Three years ago, I made my first trip to Ukraine and saw my first issue of the Kyiv Post.
That day in September 1996 started an instant, emotional and lasting bond between me and the little tabloid that thinks it can. I kept the very first copy I read, as I have almost every other issue since then.
My role over the years has shifted from avid expatriate reader to overseas subscriber and now, since July, its editor.
For many people, including myself, the highlights of the early editions included the irreverent opinion pieces by Igor Greenwald, the legendary former editor.
Nobody has written more acerbically, entertainingly or insightfully about life in post-independent Ukraine. An example of his unmistakable style: “Thousands of well-intentioned foreigners mill about Kyiv daily. They put up with crumbling buildings, venal cops and dirty water so that they might help Ukraine get on its feet,” Greenwald wrote. “But like a derelict who’s too drunk to care, the country stubbornly keeps one knee in the gutter. Its would-be saviors keep at it, ignoring fresh vomit on their wingtips.”
Never one to shy from the tough stand, Greenwald went on to call for a cutoff of all foreign aid to Ukraine “because an alcoholic must be allowed to hit rock bottom to summon up the will to go cold turkey.”
Greenwald’s columns became a habit for me; the rest of the paper was indispensable.
On my first trip, I taught journalism in Kyiv, Kharkov and Odessa at the invitation of the U.S. Information Agency’s Victoria Sloan. I was far from my comfortable, familiar surroundings in Minnesota, where I had worked for 16 years at the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
On that first stay in Ukraine, all my teaching lessons were translated. I couldn’t speak a lick of Russian, as opposed to the few licks I speak now after two painful years of college textbooks and a C+ grade average.
I stayed in Ukraine for nearly six months in 1996 and early 1997, didn’t have an Internet connection and couldn’t find enough to read in English. I felt cut off from the world, and the Post was my informational lifeline for sports standings, world news and, of course, events in Ukraine.
Over the years, I have had the good fortune of meeting all but one of the six editors of the Post. It is true that Publisher Jed Sunden changes editors about as often as President Leonid Kuchma changes prime ministers.
Part of the explanation for the high turnover lies with the nature of the job: It is demanding, mostly because of the difficulty of putting out an English-language paper in a Russian/Ukrainian-speaking nation.
And the advertising climate hardly leaves the newsroom flush with cash.
Each editor, though, deserves credit for taking on the challenge and turning the Post into the overachiever it is today.
Greenwald, editor No. 2, was here from early 1997 to mid-1998. His legacy remains. His hires – including Katya Gorchinskaya, Stefan Korshak and Vitaly Sych – still form the nucleus of the reporting corps.
Editor No. 1, Andrea Faiad, may have had an even more difficult job. She is now in Rochester, Minn., and was at my going-away party in St. Paul. She has a lot of stories to tell about the early days and she piloted the paper during its most uncertain times. She also brought on our longest-serving staff writer, the valuable Anna Kozmina.
After Greenwald’s departure, Askold Krushelnycky, editor No. 3, took over on an interim basis for several months in 1998. The next editor of note, No. 4 Tom Warner, left earlier this year.
Warner started moving the paper away from being a one-man (or one-woman) show.
The three main sections – nation, business and entertainment – developed under his leadership. He introduced an eye-catching design, made some good hires and wrote many thoughtful opinion pieces.
When Warner left this spring, Managing Editor Greg Bloom – editor No. 5 – did a tremendous job of holding things together until I arrived, and then of easing my transition. This guy is hard to keep up with, determined to learn Russian and destined for greater things.
Kyiv Post reporters have also done well for themselves, a reflection of the quality of this newspaper: Viktor Luhovyk is now with the Associated Press, and Nathan Hodge recently got hired by The Economist in Vienna.
Of course, I’d be remiss in not singling out the primary role of Publisher Jed Sunden. Not only did he come up with the great idea of the Post in 1995, he has sustained it and improved it with much-needed investments along the way.
When it comes to Ukraine’s future, Sunden is also the most irrepressibly optimistic person I know.
Like most publishers, Sunden is tight with the buck, thinks journalists are too cynical and believes he is spending too much on his publications – including the quarterly Kyiv Business Directory and the monthly Edinstvennaya magazine.
Unlike a lot of publishers, Sunden is willing to take the big gamble rather than the safe, easy route. And, rarity of rarities in Ukraine, he respects the editorial independence of his editors and reporters.
So why am I here? And what do I hope to accomplish?
Partly I needed a break from American journalism. U.S. newspapers are very profitable, but many have lost their souls.
Insecure about declining readership, many editors have gone local as never before and started pandering to cul-de-sac suburbanites. Zip-code journalism has run amok and distorted news judgment.
While the stories I edited back home generally were better written, they weren’t more interesting. While my interest in Ukraine could be the subject of its own column, it is enough to say that I was heavily influenced to come here by Ukrainian-American diaspora in Minnesota, especially my friend and staunch Ukrainian nationalist Eugene Kuz.
Having a Ukrainian wife also tends to cement my ties to this nation.
As for my interest in the Post, my aim – with the help of a skilled team of editors – is to build on the work of Faiad, Greenwald, Krushelnycky, Warner and Bloom.
Putting out a newspaper in Ukraine is a day-to-day uncertainty, but the Post is already in its fifth year and going strong.
All of the current editors are non-Ukrainian. Our nationalities pose one of the many challenges facing us: developing enough young Ukrainian writers and editors so that one day, one of them will take over as editor-in-chief.
That would make me happy.
I also look forward to when I can once again just be a reader of the Kyiv Post – one that is published daily, not weekly.
Kyiv Post editor Brian Bonner can be reached at [email protected] or 573-8353.
