"By Bread Alone" or a Problem with the Ukrainian Flag

There used to be a monument to Lenin on top of this rectangular part. Now, it's pained with the Ukrainian national symbols and with three poems, one on each side, written by the Ukrainian poets.

The raise of patriotism in Ukraine can be seen everywhere on the streets today. The colors of its national flag, blue and yellow, are all over the place. I have never seen so much of blue-and-yellow hue in my homeland in my life. This display of patriotism makes me happy and has infected our home too. Following the national fashion, we had the Ukrainian flag hanging from our Christmas tree, and now it’s hanging on my wall.

However, a visual display of patriotism does not equal to improvements in lives. I have been analyzing problems of my country for quite a long time, and I’d like to share my thoughts now with the help of the Ukrainian flag. I have recently arrived to a conclusion that the meaning behind the colors of the most seen Ukrainian national symbol may have served Ukrainians badly and I’ll explain why I think so in this post. Let’s unwrap the shiny cover and see why the candy inside does not match its outside look.

The Language Dilemma - Ukrainian, Russian, and Other Languages

After listening to an amazing TED talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about the danger of a single story, I started thinking about my story and of course, as it has been happening for the past year, I'm reflecting back on what events at home mean to me as a person and as a Ukrainian through the language debate.

Writing this piece in English is most comfortable to me after using it for the past four years to express my thoughts as an undergraduate student at DePauw.

When I am thinking of writing my reflections in Russian, I just get too emotional. Not because I hate Russian. It’s the opposite - I have been using this language since my childhood for most of my daily communication because people in my hometown mostly speak Russian. It’s the language I am most comfortable speaking. When I speak my feelings through Russian, I feel them the most. Expressing myself in English helps me to distance myself from emotions and use logic over feelings. I feel like I need that distance to make sense of what have happened in the past and explain part of what is going on in Ukraine through a lense of a Ukrainian person, not a Western media outlet journalist.