Friends of this newspaper have spoken out about it

Den’s readers know that 2016 is a special year in the life of their favorite newspaper, as it turns 20 this year, just as Ukraine celebrates the 25th anniversary of the restoration of its independence! The main celebrations are yet to come, as the publication usually marks its birthday by opening a new photo exhibition featuring the best photos reflecting the nation’s life. But the date of the anniversary, September 11, turned out to be special as well. Our readers did an online flash mob: using posters, photos, videos, and simple warm greetings, our subscribers, experts, contributors, and summer school students have made it known what the 20th anniversary of Den meant for them (these posts can be accessed on the website of this newspaper or on Facebook). Meanwhile, our friends who were unable to talk about their favorite holding of intellectual initiatives on Facebook have spoken out individually, and we offer you their opinions.

WHAT DOES THE 20th ANNIVERSARY MEAN FOR DEN?

Roman YATSIV, professor, art historian:

“My first encounter with Den happened almost immediately after my father, artist Myron Yatsiv, departed for eternity, which he did in 1996. It was my father who instilled in me by example the habit of stopping at every newsstand or bookstore window to see some new intellectual product, for the mind or for the soul. Apart from Dzvin, Literaturna Ukraina and several other periodicals, it was hard even then to find anything at Ukrainian newsstands. I would like to note at once that the situation has only worsened over these 20 years, so that in 2016, we have a rather active public discourse, while effective publication platforms are few. Shelves of newsstands are full of mass culture ‘products,’ which feature texts and glossy design united in bad taste and deliberate aggression against the soul and intellect. Our intellectual energy, meanwhile, has gone to the electronic media, where it is scattered in various ad hoc mass media formats or on Facebook. Various questionable, hybrid forms are undermining the citadel of the cultural values and national spirit of this country.

“Who has ever shown to the Ukrainian public another, constructive path to national consolidation based on spiritual and moral values? Have any politicians or research institutions done so? Unfortunately, their efforts have not satisfied more than a very small proportion of the modern Ukrainian community’s needs. Instead, Den has been performing this mission for two decades already, being the best and truly conceptual publishing project focusing on socio-cultural and political issues. From its first issues, the periodical has entirely absorbed my attention, inducing me to intensify my professional work as well and take my bearings from the nation-building ideology which has been generated by your editorial board.

“Over these 20 years in the position of the national leader, the newspaper has faced different specific urgent tasks. Den focused on historical challenges of the moment, local issues were dealt with as parts of the main, fundamental problem: how people and their inner world changed with institutional changes in the country, how they combined modern thinking and will to learn the new and unknown with the national identity. In the 2000s, Den was a harbinger of the coming escalation in confrontation between the mentality of yesterday’s people, totally Soviet and resigned to lies and cynicism of the Muscovite-Bolshevik ideology, and that of new, educated Ukrainians who sought qualitative transformations in all spheres of life. In the 2010s, Den diagnosed systemic disorders in the structures of the Ukrainian government, while on the eve of the Revolution of Dignity and in the new historical reality brought about by the annexation of Crimea and the Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine, the newspaper has become the primary intellectual mouthpiece of civil society, the community of colorful personalities, European Ukrainians, who are a nation with deep and strong historical roots.”

“Today, Den shows by example how we must create national thinking and help the state-building process. Functional field of Den’s influence on the Ukrainians’ collective consciousness has immeasurably expanded over these 20 years. Den fosters among its readers a sense of pride in domestic history and culture, daily strengthens national optimism and warns against errors and weakening of our cultural identification. Den has brought together different generations of Ukrainians, people with different genetic origins, uniting them around common values, which will allow us to overcome any obstacles in the historical march of the Ukrainian nation.”

GREETING FROM MOSCOW

Lilia SHEVTSOVA, senior fellow, Brookings Institution (Moscow):

“Surely, I’m not impartial. My friends work in the newspaper Den. The first among them is the editor-in-chief, Larysa Ivshyna, with whom I have been friends for several years, and also a faithful reader of her books. But for me, friendly attitude is always derived from the appeal of the person in question, from my genuine interest of their position and views, and, finally, from matching moral values.

“So, Den newspaper has become a kind of cultural and political phenomenon for me, filling various ‘levels’ of communication with opportunities to reflect on issues of national identity, painful twists of history, ways of building a new state in the former post-Soviet space. Yes, the Den team is building a discussion platform for the problems of Ukrainian nation and state. But the paradox is that these exact problems will sooner or later arise for us in Russia to discuss, as well as in other societies within the Eurasian authoritarian states, still frozen in the ‘post-communism’ era.

“The most interesting project for me is Ukraine Incognita, which allows to see the life of Ukrainian nation on the painful bifurcation points of its history and offers a reflection on the drama of history, and on the drama of the common person. Thus, the ‘Family Portrait of Ukraine’ had let me go back to my roots and start collecting information about my family that comes from Myhalky village of Borodianka raion – the region which suffered terrible losses in famine and war.

“I wish Larysa Ivshyna and her team the abundance of drive and energy. Twenty years is the age of youth! And youth provides an opportunity for courage and new experiments!”