Supporters came to the aid of outdoor book and souvenir vendors, whom Kyiv City Hall wants to see move their tables off of the capital’s main square
Bards, rock stars, poets and artists came to the aid of outdoor book and souvenir vendors, whom Kyiv City Hall wants to see move their tables off of the capital’s main square, Maidan.
Kyiv’s city administration began taking action in early August against the vendors, some of which are unsolicited, blocking their spots near the central post office with construction equipment and large conifer bushes on separate occasions.
City officials argued that the vendor tables lining the Maidan are un-European.
But the vendors, some with agreements to sell from the spots until the end of this month, are fighting back with support from some two dozen civic organizations that have teamed up, forming an advocacy group called the “Committee to Protect Maidan.”
On Aug. 16, supporters removed the wine-barrel pots to let the vendors back to sell their wares at the location that first became an informal public market for non-Soviet literature and press in the late 1980s.
The Aug. 16 rally was organized by the grassroots committee that was created shortly after Kyiv city began taking action against the salespeople earlier in the month.
Early August woes
Vendor Yaroslav Melnyk said that on Aug. 2, Kyiv city workers used force to take down his table without presenting any legal documents or governmental orders. He was simply told that the location looks “non-European” in the center of the city.
The following day “[Kyiv Mayor Leonid] Chernovetskiy himself checked the spot and announced that the [replacement] tables are not suitable for the center of the city. But our tables were taken by the city administration the day before, so we had to replace them with something,” said Melnyk, the commercial director of the Ukrmusic distribution company that created its own recording label in 2004.
Melnyk has worked at the location for more than 10 years, over the course of which his stand was promoted at concerts by Ukrainian performers. Today, he offers an assortment of more than 2,000 Ukrainian-language music and film titles.
Made in Ukrainian
The Aug. 16 protest was peaceful and included performances by bards, rock musicians and poets. There were some 150 protesters, from scalp-locked Cossacks wearing embroidered shirts to political party members wearing fatigues and waving red-and-black flags.
Some spoke out against what they call the “russification” of Kyiv, arguing that the Maidan vendors are one of the few places left in the capital to buy items that are genuinely Ukrainian.
“This is the only place in Kyiv where you can buy real Ukrainian goods, Ukrainian national music,” said Foma, the leader of the Mandry folk rock band, “and it is highly important for the country to have this namely here, at the historical center of the capital, so every tourist can buy something to remember Ukraine by.”
Foma said that the Maidan tables were free of clutter, such as matryoshkas (wooden figurines) of Communist leaders and other Soviet souvenirs readily available at the outdoor stalls lining the Andriyivskiy Uzviz tourist trap.
Vendors first set up their tables on the square alongside the post office after the Soviet Union began adopting policies of glasnost that would eventually lead to the empire’s demise. The site instantly became a place of open and public political discussion. The vendor spots were legalized in 1991, when permits and leases were formally issued by Kyiv’s Shevchenko district administration.
Un-European tables?
The head of the Kyiv city outdoor planning department, Boleslav Andrushenko, repeated the claim made by Chernovetskiy that the Maidan vendors do not correspond to the “European standards” of a city center.
European or not, the conflict has taken on political overtones.
Yuriy Lutsenko, leader of the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense political bloc and Chernovetskiy foe, showed up to defend the vendors.
“In most European capitals you can find national souvenirs in central squares. It is a way to display the country’s roots,” said Lutsenko, whose right-wing party supports the ouster of Chernovestky from Kyiv’s mayoral job.
Andrushenko said the vendors are using the cover of Ukrainian patriotic souvenirs to sell everything from unlicensed CDs to Tibetan doctrines.
One newspaper loyal to the mayor reported that a vendor was also offering a Russian-language copy of “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler and an assortment of other literature “about Jews.”
A lease and permit agreement between vendors and the Shevchenko district administration for the Maidan spots shown to the Post stipulated an end date of Aug. 31.
Andrushenko said the lease and permits are not enough; vendors require a separate “passport” from the city administration and a permit from the city’s main architectural department.
Andrushenko said that city hall offered the vendors to set up shop at alternative locations on Andriyivskiy Uzviz, Mykhailivskiy Square and Volodymyrska Street.
Melnyk was critical of the idea to move shop to Andriyivskiy Uzviv, saying that proposals to do so have only been verbal and the planned reconstruction of Andriyivsky Uzviz that was due to begin would last for more than a year.
“The protesters say that in the new area sales will be unprofitable, so we are speaking about business now and not national symbols. They haven’t accepted any variants and are not asking for something concrete,” Andrushenko said.
The vendors were still in business during the week starting Aug. 20 and hoped Kyiv’s Shevchenko district council would extend their lease and permit terms when it convenes on Aug. 22.
Meanwhile, the press service of the Shevchenko district council said that no request from the vendors has been submitted and that the issue would likely be handed up to the Kyiv City Administration on Aug. 31.
Protest committee coordinator and T-shirt vendor Serhiy Tafiy said that the demonstration was preceded by numerous requests and letters to the mayor, which were ignored.
“This protest is absolutely peaceful, although the next ones, which we will definitely carry out if there is no result, can be proper protests that will include more direct actions,” Tafiy warned.
