Is 15 years a lot of time when it flows so rapidly? When time flies as fast as it does in modern Ukraine, this length of time is not merely a lot, but as full of events as an ordinary person’s whole life.
One and a half decades ago, in the late summer of 2002, we had just completed our work on the first product of Den’s Library publishing project (none of the readers knew at the time that it was to be only the first fruit). We called it Ukraine Incognita. There was neither challenge nor paradox in the title, only a statement of the fact: Ukraine’s history, national identity, culture, and thus, to a large extent, its contemporary condition, remained unknown… to Ukrainians themselves. The idea of the book (and in fact, the whole of our publishing series which has been developing, spreading and growing deeper, and numbers 50 books of varying size by now which are equally important to us and our readers) was very clear: to open to Ukrainians our native country, its culture, beauty, uniqueness, its past with all its tragedies and impressive victories, its great people whom we must be proud of before the whole world.
It was not just the first desperate step, inspired by Larysa Ivshyna and our old friend and brilliant contributor, Professor Volodymyr Panchenko. It was, without exaggeration, Ukraine’s first civic history education project of this magnitude. That first fruit (which has gone through nine editions by now) was a swallow which made an intellectual spring: the books Two Rus’es, Wars and Peace, Day and Eternity of James Mace, The Power of the Soft Sign, Return to Tsarhorod, My Sister Sofia… and many other works which Den’s readers know and love. It was a “simple” (actually very difficult) idea: to bring under one cover all the best Ukrainian history-themed contributions to Den, since readers had to do with newspaper clippings up to that point.
Success comes with tenacity. Den works tenaciously, and therefore makes the path and strives up. By the way, and this is very important, we celebrate the 6th anniversary of a section of our newspaper’s website these days, which is absolutely not accidentally also called Ukraine Incognita. So, let us work and discover Ukraine for ourselves!
“AN EXAMPLE OF MODERN INFORMATION VOLUNTEERING FOR UKRAINE”
Volodymyr BOIKO, historian, Den’s contributor:
“Ukraine Incognita became a reality in the world of information twice: first when the print collection of this name was published, and then again after a dedicated section appeared on Den’s website. Both events had in common the day, the content, and the author’s idea, as both were attempts to offer one’s own, at times highly personal response to the challenges facing us and the country through accessible and proper means. The two also offered a way of expressing a civic position and helping like-minded people find each other and expand their circle. It is an example of modern information volunteering for Ukraine. As it turned out somewhat later, both initiatives took over the effort which should have to be done by the government. However, our government leaders had (and still have?) no time for it, as it did not fit their priorities and values. Still, there is the other side of the coin, since they could not spoil the initiative either. Thus, Ukraine Incognita is at the moment the nation’s best collection of popular texts dealing with the past of Ukraine, its culture and major figures. This is a phenomenon that lives on its own, and, apparently, that life is much more diverse than it seemed at the beginning.”
