Fire at Kyiv Pechersk Lavra: Author writes about terrible night and Ukrainian stubbornness
A devastating fire broke out at the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. In a column, Kateryna Kalytko compares it to the 2019 Notre-Dame fire and emphasizes Ukrainian historical memory and resilience.
On the night of June 15, a severe fire engulfed the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. In a column published by Ukrainska Pravda, publicist Kateryna Kalytko describes the event as "a very scary night and a terrible fire" over the holy site. She says this experience is incomparable and hard to explain.
Kalytko draws a parallel to the 2019 Notre-Dame Cathedral fire in France, when the world reacted as if part of the continent's collective nervous system was burning. However, she suggests that the international response to the Kyiv fire may be weaker because Ukrainian history is often perceived as discontinuous. The Dormition Cathedral has disappeared and reappeared at least twice before.
The author also references St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, which remains intact but vulnerable. She notes that a temple is a testimony of long time, surpassing individual mortality. In such moments, people become commensurate with their main shrines, growing large enough to contain both long memory and readiness to rebuild.
Kalytko remarks that after the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem Temple, they received two thousand years of memory about it — it transformed into a different aggregate state: individual and inherited memory, books and traditions. In this context, she writes about the famous Ukrainian stubbornness ("vpertist") that grows from collective memory and anger demanding justice. She concludes that this shared memory will change the future.
The column reflects only the author's opinion.
