The following drawing won the competition for the best image that should represent Ukraine on the Ukrainian Google page:
The whole thing is just offensive. I have the following questions to ask of the creators of this monstrosity:
1) Why is a church positioned right in the midst of the picture? Religion plays a very insignificant role in the lives of the absolute majority of Ukrainians.
2) Why is the church Russian Orthodox and why is its architecture so obviously Russian? Churches in Ukraine don’t look like that, not even in the heavily Russianized Eastern part of the country. Our Ukrainian churches look very different. They are not white. If one truly needed to stick a church in there, why not use an example of the amazing Ukrainian baroque in there?
Besides, among the puny number of people in Ukraine who practice a religion, many are Catholic. This isn’t a uniformly Russian Orthodox country.
3) Why is the man wearing sharovary (the traditional folk costume that obviously has not been worn by anybody in the country for centuries)? Note that the woman has modern attire. What is the message here? That Ukrainian men are outdated and women are modern?
4) Also, why is the woman kneeling in this awkward position while the man is patting her down like a household pet? Have the creators of this crappy drawing actually met any Ukrainian families? Historically, this kind of dynamic never existed in Ukraine. As long as there has been Ukraine and records of its daily life have been kept, no evidence of this pathetic female subjection to the husband, the children and the church has existed.
5) Why is Ukraine presented as exclusively agrarian? The image of Ukraine as a country of peasants was promoted heavily in the USSR. Only the works of literature that were set in the country-side were allowed to be published. If, say, a 19-century author had written 5 novels set in a city and 3 short stories set in a village, only the short stories would be reprinted in the USSR and taught to school-children. This was part of a very successful effort of convincing Ukrainians that we were backwards, uncouth country bumpkins.
In reality, however, Ukraine has been industrialized for a very long time. The price we paid for that industrialization was enormously high. Millions of peasants were starved and the Ukrainian agriculture was all but destroyed. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet government made efforts to retain Ukrainians in the country-side. People were not allowed to have their passports in their possession and couldn’t leave their villages. This didn’t work, however, and people of my mother’s generation fled the country-side in massive numbers.
This drawing fails to reflect anything whatsoever about Ukraine’s reality. The author of this piece should take this sad manifestation of a diseased subconscious to his or her analyst because while it lacks any artistic merit, its analysis might help this poor person get at least somewhat more stable psychologically.
The only positive thing about the picture is the letter “G” that reflects the colors of the gay flag and probably symbolizes the orientation of the country towards gay rights.
Clarissa's Blog 
Why? WHY?
Because the competition was held in California’s tech heartland where they presumably don’t know any better. (They may also say the word “BELGIUM” a lot, not knowing what it really means.)
They still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea on that coast, especially if they’re made out of square-ish music players …
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As somebody asked on a Ukrainian website, “So why is the woman trying to give oral sex to a Chinese boy? Are they saying that Ukraine can’t manufacture anything and has to import Chinese goods at any cost?”
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Have you seen the woman’s tiny arms and huge breast?
I have posted (at least I thought I did) a couple of replies lately but somehow they were never shown on your screen.
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Well, I don’t know about symbolism, but if the competition was done in the same way as in my country, then it was 7-10 year old children who drew this. Therefore no surprises in misproportions of figures..
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You are absolutely right. I researched this and discovered that this was created by a 9-year-old boy. This obviously means it as drawn by his mother. This is an extremely religious family that holds daily competitions as to who prayed the most times during the day.
Such freaks are incredibly rare in Ukraine, so the excretions of their diseased minds should not be representing my country.
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“1) Why is a church positioned right in the midst of the picture?”
I assume that it’s meant as an example of distinctive architecture and not necessarily a church as such.
“2) Why is the church Russian Orthodox and why is its architecture so obviously Russian?”
Some quick googling made me think it’s based on the St Nicholas Church in Kiev, which is certainly distinctive whatever its history.
“3) Why is the man wearing sharovary (the traditional folk costume that obviously has not been worn by anybody in the country for centuries)?”
This kind of representation always uses some form of folk costume (usually on the female so this is progress?). At least it is a costume actually from Ukraine and not something Russian or Polish (or Lederhosen or traje de luces)
“4) Also, why is the woman kneeling in this awkward position while the man is patting her down like a household pet?”
Dunno. Maybe she’s straightening up the boys clothes? The need to get her head in position to be the ‘g’ The pipe cleaner arms are totally gross.
“5) Why is Ukraine presented as exclusively agrarian?”
Cause countryside is pretty and factories and office buildings tend to be ugly?
“the letter “G” that reflects the colors of the gay flag and probably symbolizes the orientation of the country towards gay rights”
Is Ukraine especially progressive, homophilic or is it anti-Putinism or something else? When it comes to countries who are progressive about gay rights Ukraine is not one that comes immediately to mind.
Question Clarissa never asked: “Where’s the kalina bush?
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“Some quick googling made me think it’s based on the St Nicholas Church in Kiev, which is certainly distinctive whatever its history.”
– I don’t know what that chapel is but here is how the most famous surviving cathedral in Ukraine looks:
Our churches are colorful, pretty. Some are decorated with paintings of vegetables (on the outside.) The white / onion shaped golden domes doesn’t symbolize Ukraine.
“Cause countryside is pretty and factories and office buildings tend to be ugly?”
– How about universities? we have many really beautiful ones, with an august fascinating history.
“Is Ukraine especially progressive, homophilic or is it anti-Putinism or something else?”
– No, of course, not. But I’m trying to find something that would make this thing less horrible.
“Question Clarissa never asked: “Where’s the kalina bush?”
– “Kalinka-malinka” is Russian. 🙂
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