October 2007
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The Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov wanders around his hometown, where its historical treasures and quirky characters are found on every corner
In my childhood, Kiev was a pine forest with bright-yellow trams rattling through at ten-minute intervals. When my family moved from Leningrad to Kiev, we lived with my grandmother in the suburban resort of Pushcha-Voditza, among lakes and sanatoriums. The kindest people in my Kiev were the firemen who were always ready to mend my punctured bicycle tires.
Since then, I have moved five times in this 1,500-year-old city of more than three million inhabitants. It takes about 45 minutes to cross the city on the underground, but Kiev is best toured on foot. The Golden Gate, Kiev's first official entrance, the 11th-century St Sophia's Cathedral containing the sarcophagus of Yaroslav the Wise, Kiev's Pechersk Lavra (a huge monastery with a vast system of underground tunnels in which monks once lived and were buried) - all this stands on the hills above the Dnipro River.
Kievites are particularly fond of relaxing. The town has a Mediterranean feel and long into the autumn, the streets are lined with café terraces. Kiev's main street is the Kreshatik. It starts at the Vladimir's Hill and ends at the Bessarabka Market, the most exotic and most expensive produce market in Kiev. Visitors from other Ukrainian cities make a beeline for Bessarabka just to marvel at the prices and watch people who can afford to buy a kilo of black caviar for £400.
Opposite the market, across the Kreshatik, is Kiev's main boulevard - boulevard Taras Shevchenko. At its start is the only remaining statue of Lenin. From time to time, elderly communists still bring red carnations to lay at his feet. In the past, there were two statues of Lenin on the Kreshatik, a summer one and a winter one. The winter Lenin is dressed in a long warm coat and he's the one who remains on the boulevard. The summer Lenin has been dismantled.
If you go up the boulevard and take the first right onto Pushkinska Street, you'll find the café, Koupidon - one of the bohemian spots where literary readings are held. In a corner, hangs a portrait of the writer who has, as it were, the freedom of this part of the café. His name is Yurko Pokalchuk. He must be about 60, but he seems to have eternal youth, in his dark glasses and burgundy evening jacket. He writes erotic novels, runs a literary club for young offenders and fights for the Ukrainian language. Ukrainian is, of course, the official language throughout Ukraine, but in Kiev most people still speak Russian.
Mikhail Bulgakov lived and worked in Kiev and the house that his family rented on Andreevskii Spusk is now an intriguing museum dedicated to the author. However, in the mid-1980s, this two-storey building was occupied by two communal flats. One day I got into the cellar of the house with my friend, Marik Belenki who now works for a Russian language newspaper in Israel. We found an old chair down there and Marik was sure that Bulgakov had sat on it to write The Master and Margaret - perhaps he had.
You can't visit Kiev and not take a walk down Andreevskii Spusk. This is where you can buy your matrioshka dolls, Ukrainian embroidered shirts and Soviet antiques, but this street is most interesting for its many artists' galleries and studios. Recently two smallish hotels have appeared on the Spusk and lots of restaurants. Business is squeezing the artists out of their studios. But Andreevskii Spusk - this steep, twisting path leading from the aristocratic top town to the Jewish trademen's territory of Podol - has its own laws. Above the street hangs the Bald Hill, the hiding place of Kiev's witches in Bulgakov's novel, and anyone who despises the Spusk's modern Masters - the artists - will have to answer to those witches.
I often visit Andreevskii Spusk and especially Gallery 36. My friends there always greet me with strong coffee and a glass of cognac. The light from their semi-basement window sometimes burns long into the night, attracting the most unexpected guests. One evening, on his way home from a reception, a Ukrainian minister of foreign affairs was drawn in by the light. They all sat round the little coffee table drinking and discussing the fate of the country and life in general.
Discussing life is an easy pleasure in Kiev, just as life in Kiev is a pleasure, though it is not so easy for all. The city centre has long become a stronghold of the rich. All the world's top-brand names are on sale and there are plenty of Bentleys, Porsches and Hummers in the city's traffic jams. Showing off their wealth comes naturally to Kiev's jet set so there are proportionately more expensive cars here than in any other European capital. I strongly recommend that you do come to see it - especially now that all EU, US, Japan and Swiss passport holders can enter the country without a visa. Take your time to walk through our city - Kiev is one of those cities that loves to be looked at.
Andrey Kurkov is the author of Death and the Penguin, and one of Michael Palin's favourite authors. His latest novel is The President's Last Love (£12.99, Harvill Secker).
