Ukraine has more than a thousand years of history, but it is still a nation under construction. With global interest in Ukraine near an all time high, Peter’s book is a timely addition to the sparse library of books about this fascinating country. Bursting with anecdotes and information not found elsewhere Among the Ukrainians educates, entertains, and constantly surprises the reader.
Ukraine – February 22, 2010 – Largely unknown to outsiders, Ukraine is the largest country entirely within Europe and the richest in natural resources. For centuries considered to be part of Russia, and until recently part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has always been deprived of her own voice.
Among the Ukrainians provides that voice. It is a journey to Ukraine’s cities and regions — by rail, road, and river — to meet ordinary people who offer extraordinary insights into their lives. Here, you’ll experience the purgatory of the bathhouse and the pleasures of the prostitute’s bedroom. You’ll encounter life at the coalface and in the decrepit hospitals, tour rat-infested submarine facilities and taste wines from the cellars of the Tsars.
Along the way you’ll unearth the country’s rich history. Among the many men and women you’ll encounter are those who discovered X-rays and antibiotics, put the first man in space, won the most Olympic medals, designed continental Europe’s first computer and the world’s first helicopter, and wrote some of the best prose. You will even meet the man who provided the inspiration for the fictional character, “James Bond.”
Bursting with anecdotes and information not found elsewhere Among the Ukrainians offers a unique insight into a nation under construction. It is your guide to Russia’s neighbour: a barely known land with a big history and a big heart.
Larissa Radion recently interviewed Peter Shirt exclusively for OzeUkes….
OzeUkes: Tell us a bit about yourself and how you came to live in Ukraine?
Peter Shirt: I was born in England to working class parents. I had some academic ability, but as important was the teachers who opened my eyes to the possibilities beyond my youthful aspirations, and I won a place at Oxford University.
In the winter of 1981, the year after leaving university, I visited the Soviet Union. Riding the Trans-Siberian Railway, a journey of almost mythical proportions, I clickity-clacked my way around almost a third of the globe curious to see what lay “behind the curtain.” Without clean running water my fellow passengers and I cleaned our teeth by rinsing with vodka, and sustained body and mind with meagre rations of black bread, boiled potatoes, and more vodka. In the years following, I would revisit a number of times.
I got a job working for one of the world’s largest energy companies in the hope that it would provide ample travel opportunities and I was not disappointed. Looking back on twenty five years I have visited more than 130 countries and, at one stage, I had four passports; one in my pocket and three being shuffled through various embassies waiting for visas.
My first marriage to a Brazilian woman ended in divorce — constant change is not everyone’s cup of tea — and second time around, with my Ukrainian partner I resolved to make a home in her country. We took the decision to leave the corporate world. We had enjoyed such life to the full, and in 2005 we bought a run-down house in Ukraine that was sorrowed by decades of negligence, and my family and I set about breathing new life into it. Now, together with our two sons, we have a close, stable life and are rarely apart.
OU: What inspired you to write this book?
PS: Perhaps I can answer this question by giving an excerpt from the book.
The driver’s window of the black Mercedes glided down silently as we approached the guard post. The interpreter, seated in the front passenger seat, broke the nervous silence of the passengers. “The Borovitsky Gate is the oldest entrance to the Moscow Kremlin which was built on the instructions of Grand Prince Yury Dolgoruky,” he said.
“You know that means that the citadel of the all-Russian people was built by a man from Ukraine,” I responded. After living for several years in Moscow, my view was strengthening that Ukrainian people deserve to be more widely known for their contribution to history.
Yury Dolgoruky was the founder of Moscow and, in 1954, an imposing monument of him, mounted on a horse, was erected on Moscow’s Tverskaya Street, the city’s principal avenue that leads down to the Kremlin. He died during the first year of construction of the Kremlin, and his body was laid to rest in the Saviour Church in Berestovo in Kyiv.
“Perhaps Ukrainians should be more highly regarded in Moscow,” I suggested.
“I wouldn’t say that too loudly in this neighbourhood,” retorted the interpreter. “President Putin recently questioned Ukraine’s very existence as a sovereign state.”
“But don’t you agree it’s true? Yury Dolgoruky was the great, great grandson of Vladimir I of Kyiv, the Grand Prince, who brought Christianity to this entire region in 987. I’d say that deserves some recognition.”
The driver exchanged words with the security guard, and we proceeded through the Borovitsky Gate into the Kremlin. Now the interpreter, who had been pondering my comments, said, insistently, “Kyivan Rus was the start of Russian history, not Ukrainian history.”
“Stop this nonsense,” barked the businessman seated to my right in the back of the car. He had been unusually quiet, perhaps pondering the tactics for the meeting with the Russian President.
President Putin was not moved to accept our business proposition on that day, and the following year and after twenty-five years of corporate service and a few years of living in Moscow, I quit my job.
So, you see, the idea that the Ukrainian people deserved to be more widely known for their contribution to history developed slowly, but insistently. Everything I read, or everyone I spoke to gave me a snippet of a story or a nuance of the Ukrainian way of life that I felt had rarely been told before.
When I told people what I was doing, a common reply was, “Oh, that’s where so-and-so comes from.” The names included the President who was poisoned, the Prime Minister with the plaited hairstyle, the feisty brunette who won the Eurovision Song Contest, and the footballer bought by Chelsea. Chornobyl was mentioned often, but, for the most part, people thought Ukraine lay somewhere beyond Germany, and had been part of the Soviet Union. Was it part of Russia? They weren’t sure.
There was no awareness that Ukrainians had invented the antibiotic, the first parallel-processing computer, built the space ship that put the first man in space, discovered X-rays, won the Olympics on behalf of the Soviet Union, made the world’s first mobile phone call, or provided the inspiration for the character of James Bond — just to name a handful of many, many successes.
And that was how my book came about. It is the story of my travels through contemporary Ukraine where I met ordinary people, shared with them the joys and endless challenges of daily life, and uncovered many of the remarkable, under-recognised people of Ukraine who contributed to her history.
OU: You have obviously travelled widely across Ukraine what has been your favourite experience to date?
PS: I want to travel much more in Ukraine; it’s a large country of such diversity. Two regions I really enjoy visiting are Crimea and Lviv. Contrast those with Donetsk and Carpathia, for example, and you start to appreciate the geographical (and cultural) diversity of the land. The black earth of the Steppe is only a part of it. The distinct seasons also appeal to me. (This statement is better understood when you know that I was born and raised in the rain-soaked city of Manchester in northern England.)
There is no favourite experience that immediately comes to mind; indeed it’s an accumulation of many small experiences that encourages me to stay here. After all, let’s be honest, more people are leaving the country than are coming to live here. I enjoy the serendipitous event of coming across an abandoned orchard of fruit trees and of picking wild strawberries or wild plums. City architecture and the sad, dilapidated condition of many building remind me that there is a different culture to get to know. Small ironies abound and constantly surprise me. For example, nearly seventy years ago a Ukrainian discovered streptomycin, which has proved to be an effective treatment of tuberculosis, but today, ironically, tuberculosis is one of the main killers in Ukraine. Then, of course, there is the hospitality of people. An 87-year old village woman I know has probably never seen a hundred hryvnia bank note, and yet I never leave her company without a gift of fresh eggs or vegetables.
OU: Your book describes many significant Ukrainian historical figures…who were you most surprised to find out had a Ukrainian connection?
PS: To be honest, I was surprised at most of my findings. To recognize that people in every walk of life who have shaped the course of history were born in the territory of Ukraine was a surprise. It changed my view of Ukraine, and I hope it will shape the readers’ views also.
Before I started writing the book, I knew a little bit about Ukrainian prowess in the fields of computing, literature and space technology, and so if you push me to choose a specific area of surprise it is the discipline of medicine. We recognise the names of Frenchman Louis Pasteur and Englishman Joseph Lister, and we know they changed our lives. But perhaps we should also recognise the Ukrainian men who gave us the X-ray, the first epidemiology department, the word “antibiotic,” the means to control cholera, the plaster cast, and the first human kidney transplant. The child birth method, now known as the “Lamaze Method”, and used by women all over the world (and parodied by Rachel, played by actress Jennifer Aniston, in the US-comedy-hit series “Friends”) was first practised by Ukrainian doctors.
As a last example, I’d mention that according to some accounts Sigmund Freud, who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychiatry, had a Ukrainian connection since both his parents were born in eastern Galicia, now Ukraine. The book, of course, has many other examples.
OU: Are you working on any other projects?
PS: Yes, I have three projects on the go, and I don’t know which will be first to the printing press.
During my working life I’ve worked in more than one hundred countries, and I’ve teamed up with the most travelled man in the world — he’s clocked up an astounding 17 million kilometres — to write a book about our experiences. I can’t say much more about this collaboration.
I’m also working on two books with strong connections to Ukraine. The first is taking a look at how foreigners see Ukraine and how they have viewed it throughout history. It’s a subject I touch upon in Among the Ukrainians. It gives me an opportunity to roam across the centuries and to view Ukraine through the eyes of invaders, dictators, businessmen, footballers, would-be husbands and so on. The second explores life at the dacha. In particular the rituals and routines associated with dacha life and, more broadly, village life.
Among the Ukrainians is published by The Laundry Press (+380 57 700 2428). The ISBN is 978-0-9565129-0-1.
The book has a dedicated website – http://amongtheukrainians.co.uk – where you’ll find excerpts of all the chapters, background about the author, and a blog. The book is available via online retailers.
