#13_1-8

FEBRUARY 27, 2018 ISSUE No. 13 (1145) 

Tel.: +38(044) 303-96-19, 

fax: +38(044) 303-94-20 

е-mail: time@day.kiev.ua; 

http://www.day.kiev.ua 

REUTERS photo 

UNDER AIMED FIRE 

Human rights advocates made public a convincing report on shelling Ukraine from Russian territory 

Continued on page 2 

Lithuania’s 

spiritual 

resistance 

The ten 

commandments 

of serving culture 

from Vytautas 

Kubilius 

Continued on page 4 

REUTERS photo 

“We must become 

a coherent whole” 

The International Institute of 

Education, Culture, and Links with 

the Diaspora (MIOK) recently 

received a special guest – Lisa 

Shymko, founder of the Canadian 

Ukrainian Parliamentary Center, 

President of the League of Ukrainian 

Canadian Women, associated 

member of the Board of the 

International Council in Support of 

Ukraine, Master of Political Sciences 

Continued on page 5

2 

No.13 FEBRUARY 27, 2018 

DAY AFTER DAY 

WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA 

Leonid Kravchuk visited the editorial office of Den/The Day 

and... gave advice to the president, the cabinet, and legislators 

By Valentyn TORBA, The Day 

At a recent meeting of the Book 

Club of the Institute for 

Strategic Studies “New 

Ukraine,” Leonid Kravchuk 

drew the attention of those 

present to the book The Crown, or 

Heritage of the Rus’ Kingdom, published 

by Den last year. A few days later, the 

first Ukrainian president visited 

Den/The Day’s editorial office, where he 

shared his impressions of the book he had 

read and described how the state should 

treat Den’s projects. 

“I am very impressed with the approaches, 

assessments, and new ways of 

presenting such complex historical materials 

as are contained in the book The 

Crown, or Heritage of the Rus’ Kingdom,” 

said Kravchuk. “I will be frank: they 

taught us differently in the Soviet era. 

They persuaded all of us that the cradle 

of ‘fraternal’ peoples was Russia. There 

was a myth about the existence of an elder 

brother, a younger brother, and an unspecified 

brother. According to this concept, 

Russia was the main driver of history, 

and all others were at its disposal. 

The Crown... dispels this myth and proves 

the correctness of another concept. Unfortunately, 

the Ukrainian people are 

now poorly educated in this area. There 

is a lot that we do not know about ourselves. 

The Crown... is precisely an educational 

book. It is definitely entitled to 

a place on bookshelves, including those 

of educational institutions. It should be 

read not only by historians, but also by 

all Ukrainians. The Crown... has a nationwide 

significance, since it carries out 

an educational mission regarding a very 

important aspect: those who do not know 

their history cannot be true fighters for 

independence and will be doomed to repeat 

the mistakes of the past. 

“I recently spoke at a conference 

and mentioned The Crown... as a book that 

should be distributed as broadly as possible. 

I think that, in particular, we need 

to hold a roundtable, with participation 

of the authors of this book, as well as other 

people who matter in Ukrainian society. 

Perhaps The Crown... should not 

only be republished, but also reissued in 

a more concise form to attract as many 

readers as possible. This practice exists 

in the West. 

“The government should pay attention 

to The Crown... and Den’s Library 

series in general. The education 

minister has to do everything to get 

school and college students to read it. I 

am convinced that this book should be 

read by the president, the prime minister, 

ministers, and all members of parliament. 

They should also remember 

that there is a document, a trade agreement 

between Ukraine and Byzantium. 

This document is 1,180 years old. This 

is not just a mention, but an official document 

that proves that our state was already 

an independent actor then. Trade 

agreements could only be concluded between 

full-fledged states based on integrated 

nations. If we are talking about 

our identity, then The Crown... presents 

all the necessary powerful arguments to 

prove this position. On this occasion, I 

Photo by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day 

“Ire-readTheCrown…allthetime” 

want to congratulate Larysa Ivshyna, 

who is the editor-in-chief of Den/The 

Day, and thank her for this work, which, 

I believe, will open many people’s eyes. 

But I want to add that not only The 

Crown..., but the entire Den’s Library is 

an example of how critical information 

should be brought to the attention of 

Ukrainians and how to correctly place 

historical emphases. I myself learn a lot 

from Den’s books, for, although I am an 

experienced person, I still had my mind 

shaped in a different information and 

ideological system. I need it. In particular, 

I really liked the book ‘The Trap,’ 

or A Case without a Statute of Limitations. 

Strengthening our state, shaping 

new approaches, the European vision, 

and our inner culture – all these are impossible 

without studying our past, 

which is not several decades, but millennia 

old. Then we will know that even 

a thousand years ago, the world knew 

about us, we were respected and we 

were dealt with. Meanwhile, nothing existed 

in Muscovy at the time. This does 

not mean that we have to look down on 

the Russians, but we must feel our position 

and our role and place in history. 

If a person knows this, then they will not 

let themselves fall below this bar. It is 

those who do not have the roots, the 

proper knowledge base that fall down. 

Knowledge of history is a mainstay not 

only for the state, but also for identifying 

oneself as a Ukrainian and a citizen. 

The Crown... is such a mainstay on which 

every Ukrainian can rely. This book, despite 

its fairly large size, includes no 

less-important materials. All of them are 

united by the main goal. And I will be 

frank: The Crown... lies on my desk, 

and I very often re-read it. This book has 

really impressed me.” 

By Valentyn TORBA, The Day 

At the very beginning of its 

aggression against Ukraine, Russia 

chose a criminal and cynical tactic 

of the so-called hybrid war. A 

hybrid war itself comprises a large 

number of components both on the local level 

(in hostilities, when “little green men” or 

collaborationists are used to create the myth 

of a civil conflict) and on the global one – in 

the political sphere. The hybrid approach 

allows Russia to manipulate public opinion as 

well as legal aspects. For example, since the 

summer of 2014, the Russian media have been 

describing the militants’ mortar attacks on 

civilians as “crimes of the junta against their 

own people.” Even the victims of these attacks 

often believed that they were under the 

Ukrainian armed forces’ fire. Then, on the 

border with Russia, the Ukrainian citizens 

who were leaving the war zone were invited 

to fill up forms, in which they described the 

situation in favor of the aggressor. 

But this war has seen a lot of direct attacks 

on Ukraine not only from the occupied 

territories, but also from that of Russia 

proper. These facts were recorded and submitted 

to the International Criminal Court 

(ICC) in The Hague. They prove who is really 

guilty of the bloody events in eastern 

Ukraine since 2014. 

Truth Hounds and International Partnership 

for Human Rights (IPHR) presented 

last Thursday a report, “Attacks on Civilians 

and Civilian Infrastructure in Eastern 

Ukraine,” which was handed over to the ICC 

Prosecutor on December 18, 2017. It is the human 

rights organizations’ second report to 

The Hague on Russia’s war against Ukraine. 

The report covers artillery, heavy and light 

infantry weapon attacks that amount to war 

crimes and have taken place in eastern 

Ukraine since 2014. 

But there is another problem: according 

to experts, the International Criminal Court 

does not deal with interstate conflicts. It is in 

its competence to investigate war crimes as 

such against civilians. And it does not matter 

to the ICC which side of the conflict has 

committed a crime. 

“The point is that the state of Ukraine fell 

victim to Russian aggression,” Anton KO- 

RYNEVYCH, Candidate of Sciences (Law), Associate 

Professor at Kyiv Taras Shevchenko 

National University’s Institute of International 

Relations, explained to The Day. “Russia 

has been the greatest violator of international 

law since World War Two. It is obvious 

to all of the civilized community. But international 

humanitarian law in respect of military 

conflicts is written in such a way that it 

is equally applicable to the military of the aggressor 

and the state that fell victim to aggression,” 

Svitlana VALKO, member of the 

board of NGO Truth Hounds, added in her turn 

that their goal is to explain these juridical subtleties 

to the Ukrainian military command. 

Yet it should be noted that it was difficult 

to avoid mistakes at the beginning of the 

Russian aggression, when the Ukrainian 

army was in fact being reborn and the Russian 

invader had an advantage in the initiative 

and military capabilities. From the very outset, 

the aggressor chose the tactic of a “living 

shield,” which, oddly enough, Vladimir Putin 

himself once admitted in a well-known statement: 

“We will be standing behind the backs 

of their women and children.” 

Nevertheless, the abovementioned report 

comprises quite a wide range of testimonies 

which, according to Roman AVRA- 

MENKO, Truth Hounds documenter of war 

crimes, are undergoing verification from at 

least ten sources (questioning eyewitnesses 

and servicemen, studying the materials of other 

investigators; examination of shell holes, 

remnants of projectiles with serial numbers; 

photography, video recording, satellite pictures, 

etc.). This approach allows ICC representatives, 

who cannot take part in the collection 

of evidence due to a shortage of experts, 

to use the materials collected by human 

rights advocates more amply in investigations. 

Here are just some of the recorded facts 

of Russia’s attacks on the territory of Ukraine 

in the period of fiercest battles, when the 

Ukrainian army was successfully liberating 

cities from the invader. 

A video of shelling Ukraine from the territory 

of Russia was made public on July 16, 

2014. As the National Security and Defense 

Council (RNBO) reports, the borderline village 

of Marynivka was shelled from Russia on 

July 17, 2014. On the same day, there was a 

Grad MLRS attack on Chervonopartyzansk 

form Russia. A few days later, on July 21, 

Ukrainian army positions in the vicinity of 

Chervonopartyzansk were fired at from the 

village of Panchenkove on the border with 

Russia. The positions near the village of 

Kumachove were also shelled from Russia. On 

July 22, militants, supported by Russian artillery, 

carried out an offensive. Earlier, at the 

beginning of July 2014, the village of Zelenopillia 

was shelled from Ruissia, which left 

19 servicemen dead and 93 wounded. Attacks 

of this kind were launched almost daily 

throughout the summer of 2014 and prevented 

the Ukrainian military from surrounding 

the enemy and finishing the ATO. 

“An image of peace and an image of war” 

By Vadym RYZHKOV, The Day, Dnipro 

A photo exhibition commemorating 

Amina Okuyeva launched in Dnipro 

Photo courtesy of the organizers of the exhibition 

Under aimed fire 

Photo by Artem SLIPACHUK, The Day 

Human rights 

advocates made 

public a convincing 

report on shelling 

Ukraine from 

Russian territory 

On September 1 to 4, 2014, a Russian BM- 

30 Smerch MLRS carried out a strike on the 

former headquarters of the Operational Command 

North located 50 km away from the 

Russian border near the village of Pobieda, 

Novoaidarsk raion. The remnants of its rockets 

were found all around the place. The attack 

on September 3 killed at least 17 servicemen 

of the 27th Rocket Artillery Regiment. 

It will be noted that these are just a few 

of the recorded and undeniable facts of attacks 

that convincingly expose Russian 

crimes and the Kremlin’s guilt. As soon as July 

27, 2014, the US published their satellite 

images that confirm the facts of shelling 

Ukraine’s territory with Russian Grads. 

Shortly before, on July 24, 2014, US State Department 

Acting Spokesperson Marie Harf 

stated that, apart from supplying multiple 

launch rocket systems to pro-Russian militants 

(collaborationists), Russia’s armed 

forces began to carry out artillery strikes 

against the Ukrainian military from the territory 

of Russia. 

In addition to official statements, a 

number of independent investigations were 

conducted (in particular, by the Bellingcat inquiry 

center), which confirm the attacks not 

only in the vicinity of Amvrosiivka, Savur- 

Mohyla, Zelenopillia, and Dovzhanskyi, but 

also in the front’s southern sector in the vicinity 

of Novoazovsk. 

Almost a year ago, Bellingcat made public 

the results of a comprehensive investigation 

which found at least 149 positions from 

which the Russian artillery fired and another 

130 positions which are very likely to 

have been used for the same purpose. They 

identified 408 (!) areas on the territory of 

Ukraine, which were subjected to shelling. 

Therefore, the Ukrainian side and international 

institutions have sufficient evidence 

to clearly pronounce Russia an aggressor 

and invader which must be held fully 

responsible for unleashing a war in the center 

of Europe. 

Aphoto exhibition commemorating 

fighter for freedom and independence 

of Ukraine Amina Okuyeva 

has opened at the Dnipropetrovsk 

Oblast Civic Heroics in the ATO 

Events Museum. The display has brought 

together 34 photos, including ones from the 

personal archive of Okuyeva’s family. Mayor 

of Dnipro Borys Filatov joined the Ukrainian 

warrior woman’s brothers-in-arms, relatives, 

and friends during the opening of the photo 

exhibition called “Amina: Life.” “We talked 

a lot, and she never asked for anything for 

herself. I would like us to remember her not 

as a warrior woman. Many people think that 

she lived by war. On the contrary, she lived 

by peace, she lived by Ukraine,” Filatov said. 

Okuyeva’s mother Iryna Kaminska told 

the audience about the principal symbols of the 

exhibition. “There are two portraits next to 

each other. One shows her with folded hands, 

another portrays her holding an assault rifle. 

These are two images: an image of peace and 

an image of war. In one, you see the blue peaceful 

sky that inspired her dress, and folded 

hands, as she does not hold an assault rifle. Another 

photo is red-and-black, it is an active 

photo of the war where she holds an assault 

rifle. However, she smiles there too. Because 

she loves us all,” Kaminska explained. She 

also added that Okuyeva loved Dnipro for 

the unbending spirit of its residents. 

The “Amina: Life” photo project presents 

amateur and professional photos that 

show events taking place over many years. 

It has brought together the most dramatic 

photos of the Revolution of Dignity 

and pictures taken in the hottest spots of 

the ATO: Debaltseve, Shchastia, Zaitseve, 

the industrial zone in Avdiivka, Troitske, 

and the Svitlodarsk Arc. The rest of the pictures 

which depict Okuyeva herself are 

works by Oleksandra Lysytska, an art photographer 

from Luhansk. The municipality 

and the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast State 

Administration helped to organize the exhibition 

in Dnipro. It can be viewed at 

16, Dmytra Yavornytskoho Avenue in 

Dnipro until March 5. After that date, the 

photos will be sent to other cities of 

Ukraine, Europe and the US. 

Okuyeva died near the village of Hlevakha, 

the Kyiv Region on October 30, 

2017. The attackers shot up a car in which 

she rode along with her husband Adam Osmayev. 

One of Okuyeva’s last projects, 

called The Newest Fairy Tales of Ukraine, 

which has involved many well-known 

Ukrainians,includingDnipromayorFilatov, 

willalsoliveon to commemorateitsfounder.


DAY AFTER DAY No.13 FEBRUARY 27, 2018 3 

By Ruslan HARBAR 

Acountry that would be still 

little known in Ukraine, if it 

were not for the recent 

Davos blunder when Petro 

Poroshenko’s meeting with 

Donald Trump was canceled because 

the US president preferred to hold 

talks with President of Rwanda Paul 

Kagame. 

In the history of each country, 

there are stages to which a patriotic 

politician should look for in order to 

find that which can be useful to their 

own country, can help answer the 

most painful questions. In Ukraine today, 

there are two such especially 

painful issues: 

● absence of a national development 

strategy and as a component 

of it, an increasing gap between the 

authorities and the bulk of the 

population; 

● liberation and reintegration of 

the occupied territories. 

The history of Rwanda was no 

less dramatic than what Ukraine is living 

through. 

Over a 100-day period in 1994, 

two principal ethnic groups of Rwanda 

– the Hutus and the Tutsis – beat 

to death and butchered almost one 

million people on both sides. One can 

find descriptions of those atrocities 

and barbaric actions on the Internet. 

The UN withdrew its peacekeepers 

from there, as if saying that the locals 

needed to deal with their own problems 

themselves. 

And then in 2000 (six years later), 

a new president came and said: forget 

everything that has happened, forgive 

each other, forget about the Hutu 

and Tutsi labels, we Rwandans are 

one, and we must build a new country 

together. And they believed him. 

There was no other alternative. The 

president offered them a future. Because 

it is precisely that which can 

unite people. Niccolo Machiavelli 

said: “Do not put forward modest 

plans, for they cannot excite the 

soul.” 

Kagame proposed to build a new 

country, based on an “intellectual 

economy” which relies on two pillars: 

the service sector and the IT industry. 

The goal is to turn the country into 

a high-tech regional hub. This is despite 

it being located in Central 

Africa, in the jungle. They plan to 

connect all the villages to the Internet. 

There is no oil and gas in Rwanda, 

no rich natural resources. But the 

president has managed to create a 

more powerful resource – the people’s 

belief in their future. They 

have come to believe him, because 

they have not only heard beautiful 

words, but have also seen concrete 

actions. Although not all of them will 

necessarily please us. 

*** 

Our democrats claim that one 

should not impose one’s ideology on 

anyone. What would have happened 

to that godforsaken jungle country 

that had just lived through a mutual 

massacre if its authoritarian president 

had not imposed on the population 

his vision for its further development? 

These same democrats claim that 

the authoritarian regime is contrary 

to the mentality of Ukrainians. But 

are 365 so-called parties in line with 

our spirit? This also applies to the 

world’s highest rate of economic decline, 

the fourth highest mortality 

level, youths becoming disappointed 

in their future in this country, and 

neighbors expecting territorial aggrandizement 

at our expense... And 

the fact that according to the highgrowth 

scenario of the UN forecast, 

there will remain just 26 million of 

us by 2100. Is this in line with the 

Why Rwanda? 

famed Cossack spirit? We have to 

pay such a price for... For what? Let 

all the people die, so that some principles 

will prevail? Will it be at the 

cemetery of our people? To adhere to 

one’s principles is good and noble, 

but it can turn into a crime under extreme 

conditions. 

*** 

Kagame, the new president, has 

turned out to be a faithful follower of 

the famous statesman Lee Kuan Yew. 

He has imprisoned notoriously corrupt 

officials: ministers, legislators, 

acquaintances, and friends. He has also 

strengthened the police through 

high salaries, modern equipment, and 

discipline, and now it is safe to walk 

around the capital city even at night. 

Kagame has prohibited the opposition’s 

activities, imprisoning some of 

its members and forcing others to 

leave the country. He has forbidden 

mentioning the recent tragedy and the 

fact that some Rwandans are Hutu, 

and others Tutsi. The bureaucracy has 

been cut to a fraction of its former 

size. He has also forbidden any interference 

with doing business. In terms 

of investment attractiveness, Rwanda 

has become the second best in the 

world after New Zealand. As one businessman 

said, “...investors are coming 

to Rwanda through every window 

and door.” Inflation stands at 3.5 percent. 

Therefore, international financial 

organizations are very supportive. 

The nation has started to invest a lot 

of money in education, and every student 

has got a computer of their own, 

even if a simple one. Each village has 

its own medical worker, and medicines 

are delivered by drones to distant 

villages in case of urgent need; 90 percent 

of the population have a state 

health insurance policy that guarantees 

them free primary health care; 

93 percent of children are vaccinated. 

As a result, life expectancy, which 

can be seen as the main indicator of a 

government’s success, rose from 

48 years (which is normal for Africa) 

to 67 years (!) in 2017. 

Every last Saturday of the month, 

all the inhabitants of the country go 

out to clean up cities and villages. 

Sizeable areas have been turned into 

nature reserves. Now that the country 

is clean, safe, and beautiful, tourists 

have started coming there and already 

account for up to half of Rwanda’s 

GDP. 

The state actively helps to build up 

the appropriate service infrastructure: 

roads, hotels, airports. Poverty 

has dropped from 40 percent to 16 percent. 

The GDP of the country has increased 

fivefold over 17 years. 

And all of this has been done without 

loudly proclaiming reforms to 

Really, why should we be 

interested in the faraway 

and small African nation 

of Rwanda? 

REUTERS photo 

the whole world and without any outside 

actor forcing them to do so. 

Kagame enjoys a solid support in the 

parliament, where 64 percent of the 

seats are held by women. 

Also, Rwanda was accepted as the 

54th member of the British Commonwealth 

of Nations in 2009, despite 

it being a Belgian colony in the past. 

But poverty still exists, as does inequality. 

Censorship is harsh. The 

opposition is persecuted. Criticizing 

the president is effectively impossible. 

The methods used are non-European. 

According to a presidential decree, all 

villagers are required to wear shoes. 

Kagame is open about his lack of 

belief in western democracy. But the 

striking successes of the country have 

made Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, and Bill 

Gates into his friends. The previous 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon 

expressed the hope in May 2016 that 

“other African countries will follow 

the example of Rwanda.” And on January 

29, 2018, Kagame was elected 

president of the African Union. 

It took them 17 years for all these 

achievements (I would like to remind 

you that Ukraine has already celebrated 

its 26th independence anniversary). 

The mechanism of this 

has been a firm authoritarian government. 

David Ben-Gurion once said: “I do 

not know what my people want, I 

know what they need.” People are 

not interested in the form of government, 

but in its outcomes for the 

masses. Kagame received 93 percent 

of the vote in the presidential election 

held on August 4, 2017. He still has 

seven years left in power. By the way, 

the term of our next president should 

end in 2024 as well. And if we will still 

be dissatisfied with our situation 

then, why not invite an African with 

24 years of presidential experience? 

But what was it about Rwanda 

that got Trump interested? 

I am sure that long before the 

Davos forum, Trump knew nothing 

about Rwanda, not even where that 

country was located. But when preparing 

for the Davos appearance, he 

tasked his advisers with finding an interesting 

and useful leader to meet. 

The advisers chose not Asia, not the 

Middle East or Latin America, but 

Africa. Why did they choose Africa? 

This can be explained as well. UN 

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres 

told the summit of the African Union 

(55 countries) in Addis Ababa 

(Ethiopia) in January this year that 

Africa was key to solving global problems. 

But why did they choose not 

some influential country, like Angola, 

Kenya, or South Africa, but the 

small Rwanda with its 12 million people, 

squeezed between its big neighbors? 

Field commander Kagame, who 

was formerly a military intelligence 

officer and received his military education 

in the US, has broken down 

the traditional African tribal, clanbased 

system of social relations. More 

precisely, he is breaking it down as we 

speak. The president is relying on 

the people’s trust to turn a poor landlocked 

country with no substantial 

natural resources and 90 percent of its 

population working in agriculture 

into what is already called, if a bit prematurely, 

the “African Singapore.” 

However, Singapore and Malaysia 

are already history. 

The US has no interests in Rwanda. 

There are no large American companies 

there, and no military bases are 

planned. There are no political interests 

either. We will not find answers 

to our question by looking into these 

matters. Evidently, there are two 

possible answers. 

The first lies on the surface: 

Kagame has become president of the 

African Union, while almost all the 

global interests of the US are concentrated 

in Africa. Above all, the 

Americans need the continent as a battlefield 

in their quest to stem the expansion 

of China. Therefore, they 

need to have a good, and better yet, 

close relationship with the African 

Union. Especially since China believes 

so as well. 

The second answer, which is the 

main one, in my opinion, is related to 

the nature of Trump himself. Trump, 

who has been displaying a rather special 

attitude towards Africans, has 

seen in this African leader a kindred 

spirit. Both prefer the authoritarian 

style of management. Moreover, they 

are prone to dictatorship (George 

Soros said that “Trump is a potential 

dictator”). Both single-mindedly pursue 

their objectives and use every 

tool at their disposal to attain them. 

They believe that it is the success, the 

result that counts. As a businessman, 

Trump cannot help but wonder 

how Rwanda has managed to do it. 

Unexpected success is attractive. And 

the president of the most powerful 

country in the world has taken an interest 

in a person who is making his 

country leap from the Middle Ages to 

the postmodern world. What could the 

president of Ukraine offer to get him 

interested? 

Ruslan Harbar is director of the 

Center for African Studies

4 


TOPIC OF THE DAY 


By Tetiana SHCHERBYNA 

As Lithuania celebrates an 

anniversary of its 

statehood, we have to 

reflect, with good-hearted 

envy, on the spiritual 

Resistance of Lithuanians in the 

20th century. 

I began to take interest in 

Lithuania’s spiritual successes not 

after Ukraine had suffered a setback 

in integration but back in the 

years of studentship, when the 

course on Soviet republics’ literature 

spotlighted the outstanding 

works of Juozas Baltusis, Jonas 

Avyzius, and Justinas Marcinkevicius. 

Our common history in the same 

imperial barracks has already 

slipped twice in order to prevent 

Ukrainians from forming a European 

world-view and attaining the 

ideals of European humanism. 

My interest in the tragic year 

1986 prompted me to do target-oriented 

postgraduate research at the 

Institute of the Lithuanian Language 

and Literature in Vilnius. 

Having chosen Ukrainian-Lithuanian 

cultural and literary relations, I 

had to look for confirmations of the 

phenomenal spirituality of Lithuanians 

who were in the same conditions 

with Ukrainians. I found them 

in the texts of Lubomyr Husar about 

the consolidation spirit of Lithuanians 

in camps for interned persons in 

postwar Europe and in the reminiscences 

of the Mukacheve aristocrat 

of spirit Georgina Muranyi who confessed 

that Lithuanian girls taught 

Ukrainian women in Soviet prison 

camps to preserve human dignity 

and femininity. 

Honestly, I was not a trailblazer 

in this topic, but it attracted me because 

it let me touch upon the innermost 

in the culture of the people 

whom I envied kindheartedly. As I 

see it today, Academician Kostas 

Korsakas, director of the Institute 

of the Lithuanian Language and Literature, 

titled his 1954 article as 

“Literary Links of Lithuanians and 

Ukrainians” on the occasion of a 

tragic anniversary. 

Having such solid groundwork 

for research, I seized an opportunity 

to “add my 5 to get 10.” 

In this boundless topic, it was also 

a good idea to assess the quality 

of the translations of Shevchenko’s 

poems which were considered until 

now as original works of Lithuanian 

poets at the stage of the formation 

of Lithuanian poetry – before and 

after the ban on the Lithuanian 

printed word by tsarist satraps. But 

my essay is not about discoveries in 

my dissertation. It is just an introduction 

into my favorite theme. The 

success of research depends on the 

scholarly supervisor. I chose my 

theme by myself, but the supervisor 

was appointed – it was Professor 

Vytautas Kubilius (1926-2004), of 

blessed memory, a leading researcher 

of literary interrelations, 

the author of the monograph 

“Lithuanian Literature and the 

Word Literary Process” (Vilnius, 

1983), a crucial work in comparative 

literary studies of the day. 

The cultural and spiritual life of 

Lithuania in the 16th-19th centuries 

was particular in that 

Lithuanian writers-enlighteners 

carried the radiance of Christian 

values by way of the literary word – 

they not only translated prayers 

and psalms, but also cared about 

Lithuania’s spiritual resistance 

The ten commandments of serving 

culture from Vytautas Kubilius 

fiction themes for and about the 

people. Among them were Antanas 

Baranauskas, Kristijonas Donelaitis, 

and Jonas Maironis, Rector 

of the Kaunas Theological Seminary 

and poet. 

Unfortunately, in 19th-centuty 

Ukraine, our unsuccessful seminarians 

turned the vector of Ukrainian 

literature towards nihilism and 

atheism because of neglected everyday 

routine in the empire’s seminaries 

and monasteries, for the parent 

country did not care about the 

colony’s culture after 1654. 

ance. They received education at 

the universities of Munich and Fribourg 

(between the two world wars, 

Kaunas, a university city, was the 

capital of Lithuania and the cradle 

of the national idea). My supervisor 

had studied in Kaunas, but he had 

to graduate in Vilnius because the 

university was transferred to the 

new, “proletarian,” capital. Incidentally, 

when Balys Sruoga was 

detained in the Stutthof concentration 

camp in wartime for failure to 

mobilize Lithuanian students to the 

front, he never wore a regulation 

cap in order not to take it off to 

camp guards. He described his camp 

experience in the novel The Forest 

of the Gods (1957). 

Inspired by the personal example 

of Kaunas University professors, 

my supervisor became their 

spiritual successor. For this purpose, 

Kubilius became a professor, a 

doctor habilitatus, an internationally-acclaimed 

academic. 

In the 20th century, Lithuanian 

writers worked out their own “philosophy 

of rank” – they acted “under 

and for any circumstances.” 

Naturally, they worked in the field 

of Lithuanistics, thus asserting 

Balys Sruoga and Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, 

classics of Lithuanian 

literature, scholars, Kaunas 

University professors, were inspirers 

of Lithuania’s spiritual Resistthemselves 

as a nation of European 

way of thinking and existence. 

Writers formed Lithuanian 

statehood in a literary way – in other 

words, they formed the very aspiration 

for statehood which is impossible 

without cultural groundwork. 

In the ethical dimension, this 

groundwork was laid by their predecessors 

– priests and classic writers, 

who, caring about their people, continued 

to work on literary texts, 

forming enlightening masterpieces 

on a cultural foundation, combining 

Christian commandments with the 

poetics of folk melos from Kristijonas 

Donelaitis, Martynas Mazvydas, 

and Antanas Baranauskas, to 

Jonas Maironis, Antanas Vienazindys, 

and Vincas Mykolaitis- 

Putinas. 

It is Vytautas Kubilius’ works 

that laid this cultural groundwork 

in the 20th century – first of all, 

20 monographs, hundreds of articles 

in periodicals, and the posthumously 

published two-volume diary. 

This diary allowed me to grasp the 

complexity of the 20th-century literary 

process and see the attempts 

to withdraw Lithuanian literature 

from the sphere of influence of the 

narrow castrated socialist realism. 

In my view, Professor Kubilius’ 

works should be interpreted on the 

principles of European “Voltaireanism.” 

Although the scholar never 

quoted Voltaire’s works, he had 

known them since his university 

days. Incidentally, he developed a 

negative attitude to mandatory 

quoting when he was still a student 

at Kaunas University’s Institute of 

the Humanities. Demonstrative 

quoting without adhering to principles 

of the quoted is a sign of bad 

form and is not applicable to his European 

psychotype. 

After reading my supervisor’s 

two-volume diary, I discovered the 

phenomenon of a European scholar 

who cherishes the realized, not 

just declared, main principles of 

European philosophy, which have 

something in common with the 

legacy of Voltaire. 

The scholar put into practice 

the great French encyclopedist’s 

guidelines two centuries later. 

These guidelines became his ten 

commandments of serving Lithuanian 

culture. The content of his actions 

on the cultural field of 

Lithuania is to be read on the matrix 

of Voltaireanism, which only 

REUTERS photo 

confirms his European psychotype 

and background. 

➤ One. Still in his young years, 

he chose the credo: “Work protects 

us from tree evils: boredom, depravity, 

poverty.” 

➤ Two. This Voltairean principle 

reflected on the choice of literary critique 

as an occupation, for “he shines 

in the second rank, who is eclipsed in 

the first.” It can be said without an 

exaggeration that what really mattered 

in Lithuania’s literary process 

in the 1960s-1970s was not what 

writers wrote but what critic Vytautas 

Kubilius said about their works. 

➤ Three. “The Earth is a huge theater, 

where the same tragedy is played 

under different names.” As for the diary 

author, the tragedy of his life is 

called “Loneliness.” He was really one 

of the most avowed recluse writers, 

such as Franz Kafka or Volodymyr 

Vynnychenko. They sought company 

in diaries, in speaking with themselves, 

the most reliable, trusted, and 

interesting interlocutors, for “all the 

grandeur in the world is not to be compared 

to a good friend.” 

➤ Four. As an exalted person, 

the scholar “never spoke about himself 

in general.” I came to know 

about his doctoral dissertation ordeal 

from his diary. 

The scholar’s doctoral dissertation 

has a three-year history – from 

presentation to the Higher Attestation 

Commission (March 1972) to 

the conclusion by the Maxim Gorky 

Institute of Literature in Moscow. 

Even such a detective fiction luminary 

as Agatha Christie could not 

have unraveled this tangle. The text 

of the dissertation physically disappeared 

and reappeared several 

times – at first in a Vilnius library 

and then in various academic institutions 

of Moscow. For three years 

in a row, the director of the Institute 

of Literature strongly recommended 

the scholar to go to Moscow and 

speed up the process or withdraw the 

dissertation. Besides, it was common 

knowledge that a 200-page negative 

peer review (in fact a denunciation) 

came from Lithuania to Moscow, but 

Moscow people did not even read it – 

they only laughed at its size. At last 

the Gorky Institute of Literature 

sent a positive review, and the book 

abstract was discussed in June 1975. 

The diary says about this: “Discussing 

the abstract of my work ‘The 

Links of 20th-Century Lithuanian 

Literature.’ Galinis [head of the 

Lithuanian literature history department. 

– Author] demands a single 

comprehensive system, Lankutis 

[head of the contemporary literature 

sector. – Author] says there must be 

separate chapters on the influence of 

Russian literature and on the literatures 

of Baltic countries; Stepsis 

[left-wing critic. – Author]: ‘Where 

is methodology, where is the struggle 

of two cultures, where is the formation 

of a single Soviet nation?’ In 

a word, it’s a ruin of my hopes and illusions. 

I wrote this work to show 

that Lithuanian literature belongs to 

the West, but it ended up the other 

way round. 

“Clearly, it’s all about pure politics, 

not research, here. The goal is 

clear: to show the influence and mission 

of Russian culture. 

“Lankutis speaks, as always, 

softly to humiliate our literature, 

but his interest is clear – to have this 

theme in his sector as a cover but to 

be able himself to write about Mykolaitis 

and Grusas. In a word, you are 

doomed to lifelong slavery, to building 

a pyramid for pharaohs. Only 

now it is clear what noose I’m getting 

into. It’s my eternal naivety. It 

is silly to expect others to do you 

good. There’s a game here, with 

everybody caring for oneself only. 

Regrettably, I got accustomed to the 

problem of links and find it difficult 

to get rid of them. It’s difficult to 

begin to think in a different direction, 

although it is clear that this is 

an ungrateful job in the present conditions. 

Korsakas’ book is still here, 

not without reason, and people feel 

intuitively that it is the destruction 

of national pride.” [about collected 

articles on the theory of influences, 

vol. 1, p. 454. – Author.] 

➤ Five. The scholar promoted 

Lithuanian statehood in literary 

terms for half a century because he 

cherished the idea that “it is lack of 

talents, not of money, that makes a 

state weak.” 

➤ Six. To overcome such a “colonial” 

state of affairs, he devoted half 

a century of his lifetime to spiritual 

confrontation. The totalitarian system 

reacted to this decision in line 

with the feudal rules of the era, for 

“an honest man can be persecuted 

but not dishonored.”


TOPIC OF THE DAY No.13 FEBRUARY 27, 2018 5 

➤ Seven. “Man was created to 

act, and there are no great deeds 

without great difficulties.” His 

monograph “Lithuanian Literature 

and the World Literary 

Process” became this kind of deed. 

It was published in Vilnius as 

late as 1983. The scholar at last 

implemented his longtime project: 

he found a place for Lithuanian 

literature in the context of 

works by Johann Wolfgang 

Goethe, Charles Baudelaire, 

Walt Whitman, Guy de Maupassant, 

Walter Scott, and Oscar 

Milosz. This monograph brought 

the author fame in academic circles, 

not in the office rooms of a 

decaying empire, in 1983. 

➤ Eight. The scholar loved 

the truth most of all and, at the 

same time, condescended to the 

mistakes of others. 

➤ Nine. He made a name for 

himself with his own deeds, 

which is a heavy burden to carry. 

➤ Ten. “He who limits his 

desires is always sufficiently 

rich.” 

His wealth is a spiritually 

rich Lithuania. This premise is 

consonant with that of the German 

philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: 

“It is important what 

is inside a man, not what a man 

has.” This idea was not alien to 

the professor. 

His son Andrius bore witness 

to father’s spiritual aspirations. 

This family atmosphere formed 

his statism, and he eventually became 

a prime minister in independent 

Lithuania. Now he is the 

author of the Marshall Plan for 

Ukraine. 

The professor’s wife Janina 

Zekaite (1926-2006), a literature 

expert and a Ph.D., compiled 

a two-volume diary after 

his death – she typed the text of 

the 50-year history of the professor’s 

Soul on the basis of the 

notes he had put down on sheets 

of paper. She also compiled a 

volume of the scholar’s 416 letters 

– “Waiting for Answer” 

(Vilnius, 2006). I learned from 

the foreword to this publication 

that the professor had refused to 

lead Sajudis and the foreign 

ministry in independent Lithuania, 

for he thought he had no administrative 

talent. He planned 

to pursue literary studies at a 

venerable age. 

Much to our regret, Ukrainian 

20th-century humanitarians 

bore not a single statist son – 

they usually bore daughters, as if 

to prove that sons-in-law are the 

ancestral curse of Ukraine. 

Like a poor widow, our nonstructured 

Ukrainian culture has 

been standing on the crossroads 

and waiting for years whether or 

not the diaries of the talented 

Transcarpathian prose writer 

Ivan Chendei will be published. 

This proves that we have 

learned only too well a rule 

from foreign classics: “And 

what will Princess Maria Alekseyevna 

say?!” 

Our situation is critical because 

there is nobody to say the 

archetypical “I gave you life…” 

Tetiana Shcherbyna is a 

Kniazhychi-based Candidate of 

Sciences (Philology) 

By Natalia PAVLYSHYN, 

Iryna KLIUCHKOVSKA, Andrii YATSIV, 

National University “Lviv Polytechnic” 

Lisa SHYMKO spoke of the huge 

scope of work the Ukrainian diaspora 

is doing in the humanitarian, 

political, and cultural fields in 

support of the Ukrainian state. 

● WHOLEHEARTED SUPPORT 

AND HELP 

“We are going to officially present a new 

project soon – a literary competition under the 

auspices of Canada’s Ukrainian diaspora. In 

general, I am involved in various projects 

aimed at building democracy in Ukraine and 

promoting development of the Ukrainian 

community in Canada. Our family has always 

been interested in Ukraine, and we are all taking 

part in the activity of civic organizations. 

Bringing us up, our parents emphasized that 

we must not forget about our origin. We are 

trying to defend our language and culture always 

and everywhere,” Lisa Shymko began 

the conversation. 

Incidentally, Lisa’s farther Yuri Shymko, 

who led the World Congress of Free Ukrainians 

in 1988-93, is president of the International 

Council in Support of Ukraine (ICSU), 

was twice elected to the parliament of Canada, 

is the author of the Memorandum on the 

Decolonization of the USSR which he presented 

in 1978 to the President of the UN General 

Assembly and its member missions on behalf 

of the Baltic, Belarusian, and Ukrainian 

World Congresses. 

“I worked as journalist for the Canadian 

national newspaper Globe and Mail. In the 

early 1990s, when Ukraine was a place of historic 

events, I wrote editorials in support of 

Ukraine and interviewed former dissidents. 

We were also doing our best to persuade the 

West to immediately recognize Ukraine’s 

independence after its proclamation in 1991. 

In that period, we published English translations 

of Ukrainian fiction books, which was 

very important for the projection of the 

right image of Ukraine in the world. When the 

Soros Foundation was actively involved in 

Ukrainian projects, I carried out the program 

of Ukrainian journalists’ sojourn in Canada. 

These steps were absolutely necessary at the 

time,” our interlocutor emphasized. 

Besides, Lisa Shymko worked in the 

nongovernmental organization Friends of 

Rukh which implemented various programs 

in support of democracy in Ukraine. This organization 

was later renamed Canadian 

Friends of Ukraine (CFU), which made it possible 

to more actively attract Western countries 

to the democratization of Ukraine. 

CFU conceived the project of a model of 

Ukraine’s development based on the Canadian 

model because it was believed that Ukraine 

should develop on the basis of European and 

North American, rather than old Soviet, 

models. 

Lisa Shymko also worked as director of 

the Ukrainian public program Forum TV. 

“The main goal I set to myself was not only to 

spotlight interesting points in the life of the 

Ukrainian community in Canada but also, 

which is very important, to let non-Ukrainians 

speak on Ukrainian topics in our program,” 

Ms. Shymko says. 

“In 1997,” Ms. Shymko continues, “we 

invited Yevhen Marchuk, former SBU chief, 

prime minister of Ukraine, an expert on 

NATO issues, General of the Army, to visit 

Canada and speak on Ukraine’s vision of the 

prospects of joining the North Atlantic Alliance. 

It was a very topical question at the 

time. We arranged for Mr. Marchuk some 

very important meetings at the Fairmont Royal 

York hotel with not only the community, 

but also the Canadian minister of trade, the 

mayor of Toronto, senators, and other VIPs.” 

Let us recall that in December 2015 during 

his visit to Canada Yevhen Marchuk receivedtheICSU“Nation-builderAward”forhis 

efforts to enhance Ukraine’s ties with the 

North Atlantic alliance and build a democratic 

and secure Ukrainian state. According to 

Ms. Shymko, the crystal award was presented 

to Marchuk by the President of the International 

Council in Support of Ukraine Yuri 

Shymko.Theguestalsostressedtheimportance 

of the joint visit of Mr. Marchuk and US GeneralWesleyClarktoCanada,whichdrewawide 

response in the media and society as a whole. 

● LOBBYING THE UKRAINIAN 

QUESTION 

Lisa Shymko has visited Ukraine three 

times as part of official delegations. She recalls 

that she first came to Ukraine during the presidency 

of Viktor Yanukovych. There was a 

very tense dialog between Canada’s Prime 

Minister Stephen Harper and Yanukovych. It 

“We must become a coherent whole” 

The International Institute of Education, Culture, and Links 

with the Diaspora (MIOK) recently received a special guest – 

Lisa Shymko, founder of the Canadian Ukrainian Parliamentary 

Center, President of the League of Ukrainian Canadian 

Women, associated member of the Board of the International 

Council in Support of Ukraine, Master of Political Sciences 

was clear that democracy was being curtailed 

in Ukraine, censorship was reintroduced, 

and pressure was exerted on the media. 

“That was a very significant visit. Prime 

Minister Harper spoke at the Ukrainian 

Catholic University and visited the memorial 

museum ‘Prison on Lontskoho St.’ It was 

very important, for the leader of Canada 

showed that he honored historical memory and 

understood what Russian disinformation 

was. In his speeches to Canadian audiences, he 

very often shared the fear that every new generation 

would know less and less about communist 

terror. This would create a grave 

danger for the further existence of even the 

Euro-Atlantic structures. He had foreseen it 

long ago. We can see these consequences now 

that Donald Trump came to power. It is easy 

for him to ignore the question of the Russian 

threat because the American public has forgotten 

what a totalitarian system is. That’s 

why I think Ukrainians in Canada and the US 

have a very important mission to continue 

spotlighting these moments and get the Americans 

and Canadians of non-Ukrainian origin 

involved in the process,” Ms. Shymko says. 

● INFORMATION WAR IS 

DANGEROUS AND ENDLESS 

Lisa Shymko takes particular interest in 

the question of information war against 

Ukraine. She is convinced that the Kremlin’s 

war and mass-scale investment in the information 

sector is the gravest threat. The television 

network of Russia Today (RT) is actively 

spreading in both Canada and the US. 

Russia invests at least an annual 300 million 

dollars in this project. Their propaganda is developing 

not only in English-speaking countries, 

but also in the Middle East among 

Arab states and in Latin America. This channel 

recently opened a branch in Australia. 

“The downside of capitalism is that potential 

incomes blind you, and you will no 

longer take threats to national security into 

account. We can see this to some extents in 

our television networks. RT pays in Canada 

for this propaganda. For example, a package 

has been made in our country, which automatically 

includes this channel, and userspayers 

have no right to demand that it is disconnected. 

The same problem exists in the US. 

Yes, they passed a law that calls this channel 

a foreign agent, but this did not help much. 

TORONTO. THE LESIA UKRAINKA MONUMENT 

Incidentally, RT does not beam outright 

propaganda but applies all kinds of manipulative 

techniques that divide society. Many 

people do not even know that it is Russian television 

and regard its information as a primary 

source. This essentially influences public 

opinion. Bullets are a real threat, but this 

kind of information and psychological nuances 

are also extremely dangerous. Information 

war will continue even when the hostilities 

in eastern Ukraine come to an end. 

That’s why we must look for innovational 

ways of struggle. We must defend ourselves,” 


● UKRAINE’S ACCESSION TO 

NATO IS A TOP PRIORITY 

One more priority, which the Ukrainian 

diaspora in Canada is striving to realize, is 

Ukraine’s accession to NATO. 

“We are trying to reinforce the voices of 

those in Ukraine and in the West, who are saying 

that Ukraine must join the North Atlantic 

Alliance. We are trying to make it clear that 

there is no civil war in Ukraine but that 

Ukrainians are defending Europe. All soundminded 

people know this. Everyone should 

work for this cause at their own place. A good 

example for everybody is the activity of 

Yevhen Marchuk who showed us what a single 

person can do even if s/he goes against the 

current. So Ukrainians in the diaspora must 

make an all-out effort to help in these processes,” 

Ms. Shymko said. 

● IT IS OF UTMOST 

IMPORTANCE TO SUPPORT 

UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS 

The diaspora is also making a strenuous 

effort to support Ukrainian soldiers. 

“I dealt for a long time with humanitarian 

aid aimed at the physical rehabilitation of 

ATO veterans. I was president of the League 

of Ukrainian Canadian Women which launched 

the Guardian Angels Ukraine project. We 

carried out all kinds of programs to achieve 

that rehabilitation in Ukraine is based on 

Western patterns. Obviously, there were problems 

because the law prevented students from 

acquiring such specialties as physiotherapist 

or ergotherapist. We requested Queen’s University 

in Canada, which plays the leading role 

in this field and has a specialized program of 

medical rehabilitation, to furnish the latter to 

Ukraine’s institutions. They did it. We handed 

over this program to the Kyiv Polytechnic. 

I thus began my activities in veterans’ rehabilitation. 

Now I lead an organization that deals 

with the problems of servicewomen in the ATO 

zone. It is important to us that Canada and 

Ukraine should exchange expertise. In September, 

we invited gynecologist Olena Burlaka, 

who is stationed at a field hospital on the 

ATO frontline, to a conference at the Institute 

of Military Medicine in Canada. She spoke at 

this forum about her research and is now 

looking for Western partners because there are 

a lot of challenges that may have negative consequences 

and, therefore, need to be tackled,” 


● INTERCONNECTION 

AS A PANACEA 

One of the questions that worry 

Ms. Shymko is assimilation of Canadian 

Ukrainians and the declining level of knowing 

the Ukrainian language. She believes that 

links between the younger generation of the 

diaspora and the youth of Ukraine can resolve 

this problem. She is convinced that everything 

must be done to keep the Ukrainian diaspora 

from losing their ancestral language. 

“We should create mechanisms that will 

bring the younger generation closer to their 

peers in Ukraine. We need programs that enhance 

progressive processes in Ukraine aimed 

at helping what I call the ‘lost generation’ find 

the ways of ‘joining’ Ukraine. The trouble is 

that when they come to Kyiv, they do not in 

fact hear the Ukrainian language and feel 

themselves alien. But they want to make a contribution 

to the state. So, we must find some 

unique approaches to funding these programs, 

get our diplomatic corps and business 

sector involved, in order to form a coalition 

of governmental, business, and nonprofit 

organizations because no entity can do this on 

its own. Hence, there should be trilateral 

mechanisms capable of realizing the farreaching 

potential of development and vision. 

Regrettably, such initiatives often appear and 

then disappear. Therefore, it is important to 

invest and to know that there will be continuous 

movement and development,” the MIOK 

guest emphasized. 

What also helps strengthen the Ukrainian 

community in Canada is the fact that 

young Ukrainians come to that country to 

study or to work. Their involvement in the 

community’s activity is an “injection of vitamin.” 

For when the pressure of assimilation 

is exerted, the young people who come from 

Ukraine help nongovernmental organizations 

get revitalized, find new strategies, and 

draw fresh energy. 

In conclusion, MIOK director Iryna Kliuchkovska 

emphasized: “Our work is aimed 

at supporting Ukrainian communities in the 

world. Ms. Shymko has already mentioned the 

necessity of supporting and developing the 

Ukrainian language. This is what our institute 

is doing: we published Ukraine’s first 

manuals of English as a foreign language, 

which Canadian Ukrainians also use, hold 

joint conferences, and are preparing for the 

1st World Forum of Ukrainian Saturday 

and Sunday Schools scheduled for the coming 

August. There is also another important 

part: it is extremely important to us that 

Ukraine comes to know at last about the 

great work large Ukrainian diasporas, including 

that of Canada, and certain individuals 

are doing. For many people are still unaware 

that this is part of our culture, history, 

and being. If this awareness comes, it will 

be a major achievement for all of us, for the 

Ukrainian world as a whole. I dream that we 

will feel ourselves as a single body.”

6 


CLOSE UP 


CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS FEDIR LYZOHUB AND HETMAN PAVLO SKOROPADSKY WITH THEIR RETINUE, KYIV, 1918 

100On populist 

By Yurii TERESHCHENKO 

(Conclusion. For beginning see 

The Day No. 10 of February 15, 2018) 

The introduction of historical hetmanite 

titles into diplomatic ritual revived an 

old Ukrainian governmental tradition 

that became an inalienable accessory of 

the new Ukrainian State and contributed 

to the proper honoring of its head – the 

Hetman – and the increase of its international 

prestige. 

The Ukrainian State’s foreign policy was always 

of a national statist nature. A well-known 

Ukrainian public figure and academic, Dmytro 

Doroshenko, was appointed minister of foreign 

affairs. In spite of all difficulties, the Ukrainian 

State managed to achieve considerable successes 

in foreign policy. One of the most important 

problems the Hetman’s government addressed 

was to strengthen national statehood as 

soon as possible with the help of Germany and, 

at the same time, to follow its own political line 

without German interference. In spite of a close 

link with Quadruple Alliance states, the 

Ukrainian State made an attempt in the summer 

of 1918 to restore diplomatic relations with the 

Entente countries. Although this step triggered 

a resolute protest of the Central Powers, as soon 

as in October the German government agreed to 

Ukraine establishing relations with the Entente. 

For this purpose, the Hetmanate made 

wide use of its diplomatic relations with neutral 

states. Shortly before its fall, the Ukrainian 

State formed diplomatic missions to France 

with Mykhailo Mohyliansky at the head and to 

Britain and the US led by Ivan Korostovets. 

This was a striking illustration of the Hetman 

Skoropadsky government’s intentions to pursue 

an independent foreign policy. 

years of the proclamation 

of hetmanship in Ukraine–2 

hypnosis and constructive conservatism 

An extremely important state-formation 

aspect of the Ukrainian State’s foreign policy 

was an intention to consolidate all the ethnic 

Ukrainian territories. The hetman showed a 

clear aspiration to incorporate into the domain 

of Ukraine Kuban and Crimes which were populated 

to a considerable extent by the Ukrainians 

who had never lost spiritual and cultural 

affinity with the parent state. In September 

1918, the governments of Ukraine and Crimea 

concluded a tentative federative agreement under 

which Crime was to belong to the Ukrainian 

State with its own Seim. 

Pursuing his foreign policy, the hetman 

was aware that Ukraine was to be a strong 

state. In this context, it was extremely important 

to consolidate the grip of the Black Sea 

coast, where the Ukrainians wielded clout as a 

result of as long military struggle of Cossacks 

and colonial expansionism. This goal could be 

achieved by linking Bessarabia, Crimea, and 

Kuban, densely populated by Ukrainians, closely 

to the Ukrainian State. 

The sea border of Ukraine was the only stable 

boundary and, at the same time, a window 

to the world. But it needed reliable protection, 

which only a strong Ukrainian navy could ensure. 

This is why the Black Sea problem was one 

of the main directions of the diplomatic and 

military policy. 

The hetman set a goal to spread Ukraine’s 

geopolitical clout on a vast expanse, the socalled 

Cossack territory from the Caucasian 

Black Sea coast to the Caspian Sea. This territory, 

populated by Don, Kuban, Terek, and Ural 

Cossacks; Caucasian peoples; Kalmyks and 

Kazakhs, also included strong enclaves of 

Ukrainian colonists, which stretched as far as 

the Pacific coast. The establishment of a strong 

alliance with Cossack communities and Caucasian 

states made it really possible to resist 

Russian imperialism, the archenemy of Ukrainian 

independence. 

One of the most important problems the 

Ukrainian State faced was the land question 

and a rational agrarian policy. Taking the very 

first steps, the hetmanite government set itself 

a goal to carry out a large-scale agrarian reform 

aimed at forming an economically viable class 

of medium-income and well-to-do farmers. This 

peasant stratum was to receive land from the 

state which was going to parcel big land property 

on a buy-out basis. For the same purpose, it 

was planned to set up a State Land Bank in order 

to help peasants obtain low-cost loans and 

buy land. 

The project of a land reform, drawn by Minister 

of Agriculture Volodymyr Leontovych, 

was ready by early November 1918. It envisaged 

a compulsory buy-out of big land estates 

by the state, which were to be parceled among 

peasants with the help of the State Land Bank 

at the rate of not more than 25 dessiatines 

[1 dessiatine = 2.7 US acres. – Ed.] per household. 

The farms of agricultural importance 

with an area of up to 200 dessiatines each were 

exempt from the take-over of land. 

Experts believe it was the most democratic 

law in comparison with the agrarian laws of 

other states at the time. The implementation 

of this reform could undoubtedly have given 

an impetus to the untrammeled socioeconomic 

development of Ukraine. It would have created 

an agrarian system based on medium-income 

self-sufficient individual farms, which 

would have promoted the formation of an economically 

viable and independent grain-growing 

stratum – the backbone of the Ukrainian 

State. Using this experience today would undoubtedly 

help Ukraine ride out the current 

socioeconomic crisis. 

The Hetmanate’s financial policy is also 

worthy of high esteem. A stable monetary system 

was set up in the extremely difficult conditions, 

which ensured a high exchange rate of 

the Ukrainian currency. The establishment of 

the State Bank and the Land Bank and the 

streamlining of the budgetary process contributed 

to Ukraine’s economic revival. It is 

difficult to imagine similar measures in the 

UNR Central Rada and Directory periods. 

The hetman and his inner circle understood 

that only the social stratum that is simultaneously 

the owner of capital goods and the producer 

can play a decisive role in the ongoing 

struggle between Bolshevism and Ukraine. In 

contemporary history, this stratum could have 

been formed by the revived Cossacks who, relying 

on the tradition of free possession of land 

and weapons, are extremely interested in the institutions 

of private land ownership and a stable 

national statehood that protects these institutions. 

The creation of a strong and organized 

Cossack stratum was supposed to help settle 

disputes about the size of land ownership, introduce 

the private and hereditary ownership 

of land, and confirm the right to own land, depending 

on the participation in fighting the 

foreign enemy and defending the Ukrainian 

State’ borders. In this context, the quit logical 

restoration of the traditional historical Hetmanate 

on April 29, 1918, led to the revival of 

the Cossacks as a stratum that was the basis of 

the Cossack statehood. The Cossacks reemerged 

on the basis of a law – the Universal of the Hetman 

of All Ukraine dated October 16, 1918. 

Cultural and artistic line in the era of Skoropadsky 

relied on the sponsorship tradition 

of Ukrainian hetmans who supported the general 

national trend in the development of 

Ukrainian culture. From Petro Konashevych- 

Sahaidachny, who signed up, together with all 

of the Zaporozhian Host, for the Kyivan 

Brotherhood and supported the establishment 

of the Kyiv Mohyla College, to Kyrylo Rozumovsky, 

who entertained the idea of setting 

up a university in Baturyn, all the Ukrainian 

hetmans were fervent guardians of education 

and science. Even in a too short period of hetmanship, 

Skoropadsky founded two Ukrainian 

universities and the Ukrainian Academy 

of Sciences. 

The hetman was going to do more than to 

open two Ukrainian universities. It was 

planned to establish Ukrainian universities in 

Odesa and Kharkiv by reorganizing the local 

Russian ones, as well as in Katerynodar 

(Kuban) and Simferopol (Crimea). What is 

more, all the Ukrainian secondary schools set 

up by the Ukrainian community in the Central 

Rada period were given governmental financial 

support. At the same time, a large number of 

state-funded Ukrainian primary schools were 

opened. 

The doubtless achievements of Pavlo Skoropadsky’s 

Hetmanate do not mean at all that 

its leaders did not make mistakes and miscalculations, 

which is a separate subject to discuss. 

We should note today that the hetman and his 

government aspired for a class peace, reconciliation 

of the interests of peasants and big 

landowners, employers and workers, mostly at 

the expense of the well-to-do strata. They set a 

goal to form a real social partnership, promote 

national consolidation of all the strata of 

Ukrainian people, and thus ensure stability in 

the Ukrainian State. The combination of national-conservative 

and liberal-reformist principles 

of state-formation in Skoropadsky’s Hetmanate 

was quite in line with the current social 

development trends in the civilized European 

countries. 

Against the backdrop of the elimination of 

national and social values in the Bolshevik Russia, 

Ukraine demonstrated sort of a breakthrough 

into the future and affirmed undeniable 

statist, legal, and national cultural values. 

The ruination of the Hetmanate by Ukrainian 

socialists, in fact in cahoots with the Bolsheviks, 

finally resulted in a catastrophe, a defeat 

in the national liberation struggle, and the loss 

of Ukrainian statehood. 

Yurii Tereshchenko is Doctor of Sciences 

(History), member of the Ukrainian Academy 

of Historical Sciences


CULT URE No.13 FEBRUARY 27, 2018 7 

Masks and drawings 

Kharkiv 

artists 

conquer 

Peru 

By Lina VOLYNSKA, Kharkiv 

Photos courtesy of project participants 

Serhii Petrov, cofounder of the 

Bob Basset art studio, and 

Hamlet Zinkivskyi, a street 

artist, have presented an art 

project in Lima for the first 

time. Their works – 6 masks and 

23 drawings – were displayed at the 

NEGRO exhibit at the Monumental 

Callao art center. 

It is the local artist Conrad Flores 

who invited the Kharkiv-based artists to 

Peru. This Peruvian painted a picture 

that depicts a character in a mask Petrov 

made. The latter accidentally came 

across it in Facebook, which triggered 

artistic cooperation between Ukraine 

and Peru. Interestingly, this emblematic 

mask was made for Sid Wilson of the US 

heavy metal group Slipknot. 

“I presented Conrad with two masks, 

one of which looks like the one I made for 

Sid. Conrad painted them over in his own 

style, so now they are a unique example 

of Ukrainian-Peruvian art. Later, Conrad 

gave me the drawing that helped us 

meet as a birthday present,” Serhii 

PETROV says. The two masks are also on 

display at the Monumental Callao exhibit. 

Incidentally, the Ukrainian artists 

were struck with its history – the “temple 

of contemporary art” was built in one 

of Lima’s poorest areas. It was sort of an 

experiment to transform a locality by 

means of art. Now Peruvian artists exhibit, 

work, and live at Monumental 

Callao, and the streets around it are covered 

with graffiti which have already become 

“gems” of Lima. “You won’t believe 

it, but a former cannibal, who paints political-protest 

pictures now, also lives 

and works here,” Petrov says. “It is absolutely 

wrong to consider Peru a fringe 

of the world. Art is quite original here, 

but, by its level, it does not differ much 

from what I have seen in Europe. Of 

course, American Indian motifs add a 

unique coloring.” 

Apart from participating in the exhibit, 

the Ukrainian artists also created, 

together with their Peruvian colleague 

Salsa, the photo project “Carnaval.” 

Hamlet Zinkivskyi says “carnaval” an 

annual February mass-scale fist fight, in 

which the local male population takes 

part. “It was an extravaganza at its 

best. Its participants gather on Sundays 

to beat one another with socks 

filled with stones,” Hamlet explains. 

“We’ll take a series of photographs with 

Bob Basset masks on these streets, with 

these guys in the role of models.” 

Zinkivskyi, a Kharkiv-based street 

artist, who presented to Peruvians a series 

of drawings named “Black,” believes 

that Callao, which hosts the 

Ukrainian exhibit, is a graphic illustration 

of how culture can change people. 

“The area that consists of poor 

slums is all painted with graffiti. And in 

the middle of it stands a five-storey 

center of galleries and art studios. The 

local populace comes here to see exhibits, 

and kids watch films in the local 

hall. In other words, just imagine that 

the entire artistic hangout of your city, 

with all art studios and exposition halls, 

has been transferred to a depressive 

bedroom suburb and artists have painted 

over all the buildings. Of course, 

this would change the life of local people,” 

the artist asserts. 

After the Peruvian art expedition, 

the Ukrainians plan to invite Conrad Flores 

to Kharkiv. Petrov is sure this will 

By Alisa ANTONENKO 

The film Cyborgs, telling the 

story of the heroic defenders 

of the Donetsk Airport, has 

got its theater release 

extended until mid-March, 

Media Detector reported, citing the 

distributor company Ukrainian 

Film Distribution (UFD) which is 

distributing it. 

This is due to the picture’s release 

in the HD format, which has 

made it possible to show it in cinemas 

that are not equipped for the 

DCP digital format. That is why 

the number of screens has also increased. 

The fact is that not all cinemas 

in Ukraine have equipment 

needed for showing films in the 

DCP format, so releasing the film 

in a different format will allow it 

to be shown in more cinemas. It 

primarily applies to cinemas in 

small cities. 

“Since the end of January, the 

tape has been shown in HD due to 

high audience demand. The release 

is likely to be extended to mid- 

March,” the UFD stated. 

Let us recall that the film was 

released on December 7, 2017. The 

TV premiere of the movie is sched- 

be interesting experience for the Peruvian 

artist. “Lima astonished me – next 

to the slums, there is a five-star hotel, a 

1,500-year-old pyramid, and the best 

park I’ve ever seen. I hope Ukraine will 

astonish Conrad. We have no pyramids, 

but we have artists,” Petrov says. 

For Bob Basset and Hamlet, the exhibit 

in Peru is not the first joint art 

project abroad. In 2016, Paris saw their 

video collaboration “Secret Room” as 

part of the festival “Addiction a l’Oeuvre.” 

In general, the geography of these 

Kharkiv artists’ exhibits is very wide – 

from European counties to Asia and 

New York. But this is the first time they 

were invited to Peru, and they are glad 

to have opened contemporary Ukrainian 

art to one more country. 

Words for war 

Anthology of contemporary 

Ukrainian poetry published in US 

By Bohdana KAPITSA, Den’s Summer 

School of Journalism 2017 

The Maidan, the occupation of 

Crimea, the Donbas war – all 

this is expressed in the works 

of Ukrainian writers. Now the 

Americans also have an 

opportunity to read this poetry in 

translation – the anthology Words 

for War has been publishes in 

Boston. 

It is Oksana Maksymchuk and 

Max Rosochinsky who hit upon the 

idea of this project three years ago. 

Oksana is the author of two collections 

of poetry (Xenia, Catch) and a 

translator. A native of Lviv, she has 

been living in the US since 1997. She 

teaches at the University of 

Arkansas now. Max is also a translator 

and a poet. Born and raised in 

Simferopol, he later migrated to the 

US. Doing research at Northwestern 

University, he focuses on Osip Mandelshtam 

and Marina Tsvetaeva. 

“Both of us felt very keenly about 

the Maidan events, the seizure of 

Crimea, and hostilities in the Donbas. 

It is at that time that Academic 

Studies Press launched a Ukrainian 

series under the supervision of 

Kansas University Professor Vitaly 

Chernetsky. The publishers managed 

to enlist financial support from 

Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute 

(HURI) and the National Endowment 

for the Humanities (NEH). 

Projects of this kind are usually lossmaking, 

and our anthology is not an 

exception. If it is repaid by at least 

20 percent, it will be a major 

achievement. The publishers will be 

able to channel these nominal funds 

into another similar project for their 

Ukrainian series,” Oksana Maksymchuk 

says. 

The book comprises 120 poems 

by 16 Ukrainian poets. It was at first 

planned to attract twice as many authors. 

The number was limited only 

because sufficiently many poems 

had been accumulated. Among the 

authors are also Russian-speaking 

poets Anastasia Afanasieva, Oleksandr 

Kabanov, and the married 

couple of Khersonskyi, as well as 

eastern Ukrainian writers Serhii 

Zhadan and Liubov Yakymchuk. 

Triumphal Cyborgs 

Akhtem Seitablaiev’s film will be shown abroad, and its 

Ukrainian theater release has been extended until mid-March 

MAKAR TYKHOMYROV (MAZHOR) IN THE FILM CYBORGS 

uled for February 20, 2018 on the 

1+1 TV channel. Currently, the 

movie’s box office amounts to 22.5 

million hryvnias, and it has been 

Photo from the website VETERANO.COM.UA 

watched by 309,000 viewers! Incidentally, 

it is planned to screen Cyborgs 

abroad as well, in particular at 

the UN. 

What also matters is the introduction 

by Ilya Kamisky and the afterword 

by Polina Barskova. 

Kaminsky emigrated from Odesa in 

the mid-1990s. His book, Dancing 

in Odessa, is considered one of the 

best English-language poetic books 

of the 2000s. Barskova has published 

a monumental work on the 

anthology of poems about the besieged 

Leningrad. 

The choice of the anthology’s 

poems is special. Oksana and Max 

say that when they were choosing 

the poems, they were trying to 

present images in diversity: young 

and old, female and male, alarmed 

and ironical, tragic and cheerful. 

Special attention was paid to the 

images of women in war. Among 

them are mothers and daughters, 

female soldiers and victims of war 

crimes, as well as married couples 

and lovers, civilians and experts. 

As many as 29 translators were involved 

in the process. Each of them 

has either made a name for 

him/herself or is an English-speaking 

poet. The anthology’s design also 

expresses the themes and character 

of poems. To design the cover, 

illustrator Grycja Erde used her 

work from the “Dead Flowers” series. 

She created it after participating 

in the Maidan events. 

However, it should be noted 

that in the US the term “anthology” 

differs from that in Ukraine – 

it is reading-book-type publication 

intended for academic use. Words 

for War was being made as, first of 

all, a niche publication. The anthology 

is used by students and 

teachers at various US universities. 

The compilers expect the publication 

to interest not only the academic 

readership. As the book is 

still in print, it is difficult to predict 

ordinary readers’ attitude to 

it. Maksymchuk explains that 

Americans take more interest in 

the situation in their own country 

than in military and racial conflicts. 

Besides, they read almost no 

poetry, especially in translation. 

Yet Words for War has already 

drawn a wide response among experts. 

“We necessarily come to 

these poems in a time of war, and 

that war’s grotesque political dimensions 

and endless violence are 

painfully felt on these pages. But 

these are poems that should command 

our attention even in a time 

of peace... These are poems in 

which the spirit of creative imagination, 

free expression, emotional 

clarity, and ethical courage reigns 

supreme,” Harvard University 

Professor Stephanie Sandler says. 

Besides, the high-profile poetry 

publications Poetry International 

(US) and Modern Poetry in Translation 

(UK) have printed a set of items 

based on the anthology, while Royal 

Court Theatre in London has held a 

reading. 

For more details about the 

anthology and its authors, see the 

website http://l.academicstudiespress.com/words-for-war.

8 


TIMEO U T 


By Maria CHADIUK, 

photos by Artem SLIPACHUK, The Day 

Sometimes it is much easier 

that it may seem to get into a 

fairytale – suffice it to visit an 

exhibit of interactive media 

art. One of them was held on 

February 21-22 at the Ukrainian- 

Japanese Center of Igor Sikorsky KPI 

University with support from the 

Embassy of Japan in Ukraine. A wellknown 

Japanese artist and illustrator, 

Mayuko Kanazawa, displayed her 

media art works. Her oeuvre is known 

very well in Japan, South Korea, and 

China, while Europe is only beginning 

to discover the Japanese mistress. 

Before Kyiv, she had only staged an 

exhibit in Berlin. 

● “THE WARMTH 

OF A DRAWING IS 

VERY IMPORTANT” 

According to Shigeki Sumi, Ambassador 

Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary 

of Japan to Ukraine, interactive 

media art is a common thing in 

Japan. But it is rather a new phenomenon 

for Ukrainians. It is a trend, 

when an artist uses up-to-date technologies, 

such as computer graphics, 

animation, and virtual reality. Artists 

thus create new forms to implement 

their projects. 

Mayuko Kanazawa’s project is her 

first solo media art exhibit in 

Ukraine. A special feature of her style 

is usage of drawings that look like 

book illustrations. “I consider myself 

an artist above all. While in the past 

artists used the effect of illusion to 

put something across to spectators, 

now I use the most up-to-date means 

to express this effect. For this reason, 

the warmth of a handmade drawing is 

very important to me,” Kanazawa 

says. 

Each of her works is in fact a solid 

project with a large number of components: 

oil paintings, 3D technologies, 

built-in sensors, computer algorithm, 

and drawn animation. It is not without 

reason that the artist calls these 

works a “marriage” of technologies 

and art. 

Shigeki Sumi also confirms this 

conclusion: “This art also involves science. 

But if we think hard and recall 

the development of traditional art in 

the world, we will see that it coincides 

with the development of science. For 

example, many know that there are 

frescos in European, including 

Ukrainian, temples. If the technology 

The “marriage” of technologies and art 

How the 

works of 

Japanese 

artist Mayuko 

Kanazawa 

develop 

intellect and 

feelings 

of these frescos does not develop, this 

art will die out. That’s why science 

and art go side by side.” 

The result is a wonder. Everyone 

can come up to the projection and, by 

a wave of hand, the screen will get 

studded with a host of flowers or animals 

– accompanied by the sounds of 

living nature. The point is sensors 

catch any movement near the projection 

and trigger the necessary algorithm 

of animation. 

One more wonder is a screen that 

shows a flying bird. When we stretch 

a hand towards it, the bird seems to 

alight on it. You can feel at such moments 

that you gradually get immersed 

in the virtual world of nature 

and filled with tranquility. 

● KAWAII AND PHILOSOPHY 

OF HEIDEGGER 

This sensation proves that 

Kanazawa has fully realized her concept. 

The artist says: “The goal of my 

works is to ‘melt’ hearts and let people 

rest, for they are always overloaded 

and seem to be chasing something 

all day long and can’t relax.” 

Illustration from the archive of Olha PETROVA 

Olha Petrova’s works at the Triptych Art Gallery 

To do so, she chose the style of 

kawaii (literally: “loveable,” “cute”). 

All of Kanazawa’s works depict marvelous 

and defenseless creatures that 

fill your heart with love and affection. 

The best example of such works is the 

artist’s illustrations to the books Gift 

from Heaven and Bokupagu. 

For the authoress, kawaii is not 

just a form of expressing ideas. 

Mayuko also aims to develop fantasy 

and believes: it takes strong feelings 

to trigger the imagination of people. 

Kawaii-style works are supposed to 

produce them. 

Moreover, Kanazawa emphasizes 

that her works are based on the existential 

philosophy of Martin Heidegger. 

The artist says it takes at least 

three years to study it, which she in 

fact did when she was a student. “In 

simple words, existential philosophy 

is a branch of science that addresses 

the problem of what is real for man,” 

Mayuko says. “It is in my student 

years that I learned this concept of being. 

It seemed to me that the concept 

of existential philosophy was close to 

that of Japanese Zen. I took so much 

interest in it that I decided to make it 

the theme of my further lifetime.” 

● DEVELOPMENT COUPLED 

WITH ENTERTAINMENT 

Kanazawa could not bring most of 

her works to Kyiv, but she demonstrated 

a video of her exhibits at her 

lecture. It is gratifying to see that the 

artist’s works give most pleasure to 

children. Mayuko stresses the importance 

of this art to the younger generation. 

“It seems to me that a child’s 

heart is tired of the attempts to control 

it with such phrases as ‘you must not’ 

and ‘you need not.’ And if you try to 

explain something to children in a light 

manner like this, the child will relax. 

Besides, he or she shows sympathy 

with little animals,” the artist muses. 

“In my view, in addition to receiving 

information in such a ‘soft’ way, the 

child learns to build human relationships 

and develop both in body and in 

soul correctly and skillfully. I think 

this development, coupled with entertainment, 

is a stimulus for children to 

develop adequately and harmonically.” 

Apparently, thanks to such a 

depth of ideas, Mayuko Kanazawa, by 

contrast with many of our compatriots, 

does not apply modern technologies 

to create nonsense and warp the 

content. Instead, thanks to technologies, 

her works promote the development 

of fantasy and fill the heart with 

peace and love for others and for life 

in general. 

“The PrimalElements”–inspiration and emotions 

By Svitlana AHREST-KOROTKOVA 

It has become a good tradition for Olha 

Petrova to open exhibitions, which 

introduce another phase of her new 

achievements, in February, on her 

birthday (or close to that date). When 

observing this woman who, being full of 

youthful drive and creative enthusiasm, is 

an artist and a philosopher, a researcher 

and a writer, an art critic and a journalist, 

I am astounded by her extraordinary 

productivity, love for life, and desire for 

discoveries, the acquisition of new 

knowledge and new experiences. All this 

comes out through new books and research 

papers, paintings and articles, talented 

students and exhibitions. All this endlessly 

pleases her fans, both in Ukraine and far 

beyond its borders. 

The conceptual foundations of the 

classical avant-garde, with Franz Marc and 

Wassily Kandinsky rightly considered its 

founding fathers, show that this art school 

develops on the principle of a decisive refusal 

to “copy” nature and engage in naturalism. 

Everyone can see the world around 

them, but the artist creates their own reality 

by abstracting from it. 

Non-figurative paintings in Petrova’s 

exhibition “Wordless. The Primal 

Elements” testify to the invincible desire 

to escape from the material world and go 

on spiritual quests, to create one’s own 

world, in which everyone who looks at the 

picture opens their own “third eye” and 

finds a new emotional harmony. 

The exhibition brought together works 

of different years, ranging from 1996 to 

2018. For instance, Revival, painted in 

1996, is permeated with a light of hope. 

Meanwhile, in Blue-III, the incongruence 

of dissimilar, awkward figures is “depressed” 

by heavy, dark cadmium. 

“For an adequate perception of the 

non-figurative art (‘wordless’ compositions),” 

Petrova said, “it is especially important 

to rely on the spectator’s culture 

of attentive listening, their intuitive comprehension 

of the work as a message. This 

dialog between the spectator and the work 

offers a precious opportunity of understanding 

the two individualities: the author’s 

and the recipient’s. Kandinsky believed 

that dialog is important provided 

that the ‘desire to say’ something with an 

artwork meets the love-enlightened desire 

to ‘hear’ it, because ‘in and of itself, the explanation 

is unable to bring the individual 

closer to the non-figurative art.’” 

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