August 16, 2007
Reflections on Ukraine Trip (with Munich stopover). Carolyn and I did a cruise from Kiev to Yalta. Scary look at what might have happened had my ancestors NOT escaped from the bloodlands. Our last night in Kiev, I had a cigar and the talk I should have had with my father when he was alive, thanking him for coming to the United States. Independent of Russia (the two have been intertwined, with Kievan Russ the major player until the Mongol invasion, a fact the Ukrainians have not forgotten). Interesting to learn how Russia expanded South and expelled the Tatars from the Crimea, and to see the Russian Fleet in Sevastopol, uncomfortably in Ukraine. I knew I’d have to go back later to Lvov and the western part of the country. Glad I did it before Russia got imperialistic and attacked. Odessa definitely worth a trip just for the stairs in the Battleship Potemkin.
Just back from Ukraine. No internet, so no stories, but here’s a few:
Re: Service standards–
I asked at the hotel (4 star) for help in finding a Scout shop. They gave me a (Cyrillic) phone book.
Re: My dad
Carolyn suggested a Jewish restaurant (and I discovered that a lot of “Eastern European” food–and music for that matter, is likely to be eaten in Jewish households). We met a couple Jewish) who’d left in 1979. When I pointed out that my dad had left in 1913, they said he chose a better time than they did.
Re: Genocide
It’s hard for Americans (though maybe possible for Southerners) to think about war being for soldiers, but for Europeans (the tribes!) cities and civilians died for centuries. In WWII, many of the Ukraine cities took it on the chin, with 6 million dead, (Stalin probably killed 2 million
of them!) and cities 97% destroyed. The consolation, if there is one, is that over time, almost every one of the tribes got to do unto others as others had done unto them.
Re: The cold war
The Black Sea Fleets (Russian and Ukrainian) are quartered in Sevastopol. We went to a concert of the Russian Black Sea Fleet where they sang Fiddler on the Roof and sold CDs (probably because they are not being paid by Russia).
Re: who won WWII
As we walked through Munich (which was also wiped out in WWII) and looked and compared the East with the West, I couldn’t answer the question.