MBS Blog

A few weeks ago, two of my business partners and I traveled by car from Odessa to Western Ukraine. On our way back to Odessa, we decided to stop and see Hitler’s wartime bunker in Vinnitsa, about 150km west of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. We had heard that it was more like a Roman ruins, and we were not surprised that there wasn’t much to see in terms of a structure that one could easily identify as a bunker.

What we found were bits and pieces of reinforced concrete in the area, scattered about since the bunker and the surrounding above ground structures were bombed. The actual bunker-called Werewolf-is sealed off. Recently, a team of Russian engineers surveyed it and proclaimed that it is unsafe and cannot be opened to the public since it was mined by retreating Germans. Apparently, live munitions remain in place, though this could be just a canard to keep the curious as well as neo-Nazis out.

The area where the bunker was built looks similar to an alpine forest in Germany. The bunker and barracks complex-which housed an army of SS- was easily concealed from aerial views by the woods. The surrounding fields-beautiful spans of Ukrainian farmland-were ideal for massing tanks and aircraft.

Hitler was transported by air to this command post.  From this vantage point, he directed Operation Barbarossa…the invasion of the Soviet Union…and watched his evil fantasy of “Lebensraum” unfold. Living space for Germans in the vastness of Ukraine and Russia was never realized, though the deaths of millions of Jews and Slavs unfortunately was.

One of the strangest aspects about visiting Hitler’s Bunker, is seeing what it has become: a Ukrainian National Park (see photo of sign below), where families stroll with their young children and couples congregate. Although it is a picturesque area, it is difficult to comprehend why Ukrainians would want to be there, other than to appreciate it’s historical significance. One would think that the death of millions of Ukrainians and Russians at the hands of Nazis who built this bunker for their beloved Fuhrer, would weigh on the minds of those spreading their picnic blankets about.

On the other hand, perhaps a park is a way of turning a negative into a positive? I however, found another form of expression. Before I departed the area where the most physical evidence of the Nazi invasion persists-a large piece of concrete from the bunker structure-I relieved myself on the remains of this edifice. Pissing on Hitler’s Bunker was my way of turning a “negative” into a “positive.” Maybe the grass will grow a little a little greener as a result?

…and coincidentally, just as I was finished “watering” an area where the Fuhrer might have walked more than six decades ago, a friend of mine in Odessa called me. Since my business partner wanted to hear as well, I put the call on speakerphone. The caller was walking through the center of Odessa where many street musicians play for small change and the music was now being broadcast over a good portion of the bunker area…excuse me; Ukrainian National Park. At that very moment, a familar piece of music was now echoing out: Hava Nagila.

Hearing Jewish folk music waft across a graveyard of Hitler’s dreams: perfect!!

Ukraine Economy Shrank 20.3%, Fastest Pace on Record

By Daryna Krasnolutska

June 30 (Bloomberg) — Ukraine’s economy contracted at the fastest pace on record in the first quarter as the global financial crisis took its toll on the eastern European nation, cutting its production, consumption and investments.

Gross domestic product plummeted 20.3 percent, compared with growth of 6.3 percent in the same period a year ago, the Kiev-based state statistics committee said today in a statement on its Web site. The median forecast of 11 economists in a Bloomberg survey was for a 22 percent decline.

The global recession is compounding problems in east European economies, which are being battered by a lack of credit, weakening currencies and plunging demand for their products on world markets. In November, Ukraine was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund along with other emerging-market countries including Hungary and Latvia for funds to support its financial system and avoid default.

“It’s a large headline drop in gross domestic product, but in line with market expectations,” said Jathan Tucker, head of trading at Kiev brokerage Galt & Taggart Holdings Inc. “The full year number will be impacted more by what goes on with non- performing loans and the banking sector later this year.”

Ukraine’s bad loans rate jumped to 4.89 percent of all loans by June, compared with 2.27 percent as of Jan. 1 as households and companies struggle to repay debts, the central bank said June 24. Non-performing loans may reach more than 20 percent of the total by the end of 2009, Moody’s Investors Service said June 22.

Construction Slump

The first-quarter contraction was led by industrial production, construction and trade, data showed. Output has declined more than 30 percent each month this year, while retail sales slumped 15.3 percent in the first five months of the year, compared with growth of 30.2 percent last year.

Ukraine’s Presidential office of Viktor Yushchenko, which is in a struggle with Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko’s government, forecast the economy will contract by 10 percent this year, the steepest decline since 1996. The government still officially sees growth of 0.4 percent.

Ukraine’s economy, which has been expanding at an average annual pace of almost 7 percent since 2000, shrank 8 percent in the fourth quarter, the first contraction since 1999.

(from www.bloomberg.com)