RC#13: The Russian Cry of Oppression

published in Eastern Economist #391, July 29, 2001

Russians living in Ukraine are worried by the state’s attitude towards their interests. At least, that’s what the participants of a regional conference called “The Russian Factor in Contemporary Kyiv” had to say not long ago.

            What they meant became clearer when they published an appeal to the president, the Verkhovna Rada and Cabinet. In it, they urged everybody to stop financing mass media, civic organizations and artistic unions that sought to “foment enmity between the Ukrainian and Russian peoples, oppress and persecute the Russian language and culture in Ukraine.”

            The entire affair was broadcast on Inter, a subsidiary of a Russian TV conglomerate, and one of the most popular channels across Ukraine. What’s more, last time I listened, Inter broadcasts almost exclusively in Russian.

            If somebody was trying to make a point, it got lost in the translation.

            One of the great things about democracy is that people get to express their opinions – whatever they are. Wise people can have their say – though they don’t do so nearly often enough, being wise enough to stay out of the limelight. And fools can speak their minds – which they do often and at great length, usually repeating themselves to fill the available space.

            Now these folks who want the government to stop funding all kinds of organizations with whom they don’t agree… Where do they get the idea the government is funding anything at all? Last I looked – July 23, to be exact – wage arrears in Ukraine had apparently shrunk by 10% since January, about what a cheap pair of cotton pants might do after six months of washing, but the bill was still Hr 4.4bn. That doesn’t leave much spare change for funding mass media and other hooligans.

            Besides which, as we all know in Ukraine, mass media is generally, though not always generously, funded out of private pockets with political agendas (oligarchs), but rarely by “the state” as such. Sure, the president has his own “herald” in which he publishes interviews with select “friends” (my interview was nixed by higher ups last year – must have been something I said), and generally pats himself on the back.

            But it does not spend a lot of space promoting Ukrainian language and culture, let alone fomenting enmity – other than with jealous political rivals.

            There were a couple of other things about this appeal that interested me. There was “fomenting enmity between the Ukrainian and Russian peoples.” Having heard first hand some of the taunting that Russians can subject Ukrainian-speakers to (“Why do you insist on speaking that provincial language?” with a sneer), I’m surprised there haven’t been more clashes in the last 10 years.

            In fact, the only incident that comes to mind is a little tiff between some drunken Russians and a Ukrainian singer in L’viv about a year or so ago. The Ukrainian wound up dead. To the best of my knowledge, there have been no instances of Russians being killed by rabid Ukrainian nationalists.

            I’m also puzzled as to how you can “oppress and persecute the Russian language and culture.” Aside from the logical problem with oppressing an abstraction such as a language or a culture. You can oppress people, though, there’s no doubt about that.

            But which people in Ukraine are being oppressed, when 80% or more of the population speaks Russian 90-100% of the time?

            In the playground next to our building, none of the two dozen or more kids that hangs around – they probably range in age from 16 months to 16 years – ever speak Ukrainian. Not to each other, not to their parents, not even to anyone who addresses them in Ukrainian. Even though the public school system supposedly switched predominantly to Ukrainian language instruction – at least in Kyiv – nearly a decade ago, not one of these kids speaks a word of anything but Russian.

            As to culture, I have an interesting story to tell.

            Not long ago, I was in a car, listening to the radio and a cool song came on. “Skriabin,” I thought, thinking of Andriy Kuzmenko’s band, which has put out nearly a dozen albums of great, original rock music.

            Only the band was singing in Russian.

            “Russian?” I thought, knowing that Kuzmenko was very very Ukrainian. And as I listened, I realized that the singer was not Kuzmenko at all. But the music was. That I was 100% sure of.

            Two days later, I got my answer. In an interview in Delovaya Ukraina with Kuzmenko. “I can’t survive as a musician in Ukraine,” he told the reporter. “In the last year and a half, the popular radio stations have refused to play any of our new albums.”

            So what did he do?

            Andriy Kuzmenko sold his soul.

            He signed a contract with a Russian band. He writes the music. They get the credit. He gets some money to feed his family with. They get to be Skriabin under a different name and in a different language. The deal is: no names, no author’s rights, no acknowledgements – and no Ukrainian.

            The music is a hit. All the Ukrainian channels are playing this cool new music from Moscow now.

            And nobody knows that it’s Kuzmenko’s. Nobody except for Skriabin fans, that is.

            Getting back to this conference on “The Russian Factor in Contemporary Kyiv.” It was apparently organized by the Russian Movement of Ukraine, the Party For a United Rus and the Russian-Ukrainian Union. Best thing for these conference folks to do, really, is to kick back, play the balalaika and sing Kalyna. They have nothing to worry about. •

– from the notebooks of Pan O.