By Edie Everette / Herald Forum
It is pre-dawn Kyiv and the sky looks navy blue. Early yesterday, two men walking in opposite directions and wearing dark clothes met in the road. While chatting, they gestured with their hands. One was smoking. Seeing people was a thrill for me because through the first camera angle I could only watch birds.
Since the invasion of Ukraine began, I have been watching a live feed from a camera mounted on the outside of the Kyiv Holy Dormition Caves Lavra (monastery) of the Ukranian Orthodox Church. This monastery, founded in the mid-11th century when a priest dug out a cave on a nearby hill, is home to the relics of more than 120 saints. It is located in the heart of Kyiv and has more than 100 buildings, including numerous active churches.
(Oh my gosh, right now snowflakes fly from left to right across the screen! Somebody’s hands just adjusted the camera away from the road and back to rooftops again. This must be a weather camera because just now a test pattern popped up on the screen, then ‘weather’ and a code written at the top.)
When I watch this channel in full screen on my large monitor I feel as though I am looking thorough a portal into another world. From where I sit there is a ten-hour time difference where I see into the future to a land that, from above, appears completely calm. it is always cloudy. There is no sound. My view is practically omniscient as I am up here with the birds who go about their bird lives.
Why does this portal mesmerize me? Is it a prurient interest in watching a coming disaster from afar? To cheat, as it were; to be present for disaster and survive it, too?
History has repeated itself at this church which has gone through hell. It was plundered in 1151, ravaged in 1169 and attacked in 1171, 1203 and 1235. In 1240 khan Batiy’s hordes plundered, ruined and “desolated” the monastery. Plundered again in 1416, ravaged in 1482 and attacked by Uniats in 1621 and 1630. In 1718 a fire destroyed the monastery buildings and the library.
More recently, in 1926, the Ukranian State General Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR passed a regulation to make the site secular by changing it into the All-Ukraine Museum Township. This ended in a total liquidation of the monastery until the beginning of 1930. According to the Kyiv-Caves Lavra website, “part of the brethren was carted away one hundred kilometers from Kyiv and shot, and those who remained were imprisoned or exiled.” Immense damage to the architectural and historical treasures of the Lavra was caused also during World War II when it was pillaged by German invaders and the cathedral blasted. It wasn’t until the 1980s that the Lavra’ religious status returned, and not until 2000 that the Holy Dormition Cathedral was restored.
Will hell rain down on this monastery so soon again?
A few snowflakes still fall in this world I watch through my screen. The gilded domes of the church shine gloriously against gray skies and sage green rooftops. Birds wheel while below a small van motors along a perimeter road.
Perhaps I am trying to be there in order to have empathy instead of sympathy; because “there” could be “here” for any of us.
Edie Everette is a writer, news junkie and lives in Monroe.
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