Topic: Ukrainians vs Russians Posted By: Michael Malloy Date: 06 Jun 1998 4:43 PM
In just two days since I discovered the web page for this PBS program
I've seen mainly angry messages from Ukrainians who appear to feel
slighted. I also read a message from a member of the Russian Orthodox
Church Outside Russia who was upset about additional innacuracies
included in the program. While most people in the U.S. may have seen
the show already, I'm still waiting for it to be shown where I live
(Columbus, Ohio). I'll be viewing with a critical eye and ear too. My
earlier posts praised PBS because so little is known in the U.S. about
Russia and it's neighbors. I'm dissapointed to hear this program
continues in the tradition of mis-information.
Responses:
Subject: Consequence of partisanship From: Natalie Gawdiak Date: 06 Jun 1998 9:22 PM
I believe it was in the Wall Street Journal that Dr. Billington a few
years ago wrote one of his many pro-Russian articles called "Feed
Russia's Pride, Not Her Stomach," or some such. He ended that article
with a reference to a Russian fairy tale about a man who was refused at
someone's door, going into the woods and returning as an angry bear. In
other words, he seemed to be saying to the United States, either we
give into Russia's pride (read hegemony), or Russia will turn nasty.
This Face of Russia is an attempt on his part (in my opinion) to
describe the Russia he wishes Russia to be and certainly not the way
Russia really is. In his zeal, he casts about and has roped in positive
aspects of Ukrainian culture (Gogol--Ukrainians say Hohol--was born in
Ukraine, spent his formative years there, and when he left Ukraine for
Moscow, he did not like Moscow. Ukrainians might respond, is it any
wonder? But Dr. B. features so much of Gogol in the second part of his
series, it could have been called "Russia's debt to Ukrainian
culture...).Now the Ukrainian-American community and the Ukrainians
themselves are very upset, and he has created an unnecessary,
acrimonious situation. Had he only been honest, none of this reaction
would have occurred...
Subject: Ukrainians vs Russians From:Daryl Bullis Date: 06 Jun 1998 6:22 PM
While I find it reprehensible the way the West views the Ukraine
through Russian spectacles, I cannot fault Dr. Billington for
attempting to characterize Russia in terms of her intellectual,
literary, artistic, religious, and cultural inheritance. After all the
program IS about Russia's cultural identity, not the Ukraine's. By
following the argument of the Ukrainians on this point, their cultural
inheritance would have to be treated seperately, perhaps in a different
show (The Face of the Ukraine?). We cannot deny the importance of the
influence of "Ukrainian" art forms on the development of a more
identifiable "Moscovite" or "Russian" tradition. But if Mr. Billington
spent the entire length of his program outling how Russia (and Dr.
Billington) deprived the Ukraine of her cultural legacy, he would have
had no time to discuss the positive elements in indiginous Russian
cultural development. The very fact that one of these forum topics
would be entitled "Ukrainians vs Russians" only encourages each to take
a side, pitting one group against the other, corroding any further
possiblity of a constructive dialogue. As for Gogol', he did, after
all, write his most famous works in Russian. He will be remembered for
that, and not the fact he was Ukrainian by birth. Do Poles lament the
loss of Joseph Conrad to the grand tradition of the British/American
literary tradition? I think not. On the other hand, Russians who
emigrated who yet still maintained their cultural identity as Russian
(v. Konstantin Bal'mont) will be remembered for their association with
the culture they wrote about: Russia. Gogol' wrote of his own free will
in Russian and on (primarily)Russian themes. And as far as petty
argument is concerned, I suggest we all take a closer look at the
introspection of "Revizor:" it's not the characters that are funny and
pathetic. It is us, dear readers.
Subject: The Ukraine From: Terrance Date: 10 Oct 2001 11:39 PM
I don't blame Ukrainians for being offended in response to the PBS
television program inaccuracies. In many ways, our ignorance robs the
identity of this culturally unique nation. In this forum, many
references to this nation, it's culture, and people, as "The Ukraine"
seems as but another smoldering example of such Western ignorance. This
irritates me, and I'm from the America!
Subject: Russia and everything else From:Ildar Mukhtarov Date: 07 Jul 1998 3:23 PM
I think that PBS is doing a very good job at showing the people about
true problems in former USSR. I pray and I hope that PBS will show more
and more true "stuff" about people and their strugle with hunger and
the mafia.
