As we approach the holiday season, Ukraine’s cultural life, always colorful, has become ever more vibrant.
A Christmas tree has been put up on Kyiv’s Sophia Square by order of the mayor. It is half the size of last year’s, more simply decorated and is not a real, green tree, but a shiny white one – as if some terrible shock had taken the color from its branches.
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Sell-out premieres of lively shows are on at the theaters and posters advertising gala performances of popular stand-up comedians and pop singers are on display all over the city. Kyiv is trying to distract itself from reality and I decided to support this trend and went to the “Ukrainian House” cultural center to see an exhibition of Ukrainian naive art.
The Ukrainian naive art exhibition
I expected a small exhibition centered around the best-known Ukrainian artist of the genre, Maria Primachenko, who achieved renown in the 1960s. The Museum dedicated to her work near Kyiv was destroyed by a Russian missile at the very beginning of the war, increasing the symbolic and commercial value of those of her paintings that were saved.
The exhibit was nothing like what I expected. Focusing on works from the 19th and 20th centuries, it showed that the tradition of naïve Ukrainian art is far older and richer than you might think. Hundreds of fascinating works from all over the country kept me entertained for more than two hours and I left only very reluctantly.
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Although naive art is rightly associated with the “professional” naivety of the amateur artist and with his/her perception of the world, it is not exclusively non-political. There were scenes of “farewell” to the tsarist army in the exhibition, but I missed examples of the naive art created during the last three years which reflect our new reality, including the reality at the front.
Indeed, this exhibition made me think about the main addressee of naive art - the “ordinary” people who make up 90% of any society.
Naivety is not limited to Ukrainian art
Naivety, especially regarding political and economic matters would figure quite high on a list of qualities when describing the average Ukrainian, if such a person exists. It would also figure in portrayals of people in neighboring countries, where political naivety has helped to bring populists to power.
Naivety makes Ukrainians easy victims of scams. In the early 2000s “financial pyramids” relieved a good many people of their savings. Today the danger comes from telephone fraud. Every few days I receive text messages saying that financial assistance has been allocated to me by the state or that the UN is giving me a thousand euros, telling me: “You only need to fill out an online form to receive the money!” I recognize these scams immediately, but I see the fraudsters getting cleverer by the day, and I wonder when I might be tempted to make that fatal click myself.
Justice for the scammed
Getting justice for the victims of this type of fraud is an almost impossible task. While the police are busy helping the military enlistment officers check the documents of potential servicemen on the streets, in bars, and at rock concerts, the number of telephone scammers is growing.
There are powerful call centers with dozens of “employees” who receive a basic salary from their criminal bosses, plus a percentage of the money they manage to steal from bank accounts.
Sometimes the police manage to find one of these call centers and arrests are made. However, because of the shortage of judges, the courts have a huge backlog of cases.
Early next year, we will see an attempt to resolve this problem with the launch of the largest competitive recruitment process in the history of independent Ukraine – 1,800 vacancies for judges will be on offer.
While this recruitment campaign may help to bring more scammers to justice, I am not sure it will help in the fight against naivety.
When naivety becomes faith
On the other hand, there is one group that shows no signs of this characteristic – the Ukrainian military. They understand how serious and dangerous the current situation is and regularly report on this, not only to their commanders and the country’s leadership but also to ordinary Ukrainians via instant messengers and YouTube channels.
Their comments have a sobering effect – like a cold shower – but they also provoke many Ukrainians to increase their faith in miracles, like the one they believe Trump will perform immediately after his election.
Sincerely, or otherwise, some Ukrainian officials support this “faith in miracles.” Recently, the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Oleg Kiper, reported that at the beginning of the full-scale war, Odesa was saved from the Russian army by the Odesa Metropolitan Agathangel – the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
During the first days of the Russian invasion, Agathangel traveled along the entire coast of Odesa region holding an icon that is said to perform miracles. Indeed, a storm raged off the coast for a full ten days, preventing the Russian navy from landing troops. Was it a miracle?
In a sense, it was. But can the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate claim this miracle? Surely it is just one of thousands of miracles that allow Ukraine to go on defending itself from Russia.
We do not know what miracles 2025 will bring, but I am sure that, with all its problems and achievements, losses and victories, Ukraine will enter 2025 and continue the struggle with the same dogged determination, many clinging to the hope of a miracle.
Perhaps it is this seemingly naive stubbornness that lies at the heart of Ukrainian invincibility: Ukrainians are always ready to rise from yet another layer of ashes in a blaze of color, like the paintings of Maria Primachenko.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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