Tongues Sealed “Classified”

The first places in the second week of The Day Expert's second round were awarded as follows:

* Interview with Serhiy Holovaty “There is a threat of losing independence soon” (Oct. 12, No. 38)

* Dmytro Skriabin's “Anatoly Matviyenko: Open Politics Forum” (Oct. 12, No. 38)

* Irina Ratushinskaya answers questions posed by The Day's Anatoly Lemysh (Oct. 19, No. 39)

This time we publish comments on the above-mentioned publications that arrived in the contest's second week, along with expert reviews of articles that were not in the winning number but the ideas expressed by reviewers sounded interesting to the Editors.

The Day is doing a good job carrying contributions from such prominent persons as Serhiy Holovaty. This prominent politician's recommendations and views never pass unnoticed; he is respected and I think that using his wisdom and skill to offer well-argumented views will bring the truth home to many voters. Analyzing Rukh's evolution, rifts, and the branching off of small parties, each adjusted to a kinglet, Mr. Holovaty points out that these trends can result in Ukraine losing the most important gain cherished by generations and finally come true, independence. The national democratic forces should finally realize that the only way to beat Kuchma is by uniting and joining the Kaniv Four, because in this alliance the author sees the future European Ukraine. Otherwise this country will follow the Asiatic course of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. This road leads nowhere. Or the contract put out for Ukraine will be carried out. And so we must heed Serhiy Holovaty's sage words, have no part in this evil, and vote for the future of our state — i.e., for one of the Kaniv Four.

* * *

The correct diagnosis contained in the heading was confirmed by the following week's events. The Kuchma team resorted to a new series of cheap provocations and falsehoods. These people will stop at nothing to prevent Ukraine's healthy forces from uniting.

I don't know how the rest of the world will respond to the current unlawful and immoral methods of influencing the electorate, but I know one thing for sure: that we will be a two-bit nation if we don't bring this clique to account after October 31.

* * *

The Ukrainian politician's awareness of Ukraine's low level and backwardness is caused by incompetent leadership, and its loss of historical bearings in the geopolitical expanses is in the convenient niche of egotism found in each and everyone of us.

On the brink of the abyss, faced with irreversible processes, with the state being looted by impertinent uncontrollable oligarchs, it is like cancer in its final metastases. A growing number of politicians, engrossed in this ongoing free for all, reaching the peak of immorality, are now faced with the harsh reality of cynical, aggressive, lying monsters atop the political Olympus. They care nothing about the petty intriguing of the lesser politicians in their pockets. And they will never give up power, NEVER! Because it stands to reason that if they fail they will lose more than their portfolios. They will be liquidated from the political game. They are terrified and now talk of uniting. Or is it already too late?

What a shame that the problem of enlightenment has to be raised in Ukraine at the turn of the twenty-first century, when Europeans did so in the eighteenth. We lag behind two hundred years. So we have what we have. Nothing, except the illusory desire to unite on the Left . Won't this mean a repetition of the Pacific cargo cult experience when US military bases, dismantled after World War II, arose anew years later, tended by the islanders, complete with hangars, aircraft, radar, airfields — all made by the natives from reeds.

* * *

I am grateful for the week's two publications, I mean the interviews with Serhiy Holovaty and Anatoly Matviyenko. Both are respected politicians, thinking and responsible persons, and so their views are united by one idea: how to save Ukraine, which is the same as saving one's own mother. Obviously, both are genuinely concerned about their native land, its current realities and prospects. The passage where Mr. Matviyenko dwells on the atmosphere of mounting fear, with 1937 approaching ever closer, is in a way an answer to the question of the Expert contest's second week: “...the regime is getting increasingly out of control. This is very serious and must be opposed.” Perfectly right! So let us oppose it together. After working in big-time politics for so long, you people have realized that it is impossible to build a normal life only for oneself, even if one holds high office. You understand this. Fine. Better late than never. While the politicians were busy solving global problems, the people have been dying out, degraded, pushed into the gutter, antagonized against everybody and everything over and above them. Thus, reaching accord is impossible today — I mean real, not dramatized, flag-waving accord, something coming from the bottom of one's heart and not from fear or from directives signed above.

* * *

Unfortunately, Ratushinskaya's name was a discovery for me. Unfortunately, because after reading the article I clearly saw that a huge layer of information had passed me by. I wish to thank the Editors for this discovery. You wrote about an outstanding woman, strong and dedicated, not one of those sunshine patriots now demanding extra ration cards to make up for earlier empty stomachs. It is sad to realize that the elite of the nation, called upon to determine that nation's moral standard, is now pushed into the information backyard, while all those “nationally conscious” charlatans are thrust into the limelight with the media. By the way, I can't but mention Yuri Rylev's article “Young Eagle-2Е” [not carried in this digest —Ed .] because I am personally nauseated by such do-gooders and similar purveyors of kitsch, characters aptly described by Natalia Lihachova as “murderers of the national culture.”

* * *

In the early 1980s, despite officially being hushed up, word spread in scholarly circles about a young poetess who was arrested and indicted. This made your article interesting the more so because it gave details about her life, her literary, and human rights endeavors. Too bad people like Ratushinskaya do not live in Ukraine. And I am personally impressed by Ms. Irina's personal courage that would make many men blush with envy, also her skill to learn more about people than they show. Mostly, the fact that she refused to serve either the old and new regimes, unlike some other former prisoners of conscience.

* * *

Indeed, the act of terrorism in Inhulets and railroad director Borys Oliynyk's murder were another macabre entry in the chronicle of the current no-reform policy. Total irresponsibility for one's words and deeds, hypertrophied personal ambitions, thirst for power, utter cynicism with regard to the people — all this places Leonid Kuchma and his lackeys on the level with puppet dictators.

After canvassing for Kuchma switched to Dr. Goebbels' techniques it became clear that the Rubicon had been crossed and the current regime, determined to stay in power, would do its utmost to destroy whatever embryonic democracy exists in this society. Hip-hip-hooray! Long live the new genius, leader, and teacher! Forward to the past!