Television’s interest in historical topics is wandering over from the print media, above all The Day with its regular columns “Ukraine Incognita” and “History and I,” and our newspaper’s Library Series.
The transmission of historical ideas and knowledge to the coming generations shapes a nation’s future. Let me illustrate this with an example recounted by a friend of mine. After visiting the Holodomor exhibit at Ukraine House, a girl wrote the following entry in the guest book: “Serves you Ukrainians right.” She signed herself as a 7A-class pupil at Kyiv’s School No. 219. This raises a few questions. First, who does this young creature think she is in Ukraine? Second, how is history being taught in Ukraine? And, third, what is the overall situation in our society?
One of the factors that cause political and moral nihilism and ignorance is the failure to look impartially at history. There are too many things that form this attitude. Therefore, words and the mass media’s stance are of paramount importance for society. The Day asked our experts a rhetorical question, “Why does a journalist need a sound knowledge of history?”
Serhii ARKHYPCHUK , stage director:
“I am reading the book Riffraff from the Jewish Market, which is set in 1941-43. In one fragment, a boy, who is forever visiting the market, always meets a man who buys him sweets, leads him down the streets of Kyiv, telling him about the history of buildings, architectural monuments, and streets. The boy discovers a new Kyiv for himself. I think most Ukrainian journalists need this kind of ‘guide’ to Ukrainian history because nihilism and indifference are showing up in everything, not just with respect to history. For example, a TV channel once announced: the Donetsk Theater of Operetta and Ballet. If only that were a slip of the tongue! This also applies to geographical names and the conjugation of verbs. This is proof that the overall cultural level of a journalist does not often rise to the occasion. In other words, ‘if we studied the way we should, we would be wise.’
“We are living in a situation where career advancement and the struggle for a place in the sun are of paramount importance. This is all too obvious in any field. A philosopher called the 20th century the age of egoism and egoists, while the 21st century may be an era of egoism and egoists squared or even cubed. Egoism and insolence often appear in place of knowledge, competence, awareness, and depth. So of course it is good that there are more and more historical programs on television and articles on history in the press. This can be called public adult education. If you take recent Ukrainian history, for example, an important role in the formation of the UPA was played by libraries, public reading rooms, and amateur theatrical societies. In the absence of radio and television, these factors, as well as schools, were instrumental in the shaping of a confirmed patriot. Therefore, everyone, especially journalists, needs self-education.”
Ihor SLISARENKO , TV journalist, 5th Channel:
“‘He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.’ This party slogan of the society of the future, which George Orwell prophetically described in 1946, is today a guide for action. Do you remember when the US president organized an extravagant event in 2004 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in an effort to convince everyone that the world should thank none other than the US for defeating Nazism, and that the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are morally justified? ‘Bush and Hollywood are shamelessly trying to hammer home that it was the American Private Ryan, not the Ivans, who won the war,’ a US professor of history wrote.
“In a recent issue of the New York Review of Books ex-ombudsman Sergei Kovalev, an uncompromising opponent of President Putin, still gives the Russian leader credit for his statist line in the interpretation of recent Russian history. ‘While Brezhnev’s policy emphasized the tragic side of the war, Putin stresses the majestic Russian victory in World War II,’ Kovalev writes. I must admit that Putin has truly reunited the Russians by means of official history, without dividing them into ‘bad’ and ‘good’ depending on their color in revolutions and the Civil War. He was even ready to visit the graves of General Vlasov’s soldiers in Prague. Putin recently told teachers how to teach history: first of all, ‘not to dance the polka’ for foreign grants. On Putin’s side is mass culture, which puts out the flag-wrapped products of the pop group Liube, Fedor Bondarchuk, and Gosha Kutsenko.
“Meanwhile, our politicians never tire of splitting the nation on a historical basis: either you are ‘for the Reds’ or ‘for the Banderites’; either you are a ‘nationalist’ because you recognize the Holodomor as genocide or an ‘internationalist’ because you uphold the claim about the ‘excessive requisition of grain.’ The mass media turn to national history only when another red-letter date is in the offing — only on the condition that this is accompanied by a photo opportunity for top-ranking officials. Reporters’ heads are either littered with the opuses of liberal political writers, who moan about repentance for the Soviet past or they are not exactly overburdened with knowledge (‘the editor told me to develop a program’).
“The prime minister always tries to avoid the key points of Ukrainian history unless there is an urgent need (did he speak at least once about the Holodomor or the UPA?). The president is only reinforcing the resistance of his opponents with his pious intentions and, unfortunately, spontaneous and ill-considered steps (very often one step forward and two steps backward) and because of the lack of a clear-cut plan of action. We no longer demand that the world recognize the Holodomor as genocide because we buckled under pressure from Russia, the US, Britain, and Israel. The president habitually complains that not a single good feature film has been made about the Holodomor and the war. Four years ago the American superstar Mel Gibson wondered in an interview why the world did not know about the Ukrainian Holodomor. He has still not been invited to Ukraine, although when I told some high-ranking officials about it, they cried at the top of their lungs that they would. Gibson’s film Braveheart literally raised the spirits of the Scots and marshalled respect for them all over the world. I think that if this director found out more about the Holodomor in Ukraine, he would surely make a film and rouse our national feelings and national pride.”
Ihor MIROSHNYCHENKO, TV journalist, ICTV:
“We should be united as a nation. If, for example, Israel does not recognize the Ukraine Holodomor as genocide, that is of little importance to us. In my opinion, it is more important for us that all Ukrainians finally recognize the Holodomor as genocide. So questions, such as ‘How should history be taught in schools and universities?’ and ‘How should historic dates and events be marked on an official level?’ should be primarily addressed to the state. Journalists should also be asked how to mark historic dates and events on a public level. If you watch the national television channels, you will see that they are mostly filled with entertainment programs. As a rule, they capitalize on the absence of taste in the greater part of society rather than inform and educate it. Naturally, there are some interesting information and educational programs, but they are usually shown late in the evening or at night. This is pulling the wool over the eyes of the National Television and Radio Council: look, the percentage of these programs is still high.
“In the meantime we have a state that is experiencing difficulties. But everything depends on us and each one of us should begin with himself or herself. One time, when I was watching a program about the civic organization Don’t Be Indifferent, I hit upon the idea of making business cards reading ‘I don’t tip waiters who speak Russian.’ I have often seen waiters who at first welcome the customer in Ukrainian but then promptly switch into Russian if the diner begins to speak this language. I don’t mind it, but it very seldom happens the other way round, although they usually have a good command of the Ukrainian language. Is this a habit or an inferiority complex? It is both of these things. So I not only don’t tip them without any explanations, I leave a card explaining my position. I saw the staff of a restaurant holding a meeting when they picked up a card like this. And I overwhelmingly thank waiters who speak to me in Ukrainian: I encourage them with words and tips.”
Oleh KLYMCHUK, editor, First National Channel:
“A journalist should disseminate knowledge that corresponds to historical facts — this will help form a sound opinion about a certain event. But this is quite difficult to do in our society today. This is due to many factors. Take the Ministry of Education. When you read history schoolbooks, the impression is that they were written outside Ukraine. My child is in seventh grade. They studied some Ukrainian history in the fifth grade and were told in sixth grade that they would continue to do so in seventh. But there is no subject like this year either: it may be taught next year. This is unbelievable! And this is a general education school with pretensions: it calls itself a college.
“So, getting back to history schoolbooks, I will say that left- wing political forces are trying to influence their content. In my view, communist ideology must be banned in Ukraine, as it is in some countries. We, Ukrainians, have tasted it in practice. I was told about the Holodomor by my grandparents (I come from western Ukraine). They recalled collecting relief supplies, loading bags, taking them to the railway station, and sending them to Soviet Ukraine. The supplies would be returned: they were told there was no famine there. Incidentally, today’s schoolbooks do not say how many lives this tragedy claimed. The statistical materials are partly here and partly in Moscow. The subject is very little researched. Of course, there may be a lot of speculations on this question, but a journalist should work with primary sources and eyewitnesses. Then he should add some commentaries from historians, for example. Only then will we have a more or less true picture of what happened.
“I occasionally watch history programs on TV and read The Day, which I think pays a significant amount of attention to history. But some news materials on television are very superficial. Our editorial office, as well as others, employs graduates from last year and the one before last. My impression is that they are not only ignorant about history, they can’t even write grammatically. Journalists don’t know their own country! Here is a real-life case: a correspondent is being sent to Volyn, so he is running his finger over the map in search of...the city of Volyn. Something should be changed in the system of education.
“Last year, when we honored the memory of the victims of the Holodomor and political repressions, our journalists went to Poltava oblast. They found a unique village where there are still some old men and women who witnessed that tragedy. They say, for example: so-and-so drove them out of the house and took away all their food. What was done to him? Nothing. On top of it, his daughter is now chairwoman of the village council! In other words, people think that nothing has changed. What happened was not condemned. But human memory is much stronger than that of historical eras. And these children’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren will remember that those who committed this are still unpunished. So, one way or another, this can happen again because the guilty always go scot-free.”
