At the invitation of the National University of Ostroh Academy the editor-in-chief of Den/The Day Larysa Ivshyna has presented for the students of the academy the new books from Den’s Library. Those included Ukraine Incognita. TOP 25, new edition of Klara Gudzyk’s Apocrypha and photo album People of the Maidan. A Chronicle. The launch of the publications, as usual, became a reason for a meaningful conversation: on the lessons of the Revolution of Dignity, the role and responsibility of mass media in solving of sociopolitical and religious contradictions, etc. However, some questions asked by the students made it clear that they should systemically read Den/The Day to fill in the gap in truthful information about what in fact is going on in Ukraine today.
“Time is quickly changing. This year hasn’t been favorable for trips and meetings. Soon there will be an anniversary of events in Maidan. Only imagine how much we have experienced during this year. However, traditionally the newspaper Den continues communication and all of our actions. Before the Lviv Forum we had published new books. The photo album People of the Maidan. A Chronicle deserves special attention. It gathers the works by our photo journalists during the key events not only in chronological, but also notional order: almost everything which marked the beginning of our year, which indisputably will become a turning point in our history,” Ivshyna noted at the beginning of the meeting.
Den/The Day’s editor-in-chief came to the Ostroh Academy with presents. To mark the many-year cooperation and friendship, Ivshyna presented the university with two photos from this year’s International Photo Competition: Olena Shovkoplias’s Future Admiral, which received an award from the Ostroh Academy, and Serhii Kharchenko’s Callsign Sokil (Artur Stepanenko), which received Den’s golden award.
The Ostroh students and teachers have joined with the pleasure the charity action, which has been recently launched by the newspaper, “Letter to the front from Den.” Exquisite postcards created by Den’s artist with wishes of the students will go to our servicemen to the ATO area.
As usual, the assembly hall was full of people willing to communicate with Ivshyna. For about two hours the students were actively discussing the importance of the projects launched by Den, the role of self-education and permanent intellectual work for positive changes in our society. Traditionally the authors of best questions received the new books from Den’s Library as a present. We are offering to our readers the most interesting thoughts from the conversation.
“WE MUST BE ABLE TO SET LONG-RUN TASKS”
Larysa IVSHYNA: “While many newspapers were involved in their own business, we were warning the Ukrainian society that trials were awaiting us for sure. I was asked why we called our publications ‘Armor-Piercing Political Writing,’ ‘Subversive Literature’? We felt this much earlier and wrote about the challenges the country is facing today. Therefore I recommend reading our books not only to those who want to become journalists, but simply media educated citizens. They should learn from people who know or have done more.
“When we launched our book project, I was looking for the best authors all over the country. Outstanding thinkers and philosophers, including unfortunately already late Serhii Krymsky, have become the high teachers for the journalists of the newspaper Den. The texts of our books have become textbooks for many people.”
Iryna MOROZ, journalist of Sfera TV channel: “I very much liked the interview with Ostap Drozdov, published in your newspaper. He noted that recent elections in Ukraine are a census of intelligent people. In your opinion, what have these elections shown? Have Ukrainians changed?”
L.I.: “Ukrainians have been changing under the influence of many factors, currently – the global stress. At a certain point of time we felt that we may lose our country. Unfortunately, it will never be like it used to be. We must be able to set long-run tasks and understand that we must change for the sake of our development and own security. In fact, this is a cumbersome intellectual work, for which we must bear responsibility. I have always been promoting the idea that the territories where universities are located should be assigned to them. These should be a kind of studying districts. For are not teachers, professors, and students responsible for the fact that there are so many uneducated people around us? If everyone is speaking about decentralization, allotting more rights to territorial communities, this must be shown right away. And then this census of intellectual people will give impressive results.
“And there will be contradictions in society because changes cannot be so quick. Such problems must be solved systemically – with normal power and tireless work of all intellectual people in the country. This is my severe diagnosis.”
“WE CAN’T DO WITHOUT JOURNALISTS WHO ARE ‘ARCHITECTS OF SPACE’”
Dmytro BAIDA, 1st year student, specialty Ukrainian Language and Literature: “In one of the publications called ‘It is a sin to divide God’ Klara Gudzyk contemplates on the fact that the reason of religious splits is in the actions of hierarchs who are not interested in the integral function to be performed by the church. Her contemplations are still topical. What should the power and the press do these days to bring this truth written by Gudzyk in her articles to the church elite?”
L.I.: “The press should look for good authors. Even if there are not many of them, still they should try to spread not occult knowledge, but good quality and proper level. You were taught that journalism must be unbiased and objective. That’s right. But when we have to build the state after the post-Communist mutilation, we cannot do without journalists who are in fact the ‘architects of space.’ Later the created intellectual extracts could be brought to other environments through the friendship of universities, devoted teachers. Incidentally, Russians for their evil technologies have won all the prizes for this year. Putin called the boat Vladimir Monomakh, not Ivan the Terrible. It was important for them to mark the territory in a humanitarian way.”
“IN A NEW STATE HISTORY SHOULD BE THOUGHT OVER FIRST AND FOREMOST”
Olena VOROBIOVA, 3rd year student, specialty Journalism: “In many articles from the book Ukraine Incognita. TOP 25 a totally different view on the history of Ukraine rather than the one taught at school is presented. Having read these articles, you start understanding that so far you haven’t always received truthful information about some historical events. What gaps in the history of Ukraine are impeding the development of our society the most and how can we fill them?”
L.I.: “In any country you won’t find a publication which instead of the state is publishing history textbooks for its citizens. This is an indication that in my time I felt this need of the society very well. Even in Soviet time you could find interesting historical books. Besides, I was studying in a school where teachers were trying to protect us against excessive Soviet influence. I graduated the school unaffected, and then understood that almost entire people, except for Western Ukraine where there was a family memory, received this Soviet matrix.
“Clearly, our state needs to reconsider history first of all. We had simply to find all top-class scholars and teachers who could bring this knowledge bit by bit. That was how we created our first books.
“Behind these works stands the authority of scientific schools, but we are trying to present them in a more popular way. We know that often the way of teaching literature and history at school damaged the interest to these subjects. So, we need a different style of teaching. Ukrainian history and literature are bestsellers of the world level. They only need to be read correctly and presented properly.”
