ACTION UKRAINE REPORT - AUR

An International Newsletter, The Latest, Up-To-Date
In-Depth Ukrainian News, Analysis and Commentary

Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World

UKRAINE WILL GAIN SUCCESS ONLY AS A COUNTRY OF
POLITICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY INDEPENDENT PEOPLE

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY: By Mykola Tomenko (Article 16)

Mr. E. Morgan Williams, Publisher and Editor, SigmaBleyzer

WASHINGTON, D.C., SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 2007

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Return to the Index by clicking on Return to Index at the end of each article

1. UKRAINE'S PRIME MINISTER TOUTS COUNTRY'S CREDENTIALS
BUT GETS LUKEWARM RESPONSE
Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said, "The Ukrainian people
deserve much better than what they have."
By Bradley S. Klapper, Associated Press Writer
AP, Davos, Switzerland, Friday January 26, 2007

2. YANUKOVYCH FORECASTS UKRAINE'S ENTERING WTO BY JULY
Speaks at Viktor Pinchuk's luncheon in Davos
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, January 26, 2007

3. UKRAINE FACING THREE PROBLEMS ON WAY TO WTO,

21. "I COCKED MY REVOLVER..........."
Examining the emergence of Ukrainian peasant insurgent armies movement
Nestor Makno and Nykyfor Hryhoriev, Civil War allies and enemies
By Volodymyr HORAK, Candidate of Sciences (History)
The Day Weekly Digest #42, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, Dec 26, 2006
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1. UKRAINE'S PRIME MINISTER TOUTS COUNTRY'S CREDENTIALS
BUT GETS LUKEWARM RESPONSE
Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said, "The Ukrainian people
deserve much better than what they have."

By Bradley S. Klapper, Associated Press Writer
AP, Davos, Switzerland, Friday January 26, 2007

DAVOS, Switzerland - Ukraine's prime minister pitched his country's
investment credentials to the world's rich and powerful on Friday -- but
only got a lukewarm response from his audience which included the

European Union's enlargement commissioner.

Pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said the country's strong
democracy and potential as an economic powerhouse between Western

Europe and Russia should make Ukraine a candidate for membership in

the EU.

While the presentation sought to stake Ukraine's claim as this year's
compelling investment story at the World Economic Forum, the unenthusiastic
assessments of the ex-Soviet country's reform process from EU Enlargement
Commissioner Olli Rehn and Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga ensured
that Ukraine failed to engineer the splash garnered in previous years by
China and India.

WHERE IS UKRAINE HEADING? LUNCHEON
Nevertheless, the "Where is Ukraine Heading?" session held on the Forum's
sidelines pulled in a number of major international figures including
billionaire George Soros, Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho, Poland's
ex-President Aleksander Kwasniewski, French Socialist Dominique Strauss-

Kahn and a number of top Russian businessmen.

"I'm not sure why some challenge the sincerity of our European aims," said
Yanukovych, who pledged huge government investment in the country's
state-owned highways and utilities, and new laws to simplify regulation of
business.

Yanukovych shares power in an uneasy arrangement with pro-Western President
Viktor Yushchenko. While the government has been plagued by a constant
tug-of-war partially caused by the country's unclear constitutional division
of power, Yanukovych sought to allay fears that he was attempting to take
power away from his rival.

"I am for a reasonable system of checks and balances that makes it
impossible to usurp power," he told a group of about 150 people at a Davos
hotel. "Neither the government nor the prime minister ever aspires to
replace the president."

The glitzy presentation featured an independent report saying that Ukraine
would one day become an EU country, even as the 27-nation bloc earlier this
week refused to give any promise of future membership for its giant eastern
neighbor.

Rehn and Vike-Freiberga were reserved about Ukraine's chances and urged

the prime minister to gain consensus on a clear direction for the country.

UKRAINIAN PEOPLE DESERVE BETTER
"Make up your mind. Make a commitment. Do it. We're with you,"
Vike-Freiberga said. "The Ukrainian people deserve much better than what
they have."

Rehn said Europe's doors remain open to new members, but made clear that
membership in the EU is not defined by geography alone. On future prospects
for Ukraine, he said only "never say never."

One enthusiastic advocate for Ukraine's EU bid, however, was former U.S.
President Bill Clinton.

"Gaining membership in the European Union is an important and attainable
goal for the Ukrainian government, that has the potential to create a
stronger Europe," Clinton said in a taped video address.

On Monday, the EU agreed to begin negotiations for closer across-the-board
ties with Ukraine but refused to go any further than the proposed "enhanced
relationship" -- seen as a setback for Britain and Poland.

Ukraine is one of 13 members of an EU "neighborhood" program of broad
economic aid and eventual free trade that specifically excludes future
membership.

The others are Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the
Palestinian Authority and Tunisia and -- to the east -- Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Moldova.

The program offers easy access to the vast EU market of 455 million
consumers in exchange for economic and political reforms designed to keep
the EU's fringes secure and stable. The arms-length nature of the aid
program has long irked Ukraine. -30-
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2. YANUKOVYCH FORECASTS UKRAINE'S ENTERING WTO BY JULY
Speaks at Viktor Pinchuk's luncheon in Davos

Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, January 26, 2007

KYIV - Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is predicting, that Ukraine will
enter the WTO by July. Yanukovych told this when speaking to ministers at a
lunch, organized by Viktor Pinchuk in frames of the World Economic Forum

in Davos.

"I hope, by the mid-year we'll make this successful finish," Yanukovych
said. Yanukovych underlined the government success in the negotiation
process on Ukraine's accession to the WTO.

"It was my government that has almost completed the process of entering

the WTO in three months," the Premier said.

As the Prime Minister's press secretary Denys Ivanesku told to reporters, at
the Ukrainian delegation meeting with WTO director general Pascal Lami the
latter noted Ukraine tops the list 23 countries, nominated for accessing the
WTO.

Lami also stressed that the remaining problems are not big ones and they
would not delay the process of Ukraine's entering this organization.

Yanukovych stressed the Ukraine's unsettled questions remain those of meat
import and grain export, subventions to the agricultural-and-industrial
complex and Kyrgyz debts.

The Premier said Ukraine performed all the necessary procedures on the

meat import issue and informed the United States of that.

STILL TRYING TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH GRAIN THERE IS
As to the grain export, the Premier told the government at its recent
session solved almost all the quota problems except those of food grain.

He added, that the question of canceling food grain quotas will be solved
after winter, when the state of winter crops will be clear and Ukraine will
know, what to expect. "We'll turn to this question late March-early April,"
said the Prime Minister.

Concerning subventions to the agricultural-and-industrial sectors,
Yanukovych said that experts were still evaluating Ukrainian subventions

for correspondence to the WTO requirements.

The Premier assured, that in case the experts decide the subventions are in
line with the WTO requirements, the question would be settled.

As to the debts to Kyrgyzstan, the Premier said Ukraine does not recognize
them and that this question does not touch upon the WTO. He informed Lami

of this and the latter basically agreed with him but the final decision will be
made at the WTO commission conference.

First deputy head of the Presidential Secretariat, the President's
representative in the Cabinet of Ministers, Arsenii Yatseniuk told Ukrainian
News, that the Kyrgyz side received all the bilateral documents for the
previous year.

Concerning those clauses, on which Kyrgyzstan claims improper duty

payment, Yatseniuk said zero trade showings are stated at them.

SIGNING WTO MEMBERSHIP AGREEMENT A MILESTONE EVENT
In his turn Yanukovych invited Lami to Ukraine to sign an agreement for
Ukraine's accession to the WTO. "I want to invite you to the milestone
event - Ukraine's accession to the WTO, to arrive to Kyiv and sign the
agreement on the Ukrainian land," Ivanesku cited Yanukovych as saying.

Yatseniuk also confirmed to the journalists the outlook of Ukraine's entry
to the WTO by mid-summer. He also added, that most likely it will happen
simultaneously with Russia.

As Ukrainian News reported before, the Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych
stays with a three-day visit in Switzerland participating the World Economic
Forum. The World Economic Forum is held annually in Davos. -30-
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3. UKRAINE FACING THREE PROBLEMS ON WAY TO WTO,

PM VIKTOR YANUKOVYCH SAYS

Interfax Ukraine Business Express, Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, January 26, 2007

KYIV - Ukrainian Premier Viktor Yanukovych says Ukraine has yet to settle
three questions concerning its accession to the World Trade Organization,
which may be resolved in the first half of 2007. "We see [Ukraine's date of
accession to the WTO] in the first half of 2007," Yanukovych told the press
in Davos, Switzerland on Friday.

Yanukovych said Kyiv had yet to settle some questions in [1] relations with
the United States, [2] the question of subsidies to the country's
agriculture sector, and [3] the question of the so-called "Kyrgyz debt."

As for the relations with the United States, there are two questions: [1]
imports of meat to Ukraine, and the [2] export of Ukrainian grain.

"We are resolving these two issues," Yanukovych said, adding that Ukraine
had taken all of procedural decisions concerning the meat imports in Ukraine
and notified Washington of them. The Cabinet of Ministers has also
increased quotas on exports of barley and corn.

Commenting on the so-called "Kyrgyz debt," Yanukovych said Kyiv didn't
recognize the debt to Kyrgyzstan, as well as such debts to other countries.
"Ukraine doesn't have such debts and the issue has nothing to do with
accession to the WTO," he said.

He said WTO President Pascual Lamy "heard this" and agreed that the issue
could be settled during a meeting of the commission of the WTO on the
accession of Ukraine to the organization. -30-
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4. UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER IN DAVOS PLEDGES TO ENSURE
STABLE TRANSIT OF HYDROCARBONS

NTN, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1700 gmt 26 Jan 07
BBC Monitoring Service, United Kingdom, Friday, January 26, 2007

KYIV - [Presenter] Another day of discussions on the improvement of the
world in Davos, which is the declared official objective of the World
Economic Forum. This year they are planning to improve the world by
ensuring energy security. Ukraine has made its own statements on the
subject.

[Correspondent] The World Economic Forum in Davos recovers its serious
status - no stars of show business and traditional amusements. They talk
about business only. Most frequently, they talk about energy security.

Ukraine will help to improve energy security in Europe and will strictly
fulfil all previously signed contracts, Fuel and Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko
said at the World Economic Forum.

The Ukrainian delegation in Davos is led by Prime Minister Viktor
Yanukovych. Earlier, Yanukovych said that Ukraine is ready to offer
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia to form an alliance to transit oil to the
West.

According to Yanukovych, Ukraine can increase volumes of oil and gas

transit to Europe, and these supplies will be reliable.

[Yanukovych] There are many ways in which Ukraine is integrated into the
world economy. We would like Ukraine not only be on time, but sometimes
make steps in advance regarding the development of our country. There are
many ways to achieve this, in particular, in energy sphere.
STATE GUARANTEES FOR INVESTORS
[Correspondent] Ukraine made another remarkable statement in Davos: apart
for guarantees of the supplies of hydrocarbons, Viktor Yanukovych also
promised state guarantees to investors who will work in this field.

Yanukovych said that ministers understand the importance of being quickly
prepared to the switching to world prices for energy resources. There is a
special programme developed regarding this, he said.

Yanukovych also said that Ukraine plans to decrease its dependence on the
supplies of Russian hydrocarbons. Kiev is planning to increase the extraction
of hydrocarbons on Ukraine's territory and on the territory of third
countries, Yanukovych said. [Passage omitted: Russia presents

Shtokmanovskoye gas field project.] -30-
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5. PRIME MINISTER SAYS UKRAINE'S PIPELINE PLAN PROMISES

TO DIVERSIFY EU'S OIL SUPPLY

By Marc Champion, The Wall Street Journal
New York, New York, January 26, 2007; Page A4

DAVOS, Switzerland -- In a move that would help to diversify Europe's energy
supplies, Ukraine's prime minister said he is working to complete a pipeline
to carry Caspian-region oil directly to the European Union.

Completion of the pipeline would bring an additional 12 million metric tons
of oil a year to the EU from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia, Ukrainian
Premier Viktor Yanukovych said in an interview at the World Economic Forum.

That would help to diversify supplies at a time of mounting concern over EU
dependence on Russian energy. The EU consumed 700 million tons of oil in
2005, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.

EU concerns again came to the fore this month when Russia, without warning,
shut down a pipeline that crosses Belarus during a dispute over duties. The
move cut off refineries in Germany, Poland and other Central European
countries, causing fury in the EU.

The pipeline proposal would appear to be at odds with the perception of Mr.
Yanukovych as a Russian puppet. "I consider myself pro-Ukrainian," not
pro-Russian, he said.

Currently, the pipeline from Odessa stops in western Ukraine, near the
Polish border. There it connects to the main Russian export lines from
Siberia. Since 2004, it has carried only Russian oil south to Odessa. From
there it is shipped through Turkey's overcrowded Bosporus.

Mr. Yanukovych said Russia is on board with the plan to complete the
pipeline -- which would enable oil to flow in the other direction.

"We believe Russia will decide quite soon how big their interest will be, in
terms of the amount of oil they put in the pipeline," said Mr. Yanukovych,
adding that Russian oil could be shipped from Novorossisk on the Black

Sea and fed into the pipeline.

Two years ago, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko came to the annual
World Economic Forum meeting in Davos as a political star.

Just weeks earlier he had beaten Mr. Yanukovych in a rerun of a presidential
poll forced by weeks of massive street protests known as the country's
Orange Revolution. His face had been disfigured by poisoning during the
campaign.

At the time, Mr. Yanukovych appeared to be hurt badly politically, along
with Russian influence in Ukraine: Russian President Vladimir Putin had
publicly backed Mr. Yanukovych for the job.

Mr. Yanukovych allowed Russia to start sending oil south through the
pipeline to Odessa before the election, a move widely cited at the time as
evidence of his dependence on Moscow.

The pro-Western coalition that elected Mr. Yushchenko soon fell apart.
Economic growth and investment collapsed over fears the new government

might seize back thousands of companies privatized in allegedly rigged
privatizations. Last spring, Mr. Yanukovych's Party of the Regions won
parliamentary elections. In August, he was appointed prime minister.

This time it is Mr. Yanukovych who has come to Davos. Ukraine's economy

has bounced back: Capital investment rose 16% in the second half of last year,
compared with the same period in 2005.

According to Mr. Yanukovych, the reality of the Odessa pipeline story wasn't
one of allegiance to Russia over the West. It was about the simple
availability of oil. He noted that the pipeline had stood empty for years,
bringing no revenue, because the links to Poland and Slovakia hadn't been
built.

"The fact is that there wasn't enough oil coming out of the Caspian basin to
fill the Odessa pipeline then," he said. Next year, he added, there will for
the first time be enough surplus oil flowing out of Azerbaijan and
Kazakhstan to make completion of the pipeline commercially viable.

How long it takes to build the Western links and start pumping oil to the EU
depends on Slovakia and Poland, he said, declining to put a date on
completion.

Mr. Yanukovych said he is building a consortium with Ukraine, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan and Russia to operate the pipeline. Poland in the past has said
it would like to see the pipeline finished and working.

The Belarus cutoff may have helped to persuade Russia that the project is a
good idea, as it would provide them with an additional route for oil that
circumvents Belarus. "Russia has an interest in securing more ways to move
its oil in this direction too," Mr. Yanukovych said.

The pipeline is one of few issues on which Messrs. Yushchenko and

Yanukovych agree. They are locked in a bitter power struggle that Mr.

Yanukovych is winning.

The two men are divided over whether Ukraine should join the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, for example. One of Mr. Yanukovych's first acts in
office was to put those efforts, which Russia strongly opposes, on hold.

The change of Ukraine's direction under Mr. Yanukovych enabled him to
negotiate a relatively small increase in the price it pays Russia for gas
this year, keeping the price substantially lower than that charged other
former Soviet countries.

He denies allegations he traded anything for that, saying the benefit to
Russia was a stabilized relationship with a neighbor of 50 million people.

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Write to Marc Champion at marc.champion@wsj.com
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6. PM SAYS UKRAINE INTERESTED IN FINLAND'S EXPERIENCE

IN ECONOMIC REFORMS AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, January 26, 2007

KYIV - Ukraine is interested in Finland's experience of implementing
economic reforms and integration into the European Union. The Cabinet

of Ministers' press service reported this.

"Ukraine is interested in Finland's experience of economic reforms and the
country's integration into the European Union," said the Prime Minister
Viktor Yanukovych during the meeting with the Finnish President Tarja
Halonen in Davos (Switzerland).

He also noted Ukraine paid great attention to development of trade-economic
relations with Finland, which is one of the Ukraine's most important
partners in the North Europe.

Yanukovych also said, that recently Finnish business interests in Ukraine
had considerably grown, particularly, over 70 leading Finnish companies

were operating in the Ukrainian market presently.

The Premier also shared his confidence in a big unexhausted potential of
bilateral cooperation in the economic sphere.

Thus, Ukraine is interested in those businesses, in which Finland is an
acknowledged world leader - telecommunications, machine-building,
pulp-and-paper, chemical and construction industries, sources of renewable
energy and energy saving.

"It would be very important for us to study Finnish experience of organizing
safety of atomic energy objects and also storage and dumping of used nuclear
fuel," underlined Yanukovych.

The Premier also added, that the inter-governmental agreement on mutual
protection of investments, which had already taken effect, was meant for
creation of corresponding conditions for activities of Finnish investors in
Ukraine.

As Ukrainian News reported, in the morning Yanukovych left for Switzerland
to take part in the annual World Economic Forum, which is taking place in
Davos. In the forum frames Yanukovych is meeting heads of a number of
countries. Yanukovych will return to Kyiv on Saturday evening, January 27.
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7. TOP UKRAINIAN BUSINESSMAN RINAT AKHMETOV DISCUSSES
IPO WITH LEADERSHIP OF NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE

Interfax Ukraine News, Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, January 26, 2007

DAVOS - Ukrainian MP and businessman Rinat Akhmetov, who owns

the System Capital Management Company, has discussed with the leadership

of the New York Stock Exchange the organization of IPOs of his companies.

"My business has been assessed at $11.8 billion, I believe it is worth more,
and somebody may say it is worth less. In order to avoid guessing we should
come to the stock exchange and it will give a real market price for SCM and
other companies.

Ukraine needs it - we should organize IPOs. That is why we have met today
[with the leadership of the NYSE]," he told the press in Davos on Friday.

He described the meeting as positive. -30-
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8. UKRAINIAN BUSINESSMAN AND PHILANTHROPIST VIKTOR

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9. THE OBSERVER'S "PERSONS OF THE YEAR" 2006
Victor Pinchuk and Rinat Akhmetov

By James Hydzik, The Ukrainian Observer magazine Issue 227
The Willard Group, Kyiv, Ukraine, January 2007

Ukrainians should be rightly understood as a generous lot. Walk around Kyiv,
for example, and watch the people taking care of stray animals outside their
flats, or dropping their pocket change into the cups of street singers and
the old, whose pensions sit firmly on the poverty line.

However, organized charities are often seen as foreign entities, and the
best-known do come from abroad. But that perception is changing, and
charitable foundations created by members of Ukraine's industrial elite are
gaining the limelight.

Foundations created by Victor Pinchuk and Rinat Akhmetov have been
particularly active, and are setting the pace for what observers hope will
be even more work for the public good from Ukraine's top businessmen.
And this pace is picking up.

The Viktor Pinchuk Foundation and the Foundation for the Development
of Ukraine, funded by Akhmetov's SCM Corporation, are engaged in an
increasing number of projects in fields as diverse as legal aid, fighting
tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, and post-secondary education.
GIVING WISELY
Both foundations aim to do more than just throw cash at a problem. Thomas
Eymond-Laritaz, Director of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, points out that
the organization has "to focus on what has the highest impact in order to
modernize society."

In education, for example, "We believe that it is by focusing on university
education, and also on young leaders in their 30s and 40s (via the Aspen
Ukraine Initiative) that we can make the biggest impact."

The Foundation for the Development of Ukraine follows a similar line of
thought. On its web site, the foundation is equally candid about being
"determined to eliminate the roots of social problems through in-depth
activities and shift from a number of separate charitable and sponsorship
activities to a comprehensive social responsibility strategy of SCM Group
and its shareholders."

The two organizations evolved from the social involvement of their founders,
and contributions still come from outside the foundations. For instance,
Rinat Akhmetov still gives significant amounts via commercial entities such
as his football team FC Shakhtar Donetsk.

A donation of $300,000 was given to support the families of the 170 victims
of the Russian Pulkovo Airlines crash in Donetsk oblast in August 2006.

From treats for Donetsk oblast's schoolchildren for Valentine's Day and
Christmas to $ 500,000 in aid to the citizens of Alchevsk, the
eastern-Ukrainian city that experienced a catastrophic communal heat failure
in the dead of last winter, FC Shakhtar's range of public involvement is
quite high.

However, the creation of the Foundation for the Development of Ukraine in
July 2005, from funding by Systems Capital Management, which is 90%
owned by Rinat Akhmetov, set a new tone for social assistance from his
holdings.

Also, while the foundation commits itself to longer-term projects, it is
more concentrated in scope, and works on public health, post-secondary
education and Ukraine's cultural heritage.

Anatoly Zabolotny, Director of the Foundation for the Development of
Ukraine, notes that, "The reason why we have chosen to work in these three
areas lies in their close connection with the development and success of the
country. If we look at the future of the country we would like to have a
healthy and well-educated nation closely connected with its history and
culture.

We are very well aware that these three areas, both in Ukraine and in other
countries of the former Soviet Union, lack reforms and require the
implementation of better practices, and more striking examples and projects,
which might be replicated and further become everyday reality. This is the
mission and strategy of the Foundation: to create star projects."

Likewise, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation was created in order to bring
together various projects that Interpipe Corporation and Pinchuk personally
were already involved in.

This includes work on legal clinics for Ukrainians who cannot afford their
own lawyers under the Legal Assistance Fund, which according to the
International Renaissance Foundation extends back to 2001, as well

Pinchuk's well-known patronage of the arts.

Eymond-Laritaz said that, "the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation develops and
supports projects that contribute to the modernization of Ukraine and to the
emergence of a new generation of Ukrainian leaders. Its six fields of
activity and current projects have been carefully selected to contribute to
those goals.

These include:
[1] Health (Neonatal Centers, fight against HIV/AIDS)
[2] Education (Stipends Program, Kyiv School of Economics, Aspen
Ukraine Initiative)
[3] Culture (Contemporary Art Center, Film with Steven Spielberg,
Chamber Orchestra)
[4] Human Rights (Legal Clinic/Legal Aid with the Soros Foundation)
[5] Ukraine in the World (Yalta European Strategy [YES], Amicus
Europae Foundation, Brookings Institution [Washington, D.C.],
Peterson Institute of International Economics [Washington, D.C.],
International Crisis Group, Davos)
[6] Local Communities (Dnipropetrovsk, Jewish Communities)

LEADERSHIP, FINANCE AND PARTICIPATION
Both organizations make a point of actively participating in the fields that
they have chosen. For example, Viktor Pinchuk's work regarding human
rights has been on-going and thorough.

The International Renaissance Foundation in Kyiv says that the creation of
the Legal Assistance Fund in 2004 was the result of a joint effort between
George Soros and Viktor Pinchuk.

The project has grown from 24 clinics in 17 oblasts in 2004 to 35 clinics in
21 oblasts currently. Future expansion should cover all of Ukraine's oblasts
in 2007.

At the same time, the Legal Assistance Fund's two founding organizations
have cooperated on improving the quality of their work.

Together, they have worked for the "establishment of a wide-ranging and
effective system for the provision of legal assistance that meets European
standards," as IRF notes. "The concept of how to implement it was developed
with the Ministry of Justice, the Attorney's Union of Ukraine and other
NGOs, and sanctioned by Presidential decree."

The Foundation for the Development of Ukraine is embarking on a long-term
project that will raise the level of care in Ukraine, through its most
ambitious project is in health care.

FDU Director Zabolotny emphasizes that the Foundation's fight against
drug-resistant tuberculosis is important for the Ukrainian medical
establishment.

"Although the project on drug resistant tuberculosis (DRT) is less than one
year old we have managed to discuss and approve the DRT treatment protocol
at the level of Oblast authorities and this is a breakthrough for Ukraine
because there weren't any DRT treatment systems in Ukraine whatsoever.
Next month the training program for doctors and technical personnel will be
launched."

The DOTS+ treatment program that will be launched is being implemented by
the World Health Organization under the aegis of the Ministry of Health of
Ukraine and with cooperation of the Ministry at the Donetsk Oblast level.

FDU is providing more than just the money to fund the project, however, in
that public awareness and media exposure is also part of the organization's
remit.

Also, the foundation has provided the framework for the project, including
the desire to ensure a successful exit strategy.

Zabolotny remarked, "from the very beginning we have been saying that in
four years, upon the completion of the project, the authorities should be
ready to bear total responsibility for the DRT treatment system.

And this is one more strategic approach of the Foundation: we are not only
implementing the projects, we are also changing the attitude of stakeholders
to the problem when it's necessary."
CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME
While it might come as no surprise to an observer that FDU's DOTS+ project
is being implemented in Donetsk Oblast, the inclination to work close to
home shouldn't be denigrated.

After all, the only privately funded chamber orchestra in Eastern Europe is
in Dnipropetrovsk, and is backed by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.

Both organizations are engaged in projects that, while centered in Kyiv, are
considered as being of national importance. FDU is a partner in the
refurbishing of the Metropolitan's House at the Sofia Kyivska National
Reserve.

The project, located at the very heart of Ukrainian culture, is also an
example of how the foundation wants itself to be understood. FDU initiated
the creation of an Advisory Council to oversee the project and ensure its
progress.

Zabolotny sees the project as important, "not only in view of reconstruction
of the building but also because of creation of system of public
participation in life of National Reserve Sofia Kyivska, creation of
development strategy as contrasted to survival strategy.

For us it was important not only to provide support for this facility which
is considerably important from the culture's point of view, but also to
teach the management to apply state-of-the-art approaches and management
mechanisms."

The Victor Pinchuk Contemporary Art Center is another example of a
Kyiv-based project that aims to work for the edification of others on
several levels.

While the art center has garnered a lot of attraction for the works
displayed, its role as a benchmark for others in Eastern Europe's industrial
elite to gauge their own patronage has been commented upon in the English
language press.

The role that politics played in the location of the center should not be
forgotten as well. Eymond-Laritaz remarked that, "The fact that Victor
Pinchuk is no longer involved in politics helps a lot: it makes things
easier!"
STILL A LONG WAY TO GO
Being involved in charity projects of the magnitude that the Foundation for
the Development of Ukraine and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation are requires
contact with the government whether the principals are engaged in politics
or not.

Government ministries and state financial organs are factors in determining
not only how effective a project will be, but also in the amount of
bureaucracy attached.

While Zabolotny said that the legislation regarding charities in Ukraine is
the best in the former Soviet Union, both directors point out that there is
a long way to go for the country's legislation to become
philanthropic-friendly.

Bureaucracy, taxation and incoherent legislation, sometimes inappropriately
derived from laws for commercial entities, are all issues.

Still, both point out that the most pressing problem isn't a legislative
matter, but an issue of mind-set. Donor organizations exist in Ukraine, and
charitable activity is increasing, but the need for a step-change is
required.

Both organizations see that they are at the forefront of this change, and as
Eymond-Laritaz claims, "We believe that the best way to develop modern
philanthropy in Ukraine is to set an example. And this is what we are trying
to do." -30-

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10. UKRAINE: PINCHUKARTCENTRE IN KYIV OPENS A

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11. ROMANIA SAYS UKRAINE DISREGARDING RECOMMENDATIONS
ON DANUBE DELTA MADE BY INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION

Rompres news agency, Bucharest, Romania, Friday, 26 Jan 07

BUCHAREST - The Romanian authorities on 23 January notified the committee

on implementing the Espoo Convention of Ukraine's failure to observe the report
of the commission of international inquiry into the Bystroye project,
according to a press release sent to Rompres by the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MAE).

"In a first stage this stand was promoted within the Bureau of the Espoo
Convention over 26-27 January 2007. The MAE delegation is to present a
detailed and well-grounded analysis of the Bystroye case on 13-14 February
2007, during the 11th meeting of the committee on implementing the
convention," reads the press release.

MAE mentioned the fact that on 10 July 2006, in Geneva, the commission of
international inquiry, which was set up at the initiative of the Romanian
side on the basis of the provisions of the 1991 Espoo Convention on
Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, officially
presented its report on the possibility of a negative transboundary impact
on the delta ecosystem, brought about by the implementation of the Ukrainian
project of building a deep shipping canal in the Danube delta on Kiliya and
Bystroye branches.

"The report of the commission of international inquiry identified several
activities, carried on as part of the project, that are likely to bring
about an important negative impact on the flora and fauna of the Danube
delta and also made several recommendations for the Ukrainian side meant to
reduce and remove the negative transboundary effects of the project," said
MAE.

"Thus, the Kiev authorities were asked not to continue work on deepening the
canal before consulting the Romanian side with a view to finding the most
reliable solutions for this project, to organize public consultations with
the people living in the areas potentially affected by the Ukrainian project
(both in Ukraine and in Romania) and to inform Romania of the solution they
adopted for the competent authorities in Bucharest to be able to make
proposals or comments on it," added MAE.

So far, according to the MAE release, "The Ukrainian side has not observed
any of these requests and went on approaching the Bystroye problem
unilaterally," whereas the Romanian side went on taking bilateral steps for
the full observance in good faith of the conclusions of the commission of
international inquiry.

Moreover, the Bucharest authorities approached this problem in a
multilateral context and informed the international community, during the
regular international meetings of the international organizations in charge
of environment protection, of the stand taken by the Ukrainian side on the
resolutions of an unbiased international body.

In the letter notifying the committee on implementing the Espoo Convention,
according to the above-mentioned source, MAE pointed out the fact that the
decision-makers in Kiev went on ignoring the recommendations of the
commission of international inquiry. The aim of Ukraine for 2007 is to make
the canal navigable again.

The Romanian side also added that, in spite of the steps taken bilaterally,
the Ukrainian side did not give an essential answer to any of the questions
put forward and added that "such a behaviour might create an unwanted
precedent for the international practice in general, as well as for the
efficiency of the control mechanisms stipulated by the Espoo Convention".

The committee on implementing the Espoo Convention is the subsidiary body
set up through the decision of the states that were part of this
international instrument (56 states and the European Community) and has the
mission to watch over the way in which the countries observe the pledges
stipulated by this international document.

The committee on implementing the Espoo Convention informs the signatory
states of the dysfunctions occurring in the way some states apply the
provisions of the convention. -30-

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12. RARE NAZI-ERA RACE CAR COULD GO FOR $15 MILLION
American collector found the parts in a scrap heap in Ukraine

Associated Press (AP), New York, New York, Friday, Jan 26 07

NEW YORK - A rare Nazi-era race car hidden in a German mine shaft during
World War II and said to be worth millions of dollars is on display in New
York City.

The sleek silver D-Type from Audi forerunner Auto Union was on display

until Friday at the car company's fancy showroom on Park Avenue. It will be
auctioned as part of Christie's Retromobile auto sale on February 17 in
Paris, France, and is expected to fetch between $12 million and $15 million.

While Adolf Hitler gave about 500,000 reichsmarks to Auto Union and
Mercedes-Benz to promote racing and technology, the car is not specifically
affiliated with the Third Reich, Christie's said.

The car, one of only two in existence, is thought to be the grandfather of
modern race cars. It revolutionized racing by putting the driver in front of
the engine instead of behind it and reached speeds up to 185 mph.

"This car was really quite ahead of its time," said Rupert Banner, head of
Christie's International Motor Cars division. "It was revolutionary. It
changed the face of racing."

More than 20 Auto Union series cars were built between 1933 and 1939. This
model, which has a body shaped like an airplane fuselage, was designed by
Ferdinand Porsche.

The driver sits sunken into the body of the metal, and the wheels, which
look like oversize bicycle tires, have independent suspension.

"There was a kind of memory loss after the war," said Audi historian Thomas
Erdmann. "It took really until the early 1960s and later on to the 1980s for
car design to catch up to these cars."

During the European motorsports heyday just before World War II, the D-Type
won the 1939 French Grand Prix. The Silver Arrow, as it was known, also was
filmed winding through country roads for use in newsreels across Europe. In
racing, German cars were always silver, British were racing green and French
were blue.

During World War II, Auto Union workers hid the cars in a mine shaft in
eastern Germany to save them from being scrapped for their metal. After the
war, the Russians discovered the cars in the mine shaft and took them to
Russia, along with dismantled Auto Union factories, to re-create
motorsports.

"They vanished, lost behind the Iron Curtain," Erdmann said. The Russians
did not do much with racing, and the cars eventually were taken apart.

An American car collector came across car parts in a scrap heap in Ukraine
and took them back to England, where experts Crosthwaite & Gardiner

restored this car. Christie's did not say who is selling it.

Audi owns three Auto Union race cars, and another car was owned by a
corporation, but Christie's did not know which.

If the car displayed Thursday does fetch the estimated $15 million, it will
be a record for a car at auction. The current record is $9.8 million, for a
1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Sports Coupe, which sold at Christie's in

London in 1987. -30-
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Send in a letter-to-the-editor today. Let us hear from you.
========================================================
13. "HOW MUCH IS ONE CUBIC METRE OF DEMOCRACY?"
Writer derides Ukrainian authorities reaction to Turkmen opposition's visit

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY: By Arslan Mamedow
Gundogar website, Moscow, in Russian Tuesday, 23 Jan 07
BBC Monitoring Service, United Kingdom, Thursday, Jan 25, 2007

An article posted on the Turkmen opposition website makes fun of the
Ukrainian authorities' reaction to the invitation of two Turkmen opposition
leaders to Kiev by Ukrainian Transport and Communications Minister Mykola
Rudkovskyy.

The latter has been accused by the Ukrainian authorities of deteriorating
relations with energy-rich Turkmenistan. "Democracy today is like natural
gas, it is measured by cubic metres and has its market price. Alas, it is
cheap," the article says.

The following is an excerpt from Arslan Mamedow's article "How much is one
cubic metre of democracy?", published by the gundogar.org website on 23
January; subheadings inserted editorially:

A scandal has broken out in Ukraine. The cause for this has become last
year's [late December] visit to Ukraine by the chairman of the Republican
Party of Turkmenistan, Nurmuhammet Hanamow, and the chairman of the

Watan public and political movement, Hudayberdi Orazow.

The Ukrainian ambassador to Turkmenistan, Viktor Mayko, was the first to
ring the alarm bell. "I am convinced in one thing: this was a planned action
aimed at deteriorating bilateral relations between Ukraine and
Turkmenistan," he said.
UKRAINIAN TRANSPORT MINISTER ACCUSED OF ABUSING POST
Shortly after that a "pointsman" was found. The Ukrainian transport and
communications minister, Mykola Rudkovskyy, who personally met

Nurmuhammet Hanamow and Hudayberdi Orazow and helped arrange their

stay in Kiev, was accused of violating professional ethics and inflicting

damage to the national security of Ukraine .

The Security Service of Ukraine and the Ukrainian foreign minister took the
role of chief accuser, who said that the transport and communications
minister had abused his post and interfered in the activities of the Foreign
Ministry, by assisting the leaders of the Turkmen opposition to obtain entry
visas.

"Rudkovskyy phoned a diplomatic and consular establishments at night and
noted the need to immediately issue visas [to Nurmuhammet Hanamow and
Hudayberdi Orazow], saying that the issue had been agreed with the
leadership of the country," said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk
in a live broadcast of the One Plus One TV channel.

Mykola Rudkovskyy himself does not deny that he applied to the Ukrainian
embassy in Austria with the request to speed up issuing visas for
Nurmuhammet Hanamow and Hudayberdi Orazow, but he said he put no

pressure on consular staff.

He told journalists that he indeed asked the diplomats to help the Turkmen
oppositionists visit Kiev. But he emphasized that he acted as a private
person and that he did not refer on the leadership of the country.

"I said that there are such people and asked them [the diplomats] to speed
up the issuing of visas to them. All the rest is the business of relevant
agencies," the Ukrainian transport and communications minister said.
"DANGEROUS TERRORISTS"
Under "relevant agencies" Rudkovskyy means additional circumstances that
supplemented the Turkmen opposition leaders' visit to Kiev. Official Asgabat
maintains that Nurmuhammet Hanamow and Hudayberdi Orazow are dangerous
terrorists, who are on Interpol's wanted list.

The Turkmen side sent a note to this effect to the Ukrainian Foreign
Ministry immediately after Nurmuhammet Hanamow and Hudayberdi Orazow
appeared on a news conference in Kiev.

"During my working experience of over 30 years, I have very rarely had these
kinds of notes with such content and wording," Ukrainian Foreign Minister
Borys Tarasyuk complained.

The Turkmen note talked about "disrespect for and hypocrisy towards
Turkmenistan and its people", expressed a "resolute protest" and demanded
that all the guilty be brought to account and that the toughest measures be
taken.

The Turkmen Foreign Ministry's attempts to organize an "international
search" for Nurmuhammet Hanamow and Hudayberdi Orazow started back in [the
late Turkmen president] Saparmyrat Nyyazow's time. As proof that the leaders
of the opposition were guilty, Foreign Minister Rasit Meredow has been
disseminating a strange document for several years now.

The document, called "Extract from the sentence announced by a panel of
judges of the Supreme Court of Turkmenistan on 29 December 2002", says that
Nurmuhammet Hanamow and Hudayberdi Orazow were found guilty of brutally

and deliberately murdering two and even more people in Asgabat on 25 November
2002.

Moreover, it alleges that the murdered people were on duty. The document
says Hanamow and Orazow "have got" 25 years in prison each under the above
grave accusation alone, not to mention terrorism, smuggling in drugs and
arms, recruiting mercenaries and so on.

One cannot take this document seriously since the Turkmen side flatly
ignored two obvious facts: no-one was killed in Asgabat on 25 November 2002;
and most importantly, Hanamow and Orazow were thousands kilometres away

from Turkmenistan at that time.

[Passage omitted: the opposition leaders have been granted political asylum
in the European Union and can freely travel in Europe]
NATURAL GAS
"The current situation is not to the benefit of Ukraine because Turkmenistan
remains one of its main suppliers of natural gas," Borys Tarasyuk said. Is
Tarasyuk's statement not interfering in the activities of another
department?

Because the minister of fuel and energy of Ukraine, Yuriy Boyko, on his
part, maintains that nothing terrible has taken place and that the visit of
the leaders of the Turkmen opposition will not spoil strategic relations
between the two countries.

"To describe the incident with the Turkmen opposition as a scandal means
exaggerating things. Several people - who have a conflict with the Turkmen
regime and, as a result, have been exiled from Turkmenistan - have arrived
in our country.

And the Turkmen side takes an understanding view of the fact that we support
them [the opposition] so that the country could develop in a stable and
democratic way and that the election was held calmly," the Ukrainian
minister of fuel and energy said.

Socialist Mykola Rudkovskyy knows the Turkmen opposition since the time he
himself struggled against the regime of [former Ukrainian president] Leonid
Kuchma. His [Turkmen] colleagues turned to him for advice, taking into
account Rudkovskyy's practical experience of working in the opposition in
the capacity of MP and now in the capacity of minister.

Naturally, this caused Asgabat to go into hysterics. But why has this caused
commotion in Kiev? Since when have news conferences become a threat to
national security?

All this is taking place because the saying "natural gas in exchange for
democracy" is not just a populist stock phrase of the opposition, but is the
reality which exists not only in Ukraine, but also in Russia, the USA and
the European Union, and which should be taken into account. Democracy

today is like natural gas. It is measured by cubic metres and has its market
price. Alas, it is cheap. -30-

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14. VISIT BY TURKMEN OPPOSITION LEADERS HARMED UKRAINE
SAYS PARLIAMENT MEMBER ANATOLIY KINAKH

RIA Novosti, Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan 24, 2007

KIEV - A senior Ukrainian lawmaker said Wednesday the visit to Kiev by
exiled Turkmen opposition leaders had damaged relations with the energy-rich
Central Asian state.

Turkmen authorities filed complaints with the Ukrainian government after
several exiled opposition leaders visited Kiev in late December, reportedly
at the invitation of Transport and Communications Minister Mykola
Rudkovskiy.

Highlighting a growing rift between political factions in the ex-Soviet
state, Anatoliy Kinakh, a member of the pro-presidential party Our Ukraine,
said: "The events that took place show that the lack of coordination between
branches of power and growing political tensions lead to chaotic and
uncoordinated foreign policy decisions."

Turkmen opposition leaders, including presidential candidate Khudaiberdy
Orazov, gave a news conference in the Ukrainian capital speaking out about
the situation in the country following the death of its longtime
authoritarian leader, Saparmurat Niyazov.

President Viktor Yushchenko sacked his ambassador to Austria Tuesday for
helping the opposition leaders obtain visas, and demanded the dismissal of
Rudkovsky, a member of the Socialist Party that is part of a government
coalition led by the Western-leaning president's opponent, Prime Minister
Viktor Yanukovych.

Rudkovsky had reportedly approached Ukrainian embassies in several countries
privately asking them to process visas for the Turkmen oppositionists, who
Turkmenistan claimed were on the international wanted list.

Yanukovych said Tuesday the government had no reasons to fire the transport
minister, but later ordered a probe into the visa scandal.

The lawmaker said irresponsible decisions could damage Ukraine's relations
with Turkmenistan, including in the energy sector.

Turkmenistan is a core natural gas supplier for Ukraine, which has moved to
step up relations with the country since a bitter pricing row with Russia at
the start of last year.

"It is necessary to investigate [the affair] with no regard for names,
positions and political affiliations." Kinakh said. "Those who took the
irresponsible steps, turning a blind eye to the country's national strategic
interests, must be held accountable."

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LINK: http://en.rian.ru/world/20070124/59627096.html
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15. SCOTS GROWER FINDS UKRAINE SOIL PRODUCTIVE

Jim Buchan, Scotsman.com, Edinburgh, Scotland, Thu, Jan 25, 2007

WHEN the United States was first opened up to development over 200 years
ago, the word from pioneers such as Daniel Boone was "go west, young man".

Now the call for UK entrepreneurs is to go east and make the most of the
huge opportunities that await in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Leading the charge is George Taylor, who with his family has made Taypack,

a business based at Inchture, near Dundee, into one of the major players in a
competitive potato business, handling over 30,000 tonnes of potatoes a year
and supplying Tesco. Taylor is now looking to new horizons.

He said: "Two decades on from starting on the Taypack route, we are now
serving a mature UK market, but we see new opportunities in spreading our
wings.

Around 53 per cent of the land in Ukraine is arable and formerly supplied 25
per cent of the Soviet farm output. That is where we intend to grow our
business.

"The rainfall near the Polish border is absolutely ideal for arable crops,
but half of it only comes in the real growing season, which is just about
ideal for any sensible farmer."

Corruption and backhanders are a fact of life in Ukraine, but Taylor reckons
that this aspect of the economy can be handled with a modicum of good will
and an appreciation of the local population.

Taylor has set up KRMG, a consortium of Scottish farmers and agronomists.

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16. UKRAINE WILL GAIN SUCCESS ONLY AS A COUNTRY OF
POLITICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY INDEPENDENT PEOPLE

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY: By Mykola Tomenko
Original article in Ukrainian translated by Anna Platonenko
Ukrayinska Pravda, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, January 24, 2007

On December 1, 1991 the all-Ukrainian Referendum took place: 90.32% of
Ukrainian citizens, who took part in the voting, gave their support for the
Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.

15 years have passed since that day. What has changed in Ukraine?

The first thing we can confidently assert is that our country has withstood
all the tests of independence, starting with the Ukrainian Independence
Movement, The Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, Referendum,
the first presidential elections, and the adoption of the Constitution.

With the adoption of the Constitution in 1996 the forming stage of the
corresponding attributes and structures of the independent Ukraine was
practically completed.

However, that time it was already clear that this independent country was in
the first place lacking in democracy, which could very well be felt during
the second presidency of Leonid Kuchma.

As a result of this, the Orange Revolution in late 2004 being a fact of
public resistance established freedom of choice, free speech, the
impossibility of stealing elections etc.

It is already apparent nowadays, that independence and democracy are of
great concern to Ukraine. At the same time, the country is still separated,
unstable and unpredictable.

That is why there is a crying need to form and implement the new political
and socio-economic development strategy of Ukraine.
A higher degree of human development in Ukraine should lay down the
foundations for this strategy.

In other words, new life quality of citizens is to be achieved along with
the introduction of social, economic and democratic European standards of
human activity, state and society.

However, the present political elite has not yet proposed any feasible
strategic plan on Ukraine's future.

Instead, Viktor Yushchenko's team, focusing its attention on such
problematic issues as Holodomor or the recognition of the OUN-UPA

soldiers, does not make aware that despite their profound importance

for the recovery of historical memory and reviving the feeling of national

dignity, these issues cannot be a nationwide consolidating idea for

Ukrainian citizens today.

It might as well be apparent that one cannot unite the country actively
promoting entry into NATO.

Viktor Yanukovych's team has also failed to succeed in defining the issues
of public significance, actively supporting the big business, giving
preferences to several regions and taking a stand in favour of synchronizing
the foreign policy activity between Ukraine and Russia.

And this, in its turn, created all the conditions for triggering the
conflict of the last presidential elections: a combat between the
pro-American Yushchenko and pro-Russian Yanukovych.

These two teams in their daily routine are struggling for power rather than
for social values.

As soon as the authority of the President had been restricted, Viktor
Yushchenko's team 'realized' that the working Constitution was not
efficient, despite the fact that the team members voted for the adoption of
the constitutional reform.

Yanukovych's team, however, contrary to the conception of the working
Constitution, craves for conferring additional authority on the government.

A dramatic proof of this is the adoption of the Law on the Cabinet of
Ministers in the first reading, which was prepared by the government and
prohibits consideration of any draft law which affects the revenue and
expenditure side of the state budget without the consent of the Cabinet of
Ministers.

In essence, this implies the urge of Yanukovych's team to build a
governmental rather than a parliamentary-presidential republic, as provided
for by the working Constitution.

Another artificial conflict was stirred up as a sequel to the confrontation
between the so-called 'fair-dealing Orange politics' and 'Donetsk bandits'.

The period of time after the Orange Revolution has shown that quite an ample
quantity of Orange politics have proved to be not less disposed towards
corrupt practices than the 'Donetsk bandits'.

That is why such nature of political discussion makes the conception of two
Ukraines still more intense and generally brings discredit upon Ukrainian
politics.

Society is looking less stained by stereotypes and contradictions in the
government in the mist of confrontation between the ruling elites.

Since the Orange Revolution society has become more conscious and
able to defend itself.

No less importance is the fact that there has also been a change in the
social structure of society, where the role of the so-called 'middle class',
that is to say, economically and politically independent people, acquired
more importance.

Therefore, the most important task at present is to further restructure the
Ukrainian society, emphasizing the significance of a self-contained human
in it, namely, a citizen who knows his/her rights and is ready to maintain
them, an individual interested in the realization of his/her liberties, and
a tax-payer, who not only pays taxes in due time, but is also ready and
able to check on the efficiency of their use.

It is not just wrong of political forces to act solely in the interests of
big business (and hence, of the rich) or in the interests of the poor,
socially disadvantaged citizens.

Such false steps tend to sharpen the social conflict and destabilize the
situation in the country, whereas a unifying idea should consist in the
national strategy of Ukraine becoming a nation of successful people, who
would form the basis of a stable country.

Ukrainian citizens should be provided with all the favourable conditions

for fulfilling their potential in economics, politics, culture or any other
sphere in their own country.

Ukrainian people are to change their minds and realize that they are able to
fulfill their potential without relying on the government assistance.

In this respect, the key task of the present government is to minimize the
intervention of government bureaucracy in the activity of economically
independent people, and also to necessarily implement the effective politics
as to the socially disadvantaged citizens.

In this context, it is important to launch an informational campaign, which
would popularize the fashion for successful people, enterprises and,
finally, for prosperous regions of Ukraine.

Ukraine should finally cope with its own stereotype which suggests that it
is politics that one can only be successful in: that is why this sphere has
been entered by so many businessmen, singers, sportsmen, actors, - in other
words, by those who have a too general idea about the specific character of
politics in general or about the legislative policy in particular.

I am thoroughly convinced that in the near future we will learn to recognize
success and not to envy or bother the popular and authoritative people of
Ukraine.

Ukrainians still lack faith in themselves and their own country. And there
will always be a lack of WILL without this faith - the political will of
society, the will of every citizen to exercise and maintain his/her rights.

Nevertheless, 15 years of independence prove that Ukraine is capable of
becoming a prosperous country of politically and economically independent
people. -30-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mykola Tomenko is the Chairman of Family, Youth, Sports and Tourism
Affairs Committee, and the Director of the Institute of Politics, Ph.D.
Candidate in History
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LINK: http://www2.pravda.com.ua/en/news/2007/1/24/7007.htm
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17. KYIV, UKRAINE: BUREAUCRATIC POLTERGEIST
Three 19th century architectural monuments disappeared without a trace.

By Tetiana Kolesnychenko, The Day Weekly Digest #2
Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The Day has already reported that on New Year's Eve demolition vehicles
pulled up to the Kyiv Fortress, the world's largest earth fortification, and
razed three mid-19th-century buildings.

Among them was a military telegraph, the only one that had preserved its
original shape. The destruction of this particular structure is what caused
the stir.
PULLED DOWN FOR NEW HOUSING ESTATE
The architectural monuments were pulled down to make way for a new housing
estate. An ad hoc commission convened by the Kyiv City Administration
launched a probe into whether the builders' action was lawful and published
its preliminary conclusions a few days ago.

As the bureaucrats learned, there was no telegraph to begin with. "The
structure at 24/16 Rybalska Street is not a cultural heritage monument,"
said Vitalii Zhuravsky, deputy chairman of the Kyiv City Administration,
"but it stands next to an architectural monument of national importance:
tower No. 3 of the Kyiv Fortress, located at 22 Rybalska Street."

The commission also believes that the structures torn down by the builders
were in fact service buildings. One of them, a former barracks, once
belonged to the Ministry of Defense.

One of the reasons why the commission came to this conclusion was that the
archives do not contain any photographs of the telegraph dated later than
2004.

The bureaucrats also suggest asking Kyiv's ex- mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko
where the building has gone because it was the former Kyiv Council that
decided to authorize the build-up of this area.

Viacheslav Kulinich, curator of the Kyiv Fortress Museum, is sure that
asking the Ministry of Defense will be useless because ministerial documents
list the architectural monuments as ordinary buildings.

"This provides a legal opportunity to demolish, build up, and sell
architectural monuments," says Kulinich angrily. "The Ministry of Defense
had no right to sell these structures because it was only leasing them; it
didn't own them."

Still, the ministry's involvement is not the main thing that surprises
Kulinich. What alarms him is the fact that, according to the commission,

the telegraph, which he saw on Dec. 28, disappeared back in 2004.

"I clearly saw this telegraph house and I can testify to this in court," the
curator says. In reply, the members of the commission only explained that
they rely on official documents, and since there was no photographic
evidence, there was no telegraph.
TSARIST EMPIRE'S FIRST MILITARY TELEGRAPH DESTROYED
Incidentally, as soon as the Kyiv Fortress vandalism hit the headlines,
Ruslan Kukharenko, chief of the Kyiv City Administration's Cultural Heritage
Protection Department, visited the site. "The tsarist empire's first
military telegraph has been destroyed," he told journalists.

Kukharenko, official, who is also a commission member, has since rescinded
his words on the grounds that when he came to the museum, the telegraph
building had already been demolished. "I could have been mistaken, of
course," Kukharenko says. "How could I tell what kind of a building it had
been?"

"The No. 5 fortress is part of a complex of other structures, including the
telegraph house. Why are we talking about the latter?

Because when workers were building it, they laid out the construction date
in bricks," Kulinich says, producing photographs showing that the date,
1887, may be clearly seen on the building's facade. "And it never occurred
to me to take a picture of the telegraph."

Where the telegraph has gone and what should be done in this situation are
questions with no easy answers. The commission has promised to make
public the final results of its inquiry in the next few days.

Yet even now it is possible to predict, on the basis of the preliminary
conclusions, what kind of results they will be. The only hope for the museum
staff is the Kyiv Prosecutor's Office, which is already investigating the
"museum case."

Meanwhile, the commission claims that all the construction and renovation
work near the Kyiv Fortress has been suspended. But according to Kulinich,
excavators are continuing to dig at full blast - they only stopped this
mayhem when journalists came to the scene. The Kyiv Fortress curator thinks
the builders are trying to destroy the remaining evidence.

In order to begin construction near a historic site, builders are supposed
to carry out archeological excavations in the area, which, of course, was
not done in this case. "If we let the culprits get away with this incident,
tomorrow we will be living among the buildings of a housing project,"
Kulinich says.
PLANS TO BUILD FOUR HIGH-RISES HERE
"There are plans to build four high-rises here - one with eighteen stories
and three with twenty-five. They are more massive than the belfry of the
Kyivan Cave Monastery. And this is only the beginning of mass-scale
construction in Pechersk District."

There are a lot of murky aspects to the Kyiv Fortress affair. Three
19th-century architectural monuments have mysteriously vanished like
needles in a haystack.

If one reflects on this state of affairs reasonably, even if it turns out
that the real telegraph was pulled down several years ago and what was
demolished recently was a disused military barracks, is it a good idea to
disfigure such a historic place as Kyiv Fortress with another skyscraper?
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LINK: http://www.day.kiev.ua/175878/

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18. PUTTING KOLOMYIA ON THE WORLD'S TOURIST MAP

By Valerie Wright, Ukrainian Observer magazine
The Willard Group, Kyiv, Ukraine, January 2007

Kolomyia has arrived: it can be Wikied. Like George Bush's observation
that the war in Iraq is just a comma in history, Kolomyia's Wiki entry is a
series of short paragraphs touching upon nineteen nation-changes in an
800-hundred-year history.

Kyiv-Rus, Halych, Poland, Moldova, Poland, Ottoman Empire, Poland,
Ottoman, Poland, Austria, Russia, Austria, West Ukraine, Romania, Poland,
USSR, Germany, USSR, Ukraine. You have to give the tenacity award to
Poland.

All this flux has created a kind of stability. You can't drop what your
doing every time there is a violent overthrow. You add a few new words to
the local dialect, a few new spices to the rack, a new angle on local
architecture.

Kolomyia is the center of the Pokuttya region, meaning "in the corner".
Just try to stay out of the way as the cannons role through.

As regimes changed, Kolomyia held tight to the thread of history. Despite
the paprika added to borsch or the funny local dialect, itself a borsch of
Slavic, Hungarian, Romanian, German, Kolomyia remains a most Ukrainian
place.

It is home to the Museum of Hutsul and Pokuttya Arts as well as the

Kolomiya Museum of Pysanky, wondrously intricate wax and dye painted

eggs.

Not to say that the city projects flag-waving patriotism. Who's in power
seems to mean less that staying close to the soul of the land, to tradition,
to work done by hand in honor of ancestors.

Kolomyia lies on a slightly elevated plain abutting the Carpathian foothills
on a line equidistance between Lviv and Chernivtsi. It is an hour's drive
over winding but decent roads south of Ivano Frankivsk.

It has a population of around 60,000 which is comparable to Luzerne,
Switzerland or Santa Fe, New Mexico, brethren cities in mountainous places
with rich cultural histories. And hoards of tourists. Well, not yet, not
quite for Kolomyia. But there are local entrepreneurs betting that if they
build it, the tourists will come.
VITALY PAVIUK
I first met Vitaly Paviuk at a small tourism development seminar at the
Kolomyia rayon library. He called together a private-public group to
brainstorm on priorities.

The group included several area Peace Corps volunteers and, as a treat, we
Americans were invited to stay at Vitaly's Kolomyia-based bed and breakfast
on Friday followed by a stay at his new rural cottage on Saturday.

As far as the B&B, Vitaly said we were in luck as it was vacant for the
weekend. Hold on a minute. This is Kolomyia, barely on a path, much less
one beaten. Even at $16 per night per person, where was the demand to
uphold such an audacious claim? Surely this guy was dreaming.

Vitaly looks like a grown up Alfalfa from Our Gang. His face is boyish and
doe-eyed, his dark blunt-cut hair parted in the middle. He speaks softly and
carefully, and grins almost all the time.

We arrived at On the Corner, so named because it is, to find a three-storied
pitched-roof gray cube. Other than a small membership plaque for the
Carpathian Tourist Board, there was no sign that this is a guest house.

Inside were 350 meters, five bedrooms, two living areas, dining area,
fireplaces, three bathrooms, cable TV, internet access and some people
pretty darn proud of the place. We met Vitaly's mom, dad and sister, who
are the main staff for On the Corner. Sister is just here on vacation from
her large-chain hotel management job in Turkey.

We chose our rooms, my daughter tagging the pink one with the balcony. We
crashed onto comfy couches around the fireplace, waiting for dinner. Home
made potato varenyky with shkvarky, crispy fatback fried with onions and
garlic.

During the crazy 90s, while in high school, Vitaly's friend called from
Germany. It was a wonderful, civilized place and Vitaly should come. His
parents scrapped together money to send their son to a six-month German
language course at the prestigious Goethe Institute in Gottingen.

He finished in two months and returned to find a job working with a German
company exporting forest mushrooms. After two years of "the best business
school of my life" he had saved enough to go to Prykarpaty State University
and earn his legal degree. Then the phone rang again.

Another friend in Austria. Come to Austria and study. It's great. So he
did, fitting right in, no homesickness at all. He thought he would stay, be
a cosmopolitan European.

But one day he awoke and knew that he was going back to Ukraine to turn

the family house into a bed and breakfast, the kind that he had become
fascinated with in Austria. "I wanted to do something with the same quality
as you find in the west, but with a Ukrainian face." His mom, who was
cleaning houses in Italy, agreed immediately. His dad was skeptical.

His son was a lawyer and should pursue a stable and prestigious career.
Many people were discouraging. Crazy idea. Who would come to Kolomyia
for a holiday? Build your silly hotel and sit and wait. Hah! Vitaly was
philosophical. "I learned not to listen to that. You just have to believe
in your ideas and keep going."

Over four months with an investment of $10,000 in materials, family and
friends stripped the house to the bricks and put it back together again.

"We took out a 400-liter cast-iron Soviet heating system and replaced it
with a 40 liter PVC system." The first guest soon came through a Kolomyia
travel agent. A businessman from Dnipropetrovsk. He stayed for a year.

He brought his colleagues.

"At first it was really uncomfortable", bemoans the young businessman. "I
didn't even buy socks for a year. We put all the money into variable costs
for food and utilities and used the rest to buy furniture." He began
advertising on the web including hostelworld.com which allowed online
booking.

The business took off among tourists that Vitaly calls "backpackers",
foreign students looking for adventure and culture, include the grit, if you
will. But visitors only stayed a couple of nights while Vitaly's vision had
them staying longer. Leaving their money in the community.

He checked with local travel agents. No one was thinking in terms of local
events and excursions for these long-sought tourists who were to provide
local economic salvation. Just a lot of sitting and waiting.

KOLOMYIA SECTOR OF TOURIST SERVICES
So, Vitaly created the Kolomyia sector of tourist services. He enlisted

his uncle, a professor of history, geography and culture, and they went
a'huntin. They organized local crafts people working in folk arts,
painting, ceramics, rugs, blacksmithing, to provide demonstrations and
workshops.

They plodded through verdant hills staking out nature hikes. They organized
transportation to run people to Bukovel or Kosiv for the day. At first, he
took no cut from service providers.

"I did it to keep guests in my hotel and to take care of the local people."
Now he wholesales excursions to local agencies. But that is another
business. In addition to importing water pumps, coffee beans and
motorbikes, and that is getting ahead of our story.

Running at thirty percent annual occupancy by early 2004, he had put the nay
saying to rest. He took a seat on the Carpathian Tourist Board and started
helping, pro bono, others in town venturing into hospitality. "Tourists
coming to Ukraine are experienced travelers," he notes.

"It makes it difficult because they are seasoned. They know what they
want." On the Corner got a small mention in a "backpacking" article in the
Guardian, then a note in the New York Times. By the end of the year, On the
Corner was running at fifty percent annual occupancy. Then the phone rang
again.

A Lonely Planet reporter had been by recently, secretly, after seeing the
reference in the New York Times. She wanted to know if she could recommend
OTC for the 2005 edition. "Our occupancy soared to 80 percent year round.
We have lots of repeat customers, mainly from Europe, lots of families. It
is a family business and it attracts families."

He began wholesaling most of On the Corner's time to European tour agents.
That is when he got bored and branched off into coffee beans and water
pumps. People told him he had crazy ideas. Who in Kolomyia would buy
imported coffee beans? When he sold the business, he was moving a hundred
kilos a month of beans through a retail shop in sleepy little Kolomyia.

It seems that Vitaly has both the courage to reach out and grab opportunity
and the velocity to gather no moss. The phone rang again.

Mr. B

This time it was Mr. B. He wanted to bring to fruition his vision of a
peaceful country retreat on 200 hectares that he had recently acquired.
Would Vitaly be interested. Yak zhe!

Mr. B is a private down-to-earth kind of guy. The proverbial grizzled
friendly bear. I asked him why, like Vitaly, he could live anywhere in the
west - his daughter lives in America - why stay in Kolomyia? "Now don't

go writing something about patriotism and all that. This is my home, this is
where I am comfortable, this is where I want to be." Mr. B has had his
share of traveling.

He roamed around Europe during perestroika working illegally as a
construction tradesman. He saved some money. When the coup took place,
it was time to come home. He started a small factory making hand-crafted
furniture for export. That led to general contracting for fancy dachas all
around Ukraine. Life was good. He had time for fishing.

Mr. B is passionate about fishing. "My favorite lake was wild, full of the
most beautiful pike." Through bad management, the lake died. So he
bought it. He worked for a year with Vitaly to clean and restock it. It was
christened Silver Lake.

It is now a lovingly managed home to fourteen kinds of fish. Mr. B's eyes
sparkle when he says, "Some of those fish are pretty big. I want to try
some bow fishing." What? You know, with a bow and arrow.

They built a four bedroom cabin ten meters from the shore. We drove to
Silver Lake Cottage just after it opened, on a gorgeous Fall day, color like
I had never seen in Carpatia. The cottage was small and fanciful, like
something you would come across in a fairy tale.

Everything was made of wood and smelled of pine sap and holiday. It was
not luxurious, but peaceful, private, other worldly.

What was there to do? Fish, of course. Ride the all-terrain vehicle which
was modified to dampen the noise. Walk for hours through the woods, along
the lake and river. My daughter found a brood of four kittens which were
generously offered as free souvenirs. We made shashlyk for dinner.

"This is not about money," says Mr. B. "Its about nature and peace and
privacy. I have always wanted to work in hospitality, but I want guests
with whom I can socialize, who appreciate the preservation of natural
beauty. Right now we only have guests from On the Corner.

We will see how it goes before building some more. I want to do a sauna

and a swimming pool. I have seen a lot of hotels, and they are all more or

less the same. I want this to be something different."

Vitaly has been sitting at the table during this interview. "Can I add
something?", he asks.

"I like our city council now, I like the mayor. They have a vision.
Kolomyia is all about community. Money is starting to come in. We are
working on plans for repatriation of people working abroad.

But we have to avoid mass tourism, keep the character of Kolomyia." He tells
me about his new vision to create facilities for business conferences and
training. But really, who would come to Kolomyia for something like that?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Valerie Wright came to Ukraine in 1992 as part of the first group of Peace
Corps volunteers in the former Soviet Union and was drawn to stay. After
many years mainly in Kyiv, she is now building a new home in Ivano-
Frankivsk region and will contribute frequently to the Observer. -30-
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LINK: http://www.ukraine-observer.com/articles/227/980
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19. HETMAN PAVLO SKOROPADSKY'S GRANDSON IN UKRAINE
Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadsky was born in 1873 and raised in the true
Cossack spirit, learning to respect Ukrainian culture and traditions.

Olena Kahanets, Kyiv, The Day Weekly Digest, #2
Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, 23 January 2007

Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky's grandson Borys D. Skoropadsky has returned
to Ukraine with his family to restore the historic truth about the second
Hetman State.

The Skoropadsky family history dates back more than seven centuries. This
old Cossack family is descended from Ukraine's two oldest dynasties, and
Borys's ancestors include Constantine IX Monomachos and Grand Duke of
Lithuania Gediminas.

Among Ukraine's other hetmans were Pavlo Skoropadsky's great- grandfather
Ivan Skoropadsky (1708-22), grandson of the famed Fedir Skoropadsky, who
fought in Bohdan Khmelnytsky's army and died a hero's death during the
Battle of Zhovti Vody.

Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadsky was born in 1873 and raised in the true
Cossack spirit, learning to respect Ukrainian culture and traditions.

He graduated from the most elite educational establishment in imperial
Russia, the St. Petersburg Page Corps. During the First World War he
commanded a regiment of the elite Life Guards, then a cavalry division, and
later an army corps, becoming Russia's youngest general.

The life of his grandson Borys Skoropadsky took such a course that he
learned about his grandfather only in Canada, in 1999, because his mother
had concealed the truth from him.

He was born in Canada in 1956 and spent 50 years there. His father Danylo
was poisoned on Feb. 22, 1957, and died the next day in London. His son
Borys was 10 months old.

Borys Skoropadsky's mother Oleksandra was aware of the threat to her son's
life. Trying to protect him, she registered him under her mother's surname,
Tuhaibei, which he kept for 44 years.

Borys was raised by his mother and his uncle, Colonel Porfyrii Sylenko, who
was like grandfather to him and served as his male role model. Sylenko had
served with Pavlo Skoropadsky and later, in London, was Danylo
Skoropadsky's personal secretary and consultant.

As the only surviving relative of Borys's mother, on who he had a strong
influence, Sylenko insisted on hiding Danylo Skoropadsky's son after
settling in Toronto on a permanent basis.

Sylenko meant to tell Borys the truth after he grew up. He had no time,
however, because he died when Borys was 22, and his mother did not dare
tell him for a long time. Years passed, and she continued waiting for an
opportunate moment.

Meanwhile, Borys tried to find himself: he lived in England, California, and
Florida. He took up various projects, including starting his own business.

He was a car dealer and real estate agent, and even designed residential
construction projects. When he first visited Germany at the age of 17 years,
he realized that he was being drawn to this land by some magnetic force.

Later he discovered that his grandfather Pavlo Skoropadsky was buried there.
After flying to London when he was 22, he felt another surge of energy
pierce his body, which made his hair stand on end. His father Danylo
Skoropadsky was buried in London.

Nothing like that happened when he visited France and other countries.
Years later the same thing happened for the third time, and the impact was
considerably stronger. It happened in Ukraine.

Borys has two sons: eight-year-old Danylo (named after his grandfather whom
he resembles) and six-year-old Maksym. Both are devout hockey players.

When I asked whether he felt easier when he discovered who he was and the
family he came from, Borys replied:

"Oh yes! One hundred percent. I realized what was causing that anxiety and
my constant quest for the meaning of my life. I instantly felt a hunger for
information. I browsed the Internet and found lots of data.

Then friends started bringing me various kinds of books. I was looking for
my family and family connections, something I lacked so badly. It was as
though half of my personality were nonexistent.

People who don't have a father or mother know perfectly well what I'm
talking about. So I started my search and eventually found some old men and
women, but many of them were in their 90s and could hardly pronounce their
name.

Sometimes I would find out about a relative that I had managed to discover
and call him only to learn that he had died the previous month. I would even
get mad at my mother for not telling me the truth sooner."

According to Skoropadsky (and history confirms his story), in 1938 Hetman
Pavlo Skoropadsky officially made his son Danylo Skoropadsky hetmanych,
his successor, who would become hetman after his father's death.

When this happened, however, the hetman powers went to Pavlo
Skoropadsky's eldest sister Maria. She died three years later, in 1959,
whereupon Yelyzaveta took over.

She died in 1976, and Pavlo Skoropadsky's youngest daughter, Olena
Ott-Skoropadsky, refused to have anything to do with the succession issue,
announcing that she wanted to stay out of politics. She was the youngest of
the family and had none of the political experience of Skoropadsky's older
children.

We know that a hetman organization created by Pavlo Skoropadsky functioned
in the Ukrainian Diaspora, whose membership was topped only by the
Communist Party. Its strongest and most effective organizations operated in
the US, Canada, Germany, and Great Britain, where many Ukrainians live.

The US government even gave Ukrainian-American hetman- affiliated war pilots
aircraft with names like Kyiv, Odesa, and Lviv. The hetmanites had weapons,
uniforms, and training camps.

In time, however, the hetman movement began to decline, and fewer books
were published about Skoropadsky whose name began to sink into oblivion.

[The Day] You launched your quest in Canada and now you are here in
Ukraine. What is the purpose of your resettlement?

Pavlo Skoropadsky: I came to live here because I have to be here. I wanted
to live in Ukraine. My mother raised me and made sure I learned the
language, Ukrainian culture, had information about our people, and knew our
songs and dances - in a word, about all things Ukrainian.

My mother raised me as a Ukrainian patriot. After I learned the truth about
my family, I found myself burning with the desire to return to Ukraine.

Now I understand where this energy comes from, the origin of my thoughts
about coming to Ukraine and being able to change a lot of things! My blood
makes me assume a tremendous responsibility; I am even proud to shoulder it,
even though I heard older people tell me, 'Borys, you will bear a very heavy
cross by resettling in Ukraine. You will return in a month.'"

[The Day] You have been here for more than a month and not returned. How
do you feel in Ukraine?
Pavlo Skoropadsky: I feel great. I will live in Ukraine for the sake of
Ukraine.

[The Day] Do you know much about your grandfather?
Pavlo Skoropadsky: Pavlo Skoropadsky was a career army officer in tsarist
Russia. In his childhood he studied in Greece and Italy and then traveled
far and wide. He lost his father when he was 12.

He studied a lot and worked hard to improve himself; he became the youngest
general in the tsarist army. He wanted to be in the front ranks during the
war. His men fought better because their commander was always nearby.

[The Day] Do you know what kind of character he had?
Pavlo Skoropadsky: I read a memoir. One evening his colleagues visited him
at home. The apartment had three rooms where people gathered. His wife
Oleksandra was in the kitchen, two rooms away. She stepped into the room
where he was and said, "Pavlo, not so loud."

When I read this, I started laughing. All my life people have told me,
"Please, Borys, not so loud." I don't need a microphone. I can address an
audience so my voice will be carried to the last row of seats.

My grandfather restored the hetman state 150 years after it was abolished.
He grew up in Trostianka, Poltava gubernia, where the family owned an
estate. There he saw old Cossack weapons and portraits of Ukrainian
personalities and hetmans.

[The Day] Do your sons know who you are?
Pavlo Skoropadsky: Yes, I told them as soon as I learned the truth. I
continue to study my history and that of the second Hetman State, what

my grandfather accomplished, what has been written on the subject by

Lypynsky and other wise individuals.

I am looking for the real reasons behind the quick rise and fall of the
second Hetman State. I have realized that it was a genuinely strong and
independent Ukrainian state, and that this was why my grandfather instantly
found himself confronted by so many enemies.

[The Day] Does this mean you also have enemies?
Pavlo Skoropadsky: None of them are left. There are no enemies of the
Skoropadskys or those opposing the hetman state left today. Instead, there
are people opposed to what can actually benefit Ukraine. Whatever you do,
they will always be there to oppose it.

Consider the last 100 or 200 years of Ukrainian history. Any more or less
unbiased researcher will agree that the second Hetman State was the best
period in terms of the economy, science, culture, art, and society.

[The Day] What were the main reasons for the defeat of the Hetman State?
Pavlo Skoropadsky: I have given this considerable thought and arrived at the
conclusion that the reasons have nothing to do with the economy, politics,
or inadequate diplomacy. The Hetman State fell prey to falsehood, treason,
and information warfare.

My grandfather was an aristocrat, who had a strong sense of duty and code
of honor, so all those backstage intrigues and conspiracies were beyond him.

Lies, however, can exist for long afterwards. Years later many of my
grandfather's opponents repented and even personally apologized to him.
Among them was Colonel Yevhen Konovalets. He visited my grandfather in
Germany and told him simply, "Lord Hetman, I betrayed you."

Therefore, it is extremely important today to restore the historical truth
about Pavlo Skoropadsky and his state. In 1918 he succeeded in uniting
Ukraine for seven months. I believe that the truth about the second Hetman
State will help unite today's Ukraine.

I see my own calling in learning this historical truth, the way it really
is, and conveying it to the people. This is why I came here, to stay
forever.
POSTSCRIPT FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE DAY'S HISTORY COLUMN
There is no denying the merits of Pavlo Skoropadsky in the development of
Ukrainian statehood and culture. But history is not a panegyric.

For the sake of justice and historical truth, it is worth pointing out
certain circumstances that may somewhat alter the excessively complimentary

image of the celebrated hetman.

Unfortunately, the irrefutable fact remains that Skoropadsky's regime very
heavily leaned on the German occupation authorities' support. It was no
accident that the state stopped existing almost as soon as the German troops
left Ukraine.

Another fact is the Federation Act proclaimed by Skoropadsky on Nov. 14,
1918, according to which the hetman undertook to unite Ukraine with a future
non-Bolshevik government of Russia. So this panegyrical tone is not very
appropriate for the discussion about Skoropadsky. -30-
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LINK: http://www.day.kiev.ua/175869/
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20. UNITY AS GUARANTEE OF STRENGTH
Towards the Day of Ukrainian Unity
January 22, 1919, an Act Of Unity was proclaimed on Kyiv's Sophia Square

By Ihor Siundiukov, The Day Weekly Digest #2
Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, January 23, 2007

There are holidays and holidays. Some of the dates just honor the tradition
and ceremony, but there were and still are Ukrainian holidays that muster
the nation's strength and show us a difficult, thorny, and exhausting, like
a climb onto a snowy peak, but the only way to the future that is worthy of
a proud nation.

One of such holidays that will always remind us of an imperative of the
national unity of all Ukrainians from Uzhhorod to Luhansk (an imperative is,
incidentally, not that which has already been achieved but that which still
requires a strenuous effort every minute!) is the Day of Ukrainian Unity
celebrated on Jan. 22.

This is not a chance date. For it was on Jan. 22, 1919, that an Act of Unity
(Sobornist, or Zluka) was proclaimed on Kyiv's Sophia Square in the presence
of the leaders of the Ukrainian National Republic and the West Ukrainian
National Republic, i.e., the leading personalities of Halychyna and Dnipro
Ukrainians, the two branches of our nation that had been tragically
separated from each other for almost six centuries).

A decree was also issued, which said in particular, "From now on, the parts
of Ukraine that were separated from each other for centuries - the West
Ukrainian National Republic, including Halychyna, Bukovyna, Hungarian Rus,
and Dniproside Ukraine - are uniting into one independent state, the
Ukrainian National Republic.

From now on, the Ukrainian people have an opportunity, in a powerful upsurge
of their own forces, to bring together all the aspirations of their sons to
establish an undivided and independent Ukrainian state for the benefit and
happiness of the working people."

The idea of Ukrainian unity, to which our people were committed throughout
centuries, needs as much sober courage as possible, rather than sweet
patriotic phrases which cause grave harm, perhaps even as grave as overtly
chauvinistic loutishness.

From the historical perspective, we should admit that in 1919 the Act of
Unity remained just a declaration due to a large number of factors of both
external (reluctance of the Entente countries to support, let alone
recognize, the idea of Ukrainian independence, and, naturally, the military
intervention of Moscow, the White Army, and the aforesaid Entente) and
internal nature.

Symon Petliura wrote three weeks before his death, "Given the state of
national awareness, organization and discipline of our nation in 1917-1918,
only a well-coordinated action of its two parts - Dniproside and Halychyna
Ukrainians - could have helped achieve the ideal of political independence.

There was no such coordination from the very beginning of the struggle.
Both parts were not mature enough to accept the necessity of a single ruling
will. The idea of a united Ukraine was in fact a mere phrase to be
pronounced on festive occasions."

This thought of Petliura has quite a tangible bearing on the present-day
situation, doesn't it? The solemn "oaths of allegiance" to the idea of a
united Ukraine, taken by statesmen who, in reality (a bitter truth!), only
think of their business interests and of which of them is really the first
in this state, are nothing but cynical incantations that cannot inspire
confidence by definition. -30-
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LINK: http://www.day.kiev.ua/175861/

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21. "I COCKED MY REVOLVER..........."
Examining the emergence of Ukrainian peasant insurgent armies movement
Nestor Makno and Nykyfor Hryhoriev, Civil War allies and enemies

By Volodymyr HORAK, Candidate of Sciences (History)
The Day Weekly Digest #42, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, Dec 26, 2006

One cannot properly understand the history of the Ukrainian National
Revolution of 1918-21 without examining such phenomena as the Ukrainian
insurgent movement.

At the time, the wide expanses of Ukrainian lands saw the emergence of
peasant insurgent armies numbering tens and even hundreds of thousands
of combatants armed with all kinds of weapons, including artillery.

The insurgents entered into alliances with other political forces
(Bolsheviks, Petliurites, and even the Whites), but as a rule such alliances
were temporary, which further attests to the political independence of these
peasant movements. At the same time, the insurgents, who had much in
common but were led by different otamans, often clashed with one another.

These hostilities claimed the life of Nykyfor Hryhoriev, one of the best
known Civil War peasant military leaders in Ukraine, who was killed by
Nestor Makhno's fighters in late July 1919.

THE OTAMAN OF THE KHERSON AND CRIMEAN INSURGENTS
Little is known about the early life of Nykyfor Servetnyk (Hryhoriev's real
name). He was born in the mid-1880s in the little town of Dunaivka, in
Podillia Gubernia.

Later, for reasons that are still not clear, the future otaman changed his
name to Nykyfor Hryhoriev and moved to the Kherson region. For a long time
Hryhoriev did not distinguish himself. He was employed as a petty excise
collector and later as a tsarist policeman.

It is very likely that he would have led a humdrum and obscure life had it
not been for the wars and revolutions that blew in like a storm and gave
people like Hryhoriev power over thousands of people, as well as immense
popularity.

Hryhoriev soon had an opportunity to see action: he fought in the 1904-1905
Russo-Japanese War and then in World War One. The future otaman acquitted
himself well on the battlefield, was promoted to staff-captain, and awarded
St. George's Cross for conspicuous gallantry.

After the tsarist government fell, Hryhoriev became a supporter of the
Central Rada but later switched sides and served under General Pavlo
Skoropadsky, who promptly suppressed all kinds of "socialist experiments"
promoted by the Ukrainian socialists and Russian Bolsheviks.

The former tsarist staff-captain carved out a brilliant career for himself
in Skoropadsky's army and soon was commissioned as a colonel of the

hetman's armed forces.

Later, however, Hryhoriev fell under the strong influence of politicians who
were opposed to Skoropadsky, which marked a turning point in his life story.
In August 1918 Hryhoriev returned to the Kherson region to organize a
guerrilla movement against the Skoropadsky regime.

In the large village of Verbliuzhky the former officer of the hetman's army
created an insurgent detachment of 120 people armed with pitchforks,
revolvers, and Austrian-made rifles.

The great success of his insurgents (who once seized an Austrian freight
train) made the otaman a popular figure in the Kherson region and brought
him hundreds of new peasant volunteers.

The guerrillas, whose numbers were mounting, quickly brought down
Skoropadsky's weak and unpopular government in a large part of Kherson
Gubernia and then.

After joining Symon Petliura's republican army in early December 1918, they
launched a campaign against the German interventionists concentrated in
Mykolaiv and White Army units stationed in Kherson.

The Kherson Division (as Hryhoriev's detachments came to be known after they
joined the UNR army) captured these cities and proclaimed the authority of
the Directory, the new Ukrainian government.

Many facts indicate that the otaman used not only weapons to win this
victory and others. For example, the German troops in Mykolaiv received two
ultimatums from Hryhoriev.

In the first he vowed that, if they put up armed resistance, he would disarm
and drive them out of Ukraine in shame, and in the other he said that they
would be wiped out like flies "at a wave of the otaman's hand."

Trying to avoid these undesirable and realistic prospects, the Germans twice
surrendered Mykolaiv to Hryhoriev's men without a fight.

The geography of Hryhoriev's insurgent movement was gradually expanding to
embrace the Katerynoslav region. Here, the soldiers of the Kherson Division
fought against the White Army and the guerrillas of the famous batko
("father") Nestor Makhno, who also opposed the new Ukrainian government.

Like other officers in Petliura's army, Hryhoriev had orders to eliminate
Makhno's detachments as soon as possible because they posed a considerable
danger to the Directory in the south.
RED BRIGADE COMMANDERS
Neither Hryhoriev nor other commanders under Petliura were able to carry out
these orders because the Makhno movement was too strong and influential.

Yet the followers of Makhno and Hryhoriev were not always destined to remain
on opposite sides of the barricades. On Jan. 29, 1919, Otaman Hryhoriev,
emulating Makhno, rose up against the Directory.

There were several reasons for the Kherson Division's actions: the Ukrainian
government had failed to proclaim Soviet power, which most of Hryhoriev's
men wanted, and approved the Entente intervention in southern Ukraine. Now,
Hryhoriev - this time a Soviet commander, not a Petliura otaman - moved his
detachments to Kherson.

At the same time, the troops of Hryhoriev and Makhno faced a quandary. Both
otamans had to fight simultaneously against several powerful enemies: the
armies of Petliura and Denikin, Entente interventionists, and German
colonizers. The peasant commanders were not always winners in these battles.

In late January 1919 the Whites seized the village of Huliai-Pole, the hub
of the Makhno movement, and in early February the French interventionists
drove Hryhoriev's detachments out of Mykolaiv and Kherson.

Makhno and Hryhoriev decided to join the advancing Red Army. Their intention
suited the plans of the Soviet commanders, who wanted to reinforce the Red
Army with local insurgents.

Soon the Soviet military command resolved to form the Trans-Dnipro Rifle
Division composed of three brigades. Hryhoriev and Makhno were appointed
commanding officers of the 1st Trans-Dnipro and 3rd Trans-Dnipro Brigades,
respectively.

Thus, the former enemies found themselves not only in the same army but also
in the same division. Soon, however, the Trans-Dnipro Rifle Division ceased
to exist as a single unit, which was only natural.

The paths of the Red Army officers, Hryhoriev and Makhno, were diverging
more and more: Hryhoriev's men were advancing in a southwestern direction
towards Odesa, while Makhno's fighters were moving southwest in the
direction of Tahanrih. But despite the different roads of the Civil War,
both Red brigade commanders were always in touch with each other.

Their headquarters exchanged battle reports, and at the end of March 1919
batko Makhno sent Hryhoriev a cavalry detachment as reinforcement. Hryhoriev
repaid Makhno with a large quantity of captured weapons.

The two Red Army commanders achieved impressive military successes during
this campaign. Hryhoriev's brigade liberated Znamianka, Yelysavethrad,
Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, and other cities from the Petliurites, White Army
troops, and Entente interventionists. Makhno's brigade troops were no
laggers: they expelled Denikin's units from Huliai-Pole, Berdiansk,
Volnovakha and Mariupil.

Hryhoriev and Makhno were later awarded Orders of the Red Banner "for
achievements in the revolutionary struggle," and the Soviet press lavished a
great deal of praise on them.

But the Soviet government would hardly have bestowed these honors on them if
it had known well in advance the kind of danger the Hryhoriev and Makhno
movements wouldlater represent.
POLITICAL ABOUT-FACE
It should be stressed that in the Civil War years the political situation in
Ukraine often changed at a breakneck pace, and yesterday's reliable ally
could easily turn into a sworn enemy today, or vice versa.

What united the Bolsheviks and Hryhoriev and Makhno's men was the joint
struggle against the armies of Petliura and Denikin as well as the foreign
interventionists, but they were disunited, each possessing different visions
of how to build a new life.

As far as land management was concerned, the communists were in favor of
instituting large state-run farms ("Soviet farms"), while most peasants in
the Kherson and Katerynoslav regions preferred either an equitable
distribution of landlords' lands or voluntary communes, rather than those
forced "from above."

The peasants also rejected the all-out food requisition to which the
communists resorted; they wanted either normal cash-commodity relations
or a fair and equitable commodity exchange.

However, Ukraine's Bolshevik masters did not reckon greatly, to put it
mildly, with the interests of the peasants, and thus propelled Hryhoriev,
Makhno, and their men into a hostile camp.

Otaman Hryhoriev's troops, who were advancing on Odesa, knew only too
well from different sources what the Bolshevik authorities were doing in
their rear lines. Naturally, the news of forced "communization" and the violent
robbery of peasants of the fruits of their labors triggered their legitimate
protests.

This gradually formed a fixed idea in their ranks that communist power was
alien, not Ukrainian, that it had been brought to Ukraine by people of a
different ethnic origin, above all, the Jews.

Those who visited the otaman's units at the time spoke of widespread
anti-Semitic sentiments among the fighters. These were the sentiments that
Hryhoriev's men brought to their native Kherson region after capturing
Odesa.

The areas where Hryhoriev's detachments were stationed saw mass murders of
communists and their supporters, counterintelligence officers, and members
of food-requisition squads. A major armed mutiny was brewing, which posed a
grave danger to the Bolshevik government because Hryhoriev had about 20,000
well-armed soldiers at his disposal.

Documents show that there was also a complicated political situation in the
Katerynoslav region, the sphere of Makhno's influence, where peasants were
also protesting against the imposition of state-run farms and food
requisitioning. Makhno issued a decree banning food-requisition squads on
his territory and disbanded the secret police unit in Berdiansk.

But in contrast to areas under Hryhoriev's control, the protest against
communist policies did not assume an anti-Semitic coloring. This detail is
very important for understanding why fatal shots were fired at otaman
Hryhoriev in the village of Sentove, near Kherson, in late July 1919.

Meanwhile, on April 27, 1919, five people assembled at a safe house in
Katerynoslav. Three of them were confidants of batko Makhno and two
were messengers from otaman Hryhoriev.

Clearly afraid of attracting attention, the secret negotiators began quietly
discussing a plan to seize Katerynoslav by Makhno and Hryhoriev's troops.
But there was a traitor among the plotters (Makhno's man Goriev), who
informed the Bolshevik authorities of the secret talks, and the Cheka
(Soviet secret police) arrested the conspirators.

A few days later Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, commander of the Soviet troops
in Ukraine, visited Huliai-Pole and bluntly asked Makhno about his secret
contacts with Hryhoriev. Makhno did not deny them, but emphasized that he
did so in order to uncover the otaman's secret intentions rather than to
hatch an anti-Bolshevik plot together with him.

Makhno did not reveal the whole truth. Naturally, the batko had taken
advantage of the opportunity to sound out Hryhoriev and his men for their
political attitudes - not for a trivial reason but to size up the real
possibility of a future Makhno-Hryhoriev putsch against the Bolshevik
government.

Makhno's actions were quite expected: exactly 10 days earlier, the Soviet
newspaper Kommunar had carried an article headlined "Down with Makhno's
Rule!" After reading it, Makhno understood that the communists no longer
looked on him as a friend but as a potential enemy at the very least.

There were many hot heads among the Bolshevik functionaries of different
levels, who stubbornly insisted that the "counterrevolutionary hotbeds" in
Kherson and Katerynoslav gubernias be eliminated immediately.

This might well have happened if Soviet Ukraine had not been experiencing
simultaneous powerful blows from Petliura, the White Army, and
anti-Bolshevik peasant insurgents. Thus, a moderate compromise line with
respect to Hryhoriev and Makhno took the upper hand in the highest strata of
the Bolshevik government.

Antonov-Ovseenko was an active supporter of this line. Contrary to numerous
and extremely alarming facts, he claimed that Hryhoriev and Makhno's troops
"are our reliable combat reserve" and will never oppose the Soviet
government.

These illusions were dispelled late in the evening of May 9, 1919, when the
Ukrainian Front commander received a telegram from Khristian Rakovsky,
chairman of the Ukrainian SSR Council of People's Commissars. The brief
message was: "Hryhoriev has raised a revolt. Be careful!"
MAKHNO AGAINST HRYHORIEV
At first Hryhoriev, the former Soviet commander, who was now a rebellious
otaman, managed to achieve major military successes. Supported by the
peasantry and some Red Army units, within two weeks Hryhoriev's rebellion
had spread to the Kherson, Katerynoslav, Poltava, and Kyiv regions.

The insurgents seized Kherson, Mykolaiv, Yelysavethrad, Katerynoslav,
Oleksandriia, Cherkasy, and other cities. However, instead of promptly
organizing a new life here "without communists and commissars," the otaman
and his insurgents set about exterminating the defenseless Jewish populace.

A wave of bloody Jewish pogroms swept over the cities captured by the
insurgents, and thousands of Jews fell victim to Hryhoriev's men, although
the vast majority of Jews were poor and had nothing to do with the state-run
farms, food requisitioning, the Bolshevik party, or politics in general.

This was undoubtedly the gravest political mistake of otaman Hryhoriev and
his men. The mass-scale bloody pogroms alienated many workers and peasants
who, quite naturally, did not consider the pogrom-minded Hryhoriev as a
guarantor of a future quiet and stable life.

Meanwhile, a large Bolshevik army, twice the size of Hryhoriev's, was sent
to crush the uprising. In early June 1919 the otaman's troops were expelled
from all the cities under their control, and their numbers fell to 3,000
because so many of them were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner.

Hryhoriev and his insurgents badly needed allies in early May and June. The
otaman was pinning special hopes - not unjustifiably - on Makhno. Hryhoriev
never forgot about the secret talks with Makhno's men in late April 1918.

As soon as the uprising broke out, Makhno received a few telegrams from the
otaman, in one of which were these lines: " Batko! Why are you looking at
the communists? Kill them!" At the same time, Makhno was receiving messages
from Lenin's closest associate Lev Kamenev.

Fully aware of what catastrophic consequences the "counterrevolutionary"
alliance of Hryhoriev and Makhno's forces could have, Kamenev categorically
insisted that Makhno decisively and irreversibly disengage himself from
Hryhoriev's rebellion.

Circumstances thus inexorably demanded that Makhno make what we now call a
political choice. Clearly, Makhno could not resolve such an important
political problem on his own. He gathered his commanders in Mariupil on May
12, 1919, to sound out their attitude to Hryhoriev's uprising.

The commanders were sharply divided. Most of them considered Hryhoriev a
counterrevolutionary and even claimed that the real leader of the uprising
was not the otaman but somebody from Gen. Denikin's closest retinue.

They came to an unequivocal conclusion: they should forget their differences
with the Bolsheviks and strengthen the alliance with the Red Army aimed
against both Denikin and Hryhoriev. A dissenting note came from Yakiv
Ozerov, chief of Makhno's staff, who called Hryhoriev's men "our brothers"
and suggested siding with their uprising.

Makhno also addressed the meeting. In his speech, the "father" rode
roughshod over the Bolsheviks' rural policies but also rapped Hryhoriev over
the knuckles, calling him a true henchman of Denikin.

Still, Makhno left unanswered the question concerning the attitude to the
otaman's uprising, which is quite natural if we examine the difficult
situation in which Makhno found himself in May 1919.

On the one hand, the communists' policy in the countryside was pushing him
towards Hryhoriev, the Green Angel, and other rural otamans whose
detachments had already been fighting the Bolsheviks.

On the other, the real danger of a White Army-led restoration of the old
regime moved him back to the alliance with the communists and the Red Army.
In addition, when that military congress was being held, Makhno had a rather
hazy view of the nature, goals, and real strength of the Hryhoriev uprising.

He asked his close comrade-in-arms Oleksandr Chubenko to clarify all these
matters, and the latter, together with some of Makhno's men, soon crossed
the Bolshevik-Hryhoriev front line.

Makhno's envoys failed to reach the otaman's headquarters, but they still
managed to learn something about Hryhoriev's rule. According to Makhno's
staff officer, the hero of the capture of Odesa and bearer of the Order of
the Red Banner, Hryhoriev followed the way of Petliura's otamans whose
pogroms and atrocities were well known in Ukraine.

The news of a Jewish pogrom in Piatykhatky became the decisive argument
for the batko. By an absolute majority of votes Makhno's military council
declared war on ruHHty Hryhoriev.

Makhno's headquarters soon released a communique with the characteristically
debunking title "Who Is Hryhoriev?" which described the otaman as an
anti-Semitic organizer of pogroms, a traitor of the revolution, and a public
enemy.

Makhno did not confine himself to a verbal condemnation of Hryhoriev's
mutiny. Soon after, the commander of the 3rd Trans-Dnipro Brigade sent
against Hryhoriev's army the 6th Trans-Dnipro Regiment and the Spartacus
armored train which, together with other Soviet units, routed the rebels
near Katerynoslav. Thus, Makhno again helped the Bolsheviks, who soon
repaid the batko with black ingratitude.
AN INSURGENT ALLIANCE
On May 25, 1919, the commanding officer of the Red Army's 3rd Trans-Dnipro
Brigade, batko Makhno, was outlawed. Soviet troops began disarming Makhno's
units, and on June 12 secret agents managed to capture most of Makhno's
staff officers, who were later shot and killed.

The Cheka was also hunting for Makhno, but he managed to escape arrest.
Makhno and his fighters found themselves in a real quandary, with Denikin's
troops pressing in front and the Red Army in the rear.

Makhno was very well aware that he clearly lacked forces to successfully
oppose both the Reds and the Whites. There is evidence that at this time
Makhno hit upon the idea of forming a mighty insurgent army based in the
Kherson region. But this area was still crawling with Hryhoriev's guerrillas
with whom Makhno's fighters were at war.

The new realities finally forced Makhno to revise his attitude to the
"counterrevolutionaries," and very soon he led a large detachment to the
Kherson steppes with the intention of forming a military alliance with them
against the Bolsheviks and the White Army.

En route, Makhno's troops attacked Yelysavethrad but were quickly repelled
by Red Army troops, who outnumbered them. But even this short period of time
was enough for Makhno to gain additional - and by no means encouraging -
information about Hryhoriev and his insurgents. He learned that Hryhoriev's
men had recently killed 2,000 Jews there. Some of them were confirmed
anarchists.

This information stunned Makhno, forcing him to think twice about his future
alliance with the otaman. He believed that Hryhoriev's rank-and-file
soldiers, who Makhno thought were a blind instrument in the hands of the
"adventurer," should be incorporated into his army and reeducated, while the
anti-Semitic officers should be executed.

Having conceived this plan, which in fact amounted to a secret plot against
otaman Hryhoriev and about which the "father" did not breathe a word to
anybody, Makhno headed for the village of Verbliuzhky. Failing to find
Hryhoriev there, he went to the village of Kompaniivka, where the otaman and
his chief of staff also came a short while later.

Hryhoriev, who had suffered a number of crushing defeats at the hands of the
Reds, was not at all averse to having Makhno as a long-awaited ally rather
than an enemy. But anti-Hryhoriev sentiments were still strong among
Makhno's leading commanders, and most of them resolutely opposed the

alliance with a "counterrevolutionary bent on pogroms."

Some of them even suggested arresting and shooting the otaman. Makhno
had to reveal his secret plan to his close colleagues, telling them they
should take in Hryhoriev's rank-and-file fighters and that they could shoot
Hryhoriev any time they wanted.

Soon Makhno and Hryhoriev's detachments merged into a single guerrilla army
whose commander-in-chief, Hryhoriev, was supposed to follow all the
instructions of the army's Revolutionary Council headed by Makhno. A joint
insurgent headquarters was set up, with Makhno's men constituting the
majority. It was decided that the joint insurgent army would fight against
the Reds, the Whites, and the Petliurites.

Bowing to the batko's demand, Hryhoriev also firmly promised to refrain from
carrying out Jewish pogroms.

These facts prove that the insurgent army quickly came under the control of
Makhno's top officers. All they had to do now was "neutralize" Hryhoriev
himself.
SHOOTOUT IN SENTOVE
It is clear that Makhno had no real possibilities to carry out his plot
immediately against the otaman and his men. First it was necessary to
collect sufficient compromising information against Hryhoriev in order to
expose him convincingly in the eyes of the ordinary insurgents, and this
required some time. Makhno's counterintelligence was brought into the
picture, and his agents began shadowing every step of the otaman. They
did not have to wait long for compromising evidence.

Shortly after merging with Makhno's army, Hryhoriev's fighters again
attacked Oleksandriia and Yelysavethrad. After capturing these cities, the
insurgents killed about 70 Jews, despite Hryhoriev's solemn promise not to
lay a finger on the Jews.

Makhno's counterintelligence also discovered the otaman's suspicious
contacts with a local landlord with whom Hryhoriev had left a machine-gun
and a large quantity of clothing.

Still more alarming were the agents' reports that Hryhoriev's men were
contemplating the assassinations of Makhno, his brother, and the united
army's chief of staff. Makhno could not help wondering whether his ally

was hatching a revolt in the army.

But all this paled before what happened one July day in 1919. On that day
Makhno's soldiers brought Makhno two intelligent-looking men, who insisted
on seeing otaman Hryhoriev.

Aware that the strangers did not know what the otaman looked like, Makhno
said he was Hryhoriev and soon learned that the men were White Army
officers, who had come as messengers to his ally.

They had a letter to the otaman from General Romanovsky, which clearly
indicated that Hryhoriev had long been on the payroll of Denikin's
headquarters.

Makhno flew into a terrible rage and personally shot the White officers. He
and his commanders were no less eager to shoot Hryhoriev. However, being
experienced in all kinds of situations, Makhno considered that the men who
said they were Denikin's officers may have been Cheka operatives, who had a
mission to provoke a Makhno-Hryhoriev armed conflict, much to the
Bolsheviks' pleasure. It was decided to shadow Hryhoriev's every step.

On a July day in 1919 Hryhoriev and part of his army were marching to the
Pleteny Tashlyk railway station with the intention of stopping the White
Army's advance units.

However, the behavior of the usually dauntless otaman was very strange and
suspicious. Instead of resisting Denikin's units, Hryhoriev surrendered the
station without engaging in combat.

Later, when Hryhoriev was recounting this episode to Makhno, he put
everything down to the Whites' essential advantage in personnel and
equipment. It is quite possible that at any other time Makhno would have
believed the otaman, but the story of the people pretending to be Denikin's
officers compelled Makhno to look at this situation from an absolutely
different angle.

Makhno no longer doubted that Hryhoriev had sided with the Whites. Shortly
afterwards (in late July 1919) Makhno's top officers proclaimed a death
sentence on the otaman.

Were Makhno and his commanders correct in considering Hryhoriev a
secret ally of Denikin? In my view, this important issue requires additional
research. But considerable direct and indirect evidence allows one to
presume that he was. I will add that, in principle, there was nothing
unnatural in this.

Disgruntled with the Bolshevik government, Hryhoriev could very well have
sided with Denikin, who would restore freedom of trade, so dear to the
peasants, and would not impose state-run farms.

On July 27, 1919, the united forces of Hryhoriev and Makhno entered the
village of Sentove near Kherson and soon assembled a large village meeting
(according to other sources, this was a congress of insurgents).

Hryhoriev was the first to speak. In his speech the otaman stressed that the
chief goal of the Ukrainian insurgent movement was a relentless struggle
against the "communist oppressors" and that, by fighting them, the
insurgents could conclude any kind of alliance, even with Denikin.

In saying this, the otaman had clearly set himself up, to use a modern
phrase. In reply, Makhno's comrades-in-arms Chubenko and Shpota branded
Hryhoriev a pogrom-monger and counterrevolutionary in whose eye "one can
see, like before, the glitter of tsarist epaulets." Naturally, Hryhoriev
immediately demanded that the batko and his speakers explain themselves.

The otaman heard them out in the premises of the local village council,
where he went accompanied by Makhno and some of his top commanders.

Cocking his revolver and concealing it behind his back, Chubenko reminded
Hryhoriev of the bloody Jewish pogroms, his friendship with landlords, and
contacts with the White Army.

The otaman went for his pistol, but Chubenko stepped forward and shot
Hryhoriev in the head. A few seconds later the "defendant" was hit by
Makhno's bullets and those fired by his well-known commander Semen

Karetnykov.

Hryhoriev, seriously wounded, mustered enough strength to run into the
courtyard, but his assassins ran after him and shot him to death.

Soon, on Makhno's orders, the otaman's staff officers were also liquidated.
As for Hryhoriev's rank-and-file men, they were surrounded in good time by
the batko 's soldiers, not daring to offer armed resistance to their allies,
although they loved their otaman. Most of them soon recognized the authority
of Nestor Makhno, their new military commander. -30-
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