We continue to publish our readers’ reviews of the new books published by Den. Those who haven’t bought them yet should hurry, because the number of available copies is decreasing fast. Only a month has passed since the launch of our new books, the historical book Return to Tsarhorod and publicist triptych “The Trap,” or A Case without a Statute of Limitations, I, an Eyewitness. Notes from the Occupied Luhansk, and Catastrophe and Triumph. Histories of Ukrainian Heroes, at the Publisher’s Forum in Lviv, but the most part of the pressrun has been sold out. People are especially actively buying and sharing their impressions about the book Return to Tsarhorod. This is an important signal for all of us – in this difficult time the Ukrainians not just read, but choose guideline books for themselves. No less remarkable is the fact that the pressrun of the book compiled by the editor of the Den’s politics department Ivan Kapsamun about the Gongadze case has been sold out as well. Fifteen years have passed, but people continue to take interest in this case, which gives hope that it will be brought to the end, not dropped. Besides, it is a demonstrative example of readers' search for the answer to the question, when the war began and how. And unless we know when and why the war began, there won’t be an answer to the question, when it will end and what should be done for this. And the great demand among the readers for the new books published by Den is an additional emphasis for the process of looking for the answers.
We have published many reviews of our readers about this year’s new books we have published and we are still waiting for them, dear admirers of Den. Letters, phone calls, Facebook posts – we want to see and hear our people everywhere. Recently we have found such a person. Den’s Editor-in-Chief paid attention to a very nice symbolical photo posted on Facebook: four servicemen and a woman with a Den’s kerchief on her shoulders. Of course, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to talk to Iryna, the heroine of the photo.
Iryna Tanharova is a businesswoman and a volunteer from Mykolaiv. She says that she’s a regular reader of our newspaper, she’s subscribed to Den’s Facebook page, so she knows about our news and projects. “I read articles and blogs, I take interest in what Larysa Ivshyna writes. I share the opinion of your newspaper. I share this view on our society. This is why I read with great interest the materials by all of your contributors. For example, Ihor Losiev and Ivan Kapsamun write in a very interesting way. Ihor Siundiukov’s historical research is interesting as well. Recently you started to publish the articles of a new author, Valerii Fuyor, I have known him before, and it’s very pleasant that now I read his articles in Den,” Iryna says.
We ask about her recent shopping. “I wanted to have a Den’s collection kerchief long ago, back when you had the design with poppies,” the woman says, “But at that time I couldn’t find the information on where to find it. And now, first, I wanted to buy the book Return to Tsarhorod, for many reasons. I like Istanbul very much. I love Ukraine, but I like to go there too. And this has always been surprising for me. So, I wanted to buy this book and saw the kerchief, so I bought it for myself and for my sister. Incidentally, both of us like Istanbul. My surname Tanharova is not Ukrainian, so my sister and I were received there as if we were locals. I was surprised by that. So, I bought two books. My sister and I will try to figure out, maybe there is our part too?”
This is the first book from our Library the Mykolaiv volunteer has bought. “I was going to buy your books, but I have had an opportunity only now. Maybe I will start buying something more often,” Iryna ponders.
To the question about the photo with the servicemen, Iryna told about the volunteers’ work of the residents of her city. “Two volunteers’ rooms operate in Mykolaiv, so that the military men could rest on their way – at the railway station and the bus station. The room at the railway station is more spacious, and at the bus station there is a small room, where the servicemen come to have rest, drink tea or coffee, and we all bring some refreshments there. The city residents who come often don’t tell their full names,” Iryna says, “Just tell their first name, leave the food, and go. And the servicemen are very glad about this. They give us some presents too, like chevrons.”
Iryna Tanharova says that such posts are very useful. “Frankly I didn’t think at first that we needed them so much. I thought an hour of waiting at the platform was not long. But it turned out that they needed this a lot,” the volunteer shares the details. “We are helping the servicemen with tickets, they can leave their things here, sit for a while. Sometimes a person in Mykolaiv needs to go somewhere quickly, and cannot find their bearings, so we tell how to get there. We help to buy a ticket quickly. For example, sometimes we get the calls that the serviceman has to leave as soon as he arrives. They ask, ‘Please, help him get on the bus quickly. Meet him and see him off.’ We also have a book exchange fund. People also bring tooth brushes, razor blades, napkins – everything that the servicemen may need on the road. We bring food for the servicemen, so that they felt comfortable. Our artist Svitlana Chebanova has her own volunteer’s project – she created postcards and gives the money from selling them to the volunteers from the medical foundation. She also brings these postcards to us, and we give them to the servicemen.”
“Different incidents happened,” Iryna recalls. “Sometimes a serviceman goes to see his newborn baby, several times servicemen were going to weddings. They tell about themselves, and we see that entire Ukraine goes through us. This produces a very powerful emotional effect. If the military men from western Ukraine return home, I always tell them: ‘See, it’s not without a reason that you defended Mykolaiv. We are not Novorossia, we are Ukraine. We thank you sincerely and give honors to you.’ These are not pompous words, this is really what we all feel.”
And the photo was taken, when Iryna’s friend chaplain Vitalii Papushny (second in the photo) came to show to the soldiers the recreation room where they could stop. “It was very nice to hear that our post is recommended to people. Soon we will celebrate three months since we started to work. We all ask one another: why haven’t we done this before?” the volunteer says. “I asked to take this photo for me. I told the servicemen about the kerchief before the shooting. They were standing and waiting till I put it properly. I said, ‘No, no, wait, I should have my photo taken with a trident.’ Then it started to seem funny to me. Yes, I was proud of it. It was a new thing in my wardrobe,” Iryna Tanharova smiles.
