Once again the residents of Kyiv are in an uproar over Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko’s plans to rebuild some of the churches destroyed during the Soviet period. According to his information, there are over 30 sites in Kyiv, where churches were torn down in 1935-1937. Omelchenko says that in the coming years the Church of Saint Elias the Prophet will be rebuilt on Zhylianska Street, the Church of the Presentation on Lvivska Ploshcha, and St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv’s Pechersk district. Of course, the city fathers have never shelved their plans to rebuild the Church of the Tithes, a project that has caused the greatest hulabaloo. The Day decided to get to the bottom of the architectural, financial, and religious aspects of rebuilding destroyed churches. What exactly are we rebuilding? Who will benefit from this? Do the faithful really need these rebuilt churches, and will they embellish the city? Or perhaps the city fathers would do better by focusing on other, more pressing, problems?
“Rebuilding churches that were destroyed in the Soviet period is not a bad thing to do,” says Mykola Parkhomenko, first deputy head of the Ukrainian Association for the Protection of Monuments, adding, “Or rather, it would be a good thing if there were no other problems. For example, I have never obtained the funds needed for repairs to the Kyivan Cave Monastery National Preserve. Several dozen houses in the Pyrohove Museum of Folk Architecture and Lifestyle are falling apart. Funding for their repairs was not provided in the current or last year’s budgets. They are not in next year’s budget either. Meanwhile, Pyrohove is one of Ukraine’s most popular museums. Numerous sites are in dire need of funds, and under such conditions it is not very wise to start any new construction. Rebuilding the Church of the Tithes alone will carry a price tag of 100 million hryvnias.”
However, in the case of this church, money is not the only issue. The problem is no one knows with any certainty what the original church built by Prince Volodymyr looked like. Moreover, it was rebuilt a number of times — no one knows how many times or how it changed.
Architects have concluded that it is only possible to build a new church on the foundations that have survived to this day and call it the Church of the Tithes. As was to be expected, no public opinion polls about this were conducted in Kyiv. However, all the organizations that deal with architecture and monuments have spoken out against the construction. “We do not know what it was like. Dozens of architects have proposed their reconstruction designs, and each of them is right in his or her own way...We are rebuilding an adulteration,” says Hlib Ivakin, deputy director of research at the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences. Furthermore, the construction of this church may lead to the destruction of as yet undiscovered architectural monuments and deprive the church of its status as a monument. “Even the fact that we are rebuilding the church does not mean that we are rebuilding the monument. It is the foundations that hold the status of a monument,” says Yevnika Lyniova, deputy head of the State Service for the Protection of Cultural Heritage.
Myroslav Popovych, director of the Institute of Philosophy at the National Academy of Sciences, is also adamant about his views on this issue. “There is no doubt that the Church of the Tithes cannot be rebuilt because we do not know for certain what it looked like,” he told The Day. “In essence, it would mean building a new church and destroying the historical ruins that represent an architectural monument. As for rebuilding what was destroyed in the Soviet period, there is no doubt that it must be raised and rebuilt-not just churches but other architectural masterpieces. Nevertheless, it is up to the church to build churches. If the government has extra funds, it can assist the church with such construction projects. If there are no funds, why is it sticking its nose into what is none of its business? We have a lot of needs that the city’s administration should be taking care of. It would be very good if it did just that.”
As we know, the author and “engine” behind the idea to rebuild the Church of the Tithes is President Yushchenko. On Feb. 3, 2005, Mayor Omelchenko announced that the construction of the church was the president’s first commission to the Kyiv administration. So, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to stop the construction. Obviously, the same applies to the churches that Omelchenko has taken under his wing. “The issue of rebuilding churches is in fact a matter of political expediency and not a response to the religious communities’ need for churches,” says Parkhomenko, adding: “With the exception of the president, religious figures, and those who will earn big money from such construction projects, everybody opposes the construction of the Church of the Tithes. I think it will be built regardless of protests from the cultural and scholarly community. Supporters of the construction speak about reviving spirituality. But experience has shown that spirituality is not necessarily reborn by rebuilding churches.”
