Forgetting the Heavenly Hundred Heroes

Today in Ukraine is the Day to Remember the Heavenly Hundred Heroes, those who died in the violence of the Revolution of Dignity two years ago. Chernivtsi marked the occasion with a ceremony in the main square.

The ceremony included members of the military, the Self-Protection unit of the Maidan, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. I'd estimate almost two hundred people attended the event on what was a cold and blustery day in Chernivtsi. (It was snowing earlier this morning!)

Unfortunately, the entire event was not representative of either Chernivtsi or the people who lived and died in Kyiv two years ago. No other religious, cultural, or ethnic group spoke at the event and the memorial service was Christian in practice. On a less than surprising note, members of the right-wing political party Svoboda were collecting money in the crowd. I suspect they had a hand in the event.

Two hours later: Svoboda tent and flags (including the Nationalist Red and Black flag)

All this ignores that the only identified victim from Chernivtsi, Oleksandr Scherbanyuk, was Jewish. He was an Afghan war veteran and died to a sniper shot through the heart two years ago today. Not one reference to him or his heritage was made throughout the service, as far as I could tell.
  

Oleksandr Scherbanyuk (Jan 2, 1968 - Feb 20, 2014)

What makes the Heavenly Hundred and the Revolution of Dignity so Ukrainian was that they were representative of Ukraine not "ethnically Ukrainian." Georgians, Tatars, Jews, Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, Armenians, and many more took part in the events. Three Jews, two Georgians, an Armenian, and a Belarusian were among the dead. It is truly shameful that so soon after the Revolution of Dignity, the events that brought Ukrainians together no matter their language, religion, background, or ethnicity is being repurposed as a Ukrainian ethno-national struggle.

Слава Україні! Героям слава!

No Power, No Problem

Last night, when I got back from the archives, my hotel staff informed me the whole of Chernivtsi would be without power from 9AM to 4 PM Friday.

I got up for my usual breakfast and stepped outside to witness, nothing much. Talk about anti-climactic. Trolley buses couldn't go through the city centre and traffic lights were out but not much else.

Ukraine has actually been dealing with quite a few power outages in the last few months. On December 23, the nearby city of Ivano-Frankivsk lost power for no discernible reason. Almost 800K residents of the larger region lost power for almost an hour. Weeks later, the culprit was revealed: hackers had infected critical computer systems with malicious programs that wiped out the electrical grid and substation computer systems. US and Ukrainian officials think that the groups may have some affiliation to the Russian government, but there is no definitive link.

In the case of Chernivtsi, the fact I heard about it in advance and the listing on the regional power authorities website point to repairs and maintenance.

Just hope it's back by the time I get home when it's dark out!

Boots on the Ground

After four days of no sleep and near constant traveling, I've made it to Chernivtsi, former capital of the Austro-Hungarian Duchy of Bukovina.

I'll just say that the Soviet period hit the city hard and it seems only now to be recovering. But if you love architecture, the city is still a gem for that wonderful Mitteleuropean style.

I'll try to post to this blog whenever I get a chance, though I will also continue to post to Facebook.

Edit: while trying to add some pictures, found out Blogger does not play well with mobile devices in terms of uploading pictures. Hmmm.

Допобачення / Later!