You're reading: End of world: Some fear as others try to cash in

For the last three years, 27-year-old Kyivan Iryna Boyko has been searching the Internet to find out exactly what’s going to happen on Dec. 21, 2012, when the Mayan calendar runs out. Doomsayers say the world will end that day from an unknown catastrophe.

Although Boyko says she hasn’t found credible proof cataclysm, she still believes an apocalypse is likely in the more distant future. Boyko, however, tries to avoid pessimistic thoughts.

“I believe that what we think about is going to happen,” she said. “If many people have some negative thoughts, something bad will definitely occur.”

While Boyko declined to make any special preparations for Dec. 21, many Ukrainians who share her anxiety did. Some have sought shelter, stockpiled on food, bought candles and matches. Others saw an opportunity to make money from Armageddon angst.

Most of the gloomy scenarios relate to three planets that will be clustered together on Dec. 21, also winter solstice day. But astronomer Ivan Kriachko said in fact this will be a minor astronomic phenomenon, formed by Mercury, Venus and Saturn, adding that “parades” like this occur almost every year.

“This configuration of planets poses no danger to us,” Kriachko assured. “Their gravitational influence on us will be insignificant in comparison to that of the Moon or Sun, which we feel all the time.”

Meanwhile, polls by Research & Branding Group show that only 4 percent of Ukrainians are unaware of a possible apocalypse on Dec. 21, one-third of them said they were seriously thinking about Doomsday, and more than 10 percent confessed that they were preparing for it.

Numerous celebrities, including pop-singer Iryna Bilyk and artist Sergiy Poyarkov appeared on TV saying they have already acquired bunkers to meet the scary day safely and comfortably. Less prosperous Ukrainians decided to rent a shelter for a short period, coughing up between $200 and $1,500 for a 24-hour stay.

“Around 50 people have already bought spots,” said one man who refused to be identified. He was selling spots in a former air-raid shelter in Dniprodzherzhynsk, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, advertising his service through the Internet. For $200 he offered heated and lighted accommodation, constantly warning that places in the bunker were limited.

Another man who also didn’t give his name was renting out underground storage space at an old Polish military base, located in the woods near Kyiv, advertising it with the words “even a nuclear war will not harm you here.” “You pay Hr 4,000 (about $490) for two days, and then we will see if you need it longer,” he said.

Other companies started offering spiritual services for the possible apocalypse. The metaphysical magazine Koleso Zhizni (Wheel of Life) organized a special forum-seminal End of the World, promoting a number of so-called personal growth trainings under the principle “To save the world you have to save yourself first.”

The Kyiv Dream Museum announced a special event on Dec. 21, inviting a DJ and a psychoanalyst with plans to discuss “topics of personal death and ruin of the entire world.”

Even a new women’s strip club called Krasnaya Shapochka (Little Red Riding Hood) placed ads around Kyiv calling on goers to “Rock out as for the last time,” making this party the official opening of the venue.

But the organizers of these events assured the Kyiv Post they didn’t believe an apocalypse will take place on Dec. 21. “What end of the world are you talking about? All will be fine!” said one of Krasnaya Shapochka’s staff workers, adding the entrance fee to the party is Hr 200 (around $25.)

Kriachko, the astronomer, called the rumors about Doomsday on Dec. 21 “a big folly.” “Certain people invented this to earn (money selling) salt, candles and bunkers, and others fell for this trick,” he said.

According to polls mostly women, the elderly people and rural dwellers tend to worry about some catastrophe on Dec. 21. The apocalyptic fears are also more common in the central regions of Ukraine, while people in the east and west of the country were less likely to believe in the end of the world.

“In the west people are more religious,” said social psychologist Oleg Pokalchuk. “And in the east, people don’t worry because they got used to living in state of catastrophe, an ecological one for example. They already have the end of the world.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at grytsenko@ kyivpost.com