Valentyn NETUDYKHATA, culture studies specialist:
“In my opinion, Europe begins with national mentality. In this respect, Ukrainians differ from other Europeans (Germans, Frenchmen, Englishmen, etc.) in having an underdeveloped national dignity, honesty, and independence. These differences make us, to my mind, defenseless against other nations. For this reason our social structure is also unable to protect us, the Ukrainian people, from interference in our internal affairs. The Ukrainian people is instead a Eurasian people. Europe’s cultural boundary was obviously drawn along the Dnipro, and we are right on the boundary.
“The Ukrainian authorities keep our social life under such tight control that the already-formed positive sprouts (I mean the small part of our population that has already been living according to European standards for a long time) are paralyzed and wither. The patriotically-oriented and socially-active individuals cannot fulfill the tasks that the Ukrainian nation faces. Today, these European-oriented individuals should be given the chance to implement a social strategy aiming to bring Ukraine closer to Europe. I am convinced this will remain an open question unless they come to power. But they will not come to power unless the Ukrainian people change their mentality.
“I think, with due account of today’s social acceleration, we need a shorter time span: twenty years or so. We have already lived for ten years, trying to leave the House of Slavery. In my opinion, a situation like this will last for another ten years or so. The advent of strong leaders (and they are sure to come) will promote integration into Europe.”
Vadym SKURATIVSKY, writer:
“I would like to hear the question where Europe ends. It ends somewhere in the last century. For me personally, Europe ends in 1955, when a whole series of outstanding European writers, first of all, Thomas Mann, died. And, finally, the point is that a certain big intellectual European tradition has remained in the past. As to the modern West, it lives, to a considerable extent, on the dividends of its past. The drama of today’s Ukraine is that we are going to a Europe that no longer exists. Somewhere since the late eighties, when some characteristic publications appeared, for example, in the journal Vsesvit, Ukraine has been intensively reprinting the same texts that seem to constitute the original basis of old Europe, the Europe which began in the age of Charlemagne with the first intellectuals and blossomed so much in the first half of the now last, twentieth, century.
“I must say Ukraine has been printing these texts quite intensively, of course, in Ukrainian translation. And this is a big plus in the current situation. I cherish the hope that these texts will do their job in the long run. The range of these texts is very wide from Balzac to the great Toynbee’s History. Let us use these texts and enter the same intellectual space that these texts once identified.
“As to contemporary Europe, with its feminism, red and brown brigades, somewhat strange cinematography, and Americanized mass culture, I frankly don’t quite understand this Europe. I am afraid we will still accept its myths. But, on the other hand, there also is a certain truly liberal democratic or social democratic, organized legal and political space. Why not go there and go along a clearly legal and political path? But in terms of spirituality, I think we can go only to the European past.
“I see no figures on the modern European horizon to be absolutely reckoned with, except perhaps Pope John Paul II.”
