Living in Kiev: My first 3 months of observations

Born in the slums of Kiev raised by a single mother, immigrated out of there to Canada and now in the Bay Area.

Sure it has history, and some places look really nice...but come on. Seems to be a bit of western romatiziation, but the whole country is / was about to explode (I stood in The Square during the Orange Revolution), there are no opportunities, the country is being literally, fucked, by Russia and the West on the other side as some neo-proxy war circa 1960. Oh and the corruption, corruption everywhere. Pulled over? No problem, just put a 50 in the passport and hand it over non-challantely. What seems to be problem officer?. Oh...I don't have a fire extinguisher, well look in the passport you'll definitely see it. Pensioners and the disabled are getting royaly shafted by economy, disability insurance and pensions have remained stable but the currency devalued on a rate that is almost comparable to Venezuela.

The president before the current one spent time in jail.

I know people from Kiev that have visited Canada, and are literally trying their hardest to get out before they get killed. When the power goes out at night, almost everyday they think the Russian have finally decided to bomb them.

If you're anything but white, even slightly asian looking, get ready to be called racial slurs on the streets.

Neofacism is rampant, skinheads used to roam the streets.

Half the people from my school either got hooked on drugs or alcohol before Grade 8. The AIDS epidemic literally almost swallowed the whole country. There were horrible stories as a child that I used to hear of kids in the playground playing with needles from heroin addicts and getting infected with HIV because they stabbed themselves on accident and their parents coming to the brink of suicide because of that. I also remember a story in the news when somebody put a pin upside down in a movie theatre with a bit of blood on it, and nearby a note that said "Welcome to the HIV family"... and somebody sat on it.

Not ever in my life do I want to go back to that.

I emigrated from Kiev at the age of 16, back in 1997. I jumped at the first opportunity to get out of there, even though I knew it would be tough for some years to come at the new place. As you can imagine, I hated everything about that country.

I felt completely unprotected - there was no effective law, everyone was either scared shitless and fighting for survival -- or a thug. It felt like the thugs had complete power over "normal citizens" like myself. I was used seeing them on my way home from school on the street corners waiting for a chance to jump at a passerby and rob them. Often they would approach you and start a conversation, probing your fear. Then you can only get away without being humiliated/beaten/robbed by walking to a crowded place, maybe.

My dad, a scientist working at an institute (in the Soviet and post-Soviet system the science was done in specialized "institutes", not in universities), could barely make ends meet. That was in part because of hyperinflation (at the lowest point he was making $100-$200 per month, IIRC) and in part because of accumulating delays in salary payouts. I remember some periods of time when all we had was bread, spaghetti and potatoes. We could not even afford transport expenses for me to go to school - thankfully, the transport system was in such shambles that there were barely any inspectors in the Metros and buses, and certainly they didn't care enough to seriously try to punish me for using it for free. Lots of people did that during the worst years in the 90's.

Many were left in the cold, with no means to survive. A generation of pensioners basically died from hunger after years of struggle and humiliation. Old people begging for money in the streets were a common sight.

Everything was dirty, malfunctioning, disintegrating. Police, courts, doctors, the army - all corrupt. Army service was an absolute hell - underfunded, unoccupied, with disintegrating facilities and corrupt officers, the soldiers were at the mercy of inevitable bullies and thugs of their unit. Let me just say that the abuse was commonplace and leave it at that.

Finally, it felt like everyone hated each other. Racism and xenophobia of every kind. People just waiting to exploit your weakness.

Before leaving, I thought there would be periods of home-sickness I would have to fight. Nothing like that ever happened. I left my parents and family behind, but was reluctant to even come for a visit; only visited them once, in 1998. I often hear claims that it's all different now. But I think that's wishful thinking - the same thugs who made it hell back in 1997 are still alive and kicking. And, more importantly, so is the culture that nurtured them.

Having spoken Russian as a kid, since my family were immigrants and it was used a little bit in my house, I can definetly attest to how strange it is to hear someone speak Ukrainian.

You'll be sitting there listening and everything is going fine and then a few seconds into the conversation you'll think one of you had a stroke. It's like talking to someone in English and then they instantly migrate to a thick Irish-blacksmith dialect of English or maybe even cockney. You get the basis of what they're saying but it just isnt coming through at all.

Anyway Kyiv is definetly on the list of amazing places to visit.

As someone who grew up in Kiev and lived there most of his life before moving across the ocean I find this article surprisingly precise in details and having rather deep insight into the city's spirit. Of course, there is a bit of idealization which is normal for any foreigner moving to a new place, but many things are very true. Kiev is a very old city that has lived through many epochs. It's seen the Mongol-Tatar invasion, dealt with Osman rulers, fought the Russians with the Polish, the Polish with the Turks, and the Turks with the Russians (historians, don't be nitpicky here). It survived the Russian empire, both the world wars and the USSR. Having that rich history Kiev is very eclectic, artsy and vibrant. And yes, it's a city of extremities. You can see poor and rich, old and new, run down and prospering, past and future all mixed up. But that's the spirit of the city. If you have never been to this part of the world I highly recommend visiting it -- even if it's currently may not be in its best shape as Ukraine is going through hard times. Staying there for longer might require some survival skills most of which are required to deal with extremely inefficient post-Soviet government system. The main skill to get is networking, because it's the only way to deal with the corrupt and bureaucratic government machine.

From a practical perspective, Ukraine is a good source of decent software developers and designers. My project probably won't happen if I didn't have our R&D team in Ukraine which allowed me to reduce development costs at least twice. Sending payments to Ukraine would require going through a bit of hassle with paperwork, but it's doable and Ukrainian developers usually know how to deal with it. Feel free to drop me a line at <hn name> (a) easymorph.com if you need some advice on it.

The part about time is poetic: A clock is referred to in the plural “часы” (time), which identifies a clock through its action of measuring time as opposed to the English word, which identifies it as a fixed tangible object.

FWIW here in China (where I see many Ukranians arriving recently) you have a 時鐘 (shi zhong; "time bell/clock") or 鐘錶 (zhong biao; "bell/clock readout"), as well as variants such as 手錶 (shou biao; "hand display"). Semantically these center around the character 鐘 (zhong), which itself is comprised of 金 (metal) to the left, and 童 (youth/innocence/servitude) to the right. However, in history, 鐘 meant a bell (possibly specifically implying ritual striking by servant). Interestingly, in abstract discussion of time as a noun, the term becomes 時間 which literally means "time space" or "space in time".

I lived in Kyiv for more than a year and watched both revolution and Russian invasion.

It was never about "soft power" influence the author and other media usually talk but about a lot of people being tired of poverty, corruption, and power abuse.

It was never about "American government winning hearts" but about Russian government sending caskets to Ukrainian families. I saw many neutral folks who became pro-West because of the attack on their homeland.

I'm Kievian who recently moved abroad. Kiev is cool as long as you don't interact with our corrupted government, justice and healthcare, as long as you don't work for the local market (which is undeveloped and lacks of money), as long as you move by uber/taxis/own car, not the local marshrutkas, etc. Kiev is cool if you have money. But only because the majority of people don't have it :-) For example, if you want to bootstrap your micropreneur venture or work remotely/freelancing, it's a choice. You're able to live like a king and spend less than 2000$/month. Yeah, the rent cost in the bay area = awesome life in the Western Europe.

Welcome to our glorious city and I'm very glad to see my home on the front page! Also, feel free to reach me (dy at deepmagic dot io) if you need Kiev-related help (or maybe programming help, as well)

Wow... inspiring. Makes me want to visit Eastern Europe, an urge that has been almost subconsciously repressed through years of Western education and culture (e.g. Ukraine, Georgia, etc. being referred to as "2nd world").

Dying to res it but I just get a Hostgator error

The OP has barely hinted at one big benefit to Kiev if you're a young, single, heterosexual male. As much as the Bay Area is misery for meeting and dating women, Kiev is joy. In fact, the Ukraine in general.

This is partly due to the male to female ratio (Ukraine = good for men, Bay Area = dismal) and partly cultural difference. Also, the status of being a developer or engineer in the Ukraine makes you a 1 percenter; in the U.S., a developer is nothing special, even considered boring.

The typical single male in the Bay Area probably doesn't even realize how bad he has it, or how much better it could be in a different place, because his life experience is based on dating in that one location.

Go there and experience it for yourself. Take a 3-month sabbatical from your work, learn a bit of Russian or Ukrainian (this will help a lot!), rent a flat, and talk to women at every opportunity. You'll find it surprisingly easy to meet and date beautiful women.