Imagine something: You are a lucky inhabitant of a country with an evil dictator, who orders you (among other mean things) to contribute all of your food/crops to the government "pool" without letting you have any for yourself. And then you starve to death (along with millions of others). Is that a fun day dream? Ok, how about instead of starving to death, you are lucky enough to be saved by the Nazis, when they arrive. And they somehow convince you that THEY are the good guys. I would bet it wouldn't take long for you to realize that they are full of crap. So you look back to the first evil dictator for help, and he responds by sending people to prison camps in Siberia, or just flat murdering them for siding with the Germans. Confused on what to do? Luckily we don't have to decide.
That was a tough question for the Ukrainians, as their allegiance was sometimes split...which of course isn't good, because as part of the Soviet Union, choosing Germany would have you labeled as a traitor. And we all know what Stalin did to traitors. He gave them a fair trial and kindly asked them to do 200 hours of community service. Oh wait, no I meant that he shot them in the face. The sad thing is this is not some fictional Disney movie. This is real. And only 70 years ago.
I know this stuff has happened (is happening) often throughout the history of the world, but when you try to imagine what it was like, it's unfathomable. How can millions of people die during a famine imposed by their so-called leader? And just a few years later, it was lucky enough to suffer the biggest percentage of casualties of WWII. Who even knew that Ukraine was such a big player in WWII? Well, they weren't...they just unfortunately died a lot because of the fighting around them. It's not like they were trying to take over the world. Some estimate over 10 million (or more) dead between the famine and the war combined. A million is a lot. 10 million is way more.
And the craziest part is that they stayed 'friends' with Russia throughout that time (as part of the Soviet Union), but still have a staute displaying the friendship today (probably inspired by propaganda saying that everything was fine). They even celebrate the victory in the war under the Soviet flag (in parades, for example), even though many people resent it.
Friendship arch, uniting Ukraine and Russia...best friends forever
My friend Ryan and I decided to pick a weekend and check Kiev out for ourselves. Ryan and I worked in Seattle together, and he is the one that hosted us in Amsterdam for Queen's Day earlier this year. We didn't know too much about Kiev except it was near Chernobyl and Ukrainian girls are hot (2 unrelated facts, I believe). That, and I worked with a Ukrainian girl at Liquidation World, named Inna Butok. I will never forget that name. If you aren't sure why, keep saying it to yourself, until you get it. If it helps, think with the mind of a 10 year old boy. Then it will be funny (Hi Inna, in case you Google your name and see this!)
When you think of Kiev and Ukraine you think about the Soviet Union. Which makes you think of Russia. Which made me think that Kiev would feel a bit like Moscow. But besides some superficial things like not understanding any cyrillic writing (but this time in Ukrainian, not Russian), the golden domed cathedrals, propaganda statues, and some communist style architecture, it wasn't like Moscow at all. It was much more scenic, I felt safe and welcomed, and was able to walk around without feeling lost and intimidated like in Moscow. It actually felt more like Warsaw (in the good ways), which is maybe why I liked it so much.
The Golden Gate, the old entrance into the city (1,000 years ago)
Statue of a guy riding a horse, and golden domed cathedral, just like around Russia
View of the river...Kiev is pretty large and has lots of water and greenery
On Friday we met with Elena, a friend from work, who was nice enough to show us around the city and take us to dinner. Then on Saturday, we had dinner with Lindsay, who just moved to Kiev from Warsaw that day. We visited her very spacious apartment and got a feel for her new life. Over the 2 days, we discovered and ate many interesting things...
If you've forgotten, the Soviet Union ended in 1991 after which Ukraine became an independent country (which seems to happen to countries a lot of times in their history when Russia and Germany are involved). Like many countries after moving to a free market, they struggled with things like inflation, corruption, and simply finding their way. In 2004 there was an obviously rigged presidential election that led to an Orange Revolution (peaceful protests) to have a re-vote. The re-vote was a success and the rightful winner was put into office. This revolution started in Independence Square. Even to this day, many peaceful protests occur in the area near here.
Independence Square
There are still many statues around of the war, and a museum dedicated to the Great Patriotic War (kicking Germany out). It's interesting that all of these statues show strong, proud, but otherwise featureless men, demonstrating teamwork and with the attitude of "Let's go! We can do this together". The artists were propaganda geniuses!
Statue propoganda at its best - almost makes me want to join the Russian army
Gigantic "Mother Motherland" statue at the War Museum
Besides things related to the war, there are some other very interesting things about Kiev. One of the most famous places is the Monastery at the Caves where monks (dating back to the 11th century) lived in caves. Today they are still there (not alive), in glass caskets, like mummies. People go down to pray, visit each casket in the tunnels and kiss each of them (on the lips). Ryan and I went down to see...it was a bit claustrophobic and dark (we had to carry candles), and NOT touristy at all. Everyone was praying and was serious about it. The passages were so narrow that when someone stopped at a casket to pray and kiss it, everyone had to stop and wait. But they didn't mind because they were praying as well. It was eerie how small the caskets were, because over the hundreds of years the mummified bodies have gotten so small.
Armed with a candle, going into the Cave Monastery...no pictures inside
One surprising thing about Ukraine is how big they are in the honey market. We stumbled upon a small group of honey booths in the caves complex. And when I say a "small group", I mean a row of 100 of them. They all sold only honey! Different colors, in different size plastic containers, but all of it was honey. There were bees buzzing around everywhere (luckily we didn't get stung, and it didn't seem like anyone else was either). Who needs 100 booths for selling honey??? How do you even differentiate between them all???
Over a hundred honey booths, side by side
The booths with the most bees were the ones with the fewest customers
We didn't try any honey, but we ate some good food.
Vereneki (dumplings) and Borsch (beet soup that luckily doesn't tatse like beets)
Khachapuri (Georgian cheesey bread - the Godfather of stuffed crust pizza)
Khinkali - like Chinese soup dumplings (also Georgian)
As we gorged, we remembered the millions who died in the 1932/33 Stalin-led famine (this is the memorial)
And of course there's Chernobyl, located only 80 km from Kiev and home to the worst man-made nuclear disaster ever. We didn't visit it, but we learned a bit about it watching Anthony Bourdain (whose Ukraine show aired the week before we went to Kiev...great timing!!). There's also a museum about Chernobyl in Kiev. A few disconcerting facts:
- You can't go within 30 miles of it without special permission to enter the 'Dead Zone' (If you are crazy enough to go somewhere called the Dead Zone, there are tours to see the abandoned towns and area around it...where you can't touch anything or even kick up grass/dust or you will be contaminated)
- It will be another 20,000 years til the area will be safe to live in again. So maybe the second round of dinosaurs will be able to hang out there.
- The cement that's keeping all the radiation in is not going to last forever, so they need to think of something else to protect it..and soon. I'm not volunteering to install that!
- It happened only 25 years ago (1986), so we are still discovering the impact the radiation is having on people in the area
- People in Kiev don't seem to care about it at all
Elena, who grew up in Kiev, told us that when she was a baby, her family had to leave Kiev for a few months, after the "event". But after a few months, they went back to the city, to business as usual. When it comes to radiation, since you can't see or feel anything, I guess people don't think of it as much of a threat as something tangible (like Godzilla or the Death Eaters in Harry Potter). They've been fine since the incident, and nothing has led them to believe they won't be fine going forward. I just don't think I could stick around long enough to find out.
Check out this blog from one of the producers of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations about his experience visiting Chernobyl -
And check out the Ukraine episode of No Reservations -
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