Demolished Lenin

Read how the Ukrainian Nationalist Congress party smashed the Lenin statue in the center of Kiev because Lenin is symbol of totalitarism:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/01/lenin-statue-vandalised-kiev

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8133076.stm

http://photo.unian.net/eng/themes/13469

Photo is downloaded from unian site.

Summer Scandals

For weeks media implicate that on June 16, 2009, the Member of the Parliament and a member of Yulia Tymoshenko's party - Mr. Lozynsky, together with the regional prosecutor Mr. Hrebenko and Rayon police chief Mr. Kovalsky - killed a 53 year old man.
Read more at: http://tap-the-talent.blogspot.com/2009/06/land-baronmp-viktor-lozynsky-byut.html and http://zik.com.ua/en/news/2009/06/25/186353

Few days ago a news appeared that the President's son was involved in a shooting incident http://zik.com.ua/en/news/2009/06/30/186793. Seems the Prez's son was involved in a shooting incident also in May 2006. This incident is mentioned in the Prez's son profile: http://www.kyivpost.com/profiles/people/dossie/yushchenko_andrey
If intrigued to read more about young Yushchenko see old Russian "Pravda" article: http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/16-12-2008/106837-Andrei_Yushchenko-0

Update

I am still in Kiev. Currently enjoying summer. Last two months the work kept me busy and exhausted.
How bad the work is one can deduce from today’s 1H 09 GDP report which shows the economy contracted by 20.3% YoY. This is the first time since Jan 2009 that the government made any data available. PM Julia banned distribution of data concerning the economy and finance in Feb 2009. The GDP data were published today only because IMF insisted. Actually IMF put an ultimatum – either Julia allows data to be published or USD 7 bn might not be available. Listening to our clients I wonder if actual data about economy contraction might be even worse. I worry what will happen in August and September- another devaluation? sovereign default?

As work lacks the fun element for some time, I continue to travel to re-charge.
Beginning of May I have been two weeks in Croatia. It was fantastic to be with my family although the situation with my dad’s health was not always relaxing. My mum is doing fantastic job taking care of him. On her insistence my dad is now on less medication and lately he appears to be better. My mum also changed a doctor which makes a big difference too. As usual I walked with her the hills around my parent’s house.
End of May I went for a long weekend to A’dam. I enjoyed my house and a swan family which lives in front of it. The proud parents show off their fabulous offspring. The seven signets are just great!


Last week I went to New York with my school friend Eli. Eli’s husband and her three boys have not objected she joins me to have “girlfriends” time. I have been to NY few times but last time it was in 2001. Eli lived in NY about 20 years ago and visited it regularly since than. It was great to have her around. During the day we were either sightseeing or shopping. In the evening we enjoyed Broadway. We saw "Lion King" and "The God of Carnage". We also sang and danced with Juan Louis Guerra. We both filled our empty suitcases and were sad leaving the great city.
Now back in Kiev I continue to dream about NY.

I will add links for more photos later.

Igor's playmates

Igor plays with some pretty hot ladies:

Igor's Playgirls

Bykivnia

Yesterday Catharina took me to Bykivnia - a beautiful pine and birch forest just outside Kiev.
This beautiful forest unfortunately witnessed terrible events in 1937 -1938.
One of the historians calls it “Kiev Killing Field” as it is a mass grave of Stalin victims during the Great Terror years.
Unofficial estimates put the number of bodies in the grave at 200,000 to 300,000.

For decades the official soviet history blamed Nazi’s for a mass grave.
In 1944 the Bykivnia graves were qualified by a Soviet war crimes commission as ones belonging to inmates of the Darnytsia [Nazi] POW camp. This sounded convincing as the camp where 75,000 Red Army officers and man had died was located nearby. However, talk about mass shootings prior to the war continued. In 1971 a new governmental commission studied Bykivnia. It confirmed the findings of the previous one. Ditto the third commission that studied the place in 1987. To make the picture even more convincing, a gravestone was placed with the legend, “Buried here are Soviet soldiers, partisans, and civilians massacred by the fascist aggressor in 1941-43” in May 1988. However villagers protested calling previous investigations “cover ups by blaming Nazi’s” and in December 1988 forced Ukrainian authorities to establish the fourth commission.

The graves turned out to contain the remains of victims of purges before WW II.

So finally official history confirmed what villagers knew but could not say for five decades. Finally elderly witnesses could talk about trucks dripping blood en route to the site in the 1937, before the Nazis occupied the area.

In March 1937 Politburo with its resolutions signaled the launch of a “cleanup” throughout the country where Stalin’s socialism now reigned. Month after month the Cheka/NKVD methodically closed their cases of “enemies of the people” using the method of mass shootings.
In big cities thousands were massacred and the authorities found themselves faced with a serious problem: what to do with the material evidence, bodies? The NKVD leadership decided to bury them in the suburbs and place the sites under special control. With time the security details were withdrawn and no one seemed to remember the victims. When the Wehrmacht occupied a part of the Soviet territory the Nazis tried to demonstrate to the rest of the world the scope of Stalin’s atrocities. The Soviet media immediately blamed the Nazis for the mass executions.

As a memory to victims trees are wrapped with “rushnyki” – ceremonial embroidered towels. On some trees family survivors put small plate.
Surrounded by beautifully trees I had a somberly walk.

Photos of this tragic location are at : http://picasaweb.google.com/gordie26/April25?authkey=Gv1sRgCM2AsISxycCJEQ&feat=directlink

Spring is in

http://picasaweb.google.com/gordie26/SpringIsIn?authkey=Gv1sRgCMarkpfY1KT5rAE&feat=directlink

Musings on freedom while dog walking

Walking Igor gives an opportunity to meet interesting people. I do not know persons names - I know dog's names. But irrespective a lack of formal introductions, conversations with these people give me interesting insights.
This morning I spoke with a lady who walks Cubic - a 9 year old schnauzer. She is in her late 60ties and is a retired biologist-zoologist. Today she told me how happy she is the Soviet Union fall apart. She is very happy her children had an opportunity to have a world open to them. She told me how as a zoologist she spent time with her husband in Kuril's Islands. From one of the islands she could see over to Japan and watch Japanese cars, roads, houses... She described the frustration of sensing there is a different world outside USSR - which she could not and was forbidden to experience. Once USSR fell apart she and her family immediately started to travel. Her daughter lives in Germany. Her son is in Sweden. She is strongly convinced people - even with current economic hardships - overall live better now - because there is a freedom of movement and freedom of speech. How true: ultimately the level of freedom determines our quality of life.