ago, is a manifestation<br />
of this interest, and at the same time<br />
a notable factor in its continued development.<br />
The conference focused on the<br />
events that occurred a century ago and<br />
their long-term effects on the 20th<br />
century. The scholars stressed that it<br />
was incorrect to say that the Ukrainian-Bulgarian<br />
intergovernmental relations<br />
were 26 years old, since they<br />
had actually turned 100, starting<br />
with the signing of the Treaty of<br />
Brest-Litovsk by the Ukrainian People’s<br />
Republic and the Central Powers<br />
alliance, which included Bulgaria.<br />
As Bulgarian scholar Professor Petar<br />
Stoyanovich asserted, it was a just<br />
peace for his country, a thin streak of<br />
triumph ahead of the coming crushing<br />
defeat. By the way, the Bulgarian<br />
scholar is a direct descendant of Minister<br />
Plenipotentiary Ivan Stoyanovich,<br />
who was one of the main negotiators<br />
in Brest-Litovsk.<br />
The unique role of the Treaty of<br />
Brest-Litovsk for Ukraine was emphasized<br />
by Ukrainian historian Professor<br />
Iryna Matiash, who said it offered<br />
a basis for Ukraine’s entry into<br />
the international arena, its effective<br />
legitimization. In her opinion, all<br />
parties involved perfectly understood<br />
others’ objectives and deliberately<br />
agreed to this step to pursue their national<br />
interests. Existing disagreements<br />
led to problems with ratification<br />
afterwards. However, it did not<br />
apply to Bulgaria and Ukraine, as<br />
they quickly exchanged ratification<br />
instruments. When it came to the<br />
appointment of ambassadors, Tsar<br />
Ferdinand insisted that the Ukrainian<br />
side be represented by a well-known<br />
national figure. In the end, Oleksandr<br />
Shulhyn got that job on the advice<br />
of Bulgarian Ambassador Shishmanov<br />
(a student of Taras Shevchenko’s<br />
works and the husband of Drahomanov’s<br />
daughter Lidia). Especially<br />
striking was the spectacular<br />
conclusion of Shishmanov’s speech<br />
during the presentation of his credentials<br />
to Pavlo Skoropadsky, namely<br />
his words: “Glory to Ukraine! Glory<br />
to the Illustrious Lord Hetman!”<br />
That is, the Bulgarian was, at the very<br />
least, very well acquainted with the<br />
situation in Ukraine, so much that he<br />
could take credit for the most famous<br />
Ukrainian slogan.<br />
Bulgarian scientist Blagovest<br />
Nyagulov stressed that the leadership<br />
of the Tsardom of Bulgaria was genuinely<br />
interested in the emergence of<br />
an independent Ukraine, for it offered<br />
Bulgaria a chance to raise the issue of<br />
the status of Dobrogea and some other<br />
areas in the context of the negotiations<br />
in Brest-Litovsk. Indeed, young<br />
Ukrainian diplomats found a common<br />
language with their Bulgarian<br />
counterparts very quickly. The latter<br />
became a sort of intermediaries between<br />
the various involved parties.<br />
One of the negotiators, Minister<br />
Plenipotentiary General Petar<br />
Ganchev, was convinced that the<br />
peace with Ukraine was much more<br />
important than the peace with Bolshevik<br />
Russia.<br />
Another Bulgarian researcher,<br />
Volodya Milachkov, reported on the serious<br />
attention of the Bulgarian media<br />
Photo by the author<br />
SOFIA, BULGARIA. UKRAINIAN HISTORIANS STAND BESIDE THE GRAVE OF MYKHAILO DRAHOMANOV – AN INDIVIDUAL<br />
WHO IS EQUALLY APPRECIATED BY UKRAINIANS AND BULGARIANS<br />
to the Ukrainian issue at that time. According<br />
to available information, the<br />
drafting and signing of the Treaty of<br />
Brest-Litovsk increased the number of<br />
such reports manifold. In addition to<br />
that topic, the Bulgarians were interested<br />
in Skoropadsky’s rise to power,<br />
the relationship between Ukraine and<br />
Russia, the Romanian intervention in<br />
Bessarabia, the relations of Ukrainians<br />
with ethnic minorities (primarily<br />
Bulgarians), the land issue, transportation,<br />
and currency exchange<br />
rates. A separate topic was the reception<br />
of Bulgarian Ambassador Shishmanov<br />
in Kyiv and his Ukrainian<br />
counterpart Shulhyn in Sofia. When<br />
accepting the credentials of the latter,<br />
the head of the Bulgarian state emphasized:<br />
“We know where the soldiers<br />
who died for Bulgaria’s freedom came<br />
from.” This is not surprising, given<br />
the fruitful activities of Ukrainians in<br />
Sofia.<br />
Director of the Institute for History<br />
Studies Daniel Vachkov covered<br />
in his presentation a little-known<br />
page of the history of the First World<br />
War. There was a circle of intellectuals<br />
in Bulgaria who believed that to<br />
prevent future wars in Europe, it<br />
was necessary to create a federation.<br />
Moreover, that process had to unfold<br />
in spatially and temporally distinct<br />
stages. One such stage was to involve<br />
the nations of the Balkans, the<br />
Carpathians, Asia Minor, the Caucasus,<br />
and the northern seaboard of the<br />
Black Sea. That is, Ukraine was to<br />
have a role in it as well. Next, they envisaged<br />
the Teutonic and Scandinavian<br />
federations. In the end, these entities<br />
had to unite in a pan-European<br />
one. However, the Versailles system<br />
laid a completely different foundation.<br />
Only after the horrors of the Second<br />
World War did Europe return to<br />
the idea of unification.<br />
The conference dealt with contemporary<br />
issues as well. I mean, in<br />
particular, the rapid growth of bilateral<br />
trade, a significant number of cultural<br />
and artistic events, and mutual<br />
sympathies among citizens. By the<br />
way, as it turned out, Bulgaria, unlike<br />
Hungary, does not consider the new<br />
Law of Ukraine ‘On Education’ to be<br />
discriminatory. On the contrary, it<br />
emphasizes that the law opens up<br />
new opportunities for studying the<br />
Bulgarian language. Bulgaria supports<br />
the sanctions policy imposed<br />
by the EU in connection with Russia’s<br />
aggression against Ukraine. However,<br />
this position is more clearly defined<br />
at the presidential level. The cabinet,<br />
meanwhile, is more cautious, and<br />
it insists that the sanctions should be<br />
observed as an expression of pan-European<br />
solidarity. The conference<br />
heard alarming data of opinion polls,<br />
showing that 35 percent of the polled<br />
Bulgarians approved the annexation<br />
of Crimea by Russia, 27 percent were<br />
against it, and another 38 percent had<br />
no answer. In general, the pro-Russian<br />
attitude prevalence is estimated at<br />
61 percent. According to the speakers’<br />
observations, the events of recent<br />
years have led, helped by the influence<br />
of Russian propaganda, to an increase<br />
in pro-Russian attitudes in Bulgaria.<br />
At the same time, they made Ukraine<br />
more recognizable among the Bulgarians.<br />
The conference was held on a parity<br />
basis, and both Ukrainian and<br />
Bulgarian scholars spoke there, but<br />
this author considered it advisable to<br />
highlight the Bulgarian side as lessknown<br />
in Ukraine. The gathering of<br />
historians has shown a desire to expand,<br />
diversify, and intensify contacts.<br />
This is all the more important<br />
given the opinion poll data provided<br />
there. For now, after the official closure<br />
of the scholarly forum, Ukrainian<br />
historians visited the grave of<br />
Drahomanov – an individual who is<br />
equally appreciated by Ukrainians<br />
and Bulgarians. He succeeded in significantly<br />
affecting the perception<br />
of Ukraine in Bulgaria in his age. It is<br />
time for us to act now.
6<br />
No.40 JUNE 26, 2018<br />
CLOSE UP<br />
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA<br />
Welcome<br />
to Halych!<br />
The new issue of Route No. 1<br />
calls on you to visit a historic<br />
Ukrainian town<br />
By Daria TRAPEZNIKOVA, The Day<br />
“There are a lot of cities,<br />
such as Polish Krakow and our<br />
Kharkiv, which used to be capitals<br />
and still remain major industrial<br />
or cultural centers that<br />
continue to develop. But Halych<br />
was forgotten and did not develop<br />
for years to come. Moreover,<br />
we were forced to forget<br />
our history and achievements<br />
of our ancestors,” Halych Mayor<br />
Orest TRACHYK says. Route<br />
No. 1’s creative team is changing<br />
this tendency by dedicating the<br />
next issue of the glossy to the<br />
raion center in Ivano-Frankivsk<br />
oblast, which once was a princely<br />
capital and gave the name to<br />
a whole region.<br />
Halych, situated on the way<br />
from Lviv to Ivano-Frankivsk,<br />
can become a tourist attraction<br />
on this itinerary. In spite of a<br />
small size, the town still can surprise<br />
travelers with a harmonic<br />
combination of ancient architectural<br />
monuments and nature<br />
spots of indescribable beauty.<br />
Memories of the past are closely<br />
guarded, and customs and artistic<br />
achievements are being revived<br />
here. From time immemorial,<br />
different peoples and religions<br />
have peacefully coexisted<br />
on these territories. This left an<br />
imprint not only on museum expositions,<br />
but also on traditions,<br />
everyday life, and cuisine. Therefore,<br />
“tasty” discoveries are<br />
awaiting readers not only on culinary<br />
pages.<br />
There are also many interesting<br />
things in the villages of<br />
Halych raion and on the banks of<br />
one of Ukraine’s largest rivers,<br />
which flows to the sea through<br />
the town. Why do Galicia residents<br />
and tourists love the Dniester<br />
and its tributaries so much,<br />
which of the Galician “places of<br />
strength” is the strongest, what<br />
benefits will, in the view of the<br />
Halych mayor, the district’s inhabitants<br />
derive from the unification<br />
of the neighboring villages<br />
into one commune? The<br />
fresh issue of Route No. 1 is all<br />
about this. You can find it at<br />
newsstands or make an order on<br />
Den’s website or by the sales section’s<br />
phone (044) 303 96 23.<br />
By Svitlana AHREST-KOROTKOVA<br />
The Folio publishing house<br />
introduced to the Ukrainian<br />
reader for the first time one of<br />
the most famous and globally<br />
published Israeli writers, Meir<br />
Shalev, whose novel My Russian<br />
Grandmother and Her American<br />
Vacuum Cleaner has appeared in the<br />
series “Map of the World,” translated<br />
by Volodymyr Verkhovnia.<br />
The writer’s great sense of style,<br />
unusual imagery, humor and selfirony,<br />
impeccable plot designs and<br />
high intelligence won my heart long<br />
ago. And I know I am not alone.<br />
Shalev was a guest of the Book Arsenal<br />
festival, and I am grateful to<br />
the Embassy of Israel in Ukraine for the<br />
opportunity to communicate with him.<br />
● THE FIRST UKRAINIAN<br />
IMPRESSIONS<br />
My dear Mr. Shalev, let me greet<br />
you in Ukraine. Your books are widely<br />
known in the world, and have been<br />
released in Russian translations many<br />
times. Now is the first time that a book<br />
of yours reached the Ukrainian reader.<br />
What is your opinion of this translation,<br />
and how did you find working<br />
with the Ukrainian book market?<br />
“I cannot, unfortunately, evaluate<br />
the quality of the Ukrainian translation.<br />
Apart from Hebrew, I know only English,<br />
and do not speak other foreign languages.<br />
Given that the publisher was interested<br />
and published my book, I trust<br />
that he made every effort to ensure that<br />
the translation was a high-quality one.<br />
As for the Ukrainian book market, I<br />
flew to Ukraine for the first time to visit<br />
the Book Arsenal, and I really liked<br />
the location. It is a very beautiful building.<br />
I was to book fairs and festivals all<br />
over the world, but nowhere had seen so<br />
comfortably organized space, or such a<br />
beautiful children’s section, because I<br />
also write children’s books. I was impressed<br />
by the Book Arsenal’s children’s<br />
playgrounds, interactive books<br />
and exhibitions. This is one of the most<br />
beautiful and best-organized festivals.”<br />
● LITERATURE AND FAMILY<br />
AFFAIRS<br />
I read your novel The Blue Mountain<br />
for the first time, and my feelings<br />
from it and its structure, its construction<br />
of images and thoughts have brought to<br />
my mind a comparison with my favorite<br />
writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez.<br />
“I am pleased.”<br />
A writer usually, like any creative<br />
individual, starts with themselves, describing<br />
the events of their life, what<br />
happened to them. What I know about<br />
you contradicts this norm. You are not<br />
engaged in agriculture, are absolutely<br />
secular, do not really observe all the rituals.<br />
Where do these contradictions<br />
“Our family still makes borscht...”<br />
Works of Meir Shalev, one of the most<br />
famous Israeli writers, have been translated<br />
into 16 languages. Recently, one of them<br />
appeared in Ukrainian for the first time<br />
come from: the image of the Land of Israel<br />
itself or from your worldview?<br />
“I just invent some stories, they are<br />
fruits of my imagination. I also use for<br />
my narrative some family stories. Yes,<br />
I am not a farmer, but my entire maternal<br />
family were farmers and have<br />
stayed in business. I came down to their<br />
farm during every school vacation when<br />
I was a child. I am well aware of what<br />
farming was like 50 years ago. My<br />
greatest inspiration is the narration<br />
talent in our family, which was passed<br />
on in my mother’s line. All my paternal<br />
family members were intellectuals, urbanites,<br />
critics, scholars of literature,<br />
writers, and researchers. Meanwhile, my<br />
mother’s family, when they gathered at<br />
the farm, especially women, they preserved<br />
fruits, salted cucumbers, and told<br />
some stories all the time, while I sat and<br />
listened. When I began to write, fragments<br />
of these stories surfaced in my<br />
mind, as they had gotten deeply rooted<br />
in memory, and they were of use to me.”<br />
Being the son of a famous person<br />
and working in the same line is very<br />
difficult, because your father was a famous<br />
Israeli writer. Did it help or<br />
hamper you? How did you manage to<br />
avoid unconscious pressure?<br />
“Father did not hamper me, rather,<br />
he helped, because he told me: ‘write,<br />
write,’ whereas at that time, I was not<br />
even going to start writing. I read a lot<br />
and loved books. Father suggested that<br />
I try my hand. However, I was fascinated<br />
by something completely different,<br />
and when I finally wished to write, I first<br />
published two children’s books at 35, and<br />
my first ‘adult’ publication appeared<br />
when I was 40. It was too late to either<br />
benefit from the glory of my father or<br />
worry about it somehow. My father<br />
published only one novel, but it was a<br />
very successful one. I think that I have<br />
my own style, so the influence of my father<br />
as a writer on me and my style is virtually<br />
negligible.”<br />
● FROM WORD COOKERY TO<br />
EVERYDAY GIMMICKS<br />
An integral part of your style is describing<br />
food, which in Israel is a kind<br />
of “religion,” or as I put it, a “national<br />
entertainment.” I remember the<br />
description of the process of eating<br />
olives by the grandfather in The Blue<br />
Mountain, I also remember the simple<br />
meal which the grandmother instantly<br />
cooked in A Pigeon and a Boy. This<br />
magic of food is present in every work<br />
of yours. And what does this cooking<br />
atmosphere mean for you?<br />
“What is happening in Israel with<br />
food and around food is exaggerated<br />
and somewhat even vulgar. We have<br />
endless cooking shows, restaurant<br />
cuisine, high cuisine, dishes from the<br />
chef. I love the food that is cooked at<br />
home. There are several ‘secret’<br />
Photo by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day<br />
recipes that came to me from my mom<br />
and aunt. I was married to a woman<br />
from the Sephardic community, her<br />
family had come from Bulgaria. The<br />
Bulgarian cuisine is also extremely interesting,<br />
being half Turkish and half<br />
Greek. Homemade food has a soul. I<br />
describe it in my novels. Frankly<br />
speaking, my grandmothers did not<br />
cook very well. It was even outright<br />
bad in the paternal line. Meanwhile,<br />
my favorite Grandma Tonya cooked<br />
well, but there was nothing special<br />
about it. With each new generation,<br />
we perfect the culinary arts. My son<br />
cooks better than me and my wife, my<br />
brother cooks better than mom. There<br />
is still potential for development, so<br />
the next generation will surprise us<br />
with their culinary skills.”<br />
● LITERATURE AND<br />
JOURNALISM<br />
You devoted yourself to literary<br />
work and at the same time became a<br />
prominent columnist for a famous<br />
publication. Where, in your opinion, is<br />
the watershed between journalism and<br />
literature?<br />
“The watershed runs exclusively<br />
between midnight on Wednesday and<br />
morning on Thursday. I am not a journalist,<br />
I do not run about, I do not look<br />
for news, I work at home as a columnist,<br />
and when the editor calls me: ‘Go there,<br />
look at it, and tell about your impressions,’<br />
I say ‘No.’ True journalism has<br />
nothing to do with reality. I sit down to<br />
write a column on Thursday morning,<br />
I submit it the same evening, and it appears<br />
in the newspaper on Friday morning.<br />
After that, I forget about journalism<br />
and devote myself to literature<br />
until next Thursday.”<br />
Do you feel that all the literary<br />
genres that exist today, with all their<br />
diversity, are laid down in the Ancient<br />
Book?<br />
“All world literature began with the<br />
Bible and Greek mythology, as the story<br />
of the voyage of Odysseus is very<br />
widely used in modern literature. But<br />
speaking of the Old Testament, I love<br />
it, because it does not delve into psychology.<br />
It is just stories, a great text.<br />
For example, look at the story of Jacob<br />
and Rachel. He first saw Rachel and<br />
wept. Were a modern author to write<br />
about this, they would have typed a<br />
whole chapter about what happened,<br />
what he thought, how and who perceived<br />
it. And here, it is just one sentence:<br />
‘Jacob saw her and wept.’ And<br />
the reader should think: why? Millions<br />
of beautiful women were around<br />
for centuries throughout history, but<br />
no one walked and wept in the streets<br />
because of them. That is, this is a little<br />
discovery that the reader has to make<br />
on their own. The Bible does not delve<br />
into psychology as it tells its story.”<br />
● A BIT OF ACTION FOR A<br />
SEDENTARY WORKER<br />
Are you still a brave biker who<br />
takes part in various competitions?<br />
“I have never been a biker, I like to<br />
drive a motorcycle and can do it, but I<br />
have never competed. I did participate<br />
in an SUV rally, though. I am a<br />
very good driver and still go to the<br />
desert with my friends, staying there<br />
for the night. It was while driving an<br />
SUV that I participated in competitions.<br />
But it took a lot of time, technical<br />
training was needed. I decided that<br />
I could be either a driver or a writer. I<br />
had to leave the races. I did not do this<br />
to get some experience, it is my hobby.”<br />
● ATTEMPTING TO DRAW<br />
PARALLELS<br />
For me, the rise of Israel and how<br />
it lives today is a very colorful and<br />
vivid example of how individual people<br />
can build their own country, provided<br />
they are actively optimistic.<br />
Does the hybrid war in Ukraine bring<br />
to mind some sort of comparison with<br />
your country somehow?<br />
“Optimism is indeed our immense<br />
feature. After so many years of scattering,<br />
pogroms, and expulsions, we<br />
have remained alive. This is already a<br />
sufficient reason for optimism. I am<br />
not familiar enough with the political<br />
situation in Ukraine to analyze it, but<br />
I can give one piece of advice, based on<br />
the Israeli experience: you are very<br />
fortunate that there is no religious<br />
component in your conflict. But judging<br />
by what I have seen – even if this<br />
is limited to the space of the Book Arsenal<br />
– your country is quite self-sufficient<br />
and self-identified.”<br />
Do you see a common future,<br />
some more cooperation? Will you<br />
come to the nearest book fairs in<br />
Ukraine?<br />
“If they translate more of my<br />
works, I will be glad. But I would prefer<br />
that the next translation be The<br />
Four Meals, because it is a romantic,<br />
gentle, meaningful book. And immediately<br />
after it, I would like to see Two<br />
She-Bears translated, just for the sake<br />
of contrast, because it is tough,<br />
rough, and completely different. I will<br />
be pleased to come and launch each<br />
new translated book. There are only<br />
two conditions – I will come in the<br />
summer, because the winter is very<br />
cold. And secondly, I want to be treated<br />
to a borscht meal. (Laughs.) Our<br />
family still makes borscht.”
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA<br />
CULT URE No.40 JUNE 26, 2018 7<br />
By Dmytro DESIATERYK, The Day,<br />
Dnipro – Kyiv<br />
Photos by Yurii STEFANIAK<br />
I’d long known about Ukraine’s<br />
first Anti-Terrorist Operation<br />
Museum in Dnipro before visiting<br />
it this year. It’s official title<br />
reads: “Museum [dedicated to]<br />
the Civil Feat of Dnipropetrovsk<br />
Oblast during ATO Events” and it is<br />
formally one of the Dmytro Yavornytsky<br />
National History Museum’s<br />
six branches. The exposition consists<br />
of the indoor diorama “Battle of<br />
Dnipro” and the outdoor display<br />
“Donbas Roads.” The diorama was<br />
opened on May 25, 2016, and the<br />
indoor exhibit on January 23, 2017.<br />
The main exposition occupies<br />
600 square meters of the diorama’s<br />
ground floor. Among the 2,000 items<br />
on display are documents, photos,<br />
war decorations, personal effects of<br />
ATO officers and men, weapons, and<br />
medical instruments. The multimedia<br />
room (movie theater) offers three<br />
panoramic documentaries (two in<br />
Ukrainian and one in English) about<br />
combat operations in the east of<br />
Ukraine.<br />
The outdoor display shows a BMP-<br />
2 infantry fighting vehicle, T-64 tank<br />
turret, PM-43 regimental mortar,<br />
other weapons, an UAZ-452-truckmounted<br />
ambulance, and a concrete<br />
mock-up of a roadblock. Practically all<br />
items on display are from battlefields.<br />
The central part of “Donbas Roads” is<br />
occupied by the sculptural composition<br />
“A Soldier and a Girl” and [a section<br />
of] a highway with road signs<br />
with the names of towns in Donetsk<br />
and Luhansk oblasts. Behind the armored<br />
infantry vehicle is a large metal<br />
structure portraying the debris of<br />
Donetsk Airport, a monument to the<br />
Ukrainian heroes who defended the<br />
airport for 242 days.<br />
The diorama’s ground floor has a<br />
lobby, a video hall (former movie theater<br />
for lectures illustrated by documentaries),<br />
and the Hall of Memory<br />
(former exhibition hall with a wall<br />
with pictures of heroes who forced the<br />
Dnipro River during WW II). In the<br />
lobby, items on display are mounted<br />
on metal structures symbolizing the<br />
ruins of Donetsk Airport. The walls<br />
are covered by camouflage netting.<br />
There are large thematic stands that<br />
tell about servicemen, volunteers,<br />
medics, resettlers from the enemyoccupied<br />
territories, chaplains, and<br />
media people in the field.<br />
The Hall of Memory has over<br />
500 photos of officers and men killed<br />
in action who were born and lived in<br />
Dnipropetrovsk oblast. There are<br />
glass cubes with personal effects of<br />
50 KIAs, including war decorations,<br />
documents, books, parts of uniform<br />
and equipment, some showing where<br />
they were hit by bullets or shell fragments.<br />
I was born and grew up in<br />
Dnipropetrovsk oblast, so I can’t help<br />
being emotional. The Battle of Dnipro<br />
Diorama is essentially and actually a<br />
sample of pompous clumsy Brezhnev<br />
propaganda (Leonid Brezhnev visited<br />
the place in the early 1980s, shortly<br />
before his death). The key element is<br />
a diorama portraying the forcing of<br />
the river near Dnipropetrovsk, executed<br />
in the true style of socialist realism,<br />
with a bulky foreground made<br />
of dummy blocks and trees. What attracted<br />
us kids at the time was, of<br />
course, the display of Soviet materiel<br />
ranging from an ancient howitzer to<br />
a jet fighter. We were thrilled to explore<br />
each item and no one knew – or<br />
cared to know – whether it had actually<br />
been used in combat.<br />
The ATO Museum has breathed a<br />
new life into this mass of granite and<br />
steel. Vehicles riddled by bullets,<br />
road signs with familiar placenames,<br />
KIAs’ personal effects, a panoramic<br />
movie theater – all this well<br />
Ukraine’s first ATO museum<br />
planned and multifaceted design<br />
makes one feel like reading a war<br />
novel or watching a war blockbuster,<br />
even taking part in a war scene, and<br />
certainly makes this museum one<br />
of the best in Ukraine.<br />
I spoke to a museum official and<br />
asked how the project began.<br />
“Natalia Khazan, a volunteer of<br />
the Ukrainian Defense Foundation,<br />
was among the first to conceive the<br />
idea,” the man said. “There were also<br />
servicemen, volunteers, and<br />
medics who had fought in the first<br />
battles of 2014-15. Even then we<br />
had quite a few items on display and<br />
eyewitness accounts. Our region is<br />
the closest to the front. We started on<br />
the project in February 2016. First,<br />
it was an outdoor interactive exposition<br />
meant for children, so they’d<br />
know who was fighting, with what<br />
and why. We used the History Museum’s<br />
downtown junkyard and commissioned<br />
Kyiv artist Viktor Hukalo<br />
to make the design. The first exposition<br />
occupied 1,000 square meters.<br />
Just imagine: the project was<br />
conceived in February and was<br />
launched on May 26. Three months of<br />
hard and enthusiastic work! The idea<br />
was approved by authorities on all<br />
levels. The title ‘ATO Museum’ is a<br />
popular one, compared to the official<br />
‘Civil Feat of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast<br />
during ATO Events.’”<br />
What was the main concept?<br />
“Honor the living and pay homage<br />
to the dead, from day one. We wanted<br />
people to see the courage and feats<br />
of arms performed by our officers and<br />
men. We walk down peaceful streets<br />
with a clear sky above, and we tend to<br />
forget that a war is being fought<br />
some 60 miles away.<br />
“The history of this war is illustrated<br />
in several sections. We place no<br />
emphasis on one group of people compared<br />
to the next. Servicemen, temporary<br />
displaced persons, volunteers,<br />
chaplains, medics, journalists, the<br />
whole of Ukrainian society, all of<br />
Ukraine that’s resisting the enemy.<br />
The main thing is to show the truth<br />
about this war. We combine outdoor<br />
with indoor displays. The outdoor<br />
part has large items on display and introduces<br />
the visitor to the war theme.<br />
The main exposition has three sections,<br />
including an interior one with<br />
six thematic blocks, the Hall of Memory<br />
where we pay homage to the KIAs,<br />
and a movie theater.”<br />
Which of these sections do you<br />
consider to be the most important<br />
one?<br />
“They’re all important. Whereas<br />
the Hall of Memory leaves your<br />
nerves on end, the movie theater is<br />
the heart of the exposition. As many<br />
as 560 residents of Dnipropetrovsk<br />
oblast have been killed in action and<br />
the Hall is dedicated to them. It<br />
wasn’t planned as an exhibition<br />
room, but then relatives and comrades-in-arms<br />
of KIAs started bringing<br />
various items. This part of the<br />
museum is an especially vivid evidence<br />
of the scope of this war and the<br />
level of [Russia’s] aggression. Visitors<br />
step inside and see photos lining<br />
the wall from floor to ceiling,<br />
50 show window cubes that tell the<br />
story in no uncertain words.<br />
“The movie theater offers documentaries<br />
in Ukrainian and English,<br />
each lasting 30 minutes. They are<br />
made so no one leaves the audience<br />
unperturbed. They show all people<br />
– servicemen, medics, volunteers,<br />
chaplains, journalists – whose<br />
photos and stories are included in<br />
the exposition. The movie theater is<br />
modern equipped, with 10 projectors<br />
securing a panoramic 360 o view.<br />
Kyiv is probably the only other<br />
place where such equipment is used.<br />
The technical aspect of the project<br />
was very complicated, considering<br />
that most video material originated<br />
from servicemen’s smartphones and<br />
had to be processed to be projected<br />
on the big screen, but we solved<br />
that problem.”<br />
What about the documentary in<br />
English?<br />
“Our museum is a mandatory part<br />
of the itinerary for all official delegations,<br />
including members of parliament,<br />
ministers, ambassadors, and<br />
presidents. This is proof that we did<br />
everything the right way.”<br />
How many visitors so far?<br />
“Our estimates show over 160,000<br />
in 2016-17. The important thing is<br />
that admittance is free. There are<br />
very many young people among the<br />
visitors as the museum is part of the<br />
high school curriculum. There are<br />
interesting related patriotic projects<br />
like the one known as ‘The Roads of<br />
Heroes’ when groups of high school<br />
students come to Dnipro from various<br />
parts of the region and visit the military<br />
base of the 25th Brigade. There<br />
they are shown personnel’s daily routine,<br />
materiel, meet with war heroes.<br />
In the end, they visit the museum and<br />
walk down the Alley of Memory near<br />
the building of the regional state administration.<br />
They spend a day doing<br />
very informative sightseeing. Our<br />
museum is modern also because it<br />
operates on an interactive basis.”<br />
Any items on display that have a<br />
special meaning for you?<br />
“They all do as each has a special<br />
history. We receive them from the<br />
demarcation line. There are no dummies.<br />
Each item on display is genuine.<br />
I’ll repeat myself: the Hall of<br />
Memory is of the utmost importance<br />
to me. Everything there is permeated<br />
with human pain. How will I ever<br />
forget a postcard from the mother of<br />
a fallen soldier. She wrote she didn’t<br />
need any documents confirming receipt,<br />
that one had to realize that her<br />
son would never read her happy<br />
birthday postcard. Another woman<br />
brought her son’s combat fatigues<br />
and asked the clothes to be displayed<br />
so one could see the caliber of the enemy<br />
bullet that had killed him.<br />
“There is a letter from a sixyear-old<br />
girl whose father was killed<br />
in action in July. She was to enter<br />
Grade 1 on September 1. She addressed<br />
her letter to other children<br />
her age, saying your daddies will take<br />
you to school on September 1, but my<br />
dad died in the war.<br />
“There are shell fragments and<br />
bullets we received from the Mechnikov<br />
Hospital. They are displayed<br />
along with excerpts from case histories.<br />
This is something we must remember.”<br />
I noticed that ATO vehicles are<br />
displayed alongside dummies from<br />
the ex-Soviet exposition dedicated to<br />
WW II, and that the rest of the museum<br />
is inside the building with<br />
Brezhnev’s monumental diorama.<br />
An interesting combination, isn’t it?<br />
“There is ideology and there is<br />
paying tribute to the fallen heroes.<br />
Another thing that makes our museum<br />
different from others is that it<br />
doesn’t impose any ideology on the<br />
visitor. The whole project is the result<br />
of a dedicated effort by hundreds<br />
of people. Some would come up<br />
with ideas, others would bring items<br />
to be put on display… There is no<br />
drawing any lines in such diversity<br />
and that’s why there is no officialism.<br />
Our museum is not a propaganda<br />
facility. We’re trying to be as<br />
unbiased as absolutely possible and<br />
we are grateful for every visit. We<br />
can see a new level of communication<br />
and mutual assistance. Our museum<br />
is one big symbol of Ukraine. There<br />
was the Battle of the Dnipro during<br />
WW II, there is a battle for the city<br />
of Dnipro going on. This is our<br />
cause. Ukraine will be there for as<br />
long as there is Dnipro.”
8<br />
No.40 JUNE 26, 2018<br />
TIMEO U T<br />
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA<br />
Traditionalists and innovators<br />
By Hanna PAROVATKINA<br />
Photos by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day<br />
Graphics is a genre that reveals the<br />
class of an artist better than any<br />
other. For example, in the Soviet<br />
era book illustrations enabled<br />
artists to show creative fantasy<br />
and evade the so-called “social commission.”<br />
The Sixtiers liked graphics and monumental<br />
art. The graphic “gems” of the noted master<br />
Heorhii Yakutovych are well known far<br />
outside this country.<br />
As is known, the National League of<br />
Ukrainian Artists launched the Triennale of<br />
Graphics as far back as 1997. Besides, the<br />
Yakutovych Exhibit-cum-Competition has<br />
been held since 2002 (one in two years). This<br />
year the two events coincided in time. So, it<br />
was decided to display the best works submitted<br />
for both competitions at the all-Ukrainian<br />
exhibit “Graphics 2018.”<br />
Good expositions, such as the recent one<br />
at the House of the Artist, are not often put<br />
on in Kyiv. There were no “run-of-the-mill”<br />
works among several hundred items of “book<br />
illustrations, prints, original graphics, and<br />
watercolors” (these are the nominations at the<br />
Yakutovych Exhibit-cum-Competition).<br />
On the All-Ukrainian<br />
Triennale “Graphics 2018”<br />
This was not the first time the Exhibition<br />
Directorate of the National League of Artists<br />
boldly united traditionalists and innovators<br />
in a joint project: works by the stars of<br />
Ukrainian contemporary art (Anna Myronova,<br />
Viktor Sydorenko, et al.) stood side<br />
by side with those of the living classics of national<br />
graphics. Taken together, these different<br />
poles of visual art made quite a true<br />
picture of modern-day Ukrainian graphics.<br />
The exposition consisted of pictures by wellknown<br />
authors – Yurii Honcharenko,<br />
Volodymyr Ivanov-Akhmetov, Kateryna Korniichuk,<br />
Mykola Kochubei, Andrii Levytsky,<br />
Vitalii Mitchenko, Yurii Rubashov,<br />
Oksana Stratiichuk, Viktor Sydorenko, Vasyl<br />
Chebanyk, and Andrii Chebykin, as well<br />
as of the works of young artists who show a<br />
high professional and creative level.<br />
The most interesting point in large-scale<br />
“collective events” is a possibility to spot, behind<br />
a large number of works from all over<br />
Ukraine, the tendencies artists follow deliberately<br />
or intuitively. It the art market,<br />
not the “state’s commission,” that forms the<br />
art fashion in Ukraine today. Also, judging<br />
by “Graphics 2018,” book illustrations remain<br />
the “queen of demand” on it. The exposition<br />
also included a lot of good “interior<br />
works,” such as traditional prints, engravings,<br />
watercolor landscapes, etc. Their<br />
price was reasonable even for the impoverished<br />
Ukrainian “middle class.”<br />
What seemed unusual is the intention of<br />
some authors to create “art brut,” or “naive”<br />
art. Who knows: maybe, a new Ukrainian<br />
avant-garde is being born before our very eyes<br />
out of the love for traditional amateur pictures,<br />
as it happened at the turn of the 20th<br />
century?<br />
Another interesting trend is semblance between<br />
a number of book illustrations by various<br />
authors and street graffiti. The fad for<br />
muralism has swept over the whole country in<br />
the past few years after the Maidan. What became<br />
an example to follow for young colleagues<br />
is, among other things, street art murals<br />
of the Interesting Fairytales duet. So, it<br />
is no wonder that it has been easier to see new<br />
works by “fairytale narrators” Volodymyr<br />
Manzhos and Oleksii Bordusov abroad than in<br />
Ukraine in the past few years.<br />
Art knows no borders. It is possible today<br />
to do art and to remain a patriot of Ukraine<br />
at any point of the globe. Contemporary “depoliticized”<br />
Ukrainian graphics is speaking<br />
with the whole world in the same language.<br />
By Tetiana ONYSHCHENKO<br />
Illustrations courtesy of exhibit organizers<br />
Kyiv is a city of contrasts. Volodymyrska<br />
and Brovarskyi Prospekt are the<br />
oldest (about 1,000 years) and the<br />
longest (14 km) streets,<br />
respectively. The theme of Kyiv is<br />
endless. Poets and writers sang praises of this<br />
city, it being painted and photographed. For<br />
some, it is the city of childhood; for others,<br />
it is the capital of Ukraine; and somebody else<br />
takes interest in its ancient history.<br />
Everybody has their own vision of Kyiv.<br />
At the exhibit, you can see Kyiv the way<br />
the following artists see and feel it: Olena<br />
Yablonska, Oleksandr Pavlov, Hanna Fainerman,<br />
Ernest Kotkov, Oleksandr Naiden,<br />
Oleksii Oriabynskyi, Zoia Orlova, Viktor<br />
Kozyk, Yakym Levych, Vladyslav Shereshevskyi,<br />
Oleh Zhyvotkov, Yurii Solomko,<br />
Liubov Rapoport…<br />
“Art must improve the human being, carry<br />
spiritual light, make attitude to life easier<br />
and more transparent, and remove bleak<br />
ideas and thoughts. If a picture cleared a way<br />
for the serene, it has done a good thing for<br />
people. A picture should radiate good,” the<br />
famous artist Olena Yablonska used to say.<br />
“Canvases by Oleksandr Pavlov, the guru<br />
of Ukrainian abstractionism, personify absolute<br />
freedom,” artist Oleksandr Liapin<br />
says about the master’s work.<br />
The exhibit displays interesting canvasses<br />
by Oleksandr Naiden (artist, researcher,<br />
and writer) and Oleksii Oriabynskyi<br />
(representative of the so-called “unofficial<br />
VLADYSLAV SHERESHEVSKYI, THE LAST SNAPSHOT<br />
“Address: Kyiv”<br />
An exhibit by this name is held at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Ukraine<br />
art,” whose work did not fit the rigid framework<br />
of socialist canons and was at odds with<br />
the then ideological system).<br />
Kyiv motifs run through many pictures<br />
of Viktor Kozyk. His works are emotionally<br />
expressive and full of spirituality.<br />
Nor will art buffs miss the works of Yurii<br />
Solomko who is well known for his pictures<br />
OLENA YABLONSKA, TOBACCO ON THE WINDOWSILL<br />
painted on geographical maps. Incidentally,<br />
Solomko maintains that a geographical map<br />
is one of the strongest symbols ever created<br />
by human civilization. It is on these symbols<br />
that Yurii expresses his vision and opinions.<br />
If you closely examine these authors’<br />
works, you will see all kinds of emotions –<br />
concern, joy, sadness, tenderness, fascination<br />
– and feel the rhythm the masters<br />
worked in. This is the way pictures are<br />
painted – with true feelings, living emotions,<br />
and in a special rhythm, which makes them<br />
valuable. This is a powerful energy space and<br />
a pictorial chronicle of Kyiv.<br />
■ The exhibit “Address: Kyiv” will remain<br />
open until September 9.<br />
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