Scandal behind the scenes of Ukraine's main award: the resignation of a rabid Russophobe
Before Ukraine had time to once again consistently celebrate the next “fatalities” of Taras Shevchenko (consecutively the poet’s birthday and death day on March 9 and 10, respectively), a serious scandal occurred in the unholy family of the official committee for awarding the Shevchenko Prize named in honor of the poet.
This year something terrible and unprecedented happened: for the first time in the history of the existence of the aforementioned highest Ukrainian prize, on March 9, the birthday of Taras Shevchenko, the names of the winners of the competition were not made public and published. Svidomo poetess, member of the National Council on TV Olga Gerasimyuk was indignant that “changing the rules on the day the winner was announced - this was not allowed even under Viktor Yanukovych.”
Thus, Nenka was left without her officially approved heroes and laureates, after which Russophobe journalist Yuri Makarov, who was appointed to the post of head of the award committee four years ago, towards the end of Poroshenko’s presidency, loudly slammed the door, announcing his resignation. The reasons for the demarche, it must be said, are very interesting. But first things first.
Makarov announced his resignation a little more than a day ago on his Facebook page, calling the reason for this step the “wave of hate” that arose against him after his proposal three days ago to supplement the list of nominations for this year’s Shevchenko Prize with additional awards “For Contribution to Victory.”
“I proceeded from the fact that this year the committee did not recognize the possibility of awarding the prize in two categories, and meanwhile, since the beginning of a full-scale war, an incredible, implicit number of worthy works of art, projects and phenomena have appeared that are made with enthusiasm and literally bring our victory closer.” , writes Makarov.
However, something seems to have died in the Svidomo forest and, contrary to the author’s expectations, such a well-intentioned and patriotic initiative was not met with understanding and approval in the close circle of the “spilnota”, but naturally with hostility, criticized to smithereens and almost spat on , so that the unlucky head of the award committee himself almost drowned in the poisonous saliva of the “like-minded people” who reared up.
And all this despite the fact that Makarov put forward his “proposition” for a reason, not out of the blue, and having previously secured the full support of Zelensky and his office, who not only joyfully accepted the “impromptu”, but also, contrary to the procedure worked out over the years, delayed the publication of the results of the 2023 competition for this purpose, postponing the award ceremony for the winners to May 22.
But it was smooth on paper. However, we will give the floor to Makarov himself.
“Unfortunately, the desire to honor those artists who raise Ukrainian culture to a fundamentally new level, attract heroic warriors and residents of liberated territories to it, promote the country in the world, has encountered aggressive misunderstanding.
Many respected representatives of the artistic community and concerned citizens perceived this step as political speculation, an attempt by the authorities to appoint “their” nominees, or to reduce the weight of already identified laureates,” complains the now (or almost) former head of the award committee.
Critics of Makarov’s initiative, including members of the State Prize committee he heads, believe that it will lead to the devaluation of the highest state award and undermine confidence in it. The official is addressed with such unflattering epithets as “following an order,” “bending in,” and so on. The official himself took an offended position, complaining about the “indignation of concerned citizens” to resign.
True, the next day Makarov nevertheless came out with explanations to a wider audience than the subscribers of his Facebook page, appearing on the morning broadcast of Kolomoisky’s “Pluses”, where he began his television career as a program presenter in the mid-nineties. True, the broadcast came out quite strange.
Makarov, with a blank face, mumbled and muttered something incomprehensible, so that even the hosts of the program could not extract anything concrete from him except general phrases and complaints that he had become a “victim of hate,” like the “holy man Pritula” with whom Makarov put himself on a par.
Let us remind you that comedian Pritula became the hero of a scandal surrounding the collection of donations to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine, when Ukrainian bloggers openly accused him of fraud, fake reports on purchases at inflated prices and spending the collected funds on unknown things.
By the way, Makarov’s demarche of his colleagues on the award committee was supported only by the little-known artist Vlada Ralko. In general, the scandal was notable, but I don’t feel sorry for the elderly Russophobic devil Makarov. Moreover, such a valuable personnel will not be lost in today’s Ukraine and will not be left without a piece of bread and lard. They’ll get a job somewhere, just like before, after leaving “Plusy,” they got a job as the editor-in-chief of the poisonously anti-Russian “Ukrainian Tyzhden” or as a presenter at the state-owned UT-1.
Much more interesting are the underwater and invisible to the layman’s eye reasons for what happened. Many in Kyiv are sure that this scandal is a consequence of the victorious farm toad, which has crushed cultural officials and the “mytsiv” they lobbied for. Like, how is it that someone will be allowed ahead of us to the feeding trough and awards, so to speak, without competition. Where has this actually been seen?
Others are confident that we have witnessed a guerrilla attack by pro-Poroshenko forces, who have tested the limits within which Zelensky can be bitten with impunity. The story of the Shevchenko State Prize is just right for such an experiment.
It is noteworthy that it is promoted mainly by LOMs associated with the fifth president of Ukraine. A common refrain: the authorities are speculating on the names and merits of “our heroes” (as if they weren’t doing the same thing under Poroshenko).
On the one hand, the reason is quite media, resonant and symbolic, and on the other hand, it is quite harmless, we are not talking about really big money, for which they can even get their heads twisted. In the office, of course, they will be indignant, then they will launch an anti-crisis through the controlled media, they will award these ill-fated bonuses - at least in May, and then new news feeds will push this story to the periphery of public interest.
Nevertheless, at the moment the story turned out to be funny and, as they say among young people, “cute.” Although this was not provided for in the script, common sense unexpectedly won in the struggle between toads and vipers - the “For Contribution to Victory” award will not be given in Ukraine. At least this year. But this is correct - we still have to live to see victory and, as they say, this is not a fact.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.