Steamships and Men

Author: Alexander MaksymovPhoto: InterMedia consulting

There are no limits for human vanity. And there are no limits for the desire of weak subjects to immortalize and please the suzerain. Sometimes it is frightening (in Russia for example), sometimes it is funny (like in Turkmenistan), and sometimes it is pathetic (like in our country).

Let's start with Russia. Several days ago Russian mass media reported that on his birthday the President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov made a present to Russian PM Vladimir Putin - he named one of the central streets in Groznyy after Putin. Kadyrov explained that Russian Premier deserved this by "great contribution into the fight against terrorism, restoration of economy and social sphere of Chechen Republic."

It is interesting that not all population supported the initiative of Kadyrov. Slightly opposition Russian internet news agencies published short interviews with citizens of the city, in which one of the main streets was named after the person personally guilty of death of thousands of civilians of Chechnya.

As for Kremlin, it did not get very excited about the initiative. Officials showed that Putin cannot forbid naming streets after him, but he does not welcome this. By the way, according to the Russian law, it is local authorities who decide on renaming the streets; and in certain regions a street can be named after some historical personality only 10 years later after his death (this law was changed in Moscow a couple of months ago to rename the Bolshaya Kommunistichensakay after Solzhenitsyn).

There was only one street named after Putin till now. On October 5, 2002 one of two streets of the Ingush village Olgeti got the name after Putin. The residents of the villages asked to name the street after the Russian Premier in acknowledgement of the help in restoration of the village ruined by the mudflow.

There were several other initiatives to name streets after Putin in Novosibirsk, Saratov and Yoshkar-Ola. The initiatives were turned down by local authorities.

During Putin's presidency there were many funny cases of loyalty. Here are some of them.

Prisoner Oleynikov of Novgorod penal colony, sentenced to 9 years of imprisonment for murder, made aspen equestrian statue of Vladimir Putin.

Children's game "Manager of Russia" has the picture of Vladimir Putin pointing to the inscription in the center of the box "learn to do business for the benefit of Russia". The game reminds monopoly and teaches to make money under the conditions of market economy.

There are also vodka "Putinka" and snack - pickled peppers - under the short name "Putin".

Speaking about naming and renaming it is impossible not to remember late Saparmurat Niyazov. Odes of praise to former President of Turkmenistan used to take the biggest part of newspaper lines and the best part of TV and radio time. Every news bulletin started with reports about great deeds of the dear president. There was created a special TV channel with the modest name "Epoch of Turkmenbashi".  Apologists of Niyazov even stated that those Muslims who read the book by Niyazov have the guaranteed ticket to heaven.

And now Viktor Yushchenko comes. Though his achievements on the path to immortality are modest for now, he still has time till the next presidential election...

For now the guarantor of the nation has the street, University, bas-relief and a tulip. I am sorry if I've missed something.

The street. Residents of the village Petryliv of Ivano-Frankivsk region decided to name one of the streets after the President in acknowledgment of his activity on liquidation of the flood happened in July. Probably the people were impressed by the picture of Viktor Yushchenko walking knee-deep in water and Yuri Yekhanurov driving the truck with cement. 

Bas-relief. In 2005 the façade of Kyiv institute of management and business in the name of Borys Yeltsin was decorated with memorial plate honouring Yushchenko, who headed the institute during 2001-2002 years.

The University. In 2005 Odessa international humanitarian University addressed the President Yushchenko with the request to name the University after him.

The tulip. Dutch breeders brought in Kyiv a tulip named Viktor Yushchenko. The flower is of orange colour and has the official certificate, which says that "this kind of tulips represents and reminds the Orange revolution."

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In my personal opinion, such initiatives are pathetic. If such actions can be understood in totalitarian countries, in Ukraine, allegedly a democratic county, these streets, Universities and other objects named after Yushchenko are nothing but the attempts of officials to gain favour. This also concerns the manner of press offices to write everything with a capital letter. And if the spelling of the word "President" can be explained by the rules of grammar, other pearls like "Head of state" or "Head of Ukrainian state" are totally out of place.

These series also include titanic efforts of presidential servants to obtain genocide and recognize UPA warriors as heroes of the world. And if the case on genocide causes a sad smile, the story concerning OUN-UPA warriors can surely cause the split of the country. It is absolute abnormal when preferences of one man, even a President, are given a title of the state policy. The only relief is that we have presidential election coming, and Viktor Yushchenko will probably be deprived of the possibility to fool people with genocide, Trypillya and other products of soundly sleeping mind.