Mykola Kanishevsky (Backstory)

In 1993 Mykola Kanishevsky invited me to his apartment for dinner. We'd been working together for several years already. Two other people were coming that evening as well. Back in 1992, I'd convinced Mykola to leave his prestigious job at Ukrainian Television Channel 1 (UT-1). He was one of the main news anchors, still pretty young, but established enough that when he walked down Khreshchatyk, people would sometimes stop him and ask for an autograph. His parents did not live in Kyiv. (CHECK EXACTLY WHERE). Mykola was a member of the Komsomol Communist Youth League. He was pretty straight laced. Never a hair out of place. (INSERT PICUTRE OF MYKOLA AT YT HERE.) Mykola made it into the capital city and was climbing the ladder as any self-respecting tool.

Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. It was ratified 18 years ago today on August 24, 1991. Mykola kept working at the State Television news operation. It was not only the biggest game in town, it was pretty much the only game in town. A few small channels had started to spring up by 1992, but very few were actually producing news shows.

I'd known Mykola from the air, then I'd been introduced to him at a few functions around town. As we started to pull together the International Media Center, and as we collected a larger and larger critical mass of people, a few of us sat down with Mykola.

This year, he told me that he could never forget me, since I was the person who "перевернула мені мозґи." Who turned his brains upside-down, and convinced him to leave his stable job and State Television to walk down the street and join us in creating an alternative.

At the time I didn't understand the significance of the move. I was fresh out of college, convinced that democracy would prevail. I had little to lose: no mortgage,no family, no career reputation. I had time and I had optimism.

Now (with kids, career, and mortgage), I see the situation differently. Mykola quit his job to work for something that barely existed. I'm certain that he must have left a safety net of some sort for himself, but the did make the move.

At the International Media Center, he developed, launched and let a TV news show called 'Вікна' (Windows). He later moved it to other channels. It became quite popular. The show is still on the air.

After a few years, he 'put television on a shelf,' and embarked on a new career being a real-estate developer full-time. Last summer, he invited me back for dinner.