Feb
10
In case you needed further proof of the extreme weather conditions in eastern Europe, there’s this video that shows the Black Sea near the port of Odessa frozen over. The last time this happened was back in 1977.
Oh, and that creaking sound you hear in the video… that’s the ice.
You can see photographs of the frozen sea here.
Feb
03
A ‘stiliaga’ – the Soviet Union hipster of the 1940s and 50s.
I came across two very interesting articles this week pertaining to elements of Ukraine’s past and present culture.
The first, “A foreign affair: On the great Ukrainian bride hunt,” published in Harper’s Magazine, follows a man who goes undercover to learn more about the men that come to Ukraine in search of women to wed.
The second, “The Western Brand: The socio-cultural revolution of soviet mods against boring clothes, music and behavior in the USSR,” from The Ukrainian Week, explores the subculture of the stiliagi, a group of young, fashion-forward, progressive-minded individuals in the 1940s and 50s who copied the lifestyles of young people in the west.
I recommend checking out both.
Jan
27
If there’s something Ukrainians born in the U.S.S.R. pride themselves on more than their mosaics, it’s their cosmonauts. So I wasn’t so shocked during a visit to Konstantinovka to find the sides of bloc apartments along aptly named Cosmonaut Blvd. adorned with mosaic images of Soviet cosmonauts, including the renowned Yury Gagarin – the first human in space.
The buildings, built sometime during the 1960s, have seen better days. Many of the tiles surrounding the mosaic images have fallen off, leaving the building with a sort of scarred look. But the mosaics themselves remain mostly intact, if a bit faded.
After nearly two years here, I’m afraid a lot of the novelty I felt upon my arrival has worn off. Few things surprise me anymore. I’ve slipped into a life of routine similar to the life I had back in Portland. I think this would happen if you stayed anywhere long enough. But when I come across things like these images, remnants of a strange past – in this case, a Soviet past – that sleeping part of my mind that was once awed by everything around him is awakened.
“I live in the former Soviet Union,” I thought to myself when I saw the mosaics. “Wild.”
Jan
13
Crossing of the Dnieper. (Переправа через Днепр).
Political commissar. Stalingrad. (Политрук. Сталинград.)
Monument to the civilians killed by the Nazis. Kiev Region. (Памятник мирным жителям убитым фашистами. Киевская область.)
The photographer, Arkady Shaykhet.
Born September 9, 1898, in Nikolayev, Ukraine, Arkady Shaykhet grew up to be one of the most famous Soviet photojournalists and photographers of the 20th century. His photographs of The Great Patriotic War (WWII), including the series Two Views of Kiev, at the time were known as ‘artistic reportage.’
As a staff photographer for the Soviet magazine Ogonyok (Light), his photos were often used as cover art. In 1926, along with a friend, he started Soviet Photo. Beginning in 1930, he worked as a freelance photographer for USSR in Construction. The magazine was known for its progressive style, which included full-page photos and even fold-out pages. Each issue, published in Russian, English, French, German and Spanish, was an elaborate artistic creation. The magazine’s main role, though, was to inform readers outside the Soviet Union of the construction going on within it, and to portray the country as an emerging superpower.
Over the years Shaykhet’s images have been shown in galleries from Moscow to New York City. He died in Moscow, aged 59, on November 18, 1957.
Jan
13
I was recently contacted by Matador Network to put together a photo essay that represented the eastern Ukrainian region that I’ve called home for the past two years.
Beautiful rubble of rural Ukraine was the result. And while you’ve seen many of the 20 photos here on The Borderland Chronicles, there might just be a few that’ll be new to you.
While you’re there, check out the other pieces I’ve published with Matador.
Jan
04
This fascinating short documentary by Maisie Crow explores the lives of survivors of the Chernobyl disaster and the workers still dismantling the plant today, in the city of Slavutych.
Dec
22
A monument for those who died in the Chernobyl disaster stands near the nuclear power plant’s reactor No. 4. On April 26, 1986, an explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive material into the atmosphere, which spread across the western USSR and Europe.I spent nearly two hours this afternoon going through the incredible multimedia project created by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to commemorate the fall of the Soviet Union.
“The Fall – Twenty Years After the Collapse of the U.S.S.R.,” looks back on the momentous event and the developments leading up to it with video interviews, photographs and an interactive timeline and map.
Each of the stories told by the people who lived under Communism – the miner who was arrested by the KGB for predicting a mining accident; the villagers who lived through the 1932-33 Holodomor under Stalin’s rule; the men who escaped to Finland only to be arrested, sent back and put in a mental hospital – are fascinating glimpses into an oppressive society.
If you have any interest whatsoever in this part of the world, I highly recommend checking this out.
Here it is: http://ussrfall.com/
Dec
18
I came across this poster today and thought it was interesting for a couple of reasons. It was done by the well-known Soviet artist A. A. Kokorekin in 1943. He created a number of propaganda posters in the 1940s, during and after the Great Patriotic War (World War II), most of which I’ve seen. But I’d never seen this one. Also, I live in the region of Ukraine known as the Donbass – the industrial, eastern most part of the country.
The poster reads: “Donbass is released! Miner, revive powerful Donbass!”
Dec
02
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ “dialogue” series this week discussed all things Ukraine.
Guests Blair Ruble, director of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, and Mark Medish, a former senior staff member for the National Security Council, covered economics, politics, corruption and more with host John Milewski.
As Medish put it, Ukraine’s still experiencing “growing pains.” Ruble said it’s a “good news, bad news” situation here. The good news being that Ukraine is still independent 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, with many valuable resources. The bad news being that the political system hasn’t been able to capitalize on the assets of the country.
If you haven’t tuned into “dialogue” before, I highly recommend it. The program, aired weekly, explores world news, ideas and events through conversations with public figures, scholars, journalists and authors.
You can watch dialogue’s “An Update From Ukraine” in its entirety HERE.
Nov
29
aaaa A hallway inside one of Pripyat’s secondary schools, June 22, 2011.It was once a Soviet city of the future, a community of new apartment complexes, community centers, hotels and restaurants. There was even a shiny, new amusement park built to celebrate its future.
But on the night of April 26, 1986, it all came to a disastrous end for Pripyat and its 40,000-plus residents, when reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant melted down, spewing radioactive material into the air and across much of Europe.
In the 25 years since, scientists, journalists and nuclear experts have visited the ghost city and its surrounding area, often referred to as the “Chernobyl Dead Zone” or “Chernobyl Exclusion Zone,” to study and report on the fallout. In 2011, Ukraine’s Emergencies Ministry opened the area up to tourists, allowing them a glimpse, perhaps, into a post-apocalyptic world.
Emergencies Ministry experts said they’d developed a map of routes that were safe for visitors, and that the radiation situation in the territory was stable. Nearly 10,000 people toured the area, until June 22 of this year, when it was closed down for unexplained reasons. (I was on the last tour that day.)
And at about $180 a pop, the tour brought in millions. The Emergencies Ministry said the money could help fund industrial projects within the contaminated area, such as repairs to the crumbling sarcophagus surrounding reactor No. 4. But the general prosecutor’s office said the money didn’t go to repairs. In fact, the money couldn’t be traced.
This is one reason why Kiev’s District Administrative Court last week banned tours of the Chernobyl area. The main reason, though, the court said, was that the Emergencies Ministry did not have the permission of the Interiors Ministry to allow the tours.
On its official website, the attorney general’s press office said Friday, ”Ukraine’s law prohibits tourism to the area that suffered radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl disaster.”
Still, the Emergencies Ministry hopes to reopen the area to visitors soon, after a review of safety rules and potential health hazards.
New rules could require tourists to carry personal security badges while in the area and to apply for a tour at least 10 days in advance.
The Chernobyl tour is one of the most popular tours in Eastern Europe. Forbes magazine named it one the world’s most “exotic” tourist destinations.
View more of my photos of the Chernobyl Exlcusion Zone taken on the last tour, June 22, 2011.
UPDATE:
Visits to the Chernobyl zone will again be permitted, Ukraine’s Emergencies Ministry said Friday. But new rules have been put in place for those hoping to tour the area. The way it’s stated in a story published by the Kyiv Post is confusing, but access to the area should be allowed not only to Ukrainians, but foreign citizens, too.
From the Dec. 2 Kyiv Post story:
Under the new rules, for traveling to the exclusion zone, a written request has to be submitted to the Ukrainian State Agency for Management of the Exclusion Zone within ten days before the trip.
The request has to contain the person’s contact information, citizenship, aim and terms of the trip, a description of the information that a visitor of the Chornobyl zone would like to receive during the trip, as well as written confirmation that the person has no legal bans on traveling to the exclusion zone.
Applicants for traveling to the exclusion zone may receive a refusal to make the trip if they are below 18 years old, if the written request is filled in improperly, if repairs or research activities are being carried out in the area indicated in the request, due to bad weather conditions in the exclusion zone, or if law enforcement agencies report that the person has involved in terrorist activity.
A person can visit the exclusion zone for five days.