“A chance not to miss the wise predecessors”

Ukraine has entered the new educational and book season with even more lamentable publishing statistics than in the previous years: one book per capita a year. According to the Ukrainian Association of Publishers and Book Distributors (UAVK), which published this information, it is the lowest index in Europe.

The experts give more precise numbers: in 2008, 58 million books were published, and 49, 45, and 47 million in 2009, 2010, and 2011, respectively. “In 2012 the number of Ukrainian books on the domestic market dropped by 15 percent compared to 2011. For the time being, Ukraine publishes one book per capita a year, compared to 5 in Russia, 4.5 in Belarus, and 7 in the EU countries. An index lower than 2.5 per capita a year is considered the border level, and going even lower produces a negative impact on the intellectual level of the population,” Kommersant quotes Oleksandr Afonin, president of the UAVK, as saying.

The Lviv Forum of Publishers, the greatest book event in the country held in September, makes this saddening picture a bit brighter and gives reasons for optimism – at least before the publication of new statistic or another legislative initiative. This year the Forum of Publishers will be held in September 12 through 16. Read in more detail about this year’s event in The Day’s interview with the president of the Lviv Forum of Publishers Oleksandra Koval.

For 10 years in succession, since the book Ukraine Incognita was published, Den/The Day has been presenting its new publications at the Forum. This time it will present the series “Armor-Piercing Political Writing.”

The series covers 28 essays or extracts from the works by 15 authors of the 19th-20th centuries, specifically Mykola Kostomarov, Mykhailo Drahomanov, Panteleimon Kulish, Ivan Franko, Mykola Khvyliovy, Yevhen Malaniuk, Oleh Olzhych, Ulas Samchuk, Levko Yurkevych, Petro Hryhorenko, George Shevelov, Ivan Lysiak-Rudnytsky, Viacheslav Lypynsky, Vasyl Stus, and Ivan Bahriany. This makes 1,016 pages of acutely topical text, no matter whether it was written 150 or 40 years ago.

Probably, it will be no mistake to say that most of Ukrainians do not know these names at all, the rest associate them with the callous lines from the school program. A few people know that besides fiction, Panteleimon Kulish, Ivan Franko, and Oleh Olzhych have political writing oeuvre, and this ignorance is no surprise for the reason that this oeuvre has been in a sense repressed for a long while and it is being scarcely published these days.

“In the time when the information seems to be reproduced, Ukrainians are acutely lacking intellectual quality things of their own,” The Day’s Editor-in-Chief Larysa Ivshyna writes in her foreword to the readers, “There are many people in need of intelligent interlocutors. There are many wise books that need a reader. And they are divided by some kind of Berlin wall. The series ‘Armor-Piercing Political Writing’ is meant to prevent the intelligent readers from any chance of missing their wise predecessors.”

This series is special because at The Day’s request every political writer has been presented by our outstanding contemporaries, such as Ivan Dziuba, Yevhen Sverstiuk, Oxana Pachlovska, Volodymyr Panchenko, Petro Kraliuk, Ihor Siundiukov, Yurii Shapoval, Andrii Hryhorenko, Kyrylo Halushko, Bohdan Tykholoz, Rostyslav Semkiv, Stanislav Kulchytsky, Volodymyr Lys, Serhii Kot, and Viktor Andrushchenko.

Volodymyr Panchenko’s article may be considered a direct impetus to publishing the “Armor-Piercing Political Writing.” The New Year’s issue of Den carried “Moscow, Maroseika,” the republished article by George Shevelov (it was published for the first time in the US in the 1950s years), with a preface by Volodymyr Panchenko. This material, unmercifully diagnosing “the specific features of the Ukrainian nature,” aroused numerous discussions. Of course, not only George Shevelov pondered over things that retard our development. So, The Day resolved to collect the most essential and precious of these opinions, “the classics of Ukrainian free thought” as Oxana Pachlovska put it.

In particular, it is important that the series “Armor-Piercing Political Writing” reveals to the mass audience such names as Yevhen Malaniuk, Viacheslav Lypynsky, Ivan Lysiak-Rudnytsky, the figures of Ukrainian emigration who are scarcely known in Ukraine, but whose intellectual oeuvre must be brought back to us.

To find this collection of unpopular, often very rare texts, you would need to spend many days in libraries. In this regard, not only the great merit of our contributors (who helped us to compile the series) is evident, but also the great drama. For namely these texts must be read by every Ukrainian. Only then will it be possible to speak about the shaping of well-thought community, civil society, and nation.

It should be said that this work has granted many discoveries for us, The Day’s journalists. The opinions voiced 50, 70, or 100 years ago are still fresh, because they have not been learned by either society, or state figures. Being many decades old, these fresh ideas can still nourish the journalists, politicians, and society on the whole. Perhaps, unless the surrounding reality, the calls to come back to our intellectual tradition, would not have sound so convincingly. But history does not leave us any choice: either this experience will be learned, or…

It is important that not only humanitarians can see this necessity. The Day is thankful to the Association of the Protection of Entrepreneurs’ Rights and to the association’s head Yevhen Chernetsky personally for the support in publishing the series.

“The idea of the book series ‘Armor-Piercing Political Writing’ seems to me important and topical,” the head of the civic organization “Association of Protection the Entrepreneurs’ Rights” Yevhen CHERNETSKY explained. “The present-day Ukrainian society is living under constant pressure of populism and Internet content. The endless attempts to impose on people one or another opinion limit independent thinking and this cannot be combined with the image of an intellectually developed civil society and a European state. In this background the new book series of The Day, representing Ukrainian political writers is a kind of a means to sober people’s mind, a countdown for understanding the country we are living in. Why is it not like we want it to be?

“We all are also observing that Ukraine continues to rush between the world centers of influence, poles, vectors, and is looking to resolve its own problems somewhere else, at the same time being absolutely unwilling to notice its internal resources, including the intellectual ones, although Ukrainian thinkers have long ago diagnosed all of our problems. And the new book series from the Library ‘Ukraine Incognita’ is proof of this. What prevents us from adding this knowledge to our armory?

“I am sure that the appearance of ‘Armor-Piercing Political Writing’ on the book market will help strengthen the national self-identification of Ukrainians in difficult times,” Chernetsky considers.

“Armor-Piercing Political Writing” is also an attempt to stimulate in the society a taste for quality political writing as an instrument of self-understanding. Therefore we chose the pocket-size format, so that those who are afraid of thick volumes stood no chances to miss one more publication from The Day’s Library Series. After all, the genre of political writing envisages a mobile format.

The books from the series are available for purchase both separately, and in full set – as a gift set. Specifically for this aim the designer of The Day’s projects Anna Havryliuk has developed a convenient gift box. Anna has designed the full set of the series on her own.

“The opinions of every author expressed under various covers have a common essence. While I was thinking over the design of the series, I felt the need to show this unanimity of different authors. Though they all are self-sufficient, each book is a part of a whole thing, and we can see the whole thing only by putting all of them together. And the whole thing is probably our national idea,” the artist shared the impressions from her work.

The publication of the collection version of the “Armor-Piercing Political Writing” was possible thanks to Vitalii Klitschko’s support.

“The Ukrainian society is being persistently persuaded that the sphere of culture is secondary compared to economy. But a free person cannot be unspiritual,” Vitalii KLITSCHKO writes in his foreword to the collection version of “Armor-Piercing Political Writing,” “Namely the national culture is the fundamentals on which the common for all citizens of the country values and goals are shaped. I am sure that the goals that are uniting us are more important than historical myths and ideologies that divide us. I have all the books of The Day’s Library Series ‘Ukraine Incognita’ in my library. I have eagerly accepted the offer to fund the new series, which is a collection of the best pieces of Ukrainian political writing of the 19th-20th centuries. Popularization of the national cultural product by real deeds is one of the main tasks of the new generation of Ukrainian politicians. We have to invest in our future, i.e., education of the youth. And the ‘Armor-Piercing Political Writing’ series will deal a blow namely on the ‘strongholds of backwardness.’”

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The collection will be launched on September 14, at 4 p.m., in the Mirror Hall of the Potocki Palace in Lviv, during the Forum of Publishers.

The launch will be held by The Day’s Editor-in-Chief Larysa Ivshyna, authors of the forewords to the books from the series, specifically Doctor of Philology, Professor Volodymyr Panchenko and Doctor of Philosophy, pro-rector of the Ostroh Academy National University Petro Kraliuk.

Vitalii Klitschko will be the special guest of the presentation.

The event will be moderated by the director of the MIOK of the National University “Lviv Polytechnic” Iryna Kliuchkovska.

Soon after the launch at the Forum of Publishers, the series “Armor-Piercing Political Writing” will appear in Ukrainian bookstores. We will notify our readers specially about this. However, the books can also be ordered by phone: (044) 303-96-23 and by e-mail: [email protected].

COMMENTARIES

Oxana PACHLOVSKA, professor at the La Sapienza University in Rome, The Day’s contributor:

“Ukrainian Classics of the Free Thought – this could be the name of the new project The Day now offers to its readers. These authors, among them being Mykola Kostomarov, Vasyl Stus, Mykhailo Drahomanov, Yevhen Malaniuk, Panteleimon Kulish, Ivan Bahriany, are our contemporaries, bearers of the idea of free Ukraine, a country equal to other civilized countries, a country we yet have to build.

“In this project The Day follows the example of Western newspapers, which are accustomed to delivering the highly intellectual literature to a wide circle of readers. This is done in order to consolidate the fundament of the civil society. Recently, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published a few series, among which are books named Greek and Latin Classics of Free Thought and Classics of Free Thought. These publications contain pieces by fathers of democracy from the ancient times to the present. The first edition of these books (250 thousand copies) was sold out almost instantly. Such projects are frequently called ‘democracy pills’ in journalism lingo.

“By studying Ukrainian classics of free thought we learn to build Ukraine in Europe and Europe in Ukraine. The Day’s new series helps to gain immunity against the cheap political populism. It teaches the courage of critical thought. It proves that the profound humanitarian knowledge is essential for the creation of political culture. It presents Ukrainian intellectual thought as a part of European democratic evolution. These books are must-have for students and professors, programmers and managers, honest politicians and responsible electors, for all the citizens who believe in the future of their country and are ready to sensibly, logically, and fearlessly build this future.

“In a conclusion I would like to say that social and political journalism is a kind of genre that enhances the importance of spiritual dimensions, awakens spiritual energy, deepens consciousness, and emphasizes the value of moral principles. That is why I am very pleased to see that The Day decided to popularize this genre, which has been prohibited for too long. I am hoping to see the results soon!”

Stanislav KULCHYTSKY, deputy director of the Institute of Ukrainian History at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine:

“The process of creating of Ukrainian nation is tightly connected with Ukrainian philosophers of the 19th century, who undertook a mission of turning ethnographic Ukrainians into a nation. Thanks to them, and also to such outstanding men as Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Franko, the basis of ideological unification of Ukraine was created, even though at that time its ethnographic unity was divided by a state border. As a result of their activity, Ukrainian intellectuals emerged, and they were the guiding light for mobilized peasants, later creating Ukrainian People’s Republic in Russia and West Ukrainian People’s Republic in Austro-Hungarian Empire. Despite the horrible tragedies of the 20th century, or maybe even thanks to them, our country was formed. However, it still bears the mark of those tragedies. I think that the works of our 19th-century writers will serve as healing remedy and will help to learn the history of Ukraine without Vynnychenko’s sedative bromide. I have learned this from my own experience: I turned from a former Soviet professor into a normal one after I got acquainted with the spiritual heritage of Ukrainian philosophers, which is now published by The Day’s Library.”