IVAN DRACH: “<I>Izvestiya v Ukraine</I>? Let it come out in Ukrainian!”
The Day has more than once stressed its interest lately in the appointment of Ivan Drach as chairman of the newly-formed State Committee for Information Policies, Television, and Radio. For it is clear that, especially after the resignation of Zynovy Kulyk as deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council and under conditions when the National Television and Radio Council is not viable, Mr. Drach has concentrated in his hands the opportunities, problems, temptations, and responsibility for many things that will happen in our information space. And no matter what kind of illusions we may have regarding self-sufficiency and independence in the decisions of people who conducted our information policies earlier, we still should not underrate the role of a specific individual in an influential post. The more so that Mr. Drach is an illustrious figure in both the nation’s culture and politics. This is in fact emphasized by both those who approve this appointment and those who take a clearly cautious attitude toward it. In essence, this is the first time in this country that this position has been occupied by a person who has some durable and publicly proclaimed ideological persuasions which some may like and others not. Some even think these can prevent civil servants from observing one of the fundamental principles of our Constitution: no ideology shall be recognized as compulsory in Ukraine.
On the other hand, this post is occupied by a political figure rather than a nomenklatura expert, which also has its pluses and minuses. Yes, a person like this can display independence and motivation in decision-making on a qualitatively higher level than before. But we know at the same time that it is celebrities unaware of all the tricks of the trade whom the bureaucracy breaks most aptly and quickly, taking the decision-making process exclusively in their own hands and allowing the former only to play a figurehead role. And, finally, our information space will for the first time be managed by a person appointed on the initiative of the Cabinet, not the President or his entourage. Thus Mr. Drach’s fate and length of time in office are very closely connected with the stability and strength of the Cabinet. And, undoubtedly, a specific political force, Rukh, is also for the first time openly interested in Mr. Drach’s success as chairman of the State Committee for Information Policies.
We obtained an exclusive interview with Ivan Drach about the extent to which his ideological priorities correlate with the interests of the authorities and society, and the extent to which the poet feels himself secure in the post of a state official. What kind of main problems does Mr. Drach see in our media?
“SLOGANS OF AN OPEN SOCIETY ARE BEAUTIFUL, BUT WE SHOULD NOT OPPRESS THE UKRAINIAN NATION”
“Ivan Fedorovych, to what extent exactly are you aware of the current state of our mass media? We mean not only what we see on the screen or in newspapers but also what is going on behind and outside them.”
“It is very difficult for me to say that I am aware of all these processes, both those going one on the surface and those under the rug. What clans and groupings stand behind them? I am only beginning to look into all this. For example, there has been talk here for a few days about the RRT Company and the attitude toward it of various forces. So I see various groupings acting here. On the one hand, these are people who were earlier involved in the formation of Ukraine’s information field, namely, Zynovy Kulyk, Oleksandr Savenko, and Oleh Bai. That they are being dismissed is quite understandable. I must inquire into why they are being dismissed, what’s the crux of the matter?”
“Who initiated their dismissal?”
“You know that Mr. Kulyk was relieved of his position as deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. Savenko and Bai were fired to clear the way for me, Drach, to supervise the merger of two structures, the State Committee for Information Policies and the State Television and Radio Committee. One can conclude from the fact that the President accepted Messrs. The proposal by Messrs. Yushchenko and Zhulynsky that I be appointed indicates he himself is aware of some of the flaws in the previous information policy.”
“Which exactly?”
“For example, I go to a newsstand and buy almost all the newspapers that are there: Izvestiya, Komsomolskaya pravda ... I only wish they had Sakhalinskaya pravda! (From the other side of Siberia —Ed.) And all this is in Ukraine. On the one hand, it is interesting for me to read Moskovsky komsomolets v Ukraine, for it gives me a lot of information. But, at the same time, I can’t help but notice that this is information aggression by an eastern state. And if they want to have Moskovsky komsomolets v Ukraine, why not put this question the way the French do? For France, as a great and prosperous country, is fighting this fight. So one can well imagine how our country, a small child, has to fight, stemming the massive tide coming in from the north! I will do my best for our information space to be as Ukrainian as possible.”
“How exactly??”
“We’ll see. If Izvestiya wants to come out in Ukraine, let it be in Ukrainian translation. We’ll put the question like this. There also are some other proposals. Each Russian book might pay a one- hryvnia excise duty for the sake of Ukrainian culture. Each Russian newspaper ten kopecks for the Ukrainian press.”
“But this raises two problems. The first is our economic dependence on Russia due to which the latter can pursue its interests here on such a scale. The other reality is the development of satellite and cable television. More and more Ukrainian citizens will have a chance to watch any channel irrespective of what the government wants.”
“Certainly, we have to first win economic independence in other, non-informational, fields. But even now we have to consider what to do. We are going to pursue a policy of our own. I have no doubt of this.”
“And what is your attitude toward there being a Ukrainian ethnic nation and a Ukrainian political nation? And the political nation does not consist of the monolingual population.”
“I started my work history a teacher of the Russian language and literature. I studied in Moscow. I learned from Shklovsky and Romm. Russian culture means a great deal to me. But will I say I will somehow copy it and do something tendentious? No, it is simply that now is the moment when we have to go on the offensive, not the defensive, as a nation. One of the major causes of our economic and all other kinds of decline is the fact that we have distorted and defiled our basic ethnic nation. If Ukrainians do not become conscious that this is a state of their own and that they live and exist for themselves, we won’t be able to do anything. We will only build ourselves something amorphous, the so-called open, society. The idea is excellent, the slogans are very precious, for me too, but we are thus oppressing the basic thing we have; we are oppressing the Ukrainian nation.”
“In other words, you will build Ukrainian television for Ukrainians? Ethnic Ukrainians?”
“Why only for Ukrainians? But first of all for Ukrainians. They make up the majority of the population.
“When we went and started Rukh, we said: we will be able to solve our Ukrainian problems only when a Jew in Kyiv feels better than one in Jerusalem, a Russian better than in Moscow and Petersburg, and a Pole better than in Warsaw or Chicago. And only then has a Ukrainian the right to solve his own problems. Then as in 1995 the so-called Congress of the Ukrainian Intelligentsia was formed. We saw that this tolerance of ours was far from completely justified. We now feel the humiliation and decline of the Ukrainian ethnic nation. We have now entered the government and will be doing our best so that the Ukrainian ethnic nation, the main integral component of our Ukrainian political nation, should not feel worse than a Jew, a Russian, or a Pole in Ukraine. And the contradiction here will be this: on the one hand, we want to do things the right way, and, on the other, we have to violate the great laws of world democracy, which have long been dominant, coming to us from the media, etc. We must be clever, craft, and keep out wits about us to pursue the line corresponding to our time.”
“I SHOULD BE STATE’S SPOKESMAN, NOT A MINISTER OF TRUTH”
“Who do you think now determines information policy in Ukraine: the President, Presidential Administration, Security Council, or the oligarchs?”
“You’ve just named them all. The current information policy is the joint product of these forces.”
“And, as a result, the state still does not have a clearly formulated concept of its information policy. We mean the interests of the state, not of separate departments or clans.”
“Obviously, our strategic interests should be paramount. This will be my problem, and I must think how to pursue this line. Our information space is filled with a horrible moral climate. Take, for example, the problem of piracy. International organizations keep turning to us for explanations. And we already have terrible problems in terms of finances.”
“And what is your attitude toward our state-run television being greatly influenced by various financial and political groups?”
“First, we have to look closely at what UT-1 really is. Why is it practically being fed from the state budget and run off commercials, without making any profits for the state?
“The current situation should be gradually improved, defused, so to speak. I hope I will be supported by such non-governmental organizations as the Writers’ League, the Journalists’ League, and all other leagues of creative workers. This office will be of at least some value only if I get the backing of the President and the nomenklatura clan. But, on the other hand, I must only be the mouthpiece of state rather than the Ministry of Truth George Orwell depicted.”
“What kind of levers does this State Committee have to do this?”
“I still don’t know all the levers. I am a person who has just come out onto the field as a political figure. I so far have intentions. It is a different question how to put them into practice.”
