Abstract
During the Maidan Square protests, Ukrainian writer
Shynkarenko has often attracted controversy by asserting his right to criticise his country’s government, but straight journalism and comment have become increasingly dangerous. In 2010 he was interrogated by the security services after he joked about hoping there were radicals prepared to kill the president, Viktor Yanukovych. He says now: “It was just a joke for my dozen or so blog readers.”
When entries on his blog were deleted, probably by the security services, Shynkarenko started to use Facebook.
His posts were written in sequentially numbered blocks of 100 words. Although the post-apocalyptic wasteland they depicted was set in the future, the scenario clearly mirrored the violence unleashed by President Yanukovych in 2013 and 2014. This double disguise created a relatively free space for Shynkarenko where he could criticise the regime.
Shynkarenko also knew if Yanukovych remained in power the repression would intensify. The government had strangled freedom of expression under laws adopted in January 2014. The measures included a ban on “slandering” officials. At least 130 demonstrators were killed during the Euromaidan protests from November 2013 to March 2014 and the media was brutally attacked.
Yanukovych ultimately fled Ukraine on 21 February 2014. Shynkarenko has remained in Kiev and now works for the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. Kaharlyk, the novel written from Facebook posts, tells the tale of a man who has lost his memory because the Russian army have used his brain to control satellites. We join him on the road to Kiev. Read an extract below.
Kaharlyk
4000
It’s a strange city, Kiev. You travel round it for an hour, for another, without encountering a living soul. For whom did they build so many buildings? If you look closer, smoke coils out of the roof of a tall, glass tower. Mykhailo has been repeating “Kiev – the mother of Russian cities!” for three hours. Initially he said this phrase proudly, then uncertainly, and now he utters it as if frozen. Can he freeze there? I picked up the morphone [a device to record someone’s identity] and warmed it between my palms. No result. Weird. Why doesn’t Mykhailo speak with me? Maybe he just copied poorly?
4100
Easier to recognise a stranger than a familiar woman. Picked her up near a huge ruined stadium. A lift to Maidan for two boiled potatoes and hay for the horse. “I live in a big palace there with my husband. Like a stewpot behind a high fence. Cold in winter, but we found huge stocks of paper, timber, junk. Lots of portraits of a moustachioed bloke in a sheepskin coat and tall, lambskin hat. Burns well, fast, lots of heat, especially from the heftier frames. Loads of people roam the free space on Maidan. We grow potatoes and beetroot there.”
4200
During the long fall into a deep abyss, the impression of complete immobility is sometimes evoked. Then people who say the fall continues seem insane. “A deep pit has been dug amidst Maidan. You can descend steps into its depths. You’ll find all sorts of rubbish! Nothing useful is left. Previously, people say they got pricey stuff. Now you can bring up fragments for the fire. My husband often repeats, ‘We see ruin all around.’ But where? Certainly there are a lot of rags in Kiev. That’s Kiev; if he even went to Kaharlyk it teems with real life there!”
4300
On average human thought is half as fast as a bullet, so it is hard to escape being shot. Hanna, the priest’s wife, died instantaneously. I only avoided her fate by chance. The shooter was by City Hall, from where Khreschatyk resembled an arcade game with moving targets. “Russia, Great Country, Russians, Great Nation,” said Mykhailo. “If Russia-Rus doesn’t arise from ash, the consequences for the world will be lamentable.” I lay under the wagon, waiting until the bullets ran out. “Soldiers, brave lads, where are the kids you rue?” Mykhailo sang, “Our kids are bullets aimed so true!”
4400
Time only exists subjectively, but no observer can sense their symmetrical movement both forwards and backwards. Bellowing frantically, Father Andrii traversed Kreshchatyk on two-metre stilts. I saw time respectfully step aside before his swiftness. Later, while holding that infernal mechanism, he said, “In the past, the danger of terrorism and mass unrest had increased. The city decided, therefore, to install these machines in public places. They shoot at moving objects up to two metres in height. But under what conditions and how often are known to no one. The last time I heard about it was twenty years ago.”
4500
Play, my Kobza! Father Andrii unwrapped his loyal friend in the ruined Ukrainskyi Dim, struck the strings, and sung tango fashion: Oh this happened long, long, long ago Sniper Ilko was battling his foe At each shot “Chiki-piki” he cries Such was the weird practice of Ilko “Chiki-piki, chiki piki” Ilko cries And those wicked foes close their eyes.
“Good song,” I observed. “Just wondering, what does ‘chiki-piki’ mean?” “Hard to say,” the priest, pondered. “It’s been around ages. I don’t understand who he shot or why. The name is weird … no one is called that now.”
4600
The numerous efforts by the dead to leave this world were futile. Father Andrii didn’t pine for his wife, and soon I realised why. “Is the voice of this gadget Hanna?” I asked. “What is Hanna? Eyes? Skin? Voice? Scent? No, Hanna is the collective noun for a number of phenomena which it’s convenient to name thus. Now she has no body, but let’s imagine that she phones and speaks without being present. Can you say that she has ceased to be Hanna?” “Then you cannot distinguish the copied Hanna from the original?” “Even if you could, why would you?”
4700
Can fish influence the course of history? The last Ukrainian president died from puffer fish poisoning in a Japanese restaurant. He did not know that the fish prepared for his dinner contained tetrodotoxin, and he had relied solely on the chef’s skills. There are many versions of what happened, mainly in English, French or German, languages unknown in Ukraine. The vast majority of Eastern European history specialists are convinced that when the fatal piscine meeting occurred he had lost any political significance. The fish factor wasn’t decisive for subsequent events. It was neither the two fish of Christ nor Jonah’s fish.
5100 – 050
Yasha from Moscow, I am compelled to disappoint you: Putin is long dead, Putin that you so admire is a morphone [a recording device]. You have grandparents, though they are long dead? The same with Putin. I also, strictly speaking, can’t be called an individual, I am just the Konnekt of Oleksandr Sahaidachnyi, now located in Kiev and unable to remember his own name. The memory is often damaged while the neocortex copies. I would be happy to help … my friend, but how? Burn something with a laser? Drop a bomb? Attack his enemies? They will not wait while I fall into the ocean.
5200 – 006
If consciousness results from a critical mass of interactions it could be modelled. However, we don’t really understand consciousness, therefore it’s difficult to discuss. Do you think people in Lausanne consider launching tanks into space? Wrong. Five totally uncontrolled Russian satellites are currently orbiting. However, the Kremlin hopes to launch at least one loyal satellite. The problem is that as soon as the psyche gains free access to information it stops trusting official propaganda. For complete satisfaction it would be necessary to copy an elder from the Presidential Administration. Only their neo-cortexes are akin to those of Italian greyhounds.
5300
Human life once barely smouldered under the heavy yoke of religion, but in the future, everything changed. Father Andrii espoused a final variant of Christianity, developed while cultivating potatoes on Maidan Nezalezhnosti. He believed that god was wearied by people who wrote his name with a capital letter. He had long come down to earth and worked wherever, gathering rubbish and scrap or digging pits to order. God often suffered hunger and contempt from more experienced people. This life degraded him, so he lost all his gifts. But monotheism will not let us exchange a fallen god for another deity.
5400
Faith is too abstract to lose. The only way to return a former deity is to strive to find him and persuade him to ascend to heaven. However, it’s unlikely. Firstly, his appearance is unknown. Secondly, no one knows where, approximately, to find him. Thirdly, god swore never to agree to his destiny being changed. Father Andrii termed this the triple dogma or trinity. God was the sole entity existing eternally all others perish if not copied prior to death on to a morphone. The morphone contains a model of the individual’s konnektom. However, none can say precisely what this is.
5500
It’s not difficult to divine something which is repeated frequently every day. “If you can’t recollect anything, this almost certainly means you are copied,” said Father Andrii. “Copying healthy people without their consent is illegal. Don’t you want to find out who did it?” Mykhailo woke suddenly and said in Russian, “Yes, it won’t be hard to find out who.” He spoke at length. Things finally emerged from his utterly confused explanations. Someone in Moscow selects the best Ukrainian brains to utilise in war with Kiev. Mykhailo thought this a most futile objective, for the war ended many years ago.
5600
Currently it’s hard to imagine a book on the history of the Ukrainian-Russian War, primarily because the opposing parties did not recognise it. It would be even harder to establish what happened during the last 100 years. We have too many varied, chaotic accounts. Their authors do not burden themselves with superfluous objectivity. We can say historiography has come to a halt. However, it’s worth noting that the concentration of enemy armies reached a critically low limit. Soldiers searched for each other for months to commence battle. Galaxies collide thus, passing through each other without even their stars touching.
5700
Kiev’s metro was conceived as a system of interconnected tunnels where only 50 years ago private trolleys travelled. Subsequently, the business collapsed after fuel costs surpassed passengers’ purchasing power. Father Andrii had a trolley with a hand lever, because travelling the city underground was safer. Once I journeyed with him from Maidan Nezalezhnosti station to Petrivka, where Major Hryhorenko lived. He preserved a unique collection of ancient morphones with copies of people from times past. Their extremely confused articulation was akin to scratched, burbling gramophone records. It’s unlikely they are absolutely trustworthy. However, they often narrate some extremely striking histories.
5800
The tunnel seemed endless. The way ahead was illuminated by a lamp powered by the trolley’s dynamo. Father Andrii and I pressed the creaking lever alternately. I faced backwards and saw his dimly illuminated face. “Hryhorenko and I are trying to calculate what year it is,” said Andri. “I know Grandfather was born in 2002, and Father died when he was 62. Suppose Father was born when Grandfather was 25, in 2027. Therefore, when Father died 12 years ago, it was 2089. So, it’s roughly 2101. There is of course a weak spot regarding the year my father was born.”
5900
I saw a certain logic in these arguments. “However,” said Father Andrii, “my entire scheme was destroyed by Major Hryhorenko. He asserts that he was born in 1990 and is now about 70 years old. Therefore, in his view, it’s approximately 2060.” I sought clarification. “Does he have any documents to confirm his birth date and age?” “No,” said Father Andrii, levering. “That’s why we continuously argue, but without rudeness or scandal. It’s a purely scientific dispute.” He was silent, seemingly gathering his strength before pronouncing confidently, “However, I firmly believe there is a reliable scientific method to determine the date.”
6000
We paused with fatigue at Kontraktova Square. The priest lit a candle. Old, rusted devices with heaped wires and fragmented packaging were piled everywhere. Perhaps they had wanted to sell them but everything rotted before a buyer was found. This picture appears symbolic, but it would be difficult to divine what it signifies. The same feeling arises when I look at old adverts. They are crafted wittily, but I simply cannot comprehend their humour. Father Andrii said, “We can’t exit at Kontraktova because all the exits are blocked up with something. History has resulted in no one living at Podil.”
6100
Travelling to Petrivka a very strange sound becomes audible, like something buzzing quietly. What is it? “God didn’t create people so they could ride underground,” Hanna said suddenly. “Hanna,” Father Andrii replied, “I have said to you many times, it isn’t god who created people but people who created god. He is just an instrument.” “How then can I say I don’t want people to ride underground?” “Just say it without god. He’s required for use in other situations.” “Which?” “Well, for example, if you die and your relatives have no morphone. Then it’s necessary to pray for the soul.”
6200
It was difficult to ascend the escalator on foot in darkness. A damp draft blew constantly into our faces and the candle expired immediately. “Sometimes the impression arises that we live in the distant past. As if none of what I can now barely remember occurred and each day imaginary memories gradually become real,” Father Andrii said. “However, we live in the distant future, and my memories are really true.” This seemed illogical. How could you live in the past or future? Alternatively, most people remained in the past. A portion would reach the future, at least for a while.
At the end, the darkness became almost tangible. “Simply understand this,” Father Andrii soothed. “Time moves from past to future, encountering the same current from future to past. That’s how the impression of a perpetual now, essentially a delusion, arises.” “But why are we continuously borne into the future?” “No, we are borne nowhere. We remain perpetually in place. Memories provide the illusion of falling into the future. A man denuded of his memories immediately sees the real picture. However, it is impossible to completely destroy memory. Therefore, a certain defect we term ‘the passing of time’ is always present.”
Short dictionary of terms:
*Sehodnia is a lurid newspaper brimming with scandal and celebrity gossip, similar to the UK-based tabloid The Sun
*Kobza is a traditional Ukrainian stringed instrument
*Serhii Syvokho is a brash comedian
*A maidan is a city square
*Tabarnak, sacrament, câlice are Quebec French profanities relating to the Catholic Church and its liturgy
*A Konnekt could be the persona of a human being copied to a device, such as a morphone although there is some ambiguity around the term in the book.
Translated by