Misha Pravylnyi is chief editor of the music portal rap.ua. He releases his own tracks and publishes critical articles about the current state of Ukrainian music.
Misha and his media make part of the creative community Some People. It is also made up of designers, videographers, musicians, etc., in other words, those people who are developing the Ukrainian urban culture. A few months before the big war against Russia, they had launched a multi-disciplinary project RELOAD.TODAY which shares materials about the Ukrainian subculture and its most prominent representatives in the form of videos, photos and music. However, the project could not be implemented to the full due to the full-scale invasion of Russia.
Misha spoke to us about who of Ukrainians working in the creative industry have become volunteers and what the updated RELOAD.TODAY is going to publish in the future.
The first days
The beginning of the invasion caught Misha and some members of Some People in their office which is located in the Palace of Labor in Ukraine’s biggest city in the East, Kharkiv. They continued working there until the building was hit by a Russian missile. At that very minute the founder of the portal rap.ua, Mykyta, was shooting a video outside. Luckily, nobody got injured except for Slava, one of the team members who broke his finger and cut his head while descending into the basement. The Palace was not as lucky. It was almost completely demolished.
Nobody was even thinking about leaving Kharkiv, although the team was getting constant calls from their acquaintances who kept saying that the situation would only get worse. Only female members of the team were persuaded to leave the city.
«We told them what might befall them and that death in certain circumstances was not the worst thing that could happen to them», says Misha. «However, the girls told us they would not leave the city in quite a stilted speech».
Kharkiv barely made it through the first weeks of the invasion. Those who remained in the city had a very difficult time. Nevertheless, the team chose to be proactive and not to sit idly by.
«Especially after the palace was hit, we took on so much work that we didn’t have time for anything else», says Misha. At first, the team of Some People worked to ensure safety for themselves and to help others with minor issues. However, after the missile hit the Palace this cultural community turned into a large volunteer center. Some team members would pack goods while others were dealing with communication and delivering aid to city residents and those living on the outskirts. They visited people who were hiding in the subway, grandpas and grandmas who were abandoned by their nearest and dearest. Volunteers went to the settlements of Slatyne, Prudyanka, Bezruky and Kalynivka that were being constantly shelled by Russian troops. Misha says that volunteers had to visit places the sight of which was absolutely hair-raising.
It was difficult listening to the stories of those people. Misha doesn’t want to single out any of the stories so as not to belittle others. However, one time he happened to help a blind elderly woman who could not cook dinner for people who had just buried their family members. There is a footage showing volunteers coming to people whose house was on fire. There are many such stories.
So far, Some People have provided help for 150 thousand residents of Kharkiv. The team used several methods to provide help for those in need, mainly through word of mouth or posters that the team was hanging outside the city.
«After you deliver aid to one house, be sure that your phone number will be passed on to those living in the neighboring one», says Misha.
As for humanitarian aid, Some People received it through the network of partners. For example, in Lviv Some People’s friends worked in a volunteer center that was sending necessary aid to Kharkiv. Other foundations from Ivano-Frankivsk were also helping. Sometimes help came from personal contacts of the team.
«I dread to think what would have happened, had the volunteers not been working the way they have been since the very first day.
However, I cannot call myself a volunteer despite the fact that I’ve participated in their activities. I have helped a bit with communications, creative work and digital issues. Nonetheless, I am currently working to make sure that culture, and, in particular, music (especially independent and honest music) grow stronger, which is quite important. I believe that real volunteers are those who are working out in the field doing things I have not even seen in the movies. They are humble people, always out of the spotlight. But these are real heroes», says Misha.
Fleeing the city and embarking on cultural work
Since Misha manages most of working processes online, he and other managers moved to Lviv in April 2022. He says that if he had had the chance to work more effectively in Kharkiv, he would have stayed there. However, he found it difficult to do. Only those team members have remained in Kharkiv who are directly taking care of the foundation’s activities and aid delivery.
Misha has not given up on creating. He was recording tracks during the first days of the invasion. This was his way of not going crazy. So far, he has released an album about the war while also moderating rap.ua. In Lviv members of the community Sneaker Mate opened another dry cleaner whose main building in Kharkiv was destroyed by a missile. On the premises of Sneaker Mate charitable music streams are organized. Also, its team participates in local charitable events promoting Ukrainian culture and supporting volunteer work.
«The Ukrainian culture has always existed, however, a proactive cultural sector is only beginning to gather pace. I would like to see it become more meaningful, since it’s easy to write songs such as «Let Putin die», says Misha. «Representatives of the Ukrainian culture had better finish showing to the world that Ukraine is capable of something. It’s high time they proved that Ukraine is capable of cool stuff».
Variety is also important because it offers choices. Misha emphasizes that Ukrainians should produce more cultural content so that it can make up for low-quality works. With time people will start choosing something worthy ignoring second-class content.
He is sure that the most important thing is to support people who are striving to produce something new, even though they may make mistakes. Otherwise, these people will give up on creating their own work, which may lead to such people as Yuri Dud’ (a Russian journalist and YouTuber – translator’s note) re-entering Ukraine’s information space.
«This is something I’m really afraid of and I’m hoping to see new faces in Ukraine that wouldn’t let this happen», says Misha.
Reload.Today and new faces of the Ukrainian culture
Reload.Today share stories about people who are reloading our country right now. Last year its team released a photo book on subcultural heroes of Ukraine which is going to be on sale soon. Also, Some People made interviews with many representatives of the Ukrainian public sector and began releasing them. However, this process stalled with the beginning of the war.
Because of the war Reload.Today was revamped. The team has presented 10 new episodes of the video project dedicated to the topics connected with the current situation in Ukraine (from the topic of whether one should «stay or leave Ukraine» to the myth of the two «brotherly nations»). Each episode features its own speaker who share their thoughts on the subject matter. Each episode is supplemented by the video featuring those heroes of Ukraine’s public sector who had been interviewed before the war. At the end of the video the performance of musicians is shown that are to become the faces of the new Ukrainian music.
«The process of Ukraine’s reloading began back in 2014. We are witnessing the formation of a new Ukraine accompanied by the new development and people who are striving for it. It is these people that we want to talk about», says Misha, explaining his motivation to launch this new project. The first guest is Sasha Chemerov, a Ukrainian musician and producer. The topic of discussion is Attitude to people who have moved abroad.
