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6 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 1999No. 3THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLYEighty years agoBefore Ukraine’s Parliament adopted the Act of Declaration of the Independenceof Ukraine on August 24, 1991, Ukrainians around the world faithfully celebratedJanuary 22 as Independence Day. Indeed, what started as local observances grewinto national events, with Ukrainian businesses and schools being closed in honor ofthe day and government officials issuing proclamations on the occasion – the netresult being that the dream of Ukrainian independence was kept alive.Then, soon after the 1991 proclamation of independence, which was confirmedby the people of Ukraine in a nationwide referendum later that year, the governmentof Ukraine declared that August 24 would be celebrated as Ukrainian IndependenceDay. The diaspora followed suit.This year, however, is a particularly important anniversary of our originalUkrainian Independence Day, as it marks the 80th anniversary of the January 22,1919, Act of Union that joined all Ukrainians lands into one Ukrainian NationalRepublic. The act came one year to the day after the Ukrainian National Republichad been declared in Kyiv and two months, three weeks after independence wasproclaimed in western Ukraine on November 1, 1918.This historic union occurred at a time of great chaos: the collapse of authority,social turmoil and war (during this period six different armies occupied Ukrainianterritory). It came after the Ukrainian National Rada, the representative assembly ofthe Western Ukrainian National Republic, voted on January 4, 1919, in Stanyslavivto unite with their compatriots in Kyiv. The official Act of Union was proclaimed onJanuary 22 in St. Sophia Square in Kyiv, and was confirmed by the Labor Congress,the de facto Ukrainian Parliament, six days later.To be sure, this Ukrainian independence did not last long, falling victim to variousinternal factors (inexperience of political leaders, and, most significantly, thefact that state-building began while nation-building was in its infancy) and externalelements (the superior military forces of Poland in the west and Bolshevik Russia inthe east, and the inability of the Ukrainians to secure theEntente’s recognition).Two historians, authors of recently published histories of Ukraine, argue that theUkrainian revolution was not a failure, however.Orest Subtelny underlines: “National consciousness, which had been limited to apart of the intelligentsia, spread to all segments of Ukrainian society” and “the riseof Ukrainian governments taught peasants to identify themselves as ‘Ukrainians.’ ...[Thus] the upheaval of 1917-1920 was not only a socioeconomic but also a nationalrevolution.”Paul R. Magocsi argues that “even if these efforts did not bring about the hopedforindependence, the revolutionary experience itself instilled in Ukrainians a firmsense of national purpose, achieved, moreover, not after several generations ofpeacetime cultural work, but in less than half a decade. From such a perspective, theUkrainian revolution was a remarkable success.”So, as the 80th anniversary date of the Act of Union approaches, it is fitting toask: which independence day should be celebrate? Surely, the answer is August 24.However, can we forget the historic events of January 22, 1918, November 1, 1918,and January 22, 1919, and we might add, June 30, 1941, when a short-livedUkrainian state was announced by the faction of the Organization of UkrainianNationalists led by Stepan Bandera? Just as surely, the answer is “no.”All these dates in the history of the homeland to which we trace our roots are significant;all were steps on the way to the independence ultimately achieved onAugust 24, 1991, and confirmed overwhelmingly by the multi-ethnic population ofUkraine in a plebiscite on December 1, 1991. Let us mark this milestone anniversary,then, by reflecting on where Ukraine has been and where it is headed.January171869Turning the pages back...The name of Ivan Trush is synonymous with westernUkrainian painting, his stature equalled only by OleksanderNovakivsky. His impressionistic landscapes seem at once indescribablyfamiliar and uncannily idiosyncratic.Trush was born on January 17, 1869, in Vysotske, a village in Brody county about 60miles east of Lviv. He studied at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts from 1891 to 1897,then moved to Lviv, where he was active in Ukrainian community life and artistic circles.He married Mykola Drahomanov’s daughter, Ariadna, and was a close friend of thewriter and scholar Ivan Franko.His first solo show was held in Lviv in 1899. That year he also participated in the firstexhibition organized by the Society for the Advancement of Ruthenian Art, founded in1898. In 1904, together with the historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky, he founded the Societyof Friends of Ukrainian Scholarship, Literature and Art, and that summer organized aschool for Ukrainians from the Russian Empire. The following year he founded and copublishedthe first Ukrainian art magazine, Artystychnyi Vistnyk, also serving as its editor.Trush contributed articles on art and literature to journals such as Literaturno-Naukovyi Vistnyk, Moloda Ukraina and Ukrainische Rundschau, as well as the newspaperDilo. Trush also travelled widely, visiting Kyiv on several occasions (where he lecturedat Mykola Murashko’s school in 1901), living briefly in Crimea (1901-1904),sojourning in Italy (1902, 1908) and travelling to Egypt and Palestine (1912).Trush painted over 6,000 works, noted, according to Sviatoslav Hordynsky, for hisoriginal use of color. He is known primarily for his landscapes and genre paintings offolk scenes, but also painted portraits for the Shevchenko Scientific Society, producinglikenesses of Volodymyr Antonovych, Mykola Drahomanov, Ivan Franko, BorysHrinchenko, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Mykola Lysenko, Cardinal Sylvester Sembratovych,Vasyl Stefanyk and Lesia Ukrainka.Trush died in Lviv on March 22, 1941.Source: “Trush, Ivan,” Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vol. 5 (Toronto: University of TorontoPress, 1993).NEWS AND VIEWSOur community and the press:showcasing our strengthsby Alexander B. KuzmaThe recently convened Ukrainian WorldCongress adopted the slogan “A StrongDiaspora – A Strong Nation.” If taken literally,the slogan seems to miss the mark.Neither Ukraine nor the diaspora are nearlyas strong as we would like to see thembecome. Still, the vision of a strong nationand a strong diaspora is something weurgently need to cultivate. Instead oflamenting the degree to which Ukraineand we ourselves have fallen short of ourloftiest dreams and expectations, the congresschallenged us to keep the dreamalive, to defy our nagging fatalism, to seeour glass as half full, but not empty orbereft of promise.At a time when too many of our traditionalleaders seem resigned to aninevitable decline in our community institutions,the Ukrainian World Congress andlast year’s The Year 2020 Conference inNew Jersey encouraged us to take a freshlook at our potential, to recognize ourstrengths, to build on those strengths, andto articulate a vision for the future.A critical element that typically isabsent from our community life is thedevelopment of an effective media strategy.We would love to see the worldacknowledge the beauty of Ukrainian artand culture, to know more about theTerror-Famine, about Chornobyl, about thevalor of our national martyrs and the heroismof our forefathers. We would love tosee the media give proper credit to thecontributions Ukrainians have made in thefields of science, literature and business.But for some infuriating reason, we thinkit’s the media’s job to find us rather thanour job to reach out to the media and makesure that our story gets told. Nothingbetrays the diaspora’s low self-esteem asmuch as its failure to aggressively pursueoutside media coverage of its activities.The seventh conclave of the UkrainianWorld Congress was a glaring case inpoint. According to several organizers withwhom I spoke, there was never anyattempt made to attract the Canadian orinternational newsmedia to the Decembercongress. For the life of me, I can’t understandwhy.The Ukrainian World Congress was agolden opportunity to draw attention to theUkrainian diaspora, to showcase its diversity,its resiliency, its valiant effort to overcomecenturies of oppression by keepingits heritage and culture alive. At its height,there were over 500 delegates from 13countries around the world – some from asfar away as Argentina, Brazil andAustralia.Multiculturalism is a hot topic inCanada these days, and for journalists andfeature writers looking for some new“angle” to cover, here was a treasure troveof fascinating subtexts to explore:1) the changing role of the diaspora insupporting an independent Ukraine;2) the common bonds and the contrastamong persons of Ukrainian origin livingin Canada, Brazil, Poland and Russia;3) exposure of discriminatory policiesand persecution inflicted upon ethnicUkrainians in Russia, Poland and Slovakia(coupled with a sidebar on religious andethnic tolerance, which is prevalent inUkraine today);4) the efforts of Ukrainian women’sorganizations to combat international sexAlexander B. Kuzma is director of developmentfor the Children of ChornobylRelief Fund.slave trafficking and to elevate the statusof women in post-Soviet society (thiswould have tied in perfectly with an articlethat ran in the Toronto Sunday Star on thefinal day of the Congress);5) the impressive variety and potentialimpact of humanitarian aid and technicalassistance programs marshalled byUkrainian organizations around the globe;6) the challenges facing our communityin attracting younger, more professionalcadres to our ranks.The list goes on.There were human interest storiesgalore: Ivan Drach, Yaroslava Stetsko,people at the center of Ukraine’s strugglefor a political and cultural renaissance.Even on the most parochial level, theUkrainian World Congress could haveexploited the “local angle” by appealing tothe pride of Toronto’s business elite and itsmedia who rightly boast that Toronto hasbecome one of North America’s mosturban cities. Here was Toronto provingonce again that its reputation as an internationalmecca is well-deserved, as it hostedan important gathering of Ukrainians fromaround the world to discuss the fate ofEurope’s cornerstone nation.Surely, this was a newsworthy event forsomeone other than The UkrainianWeekly. The Weekly is a precious sourceof information for our community, but itcannot be expected to reach the millions ofCanadians who read the Toronto Globeand Mail. Yet five days went by with nopress conference or press release to alertthe rest of the world that such a congresswas under way. As far as the Canadianpublic and news services were concerned,the congress never happened! It was utterlyand inexcusably invisible.There are those who enjoy blaming thepress for its failure to cover our communityevents when we have only ourselves toblame. With thousands of potential newsstories vying for the attention of assignmenteditors each day, we cannot expectour programs to get automatic coverage.We must take the initiative to go out and“make the story happen.” Even in theabsence of a sophisticated press strategy,there is a simple set of mechanical stepswe can follow to achieve at least modestsuccess:• appoint a press coordinator and makehim/her accountable for systematic andassertive outreach to the mainstream press;• prepare a press release at least fivedays before the event is to take place;• make follow-up phone calls to makesure that the event in question is on theeditors’ radar screen and not simply buriedunder a stack of 50 competing bulletinsand faxes.There is a fourth principle that shouldbe adhered to: Ukrainian organizationsneed to get into the habit of cultivatingrelationships with individual reporters andeven editors in their local communities,testing their receptiveness to various newsstories. As we enter into an ongoing dialogueand gain a better understanding ofeditors’ priorities, we will learn how toexpress our concerns and articulate ourvision from their perspective.Whether our press releases are ignoredor not, we need to constantly remind themedia that Ukraine is one of the mostimportant countries in the world. Some ofthe most respected foreign policy gurus,from Henry Kissinger to ZbigniewBrzezinski have called it “the strategiclynchpin” of the former Soviet Union.(Continued on page 12)
No. 3THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 1999 7LETTERS TO THE EDITORUACC, democracy,Kuropas columnDear Editor:In his column in The Ukrainian Weeklyof December 13, 1998, Myron B. Kuropassuggests that the UACC should “stoptrolling for power and cut bait.”I would like to remind Dr. Kuropas thatthe Ukrainian American CoordinatingCouncil serves as an umbrella organizationrepresenting that section of the Ukrainiandiaspora in the United States that, for example,recognized the writer and politicalleader Ivan Bahrianyj and Gen. PetroGrigorenko, and supported publication ofthe Encyclopedia of Ukraine and funding ofthe Ukrainian Research Institute at HarvardUniversity as very important milestones onthe way to our better future.The other section of this diaspora underthe actual leadership of Banderite faction ofthe Organization of Ukrainian Nationalistswas overly critical, unsupportive or downrighthostile in all these and many otherinstances.The OUN (B) claims that its politicalplatform is superior, integral and uncompromising.Such a platform rationalizes therejection of the need to form a unified representationbased on cooperation and consensuswith other patriotic groups or parties.This attitude was responsible for thedecision by the OUN(B)’s twin, theCongress of Ukrainian Nationalists inUkraine, to go into the parliamentary electionsin March 1998 all alone, instead ofeither forming or joining a patriotic bloc.This party received a mere 2.7 percent ofthe votes cast. In a close election, where theCommunists were the main opponents tothe patriotic camp, that 2.7 percent wasquite significant, but in accordance withelection rules that stipulated a 4 percent barrierfor parties to win seats, all was lost anda major part of power went to theCommunists. What a strange and tragic turnof events.Dr. Kuropas’ suggestions to the UACC,the Ukrainian National Association and theUkrainian Fraternal Association to cut baitor proclaim neutrality are quite odious. Thepillars of a democratic society are not unanimity,unison or neutrality, but a continuousdialogue and competition among differentparties in order to correctly define andproperly solve existing or arising problems.We all have the right to “stand up and becounted.” We all should be able to acceptand learn from constructive criticism. Wemay have “to put a dent in a high hat or ahole in a stuffed shirt,” but that’s whatdemocracy is all about.Roman LazarchukWarren, Mich.An appreciationof pastoral letterDear Editor:Truly, The Weekly is a newspaper ofrecord for Ukrainians everywhere. Thanksmuch for publishing the Christmas pastoralmessage from the U.S. UkrainianCatholic Metropolitanate (“Preparing forthe most precious gift,” December 20,1998). I don’t live in the Archeparchy ofPhiladelphia, and otherwise would nothave had benefit of that inspiration. It isone of the most beautiful tracts on God’sboundless love for His people that I haveever read. It is correctly inclusionary. Andit “sings” almost entirely from Scripture,with very little theological construction.The deification (divinization) leitmotif isthe centerpiece of our Eastern Christiantheology.I was sufficiently moved by the messagefrom Archbishop Stephen and BishopWalter to share it with many Latin-ritepriests and deacons in the Mansfield deaneryof the Toledo Diocese, to their verygrateful reception. We do have so much ofour Church tradition to share with the West,and the Church must breath with both lungsfor optimum health. The Weekly facilitatesthe sharing process.Prayerfully wishing you the continuedpeace and joy of Christmas.Christ is Born! Glorify Him!Oles CherenMansfield, OhioThe writer is founder of the CatholicJustice Fellowship.Congratulationson yearend issueDear Editor:I’d like to congratulate you and yourstaff on the splendid, record-settingyearend issue. Forty-four pages, wow!I’ve kept copies of almost all “Year inReview” supplements since 1982, whenthey were only eight pages. The 1998close-out 32-page insert was not only thelargest ever, but also the most thoroughand the most interesting.It is obvious that every one of TheWeekly editorial personnel put in a lot ofextra hard work on this issue. I hope theywere properly rewarded by St. Nicholas!All best wishes to The Weekly stafffor 1999!Dear Editor:Ingert KuzychSpringfield, Va.Veterans proudof achievementsThank you for an outstanding Year inReview issue. All of us are very proud ofCmdr. Stephen L. Szyska of the U.S. Navywho assumed command of a submarine.We are also very proud of Brig. Gen.Donald W. Hrynyshyn who was awardedthe Legion of Merit medal. We would alsolike to commend all those who participatedas Ukrainian interpreters this past year.The Ukrainian American MilitaryAssociation (UAMA) is a group of activeand reserve personnel in the U.S. ArmedForces who have taken the Ukrainian languagetest and who provide linguistic supportto combat and medical missions toUkraine. The number of missions increasesevery year and in fiscal year 1998, therewere over 75 missions authorized.The UAMA is proud to be officiallyaffiliated with the Ukrainian AmericanVeterans (UAV). The UAV unites veteranswho have served in the U.S. armed forces.We in the UAMA/UAV encourage allactive/reserve and veterans to join us orform a UAV post. If you areactive/reserve, and would like to receivee-mail, let Maj. Yuri Holowinsky know at:ybh1234@aol.com. If you would like toform a post with the UAV, send an e-mailto Golash_Roman@compuserve.com.The 52nd Convention of the UAV will beheld September 24-26 in Chicago. TheUAMA will also hold its meeting thatweekend, on September 25.Roman G. GolashSchaumburg, Ill.The writer is a major in the U.S. ArmyReserves, president of the UAMA andcommander of UAV Post 32, Chicago.PERSPECTIVESBY ANDREW FEDYNSKYHow many ways can you spell slave?Until quite recently, one of the constantsocial factors in Ukrainian life hasbeen slavery. It’s rarely discussed, butthere it is: for most of their thousandyearhistory, large numbers of Ukrainianshave been slaves, starting with KyivanRus’, which had a regular slave marketand a complex legal code to define theinstitution. After Rus’ disappeared in the13th century, generation after generationof Ukrainians was harnessed into serfdom,first under the Poles, later theRussians and Austrians.The people called it “panschyna,”from “pan,” the Polish word for master.Serfdom, of course, was commonthroughout Europe. It’s a form of slaverywhere people are bound – “prykripleni” –to the land hence another word for serfdom:“kripatstvo.” The poet, TarasShevchenko, for example, was a “kripak”– a serf. He belonged to the land. Theland, with everything and every livingcreature on it, belonged to the master.The serfs worked for him. He told themwhat to do. He could punish and reward.He was the master. They were the slaves.In the 16th and 17th centuries, manyUkrainians laboring on the vast estates ofPolish masters fled east to the wide opensteppes, where land was plentiful andpeople could be free. Here, though,another danger lurked. Tatars – descendantsof the Mongols who had destroyedKyiv in 1240 – raided Ukrainian settlementsand took captives to Kaffa to besold at a huge slave market for the laborhungryimperial economy of the OttomanTurks.One famous captive was Roksolana,the daughter of a Galician priest. Shebecame the concubine and later theexclusive wife of the greatest of sultans,Suleiman the Magnificent. She was theexception.Most captives ended up as laborers,gallery slaves or janissaries (“yanychary”)– children taken captive andraised to be soldiers in an elite unit of thesultan’s army. To fight the Tatars,Ukrainians organized themselves into apotent self-defense force: theZaporozhian Kozaks, the freewheeling,bawdy, robust warriors of legend whocontinue to epitomize the Ukrainian selfimagemuch more so than slavery. Someof Shevchenko’s most stirring poems,especially “Hamaliia,” recount theKozaks’ daring, sea-borne raids toIstanbul to free their brethren.Alongside slavery, the other recurringfactor in Ukrainian history is anarchy.Brutal, often deliberately cruel treatment,coupled with callous disdain forUkrainian religious beliefs, stoked theserfs’ resentment, which periodicallyexploded into violent uprisings.The most famous was in 1648 whenBohdan Khmelnytskyi, an aging officerof the officially sanctioned “registeredKozaks,” sustained a grave injustice andraised the Kozaks in rebellion against theruling Poles. Like Wat Tyler’s 14th centurypeasant revolt in England, theFrench Revolution in 1789 or NatTurner’s 1831 Rebellion in Virginia,Ukrainian peasants seized the opportunityof Khmelnytskyi’s rebellion to getimmediate, bloody revenge on their tormentors– in this case the Polish “pany”and their overseers.Everyone, including Khmelnytskyi,was astonished when revenge turned intonational revolution: “Up to now,” hesaid, “I have fought because of thewrongs done to me personally ... but bythe will of God I have become the independentruler of Rus.’”It was not to last and within a centuryimperial Russia smothered the Kozakmovement and Ukrainian autonomyentirely. A deeper, more onerous andcruel version of serfdom was imposed,combined with a ban on Ukrainian culturalexpression. Not surprisingly, thepeasants rose up again and again, grabbingwhatever sharp tools they could tocut down the master, plunder his propertyand burn down the manor. For nearly twocenturies, that was the extent ofUkraine’s political program.Serfdom was abolished in the AustrianEmpire in 1848 and in the RussianEmpire in 1861, but Ukrainian peasantsliving in these imperial territories werenever given adequate land to survive. Inwestern Ukraine people responded withmass emigration. In tsarist-ruled Ukraine,it led to revolution in 1917. There, half adozen armies struggled for the next threeyears, once again spawning bloody anarchy.When the dust settled, Moscow wasback in control.In 1932, Stalin brought back serfdomin the form of collective farms. In theSiberian labor camps, he instituted outrightslavery. In 1941, the Nazis invadedUkraine and forced 2 million Ukrainianmen and women to work in Germany’sfactories and farms. Credit the 20th centurywith crafting three new words forslave: “kolhospnyk,” “katorzhnyk” and“Ostarbeiter.”Today, Ukraine is independent andfree. The vast majority of its citizens aredescended from slaves. Many former collectivefarm workers or labor campinmates had first-hand experience withslavery. What impact does all that haveon Ukraine? The result, I’m afraid, isanarchy yet again, a situation where lawlessnessprevails, where the goal is toplunder whatever you can while you can.Just consider: high government officialssiphon funds into Swiss bankaccounts. Middle-level bureaucrats solicitbribes every time a permit or licenseneeds a rubber stamp. A shadowy“mafia” demands protection money.The Verkhovna Rada resists meaningfulreform, while changing the rules forbusiness any time a majority sees achance for short-term advantage.People, caught up in the turmoil, avoidthe normal political process and keeptheir heads down for fear they’ll be cutoff. No wonder so many seek visasthrough honest channels or corrupt toemigrate to America or Canada.Is all, then, lost? Is Ukraine destinedto repeat the historic pattern of slavery,followed by anarchy, then followed byslavery once again? I think not. To besure, there is anarchy of a sort, but nothingremotely like the catastrophes thathistory records, and there are many positivefactors to which one can point.For the first time in centuries, Ukraineas a nation is ruling itself and, despite itsproblems, continues to follow some fundamentalrules set by the InternationalMonetary Fund, something Ukraine’sneighbor, Russia, is unable to do thus far.In contrast to the collapsed Russian(Continued on page 10)
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