The Ukrainian government has been in the news a lot lately. So I want to be clear that this isn't an attempt at distraction. I simply want to share some more sights from my last days in Kyiv, which happen to involve some connections to the country's political,
as opposed to religious, ideology. I am not immune to the possible inferences about my first featured stop, but I stress again, I do not intend any implications by showing the
Monument to the Unknown Soldier, an homage to anonymity that looks remarkably similar to the Washington Monument (top left). A short walk away is another landmark that looks much like the Gateway Arch (top right). But while the St. Louis rainbow was a monument to westward expansion, the
Friendship of Nations Arch memorializes Russian unification (bottom).
Below the arch is a statue of many, many men, a common theme among Ukrainian monuments. But those manly memorials got nothing on the
Motherland Monument, which towers over the treetops a ways down the same ridge (top left). Like Lady Liberty, a symbol of the united U.S. effort to abolish slavery and a welcome beacon to arriving immigrants, she dwarfs the many depictions of single soldiers to represent the entire Soviet Union's victory over Germany (top right). After donning some scary safety gear, you can climb all the way up to her shield, but I was satisfied by the vista from her pedestal (middle). Beneath her feet is a museum about World War II, which features both a Hall of Glory in memory of war troops (bottom left) and a Hall of Memory in honor of war victims (bottom right).
Across town is a monument honoring WWII victims specifically from Kyiv. At
Babi Yar, Nazi soldiers murdered 33,000 Jewish residents in a single week (left). Although the casualty numbers are much lower, a more recent attack on civilians remains perhaps more resonant with Ukrainians. Federal police killed more than 100 protesters -- or the "Heavenly Hundred" -- during the
Revolution of Dignity in
Independence Square (right).
The Euromaidan uprising of 2014, by citizens fed up with corruption, forced Viktor Yanukovych out and brought Petro Poroshenko in to power. After he actively supported the protesters, who voted him into office in the next elections, Poroshenko was dubbed the Chocolate President because of his family's candy business. I toured the
Roshen Chocolate Factory (top), where I got to see the chocolates molded (middle left), sorted (middle right), and wrapped (bottom left). The conclusion of the tour involved me creating packaging for my own set of brand-name -- PoROSHENko, get it? -- chocolates (bottom right).
Sure, Poroshenko is a household name in Ukraine, but if I had to guess, the most well-known Ukrainian is
Taras Shevchenko, a prominent poet and political activist. The country's top university, akin to Harvard, is named after him, as is the
park adjacent to the school's distinctive red administration building, where I frequently walked Sage (top left). Shevchenko was exiled for expounding pro-revolutionary thoughts. Now, in his namesake park, Ukrainians freely spat about politics over chess boards (top right). Being downtown, the park was often full of people, so for some peace and quiet, I would drive Sage to
Golosovskii Park (bottom left), where we could walk on riverside pedestrian paths or wander off-road into the trees (bottom right).
Although Russians try to claim him, Ukrainians have a second favorite son in
Mikhail Bulgakov, who was born in Kyiv. His family home has been turned into a
museum, where a tour takes you through the stages of his career. His early goals were scientific, as he prepared to become a medical doctor (top left). But when his aspirations turned satiric, he went into the closet (as did we), to start writing veiled denunciations of the Soviet state (top right).
The Master and Margarita, perhaps his most famous novel, likely shrouds in fantasy his own real experiences as a writer. In the book, the "Master" writer voluntarily enters a psychiatric ward after his work is criticized; in real life, Bulgakov shielded himself by sequestering himself in a hidden writing studio (bottom right).
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