PETRIVKA 1999

The Day decided to visit the bazaar people and hear what they had to say, learn about their lifestyle, and ask various questions. The place chosen was the large Petrivka open-air dry goods market. Preparing for this journalistic feat, I painted a mental picture of enterprising individuals paving the way for Ukraine's better future. I was determined to portray them to their best advantage. Enterprising, tough, self-reliant, never giving in to despair.

I have to say that two-thirds of them categorically refused to talk with me. Their more loquacious colleagues explained that the reason was banal: after six or eight hours of boring (trade was slow) marking time in the cold, talking with somebody was the last thing they needed. Moreover, the market these vendors served was far from prosperous and dependent on others. Consider several interviews with those who did talk.

Leonid Mykolayovych (about 50):

"How long have you been working in the market?"

"About two years."

"What did you do to earn your living before perestroika, before all this started?"

"I have always worked in trade. I'm supposed to be an expert on food items. Trade is my element.

"Do you run your own business or work for someone else?"

"I do the selling now."

"Have you had any business of your own over the past couple of years? What would you prefer: private business or working for the government as before?"

"I am extremely displeased with the current state of affairs. Running an independent business involves a lot of risk. Too many want a cut, well... Businessmen feed them all."

"Have you been abroad over the past several years?"

"Yes, to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania."

"What do you think the situation is like in these former socialist countries?"

"Much better than here, especially in Poland. There one gets the impression things are being done to help people."

Yevheniya Viktorivna (about 40):

Ukrainians are the same nation they were 200-300 years ago. If our government makes us suffer, we still keep quiet. We're not the Poles..."

"Could you picture a situation in which you would be willing to take part in the political struggle in Ukraine? What would you need to overcome your lack of power and time to get involved in a political campaign or some other action? Who should be leaders?"

"You know, when times are sad, unpleasant, and painful, I am strongly tempted to step in, have my say, for I just can't put up with the way things are. But there are few people like us. There's the fear, fear of the authorities and that you could suffer. You have a family, but still sometimes such thoughts occur to you. I'm also afraid. We are absolutely without rights and defenseless."

"Which Ukrainian politicians do you sympathize with?"

"You know, I don't pay much attention, but they're all Mafia, corrupt: we all see this. Nobody at all is imposing. Besides, I don't have time for this. We voted in the last elections. I did because my relatives told me to."

"Our newspaper has raised the issue of relationships between businessmen and state bureaucrat, bribery, and protection. What do you think, is this an unavoidable evil or maybe it makes your life easier?"

"You know, when the patents were introduced they made our life easier. We buy them and display them, so whenever they come to check up we show them the patent and say see, we paid. And we also pay the racket."

"Who do pay more, the racket or the government?"

"The racket."

Mykola Vasyliovych:

"Worked long in the market?"

"Two years. I'm an electrical engineer by training. I worked for the Leninska Kuznia Plant and for a government-run production association up north, as a foreman."

 "Working on your own or for someone else?"

"Fifty-fifty."

"Which do you like better, the status of an entrepreneur, that is, somebody who is to some degree on his own, or working in an enterprise? If you could return to a state enterprise that paid decently, do you think that would be better?"

"Yes, but look what they've brought us to."

"Why do you think the Czechs, Hungarians, and Poles could overcome the crisis or at least have started to? Why didn't we do so in Ukraine?"

"I don't know; maybe because their governments socked enough away and finally turned to face the people, while ours is still stuffing is pockets. How do you like Lazarenko? All his money is in Swiss banks and more is who knows where."

"Why do Ukrainians seem less politically active than even the Russians?"

"You know, the people are tired. It's all been going on so long, that the people is just tired, apathetic. Thank God if we can just manage to survive. That's why everyone here is quiet. They put the people up for sale to bandits, to criminal elements."

"So why don't they protest, if only out of self-respect?"

"Because just like me nobody believes in justice. Because everybody prefers to mind his own business. That's why we aren't living in a state. To us the notion of state has been reduced to our own family and, like I said, I don't give a damn about anything else. What happens around me concerns me only as much as I depend on it."

Anton, 22:

"I've been working the market about a year. I'm in business for myself."

"Are you satisfied with how things are now?"

"No."

"What would you rather be, a businessman having to rely on your own resources only, or have a more stable status, even if having to earn less?"

"I'd prefer to stay in business, but in a different line."

"What do you think of the business environment in Ukraine? Say you would have a chance to start your own business tomorrow, would it be too much trouble?"

"It would be trouble, but possible. The way things are only the lazy can't find work. Now you can find work anywhere if you want to."

"You mean that all those unemployed have internal problems due to which they can't find a job?"

"No, I wouldn't put that way, but I do think that 90% stand a real chance of finding a job. I won't say a well-paid one, but enough to live on."

"Why do you think our neighbors, the Poles and Czechs, could overcome the crisis whereas Ukraine and Russia are stuck in the mud?"

"Well, they got started earlier and we later, so I think it is just a matter of time. Also, trite as it may sound, I think we also have a different mentality, lazy and passive."

"What is your attitude to participation in various kinds of political activity?"

"I would take part, even though I wouldn't enjoy it, if I knew it would bring some real results."

"You mean visible results?"

"Yes, I mean something not useless, not just waving one's arms."

Oleksiy, 24:

"What do the people have to do with all this? The people don't make our laws."

"So who does?"

"Our laws are passed by the powers that be."

"OK, who elects those in power?"

"Not me and not the people!"

"Our newspaper raises the question of relationships between business, using various informal vehicles, I mean bribery, protection money, and so on..."

"I think that bribery and paying protection was, exists now, and will remain. There could be some changes; it's just a question of how much. Maybe more maybe less, but the racket will exist so long as there are grounds for it, and there are."

"How do you personally estimate the kind of pressure you experience from the racket? Bearable or unbearable? Does it make problems for your business?"

"Of course, I wish I had to pay less and not so often, but I in principle the pressure is bearable. The whole arrangement is for you to work and lay the golden eggs."

Valentyna Hryhorivna, about 40:

"What sort of job did you have before?"

"I was an economist at the Ministry of Transport. But I have to help my children and grandsons, and this is the only way."

"How is your family doing?"

"Well, I help them and they also do as best they can. I think of Leonid Kravchuk and his party as an example. And I studied at the same school with Medvedchuk. Things were much better for me when Kravchuk was President, for he really did something, maybe not much, but he really did, to protect business in Ukraine. As for Leonid Kuchma, he doesn't care about people, least of all those in business. He just doesn't consider us people."

Serhiy, 35:

"I can tell you that between 60 and 70 percent of the people selling things here would quit as soon as they found jobs, I mean regular, stable, and well-paying ones, in line with their qualifications."

"How do you feel about Pavlo Lazarenko?"

"Negatively. Maybe he was framed. I don't know. But he did come up with $2 million for bail. I don't think anybody in this country can make that much money legally. Here if one forgets his stock book they will take his stock of goods away and make him pay a fine of four or five thousand hryvnias. And Lazarenko just paid, no questions asked."

"Suppose you work at a bank and you get to know about some machination, would you report it to authorities, anonymously, of course?"

"Understand, it cuts both ways. On the one hand I would be doing my civic duty, on the other I would be a stool-pigeon. And my anonymity would be highly questionable. They'd kill me for sure. If I could rely on the state 100%, maybe I would do just that: report. But I will never trust our state that much.

Valentyna Hryhorivna:

"Let me tell you something. We have our Deputies, including Communists, whom we elected. And we also have our racket, I mean (the woman mentions well-known names omitted in the text for the obvious reasons, hereinafter referred to using X, Y, etc.). Anyway, these people are concerned about the people in their own special way. Take Mr. X, he is Assyrian, he concerned about his nation and his ethnic community here. He pays their pensions and gives them presents. Then there is Mr. Y, elected to Parliament from Kyiv's Moscow district. He also pays pensions and makes presents, like he did on Militia Day. He really helps people. Why don't our Communist People's Deputies do anything to help us?"

"Maybe because Deputies have no right to take money directly out of the state budget?"

"No, they don't, but Mr. Y doesn't either. But he pays, and all the rest don't."

"Then the question becomes where he gets all this money from?"

"Lazarenko took money! Why didn't he do anything? I want to say that Mr. Y still has some kind of soul, some kind of heart; he gave people money, divided it with people, and didn't just keep everything for himself and his children. Let it be stolen money, whatever, but he has helped other people survive. And Lazarenko didn't."

Serhiy: "Take the Pension Fund. I make regular payments to it, yet my mother gets nothing from it. All the money seems to vanish into thin air. I also pay that bandit, and he pays other people afterward. That same Mr. Y, I had to pay him, but I know how this money will be used, and honestly, I bear no grudges."

V. H.: "Really, these gangsters share their money with people and our state doesn't. You just can't allow this situation to continue any further. In fact, the mob appears to care more for the people than the state does, and we treat our bandits better than we do the state. We understand this, and it's somehow not as odious. Let people consider them lower. All the same they don't complain."

These conversations at first left me bitter and disillusioned. Once again I heard all about whoever was considered real thrifty master, who would come to power along with his team of top pros and turn Ukraine into a civilized country like Poland or Hungary. There were more conversations about the people being "tired" and refusing to trust the government 100%. But working on this feature, piecing the story together, I quickly realized that my chagrin was purely emotional. And emotions have never been of any practical use anywhere to anyone. Intelligent people have to pose questions of how to help deal with the essence of the phenomenon, and by finding the answers, find ways to solve the problem. It is not enough to say that we need a good man to rule this country. We all know that we do; this is self-evident. We must understand the qualities he should have other than those possessed by the bad rulers we have now. It is not enough to say things should become civilized. It is necessary to understand just how things ought to be.

Certainly, this survey cannot be considered a representative poll. The scope is insufficient, the questions unsystematic, the answers are not always properly worded. Yet there is adequate food for thought. Everything stated here is vivid evidence of our current history. I consider it of utmost importance in refuting certain myths that have taken shape in the public mind.

Can we be so sure about what they is the undeniably positive role played by hundreds thousands taking up small businesses? I am being sarcastic, because profiting from resale (e.g., 300-600 hryvnias a month for an old lady selling cigarettes and three to six thousand dollars for a thriving businessman), because there is that "unchangeable course of reform," "steady trends of overcoming the crisis" (sic) and all the other empty phraseology we are fed by the media. How can this inspire people with a post-secondary education, people who topnotch specialists in their respective fields, having to switch to exhausting manual labor? From my own experience I know that this can only be described as utterly humiliating. Also one must not forget that any business, especially in wholesale and retail, calls for special training and mentality, something far from all who try it possess. And "business" nowadays boils down to buying things and trying to sell them at a profit. Any other, truly civilized business is very difficult to undertake, let alone develop. It is practically impossible. What about all those who have spent so much time working with machine tools, drafting boards, operating tables, and children's daycare centers? After all, someone has to create tangible assets, if only so that there is something to redistribute. Hence most of the people working our bazaars, are doing something they find uninteresting and unpromising, while the buying power of the people is steadily declining.

Should we be surprised by such sharply their negative massive attitude to their present material status? Over the years of independence most Ukrainians have experienced the worst form of poverty, often turning them into beggars and homeless.

And is it news to you that people sympathize more with the criminals than the state? Or was it a surprise that our respondents prefer to deal with the racket? Hardly. The Ukrainian government machine looks poor and unjust, if not to use stronger words, against the background of any well-organized structure. And the point is not so much that the militia, an amorphous, utterly corrupt structure, is no match for all those well-trained and paid operatives on the other side of the law. Or that the big-mouthed and incompetent "controlling authorities" cause nothing but irritation, lacking even the most basic qualities expected from a strong administration: strength and confidence, something one finds in any organized criminal structure. The Ukrainian state, while proclaiming support of business a priority, is actually relying on falsehood and hypocrisy. (our good old President again distinguished himself, founding Businessman Day, what an irony!) acting like a bull in a china closet. Rooting out everything that can yield fruit, however meager, is causing growing indignation in people. Hence their attitudes about gangsters who "really care about the people," while those in power remain downright heartless and merciless. Personally, I consider that our underworld lords just do not bother to hide their immoral attitudes and practices, while those in power lie with a straight face, telling us about all those "hardships of the transition period," while feverishly stuffing their pockets with dirty money. I am strongly reminded of President Leonid Kravchuk answering good-humoredly to a question about the kravchuchka luggage carts, saying that the thing had brought "half of Europe to the market." Under Leonid Kuchma, another appellation came into being, kuchmovoz (Kuchma cart) and the man has over the four years of his lamentable presidency fed us awkwardly-worded stories about "certain difficulties" and "opponents of reform." Yet we are where we are, still a long way to go to catch up with our next door Western neighbors.

I feel like addressing special words of appreciation to one respondent, Anton. Be it as it may, much depends on what one is accustomed to. This young fellow has not experienced any of the "benefits" of the Soviet paradise and he is not sorry. Moreover, he does not want that system to be revived. Actually, he takes things in stride. There are jobs and one just has to look for one and start making a living, maybe not much, but enough to feel a human being. He is not geriatrically nostalgic about the "brilliant past." Good boy! Also, I would like to remind all those feeling like some of the respondents in this account, wishing to have nothing to do with political life: Someone, I forget who exactly, said that the good thing about democracy is that is guarantees a given society precisely the kind of government it deserves. Denying oneself the choice is self-deceit. Everyone will eventually have to make a choice, but given your approach "everyone" will turn into precisely so many smart operators who will take advantage of your political apathy, serving their own selfish ends.

Dear reader, we invite you to continue this dialogue. We would be glad to hear your opinion on these and other problems. You may have your own answers to some of the questions raised above, using your own unique life experience. Here is a chance to make your views public knowledge.

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