Impressions of Kiev

Kiev, Ukraine is a European city, but, having been a part of the Soviet Union, is still Soviet in many aspects. Although a few are being replaced, the busses and metro trains are not quite up to par with their Moscow and St. Petersburg counterparts. Many busses are still smog belchers, and the street trolleys look like the first ones invented. Otherwise, the city is modern. The restaurants struck me as very well run, leaning more towards the western Europe tradition. Instead of Russian music, I heard American and British music, especially beatles and 80's rock, and also some jazz. One fellow stopped at a traffic light was blaring Creedence Clearwater Revival and tapping to the beat on his steering wheel. I gave him a big thumbs-up. The streets are filled with kiosks, where you can buy fast foods, drinks, sunglasses, hats, watches. There are a lot of street markets that sell everything you can get in a department store. The sellers are friendly, especially when they can hear you try to speak in Russian. I had a lot of fun joking with them about my poor command of Russian. Unlike Russia, a lot of people do speak a smattering of English, and they like to try it out on you. A few wanted to test their German as well, but I didn't run across a lot of German speakers, other than the businessmen at the hotel.

Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet empire after the Bolshevik revolution. That was short-lived and by 1922 it was again firmly under Soviet control. The Soviets regarded Ukrainians as "the little Russians" and treated them as bastard step-children. Today, Ukraine is still at a political crossroads, divided between a pro-Russian eastern half and a pro-EU western half of the country. Almost like Yogoslavia and Checkoslovakia, you may think they would be better off forming separate countries. After declaring total independence in 1991, following the breakup of the Soviet Union, and following a path towards western-style democracy for ten years, they recently elected a pro-Russian prime minister by a slim margin, a man by the name of Yanokovich. The opposition party is 180 degrees against him, wanting to lean towards Western Europe. The debates are heated. If you watch the international news, you may have seen the recent fist fights and egg throwing incident during a debate in parliament. Just recently, Yanokovich signed a deal with the Russians allowing the Russians to keep their lease on the naval base at Sebastopol on the Black Sea until 2042, in exchange for cheap natural gas prices. You may also remember a couple of years ago Russia shut off the supply of natural gas to Ukraine because they wanted to charge higher prices. Well, now we see what that political ploy was all about. The opposition press is accusing Yanokovich of trying to establish a dictatorship in the Soviet mold, stopping at nothing to silence his opponents. The word Ukraine means “Borderland.” Historically, they have always been stuck in the middle. It seems times haven't changed that much.

For more on Ukraine history, visit my other blog site There and Back