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MARCH 15, 2018 ISSUE No. 16 (1148)
Tel.: +38(044) 303-96-19,
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е-mail: time@day.kiev.ua;
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REUTERS photo
STEPHEN HAWKING’S DIMENSIONS
The legendary physicist and popularizer of science died on March 14 Continued on page 2
Poison traces lead to Kremlin
REUTERS photo
The first thing London
needs if it wants to seriously
counteract Russia is cohesion
of its Western allies
REUTERS photo
Continued on page 2

2
No.16 MARCH 15, 2018
DAY AFTER DAY
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
GINA HASPEL
“An unexpectedly
fast replacement”
Expert: “Rex Tillerson dared to have
a different opinion, while Mike
Pompeo will be more supportive
of the administration’s course”
By Natalia PUSHKARUK, The Day
On March 13, US President Donald Trump
unexpectedly fired Secretary of State
Rex Tillerson and wrote about it on his
Twitter page: “Mike Pompeo, Director of
the CIA, will become our new Secretary of
State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex
Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the
new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen.
Congratulations to all!” According to The Washington
Post, the possible dismissal of Tillerson had been
discussed for months, until the resident of the White
House asked the diplomat to leave on March 9.
● “SUCH A FIGURE WAS NOT
ENTIRELY CONVENIENT”
The Day asked Americanist, Professor at Borys
Hrinchenko University of Kyiv Oleksandr TSVI-
ETKOV for his opinion about the causes of the hasty
decision of the American president and expectations
linked to Pompeo’s appointment as secretary of state.
“Although there were reports that Tillerson
would be replaced by another figure, the new appointment
was, if not sensational, then in any case unexpectedly
fast, since the secretary was on an official
trip to a number of African countries, and as we have
learned, he received the dismissal note from the
president during that trip.
“Perhaps the dismissal is due to the fact that
Tillerson dared to have a different opinion and to adjust
the administration’s initiatives in the foreign arena.
Such a figure was not entirely convenient for the
Trump administration.
“The newly appointed secretary of state Pompeo
is an interesting person. He owes his public service appointments
to the Trump administration and has about
eight years of experience as a congressman, that is, he
has connections in Congress. This is important for the
president and the administration, because now is the
time when they need to have more behind-the-scenes
and official links to the Congress. In addition, Pompeo
obtained a good academic education in Harvard,
he graduated from West Point and then had some quite
successful business contacts. His name is associated
with the family-owned multinational Koch Corporation,
which is considered the second largest of its kind
in the world. He seems to be a creature of the Koch
brothers, who are among the largest conservative-leaning
donors of the Republican Party. I see here the desire
to combine his congressional connections with support
he has from the US corporate capital, the latter
better suiting Ppresident Trump’s understanding
of the nature of national leadership and the ways of
accomplishing diplomatic missions.”
● A POLICY CHANGE?
“Of course, there will be a restructuring in the
Department of State’s personnel. Pompeo is expected
to be more supportive of the administration’s
course and cooperative with it, as well as
to avoid independent actions.”
● A WOMAN TO LEAD THE CIA
“This is a really significant political step in
terms of public appeal. Most likely, it happened out
of desire to win some votes, to show some innovative
moves on the part of the Republican Party. After all,
the midterm congressional election will take place in
six months, and they need to draw attention to the party
and steps it takes. These gestures can also be perceived
as an attempt to drum up support for the course
of the administration and counteract criticism sparked
by its attitude to women.”
By Bohdan TSIUPYN; Natalia PUSHKARUK, The Day
kind of decisions are approved in
the Kremlin at the highest level,”
former KGB Colonel Oleg Gordievsky
said when I asked him on the
“This
phone about murders committed by
the Soviet secret services abroad.
I have never seen Col. Gordievsky, who defected
to the West in 1985, in person, and the
now historic interview took place with the help
of third persons and by calling a temporary
number.
Gordievsky spoke with me well before the
poisoning of his former colleague Aleksandr
Litvinenko in London in 2006 and the chemical
attack on March 4, 2018, in Salisbury – the attempt
on the life of former Russian military intelligence
Colonel Sergei Skripal.
We talked about the first instances when the
KGB used specially devised poisons to kill the
prominent Ukrainian figures Lev Rebet in 1957
and Stepan Bandera in 1959 in Munich.
Moscow managed to hide its black work for
several years because the killers’ special pistol
shot with potassium cyanide vapors, leaving no
traces.
Only the confession of the defector agent Bohdan
Stashynsky at the trial in Germany in October
1962 revealed all the details of the KGB’s
covert operations.
Gordievsky did not believe much the assurances
of the last Soviet KGB head Kriuchkov
that the assassination of Bandera was the last
one the Kremlin secret services committed
abroad.
Soviet lethal-potion laboratories went on
working, which was proved, in particular, by
poisoning Bulgarian dissident Georgy Markov to
death in 1978 in London.
After the March 4 attack in Salisbury,
British Prime Minister Theresa May began to
face the problem which has been emerging with
startling regularity since the last century: how
to force Moscow to respect human life and the
sovereignty of other countries?
London did not, does not, and will not believe
the objections or excuses of the Kremlin which
has already denied being implicated in poisoning
former Russian military intelligence Colonel
Sergei Skripal with a nerve agent in quiet English
town.
“Should there be no credible response, we
will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful
use of force by the Russian state against
the United Kingdom,” May said in parliament on
Monday, issuing an ultimatum to Moscow.
The first thing London needs if it wants to seriously
counteract Russia is cohesion of its Western allies
The question is what Britain can do to put
across to Putin its determination to protect the
country from the arbitrariness of Russian statesponsored
killers.
The expulsion of Russian diplomats and a
likely partial boycott of the world soccer championship
in Moscow would be just symbolic, albeit
resonant, steps.
What would be a most staggering blow to
many influential Russians is the freezing of
their assets in the British financial system.
But the first thing London needs if it wants to
seriously counteract Russia is cohesion of its Western
allies because sanctions will have a stronger impact
if the West takes a coordinated stand.
● “WESTERN DEMOCRACIES MUST
TAKE SYSTEMIC PREVENTIVE
MEASURES”
Volodymyr VASYLENKO, Doctor of Law,
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador
of Ukraine:
Stephen Hawking’s dimensions
The legendary physicist and popularizer
of science died on March 14
By Maria PROKOPENKO, The Day
It is impossible to speak about Stephen
Hawking as a scientist alone. In a 2011
interview with the British newspaper The
Guardian, the scientist admitted when
asked if he was afraid of death: “I have
lived with the prospect of an early death for the
last 49 years. I am not afraid of death, but I’m
in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do
first. I regard the brain as a computer which
will stop working when its components fail.
There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down
computers; that is a fairy story for people
afraid of the dark.”
By the way, another individual who defined
his era, Albert Einstein, was born on March 14.
Also, American universities celebrate that date
as Pi Day, because a widespread version of it
looks like 3.14. However, Hawking himself
would probably have been skeptical about looking
for such coincidences, so it is better to just
recall his life’s events.
● DISEASE AND “HALLMARK” VOICE
Hawking was born in 1942. He graduated
from the University of Oxford as young as 20
and began to study theoretical physics. He suffered
from a motor neurone disease (affecting
nerve cells that provide motor coordination and
Poison traces lead to Kremlin
maintenance of muscle tonicity), which manifested
itself for the first time when he was 21. It
is called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, complications
of which, most likely, killed him. The wellknown
Ice Bucket Challenge campaign was
aimed precisely at raising funds for studies of
this incurable rare disease.
According to what open sources tell us, the
disease initially manifested as slight clumsiness
and unexpected falls. But over time, it progressed.
Hawking himself said: “Although there
was a cloud hanging over my future, I found, to
my surprise, that I was enjoying life in the present
more than before.”
● FASCINATED WITH BLACK HOLES
Despite his condition, Hawking occupied the
Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at the University
of Cambridge for 30 years. Three centuries before,
this position was occupied by Isaac Newton,
while in the 1830s, it was held by the inventor of
the first program-controlled computer Charles
Babbage, and more than a hundred years ago, it
was occupied by the Nobel laureate Paul Dirac.
Many people are now sharing on the Internet
their thoughts about the role of the environment
for Hawking’s self-fulfillment. For
example, the Russian prose writer Marina Palei
wrote on Facebook: “In general, the fantastic
completeness of his [Hawking’s. – Ed.] self-ful-
“If British law-enforcement bodies have
gathered sufficient evidence of poisoning a former
citizen of Russia and GRU (Main Intelligence
Directorate) officer, the British have the
right to demand explanations of how and why
Russian agents operate on the territory of a severing
state, thus endangering the life of people.
From this angle, the demand of the British prime
minister to Russia is absolutely lawful.
“Scenarios of this kind occur repeatedly – it
is the style of Russian special services whose unlawful
actions are approved by Russia’s top leadership.
They are aimed at punishing the people
who have decided, for certain reasons, to pass information
about the activity of Russian special
services abroad to foreign governments.
“This behavior of Russia shows that it flouts
international law and carries out covert operations
on the territory of other states, thus violating
their sovereignty. These actions endanger
and claim human lives. This kind of Russian behavior
must be regarded in the light of other unlawful
and unfriendly actions aimed against the
West and expected to weaken stability and lawand-order
in Western countries, create a tense
situation in society, and, in the long run, undermine
the principles and foundations on which
public life rests in Western civilizations.
“Such events have also occurred in Britain
before. The UK has more than once expelled
Russian diplomats involved in the activity that
runs counter to their diplomatic status. Russia’s
unlawful actions are regarded as individual occurrences,
whereas they should be viewed in conjunction
with previous similar actions which do
not comply with international law and undermine
international law and order. For example,
Russia’s first and second wars in Chechnya
amounted to the total extermination of that region’s
population. However, the Western community
showed no adequate reaction to those
crimes. Then came aggression against Georgia
and Ukraine, threats to use force against NATO
member states that border on Russia, criminal
use of force against the civilian population of
Syria and destruction of the infrastructure
there. Russia is constantly showing disrespect
for international law. Isolated reaction to some
of the Russian violations produces no desirable
effect. By its behavior, Russia is systemically
threatening global peace and undermining international
law and order. Therefore, the international
community should take systemic actions
in response in order to at least force that
country to behave in a civilized way.
“Obviously, it would be lawful and advisable
if Western democracies resolved to form an anti-
Putin coalition, as they once did against Hitler.
For a soft reaction to only some of Russia’s unlawful
actions only encourages its leadership to
take further aggressive actions which undermine
international law and order. This behavior of
Russia, aimed against certain countries, undermines
international law and order as a whole and
endangers peace in the world. Therefore, Western
democracies should react adequately and take
systemic preventive measures to force Russia to
behave in a civilized way and bear responsibility
for the damage done to certain states and the international
community as a whole.”
Bohdan Tsiupyn is a London-based Ukrainian
journalist
fillment is a clear display of the advantages of
the Euro-Atlantic system. I use the word ‘advantages’
instead of ‘humanism,’ since in the
Western countries which do not indulge in
vague preaching, humanism is not driven by
self-serving talk about God, but by reasonableness.
Reasonableness is humanism. And now,
let us imagine the existence of this man in ‘the
country of dreamers, the country of scientists.’
Without any doubt, with such a serious condition,
he would have spent his life tormented by
helplessness, poverty, and humiliation – fortunately,
it would not be long, at all – and never
surprise either Russian statistics nor Russian
society.” Unfortunately, the situation would
not be very different in Ukraine, where erecting
ramps or installing Braille signs for the visually
impaired is presented at times as an
achievement comparable with the discovery of a
new galaxy.
Hawking’s own studies concerned primarily
cosmology, that is, the science dealing with the
Universe and the place of humankind in it, and
quantum gravity. Black holes greatly interested
him as well. For instance, the scientist showed
that the black holes ‘evaporate’ when affected by
the phenomenon which was named the Hawking
radiation. Meanwhile, in July 2004, he presented
a report which set out his own approach to
solving the paradox of the disappearance of information
in a black hole. The scientist expressed
the opinion that the black hole distorted
entrapped information, but did not destroy it
without a trace.
The scientific community’s perception of
Hawking’s research varied and was sometimes
quite skeptical. For several years, Hawking and
the American theoretical physicist Kip Thorne
on the one hand, and the California Institute of
Technology’s Professor John Preskill on the other,
were engaged in a controversy over the theory
of black holes.

WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
DAY AFTER DAY No.16 MARCH 15, 2018 3
By Ruslan HARBAR
Russia’s aggression against
Ukraine forces us to look more
attentively at all aspects of life
in that country, especially the
ones that concern us directly or
indirectly. This also applies to the
place and influence of Russia in the
world community and its active work
to establish and expand the so-called
“Russian World” because its expansion
narrows our capacity to spread true
information about events in Ukraine.
Our mass media follow quite in detail
what is being done in this field in
respect of Europe and the US. In spite
of all efforts, Russia has no major
gains here. On the contrary, these
countries offer ever stronger resistance
to Russia’s intentions and become more
and more aware of the ruinous
consequences of its policy. But there is
a region, where the intention of Russia
to expand the “Russian Word’s”
territory is producing certain results.
This region is Africa, or, to be more
exact, Sub-Saharan Africa. It is
50 countries, 50 votes in the UN. By
contrast with European states, events
in Ukraine have nothing to do with
them geographically and therefore
exert no direct influence on their policy
towards Russia. On its part, Russia
pursues a policy of purposeful economic
and military expansion in these
countries and is drawing them into
the sphere of its influence. The
knowledge of these processes ought to
force the Ukrainian leadership to pay
more attention to the African vector of
Ukraine’s foreign policy.
● THE USSR’S “MACHINE”
To resume and bolster its clout in
Africa, Russia uses a considerable scientific
groundwork laid in the USSR
era: the Institute of Africa of the
Russian Academy of Sciences, the
Center for African Studies in St. Petersburg,
and the journal Asia and
Africa Today. The Foreign Ministry
of Russia has the office of a roving
ambassador to the Middle East and
Africa, who spends most of his time in
these regions. To coordinate the activities
of Russian governmental and
nongovernmental organizations, a
nonprofit Afrocom was established in
2009 under the aegis of VTB Bank.
This entity launched the “African
Business Initiative” in 2016 in order
to concentrate efforts exclusively on
economic cooperation. Dozens of
treaties have been signed with every
African country, which lays the reliable
legal groundwork for Russian
companies in Africa. Seventeen intergovernmental
commissions for economic
cooperation are functioning.
The abovementioned VTB has opened
its branches in a number of countries
and invested 2 billion dollars in
Afroexsimbank. At the same time,
Russia has written off a $20-billionworth
debt of African countries. As a
result, in 2016 Africa was the only region
with which Russia increased its
trade turnover.
● ECONOMIC AID IS AN
INSTRUMENT OF INFLUENCE
Of course, economic aid is the
main instrument of influence in a given
country. Russia is not a major player
in this field in Africa. While trade
of China with African countries in
2016 accounted for over 300 billion
dollars and that of the US – 100 billion,
it was 14.5 billion dollars in the
case of Russia. But Russia is doing its
best to make up for the Soviet-era influence.
Here are a few examples.
Russia is the No. 1 supplier of
weapons and military hardware to
African countries. It is building nuclear
power plants in South Africa and
Nigeria, is planning to build some in
Sudan and helping to establish nuclear
centers in Kenya and Zambia,
and helped Angola launch the Angosat
satellite from Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Russia is developing the world’s second
largest deposit of platinum in
Zimbabwe. Thirty five Russian companies,
including Rosoboronexport,
posits of mineral resources all over
Africa. Lukoil is extracting oil in
Equatorial Guinea and plans to get
back to Nigeria. This list can be continued.
● DIPLOMACY
The national leadership’s active
interest in Africa contributes to the
successes of Russian companies in
this region. Vladimir Putin has visited
Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt,
and twice South Africa. Dmitry Medvedev,
as president of Russia, was in
Nigeria, Angola, and Namibia, and
recently came back from Morocco.
Putin has two advisors for African issues
– Sergey Ivanov (worked in
Kenya) and Igor Sechin (worked as
translator in Angola and Mozambique).
Russia’s Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov has visited South
Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique,
Ethiopia, Angola, South Sudan, Algeria,
and Burundi, and planning to visit
Angola, Mozambique, Namibia,
Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe again in the
near future. There are 35 Russian embassies
in the 50 countries of Sub-Saharan
Africa. Accordingly, 33 African
countries have their embassies in
Moscow, while there are only three
embassies (the two of which represent
To make an integral picture of
Africa as a region, it is worthwhile to
say a few words about Northern
Africa which is in fact part of the
Arab world.
After seizing Crimea and reinforcing
the naval base in Tartus (Syria),
Russia is restoring its clout on
Egypt: it holds joint military exercises,
builds a military base on the border
with Libya, is going to build a nuclear
power plant, and has founded an
Egyptian-Russian university. In
Libya, the Russians control the
largest battleworthy force commanded
by General Khalifa Haftar, a graduate
of a Russian educational institution,
and print money for him. Algeria
is traditionally the biggest buyer
of Russian military equipment,
which leads to certain dependence on
Russia and irritates France. Hence,
the Crimea – Syria – Egypt – Libya –
Algeria chain makes Russia an influential
player in the Mediterranean
basin.
This activity of Russia bolsters its
clout in the countries of Africa and
shapes a positive attitude to it. This
gives Russia a chance to strengthen
its position in the US-Russia-China
triangle.
● POLITICAL DIVIDENDS
Zarubezhgeologia, Inter RAO, and pro-Kremlin countries) in Kyiv.
Russia Railways, have obtained licenses
Moscow always receives presidents,
to work in Ethiopia. They are prime ministers, or ministers of one What political dividends does
building a LED lamp factory in Burundi
and a fish-processing plant in
African country or another. Three Russia derive from this after all, on
years ago the Kremlin hosted a forum the example of concrete countries?
Senegal. Renova is extracting uranium
in Namibia and manganese in
of the African alumni of Soviet and The ruling party of the South
Russian higher educational institutions.
The president of Russia made a National Congress, has officially rec-
South Africa. Rusal is developing a
African Republic (SAR), the African
bauxite deposit in Guinea. Severstal is
extracting iron ore in Liberia, and Alrosa
controls the extraction of preerably
increased after sanctions had Crimea and regards the 2013-14 events
speech to them. This activity considognized
the so-called referendum in
cious stones in Angola. Russian companies
been imposed on Russia in response to in Ukraine as a coup d’etat. It consis-
are prospecting for new de-
aggression against Ukraine.
tently supports the Russian stand.
Fifty votes in the UN
Russia actively bolsters its clout in Africa
After an emotional speech of the
former president of Ghana Jerry
Rawlings on the rights of peoples to
self-determination in March 2014, the
SAR-based Pan-African Parliament
supported the so-called “referendum”
in Crimea.
Sudan’s President Field Marshal
Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the
International Criminal Court for
crimes against humanity, is a personal
friend of Putin. He often visits
Moscow. They are negotiating a Russian
military base in Sudan. He also
regularly votes in support of Russia at
all international organizations.
The recently overthrown Zimbabwe
president Robert Mugabe was also
a personal friend of Putin and often
visited him. He shared his experience
of surviving in the conditions of sanctions.
He and the former South African
president Jacob Zuma were the
only African leaders who attended the
military parade in Moscow on May 9,
2015. They also regularly support
Russia in the UN. Time will show
what attitude the new leadership of
Zimbabwe will choose to take.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni
is actively imposing his friendship
on Putin and has already visited
Moscow at his invitation.
PHOTO FACT
Diversity as a cause for celebration
An annual Commonwealth Day service was held in London
REUTERS photo
During a visit to Moscow, Ethiopia’s
Foreign Minister Workneh
Gebeyehu “showed readiness to defend
the position of Russia on international
platforms.” His Tanzanian
counterpart Bernard Membe said, also
in Moscow: “Russia is a superpower,”
and called for opening a representation
of the African Union in
Moscow. And it does not always sound
so stiff and diplomatic. Their South
Sudanese counterpart turned out to be
a lyricist. “We always have good
weather. The sun is shining, and the
sauna is free of charge. Don’t sit here
in Moscow, come to us.”
In Mali, when the situation in the
north became tense, they gathered
about 10,000 signatures under the letter
to Putin, requesting him to come
and help establish peace.
Equatorial Guinea is still sending
its guys to Sevastopol to train as naval
officers.
In Cameroon, postage stamps with
a portrait of Putin were issued.
And, to crown it all, Russia signed
a treaty on defense cooperation with
King Mswati III of Swaziland.
This attitude to Russia affects the
results of UN votes on the resolution
about Russia’s violation of human
rights in Crimea. While in December
2016 nine countries of Sub-Saharan
Africa supported it, only three (out of
50) did so in December 2017 –
Botswana, Liberia, and the Seychelles.
(The Prosecutor General of Ukraine
was absolutely right to choose the Seychelles
for his vacation as a token of
gratitude for their position in the
UN.)
Not only Europe and the US is the
battlefield for a place in the world.
Russia is aware of this. It compensates
the growing resistance to its policies
in Europe and North America by bolstering
its clout in Africa.
In all the years of independence,
none of Ukraine’s presidents and
prime ministers has visited a country
of Sub-Saharan Africa. By all accounts,
this region is absent in the
foreign policy of Ukraine. There are
only three full-fledged embassies
functioning today – of Senegal,
Nigeria, and Kenya. Their leaders
bypass Ukraine, too.
Ruslan Harbar is director of the
Center for African Studies
By Natalia PUSHKARUK, The Day
An annual Commonwealth
Day service was
held at Westminster
Abbey on March 12,
with Queen Elizabeth
II, members of the royal
family, British politicians, and
more than 800 schoolchildren
in attendance. “There is a very
special value in the insights we
gain through the Commonwealth
connection; shared inheritances
help us overcome difference so
that diversity is a cause for
celebration rather than division,”
Queen Elizabeth said in
a message. During the event,
people, obviously, paid close
attention to Prince Harry’s bride
Meghan Markle, for whom it
was the first official event she
visited in the entourage of Her
Majesty. The Commonwealth of
Nations includes 53 nations that
were previously part of the
British Empire, and the Queen
has led the organization for
66 years.
Pictured: Elizabeth II greets
singer Liam Payne and guests
from the Commonwealth countries.

4
No.16 MARCH 15, 2018
TOPIC OF THE DAY
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
By Svitlana PRYZYNCHUK, special to The Day
REUTERS photos
Where the Ukrainians see the glowing
sign of 3G on their smartphones,
the Chinese will soon see 5G, a new
generation of mobile communication.
It can be used even on superhigh-speed
trains. The future, together with the
achievements of a digital economy, is coming to
China faster than anywhere else.
Ukraine recently signed with China a framework
agreement on building a digital economy.
Also known as internet economy, it is based on
digital computerized technologies. Its important
components are e-commerce, telecoms, social
media, etc.
● LIVING IN “SMART CITIES”
The arrival in China resembles a jump into the
future. The airport is situated in one of the 500
Chinese cities that apply Smart City technologies.
This up-to-date technology, which is supposed to
improve the quality of life in the city, is based on
the integration of information and communication
systems into certain structures.
Once you are in the Huawei-guided Shenzhen
or Hangzhou, where City Brain functions, you
can see a well-known brainchild of the company
Alibaba in action. Last October 128 traffic lights
on Hangzhou’s 100 crossroads were connected to
the system. Developers are sure that one will be
able soon to see their success with his or her own
eyes – the number of traffic jams and accidents
and even the level of air pollution will decrease.
How does it work? The Smart City system is
based on the technologies of artificial intelligence
(AI) and internet of things (IoT). The internet
of things is a network of devices linked between
themselves and the internet. AI watches
the traffic in real time and can detect a traffic
accident in a second. The information about this
is instantly sent to the police, and they will arrive
in 5 minutes’ time.
Every second, the system processes a huge
array of data, the largest suppliers of which being
the so-called BAT – three internet giants of
the country: Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent. Nobody
asks people here if they agree to the processing
of their personal data, but the Chinese
are not much worried about this.
● ARTIFICIAL INTELLECT ECONOMY
The 4th World Internet Conference (WIC),
held in the Chinese town of Wuzhen in December
2017, heard the latest report on the internet’s
international development, which says that
the digital economy in China accounts for 30 percent
of GDP, or 3.4 trillion dollars. By this indicator,
China is second in the world after the US.
It generates 13 percent of the global digital information
and will do 25 percent by 2020. Out of
3.9 billion internet users in the world, 751 million
are in China. Owing to the scale and dynamic
of its startups, China will become the leader in
gathering decision-making informative data.
For it possesses sufficient resources to establish
an AI-based economic model.
Local IT companies will help in this by opening
research centers and investing substantial
funds in technologies. Alibaba, the largest Chinese
high-tech company that owes its success to
artificial intellect, plans to invest over 15 billion
dollars in their development. They have also created
their own online ecosystems which are more
and more becoming part of the population’s daily
routine. It is Taobao, the largest electronic
commerce platform, and search engines Baidu
and Youku Tudou which copy YouTube in many
respects. Some of them are more effective than
their US analogues, such as eBay or WhatsApp,
because they have more useful functions. For example,
the WeChat messenger’s electronic wallet
of the company Tencent allows almost 500
million Chinese to give up using cash.
● TALKING TO AUTOMOBILES
The automobile industry is becoming an important
part of the digital economy. Many experts
are convinced that China will take the leading
positions in this segment. Firstly, many big
internet companies are developing today an interconnected
and “smart” transport. Secondly,
Digital future of the world
What is China’s vision of it?
Chinese consumers easily accept new technologies.
The interconnected autos are linked to internet
and local networks. And some “smart”
makes of the Geely auto-making giant can even
talk with drivers and passengers in various Chinese
dialects.
The practicability and effectiveness of these
designs was proved on the roads of Shanghai in
November 2017 by a special attachment that ensures
interconnection of autos between themselves
and the infrastructure. This attachment
furnishes drivers with information about the
recommended speed with which you can pass the
green light at the next crossroads. It thus helps
improve the transport flow and reduce jams.
● 5G IN SMARTPHONES
China is becoming a pioneer on the global
arena of telecoms. One of the large-scale projects
is introduction of the 5G communication. According
to the company Qualcomm’s report, this
will create an estimated 22 million jobs by 2035.
The world’s largest 5G test platform is located
in Beijing, where about 30 base telecom
stations were built. China Mobile, ZTE,
Huawei, and a number of foreign hi-tech companies
have already finished the second stage of
tests. China is now hasting to finish the third
stage and may soon make the first, so far noncommercial,
5G product. Nevertheless, local
companies, spearheaded by Huawei, are already
rushing to compete for a tasty morsel of its
commercialization.
Explaining the fundamental difference between
5G and 4G, Huang Yuhong, DGM of the
China Mobile Research Institute, says the new
communication will be not just a technology or a
system. On the contrary, it will be a platform on
which telecom industries will be closely linked
with other sectors.
● DIGITAL CONSTELLATION
“One Belt, One Road” is the most high-profile
Chinese project of the past few years, which
is aimed at improving regional cooperation between
the countries situated on the ancient Silk
Road that used to link China and Europe. In
2018 this initiative came up with one more infrastructural
project – digital BeiDou (“Great
Bear” in Chinese), the Chinese system of satellite
navigation that is supposed to cover 60 countries.
And by 2020, China is going to embrace the
whole world with 35 satellites. The precision of
BeiDou place identification, up to 10 meters, is
so far worse than that of its American rival GPS.
But China wants to make it even a better navigation
system. To do so, it should establish a
faster and more effective communication and
improve navigational services.
For this purpose, 25 billion dollars will be
earmarked from the budget, while 30 countries
have already signed an agreement to use the system.
Millions of the Chinese owners of bicycles
and mopeds equipped with BeiDou smartphones
spot their geo-location with this system, and
more than 40,000 fishing vessels use it for communication.
● HOME-DELIVERED THAI DURIAN
Another breakthrough will be a new window
of e-commerce, also introduced as part of the
“One Belt, One Road” project. Chinese consumers
will no longer have to travel abroad to
buy Belgian chocolate or Thai durian. They will
be able to buy all this, sitting on the sofa at
home. Thanks to this, dealers and consumers
will find it profitable to trade in high-quality
goods and services at reasonable prices.
Based on online platforms, this initiative
embraces all the components of successful international
trade – storage, logistics, funding, taxes,
etc., thus creating a global digital network.
Many electronic platforms, including Alibaba
and JD.com, are already actively preparing to
join this initiative which opens them vast opportunities.
Of course, e-commerce was and still is the
foundation stone of the digital economy in China.
According to the international consulting
company McKinsey, China holds the world’s
largest segment – 40 percent – of the world electronic
commerce market. This indicator was a
mere one percent only 10 years ago.
What can be a vivid illustration is Singles’
Day which unmarried people traditionally observe
in China on November 11. At the same
time, it is also a holiday for internet trade as a
whole because most of the shopping is done on
this very day. During the World Economic Forum
in Davos, Jack Ma said that Alibaba had
tested on this day a new technological system
which managed to withstand several hundred
thousand users: 270,000 transactions per second
passed through the website on that day!
● WINS AND LOSSES
China is proud of its outstanding scientific
and technological achievements in a wide range
of fields, including 3D printing, nanotechnologies,
and robotization. It can boast of Shenzhen,
also known as second Silicon Valley. The number
of hi-tech startups registered in its free economic
area is growing in a geometric progression.
But everything is not as good as it may seem
at first sight. In 2014 China spent more than
2 percent of GDP on research and development,
but it lags far behind the largest innovators – the
US and Japan. According to the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development, basic
research accounts for only 5 percent of these expenditures
(compared to 18 percent in the US
and 12 percent in Japan).
Another problem is that most of the Chinese
patents belong to the categories of design
and service programs, whereas only a small
number of them are real inventions. Besides,
only a part of Chinese patents are registered in
the US, the EU, or Japan, and, therefore, local
researchers are insufficiently linked with global
networks. There is no improvement in the
situation with constant infringements of intellectual
property rights, which in general restricts
the registration of patents. Two thirds
of the local companies are sure that the patent
law will not protect their inventions from being
copied by other rivals.
It should not be forgotten that the Great Chinese
Firewall (system of internet content filtration)
had not vanished, and we are facing today
the danger of a complete closure of all VPNs
which recently became accessible to some
Ukrainians. The VPN is needed to gain access to
global (often banned in China) websites and networks.
The absence of VPNs will extremely complicate
the life of foreigners in China. One more
part of the sovereignization of the Chinese internet
space is a directive to keep large arrays of
data in cloud storages only. In a word, since the
internet emerged, love and fear of it have been
strangely intertwined in the Celestial Empire.
We in Ukraine must understand the vital necessity
of switching to a digital economy. It can
cause an economic leap forward and a more than
20-percent growth of GDP – on condition it is introduced
on a comprehensive basis. At present,
the digital infrastructure is almost undeveloped
in Ukraine. The syndrome of “obsolete technologies”
and cyber attacks is our sad reality. Nevertheless,
digital transformation of the old economic
sectors, access of every Ukrainian to the
fast internet, and public knowledge of digital
technologies may also pave the way to a digital
future in Ukraine.
Svitlana Pryzynchuk, an Orientalist,
worked as secretary at the office of the Economic
Advisor at the Chinese Embassy in
Ukraine

By Mykola SIRUK,
Natalia PUSHKARUK, The Day
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
The two-day visit of EU High
Representative for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy
Federica Mogherini to Ukraine
began late on March 11 with a
scandal. The high-ranking official of the
EU refused to meet with relatives of
prisoners of war and political prisoners.
“This made them shocked and
indignant,” chairperson of the
Committee on Foreign Affairs of the
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Hanna
Hopko, who promised to convey their
letter to Mogherini, told The Day.
And the second, and just as important
point is that during this visit, the
EU’s high representative could not find
time to visit eastern Ukraine, just like
two and a half years ago. And this happened
despite the fact that at a joint
press briefing she held with Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko in November
2015, Mogherini stated that the situation
in Ukraine remained one of the
highest priorities on the agenda of the
EU. The EU Representative Office in
Ukraine explained this to The Day by the
high representative having a very tight
schedule and lacking time to travel to the
line of contact and see firsthand what
was going on there.
Thirdly, it is strange that, according
to reports appearing in Ukrainian media,
the EU high representative for foreign
affairs and security policy identified reforms
and, above all, accelerating the
fight against corruption as the main topics
of the visit and negotiations with the
Ukrainian authorities. “We need a double
effort to be made in the most important
areas, and fighting corruption is one
of them, and here we are waiting for the
bill on the establishment of an independent
and efficient High Anti-Corruption
Court to pass, one which will fully
comply with the recommendations of
the Venice Commission,” Mogherini
said in an interview she gave to the
UNIAN.
It is clear that the fight against corruption
is important, but the high representative
deals primarily with foreign
policy and security issues, so we
would have liked to hear from her specific
proposals on how the EU can contribute
to the restoration of peace in eastern
Ukraine, in particular, by influencing
the Russian Federation so that it
fulfills its part of the Minsk Agreements
and, in general, encouraging it to
fulfill its international obligations and
return the illegally annexed region of
Crimea.
And here, it seems, Mogherini has
nothing to say, besides expressing her
wish in an interview with the UNIAN
that the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission
in Ukraine obtain full access to
the entire territory of Ukraine, including
along the Ukrainian-Russian border,
in accordance with its mandate.
However, why does she not mention
at the same time such a powerful tool as
sanctions, which, frankly, need to be
strengthened in order to encourage Russia
to comply with the Minsk Agreements?
Instead, Mogherini said: “If a
mission agreed to by the UN Security
Council could accelerate all this and
help promote the implementation of the
Minsk Agreements, we would of course
be in favor of it.”
The same can be said about energy
security, including the Nord Stream 2
project and the latest in the series of gas
disputes between Ukraine and Russia,
where the EU, which claims to be an influential
player in the world, should
have taken a principled stand and supported
Ukraine.
Instead, “we observe,” said Hopko,
“that the European Commission has positioned
itself as a mediator between
Ukraine and Russia in the gas dispute,
although it should have come
out on our side, because we are implementing
the 3rd Energy Package (while
Russia opposes it and appeals against
it in the WTO), we have joined the Energy
Community (while Russia opposes
it), and it is we, not Russia, who have
an Association Agreement with the
EU, but still, the real priority for the
EU is Russia and not us.”
And what did Mogherini bring to
Kyiv instead of concrete support for
Ukraine, the situation in which she
called the highest priority on the
bloc’s agenda two and a half years
ago? It turns out that this is a communication
campaign called Moving
Forward Together, which is devoted to
the Association Agreement and
should demonstrate its benefits to ordinary
Ukrainians.
But for Ukraine and Europe in general,
the most pressing issue right now
is stopping Russian aggression in the
Donbas and restoring Ukrainian sovereignty
over Crimea in accordance
with the norms of international law and
international treaties signed by Russia.
And this is exactly what Mogherini, in
her capacity as the EU’s high representative
for foreign affairs and security
policy, should ponder, and consolidate
the position of the EU on it. However,
it seems that she has not drawn the
necessary conclusions during her years
in office and still adheres to the position
she took in 2014 as Italian foreign minister,
when she responded to criticism
offered by Toomas Ilves, then president
of Estonia, over the weak response of
the US and their allies to Russia’s violations
of its neighbors’ sovereignty and
territorial integrity: “So what, should
we bomb Russia? What the solution
should be, then?”
There is a solution, but for some reason,
Mogherini fails to see or does not
want to see it: imposing more stringent
sanctions on Russia, freezing the assets
of Putin’s inner circle members, abandoning
the Nord Stream 2 project,
stopping Europe’s purchases of Russian
gas and oil, and finally shutting Russia
out of the SWIFT payment system.
That is, the tools for stopping the
brazen actions of the Russian revanchist
regime are there, people only
need the courage to use them.
During his meeting with the chief of
European diplomacy, President
Poroshenko called on the EU to recognize
Russia as an aggressor. “I firmly believe
that, after four years of Russian aggression
against Ukraine, it is time for
the EU to label the aggressor as such and
a party to the conflict,” he said. Meanwhile,
Mogherini promised to consider
sending another mission made up of
the ambassadors sitting on the EU Political
and Security Committee to the
Donbas. Before that, she met with the
Ukrainian prime minister and assured
him that the EU would support Ukraine
on the path of reforms, and also noted
the importance of conducting pension,
education, and healthcare reforms,
Ukrinform reports. In addition, she
stressed the readiness of the bloc to
provide Ukraine with one billion euros
in loans. However, it should be noted
that Ukraine will be able to receive these
funds only after meeting four conditions
for the next IMF loan tranche: passing
TOPIC OF THE DAY No.16 MARCH 15, 2018 5
Photo by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day
Wrong priorities of Mogherini
What agenda should the EU high representative for foreign
affairs and security policy have actually brought to Kyiv?
a privatization law, the already adopted
pension reform, the creation of an anticorruption
court and the settlement of
the gas price issue.
The Day asked an expert to comment
on the importance of this visit and to explain
why the pre-event announcement
focused precisely on combating corruption
and enacting reforms.
● “SHE KNOWS THAT THE
CONFLICT EXISTS, BUT HAS
COME WITH A DIFFERENT
AGENDA”
Kateryna ZAREMBO, a deputy director
of the New Europe Center:
“First of all, I do not see anything
surprising in the fact that Mogherini
does not focus on the conflict, because
the EU has an agenda of sorts on
Ukraine, and it is primarily about reforms,
so it is only logical that she
talks precisely about it.
“Secondly, in fact, Mogherini has
never paid Ukraine much attention
and it would be very strange if she
came and started her visit with such a
sensitive issue as the Russian-
Ukrainian conflict. It may also be a
safer choice in terms of what the consensus
among the member states is on
what to talk about in Ukraine (because
she must get a mandate from all
EU countries on what she does and
talks about).
“If we look at a shared agenda of
Ukraine and the EU which is being
proposed for the coming summit
aimed to shape the assistance provided
to Ukraine by the EU, then we see
that the conflict appears indirectly in
this dialog, only when it touches upon
the sanctions. But Mogherini exerts
only indirect influence on
whether the sanctions will be extended
by half a year, as it is decided by
the member states themselves. I think
this is the natural course given how
the EU works. Should a leader of an
EU member come here, it would be really
desirable to get them to go to the
frontline and see everything firsthand.
In fact, as far as I know,
Mogherini, when communicating
with experts, said she was sorry that
she did not visit the Donbas on this occasion,
that is, she knows that the
conflict exists, but has come with a
different agenda this time.
“Mogherini has not visited
Ukraine for a very long time, so her
ongoing visit is definitely a good
thing. In general, she is a fairly compromise
figure in the EU. It is good to
see her coming here and getting acquainted
with what is going on, but
she is not really charged with the
Ukrainian portfolio. Commissioner
Johannes Hahn and other officials are
more engaged with Ukraine, as is, for
example, Chancellor Angela Merkel.
That is, it is a welcome addition to the
Ukrainian-European agenda.”
On a system of internal constraints
The National People’s Congress of the PRC has decided to
abolish term limits for the position of the chairman of the party
By Yurii RAIKHEL
In the days of Mao Zedong, and especially
during the so-called Cultural
Revolution in China, there was an
official song entitled “Sailing the
Seas Depends on the Helmsman.”
Obviously, it was about Mao himself as
the “Great Helmsman.” The irreplaceability
of the leader seemed to be implied
without so many words. The chairman of
the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and
the party’s leader became the personification
of everything. China exists as
long as Mao is there, so tertium non datur
– there is no third option. Does it ring
any bells about our northern neighbors?
Deng Xiaoping, who succeeded Mao,
was fully aware that such a principle of
governance was highly problematic for
the state. He and his relatives were seriously
affected during the Cultural Revolution,
and, in order to avoid such a difficult
past repeating itself, Deng introduced
the two-term principle.
The secretary-general begins to
groom his replacement during the second
term, and about two years before
the end of his time in office, he nominates
a successor at the party congress.
Also, it applied the principle of smooth
transition of power without the usual
swings and excesses.
The Deng system worked without fail
until recently, and now everything has begun
to go back to that already distant and
somewhat forgotten previous era. The
current leader of China, Xi Jinping, initiated
changes to the party statute which
abolished the two-term principle. Amending
the constitution comes next, but it is
a mere formality. Now Comrade Xi can
be elected, however meaningless this
term is in modern China, for an unlimited
number of terms, and thus rule however
long he likes.
The justification provided for the departure
from the Deng system is of interest
as well. Once again, this is the fight
against corruption and the strengthening
of party discipline. The first one is a separate
matter. It is precisely the orderliness
of the ranks of party comrades that
forms the basis on which the reign of the
chief Chinese Communist will be built.
In other words, party discipline and
cohesion implies the absence of any internal
opposition. Not only in the party,
but also in the state. Mao constantly
used such campaigns. Once it was the correction
of style, then the course of three
red flags, and later still, the Cultural Revolution.
Along with large campaigns,
there were smaller and less prolonged
ones. They were launched precisely when
some opposition emerged and the Great
Helmsman was beginning to feel his rule
threatened.
For the nation and the world, Comrade
Xi shows a merciless fight against
corruption. It is very much done for
public display and affects literally every
official and party functionary, up to
members of the Politburo.
It is true that corruption really has
penetrated into all spheres of the state
and party body politic. Fighting it was only
declared for a long time, as practically
nothing was actually done. Now Xi
shows that his friends are also under the
microscope of the law, and party comrades
are also under that of the relevant
discipline commission of the Central
Committee.
The campaign’s so-called frankness
is telling. Even the highest positions do
not guarantee protection. On the contrary,
probability of getting hit is higher
at the very top, as evidenced by severe
sentences, in particular those passed
against former members of the Politburo.
However, show trials, executions,
and other sentences of that kind have not
reduced corruption at all. The amount of
bribes and kickbacks has even grown, now
including a compensation for fear.
It turns out that it is not so easy to defeat
corruption, and therefore the people
and the party have been told that there is
need to give unlimited time and space for
secretary-general Xi to govern. After all,
what reasonable person will oppose such
good intentions?
There is one problem with it, though.
No country has ever succeeded in defeating
corruption by force and, moreover,
using authoritarian and totalitarian
means. Heads rolled, but the issue remained.
Most likely, the strengthening of
discipline and attacks on corrupt officials
will be used to strengthen the personal
power of Xi. Some now-dethroned corrupt
officials were until recently seriously
considered as possible successors of
Xi. The military’s top brass have been hit
as well, since authoritarian rulers and dictators
are always suspicious of their
army. Xi knows perfectly well that Chinese
generals and marshals once in fact
hid Deng at a military base and did not
surrender him to Mao’s spies. Judging by
the fact that the fight against corruption
is a widespread effort, it will continue to
be used primarily as a way of confronting
political and personal adversaries.
No one ever steps in the same river
twice. The current China is very different
from the nation it was late in Mao’s
reign. The near future will tell how successful
will Xi prove to be in the implementation
of his plans. One thing is
clear: all this is only very distantly related
to the declared fight against corruption.
● “THE CHINESE
GOVERNMENT USES ITS
POWERS WELL”
Andrii HONCHARUK, a Sinologist,
expert at the National Institute
for Strategic Studies:
“China is a country in which the
Confucian idea of government was present
already a millennium ago, and the
supreme power was never limited by
anyone in that country. The emperor
was the son of heaven and his power was
greater than that of any other monarch
in the world. It can be compared only with
the power of the pharaoh in ancient
Egypt. But precisely because such a system
of government existed for so many
years, it created constraints within the
very power of the emperor.
“Turning to recent examples, there
were such emperors as Kangxi and his
grandson Qianlong who ruled for 60 years
each in the 17th and 18th centuries. Even
Elizabeth I was not in power as long as
these emperors. By the way, Qianlong resigned
the absolute power of the imperial
office out of respect for his grandfather,
soasnottoreignlongerthanhim.Thissystem
of internal constraints makes power
of any Chinese leader less than absolute.
“The Chinese government uses its
powers well. The most recent 40 years was
a unique period in the history of China,
when Deng initiated, in order to eliminate
the negative effects of Maoism, a legal
term limit for the chairman of the PRC’s
time in power. Four generational changes
have occurred since, and over the years,
the country has grown so much stronger
and more developed that such a purely
formal constraint has become unnecessary.
Therefore, it is inappropriate to say
that we are witnessing elimination of
some democratic norms regarding the
functioning of state power in China. After
all, if we look at the Western world,
democracy in Europe is only 400 years
old, and 200 years old in the US. State
power in China is at least 3,000 years old.
One should not consider changes in the
Chinese government through the prism
of the ideas of Europeans and Americans
about what power is.
“I would like to remind you that Xi’s
predecessor Hu Jintao sat next to him at
the presidium of the 19th Congress of the
Communist Party of China and during the
most recent session of the National People’s
Congress. And Hu’s own predecessor
Jiang Zemin also sat next to Xi, thus
demonstrating that it was not about the
concentration of power in one man’s
hands, but about sending a completely
transparent signal, directed not outside,
but above all towards the internal situation
in China, and telling people that the
changes being introduced today under Xi
will stay for a long time, that it will not
be possible to sit it out. After all, the fight
against corruption was a campaign before,
but it has become a policy now.”

6
No.16 MARCH 15, 2018
CULT URE
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
By Hanna PAROVATKINA
Photo replicas by Ruslan KANIUKA,
The Day
The exhibition “(R)evolution of a
Myth: the Transformation of
the Kobzar Culture in the 19th-
21st Centuries” offers an
unprecedented new look at the
events it covers, and at the same time,
debunks the myths... Who were they –
kobzars, lirnyks, and bandurysts?
How did they differ from beggars?
And were they really a closed
brotherhood with a strict code of
behavior, initiation rites, and even a
secret language? How did folk singers
become the object of interest in the
19th century? What role did Taras
Shevchenko play in this? Why is he
called the Great Kobzar and how did
he become the center of the myth
about folk singers? Why did the
Soviet authorities consider the
kobzars a threat and try to eliminate
them as a phenomenon, preserving the
form, but destroying the substance?
Scholars of the Taras Shevchenko
National Museum attempted to
investigate these and other issues.
This project lasted for about two
years. It is being presented at the
exhibition “(R)evolution of a Myth:
the Transformation of the Kobzar
Culture in the 19th-21st Centuries,”
which was launched recently in the
museum building at Shevchenka
Boulevard.
“A contemporary, modern perception
of the kobzar culture is taking
shape in Ukraine right now,” asserted
the joint curator of the exhibition
(along with Anastasia Aboliesheva)
Viktoria Antonenko, “and because the
process is still incomplete, we can see
How to debunk myths?
Taras Shevchenko National Museum offers a revolutionary
new approach to history of the Ukrainian kobzar culture
manifestations of the familiar Sovietera
faux Ukrainian folk art in the mass
culture. At the same time, modern
artists mix the ‘high’ kobzar tradition
with music done in modern styles.
Meanwhile, such people as, for example,
Kost Cheremskyi, a researcher
and practicing musician from the
Kharkiv Kobzar Guild, or Volodymyr
Kushpeta, try to revive that tradition
as is – in a ‘pure’ form... The way the
kobzar culture will look like in the
21st century depends on us, ordinary
Ukrainians: on what kind of attitude to
it we will choose. It is precisely to help
us determine where we stand that the
Taras Shevchenko National Museum
created the exhibition ‘(R)evolution
of a Myth: the Transformation of the
Kobzar Culture in the 19th-21st Centuries.”
By the way, the exhibition’s
farthest and smallest room contains a
specially created video installation.
Out of the 40 videos, everyone can
choose the ones that suit them exactly.
And in this way, determine one’s own
attitude to the kobzar culture...”
Most of the display is located in
four museum rooms. The most surprising
viewer’s impression is that,
contrary to expectations, the “(R)evolution
of a Myth” is a conceptual, not
ethnographic exhibition. Its material
is mostly presented as texts, reproductions,
infographics, photos, etc.
The curators have foregone the
chronological approach as well. According
to their concept, the main
components of the image of a traveling
singer (kobzar, lirnyk) in Ukraine
are: a mediator, a transmitter, an
artist. It is these aspects, together
with the history of the kobzar culture
(especially in the 20th century), that
the authors of the exhibition explore.
They offer the viewer not ready answers,
but rather an interactive quest
exhibition, where the viewer acts as a
co-author of sorts.
“Interactivity” is understood also
in a literal sense in the museum. Most
exhibits are accompanied by a symbol
– a green-colored open palm. It signals
that one can and even should interact
with them. Having examined,
touched, read, and listened to bandura,
kobza and lyre, a copy of the
reprint edition of the Kobzar poetry
collection, etchings by Shevchenko
and his contemporaries (which feature
kobzars and bandurysts in the foreground
or background), an interactive
dictionary of the “Lebian language”
(the kobzars’ secret cant) and so on,
each viewer can draw their own conclusions
and see history in their own
way. In essence, this is a great intertext,
almost a real hologram that contains
the “whole” history of the
kobzar culture.
“We are always short of funds,”
said director of the National Museum
of Taras Shevchenko Dmytro Stus,
“therefore, unfortunately, a lot of
things had to be presented in a sketchy
way. But we tried to do everything we
could as best as we could. After all, we
should have long ago started speaking
TARAS SHEVCHENKO. ALL SAINTS CHURCH OF THE KYIVAN CAVE MONASTERY (1846) KOSTIANTYN TRUTOVSKY. A LITTLE RUSSIAN BANDURYST (1874-76)

WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
about the Ukrainian culture using
a new, modern scholarly language.
It is high time to part with the familiar
‘archaic’!”
“The (R)evolution of a Myth” is
an interesting and paradoxical exhibition.
Raising the question of the
“kobzar myth” is not the sole unexpected
development there. By themselves,
the ideas which the authors
of the project offer on almost every
problem they touch upon are impressive,
courageous, even shocking.
For example, they dared to
state their own views on Shevchenko’s
painting legacy, and offer
to look at his etchings “in a new
way.” Indeed, as the curator Antonenko
explains, “we look at them,
but do not actually see what is depicted
there, we do not notice kobzar
shapes in the background, do not
give a thought to why Shevchenko
portrayed precisely them in these
stories.” Just as risky, it seems, was
a public opinion survey commissioned
by the museum, which asked
the following question: who is a
kobzar in the opinion of contemporary
Ukrainians?
The most shocking move was
inclusion in the exhibition of a fake
“photocopy” of a 1930s newspaper
announcing a kobzar convention to
be held in Kharkiv. In this way, the
authors of the “(R)evolution of a
Myth” decided to counteract the
widespread myth (in the negative
sense of the term) of a kobzar convention
allegedly executed en
masse on Joseph Stalin’s orders
(based on that myth, the film director
Oles Sanin created the film
The Guide in 2014)...
“There is no documentary evidence
whatsoever! The story of the
‘kobzar convention’ is based solely
on oral testimony. However, in the
former USSR, even the repressive
apparatus was very bureaucratized,
everything was documented!”
emphasizes the historian, senior
researcher of the Taras Shevchenko
National Museum Oleh
Mahrich, who is yet another co-author
of the kobzar-themed exhibition.
“When creating our ‘photocopy’
of a Stalin-era newspaper, we
wanted to show how to create a
myth in one minute with the help
of Photoshop software! But the
point is that it distracts attention
from the real tragedy. Under the
Soviet regime, bandurysts,
lirnyks, and kobzars were being destroyed
year after year! And we
must talk about it, not about the
fictional ‘convention.’”
While working on the “(R)evolution
of a Myth: the Transformation
of the Kobzar Culture in the
19th-21st Centuries,” the museum’s
employees have clarified the
information regarding the fate of
all the kobzars, bandurysts, and
lirnyks of the Soviet period whose
names are still known. (Except
those who lived in the Kuban Region,
since information about them
is held in the archives of the Russian
FSB, which are still closed.) In
particular, they have investigated
the reliability of the famous list of
“72 repressed kobzars,” which has
long been spreading on the Internet.
It has turned out to be unreliable!
(According to Mahrich, only a
few names from it have been confirmed.)
On the other hand, many
of the kobzars whose names appear
in encyclopedias and reference
books without mentioning the repression,
were, as it turned out, repressed
and even killed by the Soviet
regime. The Taras Shevchenko
Museum created a new, reliable list
of repressed kobzars. It includes
43 names. One can get acquainted
with the sorrowful list at the exhibition
as well. If you ever come to
the museum, bow to their memory,
honor the fallen singers!
■ The exhibition can be seen
until March 18.
By Dmytro DESIATERYK, The Day,
Berlin – Kyiv
Polish film director Malgorzata
Szumowska (born in Krakow
on February 26, 1973) is a
favorite child of the Berlinale:
she won the Teddy Award from
the LGBT jury for the film In the
Name Of in 2013, followed by the
Silver Bear for Best Director for the
picture Body in 2015. This time, she
brought to the event a tragicomedy
provocatively named Mug (Twarz),
which tells the story of Jacek, a
handsome villager who has literally
lost her face: it became deformed after
he fell during the construction of a
tallest-ever statue of Christ. His bride
turns away from him, his mother
believes him to be possessed by the
devil, and children start teasing him
in the street.
Szumowska adheres to liberal, secular
beliefs, and her intentions are
quickly becoming apparent, as she
aims to ridicule dogmatic Catholic
morality, patriarchal parochial customs,
and unbridled consumerism.
She shows ordinary people in all the
unattractiveness of their simplicity,
ranging from a “naked” supermarket
sale scene in the prologue to xenophobic
jokes told at the dinner table; the
director does not spare clergymen either,
like in the scene of confession in
which the priest questions the young
sinner about the details of her sin.
And although it shows a lot of pain,
Mug is still a funny movie. It is funny
and angry.
After the festival premiere, Szumowska
met with the press.
Let us start from the very beginning
– from the film’s opening scene
in the supermarket. Is this an allegory
of capitalism in Poland?
“Absolutely, it is kind of an allegory
of what happened in Poland after
1989, it’s like a hunger for having material
things, for having money.
Maybe it will change in the new generation,
but still, something like this exists
in Poland. Here it’s somehow popular
on YouTube – those kinds of
films, where people are running because
something is on sale, like, for
example, crocs in Lidl, or wallets in
Biedronka, and then people get really
crazy about that. It’s a sign, it’s a
hunger that I have said about before,
which we still have, and I am also like
this, I’m afraid.”
The camera work in your movies
is incredible. Tell us a little more
about it.
“Michal Englert is not only a cinematographer,
Misza – we call him
Misza – is also a screenwriter. From a
very early stage we were working together.
I think the way we did this
film is also connected with the Polish
landscape, with the Polish painting
from the Romantic period. Also, we
wanted to create a movie which would
look a little bit like a fairy-tale, something
which is not only extremely realistic,
something which is a
metaphor – a metaphor of Poland
nowadays, but not only Poland, because
I think that kind of situation is
in many countries right now. But we
did not want to make a movie which is
a kind of publicystyczne, with the
journalistic tone. We wanted to make
something which is, I would say,
maybe more symbolic, but still, with
this ironical touch, not heavy. That’s
why we have chosen a special way of
filming.”
Talking about principal photography,
the makeup of Mateusz
Kosciukiewicz, who played the protagonist,
is also worth mentioning...
CULT URE No.16 MARCH 15, 2018 7
“People in Poland don’t know exactly with
which values they have to be identified”
Interview with Malgorzata Szumowska, winner of the 68th Berlin Film Festival Grand Prix
“Behind the mask, he was overacting,
something I somehow hate as a
director. And then the mask stopped
this, then everything concentrated
only in the eyes, and I think this is interesting.
But they spent like four
hours each day to do the makeup. It
was extremely tiring, but there was
also a funny story connected with
this, because the guy who prepared
the mask in London, said the longest
period that actor can stay in the mask
is seven hours, and of course in
Poland, we were shooting like fifteen
hours a day, and then Mateusz spent
fifteen hours each day in the mask.
And they could not believe that: ‘It is
only a Polish guy who could manage
it,’ you know.”
The story ridicules the village
community and religion a lot. Don’t
you think that the film will become
scandalous in Poland?
“(Laughs.) I don’t know. It’s very
hard to predict. Probably the opening
scene might be a little bit, I would say,
controversial, but probably not only
that one, but we also made this movie
with a big tenderness. I like my characters,
it’s not like I’m judging them
or I’m laughing at them. But what I
am doing, I’m showing how it is in
Poland, especially in province, where
people are living that way, but paradoxically,
they’re happy that they are
living that way, and they are proud of
living that way. And Catholic Church
still has a very big power in Poland. It
might be problematic, but I think in
general Polish people are like this,
they are reacting sometimes very
nervously to the critic of the Polish society.
We see what is going on now in
politics. Everything shows that problem
– that we can’t stand the criticism.
And what I am doing is I’m actually
putting the questions. But I
think that’s my duty to do that.
“Our protagonist was different in
the first part, and even more different
in the second. It’s about the difference,
about the ‘others,’ that society
is sometimes afraid of the ‘others.’
That’s the metaphor I wanted to show
somehow.”
What did you mean when introducing
the motive of the character’s
“Satanism” in the film?
“This we did as a kind of joke, because
it’s very often that the Polish
priests say such kind of things: ‘If you
are listening to metal music, you are
going to be punished by the God.’”
The depiction of exorcism in the
film is truly interesting. It is said that
there has been a boom in this area in
Poland over the last few years. Could
you tell us a bit more about it? Also,
what about the scene where the mother-in-law
is afraid that her daughter
might bear children who will end up
looking like the protagonist. How
widespread are these views in Poland,
or have you exaggerated it?
“If I exaggerate? No. We did the
research, and some numbers are very
shocking: how many exorcisms are
done each year in Poland. I can’t tell
you now those numbers, but you can
google, and I think there’s really a
bunch of them. I mean, it’s very popular,
and from one year to another
there are more and more priests-exorcists
in Poland. It’s a little bit ridiculous,
but that’s exactly like it is: people
believe in exorcism, people believe
in this kind of rituals, it’s crazy somehow.
You can check on YouTube –
they are existing in movies filmed by
iPhones. That’s why we are using the
iPhone by kind of a real exorcism.
Then, I’m not exaggerating, I think.
Another question – that the woman is
afraid that the kids will be born with
the face – yes, it sometimes happens
that people say such strange things.
Some people are not very educated, I
would say, and they really believe in
that kind of strange combination.”
We talked about possible reception
of this film in Poland, and I now
wonder, who is going to give you money
for your next film?
“(Laughs.) Germany. I count on
Germans, but to be honest, I’m a little
bit worried, of course – you never
know, somehow. There are big
changes in the Polish film industry,
but they are just going on now, then
it’s hard to say what they’ll bring exactly.
I think this film might create
kind of tension in Poland, I’m sure.
But I’m also sure that probably the
conservative wing won’t be very happy
with the movie, but I’m still
counting on that maybe it will be still
space to make frank free cinematography.
Let’s see what the next
month, the next year will bring.
That’s what I can say.”
This film features prominently
the idea of the crisis of personality.
When you were writing the screenplay,
did you think about it?
“Yeah, we just whispered about
this: about identity, about losing
REUTERS photo
identity, about problems with identity
nowadays in the countries like
Poland. Because Poland is a very different
country than France or whatever,
because it’s really fresh –
25 years of democracy is not a lot,
and mentality is really structured by
what happened in the past. Nowadays,
people don’t know exactly with
which values they have to be identified.
It’s very hard to find a mirror
for the society, it’s very hard to find
a balance. Also there is a new society
in Poland, the middle class, something
which never happened before –
it’s created now. And probably my
next movie is going to describe the
Polish middle-class society, which is,
I think, completely in-between: they
really don’t know if they are
Catholics, or if they are not
Catholics, if they are still attached to
the Church or not, still attached to
the tradition or more attached to Europe
– it’s the problem of identity, I
would say.”
Back to the perception of the other.
Mug’s characters are almost
mocking Muslims and Roma. Is not
Poland losing its face because of this
film?
“No, I don’t think, actually. It’s
losing totally its face, because it’s a
bias as I said. I am talking about these
people with some kind of tenderness,
I am not judging them. There are
those kinds of behavior in each society,
not only in Polish society. But I
would say it’s my kind of duty to describe
Poland nowadays with all problems
we have. We have strong problems
with the others and we are very
afraid of unknown, then why not to
picture that? But I don’t think I am
blaming Polish people that they are
making such jokes. You know, there
are so many people making such jokes,
it’s not very good, of course. But I can
tell you, the Polish society is strong.”
Can we say that the fate of the
protagonist is a generalization of the
fates of people with disabilities, or
does he exist to provoke the response
of his environment? After all, this is a
completely new dimension for most
viewers.
“Absolutely, yes. We concentrated
on how people react to him, not on
his story. We chose that on purpose,
absolutely. Thank you very much, because
that’s exactly what we wanted
to give to the people.”

8
No.16 MARCH 15, 2018
TIMEO U T
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
By Maria CHADIUK, The Day
“We have a highway in Kyiv – an
archeological one so far,”
Jacek Gorski, director of the
Krakow Archeological Museum,
said, opening the exhibit
“Archeology of Highways.” He specially
arrived to attend its opening at the National Art
Museum of Ukraine.
● 14 YEARS OF WORK, OVER 170 SITES
The project is called so because it gave an impetus
to archeological research which resulted in
an exhibit that is very far from the historical science
– the construction of a highway. Deciding
to lay the A-4 section that links Krakow with
Tarnow and passes through one of ancient Europe’s
most populated areas, the Poles did not
forget about their historical legacy on these
lands. Accordingly, they set up the Krakow
Group of Highway Research which carried out
“rescue research during the construction of the
A-4 in Lesser Poland voivodeship.”
This rescue research was really of a large
scale: 14 years of work, over 170 archeological
sites with a total area of more than 200 hectares,
with items dating back to the Upper Paleolithic.
Gorski emphasizes: “It was possible to
achieve a great success in these large-scale
archeological explorations only because three
centers of archeology – the Jagiellonian University’s
Institute of Archeology, the Institute
of Archeology and Ethnography of the Polish
Academy of Sciences, and the Archeological Museum
in Krakow – made a joint effort and
reached agreement.” It is a rare occasion indeed
when two roads – a highway and a historical
path – were being built at the same time.
By Maria SEMENCHENKO
Illustrations courtesy of the Bratske
Publishing House
Asmilingred-wingedbutterflyholdsayellow
flower. In front of him, there are a tiny
teapotandtwoteacups,renderinghimfully
prepared for a pleasant tea party. Nearby,
one can see a butterfly girl with lilaccolored
wings and a playful hair bow, she brought a
cake to the event. These two postcards were designed
by the artistKaterynaStepanishchevafor a charitable
project aimed to support children who suffer from a
rare genetic disorder called the epidermolysis bullosa.
Such children are also called “butterflies.”
“Before joining this project, I never heard
anything about the epidermolysis bullosa, or even
about the orphan diseases in general,” Stepanishcheva
told us. “By making these postcards, I
wanted to bring a sense of comfort, joy, and sunny
atmosphere which should fill every child’s day.”
Apart from Stepanishcheva, the artists Marta
Koshulynska, Dasha Rakova, and Ania Khromova
worked on the postcards, and the Bratske Publishing
House will release these postcards very soon. There
will be five of them in the set. All proceeds of the sale
will go to the Debra-Ukraine Foundation, which cares
for children diagnosed with this disorder.
“The idea of the project arose after I communicated
with the dermatologist Liudmyla Derevianko.
I turned to her for help with some issues of
my own and learned in a conversation that there were
such butterfly children. I also learned that both she
Main treasures
● THE PAST IN TODAY’S VERSION
A postcard for
a “butterfly”
The Bratske Publishing House is preparing
a charitable project aimed at helping children
who suffer from a rare genetic disorder
and her granddaughter Yeva were helping the Debra-
Ukraine Foundation. It was enough to look at the foundation’s
webpage to understand the condition of
these children,” The Day’s reporter heard from Oksana
Lushchevska, a writer, translator, and researcher of
children’s literature who came up with the idea of this
charitable project. “I did a series of postcards with the
Bratske Publishing House before, with the proceeds
used to buy books for children of the Donbas. That series
sold well. Therefore, I decided that postcards could
be used to convey information about this orphan disease
as well.”
Doctor Derevianko, who is a dermatologist,
Class 1 physician, candidate of medical sciences, and
president of the international NGO Dermatologists for
Children, noted that the epidermolysis bullosa was not
even a single condition, but a rare group of inherited
disorders.
“Doctors have already described about 30 types of
it, all featuring a genetic defect bringing about a lack
of the necessary components for normal functioning
Photo by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day
The exhibit “Archeology
of Highways” shows
how to discover history
while building the new
As if to emphasize the rightness of this approach,
fate presented archeologists with a happy
find – a treasure from Aleksandrovychi, which
dates back to 800-700 BC. It includes about
50 decorations: bracelets, hairpins, pendants,
buttons, and breast collars. What is more, these
items are not local – they come from the remote
areas of Northern and Southern Europe. Scientists
believe it is the treasure of a family that was
placed high in the hierarchy of that society.
Yet this is not the oldest monument displayed
at the exhibit. An ancient village aged
7,000 years was found in Brzezie, east of
Krakow. Remnants of 26 so-called long houses
of the skin, such as collagen and other proteins,” she
continued. “Children with such a disorder do not
gain weight, and they usually have all their organs
and systems functioning poorly. They suffer from
anemia, have ulcers appearing practically everywhere:
on the skin, on the mucous membranes of the
internal organs, in the oral cavity, eyes, respiratory
tract... Because of this fragility of the skin, they
are called butterfly children. Even a mother’s
touch, which is usually healing, causes pain for a patient
who has this disorder. These children need,
above all, special dressings. They are very expensive.
The family of one of our worst-affected patients has
to spend 13,000 hryvnias per day on these dressings.
Also, this is a very painful condition. The government
is unable to cover all necessary expenses incurred
in supporting such children. It provides some
funding, but it is not enough at the moment. Therefore,
the greater the awareness of the public about
the orphan diseases, the better. Even a small
amount of money can help. In addition, such children
need social support, inclusion.”
Stepanishcheva is confident that she will be able
to draw attention to this problem. “We all, meaning
the project’s participants, really want to support
the children and families who have been hit by this
genetic disorder. It seems to me that in such a situation,
it is very important to understand that you
are not alone and there are people who care about
you,” explained the artist. “With these postcards,
we aim to reach the hearts of people, as well as convey
all our love to the butterfly children and to say
in this way that they have friends in everyone who
will join the project.”
THESE TWO POSTCARDS WERE DESIGNED BY KATERYNA STEPANISHCHEVA FOR A CHARITABLE PROJECT AIMED AT SUPPORTING AILING CHILDREN
with a brushwood superstructure were found.
Polish researches even reconstructed such a
house by means of computer technologies, which
you can also see at the exhibit. For one more particularity
of the “Archeology of Highways” is
that the past is presented in a modern way here.
In addition to objects, such as vessels, decorations,
etc. there are a lot of computer and photo
reconstructions of people, weapons, houses,
wells, and potter’s ovens.
Natalka Voitseshchuk of the Rescue Archeological
Service, curator of the exhibit in
Ukraine, outlined the importance of “Archeology
of Highways” as follows: “The exhibit is
greatly valuable because every spectator can not
only see a found object, but also read its history
and the interpretation of archeologists. These
objects ‘revive,’ for we can learn where they
came to Krakow’s outskirts from and how they
were used. Thanks to Polish archeologists, we
can also see reconstructed settlements and
clothes of the ancient inhabitants of Krakow’s
outskirts and have a clear idea of the way people
lived thousands of years ago.”
● “THE MAJORITY SEE ARCHEOLOGY
THROUGH THE PRISM OF ‘INDIANA
JONES’”
Another important detail: this exhibit also
plays the role of a photo report on how the excavations
were carried out. Yet, as Oleh OS-
AULCHUK, director of the research center
“Rescue Archeological Service” of the Institute
of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of
Ukraine, emphasizes, they failed to record
everybody and everything. “This exhibit is a
fruit of the hard and invisible work of dozens,
hundreds, of Polish archeologists. They are not
always on photographs. That’s why the majority
see archeology through the prism of ‘Indiana
Jones,’” Oleh says.
The exhibit thus raises another important
question: what does the work of archeologists really
consist of? “On the day the exhibit was
opened, I had an opportunity to hear a very interesting
expert discussion at a roundtable with
participation of Ukrainian and Polish specialists.
I am glad that this discussion made it possible
to exchange opinions, particularly about various
problems archeologists come across in their
work. It is very important to exchange experiences,”
Emilia Jasiuk, an advisor to the Polish
ambassador to Ukraine, said.
Indeed, “Archeology of Highways” has seen
16 Polish cities since 2011 and was shown in
Lviv last year. It is going to Poltava and Dnipro
soon. The exhibit can be an excellent occasion for
a joint discussion, exchange of knowledge, and
cooperation between Ukraine and Poland. As a
representative of Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (the exhibit is being held in Ukraine under
the auspices of this ministry and the Embassy
of Poland), pointed out, it is one of the
ways of cultural diplomacy. This dialog is also of
great importance to the National Art Museum.
Its director Yulia LYTVYNETS confesses: “We
were looking forward to this international project.
It is rather symbolic for our museum which
used to be archeological. Now, more than 100
years on, archeology is on our premises again.”
So this exhibit arouses not only Polish, but also
Ukrainian history.
● ETHICAL DUTY TO SOCIETY
In general, “Archeology of Highways” convincingly
proves that history is right beneath
our feet. One can just incase it in concrete, due
to laziness or the wish to grudge money for research,
and create something run-of-the-mill,
of which there are thousands in the world. But
one can also take a longer way – touch the
depths and uncover the secrets of our own past.
This will result in unique objects which, incidentally,
specialists and the public are only beginning
to discover. For several more volumes
of the “Via Archeologica” series launched by
the Krakow Highway Research Group are to be
published shortly. Only then, as Polish researchers
point out, will “the group do its moral
duty to society.”
As for us, all we can do is hope that this approach
will be also taken to Ukrainian historical
objects, particularly on Poshtova Square in
Kyiv, and they will show the world a more that a
thousand-year history of the Ukrainian state.
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