A Heavy Cross to Bear

It was a bitter cold Saturday, November 21. In their poorly heated apartments, thousands of Kyiv residents felt the cold which, as always, came all of a sudden and caught everyone off guard.

Without no regard for rank or title, the cold also cut to the bones of those who came to see firsthand the laying of a capsule and the cornerstone in the reconstruction of the Holy Assumption Cathedral, and, a bit later, to witness the placing of a 240-kilogram, gold-covered consecrated cross atop the St. Michael's Golden Dome Cathedral's central cupola. The first ceremony was attended by President Kuchma, who noted that "the revival of the symbols of our faith, history, and people's soul itself is not a waste of money."

This position deserves respect, but one can often hear "unconscious citizens" express a diametrically opposite view: perhaps, it would be better to first make our life more sensible and satisfied, and only then renew our sacred places. Where is the truth here? Obviously, not in extremes, although it stands to reason that, while rebuilding ancient monuments and learning to make a new sense of life, we still have to restore our ability not only to spend but also to count money, which we seem to have lost over the years of worry-free living in a totalitarian state.

According to one version, the Holy Assumption Cathedral was mined and blown up by the Soviet guerrillas rather than by the Germans. I am not sure if it was merely a propaganda move or a remorse of conscience on the part of Communists, but in the 1980s it was decided to restore the cathedral. Following standard procedure, all the necessary paperwork was commissioned, and a competition between projects was announced. Because of the poor drainage system at the Kyiv Pecherska Lavra (Monastery of the Caves), it was finally decided to drive piles into the foundation of the cathedral. The first piles driven thunderously into the sacred soil caused a thick web of cracks in the walls of other Lavra buildings that had survived the war virtually undamaged. When no appropriate technical and economical solution to the problem was found, the problem was suspended.

How many back wages and apartments cold as a morgue will this reconstruction cost? Maybe, we really ought to count first, and do it openly. After all, openness is just as important for the renewal of - to quote the President again - "the broken link between times and generations."