Every “decent” presidential candidate considered it necessary to pay a visit to Ostroh Academy on the eve of elections. Although none had actually done anything to help develop this Eastern Europe’s first institution of higher learning (hopefully s/he will do so eventually), each wanted to set foot on the ancient campus and communicate with the advanced university students. Such a downpour of campaign propaganda could make many feel dizzy — unless one had a strong inner core made up of extensive knowledge, moral principles, and understanding of what was what. Rector Ihor Pasichnyk and the dedicated teaching staff have developed and continue implementing a curriculum (the only one of its kind in Ukraine) designed to train future leaders in various fields, so no one felt apprehensive about any such visits. Pasichnyk knows that most of his students are capable of thinking things over critically and that even if they don’t put unpleasant questions to the visiting presidential candidate, they will make their own conclusions.
The Day of Ukrainian Unity at Ostroh Academy traditionally began with a collective prayer for the Ukrainian nation (also an element of the training program). The heartwarming fact remains that for the past six years Den/The Day has been involved in this process of forming all-around individuals who are interesting for society. This newspaper has carried out a number of projects in collaboration with the academy, including meetings with Ukrainian intellectuals, the Summer School of Journalism, and of course, the Ostroh Club for Young People’s Free Intellectual Exchange. The latter has turned into an all-Ukrainian student movement over the four years of its existence.
Incidentally, the club initiated the tradition of celebrating The Day of Ukrainian Unity at the academy on January 22, doing so not only by singing and dancing, but also by interesting intellectual discussions. This time there were quite a few topics to discuss. First, most recent history has been actively created before our very eyes over the past several months. According to The Day’s editor in chief Larysa Ivshyna, “placing history on a dynamic plane is a priority with this newspaper.”
Second, Ostroh Academy had not held a discussion on the articles included in the collection Extract 150. Third, The Day of Ukrainian Union attracted guests to Ostroh on the understanding that what was now on the agenda was not only territorial unity, but also cultural and spiritual unity, making a common choice, and common understanding of basic notions in the construction of a European country.
Unlike unhardened politicians, Ivshyna is used to long discussions with students.
The Day has always encouraged its readers, especially the younger ones, to take part in a dialog, so acute and clever questions during such meetings are always welcome. This time the discussion lasted for two hours and could have been considerably longer (there were so many students wishing to ask a question) but for the rector who tactfully, as usually, brought it to a close, having the guests’ comfort uppermost on his mind. Those anxious to continue this intellectual discussion visited a meeting of the Ostroh Club later that day. The topic on the agenda was Ukraine’s information policy. The Day will shortly publish an account of this discussion. When it came to the format of public television, Ivshyna suggested that the students draw up a “menu” of its programs.
Unfortunately, the newspaper format doesn’t allow one to describe everything that happened that day, saturated as it was with intellectual communication (formal as well as informal), meetings with friends, the joy of making new ones, so the following is a summary of the most interesting aspects, impressions, and comments.
As mentioned previously, the editors were pleasantly surprised to see so many new faces in Ostroh Academy. Besides, the audience was such that the discussion could be held on a high intellectual level. Below are excerpts from this long discussion.
Alisa HORIICHUK, third-year student: “In Extract 150, I was most impressed by Mykyta Kasianenko’s feature about the murder of the journalist Anastasia Baburova in Russia last year. Actually, it’s a story about Anastasia and her life, but you can read between the lines that she went to Russia because she didn’t have enough room for creativity in Ukraine. Who is to blame for our losing so many talented fellow countrymen?”
Larysa IVSHYNA: “I have long professed Ukrainian centrism in journalism, but it doesn’t mean being self-centered. Most Ukrainian media and journalists are eager to feed us stories about minor domestic events. There is no understanding that what we need are higher values.
“We’re struggling to find a way out of a distorted world. In order to become strong, we need ideals and people who will champion them. Wherever injustice is done to a journalist, in whichever part of the world, all of us thinking Ukrainians must stand for justice and truth. This is the norm and this will bring our society closer to normal standards.
“Anastasia Baburova was a Ukrainian national. The article tells about her Ukrainian parents, and yet none of the Ukrainian media paid attention to this tragedy. Remember the head of Kuchma’s Presidential Administration who came up with the idea of temnyky [secret directives specifying what political events in Ukraine should be covered and how — Ed.]. Of course, it was an extremely negative phenomenon. There are other excesses — for example, when journalists wander the streets and write about whatever comes to their mind, without having the overall picture of the world or a scale of values. What does this lead to? Chaos.
“Unfortunately, even a prototype of an ideological system of influence hasn’t been developed in this country. Those ‘flowers of idealism and romanticism’ couldn’t have grown in the vacuum left in place of the collapsed Soviet Union. They have to be cultivated and tended. At the first stage, it is necessary to make people do something. Like when the school nurse checked the first-graders’ ears and fingernails. Those who didn’t pass muster were made to go to the washroom and do it properly. Our journalism is in a phase when it is necessary to make sure that all ears are clean. Sad but true. Our journalists are in a state when they’re unable to realize that the Baburova story is what we need. How come none of them said about the Baburova tragedy what you, Alisa, said – that Ukraine is still regarded as a country that pushes away talent?
“Lina Kostenko studied at the Moscow Institute of Literature. Oksana, the daughter of the then dissident poet, who is the pride of Ukraine, couldn’t study in Kyiv, so she had to move to Moscow. That’s the way it was. While in Moscow they made you trim your fingernails, in Kyiv they cut off your fingers, but that was before Ukraine’s independence. Now it’s time to change this paradigm; it’s time to treat our talented people differently. Where can one find this different attitude except at Ostroh Academy?
“All this is explained by the fact that political power has not been actually mastered in Ukraine. Ukrainian politicians have no ambition to make power in Ukraine Ukrainian. Nor do they know how to go about it. The information war is merely an outward manifestation of the deep-going process of transformation in Ukraine. Anastasia Baburova thought in terms of European categories. For her Russia was the main testing ground where a contest for good and justice was underway. And that’s the truth. We have many allies in Russia; a number of Russian journalists are struggling to achieve what we also need here in Ukraine, in contrast to our information space.
“Regarding Den/The Day, it is completely isolated, not in the sense that it is being ignored. I don’t know the exact reason, but I feel that the roots of this problem are the same for all the other Ukrainian problems. When you stake your career on a low standard, you stand a considerably better chance of remaining in politics or elsewhere than when you stake it on a high standard. When you raise the bar, you instantly take the risk of being left on the side of the road.
“Anastasia took the risk. She was a truly outstanding girl, and we must be proud of the fact that she was Ukrainian. Instead, you often hear in Ukraine that we have no star journalists or quality press. We don’t because we don’t want to see them. If we did, we’d have to admit how much remains to be done to reach the level of true journalism. Our foreign minister was present during the ceremony of naming a course in journalism after Anastasia Baburova in France. Why would the French do so? Because this is what thinking in terms of European categories is all about.”
Roman ROMANIUK, fourth-year student: “Jose Ortega y Gasset said that his Spain (which, like Ukraine was divided at the time) couldn’t be built by focusing on the past because this would deny it its future. He added that Spain needed a project of the near future that would unite the Spanish people. Our elections show that none of the Ukrainian politicians can offer such a project for Ukraine. Who will give it to us?”
Larysa IVSHYNA: “Do you completely agree with Jose Ortega y Gasset?”
R.R.: “Yes, I think that I’ll live to see such a project (if it is supported by most Ukrainians) and that it will unite Ukraine quicker than history.”
L.I.: “Every country has its special features. Take our older generation. Most of them lived by a lower standard, among them your relatives and mine. Not all of them want to have an expensive car, a big house, or other material values. They want something else. First, they want to have peace of mind because this would give them a sense of justice. This sense of justice brings them back to the past. Here is a simple example: pension reform that hasn’t been carried out over the years of Ukraine’s independence. One can only hope that things will get better one of these days. This is our past, even if Soviet. Some people are still living in the past, and it will be some time before they start living in the present. Therefore, it is necessary to send signals to the past and learn from its best examples.
“Our young presidential candidates would obviously stand a better chance if they didn’t build their campaigns on the world-and-politics-begin-with-me principle. We have these temptations — I mean saying that there was a desert before 2004 and nothing was happening or that what was happening before 2010 was a nightmare, but now everything will be fine. Extract 150 offers numerous examples showing that there have been good things at all times. It’s just that there hasn’t been anyone prepared to pass Ariadne’s thread from the past to the present to the future.
“The same people under the Soviets who are now blamed for all our problems did succeed in pulling Ukraine away from the Soviet Union and enacting the bulk of laws under which we are still living. This was done by them, not by modern advanced individuals. They saw Ukraine as a state, although they lived under the Soviets, and this concept was normal. Or take the noted writers and dissidents of the past. I’m still aggrieved to know that I lived in the same city with Hryhir Tiutiunnyk and never made the acquaintance. These people are the summits of the past, and these summits are allies of the future — if viewed from the right angle, of course.”
Lesia BENDIUK, second-year student: “Extract 150 has your article entitled ‘On the giraffe’s homeland.’ In it you suggest that improving the condition of Ukrainian journalism will result in qualitative changes in Ukrainian society. What kind of treatment does Ukrainian journalism need? What kind of national policy should be pursued in this sphere?”
Larysa IVSHYNA: “First, we have to work out an adequate training program, starting by studying textbook works of journalism. After we published the first collection of articles by James Mace, several universities, among them Ostroh Academy, launched special courses based on Mace’s creative heritage. Of course, there are other texts of special importance for journalists. We could put together a Top 20 collection that would be constantly in circulation. (This project should be undertaken by Ukraine’s largest Institute of Journalism.)
“When visited by journalists who represent other periodicals and who want an interview or comment, I can tell them that they have no idea whatsoever about what Den/The Day has accomplished in the past decade. The freedom-of-expression channels keep putting out poor quality product and are clogged; their circulatory system is malfunctioning, so that one periodical doesn’t know what the next one is doing. One must have access to the best works of journalism over this period. At the outset of the Summer School of Journalism we admitted everybody, but then I realized that we had the right to require certain qualifications. Now one has to write an essay on one of the books of The Day’s Library Series to be admitted. Look at how many higher educational establishments have launched courses in journalism, yet it’s hard to find an adequate journalist after five years of training.
“The impression is that these people must be living somewhere in Russia if not on the Moon. Thank God there is Ostroh Academy. Here we can find graduates and help them reach the journalist standard. At least, they don’t have to be told that they are citizens of Ukraine and have to work as such. It is the task of the state to provide conditions in which the best performance is encouraged and the worst one prevented.
“Journalists are people of the world; they can work anywhere. How wonderful it would be if Oprah Winfrey could visit Ukraine with her show. Well, jobs are the problem. Inviting foreign journalists implies jobs above all, not internationalism. If all the key posts are occupied by people other than Ukrainian nationals, Ukrainians will spend the rest of their life carrying papers for them.
“We must be free; we must praise or scold those who deserve it, and analyze others. Most importantly, we must develop our views. And views are important only when one relies on the best things. How to choose the best things is a separate topic.”
COMMENTARIES
Viktoria SKUBA, graduate student in Information Studies, Ostroh Academy:
“This year’s meeting between Ostroh students and Larysa Ivshyna raised especially topical subjects, probably because all Ukrainian realities have recently been perceived in the context of presidential elections. We are becoming increasingly aware that there has been no tangible progress over the past five years. Instead, that charge of energy which was accumulated in Ukrainian society in 2004 has been wasted. Once again we have to choose between the same political forces, this time without enthusiasm. One is pained to watch intelligent resourceful young people become pessimistic. And so our problems — they existed previously, but we believed we would solve them — appear insoluble.
“During her meeting with Ostroh Academy students, Larysa Ivshyna focused on such painful Ukrainian issues as information policy, the condition of Ukrainian society, the absence of clear-cut official principles and mechanisms of treatment of the ailing Ukrainian people, and worse so, the reluctance of those in power to look for such mechanisms. For me the most important thing was that Ivshyna didn’t look pessimistic. The fact of the presence of a great many problems was not simply stated. More importantly, there was the belief that it is necessary to keep working. She conveyed this belief to all those present. The launch of the book Extract 150 — rather its contents — showed that there are no lonely and unheeded intellectuals in Ukraine and that each of us has work to do to speed up the process of forming the critical mass of conscious Ukrainians in order to trigger reforms. Above all, it showed that there people in this country who believe that this will happen.
“Probably we shouldn’t work out long-term destructive forecasts but take small measures, starting with ourselves. Ivshyna said we should ‘start changing this country by changing ourselves, working to make ourselves better, and most importantly, keep smiling.’ This should probably become this country’s vital credo for a while.”
Serhii MELNYK, second-year student in Political Science, Ostroh Academy:
“During her regular meeting with students and Ostroh Club members Larysa Ivshyna addressed painful current issues. Also, the launch of the two-volume collection Extract 150 made The Day’s and Ivshyna’s stand with regard to Ukrainian problems perfectly clear. This book contains a large number of letters and various publications, with a strong emphasis on the Holodomor, its recognition on the national level, the national book-publishing problem, the murder of a Ukrainian female journalist in Russia, and a number of other issues that have to be solved on a top-priority basis.”
Lesia BENDIUK, second-year student in Political Science, Ostroh Academy:
“I’m fond of attending meetings with Larysa Ivshyna. This was the second time and once again she succeeded in arresting the Ostroh students’ attention with her interesting stories and recommendations. She is a successful and attractive lady. Without doubt, she can serve as an example for many young women these days.
“What gave me special food for thought was what she had to say about the younger generation, that we must learn to think. I believe that this should be the key thesis in education, in the formation of consciousness of the rising generation.”
Maryna PASHKOVSKA, student, Lviv Regional Institute of State Administration of the National Academy of State Administration attached to the President of Ukraine:
“Personally I have long realized that what the Ostroh Club for Young People’s Free Intellectual Exchange does is much more than offering an opportunity to travel across Ukraine, meet new interesting people, and discuss topical problems. Ostroh Club encourages each of us to not only ponder acute global topics, but also discover heretofore unknown facts of our history, perceive modern realities, and ask ourselves questions concerning the future. All this is proof that we can do more than blindly reproduce what we are told or shown to do and that we can think independently and make our own conclusions that will have an effect on the future of each of us and the entire Ukrainian nation.
“It is also true that we don’t have as many like-minded people as we would want. No doubt, all those years of Ukraine’s enslavement as part of various countries served to develop a disastrously irresponsible approach to the present and future of Ukraine. For hundreds of years it has been hammered into the Ukrainian heads that nothing depended on them; this concept has been handed down through generations and is still alive. This and the current lamentable living standard serve as an excuse for inactivity and inertia on the part of a considerable number of Ukrainians.
“Naturally, it’s easier to blame the politicians and government officials or criticize laws while expecting someone like so-called Messiah who will come out of the blue and solve all our problems. It is much harder to do something yourself. To do so, it isn’t necessary to set up civic organizations or political parties, get seats in parliaments or important government posts, and organize roundtables or conferences. Sometimes it is much more important for us Ukrainians to ask ourselves questions and seek answers in communicating with each other on a daily basis. This way we will be able to perceive Ukraine’s diversity and learn to understand each other, meet each other halfway, and combine efforts as a single nation in building a happier future for our state.”
Alisa HORDIICHUK, second-year student in Ukrainian Philology, Ostroh Academy:
“For me one of the main results of this meeting was the realization that we have to develop an ability to think like Europeans. Larysa Ivshyna did her best to convince us that it is necessary to learn to think and have one’s own view on everything instead of adhering to even the most authoritative opinions. Come to think of it, these things are self-evident, yet they have somehow become forgotten.
“What concerns European thinking, this is probably what we need in the first place. After all, we are Europeans. Why should we live in a country [whose government] is indifferent to us? Do I mean that we should leave? By no means! I suggest that we change this country and cultivate the civil society that will, no doubt, deserve being referred to as European.
“Among other things, it was stated during the meeting that the Ukrainian media are faced with enormous personnel problems, although our universities produce enough journalists. The problem is that these journalists are incapable of European thinking. This isn’t something they can learn at the university; this is something they can learn from their parents and by using their heads. The first subject addressed during the meeting was about a top-priority task, one of discarding all Soviet cliches embedded in the minds of the older generation and teaching these people to respect themselves and their capabilities, considering that Ukrainians — I’m quoting — ‘are anything but a simple people.’”
