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Our Life | Наше життя February | Лютий 2021 22 movements became active because they were begin - ning to come out in the open, and certainly even more so after independence. It was fascinating to write about this on the pages of our paper, and you can read all this in our archives. By the way, our archives are all digitized, and you can read all The Ukrainian Weekly issues that have been published since 1933 to date and Svoboda from 1893 to date. Every single issue has been digitized and is available on the newspapers’ websites. When did you open your own bureau in Kyiv? We opened a bureau in Kyiv in January 1991 with an of - ficially accredited correspondent. Several months prior to that, unofficially, we had a person who worked with Narodnyi Rukh in their offices. She was on loan to help Rukh and reported for us from Kyiv. So prior to independence, already in January of 1991, we had a correspondent on the ground in Kyiv, and that correspondent was the late Marta Kolomayets – a won - derful colleague, a beautiful person, and a great friend. She was our pioneer. She touched so many people’s lives and did so much in her life, short as it was. You said that the independence of Ukraine was one of the memorable events in your time as Editor-in-Chief. What was that experience like? I’m sure it was similar to what all of us experienced. We were all amazed at what was happening. Amazed that it happened, how it happened, and that it happened during our lifetime – that something we had all dreamt about for so many years actually happened. But on the reporting side, we had to report this to the world. The good thing was that we had people on the ground in Kyiv, and we also had access to Ukraine’s Mission to the United Nations. They spoke with us, and we were able to get their take, and their reaction, and their information. So, we had first-hand information both from our corre - spondent in Ukraine and from the diplomats at the UN, and that was different from everyone else’s experience. It was an exciting time, and you can certainly sense the excitement we all felt when you read the reporting. Go back and read the annual “Years in Review.” It’s all there. Another important event was the Maidan of 2013– 2014. What was your experience during that time? Unlike the euphoria we all felt about independence, the Maidan was extremely stressful. People were getting hurt and killed. We didn’t know if there was going to be an invasion. No one knew. It was a completely differ - ent experience. But once again, we had our own corre - spondent reporting from Kyiv. When did you take on the additional responsibility for Svoboda ? That was in 2007. I must say it was practically impos - sible. I don’t know how we did it all those years since then and never missed a deadline. Although there was a larger staff at that time and a good full-time language editor on the Svoboda side, I now had two weekly dead - lines, two sets of staff to manage, and two languages to work in. I needed to figure out how to organize my time, how to keep on track and meet deadlines. This added responsibility was new to me, so there was a learning curve. Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly are two entirely dif - ferent products with different materials, different staffs, and different audiences. We do not simply translate ma - terials from one newspaper to the other. They are very different, with different articles. This was definitely an increase in workload. But I must say, I learned a lot, too. And I think I really did more and more as Editor-in-Chief during this Coronavirus year, when we all began working from home in March 2020. During your time with these two newspapers, what makes you most proud? I believe I feel most proud of the fact that we were able to adapt to changes both in Ukraine and here while con - tinuing to fulfill our mission of informing our communi - ties and serving as a network for the hromada . We went from typewritten copy to fax to email to the Internet. I am most proud of the work done by one specific per - son, and that is Ihor Pylypchuk, who over several years put all the issues of both newspapers online in digital format. Every single issue of Svoboda since its founding in 1893 and The Ukrainian Weekly since 1933 is now available to everyone online. But that was not his sole job. He was also our tech guy, our layout person for Svoboda , and our webmaster. He worked on our digital archives in his “spare time.” That’s huge because those online issues are a gift to the world, to our nation, free and accessible for the world to use. Are there things you wish you could have accom - plished but for one reason or another weren’t able to do? Yes, I would love to have had correspondents in all major hromady around the globe to better report on our dias - pora. I wish we had the funding to pay correspondents around the world. We do need contacts within all our diaspora organizations, but for some reason getting that is a challenge. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to report on di - aspora activities in countries around the globe? Consider that what all hromady around the world have in com -
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