Dying towns

The main thing is a road — a good road along which civilization can reach a small town, because civilization does not travel along bad roads. I was pondering this after a preview of the US animated movie Cars, dubbed into beautiful Ukrainian. It is set in a small town that died because the road was destroyed and then resurrected after the road was restored.

I had to make a trip to another small town, not a fairy-tale or animated film one-a good old Ukrainian provincial town. There is nothing remarkable about it, no advanced infrastructure, no outstanding architectural sites, and no large industrial projects. That is why the central authorities have little interest in it, and even less so, the local government. In the last while many official words have been pronounced about the rebirth of the Ukrainian countryside, but not a word about the rebirth — or at least survival — of the Ukrainian province.

The town begins where the decent road ends. Here you will find something you will never see in Kyiv: the potholes in the asphalt are filled with crushed stone (there is a major granite quarry in the vicinity). Some of the holes are patched with pieces of fresh asphalt that are not even half a square meter in size. The crushed stone is knocked out of other holes by feet and tires. The town is literally covered with crushed stone. There is more of it here than garbage, which is also abundant. Here and there the asphalt distends, rises, and falls to pieces, forming another pothole that will be filled with crushed stone. As for patching it with asphalt, this is an unlikely possibility.

The buildings lining the road match the road: flaking, dusty, best described as disgusting. The Park of Culture and Relaxation is the only place frequented by the local youth in the evenings and on weekends, not counting several public gardens and, of course, the cafe. The park is very beautiful, by the way. It used to be the town’s main focal point — I guess even the capital doesn’t have such large parks, even though it has so much greenery! It is better not to look down while you walk; all the paving stones are broken and unchanged since Soviet times, although the need to replace them is glaringly obvious. The same is true of the benches; they are not only not replaced but never painted. They stand there flaking year in and year out.

Once you are in the park, you have to stop on the bridge. Although it is in hazardous condition, the sign and small fence blocking the entrance were removed a few years ago. People are still using the bridge, now and then joking darkly, “Can you feel it shaking?” It is not too big a problem tidying up and renovating the park and the road, except that neither the local authorities nor residents have shown enough enthusiasm. All the “active” populace has since left for Kyiv (a short distance from this town).

The Day asked its experts about how to save the Ukrainian province.

COMMENTARIES

Inna PILSUDSKA, president of the civic organization Europe XXI Foundation:

The first thing is to develop local self-government. I mean not just declarations but changes on the legislative level and real budgetary reform. Local money must be kept locally, where it has been collected. Second, private initiative must be encouraged, first and foremost, small business. Residents of small towns must realize that small business is not just retail trade. This brings us to the third factor: developing public opinion. It is very important to turn the populace into a community capable of assuming responsibility for the town and seeing ways of progress. There are many techniques for developing a civic society throughout the world; some can be applied in Ukraine. Such experiments have taken place and shown good results. Also, local authorities must also be responsible; they must initiate positive changes, show effective management using gradual planning and enlist all possible resources. Let me repeat myself: budgetary reform is a very important factor. Once it is carried out, we’ll see positive changes — of course, given local initiative.

Andriy KOKOTIUKHA, writer and journalist:

First of all, we should we forget about the word “province” and stop bandying it about left and right. I try to use the word “periphery” because it’s more neutral and can be applied even to big cities; its lexical connotation has not been vandalized yet. Once we stop treating the province this way, we’ll make the first step toward rescuing it.

This isn’t enough, of course. Residents of small towns and big cities must be on the same level. In all countries, even the most advanced ones, you find a capital and a periphery. In the United States, for example, people who live in small towns enjoy the same benefits of civilization as residents of big cities. In Ukraine there is social inequality in terms of opportunities, including the lack of good movie theaters, books, newspapers, PCs with Internet access; there is no information infrastructure.

But provincials can also be found living in downtown Kyiv — provincials in spirit and mentality, like in that joke about the Chukchi, who moved into a large apartment and in the biggest room set up a yurt where he lived and went to the toilet. Our mothers, regardless of the size of the town or city they live in, still wash plastic bags after buying sausage. We live in the city, but we want to spend weekends at the cottage to tend our kitchen gardens and make jars of pickled vegetables and fruit preserves.

It is only recently that we became a country in which the city dominates the countryside. We don’t have a large urban population. Moreover, until recently this whole country was a periphery, a district of Russia. This periphery complex is the same as an inferiority complex, and it is still there. Our parliamentarians gleefully recount stories about how they made it from the bottom to the top — in other words, from the countryside to Kyiv. But the countryside must not be considered the bottom!

The periphery problems will disappear once the periphery stops regarding itself this way. What we need is small-town patriotism in the best sense of the word. No industries? So what. No towns should consider themselves superfluous! The very fact that people built it once is proof that it was necessary. It’s this feeling of being useless that constitutes the biggest problem of the periphery.

Yevhen HOLOVAKHA, sociologist:

In order to save the province, it is necessary to curb the egotism of the center. The question is how this is to be accomplished. For centuries our state was built on the pyramid principle — not only geographically, but also politically, economically, and culturally: the closer to the base, the broader the pyramid, and the greater the number of poor people. In the civilized world it is the rhombus principle, with the greatest number of citizens in between, where people can live reasonably well, because there everything depends on the level of activity, not the place of residence.

In Ukraine the center is doing its utmost to draw people from the periphery, in excessive quantities. By doing so it is destroying both the periphery as well as itself, for many people thus drawn into the center are not adapted to the capital’s lifestyle. Kyiv is a rather specific city with a marginal culture. The way to save the province lies through dismantling the existing pyramidal structure. But our people are impatient, they believe in miracles, so dismantling this structure is easier said than done. Miracles are not worked in social life just like that; one must struggle for them.

There are many versions of reform. Just think of everything that is being proposed to save the periphery! But the periphery is afraid of such reforms, and with good reason; it feels that they will finish it off. Their very “intellectual” level will. In fact, even more or less clever reforms are not likely to help the periphery because the center cannot save the province; it can only save itself. Lately, much has been said about the construction of a civic society. But how can a civic society build a state? It’s like communists building capitalism. The state cannot build its antipode; a civic society must be built by citizens.

People who live in the periphery must take an interest in dismantling this pyramid. Without a doubt this interest can originate only from the province. These people must realize that their living standard is much lower than in the capital; they must confront the center with economically and culturally substantiated demands. Of course, the central government could give them definite signals and demonstrate its readiness to help them instead of throwing monkey wrenches into the works. After that, political parties should take over. After all, we have switched from a majority to a party electoral system. Parties should set up regional cells to convey regional demands to the center. Such demands should be supported by cultural and intellectual leaders. Most importantly, it takes people, a massive movement. When such signals appear, the central government will have no alternative but to head this new movement that will produce the required reforms.

Volodymyr TSARUK, director of the tourist information center National Tourist Organization:

As far as small towns in Ternopil, Zakarpattia, and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts are concerned, unquestionably the key to their development is tourism through small hotels, museums, and various souvenirs. Rural tourism support associations are being set up, and there are various small business development options. Two organizations of small towns were recently founded in western Ukraine, embracing Zakarpattia, Khmelnytsky, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne, and Ternopil oblasts. Their objective is to jointly solve small- town problems, draft programs, and help small businesses. I think that similar approaches can be effective in other regions that have no tourist options. The state must help develop small business anyway.