Factor of cultural action

Interfax Ukraine reports that at its first session the President’s National Council on Culture and Spirituality supported the idea to establish a state center combining a research institute, exhibition halls, and a repository of unique collections gathered on the contaminated territories of the Chornobyl zone. The problem of preserving the ethnic and cultural heritage of this region was raised by a council member, the poet Lina Kostenko, who is taking part in ethnographic expeditions to the exclusion zone. The other participants of the session included the head of the council, MP Mykola Zhulynsky; Markiyan Lubkivsky, head of the Main Humanitarian Policy Service; presidential adviser Volodymyr Hlushko; Deputy Prime Minister Viacheslav Kyrylenko; Culture and Tourism Minister Ihor Likhovy; writer Olena Zabuzhko; Academician Ivan Dziuba, and philosopher Myroslav Popovych. The Day asked Myroslav Popovych and Mykola Zhulynsky for their comments.

Myroslav POPOVYCH, director, Hryhoriy Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine:

There were several important issues on the agenda: the election of the council’s board; the formation of expert teams, councils on culture and spirituality of the Council of Ministers of the Crimea and regional state administrations; the draft national program for the enrichment and development of culture and spirituality in Ukrainian society. We were supposed to adopt a list of important memorial sites as part of the national cultural heritage, which are in dire need of repairs and restoration (a long list occupying several pages). Lina Kostenko reported on the state of the ethnic and cultural heritage in the Chornobyl zone. Afterwards we discussed the performance of the Culture TV channel, book publishing and sales, and monitoring of the preservation and restoration of cultural sites in Ukraine. This an important program, and the fact that there is a special body under the aegis of the president means that certain proposals can be made and they will reach the leading government circles. These can be large program tasks, like the draft concept of a national program for the enrichment and development of culture and spirituality in Ukrainian society, and lists of memorial sites of cultural heritage. This is the sense behind the council. We have already received for deliberation a draft presidential edict on book publishing. It is good to know that this is a public body and that the people in it are open to suggestions. It will be a good thing, regardless of the degree of efficiency. In any event, it will be useful.

Mykola ZHULYNSKY, Chairman of the President’s National Council on Culture and Spirituality:

Today it is difficult to say how effective this council will be. Everything will depend on the mechanisms that we develop to implement the decisions submitted to the president of Ukraine. We must also bear in mind the changes made to the Constitution of Ukraine in conjunction with the constitutional reform. And there is the matter of adjusting the mechanism of a public body, such as our council; whom it can influence, what decisions it can propose, and so on. So, during our first session we created teams of experts led by council members; they will analyze the situation in various aspects of social and public life. I think that an active public stand will be an effective stimulus for drawing public attention to various problems. We will ask the president to establish such councils in regional state administrations, so we can have unbiased evaluations of what is happening in the regions. This will help us preserve the historical and cultural environment. I think that the government will listen to such a council. So we have very many plans. Honestly, it’s difficult to say how effectively we will manage to implement them. But I think there will be success. Otherwise I wouldn’t get involved in this project.