Ukrainian director and director of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Music and Drama Theater named after. Ivan Franko Rostislav Derzhipilsky shared what his life was like in Kyiv. At one time, the artist moved to the capital from his native Kosovo (Ivano-Frankivsk region), but was able to stay here only for three years, because he felt that the city was very much Russified. “I have an organic Ukrainian language, and Russian is very funny, although I could speak it because we lived in Chernivtsi for a very long time, and at one time this was a fairly Russian-speaking city. I remember how nervous I was in front of the door, I thought I’d go to the casting and say: “Hello, Rostislav Derzhipilsky,” so that I could later become famous. But I walked up to the door, opened it and couldn’t say “hello”. He said: “Good afternoon, Rostislav Derzhipilsky from Kosovo, Ivano-Frankivsk region,” the artist shared.

According to Rostislav Derzhipilsky, people often asked him if he spoke Russian. When the director noted that he was doing it very poorly, I heard the same questions: “Why? You don't want?

“I couldn’t tell them that my “Banders” in the mountains would curse me if they heard that I spoke the language of the aggressor - the one who came in the 1940-1950s, drove out, destroyed, killed, raped. I would betray them! I knew all this because my grandfather was a Bandera member, and in 1949, when my mother was nine months old, they were evicted. I’m scared to imagine what happened to my grandmother, who was forced to leave the baby to strangers because she understood that she would not survive in those carriages.

I understood that I couldn’t afford to commit treason,” said the head of the Frankovsky Drama Theater.

In general, Rostislav Derzhipilsky was able to live in Kyiv for three years. The director admitted that this period became very important in the development of his career, but he could not stay in the city longer.

“The capital at that time was almost completely Russian-speaking and Russified, and I understood that I could not do anything. It destroyed me from the inside, so I deliberately left Kyiv,” said the People’s Artist of Ukraine.