Today at 16:01
1995 is the year in which Ukrainians master the Internet, and the pager. The fate of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is also being decided.
We tell about it in the new issue of the documentary series “30 years of Independence” on the UA TV channel.
The one million karbovanets note is the largest denomination for paper money in the history of independent Ukraine. Inflation was raging in the country. The average salary of a simple engineer in a factory has increased fivefold in a year, from one and a half million Karbovanets to seven and a half. At the same time, this money could be used to buy almost twice as few products as a year before.
Formally, all Ukrainians were millionaires. Just a million meant less than ten dollars.
To calm the exchange rate, the National Bank was trying to stop foreign currency payments everywhere. Dollar price tags would be still common for many stores. But the idea does not find support even in the government.
The ban on currency settlements is opposed by everyone – from shops to customers.
It was in 1995 that Ukrainians went en masse to work abroad. However, at the same time, there were already companies in Ukraine where one could make money. The “boom” of “European-style” windows began as well. And some of them are not produced abroad.
1995 was also marked by the influx of pagers, computers, and the advent of the Internet.
“Before 1993, 1994, 1995, there was definitely no office in Kyiv without computers, and in 1991 there was no office where there were computers” – said economist Mykhailo Kukhar.
The most advanced reason why a computer was bought in the mid-90s was the Internet.
In 1995, an Internet boom took place in Kyiv – the first exhibition of providers and a dozen Internet sites. Ukrainian sites did not yet exist. But they have already been assigned the UA domain in advance. In 1995 GOV.UA was added – for administrative sites, also future, and COM.UA – for business portals, which will be useful in 1996.
Also in 1995, newspapers actively advertised a new marvel of technology – the pager. The “electronic box” could receive text messages. But to answer them, one had to look for a landline and call back.
The first pagers cost USD 100. They were so popular with taxi services that they survived even in the era of cell-phones. The last pager in Ukraine was turned off in 2011. In Japan – in general in 2019.
Bill and Hillary Clintons also paid a two-day visit to Ukraine this year.
Also in 1995, Kyiv signed a schedule with the EU and the G7 to close the Chornobyl nuclear power station.
