A library with a stock of 50,000 burned down in Hryhory Skovoroda’s native land

It happened several months ago. No one heard anything about it. I didn’t, either, because twenty years separated me from the place where I, as a small girl, would get lost in the thick underbrush of chamomile in damp forest clearings, by the river Mnoha (I was afraid even to dip a hand in the water teeming with large aggressive pike). My father was born here, an argument outweighing all the rest. I loved the place. Chornukhy is the name of a village in what is currently Poltava oblast and the itinerant philosopher Hryhory Skovoroda was born there 280 years ago. The Great Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius writes that he “continued the traditions of democratic Ukrainian culture” and “symbolized the intellectual awakening of society in the late 18th century.”

Chornukhy had a big library (named after Skovoroda, of course), but its residents had little informational contact with the rest of the world (even though it is about three hours’ car ride to Kyiv). Be it as it may, no one heard or saw the old library catch fire and burn all night. No one except an angler on his way to the river early in the morning, walking past and noticing the flames behind the windows. He rose the alarm but it was too late. Nothing could be rescued and even now no one knows how it happened. Some say it was an act of political arson because the library accommodated the campaign HQ of a political party during the last parliamentary campaign. No evidence, though, just another proof of the common folk’s innate dislike of those they eventually cast their votes for... Most likely the building caught fire because of old electric wiring that short-circuited, cutting off the populace’s last chance of contact with the culture, science, and “intellectual awakening” of Ukrainian society, even if in the 18th century.

Try to imagine the smoking debris of 50,000 books. When something like that happens the whole country should mourn. Anyway, the whole country must know, so here I am saying, “My country, formerly considered to be the best read in the world, currently inhabited by people dreaming of their children not growing up on animated cartoons about all kinds of monsters and violence-packed movies! A great tragedy has occurred. I received a letter from a woman who used to be a schoolteacher, left a big industrial city, and settled where the great Skovoroda used to walk and think. Among other things, she wrote: “We don’t often watch TV. It is better to read books, although there is nothing to read except what you have in your home library, because the [public] library at Chornukhy has burned down. It is as though our administrative district were crippled. The library had a very rich stock. Everything was destroyed by fire. We cried. People are now bringing books from home, even from other cities when visiting relatives and friends here. I have also contributed some books from my small library. We mostly read old newspapers. There is nothing to read. It is an intellectual famine”

What she wrote ought to have belonged to another decade, somewhere in the past. One could shed a bucketful of habitual Ukrainian tears on the subject. But since it happened recently, we could do something else instead, something free citizens usually do under the circumstances. We could join hands, collect books, and restore the library in that sacred place. We cannot allow that land from which emerged an itinerant philosopher whom “the world sought to catch but never did” to remain without a library. We cannot allow the people and their descendants living where he did, that symbolized an “intellectual awakening” and “Ukrainian democracy” was born to feel miserable and downtrodden rather than truly free individuals.

I remember that the books consumed by fire had yellow pages smelling of vanilla, dry leaves, maybe old age or candies — depending on who read them. They were neatly bound, with thick hard ornamented covers and excellent illustrations. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, textbooks, literature dealing with mathematics, physics, chemistry, history, fiction, beautiful classics, verse, and prose. All turned to ashes, along with fairy tales of those years, extolling good, eulogizing heroic deeds. Even Kotyhoroshko died in the flames, although he was not supposed to; good could no longer get the better of evil, even if for the time being.

In fact, we could do it very easily, pass the hat around, collect all kinds of books and send them to Chornukhy. When I say very easily I mean it. I called Leonid Finkelstein at the Fakt Publishers and he said nothing could be easier; they’d send a copy of every book put out by the publishing company. No problem! Said by a man who knows precisely how much every book costs — and most importantly who is aware of every such book’s true worth. I would like to add that we must remember his name, because the Ukrainians should remember the names of individuals who know how to build and create things in place of smoking debris. Ukrainians who consider the current realities unbearable must remember their names.

I also know that there are kind- hearted and generous people among us. After every my TV show I am amazed by the public response. People that have never known about those I show in my program write and call, wishing them well. They may get united, forming an entity you can hardly call a people, because our people are known for being browbeaten and succumbing to disaster. And so they could get together and form a new Ukrainian society. No need for ceremonious declarations or party affiliation. Just so many normal individuals born and raised in freedom. For them remembering 50,000 books killed by fire would be a real mournful occasion...

So here is the idea conceived by The Day and yours truly.

We call on the publishing companies, libraries, book dealers, authors, and all citizens for sending books to Chornukhy. All the donators’ names will be made public — not for publicity, but for the rest to know them and respect them; so others would know who to turn to in time of ordeal. Chornukhy will welcome as many books as you will send. Over the past couple of years the stock has not been replenished with any modern publications. It is as though the epoch stopped at when we were considered the world’s best read country.

We will coordinate this modest-scale campaign to save that library, so please contact us as advised below: Olha Herasymiuk, tel. (044) 490 76 70; 1+1 TV Channel, 42 Melnykov St., Kyiv; The Day (Media and Public Thought Dpt.) 2-L Marshal Tymoshenko St., Kyiv 04212, Ukraine; Culture Department, District State Administration (re Skovoroda Library), 30 Lenin St., t. Chornukhy, Poltava oblast, Ukraine.

You can send money to Settlement Account #25424200371, Poltava Bank Chornukhy MFO 331489 Code 02229988.