Ukraine – Central (Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kropyvnytskyi) June 16-20, June 23, 2019
From Ukraine Northeast, I drove south of the Dneiper and stopped in the is town. Cherkasy (pop 262,000)
The city is the cultural, educational and industrial center of Cherkasy Oblast and Central Economical Region of Ukraine. Cherkasy has been known since the 13th century and played a great role in the history of Ukraine. The city became one of the centers of the Cossack movement. Citizens took part in the Khmelnychchyna of 1648-1657 and in the Koliyivschyna of 1768-1769. The city was influenced by the cruel social and economical experiments of Soviet authorities and by World War II.
The city is located on the right bank of Dnieper River in the middle of the Kremenchuk Reservoir, about 200 km (124 mi) south of Kiev.
Tarass Shevtchenko Tomb and State Historical and Natural Museum – Reserve. A tentative WHS (13/09/1989), Taras Hill or Chernecha Hora (literally, Monk’s Hill) is a hill on the bank of the Dnieper near and an important landmark of the Shevchenko National Preserve where the remains of the famous Ukrainian poet and artist Taras Shevchenko have been buried since 1861. The original site of Shevchenko’s burial was the Smolensky Cemetery in St. Petersburg and later his body was moved here. The hill formerly belonged to Kaniv’s Holy Dormition monastery (Eastern Orthodox) that existed here since the 11th century. The monastery was the burial place of several hetmans of Ukraine: Ivan Pidkova, Samiylo Kishka and others.
Since 1923 the hill was part of the Kaniv Nature Preserve. In 1926 there was created the special Kaniv Museum-Preserve of Shevchenko. In 1939 a Russian sculptor created the bronze statue that along with newly built museum building became the main features of the location.
It was on the Taras Hill that Oleksa Hirnyk burned himself to death in protest of Soviet suppression of the Ukrainian language, culture and history in 1978. It happened on the 60th anniversary of the initial declaration of Ukrainian independence in 1918. At present, the mount belongs to the Shevchenko National Preserve dedicated to the poet and is a place of mass visits from all over the country and abroad. A Church in memory of Taras Shevchenko (Tarasova Cerkva) is planned to be built here.
Biloozerskyi National Park. On the north shore of a reservoir of the Dnieper River, this national park was created in 2009. With 7,014 hectares (17,554 acres) it has expansive and vibrant meadows intersperse the woodland dominated by towering trees and other plant species. The Dnieper River flows alongside the park, its banks are dotted with reeds and emerald grass.
KYIV (pop 2,800,000)
Kiev (or Kyiv – Ukrainian: Київ, romanized: Kyiv; Russian: Киев, romanized: Kiyev) is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine, located in the north-central part of the country on the Dnieper. Kiev is the 7th most populous city in Europe.
Kiev is an important industrial, scientific, educational and cultural center of Eastern Europe. It is home to many high-tech industries, higher education institutions, and world-famous historical landmarks. The city has an extensive infrastructure and highly developed system of public transport, including the Kiev Metro.
The city’s name is said to derive from the name of Kyi, one of its four founders. During its history, Kiev, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, passed through several stages of great prominence and relative obscurity. The city probably existed as a commercial centre as early as the 5th century. A Slavic settlement on the great trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, Kiev was a tributary of the Khazars, until its capture by the Varangians (Vikings) in the mid-9th century. Under Varangian rule, the city became a capital of the Kievan Rus’, the first East Slavic state. Completely destroyed during the Mongol invasions in 1240, the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. It was a provincial capital of marginal importance in the outskirts of the territories controlled by its powerful neighbours; first by Lithuania, followed by Poland and ultimately Russia.
The city prospered again during the Russian Empire’s Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century. In 1918, after the Ukrainian National Republic declared independence from Soviet Russia, Kiev became its capital. From 1921 onwards Kiev was a city of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was proclaimed by the Red Army, and, from 1934, Kiev was its capital. During World War II, the city again suffered significant damage, but quickly recovered in the post-war years, remaining the third largest city of the Soviet Union.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian independence in 1991, Kiev remained the capital of Ukraine and experienced a steady migration influx of ethnic Ukrainians from other regions of the country. During the country’s transformation to a market economy and electoral democracy, Kiev has continued to be Ukraine’s largest and richest city. Kiev’s armament-dependent industrial output fell after the Soviet collapse, adversely affecting science and technology. But new sectors of the economy such as services and finance facilitated Kiev’s growth in salaries and investment, as well as providing continuous funding for the development of housing and urban infrastructure. Kiev emerged as the most pro-Western region of Ukraine where parties advocating tighter integration with the European Union dominate during elections.
For a complete post on Kiev.
TIPS & OBSERVATIONS
1. Kiev Card. This used to be offered for museums, public transportation etc. but has become unavailable “until all the problems with it are solved”.
2. Museums are relatively cheap and most offer reductions for pensioners.
3. Parking. Kiev must be one of the easiest cities in Europe to find easy parking. There doesn’t appear to be meters anywhere.
4. Document processing. Available in most of the walking passageways under major roads.
5. There are few motorcycles or bicycles. It is not a bike-friendly place with virtually no cycle lanes.
Day 1
I arrived in Kiev hoping to go to the Belarus Embassy at 9am to start my visa process. But I soon learned that this was a national holiday (actually on Sunday) and that everything would be closed so I thought I would take a day off and get caught up on the many things that have needed doing. I was parked in the shade in an area of shops and restaurants. I started with a moka frappe and connected to the internet. A bank that didn’t charge service fees was 100m away, I withdrew 3000 UAH and exchanged it for €100 that I might need for the visa. I needed to print off the LOI and itinerary for my Belarus visa, and there was a document shop in the underground mall 100m away but was unfortunately closed. I finished off all the posts on Ukraine making me completely caught up on my web site (this is a labourious job I do every day). I drove to a dry-cleaners and arranged to have two pairs of jeans hemmed (this has been on my to-do list for 3 months). I found a laundromat and left my laundry to be picked up at 7pm. I then found a document center open and printed off all my paper (cost €.45). With time to kill, I decided to see a few drive-to “sights” in Kiev.
Kiev is not an easy city to see all the sights and you have to drive all over the place.
Kyiv Zoo. This is a nice zoo with large enclosures, many water features and in a nice park setting, but without great variety. All European zoos have similar critters: Przewalski’s horse, American bison, llamas, Bactrian camels, warthogs, red deer, Shetland ponies, the common African animals, petting parks, playgrounds, amusement rides, and lots of concessions.
Some new ones for me were: white crested bear, milu (Pere David’s deer – extinct in the wild). 100 UAH, 50 reduced
Kyiv TV Tower. The Kiev TV Tower is a 385 m-high (1,263 ft) lattice steel tower built in 1973 for radio and television broadcasting. It is the tallest freestanding lattice steel construction in the world. The tower in Oranzhereina Street is not open to the public.
Construction began in 1968 and finished in 1973 at a cost of approximately $12 million. Made of steel pipe of various diameters and thicknesses, the structure weighs 2,700 tonnes. The central pipe, or core, where the elevator is located, is 4 meters in diameter and made of pipe that is 12 mm thick. It sits on a four-legged base that is about 100 meters tall. Atop the base is an enclosed level which houses microwave transmitting and receiving equipment. At about 200 meters is a second enclosed level that houses television and FM transmitters, as well as a control and maintenance shop. This second level is the elevator’s terminus.
The tower is unique in that no mechanical fasteners such as rivets are used in the structure: every joint, pipe and fixture is attached by welding.
The tower was first designed for Moscow, then the Soviet capital. But Moscow authorities preferred a more “solid” type of tower which was eventually built (Ostankino Tower). Later, when Kiev needed its own tower, the project was reintroduced. The Soviet government ordered the engineers to shorten the tower by almost 30%, so as not to be as tall as the Moscow one.
In the NM “modern architecture” series, this is white steel truss with red platforms until the mast.
Saint Sophia Cathedral with Related Monastic Buildings, St. Cyril’s and St. Andrew’s.
A tentative WHS, St Cyril’s Church was built in 1140-46 by Chernihiv Prince Vsevolaod Olgovidch, robbed by Batu Khan in 1240 and was gradually surrounded by monastic buildings. It had a great fire in 1734 and the monastery ceased to function in 1786, was taken over by the city and functioned as a “psycho-neurological hospital. Now it is a museum, part of St Sophia’s Reserve.
The exterior is white with 4 green onion domes and large central dome and nice stucco carvings of angels and stars. The entire inside has average frescoes and floral designs. The modern iconoclast has knotted marble columns. 50 UAH, 20 reduced
Dream Town. This is an old-fashioned 3-story shopping mall – one long corridor a few blocks long. It has one hokey jungle themed central area. I bought groceries (for the first time in a week and am looking forward to eating salads again).
People’s Friendship Arch (Friendship of Nations Arch). It was opened together with the All-Union Lenin Museum (today, Ukrainian House) on November 7, 1982 to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the USSR and the celebration of the 1,500th Anniversary of the Kiev city. In May 2016 the Ukrainian government announced plans to dismantle the arch as part of its decommunization laws. In its place is planned a memorial dedicated to veterans of the War in Donbass. For the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, the arch was temporarily painted into a rainbow and renamed the Arch of Diversity; with the arch doubling as the symbol of the Kyiv Pride parade. At night, the arch illuminates as a rainbow as well. Three weeks later everything was turned back to normal.
The monument consists of three sculptural elements an arch and two statues: 1. A huge, 50 m (164 ft) in diameter, rainbow-shaped arch, made of titanium. 2. A bronze statue depicting a Russian and Ukrainian workers holding up the Soviet Order of Friendship of Peoples. and 3. A granite stele depicting the participants of the Pereyaslav Council of 1654.
It is in “Khreschatyi” Park which at the time of opening was called the Pioneer Park on top of the right bank of Dnieper river overwatching the Park Bridge (pedestrian bridge that connects the city with Trukhaniv island).
This very popular round square has a huge 5-sectioned stainless steel arch over the entire square. Under it are two large sculptures: two men holding an emblem aloft and a rose stone sculpture with 8 figures. A semi-circular grandstand it to the west. Kids were skateboarding, people are strolling.
Pedestrian Bridge. It comes off the side of the square crossing a road to the park on the other side of the deep gully where there is a nice fountain. It must be the busiest pedestrian bridge in the world and was packed on a holiday Monday. With a stainless steel railing and glass sides, it is wide, has a cycle lane down the middle and was apparently just opened a month ago.
Day 2
Up early, I saw a few drive-to sights on my way to the Belarus Embassy.
Kiev Central Train Station. The central hall is a grand barrel vaulted roo
with great mosaics at the base of the dome. Brown marble, white doric columns and hexagonal glass window make it a very attractive station. Take the escalator up to a concourse above the tracks for great access. This must be one of the nicest main train stations in Europe.
City buses stop out front and the national/international bus station is just 200m east.
Gulliver. Multifunctional Complex Gulliver is a 35-story mixed-use building located at the very center of the city near Palats Sportu metro station. It is the second highest building and the highest office building in the country.
The complex consists of a 35 stories high office building and a adjoining 10 to 16 stories high shopping mall with movie theaters, restaurants and other business and entertainment spots.
Originally the building was to be called “Continental”, but in 2011 it was named of Gulliver after the eponymous hero of Jonathan Swifts novel Gulliver’s Travels.
This sky scraper business complex has two towers, both black glass. The story has several curved and complex sides and the story tower is round.
Parus Business Centre. This is a 34-story office building located at the very centre of the city, between Mechnikova St. and Lesi Ukrainky Blvd. At its opening in 2007, was the highest building it the country, as of 2018 it remains the third highest.
Construction was from 2004 – 2007. Apart from its main office use 50,400 m2, it has 2,400 m2 of retail space and around 2,700 m2 of cafes and restaurants and a 4-story underground parking garage with a capacity for 300 cars.
Named “Parus” (literally translated as “sail”) ostensibly because of building’s oval-like shape, resembling sail of a ship.
In July 2008, Parus was top of the chart in terms of annual rental income, which stood at some $50 million. Major tenants at Parus include McKinsey & Company, Concorde Capital, an investment bank; TNK-BP. an oil company; Olimp, Ukrainian spirits company; Delin Developmet, a real estate development company; Interpipe, steel pipes producer and others.
Bessarabsky Market. The huge barrel vaulted hall belies the actual commercial space that is quite small with meat, cheese and a small selection of fruit and vegetables.
I then went to the Belarus Embassy for my visa at 9 but visa application hours were 2:30-5pm Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9-12 on Mondays and Fridays. Closed Wednesdays. So I started my walk-about to see some of Kiev’s sights.
A.V. Fomin Botanical Garden. I walked around this entire gardens but never found the entrance. In fact there are surprisingly few gates. There is a large greenhouse on the west but the rest appeared to be untended woods with many mature trees.
St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral. This large Russian Orthodox cathedral is yellow with white trim and has two bell towers. Inside the frescoes are huge covering entire walls along with floral decoration. The icons are framed with and amazing number of styles of marble, wood, and gilt. Two reliquaries seemed to get a lot of attention. The iconostasis is marble with glass-painted icons. The doors may be the nicest with small lovely stained glass, wood and metal decoration. A service was happening – the choirs are lovely. Free
Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings. World Heritage Sites 1990. The National Conservation Area St Sophia Kiev is one of the biggest museum complexes in Ukraine. St Sophia Cathedral is the most significant building of the complex, a world famous monument of architecture and monumental frescoes of the 11th century (first mentioned in 1017 and completed in 1018) as the cradle of Kyivan Rus Christianity and power. It was looted by the Mongol-Tartar hordes of Batu Khan in 1240. The Uniats looted it and tore down the roof in1596 and the west wall tumbled down in the 17th century. Hetman gave 50,000 gold coins to renovate the cathedral in about 1700. In 1843-53, the frescoes were cleared of all the plaster and renewed with oil painting. There is a great marble sarcophagus, the Peresopnytsia Gospel from 1556-1561, has 960 pages and weighs 9kgs. The yellow/green/black mosaic floor is exposed under several glass covers.
The outside is white plaster with lovely stone bits, roofs green and onion domes gold. The inside has faded frescoes, floral decoration on the columns, a great sold gilt iconostasis and nice mosaics in the apse, and dome. The cathedral is a museum and doesn’t function as a church.
It is surrounded by monastic buildings of the 18th century in Ukrainian baroque style. The wooden buildings were destroyed by fire in 1697 and were rebuilt by the 1770s but the monastery was abolished in 1786.. WHS listed in 1990.
Prices have many combinations. To enter the complex: 50 UAH. Church, refectory (1722-1730 – has archaeology, icons, mosaics) and Zaborovsky Gate (1746 – nothing much to see) – 80 UAH. Add the bakery (1722-30), bell tower (1699-1706 – 4 tiers white and light blue) and Metropolitan’s Residence (1722-1730) for another 80 UAH.
Bohdan Khmelnitsky Monument. This is a monument in Kie
dedicated to the Hetman of Zaporizhian Host Bohdan Khmelnytsky built in 1888. It is one of the oldest sculptural monuments, a dominating feature of Sophia Square and one of the city’s symbols.
The monument is located almost in the middle of the Sophia Square (formerly the main city’s square) on the axis that unites both bell towers of the Sophia Cathedral and St.Michael’s Monastery.
Here on 23 December 1648 residents of Kiev met Khmelnytsky leading his Cossacks’ regiments by entering the city through the Golden Gates soon after the victory over Polish Army at the battle of Pyliavtsi.
On a stone base dated 1888, the monument is a copper man on a horse.
Taras Shevchenko House Museum. This small wood house that he lived in for one year in 1846- has lovely creaking wood floors, authentic furnishings, personal items, and much of his art (pencil drawings, engravings and water colours. Upstairs is the mansard (attic) where he painted. You get shown around by the sweetest older ladies who are very attentive, and they speak some English. There is an English guide with a few of his poems translated into English. 30 UAH, no reduction
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (1814 – 1861) was an Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, as well as folklorist and ethnographer. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language. Shevchenko is also known for many masterpieces as a painter and an illustrator. He was a member of the Sts Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood and an academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts. In 1847 Shevchenko was politically convicted for writing in the Ukrainian language, promoting the independence of Ukraine and ridiculing the members of the Russian Imperial House.
On 22 March 1845, the Council of the Academy of Arts granted Shevchenko the title of a non-classed artist. He again travelled to Ukraine where he met members of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, a clandestine society also known as Ukrainian-Slavic society and dedicated to the political liberalization of the Empire and its transformation into a federation-like polity of Slavic nations. Upon the society’s suppression by the authorities, Shevchenko’s wrote a poem “Dream”, that was confiscated from the society’s members and became one of the major issues of the scandal.
Shevchenko was arrested along with other members of the society on 5 April 1847. Tsar Nicholas read Shevchenko’s poem, “Dream”. Vissarion Belinsky wrote in his memoirs that, Nicholas I, knowing Ukrainian very well, laughed and chuckled whilst reading the section about himself, but his mood quickly turned to bitter hatred when he read about his wife. Shevchenko had mocked her frumpy appearance and facial tics, which she had developed fearing the Decembrist Uprising and its plans to kill her family. After reading this section the Tsar indignantly stated “I suppose he had reasons not to be on terms with me, but what has she done to deserve this?” He was accused in using “Little-Russian language”[8](archaic Russian name for Ukrainian language) of outrageous content instead of being grateful to be redeemed out of serfdom and it was claimed that Shevchenko was expressing a cry over alleged enslavement and disaster of Ukraine, glorified the Hetman Administration (Cossack Hetmanate) and Cossack liberties and “with incredible audacity poured slander and bile on persons of Imperial House”.
After being convicted, he was exiled as a private to the Russian military garrison in at Orsk, near the Ural Mountains. Tsar Nicholas I, confirming his sentence, added to it, “Under the strictest surveillance, without the right to write or paint.”
He was subsequently sent on a forced march from Saint Petersburg to Orenburg and assigned to the first scientific expedition of the Aral Sea on the ship “Konstantin”. Although officially a common sailor, Shevchenko was tasked to sketch various landscapes around the coast of the Aral Sea, including the local Kazakhs nomads, and was effectively treated as an equal by the other members of the expedition. After 18-month voyage (1848–49) Shevchenko returned with his album of drawings and paintings but Shevchenko’s punishment was increased to imprisonment. He was then sent to one of the worst penal settlements, the remote fortress of Novopetrovsk in the mouth of the Syr Darya, where he spent six terrible years of mental and physical torment.
In 1857 Shevchenko finally returned from exile after receiving amnesty and in 1859, returned to Ukraine but was again arrested on a charge of blasphemy, but then released and ordered to return to St. Petersburg.
Taras Shevchenko spent the last years of his life working on new poetry, paintings, and engravings, as well as editing his older works, however after difficult years in exile his illnesses took too much. Shevchenko died in Saint Petersburg in 1861, the day after his 47th birthday.
He was first buried at the Smolensk Cemetery in Saint Petersburg but fulfilling his wishes, was re-buried on 8 May on the Chernecha hora (Monk’s Hill; today Taras Hill) near the Dnipro River and Kaniv. A tall mound was erected over his grave, now a memorial part of the Kaniv Museum-Preserve.
Dogged by terrible misfortune in love and life, the poet died seven days before the Emancipation of Serfs was announced. His works and life are revered by Ukrainians throughout the world and his impact on Ukrainian literature is immense.
Maidan Memorial (Maidan Nezalezhnosti).
“Maydan” has become synonymous with the Ukrainian way to defend personal and civil freedoms against government tyranny and despotism.
Over the past 30 years, Ukraine’s main national movements were geographically centered on Independence Square in the heart of Kyiv, and were intellectually based on the notion of individual and collective freedom of choice, as a basic social value.
On November 21, 2013, 1500 people came to the central square to protest the fact that pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych had suddenly refused to sign the long-anticipated agreement on Ukraine’s associate membership in the European Union – a document that embodied the nation’s European aspirations in the years following Independence. On the night of November 30, several hundred activists, mostly students who had continued to remain on the square, were brutally dispersed by the police. In response, on December 1, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the center of Kyiv to protest the beatings. The tyrannical actions of the police were the catalyst for people outraged by corruption, usurpation of power, the regime’s Russification policy, and rapprochement with Russia.
Against a backdrop of Eurointegration slogans, the protest became known as the EuroMaydan. Eventually, the protest moved toward a complete reboot of the state system known as the Revolution of Dignity. The people demanded the punishment of the police responsible for brutally attacking the student protestors.
On the 61st day of the Maydan, the first two protestors were shot dead on the street. By that time, there were already two more dead further outside the area of confrontation. Throughout the following month, the authorities tried to force the protestors out of the city center. Most of the Heavenly Hundred heroes died of gunshot wounds on February 20, 2014. 107 victims of the Revolution of Dignity have been officially identified. On the night of February 22, 2014, President Yanukovich fled to Russia on a charter flight.
Tactically, the Euromaydan managed to force the dictator-president to flee and his government to resign. After elections, Ukraine chose a European vector of development. It became an EU associate member, its citizens attained the right to visa-free entry into the European Union, and as a result of the EU-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement, trade with European countries has significantly increased.
Strategically, the country turned its back on its past – the “Prison of Nations”, as we commonly referred to the Soviet Union, and turned toward civilized nations.
Belgian Prime Minister Guy Vergofstadt called the EuroMaydan the largest pro-European demonstration in the history of the EU. This was the longest protest in recent memory, lasting uninterrupted for 92 days. In comparison, in 1989 demonstrations to overthrow the communist regime in the Czech Republic and Slovakia lasted 42 days. In Romania, protests which culminated in the execution of their dictator lasted 11 days.
For three months, thousands of people lived on the capital’s main square. The atmosphere of liberty and creative energy was destined to give birth to new movements and projects. The Maydan flourished with public initiatives, dozens of which are still functioning and growing. Maydan volunteers founded nationwide organizations and charitable foundations. The “Free University of the Maydan” offered free video courses on 30 topics. The “Maydan of Foreign Affairs” brought together veteran diplomats who became an influential advisory platform in the field of international relations. Many members of the improvised security groups “Self-defense of the Maydan” volunteered when, following the Maydan, Russia invaded Ukrainian territory. A number of these groups eventually became part of Ukraine’s Armed Forces. The “Office Hundred” launched projects such as restoring partially-destroyed documents from the residence of the ex-president, and now, for the sake of transparency and oversight, they are digitizing millions of asset and income declarations of government officials. Babylon ‘13 studios filmed more than 150 short, and then full-length, documentary films. Now they are documenting life in post-Maydan Ukraine.
In the midst of the revolution, the historical significance of the events unfolding was clear. With that profound understanding of the necessity to preserve the memories and collect artifacts for future generations, two important initiatives took form following the Maydan – the “Museum of the Maydan” and “Museum of Liberty”. Their joint mission has resulted in the creation of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred National Memorial Complex – Museum of the Revolution of Dignity.
In Independence Square, this is a grand marble column with a gilt Corinthian capital and the Maidan, a winged women with a gold leaf tiara between her wings. On the west end of the square is a brick arch with another gilt winged woman. At least 8 streets converge on the square.
I wanted to buy a Hard Rock Café – Chernobyl t-shirt but she didn’t have my size. There was also toilet paper with Putin’s face on every sheet. I eventually found a t-shirt (€6)
Bridge of Heavenly Hundred (Bridge over Institute Street) is a pedestrian bridge that crossed Institute Street located at Independence Square. Built in 2002, it is pedestrian viaduct from the October Palace to the Hlobus shopping mall on “Maidan”. During Euromaidan, on 20 February 2014 the bridge caught fire and was damaged. Its repair cost 350,000 UAH.
It is a silver steel truss bridge behind the Mayden Monument. I walked up the stairs to the east of the monument to cross the bridge but unfortunately it was being renovated and couldn’t be crossed.
Monument to Princess Olga. A Viking born in Pskov, little is known about her life before her marriage to Prince Igor I of Kiev and the birth of their son, Svyatoslav. Igor was the heir of Oleg, who had consolidated power in the region, conquering neighboring tribes and establishing a capital in Kiev. This loose tribal federation became known as Kievan Rus’, a territory covering what are now parts of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
The Drevlians were a neighboring tribe with which the growing Kievan Rus’ empire had a complex relationship. The Drevlians had joined Kievan Rus’ in military campaigns against the Byzantine Empire and paid tribute to Igor’s predecessors. They stopped paying tribute upon Oleg’s death and in 945, Igor set out to the Drevlian capital, Iskorosten (today known as Korosten in northern Ukraine), to force the tribe to pay tribute to Kievan Rus’. The Drevlians murdered Igor.
After Igor’s death, Olga ruled Kievan Rus as regent on behalf of their 3 year old son Svyatoslav. Little is known about Olga’s tenure as ruler of Kiev. 29 Drevlian negotiators proposed that she marry his murderer, Prince Mal. She buried them alive. A second party of Drevlians, unaware of the fate of the first diplomatic party, were burned to death. At a subsequent funeral feast, five thousand Drevlians were killed. Olga returned with an army to finish off the Drevilians and with only Iskorasten remaining, laid siege to the city for a year. She sent them a message: “Why do you persist in holding out? All your cities have surrendered to me and submitted to tribute, so that the inhabitants now cultivate their fields and their lands in peace. But you had rather die of hunger, without submitting to tribute.” The Drevlians responded that they would submit to tribute, but that they were afraid she was still intent on avenging her husband. Olga answered that the murder of the messengers sent to Kiev, as well as the events of the feast night, had been enough for her. She then asked them for a small request: “Give me three pigeons…and three sparrows from each house.” The Drevlians rejoiced at the prospect of the siege ending for so small a price, and did as she asked. Olga then instructed her army to attach a piece of sulphur bound with small pieces of cloth to each bird. At nightfall, Olga told her soldiers to set the pieces aflame and release the birds. They returned to their nests within the city, and subsequently set the city ablaze. “There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames, because all the houses caught fire at once.” As the people fled the burning city, Olga ordered her soldiers to catch them, killing some of them and giving the others as slaves to her followers. She left the remnant to pay tribute.
Governance. Olga remained regent ruler of Kievan Rus with the support of the army and her people. She changed the system of tribute gathering (poliudie) in the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe. She continued to evade proposals of marriage, defended the city during the Siege of Kiev in 968, and saved the power of the throne for her son.
After her dramatic subjugation of the Drevlians, the Primary Chronicle recounts how Olga “passed through the land of Dereva, accompanied by her son and her retinue, establishing laws and tribute. Her trading posts and hunting-reserves are there still.” As queen, Olga established trading-posts and collected tribute along the Msta and the Luga rivers. She established hunting grounds, boundary posts, towns, and trading-posts across the empire. Olga’s work helped to centralize state rule with these trade centers, called pogost
, which served as administrative centers in addition to their mercantile roles. Olga’s network of pogosti would prove important in the ethnic and cultural unification of the Russian nation, and her border posts began the establishment of national boundaries for the kingdom.
During her son’s prolonged military campaigns, she remained in charge of Kiev, residing in the castle of Vyshgorod with her grandsons.
Christianity. In the 950s, Olga converted to Chrisianity in Constantinople. She tried unsuccessfully to convert her son. Christianity was very unpopular in Kievan Rus but Svyatoslav agreed not to persecute those in his kingdom who did convert, which marked a crucial turning point for Christianity in the area. Olga built churches in Kiev, Pskov, and elsewhere.
Olga died from illness in 969 and all of Kievan Rus’ wept. Her tomb remained in Kiev for over two centuries, but was destroyed by the Mongolian-Tatar armies of Batu Khan in 1240.
At the time of her death, it seemed that Olga’s attempt to make Kievan Rus’ a Christian territory had been a failure. Nonetheless, Olga’s Christianizing mission would be brought to fruition by her grandson, Vladimir, who officially adopted Orthodox Christianity in 988. In 1547, nearly 600 years after her death, the Russian Orthodox Church named Olga a saint. She is also a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Olga’s feast day is July 11th, the date of her death. In keeping with her her own biography, she is the patron of widows and converts.
Churches and Monuments. Due to the imperfect transliteration between the Ukrainian and the English, the name Olga is synonymous with Olha. Because of her Varangian origin, she also is known in Old Norse as Saint Helga.
Cathedral of St. Olga, Kiev (inaugurated 2010)
Church of Sts. Olha and Elizabeth, Lviv
Church of Volodymyr and Olha, Khodoriv
Church of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha, Podusiv, Peremyshliany Raion
Saint Vladimir and Olha church, Staryi Dobrotvir, Kamenka-Buzky Raion
Church of Saints Volodymyr and Olha, Birky, Yavoriv Raion
Church of Saints Volodymyr and Olha, Horodok, Lviv Oblast
Saint Olga Orthodox church in Korosten, Zhytomyr Oblast
Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church, Chicago
Saints Vladimir and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral and Parish Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Saints Vladimir and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Church, Dauphin, Manitoba
Saints Vladimir and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Church, Windsor, Ontario
Saints Volodymyr and Olha Church, Woodville, South Australia
Her white marble statue on top of a granite pedestal is flanked by two other statues.
St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery (1109-13). It was the first church built with golden domes. Wow this blue with white accents and golden domed church presents a great sight. Inside are frescoes all on a blue background, many gilt framed icons and the largest iconostasis in the world that goes across the entire east wall in 3 sections. Many gilt candle holders with men praying in front to them. Free
Saint Andrew’s Church. Built in 1747-62 in honour of the Apostle Andrew who established the cross on the Dnieper slopes. This is another beauty – light blue with white columns all topped with gilt Corinthian capitals, gilt crests, gilt ornamentation around the windows and 5 gilt and green onion domes. Unfortunately the interior was closed for restoration. The sign said the interior had filded carving, stucoo and econ painteint of the 18th century and painintng of the 19th century. Since 1968, it has been a museum, part of the National Conservation Area of St Sophia of Kiev.
National Museum of the History of Ukraine. The usual: archaeology (great flint sickles and axes) – Stone Age to the Greeks. By the 3rd room, the English disappeared. The highlight is the diorama showing Kiev in the 11th – 13th centuries. On the 2nd floors is coins (ugh), medieval weapons, ethnography (great wood wagon) and on the 3rd the 20th and 21st century with some good explanations. 50 UAH, 30 reduced
I then had 2kms to walk back to my car and the Embassy of Belarus. After 10 minutes, I realized that I had forgotten my checked pack at the museum. Then Google Maps disappeared as my map finished during the 20-minute walk!! But I arrived at 2:50.
Refer to the post “Belarus Visa” for all the necessary info required to get this visa. A crucial point is that you must have a certificate or letter ensuring that you have medical insurance specifically for Belarus. Rather than go through all the hassles of phoning my insurance company and them sending a letter confirming the coverage, I went across the street and purchased Ukrainian medical insurance for 11 days for 118 UAH.
National Museum of Medicine. In the former Anatomical Theatre of Medical Faculty at St.Volodymyr Kyiv University, an architectural memorial of the 19th century. The museum uses audio-visuals, full-scale interiors and dioramas, pieces of art and sculpture and documentary films showing the development of medicine in Ukraine from ancient times to the present.
This can only be seen by guided tour usually in Ukrainian on Saturdays at 12 and 2pm. To arrange an English tour (cost 400 UAH for 1-5 people), the guide needs to be available but was on holidays when I was there (“chilling out” in the person’s words I was talking to). He offered, in his very poor English, to show me around for 85 UAH. It was not very interesting as his English was so bad. 85 UAH
Atlas (Concert Hall). This music concert venue has shows 2-3 times per week usually starting at 8pm, but also DJs often starting at 23:00. It is not a nightclub or bar, there is no dancing and the hall is quite big. The line-up for the next week was Zharyat, Mayete, Miles Kane and Queen.
Ar-Rahma Mosque. This is a lovely new mosque (1994) with a low circular wall around a courtyard with the single minaret – all in light tan stone. Inside was unusual with two prayer halls side-by-side. One was square, plain white with a simple white/gold trimmed mihrab and mimbar. The other was larger, round, had lovely columns with a gold capitals, a gold band with writing and a black/gold mihrab. Bothe had lovely chandeliers and geometric stained glass windows high in the domes. Free
I find mosques very peaceful places. I usually sit down on the floor and compose my posts. There are always a few guys chilling out in the halls.
Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum. In the NM “Dark Side” series, Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 nuclear reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR.
The accident occurred during a safety test on a common Soviet reactor type – the RBMK nuclear power reactor. The test, a simulation of an electrical power outage, was to aid the development of a safety procedure for keeping reactor cooling water circulating until the emergency generators could provide power. This gap was about one minute and had been identified as a potential safety problem that could cause core overheating. Three such tests had been conducted since 1982 but had failed to provide a solution. Unfortunately, on this fourth occasion, the test had been delayed by ten hours and the reactor operating shift that had specifically prepared for the test procedure was replaced by the next shift. The test supervisor then failed to follow the test procedure, creating unstable operating conditions which, combined with inherent RBMK reactor design flaws and the intentional disabling of several emergency safety systems, resulted in an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction. A huge amount of energy was suddenly released, which vapourised superheated cooling water, rupturing the reactor pressure vessel in a highly destructive steam explosion, which was instantly followed by an open-air reactor core fire.
This fire produced considerable updrafts for about nine days before being finally contained on 4 May 1986. The lofted plumes of fission products released into the atmosphere by the fire precipitated onto parts of the USSR and western Europe. The estimated radioactive inventory that was released during this very hot fire phase approximately equaled in magnitude the airborne fission products released in the initial destructive explosion.
The total number of casualties remains disputed. Estimates of reduced life expectancy as a result of radiation released are highly uncertain and vary from 4,000 people in a United Nations study up to 200,000 reported by a Greenpeace study. During the accident, steam-blast effects caused two deaths within the facility: one immediately after the explosion, and the other compounded by a lethal dose of ionizing radiation. Over the coming days and weeks, 134 servicemen were hospitalized with acute radiation syndrome (ARS), of whom 28 firemen and employees died within months. Additionally, approximately 14 radiation-induced cancer deaths among this group of 134 hospitalized survivors were to follow within the next 10 years. Among the wider population, an excess of 15 childhood thyroid cancer deaths were documented as of 2011. Additional time and research is required to definitively determine the elevated relative risk of cancer among the surviving employees, those that were initially hospitalized with ARS, and the population at large.
The Chernobyl accident is considered the most disastrous nuclear power plant accident in history, both in terms of cost and casualties. It is one of only two nuclear energy accidents classified as a “level 7 major accident”, the maximum classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale; the other was the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan. The struggle to safeguard against scenarios that were perceived as having the potential for greater catastrophe, together with later decontamination efforts of the surroundings, ultimately involved over 500,000 liquidators and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles (roughly $30 billion USD in 1986, or $68 billion USD in 2019 adjusted for inflation).
The remains of the No. 4 reactor building were soon enclosed in the sarcophagus, a large shelter designed to reduce the spread of radioactive contamination from the wreckage and to protect the site from further weathering. This was rapidly built and was finished by December 1986, when the reactor was entering the cold shutdown phase. The shelter also provided radiological protection for the crews of the other undamaged reactors at the power station, with No. 3 continuing to produce electricity until 2000. Due to the continued deterioration of the sarcophagus both it and the No. 4 reactor were further enclosed in 2017 by the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement, a larger, state of the art enclosure, designed and built by an international team. This structure has the ability to facilitate the removal of both the sarcophagus and the reactor debris, while containing the radioactive contamination.
The accident prompted safety upgrades on all remaining Soviet-designed RBMK reactors, of which 10 continue to power electric grids as of 2019.
Parkovy Pedestrian Bridge. This is a huge bridge crossing the Dnieper to Trukhaniv Island. It is very busy and has a cycle lane in the middle that isn’t used much. There were two rope swings on the bridge – similar to bungy jumping but jump off one side, swing under the bridge and get pulled up the other side (250 UAH). I watched a young women stand on the edge for 10 minutes but she never did get the courage to actually jump.
Access from the main city side from Peoples Friendship Arch (stairs and bicycle friendly ramps) or from the west along the river (this is a 1km walk next to a 6-lane road but is sill pleasant enough)
Trukhaniv Island. In the middle of the Dnieper, it is a large park with beaches – a great place to chill out.
Kyiv Funicular
Day 3
National Art Museum of Ukraine. Start with icons (a 12th century wood carving of St George with scenes from his life was outstanding), some from Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and Berezna church. Then there are some great scenes from everyday life. I enjoyed this museum. 40 UAH, no reduction for non-Ukrainians.
Mariyinsky Palace. This very attractive palace – cream/blue with fountains and a wonderful wrought steel gate is used by the president for visiting dignitaries. It is not open to the public.
State Museum of Toys. Three small rooms of homemade toys and lot of dolls and stuffed toys. 30 UAH, 20 reduced
Toilet History Museum. In the NM “Bizzarium” series, this small museum gives a great run-down on toilets from the beginning of time. Leonardo da Vinci is credited with designing the first flush toilet. The first S system to control odors was developed in 1775. Then there is space toilets and the ultimate, Japanese toilets. Lots of toys, ceramics and in the gift shop everything you didn’t want. 50 HAH, no reduction. There is a guide if you want one.
Arsenalna Station (deepest in the world)
Zoloti Vorota Station
Monument to the Unknown Soldier (Monument to the victims of WW II). This is a granite 4-sided obelisk that tapers gradually to the top. There are several bronze busts on granite columns and a bronze of an airman. Next to it and the Holocaust Museum is a moving memorial to the 1921-22 genocide committed during the Soviet war against Ukraine.
National Museum “Holodomor victims Memorial” (Holodomor Genocide Museum). Start with a video produced by the Government of Canada: The great hunger climaxed in 1933, instituted by the Soviet Union and Stalin against the citizens of Ukraine. Millions died of starvation. Silence lasted for decades and it was not recognized until 2006 as a genocide (in 2008 by the Canadian government). Disinformation, especially by the New York Times in North America (Walter Duranty, a reporter) was key to suppressing the truth. Collectivisation and state control of agriculture required quotas, almost impossible to meet and meant punishment and starvation. Obedient leaders, soldiers raiding farms, punishment or death for not following the rules were all key to the genocide. Malcom Muggeridge and Gareth Jones form the UK tried to expose the truth. The borders were closed, travel forbidden and no aid or relief organizations allowed. The USSR denied everything.
The memorial/museum is underground. The displays are of farm farm equipment, boats and fishing equipment all painted black. But all information is in Ukainian. 50 UAH
Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Part of the Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings Complex. This is a huge complex originally founded in 1041. All white with 6 gold onion domes, the church has wonderful fresh frescoes, all large and covering whole walls, large groups with gilt thrones and halos, and a huge gilt iconostasis both in the narthex and main altar (40m high with at least 60 large icons). The refectory with its enormous dome in the church part has more wonderful large frescoes all painted in a Byzantine style in the 1890s. The narthex is equally stunning with its painted columns and ceiling. 40 UAH to enter + 40 to see the church and refectory. The great 4-tiered bell tower is extra.
Rectory interior
Museum of Ukrainian Decorative Folk Art. Painted chests, huge embroideries, traditional dress from all over Ukraine, icons, decorated Easter eggs (pysanki), hand-woven carpets, wood carving and inlays (great sleigh), painting (many still lifes), quilts. Finish off with ceramics, glass and a whole wall of more carpets. This is in the compound of the church, but extra. 50 UAH
Ivan Honchar Museum. Nothing was in English (including the signs) so I was never really sure who Ivan Honchar was. My guesses are an architect (many photos of monuments and some buildings or an artist (a lot of so-so surreal paintings. There wasn’t even anyone to pay the admission. No wonder there was no else here.
Museum of the History of Ukraine in World War II (Ukrainian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War). This museum has many photographs hanging from the ceilings and vignettes of individuals with their personal effects, medals, certificates, letters, clothes from Ukraine’s role around the world – WW II. Vietnam, Cuba and Angola. Upstairs is a whole room devoted to Afghanistan. All is in Ukrainian so it is not so worthwhile. Outside are tanks, artillery, armoured vehicles, planes helicopters. 10 UAH
Motherland Monument. On a huge conical stone base, this mammoth silver woman in a long robe is holding aloft a sword and shield. You can go to the top of the viewing area on the cone. Enter via a huge abstract concrete “bunker with great large bas reliefs of war scenes.
National Art Museum of Ukraine (The Bodhan and Varvara Khanenko National Musuem of the Arts). This is a gorgeous building. With some English, I believe the upper floor is all Russian classics, a lot of it lovely.
Kyiv Railway Museum. I spent more time looking for this than in this open-air museum. From the west, go down to the underpass to the Central Station and turn right at track 14. At the top of the stairs turn right and deal with a woman behind opaque black glass. See old locomotives and cars. Not very interesting. 50 UAH
Peeing Colours. In the NM Bizzarium series, this narrow street next to a park below is lined with interesting “sculptures” especially all the mosaic creations: thick pillows stacked on top of each other with crazy figures on top, a playground with mosaic animals on top of the rides, animals with benches in their . The road pedestrianizes and part way along is this sculpture: four 1½m tall babies (orange, green, yellow, blue) with long curved metal loops of the same colour – the pee. Other sculptures are a conical cannon, bench held up by hands.
One Street Museum. A museum on Andriyivskyy Descent, it houses many of the historic items of the descent, containing more than 7000 exhibits. They include information about the Saint Andrew’s Church, the castle of Richard Lionheart, and the many other buildings of the Descent. The museum hosts historical documents, manuscripts, autographs, antique postcards, photos, and a great number of objects of the antique interior.
Also, the museum has a collection of various works by Ukrainian philologist P. Zhitetsky, Arabist and professor of the Kiev University T. Kezma, journalist and public figure A. Savenko, and Ukrainian writer G. Tyutyunnyk, who all lived in the house at number 34 during the twentieth century. Another part of the museum collection is the memorabilia of professors of Kiev Theological Academy A. Bulgakov, S. Golubev, P. Kudryavtsev, F. Titov, A. Glagolev; doctors Th. Janovsky and D. Popov, and other prominent local figures.
The museum also has a large collection of antique books, including a Trebnik of the Metropolitan of Kiev, rare editions of works written by professors and graduates of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, books written by M. Grabovsky, the Defender of Orthodoxy, A. Muravyov, and the works of Mikhail Bulgakov published in his lifetime. 50 UAH
Koleso Theatre (Kyiv Academic Theatre of “The Wheel”). Just up the street from the One Street Museum, this small theatre has three intimate stages – the largest with 60 seats and the smallest immediately in front of 8 dinner tables. The Wheel refers to the plays being in constant motion. All are in Russian or Ukrainian.
Mikhail Bulgakov Museum. The house was built in 1888-89 and belonged to merchants. Till 1906 the famous Ukrainian composer Oleksandr Koshyts lived here. From 1906-1922, the Bulhakovs lived on the first floor. The house was repeatedly described in the works of the writer Mikhail Bulhakov. It is a large 2-story yellow with white trim brick house. Inside are period furnishings, manuscripts and personal belongings of Bulgahov. 30 UAH
Kyev Fortress. This complex of Russian fortifications in was built from the 17th through 19th centuries. Construction began after the 1654 Council in Pereyaslav, on the site of the already existing fortified monastery of Kiev Pechersk Lavra. The Kiev Fortress once belonged to the extensive system of western Russian fortresses that existed in the Russian Empire. The Kiev Fortress complex features many separate fortifications in Pechersk, Old Kiev, Podil, and Zvirynets located in various city districts of Kiev.
From 9:30 to 6pm, it costs 1 UAH to cross the grounds of the fort.
Kyiv Planetarium. It has a ” Large Zeiss IV», allowing to demonstrate the 6500 stars of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The planetarium offers lectures on astronomy, geography, natural history. 75 UAH
Ocean Plaza. This is a very nice new 4-story shopping mall. In a D shape, it has a glass roof, a big food court covered with a glass roof, a small salt water aquarium on the 2nd floor and a Cineplex on the 4th floor (they show one English movie a week, on Tuesdays at 7 – Aladdin; no wonder English skills are so poor).
Kiev Metro. Keiv is the only city in Ukraine with a metro. There are three lines – red, blue and green. Price is the same for any distance – 8 UAH or about €.30, very cheap. The cars are old and noisy. The stations are unattractive industrial except for Zoloti Vorota. Each station is listed in Latin script and announcements on the ride are in English. The only map is outside the turnstiles, there are none in the stations. I didn’t know that and had to pay 2 fares to go back out and determine my route. There are no lines on the walls or floor, just lit signs with the lines and stations, but I found it pretty easy to navigate even though I had to change lines three times to see the two stations. Etiquette is poor – they don’t stand on one side on the escalators to allow walkers and they don’t wait in nice lines to enter and often don’t wait for everyone to exit the car, just push their way on.
I was impressed that they played Willy Nelson over the speakers until I realized my phone had accidentally turned on and it was me!
NM gives three ticks for the metro – the metro itself and two stations.
Zoloti Vorota Station. This is listed as it has marble columns, two-level metal chandeliers with globes, and nice mosaics on the arches – geometrics alternating with historic figures.
Arsenalna Station. This is apparently the deepest in the world and from my experience with other deep stations (St Petersburg and Pyonyang, North Korea – 2’45”), it certainly is. There are two sets of escalators – the first was 2’20” and the second 1’36” for a total of 3 minutes and 56 seconds.
Easily the most impressive metro stations in the world are Moscow where many are true works of art (I rode it for almost 3 hours seeing all the wonderful stations). The other impressive system is Tashkent, Uzbekistan with several nice stations.
The only NM sites I didn’t see (there are about 60) were these – but I returned to Kiev to pick up my Belarus visa on Monday June 24 and saw them.
Markets: Lesnaya Market (flea market) near Sea Fairy Tale
Aviation Museums: Ukraine State Aviation Museum (Oleg Antonov State Aviation Museum)
Museum: Kyiv Water Museum
Kyiv Funicular
Aquariums: Sea Fairy Tale
XL: Slavutych (Kyiv oblast exclave; purpose built city)Open-Air Museums: Mamayeva Sloboda Cossack village Museum (Kozats’kyy Khutir)
On another hot day in mid-June, I left Kiev for the west of the country, seeing these two sights in south Kiev on my way.
Vydubychi Monastery (St Michael’s Vdydubytsky Men’s Monastery). Behind a high white wall, this monastery has the best gardens of any monastery in Ukraine – vegetables, roses in full bloom and many trees The impressive white church has many large, bright frescoes inside plus the highlight: eight large mosaics at the front lower walls. The iconostasis of intricately carved marble (acanthus leaves, grapes, goblets, rosettes) may be the most impressive in the country.
M. Hryshko National Botanical Garden. The entrance is 40m from the front gate of the monastery. It appears to be a completely wild gardens many large trees.
It was then an hour drive south on good roads to Bila Tserkva.
Bila Tserkva (pop 207,000)
Bila Tserkva is located on the Ros River approximately 80 km (50 mi) south of Kiev.
Then another 1½ hour drive south still on good roads to Uman.
UMAN (pop 86,000)
On the Umanka River, it is known among Ukrainians, for the Haidamak rebellions in Taras Shevchenko’s longest of poems, Haidamaky (“The Haidamaks”, 1843). The city is also a pilgrimage site for Breslov Hasidic Jews and a major center of gardening research containing the dendrological park Sofiyivka and the University of Gardening.
Uman (Humań) was a privately owned city of Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Uman Art Museum. There was an exhibition of cartoonish paintings of children, icons, and one wall of portraits and some landscapes, porcelain, a few sculptures and some furniture. Nothing very great. 15 UAH
Uman Lore Museum (Umansky Museum). Bones, fossils, rocks, stuffed birds and animals, archaeology, ethnography, a nice diorama from a 1674 battle. On the second floor it continues through religion, the World Wars and finishes with one room on Afghanistan. Nothing much caught my eye, 15 UAH
Arboretum Sofiyivka (Sight). Founded in 1796 by rich Polish magnate Stanilsw Schensnyi Potockyi in honor of his beautiful wife Sofia (Greek), he presented it to her on her birthday in 1802. The state took it over in 1832, then the horticultural school and in 1955, the Academy of Ukraine. In 1984, a small planet #2259 got the name Sofiyivka. It is beautiful in all seasons.
At the entrance is a fountain, gorgeous rose garden and a rockery. The rest is well-trimmed grass and mature trees. 50 UAH, reduction only for Ukrainian citizens.
Google Maps routing can be downright bizarre at times. After Uman I had 167kms to Vinnytsia. On a good 2-lane highway (except for a completely bombed out section of new construction and a lot of truck traffic), she turned me onto a terrible road that deviated north and rejoined the good highway about 50kms along. This would have added an hour of agony to the trip. I’ve learned to always check her long range routing to see what is happening.
GO TO CENTER – WEST
On June 23, 2019 I returned to Central Ukraine to go to Chernobyl, then returned to Kiev, saw a few of the places I missed on my first trip and picked up my Belarus visa.
PRIPYAT/CHERNOBYL
The only way to visit Chernobyl is by a tour usually booked at least 2 days ahead www.chornobyl-tour.ua. Phone Ukraine: +38 044221 1986; US +1 888 752 0336; UK: +44 203 6081926.
One day and multi-day tours: from €79. The tour involves seeing Prypiat Town, Chornobyl NPP, Red Forest, Chornobyl-2 Secret USSR military object, abandoned villages and the town of Chornobyl. The area has been abandoned by humans and is surrounded by proliferating nature.
Tours inside the Nuclear Power Plant and other limited access facilities: from €105
Airplane and helicopter tours over the Chornobyl Zone: from €220
Underground tours in the drainage systems, subway, tunnels and caves: From €50
I arrived at Zone Checkpoint “Dytiatki”, 23kms from Chernobyl town at 10:30 not having a clue that a tour was necessary duh. There were many vans and buses there waiting to go and all had left by 10:45.
Pripyat/Chernobyl are in the NM “XL” and “Sights” & “The Dark Side” series.
The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 nuclear reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR.
The accident occurred during a safety test on a common Soviet reactor type – the RBMK nuclear power reactor. The test, a simulation of an electrical power outage, was to aid the development of a safety procedure for keeping reactor cooling water circulating until the emergency generators could provide power. This gap was about one minute and had been identified as a potential safety problem that could cause core overheating. Three such tests had been conducted since 1982 but had failed to provide a solution. Unfortunately, on this fourth occasion, the test had been delayed by ten hours and the reactor operating shift that had specifically prepared for the test procedure was replaced by the next shift. The test supervisor then failed to follow the test procedure, creating unstable operating conditions which, combined with inherent RBMK reactor design flaws and the intentional disabling of several emergency safety systems, resulted in an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction. A huge amount of energy was suddenly released, which vapourised superheated cooling water, rupturing the reactor pressure vessel in a highly destructive steam explosion, which was instantly followed by an open-air reactor core fire.
This fire produced considerable updrafts for about nine days before being finally contained on 4 May 1986. The lofted plumes of fission products released into the atmosphere by the fire precipitated onto parts of the USSR and western Europe. The estimated radioactive inventory that was released during this very hot fire phase approximately equaled in magnitude the airborne fission products released in the initial destructive explosion.
The total number of casualties remains disputed. Estimates of reduced life expectancy as a result of radiation released are highly uncertain and vary from 4,000 people in a United Nations study up to 200,000 reported by a Greenpeace study. During the accident, steam-blast effects caused two deaths within the facility: one immediately after the explosion, and the other compounded by a lethal dose of ionizing radiation. Over the coming days and weeks, 134 servicemen were hospitalized with acute radiation syndrome (ARS), of whom 28 firemen and employees died within months. Additionally, approximately 14 radiation-induced cancer deaths among this group of 134 hospitalized survivors were to follow within the next 10 years. Among the wider population, an excess of 15 childhood thyroid cancer deaths were documented as of 2011. Additional time and research is required to definitively determine the elevated relative risk of cancer among the surviving employees, those that were initially hospitalized with ARS, and the population at large.
The Chernobyl accident is considered the most disastrous nuclear power plant accident in history, both in terms of cost and casualties. It is one of only two nuclear energy accidents classified as a “level 7 major accident”, the maximum classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale; the other was the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan. The struggle to safeguard against scenarios that were perceived as having the potential for greater catastrophe, together with later decontamination efforts of the surroundings, ultimately involved over 500,000 liquidators and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles (roughly $30 billion USD in 1986, or $68 billion USD in 2019 adjusted for inflation).
The remains of the No. 4 reactor building were soon enclosed in the sarcophagus, a large shelter designed to reduce the spread of radioactive contamination from the wreckage and to protect the site from further weathering. This was rapidly built and was finished by December 1986, when the reactor was entering the cold shutdown phase. The shelter also provided radiological protection for the crews of the other undamaged reactors at the power station, with No. 3 continuing to produce electricity until 2000. Due to the continued deterioration of the sarcophagus both it and the No. 4 reactor were further enclosed in 2017 by the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement, a larger, state of the art enclosure, designed and built by an international team. This structure has the ability to facilitate the removal of both the sarcophagus and the reactor debris, while containing the radioactive contamination.
The accident prompted safety upgrades on all remaining Soviet-designed RBMK reactors, of which 10 continue to power electric grids as of 2019.
Exclusion zone. An area originally extending 30 kilometres (19 mi) in all directions from the plant is officially called the “zone of alienation”. It is largely uninhabited, except for about 300 residents who have refused to leave. The area has largely reverted to forest, and has been overrun by wildlife because of a lack of competition with humans for space and resources. Even today, radiation levels are so high that the workers responsible for rebuilding the sarcophagus are only allowed to work five hours a day for one month before taking 15 days of rest. As of 2016, 187 locals had returned and were living permanently in the zone.
In 2011 Ukraine opened up the sealed zone around the Chernobyl reactor to tourists who wish to learn more about the tragedy that occurred in 1986.
Savka’s Khutir Ethnographic Museum and Estate, Novi Petrivtsi. About 20kms north of Kiev, down a narrow lane in a very rural neighborhood is this quaint museum. There are tow log-timbered homes with thatch roofs. Outside are wonderful gardens full of flowers (hollyhocks were common in my childhood) and vegetables. The houses are furnished traditionally and very simply. The white-washed walls are painted in floral motifs.
In the yard past the houses are four ancient wheeled carts with stone weights. One has stone wheels. I have no idea what they were used for. 20 UAH
I pulled over as a funeral went by: 4 in the front with a cross and banners, then a vehicle pulling a black cart with the coffin, then a large procession walking behind. I presume the family was first. Nobody wore special clothes.
Mezhyhirya Residence (Yanukovich Villa). This was a very busy place on a Sunday with cars parked along the road for a kilometer. A iron/stone column/high hedge fence surrounds the huge grounds. I didn’t go down to the lake but the place has a golf course, riding club, aviary with ostriches, cattle and ore deer corrals, dog training center, children’s summer camp, tennis court, monastery, dovecote, galleon, guest hose retro cars museum. The mature trees, flowers, manicured lawns, artificial waterfall, ponds, fountains, English hedges, gazebos with giant furniture set off the huge manor house called the Honka. With the bottom floor stone and spiraled columns, the three-storied cut log house is enormous. I’m not sure what the modern architecture other house was for (first residence of Penky)? It was not possible to enter either house. I peeked through the window – very nice and modern. 120 UAH
KIEV Again
Mamayeva Sloboda Cossack village Museum (Kozats’kyy Khutir). This open-air museum has beautiful houses completely furnished (the one that was open was the gift shop) and full of decorative embroidery. There are no signs, nothing telling you about the buildings, no clue where to go, everything is locked, certainly nothing in English and I learned nothing about Cossacks. There was one guide outside a locked house but she was with a group. And they wouldn’t give me my money back. 120 UAH Avoid this place, it is poorly run and organized. Besides the group there was on one here.
Ukraine State Aviation Museum (Oleg Antonov State Aviation Museum). This open-air aviation museum has about 60 planes, many domestic, and 13 helicopters. Most are Soviet made or designed, and not a word in English. Very boring. 100 UAH
I obtained my Belarus Visa at 9am and headed for Belarus. On the way, I saw a few last places in Kiev. All were across the river.
Lesnaya Market. This was hard to know if this was the flea market or the large closed in market? Google could not tell the difference and Google Maps could not find any market here. The closed in market is two-story and has vegys, fruit, meat, cheese and the usual.
Sea Fairy Tale. I should know better than going to these aquariums and this one was particularly uninteresting – plus not a word in English. In 3 rooms of small tanks, the highlight, if you can call it that is a tunnel of glass. 180 UAH
Slavutych is situated on the left bank of the Dnieper River, 40 kilometers from Chernihiv, 45 kilometers from the city of Pripyat, 50 kilometers from Chernobyl and 200 kilometers from Kiev. While being geographically located in Chernihiv Oblast, administratively it belongs to Kiev Oblast. It is an administrative exclave, not belonging to any raion.
The city was built in 1986 shortly after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, to provide homes for those who had worked at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and their families. They were evacuated from the abandoned city of Pripyat. Slavutych is named after the Old Slavic name of the nearby Dnipro River. The economic and social situation of the city is still heavily influenced by the power plant and other Chernobyl zone installations. Many of the residents still work in the energy industry in the region.
The first inhabitants settled in October 1988. The city was intended to replace Pripyat which became a ghost town after it was evacuated thirty-six hours after the nuclear disaster due to the nuclear fallout. There is a memorial in Slavutych to remember the victims of the disaster, especially to those who lost their lives immediately after the event from radiation-related diseases.
The city is mostly home to survivors of the disaster who had to be relocated from the evacuation zone around the reactor, among them about 8,000 people who were children when the disaster occurred. As a result, the number of people who have a radiation-related illness is high. Many inhabitants still work at the site of the former plant for monitoring, maintenance or scientific purposes. They commute to the zone on a regular basis. A rail line (twice crossing the international border with Belarus) runs directly from the city to the site of the plant.
Slavutych is located about 50 kilometers east of the former plant. The site had to be a reasonable distance away from the Chernobyl zone to ensure the risk of radiation-related illnesses was reduced. However, other factors that contributed to the choosing of the site were the availability of a nearby ready railroad infrastructure, and an accessible water supply from the nearby Dnieper River. In order to build the city, the ground was covered with a two-meter layer of uncontaminated soil.
From the start, Slavutych was planned to become a “21st-century city”. Compared to other cities in Ukraine, Slavutych has a modern architecture with pleasant surroundings, and the standard of living in the city is much higher than in most other Ukrainian cities. During the construction of the city, workers and architects from eight former soviet republics became involved: Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Estonian SSR, Georgian SSR, Latvian SSR, Lithuanian SSR, Russian SFSR and Ukrainian SSR. As a result, the city is divided into eight districts named after the capitals of the contributing republics,[2] each with its own unique style and atmosphere. In addition, the city has a youth center, a modern community center, a town hall, an Internet cafe, numerous sports facilities, modern clinics, and a hotel. Around 80% of housing in the city is formed by apartments while the other 20% is formed by small, family houses. The city has a uniquely high birth rate as well as surprisingly low mortality. As a result, the average age in Slavutych is by far the lowest of any city in Ukraine. More than one third of its inhabitants are under 18.
The infrastructure and public facilities of the city are mostly paid by the company which operated the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Because the remaining units of the nuclear power plant were shut down in 2001, the city would face significant social problems and an uncertain future. Until 2001, approximately 9,000 people worked at the plant. Since the shutdown, this number has dropped to 3,000, most of them working on monitoring and maintenance. 85% of the city budget was funded by the operator of the plant. In order to support the settlement and establishment of new companies, Slavutych was declared a Special Economic Zone. In addition, substantial vocational retraining programs are provided by the government to improve the occupational outlook of those who lost jobs. Despite these efforts, about 1,500 people have already left the city, a trend which is predicted to continue for the foreseeable future.
And then I got another speeding ticket. The 4-lane main highway north goes through many villages with 50km/h speed limits. This time I was only going 77.
NOMAD MANIA Ukraine – Central (Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kropyvnytskyi)
Tentative WHS
Astronomical Observatories of Ukraine (30/01/2008)
Dendrological – Central (Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kropyvnytskyi)
Park “Sofijivka” (20/06/2000)
Tarass Shevtchenko Tomb and State Historical and Natural Museum – Reserve (13/09/1989)
Sights:
Mezhyhirya Residence (Yanukovich Villa)
XPereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi History and Ethnography
Borders: Belarus-Ukraine
Railway, Metro, Funiculars, Cable Cars: Hyundai High Speed Trains Route
Museums:
Novi Petrivtsi: Savka’s Khutir Ethnographic Museum and Estate
Pobuzke: Strategic Missile Forces museum
World of Nature: Kanivs’kyi Reserve
PRIPYAT/CHERNOBYL
XL: Pripyat/Chernobyl Sights &The Dark Side: Chernobyl
PIROHIV
Museums: Museum of Folk Architecture
Open-Air Museums: Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine
European Cities
BILA TSERKVA
CHERKASY
KROPYVNYTSKYI
OLEKSANDRIYA
UMAN
Museums:
Uman Art Museum
Uman Lore Museum
Botanical Gardens: Arboretum Sofiyivka (Sight)
KIEV
World Heritage Sites: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Tentative WHS: Saint Sophia Cathedral with Related Monastic Buildings, St. Cyril’s and St. Andrew’s Churches, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (extension of Kyiv: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra) (26/01/2009)
Sights: Kyiv War Memorial (Monument to Unknown Soldier)
Airports:
Kyiv – Borispol (KBP)
Kyiv – Zhuliany (IEV)
Railway, Metro, Funiculars, Cable Cars
Arsenalna Station (deepest in the world)
Kyiv Funicular
Kyiv Metro
Kyiv Railway Station
Kyiv Trams
Zoloti Vorota Station
XL: Slavutych (Kyiv oblast exclave; purpose built city)
Islands: Trukhaniv (Kyiv)
Museums:
Ivan Honchar Museum
Kyiv Water Museum
Museum of Ukrainian Decorative Folk Art
Museum of Western and Oriental Art
National Art Museum of Ukraine
National Museum of Medicine
National Museum of the History of Ukraine
One Street Museum
State Museum of Toys
House Museums/Plantations:
Mikhail Bulgakov Museum
Taras Shevchenko House Museum
Castles, Palaces, Forts
Kyiv Fortress
Mariyinsky Palace
Religious Temples
Kyiv Pechersk Lavra
Ar-Rahma Mosque
St Volodymyr’s Cathedral
Vydubychi Monastery Saint Andrew’s Church
Saint Sophia Cathedral
St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, Kyiv
Modern Architecture Buildings:
Gulliver
Kyiv TV Tower
Parus Business Centre
Festivals
Kyiv Summer Music Festival
Gogolfest
Next Sound
Experiences: Taste Kyiv cake
Entertainment/Things to do:
Atlas (Concert Hall)
Koleso Theatre (Kyiv Academic Theatre of “The Wheel”)
Zoos: Kyiv Zoo
Botanical Gardens:
A.V. Fomin Botanical Garden
M. M. Hryshko National Botanical Garden
Aquariums: Sea Fairy Tale
Planetariums: Kyiv Planetarium
Theme Parks: Kopachiv: Ancient Kyiv in “The Kyivan Rus Park”
Malls/Department Stores:
Dream City (Dream Town)
Ocean Plaza
Markets:
Besarabsky Market
Lesnaya Market
Monuments:
Bohdan Khmelnitsky monument
Monument to Princess Olga
People’s Friendship Arch (Friendship of Nations Arch)
The Motherland Monument
Pedestrian Bridges:
Heavenly Hundred Bridge
Parkovy Pedestrian Bridge
Open-Air Museums: Mamayeva Sloboda Cossack village Museum (Kozats’kyy Khutir)
Aviation Museums: Ukraine State Aviation Museum (Oleg Antonov State Aviation Museum)
Railway Museums: Kyiv Railway Museum
The Dark Side:
Maidan memorial (Maidan Nezalezhnosti – Sight)
Museum of the History of Ukraine in World War II (Ukrainian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War)
National Museum “Holodomor victims Memorial” (Holodomor Genocide Museum)
Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum
Bizzarium:
Peeing Colours
Toilet History Museum
