"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT"
An International Newsletter
In-Depth Ukrainian News, Analysis, and Commentary
"The Art of Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"
WEEKEND EDITION
Samuel Adams, Yulian Bachynsky, Nikolai Gogol, Taras Shevchenko
Chernobyl; Torahs and the Holocaust, The Oldest Ukrainian,
Ukrainians in the Czech Republic, Resettlement of Ukrainians in 1941
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" Year 04, Number 173
The Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC), Washington, D.C.
Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA), Huntingdon Valley, PA
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net (ARTUIS)
Washington, D.C.; Kyiv, Ukraine, SUNDAY, September 26, 2004
-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. "SAMUEL ADAMS:
UKRAINE'S CONTRIBUTION TO AMERICAN LIBERTY"
His birth name was Samyilo Adamovich, his father came from near Lviv
By Volodymyr Senchenko, The Ukrainian Observer, Issue: 199
The Willard Group, Kyiv, Ukraine, September 2004
2. "YULIAN BACHYNSKY'S STRUGGLE FOR
UKRAINIAN INDEPENDENCE"
By Denis Kiriukhin, Candidate of Sciences (Philosophy)
Hryhory Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy
National Academy of Sciences, Kyiv, Ukraine
The Day Weekly Digest in English, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, 22 June 2004
3. "UKRAINE'S NATIONAL FAIR A HISTORIC TREAT"
Ukraine's eastern Poltava region hosts thousands at Sorochintsy Fair
The fair owes a heavy debt to Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol for success.
By Yulia Pushko, The Ukrainian Observer, Issue: 199
The Willard Group, Kyiv, Ukraine, September 2004
4. "HOW MANY MONUMENTS TO THE BARD ARE THERE?"
Taras Shevchenko as a symbol of Ukraine and all Ukrainians
Interview with Oleksandr Kucheruk
By Svitlana Bozhko, Special for The Day
The Day Weekly Digest in English, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, Sep 21, 2004
5. "CHERNOBYL COMES OF AGE: MELTING MYTHS"
By Roger Bate, National Review Online
Washington, D.C., Thursday, September 23, 2004
6. "A MISSION TO SALVAGE HOLY MESSAGE"
Wheaton Rabbi Scours World for Torahs Buried, Hidden During Holocaust
Digging on a farm in Ukraine to find Torahs, sacred handwritten scrolls
Katherine Shaver, Kyiv Post Staff Writer
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., Friday, Sep 24, 2004
7. "COUNTRY'S OLDEST LIVING PERSON ENJOYS LIFE,
PRAYS FOR PEACE, DOMNA TUREVYCH"
Lives in her rural home in the tiny village of Chersk, in Volyn Oblast
By Yulianna Vilkos, Kyiv Post Staff Writer
Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, Sep 22, 2004 23:19
8. "STRIVING FOR A BRIGHT FUTURE"
Ukrainians come to Czech Republic seeking work but few put down roots
By S. Adam Cardais, For The Prague Post
The Prague Post, Prague, Czech Republic, Thu, Sep16, 2004
9. UKRAINE HOPES FOR POLAND'S APPROPRIATE EVALUATION
OF RESETTLEMENT OF UKRAINIANS IN 1941
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, September 23, 2004
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.173: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
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1. "SAMUEL ADAMS:
UKRAINE'S CONTRIBUTION TO AMERICAN LIBERTY"
His birth name was Samyilo Adamovich, his father came from near Lviv
By Volodymyr Senchenko, The Ukrainian Observer, Issue: 199
The Willard Group, Kyiv, Ukraine, September 2004
Usually, discoveries dwell on the turf reserved for scientists, who add to
our knowledge of nature or exploit hidden underground mineral wealth. Some
discoveries change the way we live forever, challenging our belief systems,
improving our lifestyles and extending our lives. Sometimes, discoveries are
transient, shining only briefly before being forgotten - either because more
meaningful advances quickly overshadowed them, or because they were
darkly suppressed for political, social or religious reasons.
Today, Ukraine is in the process of rediscovering aspects of its rich
culture and history that have been suppressed. Ukraine's new independence
has ushered in a revival of interest in knowledge previously denied, often
for a century or more.
Historians are re-examining documents in an effort to shed new light on
events that had been repressed, to separate truth from politically inspired
fiction and to give new interpretations to well-known historical events. In
short, Ukrainian scholars are striving to recover a nation's lost or
forbidden past in an effort to shed greater light on an emerging national
identity.
In so doing, they have unearthed the amazing facts and compelling
personalities that are redefining their motherland. One such recent
discovery is the role an ethnic Ukrainian had on the birth of the United
States.
Americans know the history of their Constitution well. It would not be an
overestimation to claim that many other peoples of the world know and
appreciate it as well. For decades, this document has been a guiding star,
an example others strive to follow.
Taras Shevchenko dreamed of the time when Ukraine would have its own
George Washington, and that dream was echoed by U.S. President Bill
Clinton, in a speech to the students of Kyiv's Taras Shevchenko-Kyiv State
University, when he said, "One day, you will have your own Washington."
Few know that a Ukrainian - more precisely, an American citizen of Ukrainian
descent - was among the men known as the United States' "founding fathers."
He is known as Samuel Adams, but his birth name was Samyilo Adamovich.
Samyilo's father came from a town located not far from L'viv. After the
Russian-Swedish War in 1708, he moved to London (some historians think
he probably escaped with the assistance of Sweden's ally, Hetman Mazepa).
While in London, he changed his last name to the more natural "Adams."
Later, Adamovich and his family went to seek their fortune in the New World.
In 1722, Samiylo was born in Boston. By all accounts, Samuel was an
extraordinarily talented boy. He entered Harvard University, where he
received a doctorate in law. He started his career with a newspaper, where
he wrote patriotic articles. He headed a political organization called The
Sons of Liberty.
As the situation between colonists and Britain became worse, Adams
threatened that colonists would "take up weapons and fight to the last."
When the Continental Congress decided to form an army, it was Adams
who suggested that a Virginia planter named George Washington be
named to command it.
Even earlier, in 1772, Adams compiled The Declaration of Rights of
Colonists and The List of Violation of Rights. He is also largely the author
of the Bill of Rights, an integral part of the Constitution. In fact, two
Adams' helped draft the American Constitution - John and Samuel.
No one knows whether Samuel or his father knew about a draft constitution
written by Pylyp Orlyk in 1712. This document is better known as The Pact
and Constitution of Rights and Liberties of the Zaporizhian Army. It is one
of the oldest modern constitutions in the history of mankind, and quite
similar to the American Constitution, despite having been written on
different continents, under different circumstances and during different
times. Ukrainians can proudly claim to have been a part of both documents.
-30- LINK: www.Ukraine-Observer.com (ARTUIS Monitoring Service)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.173: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
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2. "YULIAN BACHYNSKY'S STRUGGLE FOR
UKRAINIAN INDEPENDENCE"
By Denis Kiriukhin, Candidate of Sciences (Philosophy)
Hryhory Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy
National Academy of Sciences, Kyiv, Ukraine
The Day Weekly Digest in English, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, 22 Jun 2004
According to Yulian Bachynsky, states strive for independence not to
isolate themselves from the outside world but to receive an impulse for
further cultural and economic development, which will eventually help
them to occupy a worthy place in the worldwide human family of the future.
People who live in post-Soviet countries may find it rather strange that the
shelves of any large New York bookstore are stacked with numerous books
on Marxism. What's more, these books are not anti-Marxist propaganda,
for they do not expose the fallacy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's
doctrines.
You can find not only the Marxist classics but also the latest serious
theoretical studies. Unfortunately, so far our own body of theoretical
thought can boast of few such achievements. A pity indeed! The "good" old
tradition, whereby every new ideology strives to pound into oblivion its
predecessor and everything related to it, continues to reign in our society.
So it was a pleasant exception to the rule to note that as part of its
Heritage Series, Osnovni Tsinnosti (Basic Values), a social-democratic
publishing house, has re-issued Yulian Bachynsky's book "Ukraina Irredenta."
In this work written in the late nineteenth century, Bachynsky was the first
author in the history of the Ukrainian national movement to argue that
Ukraine should be independent, and from the viewpoint of historical
materialism to boot.
Yulian Bachynsky, who was a member of the Ukrainian National Council,
chief of the Ukrainian People's Republic's Extraordinary Diplomatic Mission
to the USA, one of the founders and militants of the Russian-Ukrainian
Radical Party and later the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party, is little
known among historians and political scientists. Meanwhile, Bachynsky
was the first political thinker who sought to provide theoretical proof
of the necessity of Ukraine's independence.
Conflicting perceptions of Bachynsky, ranging from the deliberate
suppression of his work to the stereotypical image of the spiritual leader
of Ukrainian independence arose partly as a result of an underestimation
of the influence of socialist and social democratic ideas on the Ukrainian
national movement and the attempt by some right-wing political forces to
"privatize" the national idea. According to Kerstin Jobst, a German
researcher of Bachynsky's legacy at Hamburg's Bundeswehr University,
many of today's non-socialist political movements have created the
impression in society that they are the only "gallant fighters for an inde-
pendent Ukrainian state who are able to solve this problem both
theoretically and practically."
This attempt by certain political forces to privatize and eventually
mythologize and idealize history in order to legitimize their actions
transforms the history of the development of the Ukrainian national
movement into a history of ideas that often teeter on the brink of radical
ethno-nationalism and even thinly veiled Nazism. Bachynsky's "Ukraina
Irredenta" presents a different tradition.
Who was Yulian Bachynsky? He was born in 1870 in the Ternopil region into
a prominent ecclesiastical family. Yulian's father Oleksandr was chancellor
of the Greek Catholic metropolitan's assembly of cathedral clergy and rector
of Lviv's Greek Catholic seminary. The Bachynsky family, which lay claim to
the Sass coat-of-arms, was of noble origin. After graduating from Lviv
University's Law School, Bachynsky embarked on a political and journalistic
career.
In 1890 he joined the Russian-Ukrainian Radical Party, where together with
V. Budzynovsky, E. Levytsky and N. Hankevych he led its "youth"
(social-democratic) wing. As early as 1899 Bachynsky was one of the
co-founders of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party. In 1919 he attempted
to implement his idea of an independent Ukraine and went to Washington to
obtain the US government's recognition of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
After the failure of his mission, he stayed in Austria and Germany until
1934 and then decided to move to the USSR. Living in Kharkiv, he
collaborated with V. Yurnits and S. Rudnytsky on the editing of "The
Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia" until his arrest on the trumped-up charge
of membership in the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine. Sentenced to a
ten-year term, he died in a prison camp in 1940.
Bachynsky's assessment of Ukraine's sociopolitical and economic situation is
encapsulated in the very title of his book "Ukraina Irredenta," which sounds
very much like a political slogan. The word "irredenta" may be translated as
"unredeemed" or "non-reunified," and both translations are valid in this
case, which the author must have realized. The term derives from
"irredentism" (It. "irredento"- unredeemed), a well - known Italian
sociopolitical movement in the late twentieth century that sought to recover
for Italy some neighboring regions with a predominantly Italian population,
which were under Austrian-Hungarian control.
"Ukraina Irredenta" was first published in 1895 (later republished in 1900
and 1924), when the author was no more than twenty- five. The book's
epigraph, taken from the writings of Nikolai Chernyshevsky, extols the
perpetual change of forms and the rejection of all things transient and
obsolete. This motif is also discernible in Bachynsky's private life.
Although he was the son of a priest, he nonetheless took a tough
anticlerical stance in his book, asserting the transitory nature of
religion.
In doing so, he, like many of his confreres, rejected everything that he
considered outdated - with no regrets and quite in the spirit of
Chernyshevsky. This revolutionary romanticism and youthful, atheistic
maximalism, generously drawn from the works of revolutionary democrats,
often emerges in the text of "Ukraina Irredenta." The works of Karl Marx,
Friedrich Engels, and the Austrian Marxists had a dramatic impact on
Bachynsky's views. Historical materialism was not just a theoretical
groundwork on which Bachynsky developed his ideas.
The author did not view it as a dogma but primarily as a method of studying
social processes, which in fact led him to claim that he was not only taking
the impartial and unbiased position of a researcher simply recording the
"natural" course of social changes, but at the same time declaring that
Ukrainian independence is a natural historical stage.
At the beginning of his book Bachynsky explores the emergence of capitalist
relations and entrepreneurship, the conversion of Galician peasants into a
proletariat in the late nineteenth century, as well as the causes that led
to the emigration of Ukrainian peasants. He maintains that the state is a
form of domination of a certain class and simultaneously the defender of
this class's interests. Moreover, according to Bachynsky, state-sponsored
justice is "a kind of justice that serves the interests of certain classes
only, rather than some 'absolute' justice." Therefore, he views any
political struggle as the expression of an economic confrontation. These
principles formed the basis of Bachynsky's idea that Ukraine must gain its
independence.
The author of "Ukraina Irredenta" claims that the national idea is
essentially a bourgeois idea that emerges when the old feudal economic
system gives way to capitalist relations, i.e., when the bourgeoisie is in
fact being formed. In the new situation, the very logic of economic
relations demands that nation states be established in lieu of obsolescent
absolutist monarchies. According to Bachynsky, what knits a nation
together is common origin, not blood-based relations between its members.
Already in the late nineteenth century the author of "Ukraina Irredenta"
was asserting that the Ukrainian nation should be a political, rather than
ethnic, entity. He emphasizes that the struggle for Ukraine's political
independence concerns not only ethnic Ukrainians but all those who
inhabit Ukraine, "no matter whether he is an indigenous Ukrainian or a
Great Russian, Pole, Jew, or German."
Bachynsky notes that Ukraine was divided between two empires - the
Austro-Hungarian and Russian. This meant that the inevitable disintegration
of both empires in a new economic situation (he argues this point with a
number of historical examples) will lead to the formation of a Ukrainian
nation state, following the internecine struggle between the Ukrainian,
Russian and Polish bourgeoisie.
As for the Russian Empire, in "Ukraina Irredenta" Bachynsky maintained that
it lacked economic and hence political integrity. According to Bachynsky,
the Russian Empire was divided, in economic terms, into three territories -
Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian - which would eventually lay the groundwork
for independent states. (Incidentally, Bachynsky believed this would be of
greatest benefit to Ukraine, which was the most backward area and of the
least benefit to economically developed Poland).
So, according to "Ukraina Irredenta," aspiration for independence is
primarily based on considerations of economic benefit to entrepreneurial
circles. The author thus describes the struggle for independence that awaits
Ukraine in the future: "This will be a horrible time, the time of a terrible
ordeal and patience but, at the same time, the best time for the Ukrainian
bourgeoisie." However, the bourgeois strata appropriate the products of
social labor, thus forcing hired workers to fight for their rights and for a
society without class privileges.
Therefore, the formation of an independent Ukraine as a political
reinforcement of its economic independence is not the ultimate goal of
development. Capitalist relations logically evolve from national unity to
what Bachynsky calls "unity of a higher order," i.e., international and
global unity. This dovetails well with the overall logic of Marxist
ideology: as the division of society into classes brought forth the state,
so the decline of classes would bring down the state.
When Mykhailo Drahomanov asked Bachynsky what Ukraine would do
after gaining independence, he replied in no uncertain terms that this was
by no means the final stage of development. He claimed that the ultimate
historical goal is not the establishment of a nation state but the
prosperity of every individual for whom this state is in fact being created.
According to Bachynsky, states win independence in order not to isolate
themselves from the outside world, but to achieve better cultural and
economic development, as a result of which they will be able later to
occupy a worthy place in the future "worldwide human family."
It should be stressed that Bachynsky's views were not unusual for the times.
Ukrainian radicalism, a movement launched by Drahomanov, Ivan Franko,
and Mykhailo Pavlyk, was originally based on the aspiration to cultivate a
sense of dignity in the socially underprivileged strata. This required, in
the radicals' opinion, the improvement of education among peasants by
publishing books in their native, i.e., Ukrainian, language. Bachynsky also
insisted that hired labor should be organized for a liberation struggle on
social democratic foundations.
The book "Ukraina Irredenta" does not tally with conventional perceptions
of either Marxism or nationalism. Marxists take a dim view of it because it
promotes the idea of national independence, while nationalists dismiss it
because it asserts that the proclamation of political independence is not
the ultimate goal of the historical development of a people. Therefore, to a
great extent Bachynsky's book debunks the myths of the Ukrainian people's
national liberation struggle, which a number of political forces today are
naively trying to turn into a state ideology. -30-
LINK: www.day.kiev.ua/103; (ARTUIS Monitoring Service)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.173: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
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3. "UKRAINE'S NATIONAL FAIR A HISTORIC TREAT"
Ukraine's eastern Poltava region hosts thousands at Sorochintsy Yarmarok
The fair owes a heavy debt to Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol for success.
By Yulia Pushko, The Ukrainan Observer, Issue: 199
The Willard Group, Kyiv, Ukraine, September 2004
There is noise and motion everywhere when, for a few days each August,
a quiet village in Ukraine's eastern Poltava region hosts thousands at
Sorochintsy Yarmarok, the nation's official national fair.
Traditionally, the Sorochintsy fair focused on Ukrainian music and culture,
but it has evolved into something more akin to a modern fair. Music and
dance merge with competitions involving homegrown produce, homemade
crafts and commercial displays. Fairgoers have diverse options, from
munching fresh, hot verenyky and examining needlework to buying a new
dump truck.
This year, the national fair drew exhibits by more than 500 companies from
Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Moldova. Firms displayed consumer goods,
farm equipment and livestock. Perhaps the fair's biggest attraction is the
musicians, singers and dancers that bring it a carnival atmosphere.
Only about 4,000 people live in Bolshye Sorochintsy (Big Sorochintsy)
year-round, but the village 340 kilometers east of Kyiv is said to get as
many as a million visitors during the annual festival. Options for overnight
accommodations are limited in the village itself, where residents will rent
a room for as little as Hr 20 per night. Most visitors stay in hotels in
Mirgorod, a 30-minute drive away.
Sorochintsy Yarmarok was named the nation's official national fair in 1999,
but its history far pre-dates that. Legend has it that the fair can be
traced back to the Middle Ages and the Saracens, but it is without a doubt
one of the nation's oldest fairs, held each August to celebrate the harvest.
The fair owes a heavy debt to Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol for its
success. The 19th century novelist, who was born in the village,
immortalized the fair in his work. Gogol is best known for "Dead Souls,"
which many consider a masterpiece. Characters from the book are repre-
sented at the fair.
Actors dressed as Gogol's characters, include Khivrya, a villainous mother-
in-law, Cherevyk, her husband and a demon. The fair's opening ceremonies
are held at Khata Khivri (Khivrya's House). In addition to the theatrical
staging of Gogol's work, there are concerts each evening, fireworks, street
entertainers and dance demonstrations.
While the fair has its history and legends, the village where it is held has
its own as well. Sorochintsy traces its past to a Cossack legend. It is said
that Ukrainian Cossacks, who were battling to retake the Steppes from the
Turks, found many beautiful girls in the village. As it was impossible to
take the girls with them into battle, they decided to leave them at the
crossroads, looked after by 40 monks. The girls were pretty, and the
monks, it seems, were not as pious as the Cossacks believed. On the
warriors' victorious return, they found the girls' virtue had been
compromised, so to speak. The Cosacks' revenge was swift, and the
amorous monks were buried alive.
The crossroads has since been known as Sorochintsi, or "Forty monks."
today, the fairgrounds stand at those ancient crossroads. A large windmill
stands near Zhabokritskiy Square, where crafts and artwork is displayed
as it was in Gogol's day.
Gogol observed: "[F]ine fences are everywhere. Over them twine hop-vines,
upon them hang pots; from behind them the sunflowers show their sun-like
heads, poppies blush, fat pumpkins peep. All is luxury itself!"
Crafts are demonstrated in the khatas, village huts dating from the 18th
century. Fairgoers examine trucks, watermelon and embroidered vyshyvanka
shirts with equal interest, while others choose from several varieties of
pyrozhki or pose with a group of passing Cossacks, who, having just finished
dancing, are buying souvenirs to take home. It is sometimes difficult to
distinguish the performers from the audience in such a setting, and that may
be the point. The fair itself is a kind of theater with everyone taking a
part.
Gogol wrote: "Heavens! What is it that you cannot buy at this fair! Wheels,
glass, tar, tobacco, onions. All these merchants altogether."
What the modern fair lacks in tar sales, it makes up for in entertainment.
Two large venues are set aside for dancing, and the streets provide ample
space for the crows to gather around singers. All day and into the evening,
musicians play everything from pop tunes to folk songs to the marshal music
provided by the Emergencies Ministry band. Don't hear the musical style you
like? Walk a few meters or wait a minute, and you'll likely hear it.
Gogol penned: "The chorus of voices flood each other, not a single word
sounds distinct. The head swims, perplexed at what to see, what to do next."
Fairgoers everywhere know that food is part of the experience, and that is
no less true at Sorochintsi, where pirohy, holuptsi, varenyky, pampushki and
all sorts of pirozhki abound. There's a "beer city" as well, to help wash
down that extra order of shashlyk or fried fish.
Ukraine has been called Europe's breadbasket, and the baker's art is on
display as well. Fairgoers can sample a number of traditional Ukrainian
loaves, including korovaj, the wedding bread. This wheat bread with caraway
seeds is decorated with symbolic figurines, making it as interesting to view
as it is good to eat.
Visiting the Sorochintsy fair is an experience for the senses. To paraphrase
Gogol: "Heavens! What a well-to-do man I am! What is there that I have
seen not? Birds, buildings, granaries, everything I take a fancy to. Genuine
distilled vodka; pears and plums ...poppies, cabbages, peas. What is there
that I have not seen? I should like to know what there is that I have not
seen?" (Yulia Pushko is a journalist for Willard News Service, an online
publication.) -30- (ARTUIS Monitoring Service)
LINKS: www.wns.kiev.ua; www.ukraine-observer.com
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.173: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
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4.HOW MANY MONUMENTS TO THE BARD ARE THERE IN THE WORLD?
Taras Shevchenko as a symbol of Ukraine and all Ukrainians
Interview with Oleksandr Kucheruk
By Svitlana Bozhko, Special for The Day
The Day Weekly Digest in English, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, Sep 21, 2004
Wherever Ukrainians live, they put up monuments to the Bard. Are there any
statistics about the number of monuments to Taras Shevchenko? Who sees to it
that they are properly maintained? In an interview with The Day , Oleksandr
KUCHERUK, director of the O. Olzhych Library, who studies the phenomenon
of perpetuating Shevchenko' memory, recounts the story of various monuments.
"Oddly enough, the first monument to the Bard was unveiled not in Ukraine
but in what is now Kazakhstan (part of the Russian Empire at the time). In
1881 a Shevchenko bust, resting on a semicircular podium, was erected on
Mangyshlak Peninsula, where the poet did his punitive military service. The
monument was torn down in 1920 and restored seven years later."
(Q) "Was this the first sculptural image of Shevchenko?"
(A) "No. The first sculptural image was the work of the Ukrainian sculptor
F. Balavensky, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, who began
to sculpt from nature, when Taras Shevchenko was still alive. He completed
the work in 1862, after the poet's death. Later the well-known Russian
sculptor M. Mikeshin, who was personally acquainted with Shevchenko, also
tried to create a monument to the Bard. He planned to show the poet's figure
in a multi-figured monument to be erected in the city of Novgorod, but the
tsarist authorities banned the project. Incidentally, the monument to Bohdan
Khmelnytsky in downtown Kyiv would have looked entirely different had it not
been for lack of funds. Mikeshin's concept visualized the hetman surrounded
by a multi-figured composition with a kobza player resembling Shevchenko in
the center."
(Q) "When and in what city was the first monument to the poet erected in
Ukraine?"
(A) "The first marble bust was housed at the Kharkiv manor of the art patron
Kh. Alchevska back in 1889. In 1914, on the eve of the poet's centenary,
many towns and villages, especially in Western Ukraine, unveiled several
dozen monuments to Taras Shevchenko - mostly busts or small figures. Some
of them are still standing in spite of the decades that have passed, for
example, in Kolomiya, Kosiv, Vovchyntsi, Nadiyev, Zavadiv, etc. Manmade
mounds with small crosses on top may also be considered monuments to the
Bard. "The first large monument in Ukraine was created in 1918 in Romny, on
Bolshevik-controlled territory, by the well-known sculptor Ivan Kavaleridze.
That same year monuments to Shevchenko were unveiled in Moscow and
Petersburg (sculpted by S. Volnukhin and Y. Tilberg, respectively). Yet they
proved to be short-lived, for they were hastily created out of substandard
materials. The Romny monument was restored in bronze in 1981.
"So the authorities did not exactly suffer from 'monument-mania' with
respect to Shevchenko. For example, the poet was immortalized in a bronze
statue in Kharkiv as late as 1934, when his 120th anniversary was being
celebrated, and in 1939 in Kyiv. Lviv saw a monument to the Bard much
later."
(Q) "Monuments have been erected in almost every foreign city with a
Ukrainian diaspora, haven't they?"
(A) "In some cases the diaspora funded monuments, in others it was the
Soviet government that cared for and financed them. For instance, the
Shevchenko monument in Palermo, near Toronto, was a gift to Canadian
Ukrainians from the Soviet Ukrainian government in 1951. This town was
chosen because it had one of the largest communities of 'progressive,' to
use the buzzword of the time, Ukrainians, i.e., those who were pro-Soviet.
The pedestal bears a very distinctive inscription: 'From the Ukrainian
people to the Ukrainians of Canada.' In another Canadian city, Winnipeg, a
monument was unveiled on the occasion of the poet's 150th birth anniversary
through the efforts of the diaspora. Its sculptor was the Ukrainian- born
Canadian A. Drahan.
"Also interesting is the story of the Shevchenko monument in Washington, the
US capital. Although Ukrainian emigrants funded it, five US presidents were
involved in the project. President Harry Truman was honorary chairman of the
Taras Shevchenko Monument Committee, while the future president Ronald
Reagan was one of it members. President Dwight Eisenhower signed a Congress
bill into law. John F. Kennedy helped bring the concept to fruition, and
President Lyndon Johnson's special message was embedded into the monument's
pedestal. Another interesting detail: when the monument to our Bard was
being laid, workers used the same shovel that was used when the monuments to
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were being laid in the US capital."
"This means that seven, not five, presidents were directly or indirectly
involved in the Washington monument project. Incidentally, I have been to
the US capital and seen this monument. For some reason, it stands in an area
populated by sex minorities. Who chose such a strange location?"
"There is no evil plot here. It used to be quite a posh area, but times keep
changing. Areas get dilapidated and criminalized and Washington is no
different in this regard."
(Q) "Is there anyone in Ukraine who is monitoring the condition of
Shevchenko monuments abroad? Perhaps some of them need restoration?"
(A) "Unfortunately, no one is dealing with this here. There is still no
comprehensive list of monuments and commemorative signs to Taras
Shevchenko in Ukraine, let alone abroad."
(Q) "A Shevchenko monument was destroyed in 1993 in Romania after the
downfall of the communist regime. Do you know any other acts of vandalism?"
(A) "I cannot say this was an anti-Shevchenko act. The communists erected
the monument. After the Romanians overthrew the Ceausescu regime, they
crushed everything that reminded them of the Soviet Union and communism.
So the monument to our Taras Shevchenko fell victim to this destruction. But
Ukrainian embassy employees have told me that thanks to the Romanian
government's efforts, the monument to the Bard has been restored. As for
overt acts of vandalism against Shevchenko monuments, I haven't heard of
any."
(Q) "So in what cities are there monuments to Shevchenko?"
(A) "It's a long list. So I will only say that about half of European
capitals have monuments to Taras Shevchenko. They are also some in Brazil,
Argentina, the US, and Canada. Surprisingly, a statue to the Bard adorns
even the island of Malta. Apparently some Ukrainian community ordered a
sculpture from a famous local marble quarry. The community made a down
payment but failed to collect the remaining money. So the monument stayed
in Malta."
(Q) "And where is the most original monument?"
(A) "The monument in Rome is a novel interpretation of the Bard's figure.
Here Shevchenko is depicted as an ancient philosopher with his right hand
raised in a gesture of greeting. The author is the Italian sculptor U.
Mazei. The monument, which faces the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of St.
Sophia, was unveiled in 1973 in the presence of Ukrainian Catholic
hierarchs, clergy, and a large number of Ukrainians."
(Q) "And which monument in Ukraine is the best piece of art?"
(A) "The one in Kyiv. The monument was a highly professional endeavor, and
much attention was paid to such factors as location and landscape, not just
to the sculptural portrayal. Incidentally, before the revolution there was a
monument to a tsar in the place of today's Shevchenko monument. Then it was
removed, but the pedestal was left intact. When Mykhailo Hrushevsky died and
his body was brought to Kyiv for burial, there were problems with his
monument because of lack of money. A young, unknown sculptor named Ivan
Makohon agreed to take the job for a small sum of money. He decided to adorn
Hrushevsky's tomb with the stone that was originally meant for the tsar's
monument. The sculptor worked outdoors in Shevchenko Park. As soon as he
finished his work, the monument was taken to the cemetery. When the time
came to celebrate Shevchenko's 120th birth anniversary, it was decided to
erect a monument in the capital of Ukraine. It was difficult to find a
better place than the university park, where the tsar's statue once towered.
The Leningrad-based sculptor Matvei Manizer won the competition for the best
portrayal of the Bard. But when the monument was ready and brought to the
site, it turned out to be too small for this space. So the decision was made
to erect it in Kaniv. In Kyiv, the sculptor duplicated his work with a few
minor changes, making the figure two meters taller. This produced excellent
results!"
(Q) "And where have the latest monuments to the Bard been erected?"
(A) "In Warsaw, Minsk, and Brest. Incidentally, Belarus declared 2003 the
Year of Taras Shevchenko. One of the events was the unveiling of two
monuments to the great Bard." -30-
LINK: www.day.kiev.ua/103/; (ARTUIS Monitoring Service)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.173: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
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5. "CHERNOBYL COMES OF AGE: MELTING MYTHS"
By Roger Bate, National Review Online
Washington, D.C., Thursday, September 23, 2004
Eighteen years ago, the world's worst nuclear accident occurred. News-
paper reports at the time reflected the near-universal public hysteria: the
Daily Mail filled half its front page with the words "2000 DEAD"; the New
York Post claimed that 15,000 bodies had been bulldozed into nuclear
waste pits. But the overreaction to the accident caused far more harm
than the meltdown itself, as it mistakenly led to the halting of nuclear
programs in most Western countries, including the United States.
As Chernobyl comes of age, now seems like a good time to take an adult
assessment of the whole affair. UNSCEAR's (the United Nations Scientific
Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation) website tells a surprising
story: At 1:21 a.m. on April 25, 1986, the reactor crew at Chernobyl's
number four reactor ran a test to see how long the turbines would spin
following a power cut. It was known that this type of reactor was very
unstable at low power, and automatic shutdown mechanisms had been
disabled before the test. The flow of coolant water diminished, power
output increased, and when the operator tried to shut down the reactor
from its unstable condition arising from previous errors, a peculiarity in
the design caused a dramatic power surge.
The fuel elements ruptured and the resultant explosive force of steam lifted
the cover plate off of the reactor, releasing fission products into the
atmosphere. A second explosion threw out fragments of burning fuel and
graphite from the core and allowed air to rush in, causing the graphite
moderator to burst into flames. The graphite burned for nine days, releasing
a total of about 12 x 1018 becquerels of radioactivity--about 30 to 40 times
that of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It just could not be any worse: Corners had been cut from the very inception
of the reactor's design, right through construction, operation, and
maintenance. Training and safety procedures were negligible. The Supreme
Soviet that routinely disregarded human life was as negligent in nuclear-
reactor policy as it was in everything else. Even The Simpsons's woeful
nuclear power-plant owner, Mr. Burns, would have been ashamed of it.
The complete destruction of the reactor killed 31 people, including 28 from
radiation exposure, most of whom were firefighters working on the roof. A
further 209 people on site were treated for acute radiation poisoning and
134 cases were confirmed (all of whom recovered). Since then, an increase
in childhood thyroid cancer has been reported, although it is not certain
that this is not due to increased surveillance. There has been no other
increase in radiation-induced disease, congenital abnormalities, or adverse
pregnancy outcomes.
If this had been an ordinary industrial accident, safety standards would
have been improved, and that would have been the end of the story. For
instance, who (apart from those directly affected) remembers the explosion
at a fertilizer plant in Toulouse, France, in September 2001? It killed 30
people, injured more than 2000, and damaged or destroyed 3000 buildings.
No, the biggest tragedy of Chernobyl was that radioactivity was governed by
preposterous safety regulations that forced the authorities to take extreme
and damaging action against the very people they were trying to protect.
Until very recently, radiological protection (and chemical regulations)
depended on the linear no-threshold (LNT) theory. This says that, because
high levels of exposure can cause death, there is no safe lower limit. If
this sounds like a reasonable level of precaution, consider this: 750º F
will cause fatal burns, while 75º F is a lovely summer's day. Vitamin A is
an essential trace chemical in our diet but is toxic at high levels. The
dose makes the poison, for chemicals and for radiation.
On the basis of this false assumption, nearly 400,000 people were forcibly
evacuated from areas around Chernobyl where radiation was actually lower
than the normal background levels in Cornwall and five times lower than at
Grand Central Station in New York. To these poor unfortunates, there was
damage done. Psycho-social effects among the evacuees are emerging as a
major problem. Zbigniew Jaworowski, a medical adviser to the U.N. on the
effects of radiation, estimates that nearly five million people in the
former Soviet Union have been affected by severe psychological stress,
leading to psychosomatic diseases.
These include gastrointestinal and endocrinological disorders and are
similar to those arising from those that accompany other major disasters
such as earthquakes, floods, and fires. Perhaps saddest of all is that as
many as 200,000 "wanted" pregnancies ended in abortion, in order to
avoid non-existent radiation damage to the fetuses.
It may seem crass to talk about money in this context, but according to the
UNDP and UNICEF, over $100 billion was spent just in the Ukraine on
post-Chernobyl "public health" measures. Just imagine how much real good
could have been done with that much money. Furthermore, Jaworowksi says
that the cost to Belarus was about $86 billion. These are astonishing sums
for relatively poor former Communist countries.
Apportioning blame between the media and the Supreme Soviet is a difficult
task. But unfounded Western fears based on the LNT hypothesis undoubtedly
encouraged the Soviet mass evacuation program. Yet that inaccurate LNT
hypothesis still forms the basis of radiation thinking--and it's past time
that was changed. Nuclear power has dangers, which are less in terms of
actual deaths per unit energy produced than most other forms of energy
generation. But as long as this exaggerated image of Chernobyl endures,
people will continue to imagine the costs of nuclear energy to be far higher
than they really are. -30- (Roger Bate is a visiting fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute (AEI), a think-tank in Washington, D.C.)
LINK: http://www.aei.org/news/newsID.21273/news_detail.asp
(ARTUIS Monitoring Service)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.173: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
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6. "A MISSION TO SALVAGE HOLY MESSAGE"
Wheaton Rabbi Scours World for Torahs Buried, Hidden During Holocaust
Digging on a farm in Ukraine to find Torahs, sacred handwritten scrools
Katherine Shaver, Kyiv Post Staff Writer
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., Friday, Sep 24, 2004
WHEATON, Maryland - Menachem Youlus, a Wheaton rabbi, and two
other men had been digging for about two hours on a farm in Ukraine when,
five feet into the earth, they found the sea of bones. The remains of 263
men, women and children were still shrouded in clothing that bore the Star
of David, which Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust. Youlus
also discovered what looked to be military body bags.
Inside, he found two cherished items, badly deteriorated but Holocaust
survivors just the same: They were Torahs, sacred handwritten scrolls that
contain the five Books of Moses. Discovered four years ago, the scrolls were
two of more than 400 Torahs that Youlus and a team of scribes have unearthed
from a dark past. Youlus has spent the past 19 years scouring Eastern Europe
for them, then working with fellow scribes to restore the scrolls and find
them new homes.
"Many of the Torahs come from communities that were completely destroyed
in the Holocaust," said Youlus, 43, as he prepared this week for Yom Kippur,
the Jewish Day of Atonement -- a time of confession and repentance, observed
by fasting and nearly unbroken prayer -- which begins at sundown. "No one is
left from these towns," he said. "The only thing that survived is these
Torahs."
Some lost Torahs have come his way without any digging. In Ukraine, he
bought one from a former Nazi sergeant who said he confiscated it from a
man entering Auschwitz. Youlus discovered another being sold in pieces to
artists who were using the sacred parchment as canvas. Some he smuggled
out of then-Communist countries, two panels at a time, in the lining of
luggage.
"He's an intrepid Jewish 007," said Rabbi Moshe D. Shualy, ritual director
for Chizuk Amuno, a Baltimore synagogue that has two of Youlus's rescued
Torahs. "You wouldn't look at him twice," said Shualy, whose parents were
Holocaust survivors. "But he puts himself in such impossible situations to
find, retrieve and resurrect these scrolls."
If Youlus can't track down a Torah's owners or their descendants, he said,
he buys it from whoever has come to possess it. Then, back at his family's
store, the Jewish Bookstore of Greater Washington on Georgia Avenue, he
and a team of scribes try to repair 60 years worth of damage from mildew,
heat, dirt, bugs and rodents. On many Torahs, Youlus said, he also finds
bayonet marks and cigarette burns from Nazi desecration.
After using an infrared camera attached to a scanner that shows cracked
letters and other details the naked eye can miss, Youlus and his team
painstakingly re-ink each one by hand with a goose or turkey quill. Each
Torah contains about 302,000 Hebrew letters. Some words must be
written with one drop of ink. It requires hours of concentration.
"You have to think about only one thing: that you're writing for the sake of
God," Youlus said. "It's not to get a high or because you're better than the
next Jew." Seven scribes restore the scrolls in a warehouse near Baltimore.
Youlus often does his work with his brother-in-law, Rabbi Ayson Englander,
at the bookstore.
Cardboard boxes containing 40 to 50 Torahs, some new, are stacked to its
20-foot ceiling. It takes between seven weeks and six months to repair a
Torah. Youlus estimates they are able to restore about 85 percent of them.
When he's done, Youlus finds them new homes in synagogues, schools and
Jewish community centers across the country.
"He's one of the world's great people," said Rick Zitelman, a Rockville
investment and merchant banker. Zitelman and his wife, Cindy, helped buy
one of Youlus's Torahs for Sixth and I Historic Synagogue on the edge of the
District's Chinatown. Youlus -- who has a Web site devoted to his mission,
www.saveatorah.org -- estimates that as many as 2,400 scrolls survived the
Holocaust. He believes so strongly in saving them that he has gone into debt
$170,000 to finance his work, he said. "He doesn't see it as a sacrifice,"
Zitelman said of Youlus using his own money. "He just sees it as his life's
mission."
Perhaps nothing captures the intrigue and often profound sadness of Torah
rescue as Youlus's gruesome discovery in Kamenets-Poldosk, a small town in
Ukraine. Youlus went there in spring 2000 to meet with an antiques dealer
who had a Torah. That deal fell through, but while sitting outside the store
drinking a soda, he said, a farmer approached him, offering to sell him a
map. The farmer said his father had told him to offer the map to someone
wearing a yarmulke.
Youlus said he bought the map for $1,500. "My driver thought I was pretty
nutty, but I had a gut feeling," Youlus said. The hand-drawn map, marked
with an "X" surrounded by a large circle, led to an overgrown area of the
man's farm. Youlus said the farmer made him pay $1,500 more to buy the
plot of land before he could dig on it. In two hours, Youlus said, he, his
driver and the farmer came across the bones. He eventually hired a company
with a backhoe and unearthed the mass grave with the hidden Torahs. "That
was a little more than I bargained for," Youlus said.
Elderly people in the town recalled four Jewish men being forced to bury the
massacred bodies, Youlus said. Those men likely saved the Torahs from a
nearby synagogue by wrapping them in the body bags and sneaking them into
the grave. Youlus said he spent several more weeks helping to rebury the
remains in separate plots. He also found five more pre-Holocaust Torahs in
nearby towns, hidden in basements or kept by non-Jews.
He credits his zeal for Torah rescue to a "deal" he struck with God 21 years
ago. He was a 22-year-old accountant in New York when his father and his
sister's boyfriend were struck by a car while crossing a road near their
Montgomery County synagogue. Youlus said doctors told him to begin
making burial arrangements. If God would save their lives, he prayed, he
would devote a year to studying the Torah. Both men survived.
He didn't know then, he said, that he would end up devoting the rest of his
life to saving it. [Staff researcher Karl Evanzz contributed to this
report.] -30- (ARTUIS Monitoring Service)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articlesA45620-2004Sep23.html
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 173: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
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7. "COUNTRY'S OLDEST LIVING PERSON ENJOYS LIFE,
PRAYS FOR PEACE, DOMNA TUREVYCH"
Lives in her rural home in the tiny village of Chersk, in Volyn Oblast
By Yulianna Vilkos, Kyiv Post Staff Writer
Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, Sep 22, 2004
"Life is good today; there is nothing to complain about. People cry about
poverty and misfortune, but they don't know what real poverty is." Domna
Turevych gets tired easily these days. At the ripe old age of 115, the ruddy
figure sitting up in bed wrapped in numerous shawls threatens often to fall
back into her pillow. This November, "if God grants me health," the oldest
woman in the country, according to the Book of Records of Ukraine, will
turn 116.
Turevych, who lives in her rural home in the tiny village of Chersk, Volyn
oblast, says she inherited her longevity from her father, who lived till he
was 107. Her siblings are long dead, and she has been a widow for 30 years.
But she neither complains about nor exults in her years. She is convinced
everything is in God's hands. "I pray to our Father every day, asking
for long and happy years for myself and all of my family," she says in her
clear but soft Ukrainian. That's a lot of people to pray for.
Besides her five surviving children, who live nearby in Chersk, Turevych
has 37 grandchildren and, she thinks, as many as 115 great-grandchildren.
Presently, all her children live in her native village. But the rest of her
numerous progeny are scattered all over Ukraine. "If they all came together
to visit me, the village wouldn't be enough to host them," Turevych smiles.
But then tears fill the old woman's eyes. She cries for her oldest son who
perished in World War II. He would have turned 84 this year. Another child
died in infancy from malnutrition after the war, when villagers ate weeds
mixed with sorrel to survive.
LONG YEARS OF TOIL
"To tell somebody how we lived, few would believe it," says Turevych. "Our
house was destroyed during the war, and we stayed in a mud hut for a long
time. We had nothing to eat; our children were begging for potatoes around
the village. But few people lived better then.
"When I listen to people complaining about life these days," she says, "I
always get angry and tell them to thank God we live in peace and there is no
war. They don't know how blessed they are."
Life was sweeter when her husband was by her side, Turevych acknowledges,
her smile becoming warmer and her expression brightening. "We loved each
other so much," she shares. "His parents would not let him marry me, because
I was poor, and his father earned some money in America. But he married me
anyway." "I was the best singer in the village," she goes on, as if
explaining her husband's choice. "And I was pretty, too."
After World War II, Turevych says, the husband and wife worked hard to
stand on their feet again and feed their children. The family lost its
horses and cows to a newly-formed collective farm in the region, but they
survived. After the war, Turevych also gave birth to her youngest child,
Sofia. As a mother she was already 54 by then.
Sofia Mykhailevska, who is 62 today, says the family's house was always full
of people, and not just of relatives. "My mother was very open and tolerant
of other people, and she liked singing, so it was always fun," she says.
"She would cook a whole lot of stuff and put it in the middle of the table.
Everybody would sit around and talk and sing. She was a very engaging
woman." Now the children cook for their very elderly mother.
SIMPLE PLEASURES
Mykhailevska says her mom still eats pretty much everything, but has special
fondness for borscht and red wine. "Kahor is her favorite wine. Not a day
passes without her drinking 50 grams of it," says Mykhailevska, joking that
if her mother ever makes a fuss out of anything these days, it's when she
doesn't get her wine when she wants it.
The centenarian's other descendents also visit often, bringing her whatever
goods she needs. "We pay her back for what she once gave to us," says
Mykhailevska, who herself has seven kids. Her sister Evdokiya Romanyuk,
78, is the oldest of Turevych's surviving children.
"It just happened that our family is so big," Romanyuk explains. "I have
nine kids, and our three brothers have got more than 10 children each. There
are doctors, teachers, and directors among them. No alcoholics, no drug
addicts," she adds proudly. But only the older members of the family have
stayed on in Chersk. Young people do not have anything to do here; there
are no jobs, nothing," Romanyuk says.
There are only two telephones in the village. An old cobbled road connects
the settlement to the closest sizable town, where there are markets, shops
and a post office. "We've been asking the local authorities to build a new
road and to fix more telephone lines to the village for a long time, but
there's been no reply so far. Nobody cares," Romanyuk says.
Residents of Chersk are cynical about the upcoming presidential elections,
as many Ukrainians are. But for Domna Turevych, politics is just something
to put in perspective. She spends her days mostly in bed, praying to the two
ancient icons on the wall. "I just want peace," she says. "Whoever comes to
power, I pray to God that he keeps Ukraine in peace." -30-
LINK: www.kyivpost.com (ARTUIS Monitoring Service)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.173: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
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8. "STRIVING FOR A BRIGHT FUTURE"
Ukrainians come to Czech Republic seeking work but few put down roots
By S. Adam Cardais, For The Prague Post
The Prague Post, Prague, Czech Republic, September 16, 2004
PRAGUE - When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Ukraine was the first
of its satellites to declare independence, precipitating immediate political
instability and an economic crisis that forced many Ukrainians to emigrate
to Central or West European countries for work. The first wave of Ukrainian
immigrants came to this country looking for any kind of work during the
mid-1990's, when the Czech Republic had a liberal immigration policy.
"It's a labor migration caused by necessity," said Marek Canek, project
coordinator of Migration-online, a Web site launched by the Multicultural
Center Prague. "It's a strategy of survival to maintain and increase social
and economic status."
Ukrainians choose the Czech Republic because of its similar language and
proximity to home, which allows them to work here -- usually in
labor-intensive jobs -- save money and occasionally return home to visit
family. The first wave of immigrants didn't fully integrate or form a
community of their own, and although the situation remains largely the same,
there is evidence of a trend toward integration and assimilation.
PERMANENT CIRCULATORS
Jurij Fedoranic, 44, a stout, laconic man with a formidable mustache, works
on a construction site in Podbaba, Prague 6, where work begins at 7 a.m. and
lasts until 6 p.m. Originally from Rachov, Ukraine, a town near the Slovak
border, he came here in 1994 and has been working for the same construction
company since then, he said. "After the split of the Soviet Union, there was
no work, especially close to the border," Fedoranic said. "In Ukraine you
just have to sit at home and wait for something to happen."
UKRAINIAN LABOR
Officially, Ukrainians are the largest minority living here. The first wave
of immigrants came to the country soon after the fall of the Soviet Union
looking for any work they could find The majority of Ukrainians working in
the Czech Republic hold labor-intensive jobs for which they are often
overqualified -- it is not uncommon to hear of a person who was trained as
a doctor in Ukraine working as a laborer here -- but they do the work to
support their families, which quite often they had to leave behind
Although many Ukrainians choose not to integrate themselves into Czech
society, there is new evidence of a trend toward integration and
assimilation. Boris Misaros, 25, works with Fedoranic and is also taking
classes in law and economics via a long-distance program with a Ukrainian
university. Misaros said he's making twice as much money here as he could
in Ukraine -- if he could even find a job in his home country.
The socioeconomic situation in Ukraine is so bad that it is common for
Ukrainians to take jobs in construction or other labor-intensive fields here
for which they are usually overqualified, said Dusan Drbohlav, an associate
professor of social geography at Charles University. "Ukrainians take jobs
that are not well paid and are at the bottom of the ladder," said Drbohlav,
who has been studying Ukrainian migration to the Czech Republic since 1995.
"But that's nothing abnormal. It's quite normal that immigrants have to take
these sorts of jobs."
Iryna Golubyeva, 42, was trained as an accountant in Ukraine but worked as a
maid to support her two children when they moved to Karlovy Vary five years
ago. "My husband stayed in Ukraine," Golubyeva said. "We made the decision
to move because of my children. I'm grateful they can be here and study for
free. Education is better in Ukraine, but even if you're educated, it's very
hard to find a job."
Like Golubyeva, now an accountant with a Russian company in Prague,
most Ukrainians leave family members behind when they emigrate, making
it difficult for them settle here, Drbohlav said. "The Ukrainians are a very
typical transnational migration community, which means they don't want to
settle here. They are 'permanent circulators' between here and the Ukraine,"
he said.
Fedoranic said that every two months from 1994 to 1996, he went home
to help his family in Podkarpatska Rus, a region of Ukraine that was part
of Czechoslovakia until 1945. Ukrainians accept this kind of life because
investing in the well-being of their families and, possibly most
importantly, their children's education is paramount; as a result, Canek
said, they don't have much time to integrate into Czech society.
This dynamic is also the reason there isn't a strong Ukrainian community
here, Fedoranic said. "The Ukrainian community is loose here. Of course
we have Ukrainian friends in the village where I live. But I have never
heard of any Ukrainian groups trying to organize us. I come home from
work and I'm tired, so I'm just happy to be with my family."
Fedoranic has been a construction worker in Prague since 1994. Two
Ukrainian organizations exist here: the Forum of Ukrainians and Ukrainian
Initiative. The Prague Post was unable to reach a cooperative representative
of either group.
INTEGRATION TREND?
In 2003 the Labor Ministry launched a pilot project designed to bring
foreign workers here to fill gaps in the country's labor market created
primarily by demographic decline. Despite Ukrainians being the country's
largest minority group -- Czech Statistical Office figures say 70,496
Ukrainians live legally in the country, but the actual number could be as
high as 200,000, according to Drbohlav -- they're not included in the pilot.
It is possible, however, that they will be in the future, said Vladimir
Hruby, spokesman for the Labor Ministry.
Canek said, "They probably didn't choose Ukrainians because [choosing
them] would have been overwhelming. They were probably afraid they'd
get too many applicants."
Although Ukrainians most commonly take jobs with wages that Czechs
wouldn't want, filling natural gaps in the labor market, the sheer number of
Ukrainians here, and the fact that some work illegally, has given them the
reputation of job stealers who don't invest much in the country, experts
have said.
But Canek said that the trend could be starting to change and that there is
evidence that more and more Ukrainians are in for the long haul. "The
proportion of economically active Ukrainians to the total number here is
decreasing," he said. "This means that there could be families here,
children in school." Golubyeva's two children are in school here. Her son is
a student at Charles University and will most likely stay to work in the
Czech Republic, she said.
Fedoranic, who moved his two children and wife here in 1996, said life in
the Czech Republic, especially for his children, is better than in Ukraine.
He has no plans to go home. "Every year we prolong our short-term visa.
We will ask for permanent residency and be happy to get it, especially for
our kids," Fedoranic said. "We are still happy here. If things get better in
Ukraine, we will consider going home, possibly for retirement but definitely
not before my daughter [in the fifth grade] finishes her education."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Lenka Ponikelska contributed to this report. S. Adam Cardais can be
reached at news@praguepost.com. (ARTUIS Monitoring Service)
LINK: http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2004/Art/0916/news6.php
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.173 ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
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9. UKRAINE HOPES FOR POLAND'S APPROPRIATE EVALUATION
OF RESETTLEMENT OF UKRAINIANS IN 1941
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, September 23, 2004
KYIV - Ukraine hopes that Poland would give an appropriate evaluation
to resettlement of ethnic Ukrainians from its territory, which had started
in 1944. This was disclosed in President Leonid Kuchma's address to
Ukrainian people in connection with the 60th anniversary of the beginning
of resettlement of ethnic Ukrainians from the territory of Poland, the text
of which Ukrainian News obtained. According to Kuchma, both Ukrainians
and the Poles suffered from those events.
"Both Ukrainians and the Poles suffered from those tragic events. That is
why this tragedy is common for our two peoples," reads the statement.
Kuchma believes that resettlement of Ukrainians from Poland caused
irreparable harm to the Ukrainian nation. Kuchma expressed confidence
that the truthful coverage of the past events preserves and strengthens good
neighborly relations and mutual understanding of Ukraine and Poland.
He says Poland is a strategic partner.
"Today the Republic of Poland is our strategic partner, with whom we aim to
live in the common European home," reads the statement. The President
believes that events that took place 60 years ago must stay in the memory of
Ukrainians, and the victims of forced resettlement should be commemorated.
"Commemoration of the victims of forced resettlement must become another
evidence of mutual understanding between the Ukrainians and the Poles,"
reads the statement. Kuchma believes that Ukraine and Poland must erect
memorial signs in honor of deported Ukrainians. In his opinion, the memory
about these events will warn against repeating them in the future and will
make Ukrainians stand up for democratic values and state independence.
The USSR decided to resettle ethnic Ukrainians from the Polish territories
of Kholmschyna, Pidliassia, Nadsiannia and Lemkivschyna to Ukraine and
Poles from the Western Ukraine to Poland in 1944. As Ukrainian News
earlier reported, Kuchma instructed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in
July to hold arrange activities to commemorate 60th anniversary of resettle-
ment of ethnic Ukrainians from the territory of Poland. (ARTUIS Monitoring)
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