Cultural Workers Help Minister with Food
“I am creating a new role,” was how Bohdan Stupka, the famous Ukrainian actor, described his post as Minister of Culture, addressing a meeting of creative intellectuals and cultural workers in Dnipropetrovsk. The previous evening on March 10 he and Russian actress Liya Akhedzhakova, made a triumphal appearance in the play Old World Love, based on Nikolai Gogol’s story. It further transpired that he plans to combine his work as minister (people in Dnipropetrovsk called him the nation’s first actor) with his drama career. “When accepting the job, I made one reservation: a premiere and 3-4 plays a month,” Mr. Stupka declared. As for joining the state machine, the actor said the only reason he agreed was to carry out an idea, namely set up a national charitable cultural relief fund. He went on to explain that Ukraine numbers over a hundred government-run theaters, a luxury no other country can afford anywhere else in the world. Sooner or later all these companies will have to become private. The fund will be the only salvation under the circumstances, raised by wealthy patrons of the arts. The actor added that he knows quite a number of such people. The problem is the absence of a number of laws about sponsorship, etc., but the ministry plans to submit bills to Parliament. “Raising this fund is my minimum program; if I fail I will resign,” the Minister of Culture said.
In fact, Mr. Stupka has quite a few other plans, including a culture television channel and a project to encourage use of the official language by bonuses. He recalls the Israeli experience where a man he knows could not get a good job until he learned Hebrew. He “carried rocks” for two years before he did.
However, these problems and plans fade compared to the disastrous condition of Ukrainian culture. The minister receives numerous complaints about low pay, pensions, and meager financing. “Whiles in 1994 we received 38,000 books,” complains Erna Shamychkova, city library manager, “last year it was less than 2000; our provincial branches get twelve copies each.” Rank-and-file librarians are paid the same as cleaning women: 74 hryvnias a month. Museum, theater, and circus workers also come with their grievances. Although the minister promised to raise salaries, he had to admit that the curse from the extremely popular Soviet comedy “Diamond Hand” (“May you live on your salary!”) has come true, adding, “This is horrible!”
Perhaps his personal warmth and sincerity captured the local cultural workers’ hearts or professional solidarity was at play, but when Mr. Stupka was leaving Dnipropetrovsk he was presented with two large baskets of food, containing things that an impoverished Ukrainian intellectual can only dream of: bread, sausages, fruit, wine, and a big piece of Ukrainian fatback.
