Foreign “Buyers,” Funny Money and Chaos in Ukraine's First Year of Freedom

In 1992, the Ukrainian port city of Mykolayiv suddenly opened to the world. It was a year after the country gained its independence and the times were heady—but also precarious. With no experience in international marketing and almost no one able to speak English, Ukraine’s new freedom left people vulnerable to outsiders who understood the system far better than they did. This personal…