Gogol

As we were discussing Taras Shevchenko, I was fascinated to learn he created over 1,000 pieces of poetry, paintings or sketches within three years! He was born a serf, became educated by his landowner Engelhart, was a painter’s apprentice, was forced to be a soldier and then purged to Siberia. In his short life, he had a huge impact on the way Modern Ukrainian language was viewed/used and his work is looked at. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language. Shevchenko also wrote in Russian and left many masterpieces as a painter and an illustrator.

Serfdom was abolished in Russia in 1861 by Tsar Nicholas II due to fear that peasants/serfs would revolt. He wanted to free them from the top instead of them rising up against the regime. Shevchenko died in 1861, and so I think it is interesting to question what type of other influences he may have had on Ukrainian culture if he had lived?

The Russo-Turkish Wars ended with the Ottoman Empire losing control in south-central Ukraine. Ukrainian writers and intellectuals were inspired by the nationalistic spirit stirring other European peoples and became determined to revive the Ukrainian linguistic and cultural traditions. The Russians imposed strict limits on attempts to raise Ukrainian language and culture, even banning its use and study. The most notable Russian writer of Ukrainian descent was Nikolai Gogol, for his work The Nose and The overcoat.

Nikolai Gogol was born in the Cossack village of Sorochyntsi, in the Poltava guberniya of the Russian Empire. In 1820 Gogol went to a school of higher art in Nezhin and remained there until 1828. It was there that he began writing. In 1828, on leaving school, Gogol came to Petersburg. He had hoped for literary fame and brought with him a Romantic poem of German idyllic life — Hanz Küchelgarten. He had it published, at his own expense, under the name of "V. Alov". Unfortunately it was met by the magazines with scorn. He bought all the copies and destroyed them, swearing never to write poetry again (http://www.theatredatabase.com/19th_century/nikolai_gogol_001.html).

Gogol is considered to be one of the first masters of short prose. His fictional story Taras Bulba, based on the history of Ukrainian cossacks, was the result of this phase in his interests and his heritage. During this time he also developed a close friendship with another Ukrainian then living in Russia, the historian Mykhaylo Maksymovych. While in early writings Gogol endowed Ukraine with cultural wholeness and a heroic past, his Russian depictions are austere and fractured.

Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky; the champion of the left literary critic called upon Russian literature “to serve the causes of justice for the disadvantaged and of progress toward a more open and democratic society”. Belisnky’s view on Gogol’s work such as the Overcoat, was that it was serving a just cause, that the underdog should rise up against the Russian Empire. Gogol however, viewed himself as a conservative and became devoutly religious. He saw his work as merely fiction and believed that the serf should stay the serf. It is interesting how two Ukrainian men could have such different impacts during their times.

For more information and literary work by Gogol:

http://www.selfknowledge.com/170au.htm

http://www.geocities.com/short_stories_page/gogolovercoat.html

Ivan Mazepa

As I was watching Roman Onufrijchuk's lectures on the Ukraine I was particularly captivated by the story of the Cossack Ivan Mazepa. Although I think Western audiences are more accustomed to thinking of the Ukrainian Cossacks as a band of totally unorganized rogues who pillaged and fought, my findings on Mazepa in the online Encyclopedia of Ukraine entirely contradicted this image. Apparently, Mazepa was a very organized and savvy Hetman, who sought not only to secure legal rights for the Cossacks, but to encourage within his Hetmanate an appreciation for literature, painting, and architecture. Indeed, the Encyclopedia of Ukraine states that some scholars now refer to the period of Mazepa's rule as the "Mazepa Renaissance" for its many advances in the humanities!

Most interesting to me were Mazepa's relations with Peter I of Russia. That a Cossack Hetman was even recognized by the Tsar, much less seen as a military and civil threat, indicates the magnitude of Mazepa's s sphere of influence. Mazepa and Peter I had initially formed an alliance, but it had become a burden on the entire Cossack population due to the Tsar's constant interference in their affairs and his exploitation of their labor. Soon, Peter I sought to abolish the Cossacks' status as "free agents" and to obliterate the Cossack order that bound the members together, assuming that Mazepa could not overpower him. Mazepa, however, began his own secret plotting with King Stanislaus of Poland and Charles XII of Sweden, forming an alliance that supported the independence of the Cossacks and their right to national self-determination. Moreover, Charles XII refused to make peace with Moscow until Ukraine and the Cossack lands were freed of Peter I's rule.

Unfortunately for Mazepa, the Russo-Swedish war, carried out on Ukrainian territories, resulted in a defeat for Charles XII, and Peter I was free to take his revenge on the Cossack dissenters. Russian forces captured Baturyn, Mazepa's capital, and massacred its 6,000 inhabitants. Peter I then began to persecute Mazepa's followers so that Mazepa, along with 3,000 of his loyal men, were forced to flee to Turkish-held territories. Mazepa's dream of an independent Cossack nation was extinguished.

Still, it amazes me that a little Cossack Hetman with some 10,000 men behind him managed to both battle and form alliances with some of Europe's greatest powers, and to be recognized by these powers as either a political equal or a serious military threat. This certainly speaks to Mazepa's skill as an orator, a politician, a military leader, and a statesman. And to think that he did all this not in the midst of a militant society, but as the head of a people who built Baroque churches, supported translations of the New Testament, and attended the Kyivan Mohyla Academy for higher learning!

If you'd like to learn more about Mazepa, here is a useful link:
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?AddButton=pages\M\A\MazepaIvan.htm

Ivan Franko, and the life of the Lviv writer

Along with Taras Shevchenko, there is another heralded Ukrainian writer, poet, and political hero of nearly ‘prophet’ status- especially so in western Ukraine; His name is Ivan Franko, and spent most of his life writing and working in the city of Lviv.

Born in eastern Galicia in1856 (former large territory of western Ukraine), his hometown of Nahuevychi is located in the modern-day Lviv oblast. Perhaps so, because of some of his German ancestry. Ivan’s family, thankfully placed him on the educational route in life, attending village and then monastic school, eventually attending the Lviv University where he studied Ukrainian language, literature, and philosophy. It is worth mentioning that he knew Taras Shevchenko’s poem “Kobzar” by heart in its entirety.

However, attending the University, he became heavily involved in socialism and socialist writing. He was arrested because of this and sent to prison for 8 months- in which he continued to write about socialism, including political satires. He studied the works of Karl Marx and began to organize workers’ unions in Lviv. He was kept under close government watch, even after his release. Franko’s passion only grew, while he continued to write and influence local political and social groups- for which he was arrested yet again. The University disenrolled him for the civil disobedience, but ironically, the University was re-named after Franko years after his death.

He moved back to Nahuevychi where much of his writing was done. Here, he translated many German writings, including those of Goethe. In addition to this, it seems that he wrote for countess journals and newspapers- much of it being political commentary. Interestingly, he even wrote about the life and works of Taras Shevchenko- whom he would later join in Ukraine’s highest literary echelon.

He married Olha Khorunzhynska in 1886, in the month of his 30th birthday. Yet again, his writings and collaboration with other political commentators in western and central Ukraine led to his third arrest and imprisonment. This pushed him to form the Ruthenian-Ukrainian Radical party with Mykailo Drahomanov, his writing compatriot from Franko’s days at Lviv University. Later, starting in 1891, he attended several universities, including Chernivtsi University in western Ukraine, and Vienna University in Austria. He was offered a job at Lviv University some time later, but was never able to work because of strong objection from the government leaders.

He continued to write, through which he continued with criticism of the Ukrainian Social Democracy and popular Marxist politics. He was quoted as saying that “Marxism was ‘a religion founded on dogmas of hatred and class struggle.’ His relationship with Drahomanov became strained through differing ideas, and the Radicl party he helped found eventually split in 1899. With the help of other Lviv political natives, he founded the more successful Ukrainian National Democratic Party the next year.

Franko was indeed famous, and perhaps even notorious while alive; especially amongst Ukraine’s educated and university-aged youth. He was celebrated for 25 years of influential writings in 1898, by the entire Ukrainian community of Galicia, and once again for his 40 years in 1913. He is considered by modern Ukrainian writers and language historians to have literally changed & permanently solidified the structure/style of Ukrainian language and writing (along with Taras Shevchenko and Lesia Ukrainka) into the form most speak and write today. Despite enjoying relative popularity during his life, Franko struggled to make a living for himself and his wife through his chosen path of work. The poverty in which Franko lived inspired Lviv students and political activists to purchase a house for him in the city’s center.

Writing until his death, he passed away with nearly nothing, with only admirers (no family) to attend his funeral in 1916.

However, simply knowing a timeline of the man’s life does not offer one the true understanding or motivation of Franko. Because of the vast number of his works, one can see that he did not live an easy life; He wrote in part to earn what money he could. It is quite remarkable that he chose to dedicate his life to spreading his philosophies on nearly every facet of Ukrainian life at the turn of the 20th century. He continually called for the lower class peasants, and Ukrainians as a whole people, to struggle against the existing order of life- of subservience and complacency with the national identity at the time. It is extensive and exhausting to attempt to read into his true thoughts on life at the time, but I believe that some insight may be gained by reading what Franko wrote on Politics, and his own Ukrainian nationality:

“…I never belonged to the faithful of that religion, and had the courage, amidst put downs and disregard, to bravely carry my flag of old-fashioned people-based socialism, which is based on ethic and humanistic cultivation of masses, a flag standing for general availability of education, science, critical thinking, human and national freedom. The flag does not stand for party dogma and despotism of its leaders; it does not represent the bureaucracy or parliamentary corruption, which would supposedly lead to the ‘bright’ future."
-spoken quote from Franko

"My Ukrainian patriotism – it is not a sentiment, not a national pride, it – a heavy yoke, placed by fate on my shoulders. I can tremble; I can quietly curse the fate, but I cannot throw down this bondage, cannot go look for another homeland, because then I would be loathed by my own conscience.”
-exerpt from Ivan Franko letter

(quotations from http://www.ukrainians.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=9 )


You can sense the frustration, in that he desires individual thought and judgment upon his own character- but still feels obligated to support the ‘Ukrainian’ cause. This slight bitterness could be a result of his poverty, or socioeconomic status- or, perhaps he formulated his ideas because of the government/leadership of the people at the time, and how they simply "put up" or dealt with their situation instead of taking a stand. Through this struggle, I believe, is why he fights so strongly to definitively change the political and moral fiber of the nations people.

Despite this, I find it incredible that during his life, Franko used his gifts not only to convey his serious messages about nationality and politics, but to craft poetry, prose, dramas, and also translations, on top of ethnography, folklore, history, esthetics, sociology, political economy and philosophy.

Information from:
Wilson, Andrew; The Ukrainians- Unexpected Nation pg 232.
http://www.languagelanterns.com/frankobio.htm
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/pages/F/R/FrankoIvan.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Franko

Chernobyl: How it happened!

Image courtesy of http://www.solocomhouse.com/chernobyl.htm

While an earlier poster noted what happened after Chernobyl, I thought learning exactly what happened that day would be interesting and informative. I wrote this because of my deep interest in this disaster. If you have any questions or comments about this, please contact me and I will do my best to answer them. If you have any questions about some of the details of the day, please let me know.  I used personal knowledge and wikipedia.org for most of my research. I tried to take what I learned and turn it into a more lemans version of what was on Wikipedia. 

The following is some of what happened leading up to and on April 26, 1986:

During the daytime on April 25th, reactor 4 was shut down for maintenance. This was a decision made in order to test the reactor's ability to generate power, even if the reactor were to lose power. The point of the test was to determine whether the turbines in the rundown phase could power the pumps while generators were being turned on. The test had previously been tried on a different reactor, with negative results. However, there were some improvements made and the staff felt a new test was needed.

The disaster started to buildup during the day on the 25th. Unexpectedly, a power station went out of line and reduced the power to the nuclear reactor by 50%. Although, this was still enough power, much of the day was spent trying to keep the power station from reducing power further. Because too much time was spent keeping the power station up, the day shift was over by the time they were ready for testing. Instead, the night shift was placed in charge of the test. While this would not be a problem in most places, the night shift staff was not well educated on nuclear reactors-- most had come from coal reactors. 

Throughout the night this uninformed crew worked on the tests. They continued to lower power to see if their theory was correct. However, because of their ineptness they were unable to see problems looming.  The new crew was unaware of the prior postponement of the reactor slowdown, and followed the original test protocol, decreasing power too rapidly. When the operators commaded a small power reduction, the the reactor powered dropped to 5% of what was expected. The operators believed that the rapid fall in output was due to a malfunction in one of the automatic power regualtors. In order to increase power, automatic rods were pulled out of the reactor beyond a safe level. This pullout caused a buildup of Xe-135, a type of xenon found in nuclear reactors. 

Not knowing how unsafe the conditions were, the plant workers began their experiment at 1:23:04 a.m. on April 26, 1986. Unfortunately, the unstable state of the reactor was not reflected in any way on the control panel, and it did not appear that anyone of the crew knew there was any immediate danger. The steam to the turbines was shut off and, as the momentum of the turbine generators drove the pumps, the flow of water decreased, thus decreasing the absorption of neutrons by the coolant. The turbine was disconnected from the reactor, increasing the steam level in the reactor core. As the coolant heated, pockets of steam formed, causing voids in the coolant lines. 

Thirty Four seconds later, the operators ordered a shutdown of the reactor, inserting all control rods--including the manually inserted ones that had been withdrawn earlier. The slow insertion speed, along with the flawed rod design which initially reduces the amount of coolant present meant that the shutdown increased the reaction rate. This caused the reactor to jump to ten times the normal operational output. The rods began to melt and steam pressure rapidly increased. This increase cause a large steam explosion. This caused part of the roof to blow off, allowing oxygen to rush in. This combined with the extremely high temperature of the reactor fuel and graphite started a graphite fire. The fire greatly contributed to the spread of the radioactive material to the outlying areas. 

While this is a detailed explanation of how the Chernobyl disaster occurred, it is definitely not the main story. The lack of information form the government and time delay in letting the citizens know is what is spoken about today. As mentioned earlier, a poster already went into great detail regarding these issues. 

Again, most of this information came from Wikipedia, and I would be more than willing to help with any questions you may have. This is an edit from the previous post, so one of the commenter, "MarkR" may also be of some help. 

Frantsuzsky Boulevard

In the XIX century, the Frantsuzsky Boulevard was the place to inhabit by the rich. It was uniquely desirable though, because of its undeveloped beauty. The rich titled their villas and country homes "dachas". The street was originally named Malofontanskaya Dorogo (which means "small fountain road"), but was renamed after Nikoli the Second's visit from France in 1902. As it began, however, this road was rather ugly until 1894 when Odessa got a new city engineer, Vasiliy Ivanovich Zuev, to transform the boulevard into a picturesque place to live. His vision included paving the road, making it the first tarred road in Odessa. One interesting fact is that when the Boulevard was being built, the city governor and wealthy philanthropist Grigoriy Marazli, refused to have part of his park cut away for the construction of the road. So, the Boulevard got its only turn to the right to avoid any damage to the park and its boundaries. The wealthy occupied this Boulevard until the Soviet Revolution when much of it was converted to a health resort with sanatoriums.

On this Boulevard sits the Champagne Factory, which is one of the oldest in Ukraine. In front of the factory is the Pioneer Children Monument. This monument symbolizes the Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union. This was a boy scout-like organization that was established by the USSR in 1922. Although membership was optional, almost all the children in the Soviet Union belonged to the organization for the duration of their childhood.

Another interesting attraction of the Frantsuzsky Boulevard are the cable cars that travel from the Boulevard to the beach. These cable cars are unlike those found in San Francisco, for the ride is in the air! This allows a spectacular view, while avoiding the steep hill between the Boulevard and the beach.

Volodymyr Ivasyuk

Volodymyr Ivasyuk was the "Elvis" of the Ukraine.  Before age 10 he could play the violin, piano and began writing his own music by age 15.  Also as a child he showed interest in poetry and art.

After that, the multitalented and intelligent Ivasyuk began to study medicine.  Sadly, he was kicked out of school because he and his fellow friends had tipped over a statue of Lenin.  

By his early twenties he had become famous both in the Ukraine and the entire Soviet Union where he won best song of the year in the entire Soviet Union two years in a row (Chervona Ruta in 1971 and Vodohray in 1972).

Then he moved to Lviv and became a doctor, and continued to create more songs/material, most of which were sung by Sofia Rotaru.

He then (as we heard about in class) at age 30 was hanging from a tree close to Lviv (possibly by the Soviets).

Vylkove - The Ukrainian Venice

After hearing about the “Venice of Ukraine”, I was interested in learning more about it. Unfortunately there is not much information in English about this town, so I would be happy if someone commented with links to some more information. Anyway…

Vylkove (Vilkovo) is located in southern Ukraine on the border with Romania. It is located in the Kilia part of the Danube River Delta. This area is a marsh. It was founded in 1775 (according to the pamphlet, 1746 according to the Vilkovo and Danube Biosphere Reserve link). The town has a series of waterways called “yeriks”, formed when people built up small islands for their houses from sediments. The waterways still exist and are navigated by boats, but there are also boardwalks and bridges for pedestrian traffic. There is an interesting People who live on the islands need to maintain them to prevent flooding and clear the trenches for boat traffic. The traditional boat is a “seagull” boat, used by the Cossacks. They are now called “herring boats” since they are used by local fishermen to catch Danube herring.

Vylkove has an interesting history because of its location. It was under Turkish rule for the first 66 years, then under Russian rule for 44 years, than divided by Turkey and Romania for the next 22 years. It switched between Russia (40 years) and Romania (21 years), and was under USSR rule before 1991, when it became an independent town of Ukraine.

Vylkove has two churches and one chapel, all named after St. Nicholas. One church is Lipovanian. Lipovans came to the area after they broke from the Russian orthodox church following reforms by Patriarch Nikon in 1654. Lipovans in Vylkove speak an archaic form of Russian and maintain their old religious practices.

The administrative center of the Ukrainian Danube Biosphere Reserve is located in Vylkove. This reserve supports over 950 plant species and nearly 260 bird species. It was declared a biosphere reserve in 1998, and in 1999 UNESCO included it in the network of biosphere reserves.

International Danube Day is on June 29 and has been celebrated three times in Vylkove. In 2007, the theme was “Celebrate the Danube cultures”. There was a bike tour through 17 Odesa settlements and a yacht that went from Odessa to Vylkove, passing through 270 km of the Black Sea coast and the Danube delta. On June 29, 2007, there was an open-air festival in Vylkove that attracted nearly 3000 people. More information and pictures from this festival can be found here, and information and pictures from the festival in 2006 can be found here.

Links:

Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve

Vilkovo and Danube Biosphere Reserve
Vilkovo pamphlet
Travel to Ukraine - Vilkovo