Photos from Around Kyiv 1999

My album of pictures from Ukraine is finally scanned.  8 cm of photos when they are stacked.  I have been busy this past week crunching agricultural statistics for a report.  The Country's statistics site is superb but it is in European format.  Instead of commas separating thousands, it is periods.  When I download the data onto Excel, my computer which is North American format, treats the period as a decimal and truncates the zeros.  This means close to 100,000 pieces of data have to be reviewed to make sure I put the necessary zeros back.  I have that down to a fine art.

Tanya and I are headed to Malaga, Spain tonight for two weeks.  Malaga, Seville, Cordoba and Granada are cities I have always wanted to visit as they were under the (Muslim) Moors until the last ones were driven out in 1492.  (The movie El Cid, starring Charlton Heston, was based on another successful campaign against the Moors.)

Malaga is Picasso's home town and out flat is only a few blocks from the museum.  Tanya will love it.  The Alhambra in Granda is on my bucket list.  We'll be busy but will take time to see how warm the water is at the beach.

Here are a few more photos from my album.  Taken of Kyiv architecture and monuments.

Yaroslav the Wise

 This was taken on my 50th birthday in 1997.  Yaroslav the Wise founded the Pechersk Monastery among his many acheivments.  Kyivian Rus reached the peak of its cultural and military power under his rule.

The Old Arsenal Factory Building

 The Old Arsenal Factory Building bears the scars of machine gun bullets received in 1918 when the workers joined the pro-Bolshevik Rebellion.

Bohdan Kmelnitsky

 Bohdan Kmelnitsky led the Cossacks against the Poles in a decisive victory in 1648 near Zhovti Vody, resulting in the creation of a Cossak state. In 1654, with the Poles regrouping and his allies slipping away, he signed the Treaty of Pereyaslav, putting his Hetmanate under the protection of the Russian Tsar.  Russia considers him a hero; Ukrainians are not so sure.

Kyiv Opera House

 The Kyiv Opera House is a gorgeous building outside and in. I attended an opera there.  La Rigatoni (or something).  Class!

St Andrews Church

 St Andrew's Church at the top of Andrew's Decent (Andreivski uzviz) is one of the finest examples of Baroque architecture, commissioned by Empress Elizabeth in the 18th century, designed by the Italian Architect Rastrelli and built by Moscow Architect Michurin.

St Michael's Church

 St Michael's Church was demolished in 1935 or 1936 by the Bolsheviks.  Reconstruction began in 1997.

St Sofia's Cathedral (photo from Wiki)

 Saint Sofia's Cathedral and Monastery was named for the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul (Constantinople) and founded in 1011, celebrating 1000 years not long ago. It has lived several lives and reconstructions. Parts of the original construction can be seen as they were left unfinished for that purpose.

The Bell Tower of St Sofia's.  It is straight, my eyes are crooked

Unfinished portions of original construction

Closer detail

See you in a couple weeks.

Victory Day and the Day of Memory and Reconciliation

Russia and most of the other countries of the FSU today (May 9th) celebrate the end of the Great Patriotic War. According to Soviet and now Russian history the war began June 22, 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union.  The war prior to that, when Hitler and Stalin were allies, is ignored. The Moscow times has an article on how Russian children are taught about the Second World War.  It is a crime in Russia to not follow the official line and someone was fined and sent to jail for saying that the USSR invaded Poland Sept 17, 1939.  The official line, as it was in Soviet times, is that the USSR "liberated" western Ukraine, Poland and the other eastern European countries and territory they invaded and occupied. In much the same way Willie Sutton liberated money held prisoner by banks.

As part of decolonization and decommunization, Ukraine now recognizes the dates of WWII as Sept 1, 1939 to May 7th, 1945.  May 9th which has been a holiday in Ukraine for 72 years is now celebrated as as Day of Memory and Reconciliation. Russia, of course, is furious and in response has written Ukraine's part on the war out of their history. Ukraine is fighting back to be recognized for the significant roll played by Ukrainians in the war.

The Ukrainians carried at least 40% of 27,000,000 losses of the USSR in WWII. The Soviet historiographical concept of the “Great Patriotic War,” however, employed major misperceptions of the Ukrainians’ role and is now being used as a propaganda instrument fueling the war in Donbas. In our series “Understanding the Ukrainians in WWII” we seek to uncover the underreported role of Ukrainians living both in Ukraine and abroad in the most deadly war of the 20th century.

 Understanding the Ukrainians in WWII. Part 1

Understanding the Ukrainians in WWII. Part 2. Stories of Ukrainians in the Red Army

In 1999, I was in Kyiv for the  May 9th celebration of the end of the Great Patriotic War.  The following pictures are of the war memorial which is "Soviet Realism". The sculptures are part of the War Museum which has an outdoor component of planes, tanks, guns etc and an indoor component under the Victory statue. A couple of years later, we acquired a guide/translator to take us thorough the museum.  The lady cried much of the time as she read the descriptions on the displays.

Motherland aka Brezhnev's Daughter aka The Iron Baba

More Photos from the Open Air Museum

Several of the buildings on the grounds are those you would find in a late 19th century Ukrainian village.  When we were there in 1997 there were three women in costume and a Kobzar (minstrel) playing a bandura.  

The houses owned by more wealthy would have tiled roofs

Simple cottages would have thatched roofs

The local bar. If you couldn't get over the style you were already too drunk to be served

Home of one of the wealthier families, likely holding a position of authority in the village

Stove, oven and storage space.  Painted white and decorated. In cold climates like Siberia it would have flat surfaces for family members to sleep on (children) 

Home of the village potter

Handmade teakettle

Open Air Museum of Folk Architecture at Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky

One of the gems of Ukrainian culture that is often missed because it is 100 km from Kyiv is the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukrainians .  The museum presents a Ukrainian village of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, as well as buildings and monuments since the late Paleolithic period to the times of Kyivan Rus. Thirteen thematic museums are located within the main museum located on 30 hectares.

The link above has much more recent pictures than mine which were taken in 1997 and 1999, so check them out.

Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskiy Folk Museum website provides a brief description of the site and the various historical cultures represented along with the thematic museums. It is one page long so reading it will only take a minute.

There are too many pictures so more than one post will be necessary.  Today will be pictures of a wooden church and the Museum of Ukrainian Embroidery which is located in another wooden church.

http://hottur.ck.ua/natsionalnyiy-zapovednik-pereyaslav-hmelnitskiy/  This tour site has more information but you will need to right click and click Translate into English if you don't read Russian.  Googling Open Air Museum Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky will bring up a number of sites advertising tours.  They may or may not be in English.  Google Translate to the rescue.