#14_1-8

MARCH 1, 2018 ISSUE No. 14 (1146) 

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

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

е-mail: time@day.kiev.ua; 

http://www.day.kiev.ua 

PICTURED: ALLA DUBROVYK, EDITOR OF DEN’S ECONOMY SECTION, AT THE PRESS CONFERENCE OF UKRAINE’S PRESIDENT PETRO POROSHENKO. FEBRUARY 28, 2018 

“NERVOUS VERBOSITY” 

In general, atmosphere in the improvised 

press room was constructive. 

Yet what shows President Poroshenko’s 

Administration’s unpreparedness for a frank 

discussion is the fact that, for three years since 

this writer, a correspondent of Den, put a ticklish 

question the president in his first year in 

office: “Are we at war or do we conduct trade, 

Mr. President?” the president’s spokesman 

Sviatoslav Tseholko has stopped “noticing” our 

badge at press conferences. Well, I hope the 

head of state’s spokesman will at last settle his 

emotions and problems and will not hinder the 

president from communicating with one of the 

oldest newspapers in Ukraine. 

● ON THE ELECTION 

“Firstly, I will definitely, with 100 percent 

certainty take part in the presidential 

election as a voter. I will definitely vote. In 

Ukraine. In Kyiv. My polling place is in the 

House of Officers. I emphasize that I will live 

in Ukraine after the election in whatever capacity 

I will be then. I care about Ukraine 

very much, I will do everything to prevent a 

comeback of the old regime. I do not understand 

what plan B you are talking about, I 

have not ever lost an election campaign.” 

● ON THE MALDIVES 

“The information was communicated to 

the public and post factum. I stress that my 

flight was registered in accordance with the 

requirements of the legislation currently in 

force. If you do not have access to the database 

On the president’s press conference through the eyes of its participant 

of the border guards, then this is personal data. 

You should not have that access, actually. 

But if a competent authority wants to check 

on the border guards’ actions, it will get access 

very easily. The head of the border service 

reported to me about the registration. I do 

not know if the Zhuliany private airport is 

building something. I stress that everything 

was done in accordance with the legislation. 

The president gets no vacations, because he 

may not delegate his powers to anyone.” 

● ON CRIMEA 

“We are ready to accept ships from 

Crimea, that is for sure. And we are not talking 

here about some minor reasons, like repairs 

or lack thereof, or absence of some 

equipment, no – we are ready to accept ships 

only together with Crimea. And I am sure that 

this is a shared position of the Verkhovna Rada 

and the Ukrainian government and public. 

And in order to expedite this process, we 

will use all the diplomatic opportunities.” 

● ON RELATIONS WITH POLAND 

“Our relations are developing very dynamically. 

You remember the visit of President 

Duda to Kharkiv. I met him in Davos. 

I met the Polish prime minister in Munich. 

We have set up a commission at the level of 

deputy prime ministers tasked with the development 

of a roadmap to get out of this situation 

which arose after a series of steps. As 

for Poland adopting that law... We do not 

need anyone to tell us which heroes are to be 

honored and which are not. Likewise, we will 

not dictate to Poland which heroes they are 

to honor or not. I am sure that politicians 

should look to the future, and leave the 

past to historians. I am confident that when 

we will be implementing this concept, we will 

achieve good results with Poland.” 

● ON SAAKASHVILI 

“No major political problems began in 

Ukraine. And I didn’t take away his passport. 

But I granted him citizenship deliberately. 

I was also enchanted with the prospects 

Mr. Saakashvili could bring to Ukraine. I 

gave him complete freedom. He was the 

governor of Odesa oblast… All of us saw no 

results. And when I received a report from 

the law-enforcement bodies about infractions 

during the application for citizenship, I had 

nothing to do but revoke his citizenship in 

full accordance with the Constitution. Had 

there been no check on the citizenship application, 

we would still perhaps be nursing 

hopes and dreams. But Mikheil dashed them 

himself, and I don’t think he is a happy man 

now. The question of readmission to Poland – 

after he had breached the law while crossing 

the border, which was confirmed by a court – 

was solved flawlessly from the viewpoint of 

the Ukrainian law, international obligations, 

and the rule of law.” 

● ON HOSTAGES 

Poroshenko stresses that he will cooperate 

with all who will help liberate Ukrainian 

hostages: “I must admit that Medvedchuk 

has proved to be most effective of them all, 

because Putin makes these decisions personally.” 

● ON DE-OLIGARCHIZATION 

“De-oligarchization means excluding oligarchs 

from political power institutions in 

Ukraine. What, has Firtash’s position improved 

here? Has he come to Ukraine? Does 

Firtash control the parliament, or the cabinet? 

Or maybe it is Kolomoiskyi who does 

this? Am I right, you, from the 1+1 TV channel? 

There are some channels that hit the 

president hard. I know this and I am not 

afraid of it. You will not get anywhere. As for 

Akhmetov and Rotterdam+. What is Rotterdam+? 

I am not going to defend it at all. 

This is just an exchange indicator.” 

Photos by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day

2 

No.14 MARCH 1, 2018 

DAY AFTER DAY 

WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA 

Political “earthquake” 

New names in special counsel Mueller’s 

investigation of the Manafort case 

By Mykola SIRUK, The Day 

Recently FBI Special Counsel 

Robert S. Mueller III brought 

new charges against Paul 

Manafort, Donald Trump’s 

former campaign’s manager in 

summer 2016 and in summer 2012 

secretly paid former leading European 

politicians for lobbying of Ukraine’s 

Russia-aligned government. 

The AP news agency reports that 

the charges are based on the testimony 

provided by Manafort’s former assistant 

Rick Gates. In particular, the 

FBI is charging Manafort with using 

foreign bank accounts for paying 2 million 

to former European politicians for 

lobbying of the interests of Ukraine’s 

Russia-aligned government. 

It is reported that the political 

figures known as the Habsburg group 

were considered to be independent analysts, 

however, their services were ordered 

by the lobbyists. According to the 

information provided by the mass media, 

the hidden lobbying was taking 

place in the US. The indictment concludes 

that a former European chancellor 

was at the head of the group. 

Apparently, the top interest of 

the investigators are Manafort’s liaisons 

with Russian billionaire Oleg 

Deripaska, from whom Trump’s advisor 

received big sum, amounting, according 

to some data, to 100 million 

dollars, for the lobbying of Russia’s interests. 

In particular, as the manager 

of Trump’s election campaign, Manafort 

offered to Deripaska to share information, 

arranging “private briefings” 

on some “interesting questions” 

that haven’t been established so far. 

It will be reminded that on October 

30, 2017 Paul Manafort and 

Richard Gates faced charges that consisted 

of 12 points and included hindering 

the activity of the US governmental 

establishments, money laundering, 

evading taxes, swindling, and 

lobbying the interests of an unregistered 

foreign establishment, which is 

a crime in the US. 

The prosecutors assert that over 

75 million dollars were moved through 

the offshore accounts that Manafort 

controlled. According to the accusations, 

with Gates’ help he laundered 

over 30 million dollars of income which 

he shielded from the US Department of 

Treasury and US Department of Justice. 

In his turn, Gates hid about three 

million of income. 

“Manafort and Gates received tens 

of millions dollars of income from 

their work in Ukraine,” is the summary 

of the indictment. 

Manafort is the central figure in 

the investigation held by Special Counsel 

Robert S. Mueller III on the possible 

conspiracy between Donald 

Trump’s team and Russia, in particular, 

through Manafort’s numerous 

connections with Russians and his cooperation 

with Ukraine’s ex-president 

Viktor Yanukovych. 

Former advisor in Nixon’s Presidential 

Administration John Dean 

wrote on his Twitter page that 

“Mueller is throwing everything he can 

against Manafort, including Gates 

who can nail him. Increasingly it appears 

Manafort is the link to Russian 

collusion. If Gates can testify that 

Manafort was acting with Trump’s 

blessings, it’s the end of his presidency. 

That’s substantial.” 

Meanwhile, the website www.dailykos.com 

concludes that “Putin wanted 

Trump elected to reverse sanctions 

and allow him to not only make a fortune 

but to further infiltrate the country. 

Manafort was only too happy to 

sell us out to the Russians and if it can 

be proven Trump was as well – if 

that’s not a working definition of 

treason, what is?” 

It should be noted that more and 

more names are emerging in special 

counsel Mueller’s investigation into 

Manafort’s activities. In particular, US 

Department of Justice files, emails obtained 

by The Financial Times, and interviews 

with the people involved in 

the investigation show that Romano 

Prodi, the former Italian prime minister 

and European Commission president, 

Alfred Gusenbauer, the former 

Austrian chancellor, and Aleksander 

Kwasniewski, Poland’s former president 

(1995-2005) “took part in meetings 

with members of the US Congress 

in 2013 on behalf of the European 

Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a Brussels-based 

group that US prosecutors 

allege was at the centre of Mr. Manafort’s 

secret lobbying scheme.” 

The Day asked the head of the 

Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia 

Center, former US ambassador to 

Ukraine John HERBST to comment on 

the most recent charges against Manafort 

and tell about their possible consequences 

for US President Donald 

Trump. 

“If Gates testifies against Manafort, 

Manafort’s legal vulnerability 

grows. Stories about Manafort’s connections 

to Deripaska put the Trump 

campaign closer to the Kremlin. The 

key question is whether there is evidence 

of Trump himself in some sense 

working with or benefitting knowingly 

from Kremlin support. But there 

are now stories of possible contacts or 

efforts to establish contacts between 

Deripaska and Democratic Senator 

Warner.” 

By Svitlana AHREST-KOROTKOVA 

Thanks to indefatigable efforts of the 

UKHO producer agency in the field 

of contemporary music, the 

National Opera staged a premiere of 

the opera Luci Mie Traditrici (“My 

Betraying Eyes”) by Salvatore Sciarrino. 

Local music lovers, as well as many 

representatives of the diplomatic corps, 

received an unprecedented world-level 

gift. It was not only a bit unusual, but also 

a beautiful piece of contemporary music 

played with careful enthusiasm by UKHO 

Ensemble conducted by Luigi Gaggero. 

Discover Europe through... fairytales 

Teachers and children of various countries drew 

a map of the most popular children’s books 

By Maria SEMENCHENKO 

There is a map of Europe before us. 

Every country is marked with a separate 

color. But it is not a political 

or a geographic map – it is about 

books. On close examination, you 

will see that it is not just colors but fragments 

of the covers of children’s books. In 

France it is The Little Price by Antoine de 

Saint-Exupery, in Italy – The Adventures 

of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, in Britain – 

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 

Photo by Yevhenia PERUTSKA 

FRENCH-GERMAN TENOR STEPHANE OLRY, ESTHER LABOURDETTE 

(SOPRANO, FRANCE), AND MICHAEL TAYLOR (COUNTERTENOR, CANADA) 

PERFORMED THE MAIN PARTS IN THE OPERA LUCI MIE TRADITRICI 

World-level estheticism 

Participants in the production of Luci Mie 

Traditrici shared with The Day’s readers 

their impressions of working in Ukraine 

by Joanne Rowling, in Sweden – Pippi 

Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, in 

Finland – a series about Moomins (trolls) 

by Tove Jansson, in Germany – The 

Neverending Story by Michael Ende, in 

Poland – Academy of Mr. Kleks by Jan 

Brzechwa, in Denmark – Magic Fairytales 

by Hans Christian Andersen. Ukraine is 

painted in orange color, and it is easy to 

recognize this cover – it is Toreadors from 

Vasiukivka by Vsevolod Nestaiko. 

This map was made by teachers and 

pupils at various schools that are part of 

Map from the website READRATE.COM 

The four guest soloists – Esther Labourdette 

(soprano, France), Rupert Bergmann 

(bass-baritone, Austria), Stephane Olry 

(tenor, France-Germany), and Michael 

Taylor (countertenor, Canada) – possess 

not only impeccable vocal and dramatic 

skills, but also the uncommon ability to 

perform the most sophisticated parts of 

modern scores. 

Kateryna Libkind (set design), Olha 

Listunova (costumes), Svitlana Zmiieva 

(lighting) created a very integral and 

breathtaking spectacle worthy of the 

world’s most respected stages. 

eTwinning, an educational project of the 

European Commission. Although 

Ukrainian schools are not project members, 

Ukraine was still included into 

this map. 

Christina Kasinti, a teacher of the 

eTwinning Greek team, writes on the 

project’s website: “First and foremost, 

to be able to make it, I received much help 

from the project’s partners, as I would 

never learn about the most popular children’s 

books in many countries if you did 

not research and tell me. I also received 

my eTwinning students’ help at school. 

For example, Galini, a member of the 

Greek team, who is bilingual as her 

mum is Ukrainian, helped me a lot by 

conducting a small research among 

friends and relatives before telling me 

children’s favorite books in Ukraine, 

Lithuania, Belarus, and Finland. So did 

other students in our school, too, e.g., for 

Albania, Serbia, etc.” 

Christina also showed on the project’s 

website that the map was at first 

empty and painted blue. Then it was 

gradually filled with favorite children’s 

books in various countries. It is interesting 

to examine this map: you immediately 

wish to read some of the books or 

to know more about the ones that are little 

known or unknown at all to Ukrainian 

readers. 

It is no wonder that Ukrainian readers 

chose Vsevolod Nestaiko’s Toreadors 

from Vasiukivka for the map. More than 

one generation grew up on the writer’s 

books. They are still actively republished 

and sold. Present-day young readers 

and their parents know them. 

Mr. Nestaiko once said to The Day: 

“Children must be taught to be good, humane, 

fair, and, of course, to have a sense 

of humor. Children should smile more often.” 

This is perhaps the secret of why little 

readers have liked Nestaiko’s books 

for many decades and why Ukraine is 

painted orange on this map. 

I asked the vocalists, who participated 

in this project, to share impressions 

of working in Ukraine and of the 

opera itself. 

Esther LABOURDETTE, 

soprano, France: 

“I am in Ukraine for the first time. 

So, I know only Kyiv and the locations we 

lived and worked in. Some aspects in the 

city itself and its people remind me of Armenia 

which I know a little from my 

mother’s stories: a lot of small shops, 

where you can buy everything, a mixture 

of the old town and modern city, stylish 

women. The people I met were incredibly 

openhearted, warm, and sociable in spite 

of the language barrier, and we often 

laughed. On the other hand, there can be 

very unpleasant, even hostile, people in 

some offices or in the metro – a striking 

contrast! It is difficult to get an unequivocal 

idea of a city with so different 

and intertwining features – pre-Soviet, 

Soviet, and post-Soviet Kyiv. 

“Luci Mie Traditrici is one of the 

most complicated music projects in my 

lifetime because this opera is extremely 

difficult in its musical score, and we had 

very little time to prepare it. Sciarrino’s 

musical universe is very subtle, he treats 

the orchestra as a character, he expresses 

all kinds of emotions – strikes, impulse 

acceleration, silence – it does not look like 

a traditional opera, where the orchestra 

supports the singer and can be relied on. 

In spite of this, things went very smoothly, 

in a creative atmosphere, where even 

a minute was not lost. We were a united 

team. A very talented pianist Dina 

Pysarenko is the mainstay of this ‘enterprise.’ 

As our work went on, I was 

gradually being accustomed to my part. 

Sometimes I felt as if I was a computer – 

each scene is a file which I change, and 

whenever the picture was getting blurred, 

I got back to the score to check the original 

image. 

Stephane OLRY, 

tenor, France-Germany: 

“I am greatly pleased with the work 

we’ve done in Kyiv. The process was 

very interesting, and all the people involved 

in the project were very lovely and 

professional. All my singer colleagues 

coped very well with such difficult but 

beautiful music. I don’t know whether 

you liked it, but I consider this work a 

masterpiece. 

“Of course, I know the situation in 

Ukraine and I am deeply concerned about 

it. But I saw absolutely no manifestations 

of these difficult moments in our daily 

routine. The Europeans are looking forward 

to Ukraine coming back to the European 

family. It is not a rapid process. It 

demands that the people of Ukraine show 

strength and great patience. 

“I hope very much that I’ll be able to 

come back here with new projects. I’d love 

to take part in putting on a contemporary 

opera here. I am sure our Ukrainian colleagues 

will choose something interesting 

for a project like this.” 

Michael TAYLOR, 

countertenor, Canada: 

“My impression of Ukraine was a 

little marred because I caught a cold due 

to bad weather and was laid up for about 

a week. But, in spite of being ill, I noticed 

that people all around were just nice. In 

February everything seems gray and 

cheerless, but people stand out against 

this gray backdrop (laughs). Whenever I 

get ready to travel abroad, I usually 

learn a few conversational phrases. Unfortunately, 

I failed to do so in Ukraine 

because there was no time left for other 

things owing to a complicated material. 

And your language sounds surprisingly 

melodious. 

“This project is wonderful, albeit 

complicated, music. It is a rare occurrence 

that you can take part in something 

so interesting and difficult at 

the same time. The orchestra coped 

with task excellently. 

“I would come back here with 

pleasure – especially with something 

from contemporary. I heard that 

Ukraine hosts a lot of interesting festivals 

in this field, and there are very 

good oeuvres.” 

Read more on our website


DAY AFTER DAY No.14 MARCH 1, 2018 3 

By Alla DUBROVYK-ROKHOVA, The Day, 

photos by the author, 

Singapore – Barcelona – Kyiv 

By 2030, more than 5 billion 

people will live in cities. 

According to McKinsey & 

Company, the urban 

economy will provide up to 

80 percent of the world GDP by that 

date. And this automatically means 

endless traffic jams on roads, acute 

resource shortages, and mediocre 

ecological situation. 

In order for the city infrastructure 

not only to carry an enormous 

burden in the future, but to be 

ready for it as soon as today, new 

technologies come to our aid. It is 

they that ensure the rapid development 

of so-called smart cities. 

An ordinary city becomes smart 

as soon as its institutions are integrated 

in practice into a single network 

with large databases. It 

should be done so that based on this 

data, it becomes possible to collect 

information about users, store and 

analyze it, remotely manage services 

and predict various situations 

developing. To participate in this 

whole scheme, a resident needs a 

smartphone and internet access. 

My first encounter with a 

smart city took place two years 

ago. My husband and I went to Bali 

for a long-delayed honeymoon, but 

on the way there, we decided to 

take a look at what Singapore was 

like. Then it was just fashionable 

in Ukraine to see the experience of 

that island dwarf country as an example 

to be followed. I was astounded. 

An ordinary public 

transport stop (that transport offers 

very convenient and dense 

coverage of the whole territory of 

the city) had a special electronic 

board with information about 

which bus was going where, with 

what speed and number of passengers. 

The stop was also equipped 

with a Wi-Fi hotspot, an interactive 

map, and even electronic 

books. Also, cameras, sensors, and 

GPS devices that collect information 

about everything going on in 

the city are everywhere in Singapore. 

This is one of the reasons 

why there are no traffic jams, 

crime and... garbage there. Some 

may see it as an example of a “police 

state,” but the Singaporeans 

themselves, for the sake of whose 

safety and comfort all this was 

started, do not complain. 

Another example, which I 

learned about after returning from 

Singapore when attending the annual 

Smart City Expo conference in 

Barcelona, was a system for helping 

special needs residents of the 

city. Singapore, like most currently 

highly developed countries, has 

a lot of elderly people who need care 

and support. Therefore, local authorities 

have launched a special 

monitoring system called the Elderly 

Monitoring System. It works 

like this: special sensors are installed 

on the doors and inside the 

living quarters. As soon as such a 

sensor records a suspicious lack of 

activity or vice versa, captures an 

incident, it alerts relatives, 

guardians or relevant services. 

Another ambitious project, 

worth 73 million dollars, is called 

Virtual Singapore. This is a virtual 

3D model of the island with superprecise 

detailing. The virtual map 

Cities in which intellect wins 

How technology ensures that municipalities win 

in the global struggle for human capital and investment 

allows the user to enter every room 

and receive information about it in 

real time. In addition to the fact 

that it lets the city to monitor in 

the most efficient way traffic, the 

population density of territories or 

even the quality of air, it is possible 

to create various forecasts and 

models based on the information 

obtained. For example, one can try 

to determine how a contagious disease 

will spread, how the air currents 

will change if a new skyscraper 

is built in a particular 

place, etc. 

As aptly noted by Foreign Minister 

of Singapore Vivian Balakrishnan: 

“If you visit Singapore, you 

will say: I saw the future – and it already 

exists.” 

In a sense, Singapore is really 

ahead of everyone else. But it is not 

alone in employing smart technologies. 

The Smart City Expo World 

Congress is held every fall in 

Barcelona. 

Hundreds of companies, NGOs 

and municipalities from all over 

the world bring to Spain their 

works in the smart city field. Over 

three days, the participants discuss 

the latest trends in urbanism and 

can look in practice how this or that 

technological solution to a specific 

urban problem looks like, for example, 

on specially equipped stands. 

tance of Huawei Ukraine, I would 

need at least a couple of dozen 

newspaper pages. I will, therefore, 

limit myself to the main impressions 

and conclusions. 

Firstly, the cities themselves. 

The three most powerful, in my 

opinion, city stands came from New 

York, Tokyo, and Tel Aviv. At first 

I was surprised to see municipalities 

spend money (quite sizeable 

amounts, in fact) to participate in 

such exhibitions. After all, they are 

not companies which need it to look 

for customers. Was it a publicity 

stunt? It was of dubious benefit, 

then. Then it dawned on me that 

they were selling their experience, 

which was a unique product. So far, 

the smart city technology is just 

In order to describe everything 

I saw at the Smart City Expo 2017, 

which I took part in due to assisemerging, 

so knowledge and skills 

of pioneers who have already tested 

it and know what works, and what 

needs to be fixed in one or another 

technology – these knowledge and 

skills are a major advantage. 

Out of all the company stands, I 

was most impressed by the expospace 

of the Smart City Expo 

2017’s general sponsor Huawei. 

And this is not surprising, because 

the company has already tested 

more than 40 technological solutions 

in more than 100 countries 

around the world. More than 

400 million people already use the 

company’s latest designs, and they 

brought 10 most trendy ones to 

Barcelona for a display. They can be 

divided into three groups: those 

who solve the problem of economical 

use of resources (such as the 

smart home, smart sewer, etc. systems), 

those responsible for safety 

(the smart traffic lights, street 

video surveillance systems, etc.), 

and those aimed at improving the 

quality of life in the city (telemedicine, 

smart public transport, distance 

education, etc.). 

Each of these elements is not 

just an expensive tuning project 

for the city, it is a real investment, 

a tool with which the city government 

is joining a global struggle for 

attracting money, people, and technology 

to one’s city. For example, 

when the Olympic Committee 

chooses a host city for the Games, 

safety is a prerequisite included in 

the rider. This is a complex component 

that, according to The Economist, 

includes four criteria: public 

security (how many administrative 

offenses are committed per inhabitant 

and how many of them are investigated), 

the second is the safety 

of human life (how many hospitals 

and doctors are in the city), the 

third is infrastructure safety (how 

many people are killed or injured in 

accidents, fires, etc.), and the 

fourth – and very relevant today – 

is cyber security: large crowds attract 

greedy hackers who see easy 

pickings. 

Ukraine is only at the beginning 

of the path. In fact, there is 

not yet a single city in this country 

to have built a sufficiently large 

number of smart city elements. 

Unfortunately, most cities lack 

even basic infrastructure. For example, 

to launch one of Huawei’s 

coolest designs, the real-time city 

management center, which allows 

the mayor to have on one display 

graphic information about absolutely 

all the networks of the city 

infrastructure and spheres of its 

life so that they can react promptly, 

our cities need to digitize all 

these networks first. 

Until recently, the municipalities 

just lacked the money. The 

mayors barely made ends meet, so 

some expensive technological “tuning” 

was clearly out of question. 

But everything changed three years 

ago due to the magic word “decentralization.” 

During last year’s Cities 

Changemakers Congress, which 

was organized by the United Efforts 

Agency NGO, two cities, 

Nizhyn and Chernivtsi, signed a 

memorandum of cooperation with 

the Ukrainian representative office 

of the world leader in technological 

solutions for smart cities, the Chinese 

company Huawei.

4 

No.14 MARCH 1, 2018 

TOPIC OF THE DAY 


By Maria PROKOPENKO, photos 

by Artem SLIPACHUK, The Day 

my friend, Doctor of 

Sciences (Biology) Serhii 

Utievskyi, who fought at the 

Luhansk front in an adjacent 

“Iand 

section to mine in 2014, like 

to joke that no matter what problems 

we are facing right now, it was still 

harder near Luhansk,” Yevhen Dykyi 

optimistically started our 

conversation. He is a marine biologist 

by training, commanded a company of 

the Aidar Battalion in 2014, while on 

February 7 this year, he became acting 

director of the National Antarctic 

Scientific Center (NASC), which was 

unexpected even for Dykyi himself. 

Let us recall that the NASC is the national 

operator of Ukraine in Antarctica, 

where we own the Academician Vernadsky 

Station, formerly the British 

Faraday Station, sold for a symbolic 

one pound in 1996. Dykyi describes the 

work done there as follows: “As of the 

20th century, they worked quite well, 

but then stopped for some reason.” 

Over his first two weeks in office, the 

head of the NASC has managed to do a 

lot. For instance, Ukrainian scientists 

can now take part in the projects of the 

French Polar Institute, and soon the Academician 

Vernadsky Station will have 

permanent access to the Internet (for 

now, electronic messages can be sent 

from here once a week). Antarctica will 

also become open for women again. 

“Women worked at the Vernadsky Station 

for two first winters. Then the 

leadership of the Antarctic center 

changed, and they began to follow the 

same logic which guides people who 

force the Muslim women to wear 

chadors. They alleged that when women 

were wintering, men were quarreling 

over them, and they decided that it 

would be better to solve the problem not 

by educating men to do better, but by 

banning women from the station. However, 

why no Western station faces such 

problems?” Dykyi mused. 

Some bad traditions are hard to 

break. As we held our conversation, 

which took place on February 21, the scientist 

was still hoping to be able to hold 

a tender for supplying the station this 

season through the ProZorro system. 

The tender was at risk due to strange 

complaints from one of the participants. 

The next day, the head of the NASC posted 

on Facebook that the Antimonopoly 

Committee delayed deciding whether 

to accept the complaint as long as possible, 

and then accepted it. The appeal 

was scheduled for the latest date available, 

March 7. The NASC cannot wait so 

long, because the new shift of polar explorers 

should get in place by April, until 

the ice blocks seaways. Therefore, the 

head of the Antarctic center will have to 

negotiate with companies that can supply 

polar explorers. However, he was 

ready for such a turn of events anyway, 

and told The Day what he would do in 

this situation. Also, through our conversation 

with Dykyi, we learned how 

Antarctica was like a pulse, outer space 

and even Crimea, and how Ukraine 

could develop polar explorations despite 

limited resources. 

● “NOBODY EVER ASKED 

WHAT THE ANTARCTIC 

STATION’S RETURN ON 

INVESTMENT WAS” 

What were your first steps in office? 

How much did your mental picture 

of the state of the center differ from the 

reality? 

“In general, I understood what I 

was getting into. I think that it is worth 

it, because the Antarctic center is a national 

treasure, all its ‘bugs’ which I am 

now trying to ‘fix’ notwithstanding. 

This is to a certain extent our ticket to 

the civilized world. Space and polar exploration, 

ocean research is what distinguishes 

members of the ‘golden billion’ 

from Third World countries. If a 

country can afford such projects, and not 

only ones serving its daily needs, then it 

belongs to that part of civilization where 

we see Elon Musk. 

Ukraine in Antarctica: 

a new era 

How biologist Yevhen Dykyi will expand our polar studies 

“Given the terrible decline of 

Ukrainian science over the last 20 years, 

the fact that we have kept the Antarctic 

station and the polar direction of research 

alive is one of the claws with 

which we are clinging to the ‘golden billion.’ 

For me, it is a matter of honor to 

make sure that we look properly there. 

This is not so right now. 

“The main achievement of my predecessors, 

and for this they should be honored 

and praised, is preserving the station 

despite the war and financial crises. 

The station has never stopped working 

even for one day, it is in normal condition, 

it is regularly repaired. In our 

conditions, this is a great achievement. 

It is another matter that since the NASC 

was not managed by scientists, nobody 

ever asked what the Antarctic station’s 

return on investment was. 

“My center’s budget for this year is 

2 million euros, or 72 million hryvnias. 

For our Western colleagues, it is nothing. 

For example, the similar French institution 

has an annual budget of 

280 million euros. However, all Ukrainian 

science got 200 million euros in 

2018, that is, we received 1 percent of 

this amount. We need to show something 

for this money. All this is measurable. 

One can calculate the index of citation of 

scientific works for a country or an institution 

according to databases, for 

example, Scopus. We did it. The result 

left us a little sad. We cannot compete 

with the US or Britain, as funding 

amounts are just so much higher there. 

But according to economic indicators, we 

should be at the same level with Poland 

and ahead of, say, the Czech Republic, 

which came to Antarctica 10 years ago. 

We have worked there for 22 years, if the 

Soviet period is excluded. And still, we 

are about 50th in the world on Antarctic 

research. There are about 30 countries 

that have polar stations. That is, we 

have been overtaken by a number of 

countries that do not have their own 

Antarctic stations, but only occasionally 

visit there, but they do it competently. 

“We are now on a par with Turkey. 

It, of course, is not the least important 

country in the world, but it entered 

Antarctica only two years ago. 

“If you come to visit me a year later, 

I will not be able to show you numbers 

that will be strikingly different. This 

cannot be corrected in such a short time. 

But we need to use this year to establish 

a system in which everything will gradually 

increase.” 

● “THERE WILL BE PROPER 

INTERNET ACCESS IN THE 

VERNADSKY STATION 

STARTING WITH THIS 

SHIFT” 

That is, we were essentially mere 

caretakers at the Academician Vernadsky 

Station? 

“Exactly. The center adequately fulfilled 

the functions of caretaking and logistics. 

But at the same time, they forgot 

what this logistics was for. To a certain 

extent, it turned into scientific 

tourism. 

“My key complaint against my predecessors 

is that the center has always 

been a very closed structure. Those 

who had a good relationship with the 

center got to travel to Antarctica, regardless 

of whether they obtained any 

results. Those unable to establish a 

working relationship with the center 

were just out of luck. I was in the latter 

category. I was on the blacklist here for 

a time. I was trying to get to Antarctica 

through the center for more than ten 

years. If someone told me earlier that I 

would get into the director’s office 

first, and only then to Antarctica, I 

would have laughed a lot. 

“The selection of participants for 

every polar expedition was quite a random 

process. No, not just charlatans got 

in. Some really excellent experts got in 

along with riff-raff. However, the main 

criterion was reaching an agreement 

with the management of the center. 

“We will change it fundamentally. 

In particular, we are changing the composition 

of the Antarctic Science and 

Technology Council (STC), which is responsible 

for the whole program of scientific 

research in the Antarctic. And 

I am prepared to have no pliant science 

and technology council. We conducted 

a scientific metric analysis and selected 

Ukrainian scientists with the highest 

Hirsch indexes on polar subjects. All 

of them are now invited to the Antarctic 

STC.” 

What else do you plan to change in 

the near future? 

“Some things just terrified me on 

getting here. One can go to the websites 

of Antarctic institutions from various 

countries, and there one will see, for example, 

video blogs of polar explorers who 

are blogging from stations themselves. 

The websites of the French Dumont 

d’Urville Station or the American Mc- 

Murdo Station offer webcam video feeds, 

allowing one to see what is happening at 

the station right now. 

“By the way of comparison: the 

Academician Vernadsky Station has, in 

2018, text messages being sent by e- 

mail to the station once a week on 

Wednesdays, and from the station once 

a week on Fridays. There is a satellite Internet 

connection, which was installed 

back in the 1990s when it cost 7.5 dollars 

per megabyte. It turns out that nobody 

was looking for alternatives afterwards. 

I just did a regular Google 

search and it turned out that the 

Antarctic had changed a little over the 

years, there are currently about 

20 satellite providers operating there, 

and prices are competitive. I think 

there will be proper internet access 

there starting with this shift, and after 

a couple of months, you will be able to 

get in touch in writing at least with each 

of the polar explorers, to see their 

blogs. It may seem to be a small detail, 

but that is what distinguishes the 20th 

century from the 21st.” 

● “IN THE ANTARCTIC LIKE IN 

CRIMEA, THE YEAR IS SPLIT 

INTO HIGH SEASON AND 

THE REST” 

You have also told reporters that 

you want to extend the shift overlap period 

in Antarctica. Why is this important? 

“If possible, this shift overlap period 

should last not three days, but at least 

a decade. Then it will be worth taking 

there a few more people who will have 

time to take samples for their research. 

“Work in the Antarctic is divided into 

two parts: the wintering period and 

the high season. The wintering period is 

when 12 people spend there all year 

round, and then they are replaced by another 

shift. In the season, a random 

number of people arrive, over 30 at the 

peak, and 10 to 12 more commonly, 

they spend there a month or two, this is 

done in summer. 

“Life in the Antarctic resembles 

that in Crimea. Year is clearly split into 

high season and the rest. In those three 

ice-free months of the Antarctic summer, 

there are a lot of people there with 

tourist liners coming in. For instance, 

the Academician Vernadsky Station has 

up to 4,000 visitors every season, since 

it is one of the oldest in Antarctica, having 

been built in 1947. This is really like 

in Crimea. And for the remaining nine 

months, again, like in Crimea, there is 

no activity there, because they are cut off 

by ice and have no access. Our 12 winterers 

do not see anyone except each other 

at this time, and this, I think, is the 

pinnacle of heroism – to spend nine 

months in complete isolation. 

“Wintering is important, but not so 

much from a scientific point of view, as 

it is primarily needed to maintain the 

station. It cannot be abandoned for 

nine months, because everything will 

freeze and perish then. Six people out 

of the dozen are technical staff members 

who support the activities of the station. 

The rest are scientists. But little 

research can be done in the dead of polar 

night. First of all, scheduled observations 

are conducted, those that began 

in 1947, in the 1960s. They may not be 

interrupted. These are climate observations 

and monitoring of the ozone layer. 

By the way, Ukraine has added a bit 

to these observations. We have biologists 

wintering there as well, so now we 

see penguins not only in the summer 

when it is warm and nice, we can observe 

them surviving throughout the 

year as well. 

“The high season is different. During 

it, a lot of people can come and everyone 

follows their own program. Geologists, 

magnetometrists, biologists. This 

is a very important period. Our season 

has almost disappeared recently due to 

problems with logistics. People come to 

the shift overlap period, winterers get 

replaced in five days, and one would do 

well to take samples over that time. But 

this is not how things should be done. 

And it affects the wintering period as 

well. One cannot teach a novice in five 

days. Thus, we have seen mostly people 

who have already wintered in Antarctica 

going there in recent years. There are 

about 180 old winterers in Ukraine, 

and we just reshuffle them. So, one of 

my tasks is to renew the so-called long 

season.” 

If I understand you correctly, it is 

hampered by logistics now, isn’t it? After 

all, if it is so complicated, it is difficult 

to talk about the extension of the 

shift overlap period. 

“It has turned out that in the Ukrainian 

conditions, 45 million hryvnias is a 

lot of money. Most of this amount will 

have to be spent on food, 140 tons of fuel, 

and hiring a ship to get people and 

goods to the station. The firm will be able 

to earn somewhere around 300,000 euros. 

Still, we have seen people competing 

for this tender with tooth and claw, including 

by non-conventional methods as 

well. Last year, they stopped ProZorro 

procurement procedures three times, 

and then the deal was done using the absolutely 

non-transparent negotiation 

procedure. This year, they are making 

every effort to force me to do the same.


TOPIC OF THE DAY No.14 MARCH 1, 2018 5 

“However our tender battles end, the 

ice will form in April. Water will freeze 

there. And the ProZorro system which 

I respect is still poorly protected against 

unfair complaints. Then the Antimonopoly 

Committee rejects these complaints, 

but they do delay the process. 

“There are three bidders in this 

competition. All of them have some 

troubles with documentation, but all 

three really exist and have experience of 

doing such logistics. One of them did it 

in a non-transparent manner, but they 

still fulfilled the contract last year. For 

some reason, people believe that if I enter 

the negotiation procedure, then the 

contract will go precisely to the same 

company that won it last year. I do not 

really want to enter the negotiation 

procedure, but if that happens, people’s 

fears will not come true. The three 

companies that bid via the ProZorro 

system will be invited to negotiate, and 

the negotiations will be held in the presence 

of journalists. 

“I am already feeling some pressure, 

but I am calm about it. We live in 

a country where corruption has not yet 

been overcome, but everyone must do 

everything to overcome it where they 

stand.” 

How much time is left to complete 

the transaction? 

“We must set off no later than the 

last days of March, but one cannot set off 

on the day of signing the agreement. I 

have about two weeks to complete it. We 

will manage. I will try to complete the negotiations 

in a week.” 

“We cannot afford to build a research 

fleet now. Technologically, incidentally, 

we are still capable of it. The entire 

polar program of the People’s Republic 

of China – and it is a very ambitious 

one, they already have three stations 

in the Antarctic and will soon 

have the fourth, and one station in the 

Arctic – has its logistics provided by one 

icebreaker Xuelong (Snow Dragon). This 

Snow Dragon was built in Kherson and 

sold by Ukraine for pennies in 1993. But 

in fact, it is fortunate that she was sold 

to the Chinese for pennies because she is 

still alive and working for science. 

“But let us go back to our fleet. 

From time to time, rich countries replace 

old ships with new ones. And their old 

ships, from our point of view, are still 

very good, they would still serve for 

20 years. In particular, two ships of the 

British Antarctic Service will be retired 

in 2019. And since this structure has a 

good history of relations with us, there 

is a chance to successfully beg for one of 

these ships. If that fails, Australia will 

replace one icebreaker with a more modern 

one in 2020. We must look for other 

possibilities. 

“Acquiring an Antarctic-capable 

ship will fundamentally change many 

things, for example, logistics. We will no 

longer depend on who wins the tender 

and will charter a ship. And the main 

thing, it will increase our scientific capabilities. 

Now we are tied to Galindez 

Island, where our station is located, 

and the nearest stretch of the coast. In 

for international cooperation. On the 

other hand, this limits our opportunities, 

because some things can be studied only 

in much colder latitudes or deep inside 

the continent. 

“We need to move forward. We will 

not afford this ourselves, it is just too expensive, 

but the age of bi-, tri- and multi-lateral 

stations has come to Antarctica. 

The most striking example is Concordia, 

an Italian-French station. I see 

our path to higher latitudes in this. I see 

us preserving the Vernadsky Station 

and building, say, two stations in cooperation 

with two or three other countries 

as a realistic option. It can be done in the 

next 10 to 15 years.” 

● “I AND MY COLLEAGUES 

ORGANIZED THE FIRST 

UKRAINIAN ARCTIC 

EXPEDITION ON OUR OWN” 

Do you have any ideas with whom 

such cooperation could be established? 

“Yes, I have some preliminary ideas. 

A Lithuanian Antarctic expedition will 

come to us for the first time next season. 

And just as the Lithuanian-Polish- 

Ukrainian peacekeeping brigade is currently 

a remarkable example of international 

cooperation, a Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian 

Antarctic station could do 

just as well as an example of cooperation. 

“In general, I want to rename the 

NASC to the Center for Polar Research. 

Few countries can afford to split Arctic 

and the second at a Norwegian facility in 

the Svalbard Archipelago, which we 

know better as Spitsbergen. I and my colleagues 

organized the first Ukrainian 

Arctic expedition on our own in 2009. It 

worked at the Polish Hornsund Station 

in the Svalbard Archipelago. 

“There is one more way for us to enter 

the Arctic. My first working day in 

the office of the head of the NASC ended 

with a Skype conference with the 

Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada Andrii 

Shevchenko. Canada has a dozen Arctic 

stations, but they do not have one in the 

Antarctic. Our situation is the opposite. 

That is why cooperation seems to be 

promising. I think that we will sign an 

agreement with the Canadians this summer. 

To begin with, it will deal with exchanges 

so that our scientists will be able 

to work at Canadian Arctic stations and 

vice versa. It can develop further afterwards.” 

● ABOUT TENSIONS NEAR 

THE POLES 

Let us return to the Antarctic. In 

one of your earlier comments, you mentioned 

that keeping presence there was 

also important because access to its 

fossil resources would eventually be 

opened. 

“The present system of agreements 

on the Antarctic will remain in force till 

2048. It is not known if it will be extended. 

If I had to bet on it, I think I 

would bet two to one that it will be ex- 

Kingdom of Denmark, has not one Arctic 

base which would be purely scientific 

in purpose, as they are all officially 

naval ones. 

“The Antarctic is protected so far by 

a system of international treaties, and it 

is like space, a common domain of humanity 

for now. But as soon as this system 

of treaties expires, a struggle will begin 

to determine who and how will extract 

something there. Incidentally, if 

this were to happen today, no Ukrainian 

company would be able to compete with 

Western companies for extracting anything 

there. However, Ukraine had 

enormous geological exploration experience, 

particularly on the sea shelf, so 

potentially we are one of the players. 

“We fish a little in the Antarctic 

these days. Incidentally, the Ukrainian 

Soviet Socialist Republic, if listed separately 

from the Soviet Union, was 

among the Top 10 fishing nations in the 

world. Today we are not even in the 

Top 50, but in the Antarctic, our positions 

have been preserved a bit. There is 

krill trawler More Spivdruzhnosti working 

there. Previously, she was registered 

in Sevastopol, but after the occupation 

of Crimea she re-registered in Kyiv. By 

size, she is the second-largest krill 

trawler in the world. She was built back 

in the Soviet time, when they loved big 

things. There are also three small Chinese-built 

longline vessels that catch 

tasty and scarce toothfish. 

“Nobody prevents us from increasing 

catches. Any Ukrainian businessman 

● “THE ENTIRE POLAR 

PROGRAM OF CHINA RELIES 

ON AN ICEBREAKER WHICH 

WAS BUILT IN KHERSON” 

You have said that the NASC received 

about the two million euros 

this year. How far will you get with 

this money? 

“This year, they have allocated money 

for capital spending for the first 

time in many years, and this is not my 

achievement. That is, it will not go to 

fund current repairs, but capital ones. 

There is a bit of money for the purchase 

of scientific equipment as well. 

“Looking two steps forward, when 

we have overcome the current problems, 

then, firstly, we will need a ship. 

The history of our station is closely 

connected with the history of the research 

fleet of Ukraine. The British 

sold their station for one pound, that is, 

they gave it away. There were many nations 

willing to accept that gift. But 

Ukraine demonstrated that on gaining 

independence, we got 36 ships from the 

Soviet research fleet. That is, we were 

able to provide both the logistics of the 

station and the research in the polar seas 

with our fleet. It was on this basis that 

we were chosen as winners. 

“Over these 22 years, we have preserved 

the station, but the fate of the 

fleet...” 

Only one ship out of those 36 is now 

in repairable condition. 

“Yes. I hope that Ostap Semerak 

[Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources. 

– Author] will be as good as his 

word. He promised to allocate money for 

the repair of this ship this year. But it is 

still unsuitable for the Antarctic, it can 

only do research in the Black Sea. It has 

one engine, while one needs a ship with 

two main engines to go to the Antarctic. 

“We have no Antarctic-capable ships 

left. The last one was Ernst Krenkel, 

which got scrapped in 2006.” 

How did it happen that the scientific 

fleet was essentially destroyed? Did 

they not allocate funds for its maintenance? 

“Exactly. And when a ship does not 

sail and gets no repairs, she starts to 

rust. After a while, it makes no sense to 

invest in her, so it is easier to sell her as 

scrap. 

“Some ships of our fleet have been 

stolen. They were hired out to dubious 

companies, and then arrested in thirdparty 

ports over debts of these companies 

that were charterers, not owners, and 

sold at auction. 

KYIV, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF UKRAINE, FEBRUARY 2016. A BOY EXAMINES THE “ACADEMICIAN VERNADSKY” MOCKUP. YEVHEN DYKYI 

ASSERTS: “THE LOCATION OF OUR STATION IS SOMEWHAT UNIQUE AND VALUABLE. WE ARE ON THE VERY FRONTLINE OF CLIMATIC CHANGES” 

general, we are tied to land, because we 

work at sea only near the coast, with 

scubas or from small motor boats. We do 

not work in the ocean. If we get a ship, 

we will have another direction added as 

we will start to work on the Southern 

Ocean.” 

Until we have a research fleet, how 

can research be expanded? 

“Ukraine benefits from the location 

of our station. It is somewhat unique 

and valuable. We are not located in the 

high Antarctic. Sixty-five degrees south 

is above the Antarctic Circle, we are on 

the very frontline of climatic changes. In 

our station’s neighborhood, glaciers are 

melting very fast, we are on the edge of 

the ozone hole, as its edges are pulsating, 

and we are below it for some years, and 

then below protected atmosphere for 

others. This provides great opportunities 

and Antarctic research. We do no research 

in the Arctic. It is wrong. 

“Why do we need to do polar research 

at all? When a physician examines 

a patient, first of all they take the pulse. 

And this can be done on the arm and 

neck. The polar regions are two pulse areas 

of our planet. There, a number of 

processes that affect the entire planet, 

including Ukraine, can be measured 

much faster, more precisely and even 

cheaper. These include changes of climate, 

the magnetosphere, the upper 

layers of the atmosphere and the near 

space. 

“Comparative studies in the Arctic 

and the Antarctic are very productive. 

Some Ukrainian scientists are determined 

to do so even now. Kharkiv radio 

astronomers have one antenna installed 

at the Academician Vernadsky Station, 

tended for another 50 years. We will see 

how it will turn out. According to the 

Antarctic Treaty presently in force, only 

fishing and krill harvesting are allowed, 

while extraction of mineral resources 

is prohibited. If the treaty does 

not get extended, a great fight for the 

Antarctic will begin, like that we are already 

seeing starting in the Arctic. 

“Yes, the Arctic is becoming one of 

the internationally tense regions. Russia 

tries to reserve a considerable part of 

the region for itself and makes stupid 

symbolic gestures, such as placing a 

Russian flag on the seafloor on the 

North Pole. Other Arctic countries are 

increasing their military presence as 

well. Canada, for example, is concerned 

about Russia’s actions and has begun a 

serious program for the defense of the 

Arctic. Greenland, which belongs to the 

has the right to buy a ship and extract 

living resources in the Antarctic within 

the overall quota set by the Scientific 

Committee for the Conservation of 

Antarctic Living Resources.” 

Do you already know when you 

will be able to get to Antarctica? 

“Hopefully, it will happen in the end 

of March or early April. I will formally 

go there as director of the Antarctic Center 

to take possession of the property. In 

particular, I have to make an inventory 

of the station. But I am a biologist, after 

all. All scientists are crazy, so now I 

am already designing a short microbiology 

program for myself. I hope to 

grab some microbiological samples there 

and process them in Ukraine. 

“Overall, this center is the most serious 

commission I have received from 

the nation to date.”

6 

No.14 MARCH 1, 2018 

CULT URE 


By Vasyl ILNYTSKYI, Uzhhorod 

Talented Ukrainian artist, architect, 

graphic artist, and painter, corresponding 

member of the National 

Academy of Arts of Ukraine, People’s 

Artist of Ukraine, Associate Professor 

of the Transcarpathian Academy of Arts, 

head of the Transcarpathian branch of the 

National Union of Artists (NUA) of Ukraine, 

laureate of the Bokshai-Erdeli Regional Art 

Prize, participant of all-Ukrainian and 

international art exhibitions Borys KUZMA 

celebrated his 60th anniversary on 

February 22. I talked with this highly 

talented artist about architecture, painting, 

and life in an artistic family. 

● “EVERY FIRST-YEAR 

STUDENT WAS 

‘ALLOCATED’ A BUILDING 

IN RYNOK SQUARE” 

Mr. Kuzma, when did you realize that 

out of thousands of career paths, it was fine 

arts alone that was yours? 

“I was born to a teachers’ family, as both 

my father and my mother worked for almost 

all of their lives at the eight-year school of the 

village of Verkhnii Koropets in the 

Mukacheve raion. My father was a teacher of 

the Ukrainian language, and my mother 

taught biology. When I was still at school, I 

did not envision becoming an artist yet, although 

I had an interest in painting. 

“When attending grades 7-8, I really 

loved the works of Fenimore Cooper, his Indian 

characters, whom I enthusiastically 

copied with pencil. I did it preserving the scale 

and true ratios. My parents noticed that and 

brought me to the night art school in 

Mukacheve. I came to attend it twice a week. 

I also took music lessons at the time. I had a 

very good music teacher, but he fell victim of 

political repression at some point in 1967 or 

1968... 

“In high school, I was fascinated by architecture: 

I read the magazine Ogonyok, from 

which I drew information on contemporary architectural 

projects being built in Moscow, 

New York, and other major cities of the 

world. Under this influence, I began to draw 

houses and other structures myself. My parents 

asked: ‘Do you want to be an architect, 

maybe?’ In order to get acquainted with that 

profession, they brought me to Uzhhorod, to 

the DIPROMISTO design organization’s office. 

There I saw huge drawings, was very impressed 

by them, and was fired up with a desire 

to study and become an architect. The 

family began to discuss where I should go to 

“Vasyl Slipak Park is sure to be!” 

An action 

group 

of actors and 

some Kyiv city 

councilors are 

convinced of 

it. But what is 

standing in 

the way? 

Between the easel and the... drawing board 

study, because there were less than two 

months left until the admissions process was 

to start... 

“Lviv Polytechnic Institute was the most 

promising destination, but one needed solid 

knowledge to get there, so they started looking 

for a tutor. Our relative, my mother’s 

cousin, artist Mykhailo Mytryk volunteered 

to act as one. He literally led me by hand to the 

Uzhhorod Palace of Pioneers, where we took 

two plaster heads... He showed me the basics 

of drawing, told about the light and shadow, 

the tones and halftones, the composition, the 

perspective and ordered me to work... My efforts 

were not in vain, as I entered Lviv 

Polytechnic on the first attempt, although the 

competition for places was quite high in 

1975. 

“I studied under renowned professors 

who had seen the world’s architectural masterpieces 

firsthand, such as Professor Roman 

Lypka who lectured on the history of architecture 

and Professor Viktor Kravtsov who 

taught architectural design. In practice, it was 

the latter teacher who made me into an architect. 

“The Institute had an actively working 

student design bureau. There, students did 

drawings, revised some of them, tried their 

hands at the craft and... earned their first 

money. The friendly atmosphere that prevailed 

there, the spirit of creativity, communication 

with colleagues – all that became 

a great professional school. There I began to 

paint in parallel, because many architects 

were painting, as it was felt to be stylish.” 

What impression was the architecture 

of Lviv, its artistic life making on you? 

By Mykola HRYTSENKO 

The Day has more than once written 

about Vasyl Slipak, Hero of Ukraine, soloist 

at the Paris National Opera, volunteer, participant 

in the hostilities in eastern Ukraine 

(nom de guerre “Myth”), who was killed in action 

near Luhanske. 

A year ago Ukrainian volunteer musicians, 

members of the NGO “Music Battalion,” 

suggested laying out Vasyl Slipak Culture 

and Art Park in Kyiv. This park is to be 

a place of cultural and artistic recreation for 

Kyivites and numerous guests of our capital, 

where Ukrainian musicians will perform 

their best numbers. 

Everybody, including the Kyiv authorities, 

seemed to favor this idea. But now, a few 

months on, the initiators begin to come 

across obstacles, which clearly reflects the 

commercial interest of some unknown 

builders, – the small area on Andriivskyi 

Uzviz proved to be a very tasty morsel. And 

although the Kyiv City Council’s land commission 

has supported the initiative to assign 

land for laying out the park, its ecological 

commission has shelved the idea. 

Borys Kuzma discusses his path to art 

and the Transcarpathian school 

A MARKET IN FLORENCE 

so came from the work of senior year student, 

now renowned artist Ihor Panchyshyn from 

the Ivano-Frankivsk region. We came together 

and felt the spirit of freedom as we 

were discussing films of Andrei Tarkovsky, 

which it was semi-legal to watch at the time, 

Serhii VASYLIUK, front man 

of the band “Tin’ Sontsia”: 

“Vasyl Slipak showed by his example an 

incredible will of Ukrainians to defend 

their native land. As a volunteer fighter, he 

demonstrated an example of patriotism and 

self-sacrifice to many, particularly our 

young people. The Vasyl Slipak Art Park in 

Kyiv can become a rallying center for 

Ukrainian artists.” 

Viktor KRYVENKO, member 

of the Ukrainian Parliament: 

“It is not a political initiative. So it was 

easy for me to collect signatures of 123 MPs 

from different factions of the Verkhovna Rada 

of Ukraine in its support. Still more were 

ready to sign, but it is more than enough to 

show mass-scale support from the parliamentary 

corps. Some are asking: why did they 

decide to lay out Vasyl Slipak Park in precisely 

this place? Because the art community made 

this decision! It is by far the best and most colorful 

place the personality of a prominent 

opera singer deserves. Moreover, Ukrainian 

songs and music will sound more harmoniously 

in the cozy atmosphere of Andriivskyi 

Uzviz. This is the function the art park is supposed 

to perform.” 

Yurii SYROTIUK, member 

of the Kyiv City Council: 

“Unfortunately, land questions are too 

much associated with corruption. Yet as far 

back as last October, leaders of all the Kyiv 

Council factions promised to support this initiative. 

It was decided that the public utility 

organization Kyivzelenbud would draw up 

and submit a decision for a discussion. But it 

drew up no documents at all about Vasyl Slipak 

Park. As a councilor, I had to move a draft 

decision by myself and put it through all the 

commissions. 

“Every first-year student was ‘allocated’ 

a building in Rynok Square and studied it: 

measured it, did research on its state of preservation, 

and drew ratio models. Then we had watercolor 

practice lessons. They took us to the 

suburbs of Briukhovychi and Vynnyky, we 

painted the historic quarters of Lviv, and did 

geodetic practice lessons in the Ternopil oblast. 

Studying was very interesting! 

“It was in Lviv that I first visited artistic 

exhibitions. An exhibition of Akop Akopian 

made a great impression on me; he was a 

famous artist whose work I was fascinated 

with. It featured a graphic painting style, a 

restrained color scheme, and very elegant 

works. Many of my first paintings were 

made under his influence. Some influence aland 

taking a lively part in creative discussions. 

All this left an indelible mark on our 

minds and souls. I came to Uzhhorod with this 

stock of knowledge.” 

How about your job? 

“I transferred to the Koopproect firm of 

the Transcarpathian Oblast Consumer Union 

in 1982. We designed restaurants, cafes, 

shops. Then Vasyl Hisem, who led the PMK- 

96 firm, poached me to his advertising center. 

Vasyl Svaliavchyk, Vasyl Hanhur, Taras 

Danylych, and other current celebrities were 

already working there when I came. I and 

Sasha Pazukhanych started making designs 

for each individual object, there were interesting 

ideas, original ads. I then made my first 

ad on the glass. Subsequently, I joined Dany- 

lych and Yurii Dykun in the Donetsk oblast 

where we decorated a large object in Transcarpathian 

style in the village of Kabania near 

the oblast center: we made signage, hammering 

work, and monumental paintings 

there. All this has left vivid memories.” 

“The ecological commission did not approve 

this project because the Land Resources 

Department had raised some objections. 

Accordingly, the ecological commission 

shelved the draft decision – it 

was not discussed. But when I went to the 

land commission, it unanimously supported 

the project, albeit tentatively, under 

pressure. For I said that Slipak Park 

was sure to be set up, and any attempts to 

resist will only tarnish the reputation of 

those who will be doing so. 

“The key complaint about the project 

is that we want to lay out a park on the plot 

of land that is supposed to be built over. So, 

the city authorities must change the purpose 

of a few hundred square meters of land 

and write down that it is a recreational 

ground. I think it will be to the benefit of 

Kyiv if at least a small plot of land on Andriivskyi 

Uzviz becomes a park, rather than 

another highrise.” 

Dmytro PAVLYCHKO, writer, 

Hero of Ukraine: 

“I am a conscientious member of the 

community that initiated laying out Vasyl 

Slipak Park in this place of Kyiv. We 

must struggle for this sacred cause – 

struggle all together: the public, artists, 

MPs and councilors, politicians, writers, 

and journalists.” 

*** 

An electronic petition has been registered 

on the Kyiv City Council website 

in support of laying out Vasyl Slipak 

Culture and Art Park in downtown Kyiv. 

As we were going to press, over 900 people 

had signed it. A total 10,000 signatures 

are needed. The collection of signatures 

began on February 6 and will continue 

for 70 days more. 

● “WE HAVE ALREADY MADE 

SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS” 

When did your final drift from the 

drawing board to the easel start? 

“In the mid-1980s, I realized that it was 

time to publicly display my artworks. I got 

a lot of them at that time. I had my first exhibition 

in the Forum club cafe of creative 

youth in Uzhhorod in 1984. Its organizer was 

Vadym Kovach, who took care of talented 

youth for the Young Communist League. 

Then the authorities feared freethinkers in 

all spheres, and even more so in the arts, 

therefore, Kovach’s help was very timely. It 

made many different impressions. I recall the 

words of Ernest Kontratovych who visited 

the exhibition. He liked two of my watercolors, 

one of which I keep to this day. He 

said that they were very interesting works. 

My first plein airs started then as well. I traveled 

to Synevyr with Kontratovych, Ivan 

Ilko, and Semen Malchytskyi. At the same 

time, a few young artists began to form into 

a group: Taras Usyk, Volodymyr Bazan, 

Volodymyr Pavlyshyn. We began to gather 

more frequently in the open air, discussed 

creative ideas, and shaped our visions. 

“In 1989, the chief architect of Uzhhorod 

Mykhailo Tomchanii invited me to serve as his 

deputy, I agreed and somewhat disengaged 

from painting. There were many orders for 

private structures. I was fascinated by this 

work, participated in the development of 

detailed planning for the historic central 

quarter of Uzhhorod. 

“I joined the Transcarpathian branch of 

the NUA of Ukraine, which was then headed 

by Volodymyr Mykyta, and was elected 

chairman of the regional branch of that 

union in 1999. The first three years were difficult: 

constant inspections, salary arrears, 

and a lack of orders... The most important 

objective was to preserve the team and traditions, 

because we, in fact, are rich because 

we perceive each artist as a creative individual... 

“Our team is strong and powerful. We 

have already made significant progress, there 

have been achievements. Constant participation 

in exhibitions, trips abroad, extensive 

experience of our masters which we have inherited... 

But there are many mercantile 

things related to everyday life. This generates 

a lot of problems, and I see that people have 

started to communicate less over the last two 

or three years, there is no openness. It is good 

that the youth association of artists works at 

the union. Creative communication with 

young people supplies us with energy, ideas, 

and designs. Today, the world is completely 

different, and art must reflect the realities of 

the present.” 

What are the prospects of the Transcarpathian 

school of painting when taking 

into account modern trends? 

“I believe that any school cannot but notice 

what is happening next to it. We live in 

the real world and must respond to challenges. 

Moreover, the changes take place 

very quickly. We change our way of life, its 

conditions, and sometimes its meaning. For 

me, the Transcarpathian school of painting 

is the source that should be constantly full. 

Each pebble is a fragment of the general picture. 

The school is formed through contests, 

exhibitions, plein airs, and communication.” 

● “A PERMANENT SEARCH 

FOR THE IDEAL MAKES 

FOR DISCUSSIONS AND 

DISPUTES” 

Your wife Viktoria is also an artist. 

How are creative personalities getting along 

under a shared roof? Is your son Borys fond 

of drawing? 

“It is not that easy to share a home environment 

with a talented person who seeks 

to improve themselves and move towards a 

specific purpose. A permanent search for the 

ideal makes for discussions and disputes. 

Each of us has their own vision of the role 

of art in human life. Sometimes this leads to 

misunderstandings, but in the end, common 

sense always prevails. In spite of everything, 

I value my wife’s independence and her 

right to hold opinions of her own, because 

the art is only interesting when it is unique 

and personal. Her presence by my side in the 

studio always inspires me to look for new discoveries 

and finds. Our son Borys is always 

present in this creative space, and, undoubtedly, 

he is becoming filled with art. He 

is also an active, inquisitive child who often 

imitates his parents. We hold a great hope 

that he will grow into a good person, a true 

man who will never be indifferent to art.”


CULT URE No.14 MARCH 1, 2018 7 

By Dmytro DESIATERYK, The Day, 

Berlin – Kyiv 

Created with the support of the 

Ukrainian State Film Agency 

and with the participation of 

Poland and Macedonia, the 

feature-length debut film by 

Marysia Nikitiuk was entered in the 

festival’s Panorama competition 

program. The premiere was held at 

the Cinemaxx cinema. 

The story of the five-year-old rebel 

Vitka, her teenaged cousin Larysa and 

the latter’s lover, a young hoodlum 

called Scar, unfolds in the Ukrainian 

sticks. After the death of her father, 

Larysa faces the need to urgently do 

something about her future; she wants 

to escape from the provincial swamp, 

but Scar has different ideas about it... 

Marysia Nikitiuk (born in Kyiv in 

1986) is a Ukrainian scriptwriter and 

director. She graduated from 

Shevchenko National University of 

Kyiv’s Institute of Journalism in 2007. 

Nikitiuk went on to receive a master’s 

degree in theater studies at Karpenko- 

Kary National University of Theater, 

Cinema, and Television in Kyiv, with 

her graduation work dealing with traditional 

and contemporary Japanese 

theater. She worked as a journalist, essayist, 

theater critic, authored a series 

of stories published in the literary almanac 

Sviaty Volodymyr, as well as 

plays Dachas, Bears for Masha and 

Girlie Joys, which were presented via 

public readings within the framework 

of the Laboratory of Modern Drama 

project and during the Week of the Actual 

Play festival in Kyiv, which she cofounded. 

Bears for Masha placed first 

at the Drama.ua contest in Lviv in 

2010. She also penned short stories Die: 

A Story of Love; Kawasaki Ninja; Libraries 

of Unwritten Books; Myth; 

Bitches, as well as founded the theatrical 

portal Teatre.com.ua, where 

she wrote about the Ukrainian and international 

theater from 2007-12. Nikitiuk 

participated in the film project 

Ukraine, Goodbye! Films that she made 

scripts for were entered in international 

festivals in Locarno and Clermont-Ferrand. 

When the Trees Fall became the 

first Ukrainian feature film in the 

Panorama contest in many years. We 

met the director the day after the 

Berlin premiere. 

What did the work on the film begin 

with? 

“My childhood memories. One situation 

became the proximate cause. At 

some point in 2012, I was going home 

from the Odesa Film Festival with a 

friend of mine. I was telling him a story 

from my childhood and I accidentally 

started adding items that had not been 

there. And at the end of the trip, it was 

already a narrative sitting on the border 

of truth and fabrication. 

On returning, I 

realized that now I 

could write it down. 

But the first impetus 

was to explain my own 

traumatic reactions to 

this world through the 

story of my young 

self.” 

How did you come 

to filmmaking in general? 

“Indirectly... I 

have had no proper 

training as a director, 

and I have not had 

teachers in the classical 

sense either, as they 

have been rather mentors; 

for example, I 

met them in Vlad 

Troitskyi’s theater and 

drama milieu called the 

Laboratory of Modern 

Drama; then we joined 

Volodymyr Tykhyi in 

writing scripts for the 

project Ukraine, Goodbye! 

I became friends 

with Volodymyr 

Voitenko there. He motivated 

me to start 

Marysia NIKITIUK: 

“I want to say something about 

humanity with every story I tell” 

The world 

premiere of the 

Ukrainian film 

When the Trees 

Fall was held at 

the 68th Berlin 

International 

Film Festival 

making films because I was always 

saying that other films were not done 

as I would have liked them to be, so he 

told me: ‘It will always be like that, so 

you better go and make it yourself.’ He 

provided me with films and books. I 

went to scriptwriting and directorial 

workshops. 

“And in the aesthetic sense, I am 

very close to Lars von Trier, I have 

fallen in love with the films of Bela 

Tarr [a leading Hungarian director. – 

Author], Roy Andersson [a well-known 

Swedish director. – Author], and 

Hayao Miyazaki [an illustrious Japanese 

animator. – Author]. I watched 

their works through and through to 

try and get ‘how is it done.’ So they are 

also my teachers.” 

What impression did the invitation 

to Berlin make on you? 

“I was astounded. I really wanted to 

go to Berlin. I applied to the festival’s 

talent campus for four consecutive 

years, and they finally accepted me this 

year, and then suddenly accepted my 

entry for the Panorama program as 

well. Out of all the festivals I visited 

two years ago, Berlin impressed me the 

most. There are many strange films 

here, a lot of different activities revolving 

around the film art. We got the 

message on Christmas Day, and I took 

it as a gift for the holiday.” 

What makes for a good script? 

“First of all, you need a certain 

stock of emotional ups and downs. I am 

an emotional person myself, and it affects 

me most... A character can reveal 

themselves both negatively and positively; 

here he is a scumbag, and suddenly 

he performs a powerful humanist 

act. When I hear or read such stories, 

I immediately think how they 

can be developed. Also, it is very important 

for me to tell something about 

humanity in the plot. That is, on the 

one hand, it is about emotions, and on 

the other, about scientific interest.” 

Why is scientific? 

“I read a lot of works on astrophysics, 

neurobiology, and anthropol- 

ogy. Unfortunately, I cannot do any of 

it professionally, but I am very interested 

in it. One way or another, all the 

sciences tell about people. Just now, I 

am reading an anthropological treatise 

and discovering for myself why people 

behave like they do, who we are, what 

we do with the planet, with ourselves. 

This intersection of my hobby and emotionality 

leads to the fact that I want to 

tell something new about a character, 

something that I learned from experience 

or from books. I have even ideas 

for sci-fi movies. If only I had the 

funding...” 

The first people you meet on the set 

are the actors. How do you work with 

them? 

“I am not really dictatorial, but 

when something goes wrong, I can 

switch to the fury mode. I allow them 

to improvise, I had very lively remarks 

because I worked in a documentary 

theater, staged a play with Natalka 

Vorozhbyt. On the other hand, I was 

fearful when I had to deal with so 

many performers, so we rehearsed a lot 

and went through the text again and 

again, and the theatrical director 

helped in this as well on his own. Another 

challenge is to bring actors of different 

generations to one level of existence, 

since, for example, every old 

artist has their own theater, where 

they have played for 25 years, while the 

young ones had different teachers, 

and this also leaves its mark. I said on 

the set: ‘You can move words about, or 

add new ones, as long as the message 

stays intact.’ Sincerity has been preserved.” 

Now that you have finally looked 

at the final version, what is your picture 

about? 

“Still, it is about the need to be true 

to oneself. To be oneself. It is a little banal, 

but I was making the film about it. 

And about freedom, of course.” 

Honestly, have you succeeded in 

everything with it? 

“Of course not. I have failed in a lot 

of ways, but I am resigned to this, I 

have decided to stop nagging myself, 

and will correct my mistakes already in 

the next project.” 

What do you expect from participation 

in the Panorama program? 

“All that I expected I have already 

received. I dreamed of getting to a 

good festival and bringing to the premiere 

as many of my actors and team 

members as possible. For most of them, 

this is their first visit abroad, their first 

flight. So, my expectations have been 

met. We may win a prize or not, but living 

in hopes for one would not be very 

reasonable.” 

What is missing in the Ukrainian 

cinema now? 

“Most of my friends who are young 

and middle-aged directors lack realization 

opportunities. Many have scripts 

for feature-length films ready. I am 

sure their next films will all be better 

than the previous ones, and from an aesthetic 

point of view, everything is fine 

with us. We just need practice, and to 

avoid the transient festival fads. Also, 

it seems to me that we do not have to appeal 

to the masses at any cost, because 

if we do not specialize the audience, 

then, just like the TV is already doing, 

we will bring it down to the lowest level. 

Some poorly made productions may 

do better in the box office than higherquality 

movies, but it is precisely higher-quality 

movies that have longerterm 

prospects. People need to reduce 

their appetites a little and build a diverse 

and high-quality film industry.” 

What will you do next? 

“I will make Serafima, a film 

adaptation of the namesake story by 

Oles Ulianenko. We won the 10th 

pitching contest of the State Film 

Agency, and are currently negotiating 

with French producers. The girl Sonia, 

who played in When the Trees Fall, 

will play in the new film as well. If 

everything keeps going as it does 

now, we will start principal photography 

in the spring of 2019, and then 

we will see. I hope this movie will be 

better than the previous one.”

8 

No.14 MARCH 1, 2018 

TIMEO U T 


Viktor Zaretsky’s “scales of fate” 

THE LEGENDARY PAIR OF SIXTIER ARTISTS – VIKTOR 

ZARETSKY AND ALLA HORSKA 

By Tetiana POLISHCHUK, 

photo illustrations by Ruslan KANIUKA, 

The Day 

Let us recall that the exhibition 

“50 Shades of Viktor Zaretsky” is 

displayed at the Museum of the 

Kyiv History till March 1. 

According to art critic Olesia 

Avramenko, she wrote her monographic 

study of the work of Zaretsky (1925-90) 

following a thorough analysis of the 

master’s work and recalling her personal 

encounters with the artist from 1987-90, 

and it also discusses archival finds and 

interviews with colleagues and friends of 

the artist... The fate of this extraordinary 

master was dramatic, although it was 

impossible to predict in the beginning. 

Throughout his creative life, Zaretsky 

worked boldly searching for new ways 

and changing his approaches in the realm 

of painting. He studied at Kyiv Art 

Institute in 1947-53, initially as a Repin 

scholarship holder, and later a Stalin one. 

He painted his graduate work under the 

guidance of Serhii Hryhoriev and received 

excellent marks. After graduating from the 

institute, he experienced a creative crisis. 

Why did it happen? Even Zaretsky himself 

could not tell for sure... 

Photo from the Zaretskys’ archive 

Art critic Olesia 

Avramenko told 

The Day about 

the outstanding 

artist; she 

authored two 

books about him 

Thanks to his talent, perseverance, 

and insane efficiency, Zaretsky mastered 

perfectly the craft of realistic painting, but 

found it hard to create paintings reflecting 

so-called “social” orders of the time. He 

could not and did not want to write portraits 

of “helmsmen” and “guides.” Therefore, he 

began to look for a topic that would be close 

to his mind and in tune with the time. This 

was how he chose first the “miner” topic, 

and then the “peasant” one. 

In the 1960s, Zaretsky and his wife, 

artist and human rights activist Alla Horska, 

found themselves riding the crest of a 

wave of artistic life, communication, and 

recognition. They were members of the 

Suchasnyk Club of Creative Youth. “The 

time was very beautiful, and it ended very 

tragically. It was like a veritable detective 

story,” the artist said afterwards... Zaretsky 

did monumental art as well. As he himself 

put it: “I went to buy a box of matches, 

but ended up stuck for 18 years.” At 

first, he worked in the field with his wife, 

since Horska was a monumental artist. It 

was a wonderful artistic union. Both were 

strong, lively, and talented, both had 

countless creative ideas for the future. 

They collaborated with other artists to create 

mosaics from smalt and ceramics, such 

as Prometheus, Earth, Fire, and others in 

High School No. 47 of Donetsk, or Tree of 

Life and Dreambird in Ukraina Restaurant 

in Mariupol. 

The sudden and mysterious deaths of 

his wife and father abruptly changed the 

life of the artist, dragged him into depression, 

and made him increasingly reclusive. 

However, he continued to work tirelessly 

from morning till evening, immersed 

himself in painting and did not allow 

himself to stop, since painting had become 

his life... Zaretsky’s works, although 

accepted for exhibitions, were displayed 

with caution in the times that came after 

the “thaw,” in the 1970s and 1980s. 

● “HIS BRIGHT EYES, BROAD 

NOSE, AND SHORT ‘KHE- 

KHE’ LAUGHTER BROUGHT 

TO MY MIND THE PAGAN 

GOD PAN” 

“When visiting art exhibitions in the 

mid-1980s, I repeatedly came across dazzlingly 

beautiful and reliant on unexpected 

artistic language landscapes, genre compositions, 

portraits by somebody called Viktor 

Zaretsky. They impressed me, awoke the 

imagination, and made me scared,” Avramenko 

recalled. “His female portraits were 

especially attractive. The artist depicted his 

models as princesses from childhood dreams 

or as Egyptian queens in the paintings of the 

New Kingdom era, or like women in the portraits 

by Diego Velazquez, as well as in the 

mysticalpaintingsofPre-Raphaelitesorpictures 

by Gustav Klimt. Their clothes and accessories 

were brightly decorative. They 

werepicturedagainstthebackgroundofmosaic-like 

scattered gems or whimsical patterns 

of flowers and ornamental motifs. All 

this was absolutely atypical for the thendominantartofsocialistrealism!Thecreator 

of pictures which had so impressed my 

imagination was Zaretsky. When I asked 

about it, I hit a wall of misunderstanding: 

‘You do not know Zaretsky?! That is good. 

Why do you need to know him? He was Alla 

Horska’s husband. What? Why are you 

unconcerned? She was killed in 1970. It was 

a terrible and still unclear story. They say 

thathekilled herhimself. Healso headedthe 

Club of Creative Youth, where nationalists 

gathered in the 1960s. Now he is married to 

Maia, the daughter of his teacher, Serhii 

Hryhoriev. He has done well out of it... He 

livesinKoncha-Ozerna,almostlikeahermit. 

Zaretsky is a strange man, and he paints terrible 

pictures. He is not worth your attention. 

Leave him alone...’ In this way, all the 

life of the man who was not yet known to me 

then was outlined in a few harsh sentences. 

But the warnings of my wise friends went 

unheeded... 

“I was astonished after my first faceto-face 

meeting with the artist. The man 

who depicted in his paintings the precious 

beauty of herbs, flowers, heavens, and 

portrayed the unreal beauties with the 

names of real women – that man looked 

simple and ungroomed, wearing a shabbylooking 

cotton-wool jacket and an old worn 

knitted hat. His bright eyes, broad nose, 

and short ‘khe-khe’ laughter brought to my 

mind the pagan god Pan. 

“Zaretsky spoke emotionally, excitedly, 

with incomplete sentences. The language 

was similar to bits of some text violently 

pulled out of context: with ellipses 

in front, at the end and, repeatedly, in the 

middle of a sentence. Only after hours of 

conversations I learned to bring together 

and link into logical phrases these torn-out 

pieces of meanings that literally bled, to 

add them to the general canvas of the 

artist’s life, which at that time was, invisibly 

for us, coming to its end. 

“These omissions were concentrated 

clots of emotional torment and unanswered 

questions. Zaretsky’s soul was 

hurting all the time since the end of 1970 

due to fear, resentment, and unbelievable 

injury, which he could not completely 

overcome till the very end of his days. That 

was why he burned out prematurely...” 

● “IT WAS AS IF HE HAD MET 

A TWIN BROTHER, WHO 

HE WAS SEPARATED FROM 

IN TIME AND SPACE” 

“Ordinary spectators often call Zaretsky 

the ‘Ukrainian Gustav Klimt’ (an Austrian 

artist of the Secession age). You 

know, when I began to study deeper the 

work of Zaretsky, I saw that the artistic language 

of the Secession was really extremely 

congenial to his nature,” Avramenko emphasized. 

“The refinement of composition 

choices, eroticism, and philosophical approach, 

which were the basis of the concept 

of the Secession style in general and the 

work of Klimt in particular captivated 

Zaretsky for some time. The close affinity 

of his own views and worldview with the 

work of Klimt was very impressive. The 

artist had the feeling that he had found a 

long lost thing, it was as if he had met a twin 

brother, who he was separated from in 

time and space. Everything seemed to be not 

accidental to him. Zaretsky saw Klimt not 

as a guru, but as a fellow fighter and colleague 

who came to similar conclusions and 

achievements in his work, only with other 

accents emphasized and other nuances revealed, 

as determined by his age and social 

system. Zaretsky saw in Klimt his own alter 

ego, found in him something that he had 

no chance to experience, namely freedom of 

creativity without ideological limitations... 

“The artist often turned to female 

images. In portraits by Zaretsky, the 

woman appears to be what nature and 

world poetry created her as: beautiful and 

mysterious, feminine and attractive, passionate 

and desirable, a diamond in need of 

a setting... The artist generously created 

that charming ‘setting’ in which each of 

them lives in unrealized dreams...” 

● “THE ECOLOGY 

OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT” 

“To cover the work of Zaretsky in a 

brief description is very difficult, since his 

achievements were too rich and diverse, 

and his legacy is perceived as one impressive 

whole. It can be depicted as several 

lines developed in parallel, which are one 

way or another interconnected and firmly 

intertwined,” Avramenko continued. “The 

master’s numerous shelves hold a lot of 

works still unknown to the public. The fact 

that we have not seen them, as well as many 

works by other masters, has distorted the 

development of culture and our ideas 

about art. The ecology of the human spirit 

can be seen as one of the leading themes 

of his works... 

“Zaretsky was one of the first Ukrainian 

modernists and postmodernists, the 

creator of the Ukrainian neo-Secession 

based on the traditions of Ukrainian folk 

and decorative and applied arts. He taught 

many people who are famous painters 

nowadays. The master was posthumously 

awarded the Shevchenko Prize. Zaretsky’s 

works are now centerpieces of museums 

and private collections. For instance, 

20 paintings by the artist were sold 

at the Christie’s auction in 1990. They included 

the magnificent Portrait of Raisa 

Nedashkivska in a Golden Cape and the Art 

triptych. Nowadays, Zaretsky’s paintings 

are treasures for which famous world collectors 

compete... 

“The artist’s creative nature was wide 

open to all the diversity of culture, both 

past and present, and free in its usage of 

artistic styles, systems, techniques, and 

means of expression, as it reflected and reimagined 

all of this in original and highly 

individual ways. 

“Spiritual strength and faithfulness to 

the cause are important attributes of true 

talent and exalted fate. And when we 

needed to look back at the path we had gone 

down, to ‘gather stones,’ it turned out that 

tragic losses and suffering had not broken 

his personality, but had actually benefited 

him.” 

UKRAINIAN NEWS IN ENGLISH 

www.day.kiev.ua incognita.day.kiev.ua 

FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER: 

UKRAINIAN PRESS GROUP LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY 

Published since May 27, 1998. 

Свiдоцтво про перереєстрацiю КВ № 21448-11248 ПР 

вiд 27 липня 2015 року 

Larysa Ivshyna, Editor-in-Chief, Den 

e-mail: chedit@day.kiev.ua 

Hanna Sheremet, Deputy Editor-in-Chief 

Anna Mazurenko, Director, 

Ukrainian Press Group LLC 

Anna Motoziuk, Editor, 

English Language Bureau 

Olha Pavliei, Technical Editor 

Borys Honcharov, George Skliar, Taras Shulha, 

Nadia Sysiuk, Translators 

Maryna Khyzhniakova, Proofreader 

Marharyta Motoziuk, Designer 

Alla Bober, Responsible Secretary 

Mykola Tymchenko, Photography Editor 

Mailing address: prosp. Peremohy, 121d, Kyiv 03115, Ukraine 

Telephone: +38(044) 303-96-19 

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

Advertising: +38(044) 303-96-20; e-mail: ra@day.kiev.ua 

Subscriptions: +38(044) 303-96-23; e-mail: amir@day.kiev.ua 

E-mail: time@day.kiev.ua 

Subscription index: 40032 

Ukrainian Press Group LLC 

Code 24249388 

Raiffeisen Bank joint-stock company 

MFO 380805 

A/С 26007478064 

Responsibility for the accuracy of facts, quotations, personal names, and other information is borne by the authors of publications and in advertising 

materials by the advertiser. The views expressed in signed articles do not necessarily reflect those of the editors. Submitted materials are not returned 

and not reviewed. The editors retain the right to edit materials. When citing Day materials, reference to The Day is mandatory. ©Den.

#14_1-8

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?