Irony has a way of popping up at times when we least expect it, doesn’t it? For a couple of years now, when the topic of my sons’ birth has come up, people have usually given a semi-knowing nod when I’ve mentioned Ukraine as their birthplace. They’ve heard of Ukraine, but almost no one I know has ever actually been there. That’s not unusual – Kyiv is more than 6,300 miles from our house and it’s not a popular tourist destination for Americans.
Yet here we are as Americans, suddenly focusing on Ukraine as the political world is embroiled in turmoil the likes of which we haven’t seen in a generation. The point of all of this isn’t to make any comments on what should be happening in Washington, D.C. as a result of this Ukraine scandal, as that’s for other blogs and other commentators.
That’s also one of the subtle themes to what our family went through in getting our sons both to the planet and then from that part of the planet once they arrived to this one: We didn’t concern ourselves with the geopolitical aspects of all of this. We were too busy having children, yet it still forced itself upon us at different times.
These days, we’re too busy raising children to worry about much else, but given my relatively unique perspective on Ukraine and the rising interest in that part of the world, perhaps a brief overview of what I learned there could be helpful, as once again, the geopolitical world is forcing itself on all of us in varying degrees.
To start, a few primers, most of which have been mentioned in other updates:
1. It’s simply “Ukraine” and not “the Ukraine” – people there don’t like “the” in front of their country, as that word was added by Russians when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. It’s seen by Ukrainians as an insult, reducing the country to a region instead of a sovereign state.
2. For the same reason, it’s “Kyiv” and not “Kiev” – Kiev is the Soviet/Russian translation, which obviously matters to folks there. In fact, it’s important enough that the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States appealed to the United States Board on Geographic Names to officially change the spelling in the United States. The board agreed.
3. As many saw during the impeachment hearings this week, Ukrainians pronounce Kyiv as “Keev.”Yes, once again, “kee-YEV” is a Russian pronunciation.They didn’t get upset that I pronounced it in the Russian way, as they probably assumed that was just my American accent.I still pronounce it improperly, otherwise people wouldn’t know what I was talking about.Perhaps after these hearings, that’ll start to change.
I learned these things while I was in Kyiv. Quite a few people are learning them now. There were a few other things I learned while there that bear some relevance to all that’s happening amid this escalating controversy and booming interest by Americans in Ukraine.
1. Ukrainians hate the Russian government. They don’t hate the people, as a lot of Russians live in Ukraine, but that’s not the same thing. I didn’t talk to many people there, given my inability to communicate in general, but those who did talk to me and particularly those who corrected me on the above never once hesitated to tell me how much they hated Russia’s government. That hatred – and yes, it’s truly hatred – goes back generations to the Iron Curtain days.
2. There is a war going on right now.As I discussed in the ballistic missile story, we didn’t actually see any combat in Kyiv, as the fighting was more than 100 miles away, but it was happening.You could feel the tension in the air.
It’s not normal for me to see soldiers marching past my window in large groups during a war.
3. Ukrainians are wary of the United States as a NATO ally. The first time I was over there, President Obama was in the White House and it wasn’t too long after the annexation of Crimea. The response, or lack thereof in the eyes of folks who talked about it, didn’t sit well. The second time there, we had a new president, and he was not well-liked either given all the coverage in the media regarding ties to Russia. They see us as an ally, but don’t really trust us. That’s partly due to their own history that has nothing to do with the United States, but it’s still there.
My beer guy told me this bottle was done in English as a form of protest. That’s Putin in the MAGA hat. Yeah, they weren’t happy with any of these folks.
I don’t claim to have any idea what happened there that’s led to all that’s happening now between these governments. I’m just some knucklehead who had twins in Ukraine. I do know that from living there briefly, I can tell you that Ukraine is a young democracy that’s struggling to make a name for itself and find its identity. At this point, it seems that this struggle is between what it used to be historically and what it wants to be now, as those two ideas aren’t neatly or uniformly aligned.
Who knows what’s going to happen? I do know that regardless of how all this impeachment process plays out, the struggles surrounding Ukraine are going to continue. Hopefully peace is restored, additional fiascos don’t unfold and this emerging country is allowed to grow and prosper.