About <I>The Day</I> and this Country
To understand what is happening in this country, one has to monitor the environs together with Den’/The Day. And I think anyone can see what is happening at this periodical, especially now that we are marking our anniversary. On every such date we meet with our readers and can register certain progress. First, it was a photo exhibit, then the book Ukraine Incognita. This year I am happy to inform our devotees that we have published a photo album, including the best illustrations that have passed muster, a trial of time. One might say that the photo album appeared as ordered by our readers. During one of our photo exhibits Mykhailo Reznykovych, artistic director of the Russian Drama Theater, suggested that we publish something of the kind. A great many ideas emerge in the process of communicating with our readers. That was also the case with the book Ukraine Incognita, which had actually appeared also as ordered by readers, in keeping with their spoken as well as unspoken wishes, those one could sense in the air. Everybody recognized that, ranging from Academician Mykola Zhulynsky to local history experts to lovers of history (some of them collected clippings with all our polemical publications dealing with historical subjects). This year we have developed the theme and moved further to comprehend the complexities of Ukrainian-Russian relations in the book Dvi Rusi. I would say that these books have become a strong contribution to the newspaper. After seven years of publication, one is, of course, tempted to say that we have an actual degree of influence on this society, that we have helped change something, and that this society is unthinkable without our presence. This is so and not so at the same time. On the one hand, without such efforts, I believe, the journalistic community would have degraded even faster. After all, people do turn back to look at a newspaper. At the same time, we do not often hear from our colleagues (or rivals) words of appreciation, something like “Yes, they are excellent journalists.” And so what is most perplexing is that we have rather “sour” environs in which it is very difficult to beget anything new. To turn such environs into a fertile soil, we should perhaps exert ten times more positive efforts.
This year we have tried to show that Ukrainian society is alive, that one must communicate with it and probe it, bringing to life the best there is in this society and sometimes even helping it organize. There is that example of collecting books for the library that burned down at the village of Chornukhy. It is a very illustrative example. It is real! We did it. Or take the sixtieth anniversary of the tragic events in Volyn; The Day’s journalists turned the discussion into a nationwide campaign. Perhaps if The Day had not applied such pressure our politicians would have taken more conformist steps when it came to coordinating their statement with the Polish side. As for the Holodomor, it being such a painful topic for the Ukrainians, we not only wrote on the subject, so people could learn the truth. We also campaigned for Ukraine to become united not only by such joyful events as Independence, but also by common doleful memories. We insistently suggest that our fellow Ukrainians take part in a public action on the Holodomor Remembrance Day (to be held on the fourth Saturday of November 2003), so everybody will light a candle in his window to remember the victims. A candle in every window would show that the people in Ukraine do remember that tragedy, that no one has forgotten. One might recall our message, courtesy of our author and dear friend Prof. James Mace, addressing the Pulitzer Prize Committee and requesting that they revoke Walter Duranty’s award for telling lies about the Holodomor. There are no guarantees that the prize will be annulled in the end, yet we showed that we Ukrainians have our own attitude on this, that we do take a stand in the matter, that we are aware of the linkage of times and destinies.
Yet all these actions, along with the book Ukraine Incognita, are, regrettably, with rare exceptions, just impulses for the journalist community. Everybody says here that we have nothing round which we could rally. I believe that the problem lies elsewhere. It is in the straightening out of the system of our values. If we do we will find unity considerably easier to attain. A good example is the formation of The Day’s readers’ club. Here one can discuss mutual influence and interaction. This makes us needed by this society. While working to increase our market demand, we expect that this club will eventually outgrow itself, as one of survivors. I am saying that our newspaper represents a minority, but that this minority does have a future.
Editor’s Note: You are welcome to explore The Day’s anniversary photo exhibit at the Artist’s House (5 Lvivska Ploshcha, Kyiv), as of September 20 to October 5.
