Over the Wall/After the Fall: Post-Communist Cultures through an East-West Gaze

12: Four Bearings of West for the Lviv Bohema

238 twelve Four Bearings of West for the Lviv Bohema Mark Andryczyk Ljubyt’ Ukraïnu, jak sontse, ljubyt’, Jak viter, i travy, i vody . . . V hodinu shchaslyvu i v radosti myt’, Ljubyt’ u hodinu nehody. —Volodymyr Sosiura, ‘‘Ljubyt’ Ukraïnu’’ (1944)1 Ljubyt’ Oklakhomu! Vnochi v obid, Jak nen’ku i deddi dostotu. Ljubyt’ Indianu. J tak samo ljubyt’ Pivnichnu j Pivdennu Dakotu! —Oleksandr Irvanets, ‘‘Ljubyt’! . . .’’ (1992)2 In this essay, I will focus on one particular subject within the realm of postSoviet Ukrainian culture—a loosely assembled group of intellectuals, centered on the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv, informally and occasionally referred to as Lvivs’ka Bohema (The Lviv Bohema). The people associated with this group were among the most prolific and influential creative individuals in the first decade of Ukraine’s independence. After briefly placing the Lviv Bohema within the historical context of Ukrainian culture, I will point out four facets of ‘‘the West’’ that circumscribe the life and creativity of this group. By providing a glance into the activities of these artists during the peak of their collective existence in the mid-1990s, I will demonstrate how the presence of ‘‘the West’’ is reflected in their creative work. Four Bearings of West for the Lviv Bohema 239 A Century of Ukrainian Bohemians in Lviv The Lviv Bohema is a multigenerational conglomeration of visual artists, creative writers, musicians, critics, and journalists who, together, constitute a significant segment of Lviv’s and Ukraine’s intellectual scene; they are a group united not only by their creative projects but also by the central role of the café in their lives. Although the lion’s share of its ‘‘members’’ do live in Lviv, several prominent individuals associated with the Bohema do not reside in that city despite being regularly been involved with this art scene, in some fashion, in the course of their own artistic endeavors. The 1990s Lviv Bohema is the latest circle of Ukrainian bohemians in Lviv—a tradition which has had several incarnations during the twentieth century. Throughout its history, the city of Lviv has been a home for representatives of various ethnic groups that included Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, Czechs, Armenians, and Germans; it has been ruled over by various empires. The city was founded in the mid-thirteenth century by the prince of Galicia-Volhyn, Danylo Romanovych, and named in honor of his son Lev. Lviv was under Polish rule from 1349 to 1772, at which point it became part of the Austrian Empire. At the end of the nineteenth century, the city’s cultural and social life was dominated by the Poles. At that time, Ukrainian cultural institutions such as the Narodnyi Dim and the Prosvita Society did exist in the city but were shaped by the rural-oriented populist generation of Ukrainian intellectuals— first and foremost by Ivan Franko. However, at the turn of the century, a new generation of Ukrainian poets, calling themselves Moloda Muza (The Young Muse), made a determined effort to urbanize the realm of the Ukrainian intellectual. Inspired by the M™oda Polska group of Polish poets and by early modernist groupings in Western Europe, the men of the Moloda Muza formed a Ukrainian bohemian artistic circle in Lviv. Impoverished students living in cramped dormitories, the muzyky (the Muse-icians) spent a large part of their day sitting in Lviv cafés such as the Monopolka and Tsentral’ska.3 There, for the modest price of a cup of coffee, these young men could read the latest newspapers and journals and learn of cultural happenings in the West. Eventually, the café became something of an office for the group’s self-titled publishing firm and for their own journal Svit (The World); the Moloda Muza publishing firm was established in 1906 and produced eight books in its first year of existence, including collections by the Muza’s leading poets, Petro Karmans’kyj and Vasyl’ Pachovs’kyj. Having published statutes about their binding aesthetic convictions and having consistently cross-referenced themselves in their creative works, the Moloda Muza created a legend for itself in Lviv. Through these writers, decadent themes crept into Ukrainian literature , and they introduced the bohemian lifestyle of an Ukrainian intellectual in Lviv. Mark Andryczyk 240 Attempts by the Moloda Muza to shift the balance of Ukrainian literature from social duty to art for art’s sake were cut off by...