Recent political events have for an umpteenth time created a halo of haplessness around Kharkiv. For several weeks the world has been discussing the Kharkiv agreements between Ukraine and Russia. It was precisely then that, permeated with the bitterness of the notorious deals, we planned to hold our newspaper’s day in Kharkiv. Our idea turned out to be very symbolic.
Kharkiv residents (who in all fairness are not deprived of cultural events), were looking forward to meeting Den/The Day impatiently. Evidence of this can be found on numerous Kharkiv Internet forums which began discussing the event a week before it actually happened.
The city has hosted our newspaper’s projects since 2007, when the spacious Avek Gallery housed The Day’s photo exhibit, and Karazin Kharkiv National University hosted a presentation of The Day’s publishing projects, as well as a meeting of the Ostroh Club for Young People’s Free Intellectual Exchange.
This year’s photo exhibit Den 2009 was opened by Larysa Ivshyna and Vil Bakirov (who had invited Den). The opening took place in the university library entrance hall and was accompanied by the string quartet of Ivan Kotliarevsky Kharkiv University of Arts, specially invited for the occasion. The musicians related that they had not seen such sincere emotions in their audience for a long time. The photo exhibit will remain open at the library till May 28.
Kharkiv also became yet another city to join The Day’s project, initiated by its readers, Present Your School with The Day’s Library. The Kharkiv members of the Ostroh Club Daria Vorobiova and Denis Podiachev presented their alma maters with books, as did a young entrepreneur Yurii Zhukov. Karazin University also received books from the Oleksandr Feldman Foundation.
“We are privileged and honored to make this contribution to modern education jointly with The Day. At the meetings of the Ostroh Club we saw that one should know, learn, and revise what is written in these books. There is no better teacher for Ukraine than its own history. I invite everyone to join The Day’s readers in the Present for Your School action,” said Vorobiova as she presented some books to her alma mater, Gymnasium No. 6 in Kharkiv.
However, as our readers will know, the real “soil probe,” i.e. acquaintance with the Kharkiv resident’s sentiments, their thoughts and ideas, begins at The Day’s reader conferences and meetings with its editor in chief. It was at one of such meetings that the Kharkivites shattered the myth of Kharkiv as a stronghold of anti-Ukrainian feelings.
The students, academics, and intellectuals of the city have a fairly good idea of what is going on in the country, and assess these processes adequately. The conversations mostly rotated around history, culture, and education rather than politics, and were concentrated on the core problems, which is what The Day has always encouraged.
For instance, the idea of a Ukrainian Culture and Language Club came up, presented by Viktoria Skliarova. Another one concerned ethnographical and ecological tours in the Kharkiv region – in line with The Day’s Rout No.1 (implemented quite a long time to go). The problems of secondary education – so vital for the students of Skovoroda Kharkiv Pedagogical University, also featured on The Day’s pages. In The Day’s upcoming issues we will share more details on it, as well as on the feedback and impressions from our newspaper’s day in Kharkiv.
And a short note in conclusion. Telling Kharkiv residents about The Day’s project, Ivshyna remarked that “for journalism, history always matters more than current politics.” These words should be taken as good advice – not only by Ukrainian journalists, but also by the entire Ukrainian society. In this case, Kharkiv is a vivid and vital example for Ukrainians. The city is, first and foremost, an important cultural, academic, and historical center which gave both Ukraine and the world Petro Hulak-Artemovsky, Leonid Bykov, Volodymyr Sosiura. It should be seen as more than just the first capital of Soviet Ukraine or the site of some odious deals.
