Photo: Journalist
Within the framework of International Forum of Ukrainian Youth Diaspora Kyiv 2018 a meeting was held with famous Ukrainian publisher and writer Vitali Kapranov. Correspondent of The Journalist talked to writer. About presentation of books on history of Ukraine and history of the church, their features, how important it is to hold meetings of young people from different countries, Ukrainians by origin living abroad and what is independence in the writer’s perception, read in our story.
«Friends, independence is to live according our own mind on our own land. This is the most important and I want to wish that we clearly understand this message, and that everyone builds such country as he wants, first of all, at their own home. If you build the country you want at home, it means that soon it will be everywhere and in the way you want. Independence is our domestic business. Ukraine is built by each of us at home, at our building, at our company, on our street. Therefore, congratulating you on this holiday, I would like to wish us all that we can make Ukraine in a way we want», – said Kapranov.
– Today there is a special event: during forum of International Forum of Ukrainian Youth Diaspora you present a new book. Please, tell us in more details what kind of books you are presenting, and why you took part in the forum.
-Forum organizers were invited to take part. Perhaps, the fact that we both lived for ten years in diaspora in Moscow played a role. We know what it is and what it takes for people who live there. And that is why the books we are publishing are a Ukrainian world that you can always take with you. I’ll start with a book on the history of Ukraine. If we hear «History of Ukraine» we all imagine fifteen volumes of Mykhailo Hrushevsky. This book is not at all the same; it is the entire history of Ukraine from Trypillia culture to the year of 1991. This book is illustrated, with pictures, with comics, with maps. Therefore, at every level of perception, every age here can find there something of its own. Children start with comic books, parents can show them on the map. For example, here a portrait of the main character. Than short text. That is for the age from six years to one hundred and six. This is an audience of people who can very quickly get acquainted with the history of Ukraine. This is very important, especially when child and his parents live in the diaspora. There you live under pressure of local information space. And here is a concrete, let’s say, textbook, a concentrated Ukrainian history in one book. By the way, this book has been a bestseller in Ukraine for five years already. In fact, the problem with historical consciousness is the same for all: we are all graduates of Soviet schools; therefore the history of Ukraine for us is something abstract. The new book is history of our church. Immediately answer the question: ours – what do you mean? This is the one that Volodymyr The Saint has once founded. From it then has begun Catholic, Othodox, and Kyiv Patriarchate, and Moscow, and autocephalous churches. All these are the children of Volodymyr’s baptism. Therefore, here it is told about the whole of our church, beginning with baptism, on the same principle. A book on the history of the church is not something boring. This is a book that tells comics and about the main events, and about the main characters that made the history of our church, and about what was happening. It is called to clear and to dispel this darkness that surrounds the history of the church, on which all speculation is based. Because Volodymyr baptized Kyiv, and for some reason we now have Moscow patriarchate and here there are some Greek Catholics, and here it’s still autocephalous. Here, in this murky water our enemies catch fish. The book makes the water transparent, we all clearly see who, where and how, and how our church today relates to Volodymyr. Book is not boring. History of the church is not only about what «one bishop said to another». History of the church is intrigues, wars, inventions, because it was the church that became the place where they invented, or rather, introduced the seal. It is the history of the church that is the history of literature. The history of the church is also the history of education, because Yaroslav the Wise first ordered priests to teach children. The first person who opened the observatory in Kiev, who brought the telescope here, was also a priest. So the history of the church is a very interesting and a large part of our culture, and not only «who is praying in the church». Thus, these books I would call «Ukraine for Dummies». Such a set should always be kept close to the children, beside oneself, because each of us always forgets something; we need to look it up again. And thanks to which our children, no matter where they grow up, will necessarily grow up true Ukrainians.
-In your opinion, such events as this forum, arrival of young people here from different countries, Ukrainians by origin, but who live abroad, how much is this important at the present moment, in our days?.
-As a person who has lived in the diaspora for ten years, I do not reflect on this topic abstractly. We also visited Ukrainian forums in Kyiv. The charge that you get here, the people you can communicate with here is an invaluable thing. From such forums you go back to where you live, quite a different person, otherwise charged. In addition, horizontal connections are established. We still have a connection with people we met in 1992-93 in Kyiv at such meetings. Ukraine is not a territory limited by a fence. Ukraine is, above all, an information and cultural space. We will establish a life if Ukraine is between us. Where there are three Ukrainians, there is Ukraine.
More details in video of The Journalist.
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