Sofia of Uman. A charmed life; a cursed life.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to spend the day at Sofiyivsky Park in Uman. The park is listed as one of the seven wonders of Ukraine, and is considered to be an outstanding example of European landscape garden design. Here is the story of Sofia, who inspired it.

Count Felix Pototsky began construction on what would later be known as Sofiyivka Park in 1798 as a gift to his new bride, the legendary beauty Sofia. Sofia had been born in Greece, then was sold into slavery by her parents while 12 years old. The Polish Ambassador to Turkey bought her as a gift for the Polish King Stanislaw August; however, while traveling back through Ukraine she met the son of the Polish army commander, Jozef Witte, who fell in love with the 15 year old and bought her from the ambassador. The newly married Madame Witte quickly became a celebrated society figure among the Polish gentry. She soon took up delivering diplomatic mail and was rumored to use the opportunity to spy for the Polish king as well as Catherine the Great.

Sofia eventually left her husband and two children but was soon remarried to the Polish Count Pototsky in Uman. He adored Sofia and designed the park as a memorial to her beauty and incorporated in it the mythology of ancient Greece. The 400 acre park has it's own Isle of Lesbos, a terrace of the Muses, red poppy Elysian fields, a Cretan labyrinth, and an underground stream called Styx. Long before the park was finished, the Count uncovered an affair between his son from his first marriage and Sofia. Brokenhearted, he grew seriously ill. Sofia supposedly spent two days on her knees begging for his forgiveness, but the count died without forgiving her. She finished the park herself during a brief affair with the Russian Count Potemkin, then lived out her days in melancholy. The fact that a freak earthquake pushed her graveyard out of the Uman churchyard has the locals convinced that she was a witch.

Please go to my photoblog "Life at the Edge of the World" for photos. There will be more photos on an ongoing basis.

Technorati Tags: autumn, Photos, Ukraine, Uman

Water, water, everywhere. Now which one should I drink?

You arrive in Ukraine. After a long trip to get here, and maybe even some time going through immigration and customs, you're tired and you need something to drink. Something simple, like bottled water.

But here in Kiev, bottled water isn't a simple matter. In the US, you just go down the aisle with the water, find a brand you like from a choice of three or four, and take it to the cashier to pay. Two problems here. First, except in some larger stores and supermarkets, you just can't walk down an aisle and pick up your purchase. You must tell the attendant what you want and she'll get it for you. That may be a problem if you are Russian and Ukrainian challenged. But let's say you know "voda" the Russian word for water. You ask for voda and she'll start asking you questions. This is because water is no simple matter here in Kiev. And here's the second problem. Your choices may consist of:

• Plain water without gas.
• Plain water with gas.
• Mineral water without gas.
• Mineral water with gas.

Many small stores will have a selection of each. You may see a brand you recognize, like Bonaqua. But there are different Bonaquas too. What to do? Easy. Just point and hope for the best. If she picks the wrong one, just say "nyet" and motion with your hand. Elegant? No. But it will generally work. Just make sure you have some hrivens (the local currency) handy.

So, is there something simpler? Maybe there'll be a vending machine around. Or maybe not. But if you don't have to have water, the simplest thing you could order would be Coca-Cola. The name's the same here, and there's less chance for misunderstanding. Order anything else and you may get it with a side order of confusion.

Technorati Tags: Kiev, Kiev Basics, Kiev Life, Kyiv

Memory Day, 2007

The first time I did this, two years ago, it ranked up there as one of the most unusual customs I've run across. My wife calls it "Memory Day", though I 'm sure it's an imprecise translation. Here's how it works.

October 25th is the anniversary of the death of her grandfather, on her mothers side. So every year on this day, family members take time to visit the cemetery site of the departed. First thing to do is to clean up the site, pull weeds, plant something new, even though it is the end of October. Then, we set the table at the site (most plots have their own table) and have a small meal and a cognac toast in their memory. And always the stories. And we'd always leave some cognac and food for the departed too. This is even more striking since her family is not particularly religious.

Coming from the American tradition, or maybe it's more of a Catholic tradition, where many families would have trouble remembering the anniversary, knowing where their relatives are buried, or living hours away, this certainly surprised me the first time around. But after you do this once or twice, you begin to think "why not"?

So I was preparing myself mentally again this year for "memory day" when I found out things would be different this year. While it seems this ceremony is often observed for the first ten anniversaries, this year is the 11th, and we would be remembering at a relatives house this year. It was actually a bit of a let-down for me.

Another mystery for me about "memory day" is just who qualifies for such an honor. There hasn't been any mention of a "memory day" for her father's parents in the two years I've been here. And for my wife's mother, the ceremony day is more flexible, often done up to a week before or a week after the anniversary, depending on what's most convenient.

I guess it's just another of those imponderables for me, an foreigner living in East Europe.

Technorati Tags: Ukraine Traditions , Memory Day, Kiev, Kyiv

Living in the Past.

My wife and her father was recently had visitors from their past. Lazar and Luda were friends with my wife's family for many years, but not too long after the breakup of the Soviet Union and Ukraine independence, they chose to emigrate to the USA. As the Soviet Union disintegrated, so did the economies of many of these soon to be independent nations.

Several times during the ensuing years, their USA friends would send "care" packages to friends who remained behind. But something wonderful happened in the ensuing years. As time went by, the economies of many of the newly independent countries, and Russia itself, improved vastly. In wasn't always easy, and it wasn't always smooth, and things were not always trending up, but time went by and things improved.

The package was sent via boat shortly before they left the US, and arrived here in Kiev several weeks after our guests had left. While they were here, they seemed a bit awed by the mega-bazaars and the mega-stores that have blossomed here in recent years. It was no longer a time of Soviet shortages or post Soviet upheavals. But our package reflected the old times. Coats and shirts and pants and even underwear, all things in abundant supply these days. Even the styles of many items were straight out of the past.

But we thank them nonetheless, because their hearts were certainly in the right place. Their memories though were of another time.

Technorati Tags: Kiev, Kiev Life, Kyiv, old friends

(Don't) Question Authority.

I wonder sometimes just how they did it. How, almost three years ago, there were, at times, anywhere from 1-2 million people on the streets of Kiev. The world watched in awe. While most people around the world were content to complain about the way things are, here were people who actually took to the street in the Orange Revolution to change things. Inspiring, yes?

Fast forward to September 2006. Our son returns to school. My wife and I had questioned our son's teacher competence to some degree the prior year, and here we were, questioning it again. (Here in Kiev, you have one teacher assigned to your child for his/her first four years in school. So, if you get a lemon of a teacher, you may be stuck with it for four years. The obvious problem of course, is that this teacher can do a lot of damage in four years. So, the obvious solution to this problem is to get the teacher removed. Or so you would think.

It started innocently enough. Early on, we paid her some extra money to work with our son on his lessons after school ended, a quite normal practice here. But we quickly found out that these "lessons" were giving our son an assignment, after which she went and read a newspaper for forty minutes. That's not exactly what we were expecting, to say the least. But there were more troubling incidents too. Not explaining to the children what their homework assignment was. Openly blaming students when things went wrong in her class. At times expecting my wife to run errands for her. One day when my wife went to school to pick up our son, four of his classmates came up to my wife and told her our son was a problem in class. Now, I don't know about you, but when four of his classmates tell my wife the same thing, I suspect someone coached them about what to say.

My wife and her father had several discussions with the school's director, and several times were led to believe the problem was solved. But it wouldn't be long before there would be another reason to openly question his teacher's qualifications. But except for one other boy's parents, there was no problem here. The teacher was just fine. But when we talked to the school director, he would often assure us that action would be taken. Then the director and teacher would talk, and the teacher would retaliate against our child.

Three days before school was supposed to start again this fall, we got the news. This teacher, who was scheduled to be our son's teacher again this year, had asked to be reassigned closer to her home.

On the first day of school, my wife and I attended the "Day of Learning" activities. (See earlier posting for information and photos). It's then that the other parents piped in. "They finally got rid of that crazy teacher" seemed to be the common thought of the day. But not one of them had lifted a finger to make it happen. How, if you think your son or daughter is stuck with a lemon of a teacher, can you sit back and deny that there's a problem?

The lesson here is not that the schools are filled with problem teachers. No, they are as a whole very hard working and vastly underpaid. It takes real dedication here to be a teacher. The lesson should be that when you see a problem, take steps to resolve the problem. Do not permanently damage your child's future by letting them be stuck with the same bum teacher for four years.

Technorati Tags: Kiev, Kiev Basics, Kyiv, Kiev Schools

The Lone Worker.

Just wanted to put up one photo quickly from last weekend. There will be more to follow.

Although my wife has lived down the street from this for many years, she doesn't know anything about it. In fact, she asked me "where did you find that"?

Technorati Tags: autumn, Kiev Photos

The Streets of Kiev.

You see them quite often here on the streets of Kiev. The 20 year old Ladas, Zhigulis and Volgas. Along with 20 and 30 year old trucks and tractors of late Soviet origin. And one thing they mostly all have in common is smoke coming out the tailpipe. Often, lots of it. But what has changed most in the last two years is an explosion of other cars on the streets. And I wish I could say it's often the smaller cars people most associate with European travel. But you see the worst of the American excesses here, in spades; the Cadillac Escalades, the Toyota Land Cruisers, Prado Edition, bigger and more polluting than the regular version, and yes, even the Hummer. Gads, how did Toyota get this reputation as environmentally friendly?

I generally don't have a big problem with the people who own the old Soviet era cars. They are mostly owned by people who need some way to get around beyond mass transit, and can't afford a less polluting, more modern model. The government could implement programs to help them fix them up or replace them. But it hasn't. But the western and eastern imports of recent years are another problem. Everybody who buys one of these modern day monstrosities could certainly afford something less expensive and less polluting. And since each monstrosity takes up the same road and parking space as two Soviet era models, they are and will continue to be a driving force in bringing this city to a standstill.

So here's the central problem. When an economy goes into a recession or depression, who has the money to fix pollution problems? Not the government, and industry will certainly claim not to have it either. But then the economy comes back to life, so now's the time to do something, anything, about pollution. Right? Wrong. The government worries that even moderate pollution controls will send the economy back into recession and industry fuels those fears. Industry also sees a chance to make outsized profits, and fights any attempt, reasonable or otherwise, to implement sensible sustainability. And since the national culture here in Ukraine is based on not questioning things, there is little citizen pressure to bring change.

But soon, the city itself, not the politicians, may force a solution. This city was never designed for today's auto traffic, and gridlock may force people back to more sensitive alternatives. Or maybe, just maybe, people will become sick and tired of the noise and pollution and take back their city.

One can hope, yes??

Chernihiv trip photos, Part I.

Ever since the summer, I've been looking for a chance to get to Chernihiv (Chernigov in Russian). Chernihiv was a major historical, cultural, and religious center for hundreds of years, at time competing with Kiev in prominence. Last Saturday, my wife and I had an opportunity to go on an excursion, and we jumped at the chance. After waking at 5:30 in the morning, getting ready and having breakfast, we hopped in her father's car for the trip to Public School #8 in the Obolon district of Kiev, the starting point for our trip.

The trip was an organized excursion for the teachers of this school, in honor of Teachers Day on Friday. An excursion like this is not something the teachers of the school can afford on their own, since teachers here are near the bottom of the pay scale, along with doctors, the police, and any other public sector employee. But the word we heard was that this excursion was paid for by one of the most important politicians in the country, because one of the trip organizers had worked on this politician's recent election campaign.

Although neither my wife nor I are employed by the school, my wife's father worked for said trip organizer on this politician's campaign. There were two busses, on for the teachers, and one for the VIP's. My wife and I got the VIP treatment.

Around 7:30 AM, our trip took off, and we had the obligatory vodka toast, the first of many this day. Then, about 40 minutes out of Kiev, our bus turned off the road to Chernihiv for what I assumed would be a slight detour, but after an hour it was apparent we were going somewhere else. It seems our excursion was not to the city of Chernihiv; rather it was to lesser known destinations in the Chernihiv Oblast (administrative district). But being the adventurous sort, I made the best of the day. As you can see from the pictures, I hope you'll agree it was worth the detour.

Later in the day, at our third and final stop for the day, we had the obligatory feast, with vodka, cognac, and wine for all (except the drivers, of course). Later we returned to Kiev, arriving home at 9:30 PM.

Technorati Tags: autumn, Chernihiv, Ukraine Photos

Chernigov trip photos, Part II.

What's a country to do upon gaining Independence?

I found the following read disturbing at first, since it just seems so wrong. Ukraine has been around as an entity for well over 1000 years, but less than 5% of that time were they independent. Their history has always been the history of another. But that's not all that different from other places in Europe either. So to develop a new national identity, I guess it's natural that some aspects of the past will be glossed over, toned down, spiced up, ignored, or just plain made up. Read and decide for yourself.

Remaking History in a Kiev Museum

By Dmitry Shlapentokh

Constructing a new national identity often requires a new vision of the past. In Ukraine, this phenomenon can be seen in several of Kiev's museums.

Exhibits at the Museum of the Army of Ukraine show the Ukrainians as European people who enjoyed monolithic unity while busily liberating themselves from the "Asiatic" Russians.

Ukrainian history has emerged differently in the other major national museum, the Museum of Ukrainian History. Russia is still seen as a major problem, but the flavor of the museum is distinctly different. Russians often disappear from sight, and Ukraine's conflicts with everybody else are also downplayed. In fact, Ukrainians are presented as self-sustained, peaceful people who preserve their distinct lifestyles despite being incorporated into a foreign empire. It seems this image of Ukraine's past -- and implicitly, its present -- is what Ukrainian authorities have tried to develop and inculcate.

The arrangement of the displays in the Museum of Ukrainian History was markedly different from what I saw in my youth. There weren't many changes in the hall dedicated to the Stone and Bronze Ages, but later periods had gaping omissions. Events that were prominent in Soviet days disappeared or were marginalized. There was practically nothing about the Mongols, presumably because featuring the Mongol invasion and Mongol yoke would require elaborating on Russia's positive role in fighting the invaders.

The Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654 -- the lynchpin of Ukrainian history that ultimately led to Ukraine's incorporation into Russia -- was reduced to a marginal episode. The famous painting depicting this event that had hung prominently in the museum in Soviet times was taken away. A small note informed visitors that there was no Ukrainian-Russian unification as such, but rather a Russian "protectorate" in which Ukraine preserved independence -- or some sort of autonomy that was close to independence.

The reign of Peter the Great and his fight with the Swedes on Ukrainian territory also posed a big dilemma for the exhibition organizers. Celebrating Peter's victories was out of the question. One option for the museum was to stress the glory of Ivan Mazepa, the Ukrainian noble who took the Swedish side in the battle and tried to save his people from the rule of the brutal Asiatics. The other option was to ignore the event entirely, which is precisely what the organizers did. As a result, Peter the Great and the Battle of Poltava disappeared from the exhibit.

In addition, the big hall dedicated to the War of 1812 with Napoleon, an epic event in European history, also disappeared. Information about the war was reduced to a picture of Russian general Mikhail Kutuzov and a few artifacts.

When those who organized the museum moved to the 20th century, they faced another problem -- how to reconcile revolutionary violence with the theory of national unity, the major premise of the political philosophy of Ukraine's elite. In fact, there was no information whatsoever about the revolutionary movement. The 1905 Revolution was ignored even though Ukraine was one of the epicenters of the revolution, especially in cities like Odessa and Sevastopol. The February and October Revolutions of 1917 also disappeared. A typical visitor to the museum might leave with the impression that the conflict was not between the Whites and Reds at all but between an independent, nationalistic Ukraine and the Russian state.

World War II was also marginalized, and nothing was displayed about postwar Soviet history, implying that the war helped strengthen Ukraine's incorporation into a foreign empire -- that is, the Soviet Union.

The 2004 Orange Revolution, however, was prominently displayed, suggesting that it brought Ukraine closer to Europe -- its historical destiny. Incorporation into the European family implied the sacred notion of "multiculturalism" and ethnic and religious tolerance.

The exhibit pointed out that Ukraine is populated not just by Ukrainians but also by Tatars and Jews, and all nationalities live in apparent harmony. There was no information about the Holocaust, possibly because it would require elaboration on the unpleasant role many Ukrainians played in the "final solution of the Jewish question."

The vision of history as science was also quite different from what I encountered in other museums. The Ukrainian officials all claimed that they had presented history accurately, and they angrily rejected any notion that history was arranged to suit current political needs. The representatives of the Museum of Ukrainian History were much more open in their views of history as the servant of political necessity. I talked with an elderly woman who sat in the hall and watched over the visitors, sharing my amazement at how displays of Ukrainian history had changed radically since my last visit, more than 30 years ago. The woman took note of my ironical smile and responded that I had a wrong view of history. In my view, history is fixed. This is not the case, she said, because history should follow the lead of current politics. I told her that what she stated fit the postmodernist vision, which says that there is no objective truth but just a construction of history, and that there are only politically correct or politically incorrect views. She responded that she had never heard of postmodernism or political correctness, but she fully supported the idea nonetheless.

The presentation of Ukrainian history in the Museum of Ukrainian History seems to be the image that the Ukrainian elite is trying to spread. It involves emphasizing Ukraine as an independent political force and ignoring or minimizing all events where Russia played a prominent and positive role.

I found the same version of history in the Museum of National Art. At one exhibition dealing with modern art, the curator explained that after 1991, the paintings dealing with the Great Patriotic War -- which were used by Moscow during the Soviet period to emphasize the unity of Ukrainians and Russians -- had been removed. Instead, there was a big painting that displayed the entry into Kiev of Bogdan Khmelnytsky, one of Ukraine's greatest national heroes.

After my visit of Kiev's museums, I became even more convinced of the validity of the quote attributed to Gregory Bateson, the British anthropologist, social scientist and linguist: "History is as unpredictable as the future."

Dmitry Shlapentokh is a professor of history at Indiana University South Bend.

The Moscow Times.

Arriving in Ukraine.

If you've browsed around travel websites like Travelocity or Expedia for flights to Kiev, you've probably been asked the question that puzzles all first time travelers here. Which airport in Kiev would you like to arrive at? The only answer, really, is Borispol. (KBP). Under the Soviet regime, Borispol was the airport for flights originating outside the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact nations, and this protocol remains largely in place today. In the past, Borispol was the lesser utilized of the two. Now, it's the main Kiev arrival destination, although Borispol still retains many aspects of the sleepy outpost it once was. But it's changing, quickly. Population wise, Kiev sits somewhere between Chicago and Rome. But Austin, Texas and Colorado Springs likely see more air arrivals than little visited Kiev. But that's changing quickly.

If you're flying into Ukraine, you most likely will stop at Borispol, even if Kiev is not your final destination. And if you're flying in from the states, you'll likely have to stop somewhere else in Europe before arrival at Kiev Borispol. Thankfully, Borispol is changing too. Depending on arrival time, customs and immigration is speedier and less intrusive, though it can still be confusing as hell. The baggage carousels are easy to find, since there's only three, and the wait once clearing immigration is reasonable. But there's not a lot of English in the place, whether you're looking for someone who speaks it or even signs for directions on where to go next. When in doubt, just do what the person in line ahead of you did. But once you clear all the bureaucratic hurdles, things go remarkable well. It's ten minutes from terminal to parking to off the airport grounds, assuming you're not waiting for transportation. If someone has come to pick you up, there's no long walk from the terminal to parking, since people park just about anywhere there's some spare room, whether it's legal or not.

Welcome. Your Kiev adventure has begun.

Moving away from politics...

I was going to revisit the election one more time in this blog, then move on, but this blog was never meant to be mostly about politics. Sure, politics affect many things when you travel, like what countries you can go to, whether you need a visa, what you can bring or can't bring with you, how long you may stay, and how freely, as a foreigner, you can move around.

But this isn't a blog about Ukraine politics. There are many others that do that better than I ever hope to do. But where ever one finds themselves in the world, there will be politics to deal with, or ignore, for better or for worse, often for worse.

Plus, you can follow the current political situation from the links in the sidebar.

So, let's move on.