The head of the Taras Shevchenko National Award Committee of Ukraine Yuriy Makarov has resigned. This year, a scandal broke out around the prize — for the first time in many years, the prize was not awarded on March 9, the poetʼs birthday.
Commenting on the scandal surrounding the late announcement of laureates, Makarov said that it was his idea to introduce an additional nomination "For Contribution to Victory" and postpone the announcement of winners to May 22.
"I took the initiative to supplement the list of nominations with additional "For Contribution to Victory" awards. I assumed that this year the committee did not consider it possible to award the award in two nominations, and meanwhile, since the beginning of the full-scale war, an incredible, unimaginable number of valuable works of art, projects and phenomena, which are made with enthusiasm and literally bring our victory closer ", Makarov explained.
He added that the proposal arose almost impromptu, but during the meeting of cultural figures with the President of Ukraine on March 9, the idea received support. "The presidentʼs office followed my initiative and delayed the publication of the results of the 2023 competition in order to announce the winners all together on May 22," he noted.
Makarov explained that it was he who took the initiative to supplement the list of nominations with additional "For Contribution to Victory" awards.
However, this decision "ran into aggressive misunderstanding", and many representatives of the art community and citizens perceived this step as political speculation, an attempt by the authorities to appoint "their" nominees or to reduce the weight of the already determined laureates.
"Since I unwittingly acted as the "instigator" of unnecessary conflicts in the team and, unfortunately, much more broadly, the indignation of caring citizens, after much thought, I see no other way out than to resign from myself as the chairman and member of the Committee," he summarized.
The artist Vlada Ralko also left the Committee. She reported this to "Social Culture".
Ralko noted that she decided to draw up the mandate back in February, and drew up the mandate on February 18, 2023.