In May 2006 an Odesa student said, “When I was going to Ostroh, I thought I would find myself in a wild land. On my way home later I understood that I, vice versa, had seen a civilized world.” The most important thing about these impressions is that the person’s stereotypes were shattered, his feelings and knowledge changed.
The abovementioned demonstrative story started in May 2006. It will be reminded that Den/The Day’s editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna came to Odesa to hold a launch of the books from Den’s Library. “What should the national idea be like?” I asked Ivshyna. “We will talk about this at the Ostroh Academy. First of all, we all need to get to know one another, get to know our country. The students should meet and discuss intellectual topics,” the editor-in-chief said.
Several months later, at Larysa Ivshyna’s and Ostroh Academy’s invitation I organized a trip of a group of Odesa students to western Ukraine. Many of us were going there for the first time. I remember another special moment, when during this trip to Ostroh, we, the students from different corners of Ukraine were singing the National Hymn near an evening bonfire under a pouring rain. They couldn’t but evoke the feeling that all the parts of the country are attracted to one another. Hence the words of the Odesa student.
And namely at the National University of Ostroh Academy (NaUOA) at the initiative of the editor-in-chief of Den/The Day the Ostroh Club of Free Intellectual Communication of Youth was established. Its initial purpose was to boost mutual understanding between the people from different corners of Ukraine, so to say, to mix the environments. Students from different universities for several years paid visits to different Ukrainian cities and towns, such as Ostroh, Odesa, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Dnipro, Donetsk, Luhansk, Simferopol, and Chernivtsi. We were looking for solutions for long-time burning issues of Ukraine. “Internal Ukrainian integration must go ahead of the European integration” was the slogan of the Ostroh Club (OC).
Importantly, our activity was taking place under the umbrella of the newspaper Den/The Day, where the participants of the club had an opportunity to highlight the results of their nearly five-year work, which was followed by a silence period. But the idea didn’t vanish. At the proposal of the rector of the Ostroh Academy Ihor Pasichnyk, the Ostroh Club got a second breath as an international project “Ostroh Forum 2017.” On May 16-17 this international project was launched with a purpose, like previously, to publicly discuss the key social, culture, political, and economic problems of Ukraine.
The founders of the Ostroh Club were invited to the forum as well, and in their speeches they underlined one important idea – the OC changed their lives. “The photo we are holding features the day when the ‘pioneers’ for the first time stepped on the threshold of the Ostroh Academy which gave way to the Club of Intellectual Communication back in 2006,” Larysa Ivshyna wrote on her FB page. “It is incredibly gratifying to hear from them that it had changed their lives. There is a wonderful example – the three participants of the first ‘wave’ are the first deputy head of the Ostroh Raion Administration [Ivan Sopiha. – Ed.]; the dean of the Department of Political Studies and Information Management of the NaUOA, Ph.D. in Governmental Administration [Vitalii Lebediuk. – Ed.]; an influential journalist, the editor of the politics column of the newspaper Den, the compiler of the bestseller A Case [Ivan Kapsamun. – Ed.].”
But, of course, Yevhen Marchuk and Larysa Ivshyna were the main guests of the forum. “If the idea of the Ostroh Club were supported on the governmental level, today we wouldn’t have the problem we have in the east of the country,” Ihor Pasichnyk stated at the opening of the event. “We decided to revive the idea of the club with the help of Ostroh Forum 2017, which I’m sure will be no less popular. There were no doubts that the newspaper Den should provide the informational support for this project, as it used to support the Ostroh Club. The forum must be opened by the person who laid the foundations of the national security and statehood of Ukraine, Yevhen Marchuk.”
YEVHEN MARCHUK, WHO IS A BRILLIANT LECTURER, COULDN’T BUT EVOKE A GREAT INTEREST AND A STORM OF QUESTIONS FROM THE STUDENTS
During his speech Pasichnyk made an important announcement. The topic “Ostroh Forum 2017 – Ukraine’s National Security” was chosen not without a reason. “The licensing council at the Ministry of Education of Ukraine will consider our university as a place to launch the specialty ‘National Security’ and I’m sure it will be launched,” Pasichnyk said. “For we have agreed that Yevhen Marchuk will hold a course of lectures for the students of this specialty. I’m sure classical universities must prepare the specialists on national security, aware young people who have their own vision on the present and the future of the state, and their opinion must be heard by the state leadership, experts, and politicians.”
What accents did Yevhen Marchuk make? “Every day as a participant of the Minsk negotiations, I receive several reports from the ATO Headquarters, from the front line, and every day people get killed or wounded, the servicemen and civilians. Why did it happen so?” Marchuk asked during his speech. “Of course, this is a topic for another discussion, but I would like to draw your attention to the main three challenges Ukraine faced during its independence before 2013-14. Above all, the 1991 Coup d’etat attempt. At that time I was the state minister of defense (1990-91). We were facing the risk of imposing martial law in Ukraine, because the State Committee on Extraordinary Situations announced an emergency state in the Soviet Union. But Leonid Kravchuk didn’t agree to do this. Another challenge was Crimea (1991, 1993-94). At that time I was heading the SBU. In 2014 the situation of the 1990s practically repeated itself. But we succeeded in keeping Crimea under Ukrainian power, for this we even transferred Alfa units from Kyiv to Simferopol. The third critical moment was in 2003, and the situation connected with Tuzla, when Russians started to build a dam, to this island. At that time I was the minister of defense. Such Moscow’s actions were a response to the fact that Ukraine started to get close with NATO. On both sides the armies were ready. It was hard to imagine that it would lead to an armed conflict, but we were close to this as never before. Pay attention, in all three cases Russia was the generator of conflict. And the fourth time, in 2014, it managed to realize its plans.”
“What does Ukraine need to stand? Not just to stand, but to evolve.” Marchuk asked again. “To answer this question, we need to understand for how long it’s going to last? Here we need great Ukrainian intellect, a systemic, complex, and multistoried one. If Russia risks undertaking serious aggression, in particular, creating an overland corridor to Crimea, it must take into account the fact the mechanism of imposing the martial law in Ukraine is ready. On the other hand, we must understand that Russia is moving the accents of the war against Ukraine to the sphere of special services. Of course, Ukrainian state must take care of the national security, this is an important function, but its society, civic organization must choose the mechanism of fighting Russia in the sphere of media by forming the public opinion. The myths about the so-called fraternal nation or strategic partnership have been shattered completely. The consolidation of the Ukrainian society has shown many positive moments – not only will we stand, but we’re going to overcome all the challenges posed by the present-day world.”
A POSITIVE MOOD AFTER A FRUITFUL AND INTERESTING DISCUSSION
“The pro-Ukrainian international coalition is dealing serious blows against Russia, the sanctions against Russia have been efficient,” Marchuk went on. “As is known, the sanctions against Ukraine are linked to the Minsk process documents. Yes, this process is unpopular. They say we need to move to the format of the Budapest memorandum. And any format without Russia has no sense. We shouldn’t forget either that the Minsk process has stopped all the advancing actions at the time when our army wouldn’t be able to impede the Russian troops. In a word, we need patience and intelligence. We can’t win over Russia directly. We can only overplay it, create a situation of inadequate losses to any attempt of Russian aggression. Clearly, robust economy and armed forces. I for one am an adept of counting on our own forces.”
Introducing the following guest, Pasichnyk stated, “As is known, the main motive for any activity is a woman. We will do anything for a woman. And Larysa Ivshyna is one of such women. With the help of the newspaper Den she shows what the national mass media should be like, in such a way shaping the national security of Ukraine.”
“Back in 2005 I said that journalism distorted the system of coordinates,” Larysa Ivshyna said during her speech. “This distortion grew and acquired new twists, which is why it is very complicated for the young generation to get what is wrong and what is right, but at the same time it’s quite simple if you’re guided by clear criteria. The war has sped up the process of rethinking the things Ukrainian journalism should do when we face challenges. I said once, ‘Before creating BBC we need first to create Britain.’ Not vice versa, because the policy of pluralism was perceived in our country in a very simplified way, when Tsariov or Kolisnychenko were shown on all channels and a more or less decent person had to pretend s/he was arguing with them. Although it was apparent that it was the way the hybrid war started and led to field war, where our people shed blood for these mistakes. Therefore Ukrainian journalism and everyone who charged the channels with the media shells like Tsariov, are responsible for the Ukrainian losses in this war. I think that Ukrainian journalism must start with self-analysis, because if it doesn’t change, the cynical enemy will use new instruments of influence.”
“I want Ukraine to have the kind of journalism which is forced by its knowledge to act in favor of Ukraine’s interests, so to face the situation when they don’t know what to do when there’s a war in Ukraine. They must figure out which side they are on and to whom they should carry the ammo,” Ivshyna went on. “Namely for this, in particular, the newspaper Den will this year hold the Summer School of Journalism for the 15th time. It is also very important to ask the question what every Ukrainian can do? Every Ukrainian must feel as a fortress impenetrable for the enemy. The first thing s/he must think about is whether s/he did everything to be at the top, to be invulnerable from absolutely every instrument of propaganda, because today’s world is very cynical. We should ask ourselves whether we know the most important pages of our history, whether we know people who gave us the recipes how to overcome this. It hurts to say, but today [May 16. – Ed.] Yevhen Hrytsiak was buried. It would be interesting to know whether the students in another higher educational establishment know this person and what they know about him? What about the journalists? Today we have dedicated the newspaper’s front page to this outstanding man. I wonder whether any other publication did the same. This is the answer to the question about the condition of Ukrainian journalism. Is this inertness, laziness or the action aimed at breaking Ukraine away from its heroes? We must understand that without mastering the historical memory the national organism reminds a chicken without a head. And it refers to every sphere.”
It is planned to develop the Ostroh Forum with the participation of the leading Ukrainian and international experts, the leaders of the corresponding ministries and educations, high-ranking officials who would meet such social challenges as a kind of “Ukrainian youth Davos.” Of course, like previously, the driving force and hope in this process are the students and young people from different corners of Ukraine who have come to the Ostroh Academy and took part in the Forum.
