KIEV (dpa) – People in the Ukraine still remain deeply rooted in the mystic culture of their ancestors despite seven decades of communist rule.
On the surface the Street of the Heroes of Stalingrad in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev appears normal.Old women sell cigarettes or the autumn’s last sunflower seeds. Several youths can be seen ambling between the apartment blocks. At the “Florence” cinema no films has been shown for months.But in a small side room of the cinema the faith healer Babushka Lida offers salvation to the downtrodden, the sick and the disappointed.In a linen shirt typical of the Ukraine’s peasantry, the woman treats her customers before a small tabletop altar.“In the morning, before sunrise, you should place my picture over glass of water and place your hands protectingly above it,” Lida tells her clients.In addition she advises them to take a drink of the water to wash away all sorts of problems.In the villages, the preachers of salvation survived the Soviet regime. Babushka Lida tells how she inherited her magical powers in the battle against “portcha” (the damaging) from her ancestors.A half-hour session with Babushka Lida costs 30 hryvnas (about nine dollars) which also includes prayer instructions printed in bright colours.Then there is Darya, who fills up an entire cinema hall with people seeking her help. “Anyone who feels punished by Life, raise your arms,” the miracle healer calls out to her followers. Everyone rises up from the shabby cinema seats which are as hard as life in the Ukraine.“Now hurl all your sorrows at me,” Darya calls out. Then, acting like a football goalkeeper she “catches” all the evil thrown her way. With exaggerated gestures she burns them in the flame of a large candle next to her. Her followers, relieved of their burdens, fall back into their cinema seats.Valentina a woman in her 40s and an engineer by training, is sceptical of Darya’s methods. “There are too many charlatans in our country,” she says, arguing that nobody can cover an entire cinema hall with their powers. Valentina says she knows this, because her cosmic energies can at most reach seven people at the same time.Attesting to Valentina’s powers is Sergei, a Kiev photographer who says he normally doesn’t believe in such hocus-pocus: “She freed me of my chronic headaches by laying her hands on me.”All this is rooted in Far Eastern teachings which the wild hordes of Tatars brought with them when they invaded the kingdom of the Kiev Rus in the 13th Century. The Slavs living on the banks of the Dnieper River had converted to Christianity, but held on to their heathen rites.It is from this tradition that Valentina draws on for her powers. In contrast to many others, she does not ask for money for her services, nor will she help just anybody.In these difficult times in which the state doesn’t pay its civil servants, inflation is rising and many people have lost the optimism they had when the Soviet Union collapsed, there is a demand for miracle workers, faith healers, and mystics. Those who cannot afford an expensive operation often seek healing this way.Faith in the metaphysical leads many a motorist in the Ukraine to trust completely in the tiny ikon of the Madonna planted on the car’s instrument panel. The seatbelt is only half-heartedly thrown over the shoulder when a uniformed policeman comes into sight. Fastening the seatbelt is required by law in the Ukraine. Those caught without a seatbelt must may 10 hryvnas on the spot, Despite all the belief in the metaphysical, a shady policeman also believes deeply in the power of the money transferred to his pocket.
