Inside Chernobyl: Those Who Stayed

Workers at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP or ChAES) pass through a radiation checkpoint each day before they board the train home to Slavutich, Ukraine. © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography

Workers at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant pass through a radiation checkpoint © Michael Forster Rothbart Photography

“Inside Chernobyl,” an exhibition by photographer and Fulbright scholar Michael Forster Rothbart, recently made its debut in Kyiv, and will be making its way to such places as Moscow and Washington D.C.

Forster Rothbart’s undertaking is quite unexpected, standing in contrast to the usual Chernobyl fare; under the subtitle of “life goes on,” he tells the stories of ordinary Ukrainians who still work at the infamous Chernobyl nuclear plant, as well as the families they come home to every day.

Curious about his premise, I chatted with Forster Rothbart about the exhibition, his subjects and the ongoing narrative that is Chernobyl.

First of all, how did such an unusual project come about?

I came to Ukraine for the first time in 2007; my wife was doing research for her dissertation at the time. I was here for four months, and that’s when I first got started. I had studied previous photographic work on Chernobyl, and so I was prepared to see mutations, birth defects and people dying of cancer. You know, the usual stuff. That’s the world’s image of Chernobyl but it’s not the reality. What intrigues me are all the normal people in the region who are simply living their lives — farming the land or going to work at the Chernobyl plant. They didn’t move away, they stayed behind. The plant workers are now doing important work to ensure that there won’t be future contamination.

I am fascinated by the human consequences of environmental problems. Journalists cover environmental disasters as breaking news, and then they get filed away, but the repercussions continue. It’s important to look at Chernobyl a generation later. There are health effects that come directly from radiation, but then there are secondary effects that occur when people are relocated or lose family members or lose jobs. All of these social problems are more serious than health problems.

Really? More serious than health problems?

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The Politics of “Taras Bulba”: Do They Matter?

The following review contains spoilers. Of course, if you are familiar with Nikolai Gogol, you probably know how the film ends. If you are not familiar with Nikolai Gogol, you should be.

When I started getting texts and e-mails imploring me to see the new “Taras Bulba” film, directed by a Russian with a Ukrainian-sounding last name – Vladimir Bortko – I was intrigued. “The politics,” everyone said, “what do you think about the politics?”

“OK,” I said. “I’ll tell you what I think.” Shortly thereafter I said, “Oh dear God. I fell for it, didn’t I?”

Taras Bulba, the short novel by Nikolai Gogol, has two versions – the later, official version being markedly more pro-Russian in nature. It’s a tale of Zaporizhian Cossacks, Poles, pogroms, war, forbidden love, and lots and lots of romantic nationalism. It makes sense that even today, Bulba should be expected to make waves.

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Gazprom and Naftogaz: a Cold, Bitter Winter

Earlier this week, many Ukrainians were outraged that President Yuschenko did not appear to be doing enough to solve the present gas spat between Russia and Ukraine. Although reports vary, some place Yuschenko’s approval rating as low as 4%. It’s not that hard to believe – the Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Studies placed his approval rating as low as somewhere between 6% and 7% in the early summer days of 2008.

Yuschenko’s colossal failures cannot be blamed on Yuschenko alone. A political crisis has been supplanted by an economic crisis. Russia’s meddling in Ukraine’s affairs has not exactly let up, despite the fact that the primary opposition to Victor Yuschenko – Victor Yanukovich – has, in recent years, dropped the “all Kremlin, all the time” act from his political routine. But the outrage of ordinary Ukrainians, directed at both Yuschenko and lavishly wealthy Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, is especially understandable in regard to the disconnect between the average Ukrainian and the political elites

Last month, when many homes in the nation’s capital, Kiev (Kyiv), stood without hot water and barely any heating, Yulia Tymoshenko had the gall to stand in front of reporters and piteously announce: “I too am feeling rather cold in my flat.” Read More »

75 Years After Holodomor: Where Do We Go From Here?

Andrey Chikatilo, one of the most gruesome serial murderers in the history of the world, grew up with stories of Holodomor. His mother said that his older brother, Stepan, whose birth and death have never been officially confirmed, was eaten by cannibals during the terrible famine of 1933. Chikatilo’s mother used this tale as a means of dissuading her son from playing outside on his own.

This year, the always-entertaining mainstream Russian press has branded Andrey Chikatilo “a Ukrainian nationalist,” citing an interview with Chikatilo’s son (himself a convicted criminal), stating that his father spoke of “the breaking away of the republics, he spoke, essentially, of regime change. He said that if Ukraine became independent, it would live normally, like Poland, but otherwise all money is taken away by Moscow, this isn’t right.”

The fact that such statements should be considered newsworthy, or even, in some circles, inflammatory, does not bode well for the future of Ukrainian – Russian relations.

The “logic” of the riveting conversation with Yuriy Chikatilo is clear: Chikatilo was a serial killer. He was also a “nationalist.” Oh, and he was pissed off about the Holodomor too.

Clearly, all of those other people pissed off about the Holodomor are probably closet serial killers as well. Hardy har har!

It’s been 75 years since Stalin’s collectivization policies resulted in a reign of agricultural terror against peasants – Ukrainian, Kazakh, Russian – by the time it was all over, millions were dead of either starvation of cannibalization.

The famine of 1933 calls for a closer inspection of the word “genocide” – although we are used to seeing genocide as having a basis in ethnicity, we fail to include the idea of class genocide, for example. Of course, talking about class gets you in trouble with everyone these days – and the Ukrainian government is no exception. Read More »

Springtime for Skinheads: Murdering People for the Colour of their Shoelaces

I didn’t find out about this murder in Irkutsk, Russia, on the news. I discovered this first through the blog of a friend of a friend. An independent media source has highlighted this incident, the mainstream news is rather quiet.

Olga Rukosyla was sixteen years old. She enjoyed dressing like a punk, and wore red shoelaces which, to some, signify the famous “Antifa” (anti-facism) movement.

Indymedia reports that on the 8th of October, Olga was surrounded by three young men dressed, as witnesses say, in typical skinhead fashion. One of them grabbed her hand. She said something angrily to him. This was when the men surrounding her threw her on the ground and literally kicked her to death.

Three men, murdering a teenage girl in broad daylight.

Skinheads operate like packs of wild dogs. They prefer to outnumber their victims, and seem to forge bonds through frantic eruptions of group violence.

My neighbourhood in Kyiv, Ukraine has been spray-painted with their slogans, and I’m afraid for the African and Asian kids living in the dorms around my building, for my Jewish neighbours, for my Arab boyfriend, who stays with me there sometimes. I’m afraid that my kid brother might wear the wrong t-shirt and piss them off.

How can we be safe when the only visible opposition seems to arise in the form of Antifa groups spraying their own slogans over Nazi ones? (Hey, kid who drew the gallows around the swastika that was spray-painted on my family’s garage – thank you.)

The terror skinheads have spread has inspired some to take their side, to excuse their actions, to even boldly proclaim that they are “ridding society of unsavoury elements” (i.e., they are ridding society of anyone who’s in any way different, be that due to skin colour or the colour of one’s shoelaces). Read More »

MTV Ukraine Makes a Mockery of Domestic Violence

Last weekend, I was sitting in a restaurant in Kyiv, eating barbecue wings, and witnessing a new low in the world of Ukrainian media.

The recently launched MTV Ukraine was showing a translated program – it had something to do with hip hop. At the bottom of the screen there was listed something called “The Topic of the Day” – which is basically a question one can answer by texting an SMS to a certain number, if one is bored enough, I suppose. The answers themselves were being fed directly onto the TV screen.

Though I found it hard to believe at first, the topic was “Can you beat girls?”

Yep, there it was, staring me in the face.

I went up to the TV screen and snapped a couple of pictures with my phone. Meanwhile, my table companions quickly became animated as they realized what I was reacting to.

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Gods and Nymphs: The Myths and Realities of Modern Life and Love

A few months ago, I read that Russian women have lost the war against sexism, and that one of the symptoms of said defeat is the dominance of the Nymph – “a professional beauty,” the ideal partner for the modern man.

The author of the essay I’m quoting is Evgenia Pischikova, a funny, clever woman. While I found her perceptions of American feminism to be somewhat idealized, and some of her statements regarding modern Russian woman downright exaggerated, I nevertheless believe in the Nymph. I’ve seen far too many beautiful women, Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian, affect a soulless gaze in the presence of eligible bachelors to deny the Nymph’s existence.

Yet I do not think the story of the Nymph to be simple. Neither do I think that her tale is complete without a thorough discussion of her male counterpart – the God.

Now, the modern God, for the sake of Pischikova’s analogy, is pretty much any man who is, for some reason, desirable to the Nymph, usually marked by a paternalistic (or, as some people are fond of saying, “protective” attitude). We’re accustomed to believe that the God is wealthy, or well-off, and he generally is.

Modern Gods demand sacrifices as readily as the ancient ones. Read More »

Holidays in the Carpathians: Bukovel

It seems that everyone with wheels in Kyiv went up the Carpathian mountains to celebrate the New Year. Sitting by the fireplace in a log cabin at the ski resort this season would have been something, but I didn’t not get there as planned. To be honest, it was a blessing to miss the frantic traffic and struggle to find a decent place to sleep.

After all, the good places are booked up there a year in advance.

illustration1byolechko

As a clever friend of mine recommended, it’s better to go up to the Carpathians a few weeks before the holidays, or else after the Orthodox Christmas (which is on the 7th of January, for all of those unfamiliar with the Julian calendar). So, I adjusted my plans.

Christmas time here offers the best entertainment for culture lovers, because the way the locals celebrate it has been preserved in its full glory: costumes, caroling, lavish food and all.

illustration3byolechko

The best way to get to the Carpathians from the capital is by car (it’s roughly a 7 hour drive to Yaremche). If you arrive to Yaremche by train (it would take a transfer or two to get there from Kyiv, as the railway system is still pretty inconvenient), you can hop on a cab for about 150 hrv to Bukovel.

This is actually reasonable, considering Yaremche is 40 min away. Obviously, putting so much effort into getting there means that this should definitely not be a weekend kind of trip. Better to stretch it out for 5 days or so, if you can. Read More »