He is responsible, well-read, and short-spoken. He is easy-mannered. He wears casual clothes, and produces an impression of a West European. He has a sense of humor and good taste. Apparently, this is the reason why all his initiatives are original and substantial, they always attract talented people. Most of them would like to remain on good terms with him.
His name is Serhii KHARCHUK. He is a Kyiv businessman and cultural curator who owns the firm Rutenia-Tur, and is a co-owner of the Cultural and Sports Initiatives and head of the festival Slavske-Rok. He has either taken a direct part or was a co-author of the projects Jazz bez, Lvivska ploshcha (Lviv Square), Potiah do Yaremchi (A Train to Yaremcha), the Music Season in Golden Gates, and the recording of the CD Favorite Songs of Ukrainian Mountain Climbers (Serhii is a co-founder of the Ukrainian Club of Mountain Climbers). He assists many Ukrainian musicians, both popular and beginners, in many different ways. Kharchuk recently agreed to answer The Day’s questions.
Serhii, almost from the beginning of Rutenia-Tur’s existence, its offers included various routes via Ukrainian cities, towns, and villages (unlike many other tour operators). Have Ukrainians begun to travel more across their native country?
“It seems to me yes. But I don’t have any hard data, as there have been almost no large-scale sociological surveys.
“Until recently my friends actively traveled across the world and did not know, for example, that in Vinnytsia region one could raft via the Buh and enjoy unforgettable impressions, or that Halychyna has castles that are worth of visiting. I think that over the last two or three years many people, who could afford quite costly trips, started to travel more across Ukraine. I don’t know whether the crisis has anything to do with that. Rather, Ukrainians’ consciousness has undergone certain transformations.”
How are various Ukrainian routes doing?
“Biking tours are quite promising. Rafting is becoming more popular. Incidentally, this weekend half of Czech population is going to raft, with the rest carrying boats on their car roofs to go to raft. It is gratifying that the heads of some domestic or transnational companies in Ukraine have turned company parties into the format of a biking tour — where it becomes clear at once who is reliable, and who is psychologically unstable. In my opinion, Ukraine’s castles are very interesting. Unfortunately, those that are funded by the state do not work on weekends, as a rule. For example, the Zolochiv Castle opens on Sunday at 12 a.m., while the Svirzh Castle is closed on this day. But tourists mainly come on weekends. The Univ Lavra (a Greek-Catholic monastery) is a remarkable place with a strong energy. The state should pay attention to the castles that are still around. According to the estimates of Polish historians, Ukraine had 120 castles and palaces before World War II. There are no more than 20 of them left at the moment. They are mainly neglected, but they could become a great source of revenue, as is the case throughout the world.”
Don’t you have an impression that Ukrainians don’t know their country: those who live in the west do not come to the east and vice versa. The Day frequently mentions that there is a need for internal Ukrainian integration.
“You know for the past two years I have been observing some positive signs: more tourists from Donetsk and Luhansk come to Lviv, Yaremche, and Slavsk. I have heard members of the Yaremche City Council say that quite a lot of businessmen from the east have bought plots to build their cottages. My acquaintances from the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions have also started to go to the Sorochyntsi Fair, and also on excursions to Poltava and Baturyn.
“The residents of western and eastern Ukraine have common va-lues, around which we should consolidate. First, there is the ancient Christian tradition. It’s simply that the actions of our neighbors have deprived Ukrainians of unity. In Lithuania and Georgia everything is much more unequivocal: there is one confession, and nobody clashes or manipulates people on this ground. There is no difference between the believers of the churches of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the Ternopil region and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate in the Kharkiv region. But we frequently fall hostage to politicians. I absolutely agree with the head of the Polish Institute in Kyiv Jerzy Onycz, who said that his Beatitude Liubomyr (Huzar) is a big figure and has every reason to be a huge moral authority for all Ukrainian Christians.
“Second, Ukrainians have a deep cultural tradition. We have so many names to be proud of. Oles Honchar for example, who was a Soviet writer, a war veteran, and never kneeled before any authorities, yet was awarded with numerous prizes and orders. He did not fear to tell Shcherbytsky point-blank about the Chornobyl catastrophe and the total Russification all over Ukraine. Or Mykola Rudenko, a war veteran, a blind old man who was forced to leave the country. And Vasyl Stus… The list can be continued without end.”
Ukraine’s festivals have become one of the popular forms of entertainment and recreation. In summer, Slavske-Rok was held for the fourth time. I know that you have an ambition to develop the show so as to attract many people from all over Ukraine and abroad. What about this year’s event.
“Speaking about the audience, these were mainly young people from Lviv, Uzhhorod, Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Yaremche — where by the way the event Train to Yaremche is held, which we are assisting in every possible way. Quite a few people came from central Ukraine, from cities like Cherkasy and Poltava. There were people from Poland and Lithuania, and even tourists from France and Germany, who wandered across our country. The event gathered over 5,000 people. And we understood that we cannot do with such a small number of volunteers anymore. We should work, for example, with volunteers, invite professionals to conduct trainings, so that next year the organization and security be perfect.
“As for me this year the International Ceramic Symposium was a grand event. We managed to improve the facade of the Village House of Culture, which looked gray and dull before. Our ceramists offered an original solution: a mosaic picture. Moreover, a tree of life was “constructed” near the village council, an interesting installation made of wood and ceramic. There was another innovation — off-road vehicle racing between Ukrainian and Polish teams. There were also competitions in mini football. Next year we will probably enhance the program, adding a mass biking tour to the area of the neighboring oblasts, Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattia, because they are rich in interesting and picturesque sites.”
I have recently heard that Ukraine has many festivals. But they are not organized on a proper level. What do you think about it? On the whole, what are the functions of the festivals?
“I don’t think we have many music (rock, jazz, ethno) festivals. Our neighbors, the Poles and Czechs — if to take the number of festivals proportionate to the population — have much more. Therefore I think that more new shows will gradually appear in Ukraine. There are ambitious people who are fond of arts, especially music, and are eager to create a feast for the cities, towns and villages they come from. The problem is that not everyone is aware of his/her possibilities, namely the financial ones. There have been several failures. I don’t want to blame anyone for adventurism. I think that some people had overestimated their possibilities. But this aspiration is very positive. And this is always an event both for local people, and guests. For the latter it is also an opportunity to travel across Ukraine.
“Slavske-Rok, I can say, is a synthesis of everything existing in our country and what I have seen abroad. Speaking about the foreign festivals, they are pure business projects, where the organizers decide in advance on what stages, what specific incomes they should receive: from the places where beer is sold, or tickets, or souvenirs. Unlike Slavske-Rok, nobody holds ceramic symposiums, sports program, or master classes for children there. And I don’t like this. Hopefully we will manage to keep to the broader format and create, for example, art studios for children in the future. This produces a certain positive aura and allows parents to come with children, and gives a possibility for adult residents of big cities to become familiar with applied arts. Besides, Ukrainian festivals, to a larger extent than German or Swedish ones, have ethnic roots. For example, our show mostly features bands that play ethno-rock, such as Haidamaky, TaRUTA, Hutsul Kalipso. It is a good opportunity for musicians to show themselves. There are also many so-called underground bands that became known thanks to festivals. Let us take for example the charismatic and renowned band Mertvy piven. Their main several-thousand audience comes to Slavske-Rok. When the band plays in a Kyiv club, it can gather 200 people at the most. And we should not forget about the financial side. Bands that do not want to take the niche of pop-music should survive somehow, and they receive honoraria for playing at festivals. The most important thing for musicians is interaction with their audience. The shows give them such an opportunity. Let’s take for example Art-pole or Kraina mrii, which gather tens thousand people.
“Besides, festivals give an opportunity to gather Ukrainian youth with specific tastes, who are tired of what they see on TV. I cannot put it in a better way than Lina Kostenko did. When she saw at the launch of her novel Berestechko that the Ukrainian Home is completely full, she aptly noted that they came because they missed themselves. In fact, festivals are one of few places to communicate about one’s own issues in the atmosphere of one’s own Ukrainian world.”
They say that every year you invite to Slavske-Rock a couple of headliners whereas the rest are less known bands, who are nevertheless playing music of no worse quality. Some of these can manage on our market, but others have a hard time.
“You’re right to some extent. Indisputably, I would like to invite Tartak or TNMK for example. But Fagot and Fozzi’s face are almost on every billboard. I don’t support those who blame them for playing in ads of fast food or mobile operator. I am glad that present-day Ukrainian musicians have an additional source of income and can have a financial comfort, in order to have the possibility to do more creative work. But there are many bands that play high-quality music, but don’t enjoy commercial success. Therefore there is a reason to support them. But I am sure that both Tartak and TNMK will perform on the stage of the Slavske-Rok festival in the near future.”
The most primitive way to destroy the nation’s future is to make its young generation addicted to alcohol. Alcohol has become an integral part of “quality” recreation. It seems that no festival can do without beer at the least. But in spite of the “established” tradition some organizers are going to make their territory free of tobacco and alcohol. What do you think about this?
“I would be insincere if I said that low-alcohol drinks, beer in particular, are in contradiction to festivals. So I would not take radical actions, though I don’t like the present situation and the so-called beer alcoholism. Today it is forbidden, but earlier young people drank beer in the subway and left empty bottles right under the benches. Everyday I bike in the park located near my house and meet people with a bottle of beer in their hands. Incidentally, abroad it is allowed to use alcohol drinks only after midday. Apparently, young people have no respect to themselves and a low culture, so we have a distressing post-Soviet, or, if you like, post-genocide legacy.
“I go frequently abroad so I have examples to compare with. Czechs, Germans, and Austrians drink beer on regular basis, but moderately. I have seen hockey players, who play in the highest league, or rowers, triathlon athletes drink a glass of beer after the competition is over, and nobody considers this anti-social. I have never seen, either at the NHL match in Canada or large-scale shows in Czech Republic or Germany that anybody drank so much alcohol that he spilled his beer on his neighbor, like it usually happens at our mass events. Therefore I take my children to Ukraine’s football matches with great caution. I don’t like it when my daughter sits next to a drunk, who uses abusive language after the actions of some player. In a word, the overall cultural le-vel should be improved.”
What is the Serhii Kharchuk phenomenon?
“I don’t think there is any phenomenon. I know many Kyivites who share the same values as I do.
“Perhaps, since my very childhood I found myself in a good milieu, though I studied in a Russian school. There were few Ukrainian ones. It was considered that the ones we had did not give us proper knowledge. In the fourth or fifth grades I was influenced by my teacher of Ukrainian language and literature Lesia Kuzmivna Helia. When we started speaking Russian during her lessons, she would joke that we were “janissaries” and “traitors.” In a word she made us understand each time that we belong to a specific ethnicity.
“My mother worked as a teacher, and my father was an engineer at the machine-tool complex. At the time intelligentsia working in the sphere of education or technical sphere could not afford to buy good books in Russian. Only in Stymuly, a network of stores, could one exchange waste paper for Ilf and Petrov’s Twelf Chairs. This was unpopular. Therefore I read in Ukrainian all the translated literature: Ernest Hemingway, James Fenimore Cooper, Thomas Mayne Reid, Mark Twain, i.e., everything boys read in teenage years. Later I grew fond of modern German literature, I read Heinrich Boell and Siegfried Lenz’s works in wonderful Ukrainian translation. And I was living on the fat of the land. Besides, my parents paid attention to the fact that there is a dangerous tendency: everything was leading to destruction of the Ukrainians as an ethnos, so that a single and powerful Russian-speaking unity of people called the Soviet people would emerge. Hence we agreed to speak only Ukrainian at home. But already as a student I acquired inner pride for being Ukrainian. I was greatly influenced by my alma mater, the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Our teachers did not fear to tell about great Ukrainians, for example Igor Sikorsky or Serhii Lebedev. The latter was the first to invent a computer, although it was always considered that it was created by the American company IBM.
“When we realized ourselves, we acquired possibilities to struggle for our comfort, our audio space. We are called patrons, but it is not quite true. Helping our musicians or writers, I can fight for our individual privileges: music I want to listen, books I want to read. I’m fighting for my cultural space. And there are many of such people. They are working on a greater scale, like Oleh Skrypka, Taras Chubai, Viktor Morozov, Sashko Polozhynsky. By the way, the chairperson of Raiffeisen Bank Aval Volodymyr Lavrenchuk, in almost every event where the institution he heads takes part in direct or indirect manner, supports Ukrainian performers and writers. For example, the Train to Yaremche festival. As you can see, this is greatly based on egoism.”
Finally, what is your prescription for indifference?
“We have discussed this many times with my friend, a successful Kyiv restaurateur Serhii Husovsky, with whom I spend a lot of time, skiing or waterskiing.
“Some of our friends consider that one should not reprimand a brute who swears as he goes in the street, a scum who throws his cigarette butts or beer bottles on the ground, because nothing will ever change in this country. One should start from oneself and one’s milieu. Rosava, for example, has planted flowers around her house in Kyiv’s Syrets. At first people let their dogs walk on the flowerbed, and walked there themselves. But the singer was not lazy and revived her flowerbed each time. And the consciousness of her neighbors underwent gradual changes. After all, they started to think the way she did: it is so nice when in spring, summer, and autumn everything is in blossom. Unfortunately, we have lived in a terrible system, which did not care about aesthetic values; therefore a part of people nowadays is not ready for this, in terms of their worldview. One should care about oneself, be a sane egoist: everyone who wants changes should operate this way. Let us speak Ukrainian, listen to high-quality Ukrainian music, buy books published by Ukrainian publishing houses.”
