The Ukrainian Weekly 2011-52

8/6/2019 The Ukrainian Weekly 2011-52

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Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association

$1/$2 in UkraineVol. LXXIX No. 52 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2011TheUkrainianWeekly

(Continued on page 22)

by Zenon Zawada

Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV It was St. Nicholas Day onDecember 19 but the European Union (EU)offered no presents, abstaining from initial-ing its Association Agreement with Ukraine an event that had been hoped for monthsand whose failure was deemed by theopposition as a foreign policy catastrophefor the Ukrainian government.

Ukrainian diplomats had spent nearly

European Union declines to initialAssociation Agreement with Ukraine

by Zenon Zawada


KYIV Imprisoned opposition leaderYulia Tymoshenko released a December 20letter in which she called upon Ukrainesfractured opposition to unite for the sake ofthe 2012 parliamentary elections, propos-ing drastic measures such as merging intoa single party. She also rejected speculationabout her own partys division.

The letter came amidst growing divi-siveness throughout opposition forces thatwill likely lead to the Party of Regions ofUkraine retaining power. That would alsoimply Ms. Tymoshenko staying in prisonlonger, hurting not only her political pros-pects but also those of her Batkivschynaparty, experts said.

The government will provoke conflicts,clashes of interests and play off contradic-tions within the opposition, said VolodymyrFesenko, board chairman of the PentaCenter for Applied Political Research inKyiv. For there to be less of that, the largestopposition forces need to restrain theiremotions and on many issues and considernot only their own egotistical party inter-ests.

Lacking unity, the opposition forces toUkrainian President Viktor Yanukovychgrew even more divided after the parlia-mentary opposition voted on November 17to support the scandalous election law,which was tailored by the parliamentarymajority to keep the authoritarian govern-ment intact.

Critics said that by offering their sup-port, the opposition deputies surrenderedtheir moral authority in contesting or inval-idating the election results, which mostpolitical experts expect will be skewed byadminresurs (abuse of government resourc-es) and possibly be tainted by falsification.

A loser psychology drives the actions ofthe Ukrainian opposition, declared thefront page of the Ukrainian Week maga-zine, depicting the leaders of Batkivschynaand the Front for Change (Front Zmin) par-ties as servants.(The populist Front forChange party is widely viewed as the suc-cessor to the pro-NATO, pro-EU OurUkraine-Peoples Self-Defense Bloc.)

Indeed its the widely held view amongpro-Western Ukrainians that the parlia-mentary opposition consisting of the

Tymoshenko urges opposition forcesto unite for parliamentary elections

Yulia Tymoshenko in a photo taken dur-ing her March visit to Brussels.

www.tymoshenko.com.ua

President Viktor Yanukovych is flanked by Herman van Rompuy (left), president ofthe European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission,during a press conference after the European Union-Ukraine Summit held in Kyiv on

December 19.

UNIAN/Vladimir Gontar


Weekly TV program in Ukraine to focus on diaspora communitiesTORONTO On December 17 in Toronto,

the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC)signed a memorandum with UkrainesChannel 5 TV in Ukraine and IMB+ Recordsin Canada to launch a new weekly televisionnews journal, Ukrayinska Hromada(Ukrainian community).

The program, to be aired on Channel 5,will showcase the activities of Ukrainiancommunities beyond the borders ofUkraine, as well as world events directlyaffecting Ukrainians.

In the early stages of the project,Channel 5 will broadcast video footageunder the heading Ukrayinska Hromadaduring its daily news programming courte-sy of the UWC and its member-organiza-tions. Ultimately, the intent is to produce aseparate program under the same name.

At the signing of a memorandum about the launch of a new weekly television pro-gram called Ukrayinska Hromada (from left) are: Channel 5 Editor-in-ChiefVolodymyr Mzhelskyi, Ukrainian World Congress President Eugene Czolij and IMB+

Records President Bohdan Mouzitchka.

UWC


five years working on the AssociationAgreement, which would have been a sig-nificant step in Ukraines EU-integrationefforts. The Agreements Deep andComprehensive Free Trade Area (FTA) wascompleted in October after almost fouryears of negotiations.

The politically motivated imprisonmentof former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenkohad derailed the Ukraine-EU AssociationAgreement, as confirmed in a communiquissued in Brussels on December 19 by the

Europe on Council and the EuropeanCommission.

EU leaders underline the necessity ofall-encompassing reforms of Ukrainesjudicial system and measures against apolitically motivated and selective judicia-ry, the communiqu stated.

Ukrainian diplomats held out hope thepact could be initialed as early as January.Yet thats not nearly as important has gettingit signed, which would require far greaterconcessions from the administration ofPresident Viktor Yanukovych, namely, therelease of imprisoned opposition leadersMs. Tymoshenko and Yurii Lutsenko, the for-mer internal affairs minister.

In the same December 20 statement,Vice-Minister Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkinclaimed the initialing was delayed for tech-nical reasons and required linguistic andlegal review, avoiding the primary reasonsoffered by the EU communiqu the priorday.

The avoidance of an initialing ceremonyconfirmed that EU leaders were left with a

!

CHRIST IS BORN!


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No. 52THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 20112

Yanukovych says he wants to release Yulia

KYIV President Viktor Yanukovych saidon December 21 at his yearend press con-ference that he is interested in the release offormer Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenkolike no one else. I would not mind if Ms.Tymoshenko was released under certainconditions stipulated by law. Moreover, Iwould like this case to be completed as soonas possible. Im interested as no one else. Iwant it to happen, Mr. Yanukovych empha-sized. I became a hostage of this situationand when the Europeans came to us JoseManuel Barroso and Herman van Rompuy I said, if you know what is the way out ofthis situation, tell me, what is the practice,but the investigation cannot be stopped,legal proceedings cannot be stopped, theywill be considered, and no one has theauthority to influence them, Mr.Yanukovych said. He added that he wasready to support the decriminalization ofarticles on which Ms. Tymoshenko has been

convicted, if the Parliament makes that deci-sion. He said the idea was to decriminalizecertain articles of the Criminal Code, includ-ing Tymoshenkos Article 365, however,the Batkivschyna party said their leader didnot need it and a political game thenbegan. Mr. Yanukovych has reiterated thatwhen the investigating authorities began toprobe the Tymoshenko case, he had noauthority to stop it, and that a selectiveapproach has not been applied in the case.(Ukrinform)

Court confirms legality of Yulias arrest

KYIV Kyivs Court of Appeals onDecember 21 upheld a ruling by theShevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv

regarding the arrest of former UkrainianPrime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in thecase concerning United Energy Systems ofUkraine (UESU). At the beginning of thecourt session, presiding Judge OlhaYefimova read out an application by Ms.Tymoshenko, in which she asked the courtto hold a session in her absence. Earlier, alawyer for the former prime minister, SerhiiVlasenko, said that a ruling issued at a visit-ing session of the district court regarding

Ms. Tymoshenkos arrest was illegal andthat it should be cancelled. If this decisionremains valid, it will be a crime, he said. Astate procurator, in turn, said that, accordingto the current Criminal Procedure Code, it isnot illegal to choose another measure of

restraint for a person against whom severalcriminal cases were opened. On December 8the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyivconcurred with a motion by an investigatorof the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) toarrest Ms. Tymoshenko, who was alreadyarrested in the gas case and has been held inprison since August 5, as part of the UESUcase. (Ukrinform)

European court to fast track Yulias case

KYIV The European Court of HumanRights decided on December 14 to fast trackan application from Yulia Tymoshenko, for-mer Ukrainian prime minister andBatkivschyna party leader. The court tookthe decision to give priority to the case ...in

view of the serious and sensitive nature ofthe allegations raised, reads a statementposted on the courts official website. Ms.Tymoshenkos application was lodged withthe European Court of Human Rights onAugust 10. The applications alleges, in par-ticular, that Ms. Tymoshenkos criminalprosecution and detention were politicallymotivated, that there has been no judicialreview of the lawfulness of her detention inKyiv [Prison] No. 13, and that her detentionconditions are inadequate, with no medicalcare provided for her numerous healthproblems. The courts press service alsonoted that Ms. Tymoshenkos application isbased primarily on Article 3 (prohibition ofdegrading treatment or punishment), Article5 (right to liberty and security) and Article

18 (limitation on use of restrictions onrights) of the European Convention onHuman Rights. The statement also says thatnotice of the application has been given tothe Ukrainian government, which is request-ed to submit observations. The PecherskDistrict Court of Kyiv found Ms.Tymoshenko guilty of abuse of office whensigning gas contracts with Russia in 2009


ANALYSIS

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The Ukrainian Weekly, December 25, 2011, No. 52, Vol. LXXIXCopyright 2011 The Ukrainian Weekly

by Pavel Korduban

Eurasia Daily Monitor

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)

has detained a fire inspector for soliciting a$44,000 bribe from a company that wasinvolved in the construction of a new stadi-um for the Euro-2012 soccer championshipin Kyiv (www.ssu.gov.ua, November 24).

Just two days later the chief of the StateEmployment Service, Volodymyr Halytsky,and several of his subordinates weredetained on suspicion of corruption. Cashand valuables totaling $7.5 million wereconfiscated during a search of their officesand homes (www.zn.ua, November 26).

The two arrests have been the mostrecent manifestations of the scale of klep-tocracy in Ukraine.

Viktor Yanukovych, upon his election aspresident in February 2010, like all his pre-decessors proclaimed the fight against cor-ruption as one of his priorities. However, hehas failed to improve the situation.Corruption permeates all walks of life, fromhighway policemen who openly solicitbribes for speeding to government officialswho thrive on kickbacks.

The case of Mr. Halytsky is specialbecause it shows how the corrupt systemworks at the very top. Under PresidentYanukovych, people connected to three orfour of the strongest groups in the govern-ment can steal with impunity, the dailySegodnya which is linked to the ruling Partyof Regions reported on November 29, quot-ing its sources. Mr. Halytsky, who apparentlydid not belong to any of these groups, hadbeen warned that he could face problems

but he just could not stop, according to thesources.

Since 2003 Mr. Halytsky had chaired theEmployment Service, which pays unemploy-ment benefits and finances companies tocreate jobs, with a break immediately afterthe Orange Revolution in 2004-2005. Thus,he worked in this position in all the govern-ments under three Ukrainian presidents.

During this period, the services socialprotection system was transformed into asystem of organized plunder, according tothe weekly Zerkalo Nedeli. Funds ear-

marked for retraining the unemployed havebeen routinely stolen. Funds disappearedlast year that were intended to helpUkrainians launch their own businesses

after losing their jobs, and it has been virtu-ally impossible for companies to qualify forcompensation for creating jobs withoutkickbacks. Mr. Halytsky has been chargedwith embezzling money from a fund whichwas set up to help companies create jobs forformer coal miners. The companies in ques-tion reportedly had to pay 15 percent to 20percent kickbacks. The newspaper allegedthat Mr. Halytsky paid protection money tonational deputies from the Popular Partywhich is part of the ruling coalition and isheaded by Rada Chairman VolodymyrLytvyn (Zerkalo Nedeli, December 2).

Several former top officials have beenarrested and jailed for corruption since Mr.Yanukovychs election as president. Many ofthem are his political rivals, like former

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whichraises legitimate doubts about their guiltboth in Ukraine and internationally.

At the same time, several officials whoserved under Mr. Yanukovych have alsobeen punished for corruption. Last October,former Vice-Minister of the EnvironmentMinister Bohdan Presner was jailed for nineyears (Interfax-Ukraine, October 11). LastNovember, the former chief price inspector,Tetyana Rud, was sentenced to five years injail (Ukrayinska Pravda, November 18). Thechairman of the state commission for finan-cial markets, Vasyl Volha, has been in custo-dy awaiting a court verdict since last July,when he was arrested on suspicion of brib-ery.

There is a perception in Ukrainian societythat these arrests appear to be only the tipof the iceberg and that many officials linkedto the very top go unpunished. For example,it is still not clear who owns the estate in anatural reserve area near Kyiv, wherePresident Yanukovych established his resi-dence (Ukrayinska Pravda, September 5).

Chornomornaftohaz, a subsidiary of thestate-owned oil and gas company NaftohazUkrainy, reportedly overpaid millions of dol-lars for an oil rig to an obscure company

Ukraine loses fight against corruption

Helsinki Commission chair notesanniversary of Belarus crackdown

WASHINGTON U.S. HelsinkiCommission Chairman Rep. Chris Smith(R-N.J.) released a statement noting theone-year anniversary of the bloodyDecember 19, 2010, election-night crack-down in Belarus, which swept up morethan 700 opposition supporters whodared to challenge the rule of Belarusiandictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The last year has been an awful onefor the Belarusian people. The tacticsemployed on the infamous night ofDecember 19, 2010, and afterwards con-firm the nature of Lukashenkas rule a

dictatorship that perpetuates a perva-sive climate of fear to squelch dissent. Inthe past year the dictator has undertak-en repressive measures on a scale and ofa brutality which has not been seen inEurope for more than a decade. Thesehave included the torture of presidentialcandidates, such as Ales Mikhalevich,who recently testified before theHelsinki Commission, and other demo-

cratic activists. Over the past year, pres-sure on civil society and on the indepen-dent media has been unrelenting.Meanwhile, the economic situation hasdeteriorated, causing suffering for allBelarusians.

It is high time to hold Lukashenkaand his henchmen accountable for theirreprehensible, despicable treatment ofthose who defend human rights andstruggle for their countrys freedom. Onthis sad anniversary, we reiterate ourdemand for the immediate and uncondi-tional release of Andrei Sannikov, Mikalai

Statkevich, Zmitser Bondarenka, ZmitserDashkevich, Ales Bialatski and othersimprisoned for exercising their funda-mental rights. We call upon Mr.Lukashenka to immediately cease hiscampaign of repression and allow civilsociety to freely function, includinghuman rights defenders, defense attor-neys and independent journalists, Rep.Smith added.



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3THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2011No. 52

Quotable notesI was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Vaclav Havel, the Czech

Republics first democratically elected president and leader of the Velvet Revolution.His death is a loss for the Czech Republic and for human rights defenders around the

world. He was an inspiration to me and I was proud to call him a friend. He once saidthat his hope was for history to remember him as having done something useful.President Havel spent his life removing chains of oppression, standing up for thedowntrodden, and advancing the tenets of democracy and freedom. When commu-nism threatened the peace and prosperity of our world and covered Eastern Europein a cloud of hopelessness, he wrote plays so powerful they changed the course ofhistory and created new democratic opportunities for millions. And when the peopleof the Czech Republic were finally allowed to express themselves freely, they over-whelmingly chose a man who never wanted to be in politics.

He did something more than useful he did something extraordinary, and historywill remember it. Today, a black flag hangs over the Prague castle in honor of his lifeand commitment to a better world. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, thepeople of the Czech Republic, and all those who are committed to advancing humanrights.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in a press statement issued onDecember 18.

Vaclav Havels words of freedom resonated throughout Europe and helped us

build a free continent. The Velvet Revolution he led was more than inspiring to us. Itpaved the way for a Europe whole and free.

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Audronius Aubalis, as quoted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe onDecember 18.

Vaclav Havel was a true hero of the human rights movement. As a founding mem-ber and first spokesman for the Charter 77 movement, whose reports the HelsinkiCommission published, he demanded his government implement the Helsinki FinalAct and other human rights commitments it had freely undertaken. He remainedconstant to his ideals prison and persecution notwithstanding. As a dissident, heexemplified the power of the powerless, as he called it, the ability of ordinary peopleto live for truth and by doing so face down a regime built on lies.

It is testimony to his enduring devotion to human rights that one of his last publicmessages was an expression of solidarity with political prisoners in Belarus.

Rep. Chris Smith, chair of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, as quoted in a commissionpress release on December 19.

Even after becoming president, Vaclav Havel continued to serve as the conscienceof the continent, warning presciently in 1993 that the treatment of Roma was a lit-mus test for post-Communist civil society. He remained a tireless defender of theunjustly persecuted whether they were Czech, Cuban, or Tibetan. And, in 2009, as acommitted trans-Atlanticist, he joined other statesmen and women from CentralEurope in calling for a renewal of that relationship. Vaclav Havels leadership andintegrity will be sorely missed.

Sen. Ben Cardin, co-chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, as quoted in a com -mission press release on December 19.

Religious Information Service of Ukraine

KYIV The unification processbetween the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and theUkrainian Autocephalous OrthodoxChurch (UAOC), which began last autumn,failed, it was reported on December 14.

According to the UOC-KP, the clergy-men of the UAOC are to blame for the fail-ure of the dialogue. Representatives of theUOC-KP particularly accuse MetropolitansMefodii and Andrii, who laid down anunacceptable condition: the resignation ofPatriarch Filaret. On December 13, in Kyiv,the bishops of the UOC-KP gathered attheir Synod in Kyiv passed a statementexplaining their position in this regard,reported the website of UOC-KP.

The bishops noted in the document

that the two Churches made repeatedattempts to unite.

The first attempt to unite was made in2000-2001, when Symphoniticon wassigned at the residence of the EcumenicalPatriarch in Constantinople, and lateragreements were reached at a meeting inTernopil. However, these agreements didnot result in unification as the head ofUAOC, Metropolitan Mefodii and some

other bishops laid down the condition ofresignation of Patriarch Filaret of Kyiv andAll Rus for the unification. This condition

was also laid down during the secondattempt of dialogue in autumn, 2005,reads the statement.

The bishops of the UOC-KP said theycannot accept these conditions by anymeans as they view Patriarch Filaret asthe hierarch with the biggest experienceof the bishops ministry. In addition, theyconsider the dismissal of Patriarch Filaretto be the dream of the MoscowPatriarchate of many years, which theynow try to fulfill through the mentionedrepresentatives of UAOC.

The Synod of the UOC-KP recalled thatmany representatives of the higher ranksof clergy of UAOC were once part of theKyiv Patriarchate but left that Church due

to conflicts.Metropolitan Mefodii in 1995 was theadministrator of UOC-KP, MetropolitanAndrii was a permanent member of theHoly Synod in 1992-1995. Most of thepresent bishops of the UAOC are formerpriests of the Kyiv Patriarchate who leftour Church for the sake of obtaining thepositions of the bishops, the Synodsstatement points out.

Unication effortsof UOC-KP and UAOC fail

New election law benets government-backed candidatesby Pavel Korduban

Eurasia Daily Monitor

On December 8, Ukrainian President

Viktor Yanukovych signed the law on par-liamentary elections, which the VerkhovnaRada passed on November 17. The newlaw should allow the ruling Party ofRegions of Ukraine (PRU) to win the elec-tions scheduled for October 2012, despiteits declining popularity.

The elections law raises the thresholdparties must cross to win seats, therebyeliminating many rivals, and re-introducesa mixed system under which it should beeasier for government-backed candidatesto win.

The new rules should also prompt theconsolidation of the fragmented opposi-tion. The two largest opposition parties,Fatherland and the Front for Change, orFront Zmin, have started talks to agree on

joint candidates for single-mandate dis-tricts.

Under the new rules, the 100 percentproportional system, where by Parliamentwas elected from party lists, is replacedwith a mixed system, where 50 percent ofnational deputies will be elected fromparty lists according to the same propor-tional system, and the other 50 percentfrom first-past-the-post constituencies.

This is a boon for the ruling party. In thelate 1990s and early 2000s, when a similarsystem existed in Ukraine, pro-govern-ment candidates usually defeated theirrivals in the first-past-the-post constituen-cies, because they were supported by localmayors, council members and rich busi-nessmen, who were, as a rule, linked to theruling elite.

The threshold for parties is raised from3 percent to 5 percent, and blocs of partiesare not allowed to participate in elections.This complicates the task for small parties,both opposition and pro-government.Several of them are likely to disappear. One

example is the relatively new liberal party,Strong Ukraine, whose leader, Vice PrimeMinister Sergey Tigipko, decided to mergethe party with the PRU (see Eurasia Daily

Monitor, September 20).Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr

Lytvyn has also indicated on several occa-sions that his Peoples Party could mergewith the PRU.

Mr. Lytvyns party has been a juniorpartner in the pro-government coalitionwith the PRU and the Communist Party.

The new law was supported by theabsolute majority of 366 national deputiesin the 450-seat legislature, including manyoppositionists who participated in draftingthe bill. These included members ofBatkivschyna and FZ, who explained theircooperation with the authorities by con-tributing provisions aimed to preventvote-rigging. They said that, had they notbacked the bill, the PRU, using its numeri-

cal strength, would have pushed throughParliament an even worse bill.

Apart from introducing the same mixedsystem and raising the election barrier, abill written solely by the Party of Regionswould have also provided the governmentwith incentives to falsify election results bymaking it possible to vote at home withoutmedical certificates and eliminating oppo-sition candidates on formal grounds suchas typos in income declarations(Segodnya, November 18; UNIAN,November 17).

The pro-opposition website UkrayinskaPravda said the consensus in Parliamenton the new election law was a coup of bigparties against small parties. The newrules may lead to a three-party system

consisting of the PRU, Batkivschyna andFZ, the website predicted (UkrainskaPravda, November 18).

Unsurprisingly, UDAR (Punch), a newparty headed by the boxing championVitali Klitschko, which opinion polls showis the third most popular opposition party

but may not clear the 5 percent barrier,called the new law a conspiracy, and saidthat a party whose leader was imprisonedby the authorities should not have sided

with the government on election rules(www.klichko.org, November 17).

This was aimed at Batkivschyna whoseleader, Yulia Tymoshenko, was sentencedin October to seven years in jail for exceed-ing her authority in preparing a gas dealwith Russia in 2009. It is widely believedthat she was punished for her oppositionto Mr. Yanukovych.

FZ leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk hasclaimed that the new law was a victoryfor the opposition, since it will eliminateelection fraud. He announced that hisparty would start talks to form a joint listfor single-mandate districts withBatkivschyna, adding that a higher electionbarrier gave the opposition a chance tounite (Ukrayinska Pravda, November 18).

He urged other opposition parties tojoin, saying that those not siding with the-Batkivschyna-FZ alliance would supportthe government (Channel 5, November28). This was a change of stance, as lastsummer Mr. Yatsenyuk insisted it wasunnecessary for opposition parties tounite ahead of the election.

Fatherland and FZ expect several small-er opposition parties to join, including the

far-right Svoboda, according toBatkivschyna Deputy ChairmanOleksander Turchynov. He said in an inter-view with LIGABiznesInform that it was a

realistic goal to put forward joint candi-dates from the opposition in every single-mandate district (www.liga.net, December6).

Meanwhile, a fresh opinion poll by theKyiv-based pollster KMIIS has shown thattrust in the mainstream parties is falling,so the well-established parties changedthe rules just in time to discourage possi-ble new challengers.

The Party of Regions is still in the lead,but support for it fell from 13.5 percent inJune to 12.5 percent in November, accord-ing to the poll. The rating of Batkivschynafell from 10.9 percent in June to 10.2 per-cent, and the rating of Front for Change fellfrom 7.7 to 7.0 percent. Yet, support for thecommunists rose from 4.0 to 5.1 percent,

and for UDAR from 3.1 to 4.4 percent. Theshare of those who would vote against all,were undecided or would abstain, totaled50 percent, rising marginally compared toJune (www.zn.ua, November 29).

The article above is reprinted fromEurasia Daily Monitor with permission from its publisher, the JamestownFoundation, www.jamestown.org.

NEWS ANALYSIS


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Canadian government honors St. Petro Mohyla Instituteby Al Kachkowski

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan The gov-ernment of Canada officially recognizedthe St. Petro Mohyla Institute ofSaskatoon, Saskatchewan as a NationalHistoric Site at an impressive public cer-emony held at the institute onSeptember 24.

About 150 people gathered to witnessthe program and the unveiling of the tri-lingual bronze plaque that is nowmounted outdoors, near the institutesentrance. The proceedings coincidedwith the celebration of the 95th anniver-sary of the institutes founding in 1916.

The master of ceremonies for the pro-

g r a m w a s A l l a n D u d d r i d g e ,Saskatchewan member of the HistoricSites and Monuments Board of Canada.He introduced the Lastiwka UkrainianOrthodox Choir, which opened the pro-gram with its trilingual rendition of O,Canada.

Mr. Duddridge then brought greetingson behalf of the Historic Sites andMonuments Board. He pointed out thatthere are 2,000 commemorative plaquesplaced throughout Canada by the Board.

Steve Senyk, president of the MohylaInstitutes board of directors, prefacedhis greetings by stating that This is trulyan exciting day. In the Ukrainian lan-guage, he welcomed all present. He paidtribute to the visionaries who foundedthe institute. He especially thanked Dr.Frances Swyripa, historian of theUniversity of Alberta, for her work inpreparing the application for institute toreceive this award a process that begansix years ago.

Mayor Don Atchison of Saskstoon

gave greetings and fondly rememberedthe excellent meals served at MohylaInstitute when he stayed there in the1970s as a member of the University ofSaskatchewan Huskies football teamduring their training camp. On a histori-cal note, he referred to how Ukrainians

were once marginalized in the communi-ty. Yet today things have changed mark-edly and Ukrainians have entered all fac-ets of community life. On behalf of thecitizens of Saskatoon, he congratulatedthe Mohyla Institute on the occasion ofthis designation.

Ken Krawetz, deputy premier of theProvince of Saskatchewan and a MohylaInstitute alumnus, commended the early

board members for providing such aplace for students of Ukrainian descentand helping them to go on to achievesuccess in their careers.

Concluding his remarks the stated,Memories made here are often the topicof discussion when alumni get together.May Mohyla continue for many, manymore years.

Dr. Swyripa, recalled that the firsttime that she visited Mohyla Institutewas in the 1970s to evaluate the news-

papers and periodicals collection for the

purpose of microfilming rare items forthe collection of the Canadian Institute ofUkrainian Studies. She realized then thateverything I touched was UkrainianCanadian history. She noted how theinstitute, in its early years, was part ofthe bursa movement created by theUkrainian intelligentsia in cities andtowns. She also mentioned how the

Institute provided an interesting and

stimulating environment in which

Ukrainian women could develop their

skills. She also stated that individuals

surrounding Mohyla Institute provided

the impetus for the formation of the

Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canada.

The dignitaries then gathered around

the covered plaque and unveiled it. Thetrilingual plaque was then read to the

assembled guests. Mr. Duddridge read

the English and French, while Nadya

Foty read the Ukrainian.

The inscription on the plaque reads as

follows: In 1916, the activities of a

dynamic group of Ukrainian immigrants

culminated in the founding of the

Mohyla Institute at the first Ukrainian

national convention in Saskatoon. The

institute, operated as a student resi-

dence, supported higher education for

Ukrainian youth while also serving as a

center for cultural and religious events.

In 1918, following a fractious debate, it

spearheaded the formation of the

Ukrainian Greek-Orthodox Church of

Canada. In the ensuing decades, the

institute instilled a sense of community

leadership in young men and women

who would go on to found a range of

Ukrainian organizations.The plaque was then blessed in a

short ceremony by the Rt. Rev.Protopresbyter Victor Lakusta, chancel-lor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church ofCanada.

The Lastiwka Choir participated in the

A trilingual plaque is unveiled at the St. Petro Mohyla Institute in Saskatoon.Steve Senyk, board president of theMohyla Institute, addresses the gathering.

Judy-Anne Chabun

UUARC receives Humanitarian AwardARLINGTON, Va. United Ukrainian

American Relief Committee (UUARC)President Dr. Larissa Kyj andAdministrative Liaison Motrja Watterson December 9 attended CounterpartInternationals and the U.S. StateDepartments 2011 Small/MediumTransportation Program East CoastConference.

Represented were the Department of

State, Counterpart International,

Network America Lines, InternationalServices Corp, A.P. Inspections and 20humanitarian aid organizations.

Several organizations were honoredfor their work, among them the UnitedUkrainian American Relief Committee,which received a Humanitarian Award inrecognition of assistance to the less for-tunate people of Ukraine.

conclusion of the formal program with

its rendering of Otche Nash, the Lordsprayer.

Mr. Duddridge closed the program bythanking all who prepared for andattended the program. A coffee recep-tion, visiting and viewing of displaysconcluded the afternoon.

The celebration of the 95th anniversa-ry of the institute continued with an eve-ning banquet, program and dance at theUkrainian Orthodox Auditorium inSaskatoon.

Guests were greeted at the door withmusic by the Ukrainian Connection. Theauditorium was beautifully decorated forthe occasion.

As guests enjoyed their dessert, John

Stech, a jazz pianist from New York andan alumnus of the Mohyla UkrainianSummer School, entertained by playing anumber of tunes including his well-known Kolomeyka Fantasy. In his com-mentary, he recalled the time he playedwith the Dumka Ukrainian dance band ofEdmonton, Alberta, and that one of itsfirst gigs was in Saskatoon. At the end ofhis performance, Mr. Stech was accordeda standing ovation from the 200 peoplein attendance.

Steve Senyk, board president, greetedeveryone at this 95th anniversary eventand commented on how hundreds of theMohyla Institutes alumni have gone on

to become community leaders. Mr. Senykstated that, by virtue of this prestigious

designation, the Institute is now publiclywelcomed to and has become a memberof Canadas family of National HistoricSites, which includes places, people, andevents of national historic significance.

M.C. Michayluk explained that theorganizing committee had decided tohonor the oldest alumni among us. Hecalled forward those alumni who stayedat the Institute during the 1930s and1940s for a presentation and a groupphotograph. Each member of the groupreceived a Certificate of HonoraryMembership in the Mohyla Institute andan acknowledgement of thanks andappreciation for their respective contri-butions.

The Lastiwka Ukrainian OrthodoxChoir and Orchestra performed severalfolk songs for everyones entertainment.Lastiwka has held its rehearsals atMohyla Institute since the choirs incep-tion 28 years ago.

Celebrants of Mohyla Institutes 95thanniversary then danced the night awayto the musical renditions of theUkrainian Connection.

Mohyla Institutes history

The Mohyla Institute is named afterMetropolitan Petro Mohyla, a leader ofthe Ukrainian Orthodox Church wholived in the early part of the 17th centuryin Ukraine. As metropolitan, theUkrainian Encyclopedia notes, Mohylaimproved the Churchs organizationalstructure, set strict dogmatic guidelines,reformed the monastic orders andenriched the theological canon.

For most of the Mohyla Institutes his-tory in Saskatoon, it was named the P.Mohyla Ukrainian Institute. When thenew building was opened in 1965, thename was streamlined to simply MohylaInstitute. After Metropolitan PetroMohyla was canonized in Ukraine in

1996 by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kyiv Patriarchate, the board of direc-tors of the institute renamed it the St.Petro Mohyla Institute.

Over the years, the students of theinstitute, always a co-ed residence, bene-fited from an extracurricular program inUkrainian culture. Classes and lessonswere given in many areas, includingUkrainian history, language and litera-ture, dramatic arts, Ukrainian choralsinging and dancing. Culinary arts,pysanka writing, bandura (Ukrainesnational instrument) and tsymbaly(dulcimer) paying were also offered.

All of the students belonged to thestudent society Kameniari, while, since1923, the girls belonged to their own

society named Mohylianky. Students leftthe institute with a strong sense ofUkrainian identity and an enhancedknowledge of the Ukrainian heritage.

Those who graduated as school teach-ers were in strong demand in theUkrainian settlements of Saskatchewanand indeed western Canada. They wereexpected to conduct cultural classes andprepare Ukrainian concerts with thechildren after school hours. Thus theinstitute played a huge role in the trans-mission of Ukrainian culture whereverUkrainians lived.

Many of the leaders, having receivedtraining and experience at the institute,went on the establish Ukrainian church

parishes and local branches of Ukrainianorganizations.Currently, the Mohyla Institute is

accepting the challenges provided bychanged demographics in the rural areasand the forces of assimilation, and isengaged in preparing innovative pro-gramming to perpetuate knowledge ofUkrainian culture in accordance with itsmandate.


5/24


THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FORUM

WOONSOCKET, R.I. Ukrainian National Association Branch 241 inWoonsocket, R.I., hosted its annual St. Nicholas celebration for the children ofSt. Michaels Ukrainian Catholic Church on Sunday, December 4. Msgr. RomanGolemba and Janet Bardell, branch secretary, greeted the youngsters. Lydia ZukKlufas and Lydia Kusma Minyayluk planned the event with poems, songs anda short play. The parents prepared a delicious lunch. Yurij Minyayluk and John

Tkach provided the musical entertainment. Of course, the highlight of the eventcame when St. Nicholas presented gifts to the eager children. Above, St. Nicholasis seen with the children and organizers of the event.

St. Nicholas Feast Day celebratedat St. Michaels Parish in Woonsocket

The Ukrainian National Associations Christmas tradition

by Oksana Trytjak

UNA National Organizer

PARSIPPANY, N.J. The art of sendingpersonal greetings dates back to theancient Chinese and Egyptian cultures,when people shared goodwill messageswith their friends and family on slips ofpapyrus. In Europe, the custom of sendinghandwritten cards became very fashion-able when paper became mass-producedand readily available. By the late 1800s,prefabricated cards started to make their

appearance and sending invitations, birth-day greetings and holiday wishes becamethe norm. Today, Christmastime is still the

One of the art works chosen for the UNAsChristmas card project is Jerome Kozaks

Madonna (acrylic, 2009).

most popular season to communicatewith family and friends, to send pictures of

an ever-growing family and in general, tospread great holiday cheer.Unfortunately, the tradition of writing

letters and sending handwritten cards isin danger of being substituted with thevarious high-tech options. However, it isestimated that 1.8 billion cards are sentduring the holidays in the U.S. alone.Therefore, Christmas cards are going to bearound for a little while longer.

The Christmas season is a time toreconnect with family and friends. It isalso a wonderful opportunity to promoteawareness for various charitable causesand to encourage those around us to getinvolved with the community and supportour cultural institutions.

Over the years, the UNA has aimed topromote Ukrainian artists through itsChristmas Card Project, which involvesfeaturing their artwork on the covers ofholiday greeting cards. These cards arethen sent out to UNA members, who inturn share them with their friends andfamilies.

The proceeds from this fund-raisingeffort support the Soyuzivka HeritageCenter through the Ukrainian NationalFoundation (UNF), a not for profit founda-tion with a 501 C (3) status. All donationsare tax-exempt as permitted by law.

UNA members, loyal readers of its pub-lications Svoboda and The UkrainianWeekly, visitors to Soyuzivka and the com-munity members are encouraged to par-

ticipate in this years Christmas Card proj-ect by purchasing a packet of 12 cards for$25. All the proceeds from the sale of

these cards are designated for cultural andeducational projects at Soyuzivka.

Special thanks are due to all the artistswho have shared their Christmas-relatedartwork with us. These artists who overthe years have allowed the UNA to repro-

duce their work without financial reim-bursement have contributed their tal-

ents to support the Ukrainian NationalFoundation. (This years Christmas cardsreflect previously contributed worksfrom the past several years.)


6/24


The landmark exhibit From DP to DC. Displaced Persons: A Story ofUkrainian Refugees in Europe 1945-1952, opened on November at theUkrainian National Museum of Chicago. (It remains on view through January 31,2012.) The exhibit demonstrated that, indeed, displaced persons have stories

that must be told, as Orest Hrynewych, first vice-president of the UNM, had stat-ed in an article that appeared in The Weekly. The From DP to DC exhibit inChicago must be hailed as a major step in that direction, and its organizersdeserve our praise and gratitude.

This newspapers readers first heard about the upcoming exhibit back inFebruary, in a story headlined Ukrainian National Museum seeks artifacts forDP exhibit. The UNM at that time was asking the Ukrainian community to sup-port its upcoming exhibit whose aim was to present the broad sweep of theDP experience in an interactive setting by loaning DP camp artifacts to be usedin the display. As Mr. Hrynewych wrote in The Weekly, The objectives of thisexhibit are to inform and educate the Ukrainian community, especially theFourth Wave immigrants, the general public and the youth in our communityabout this chapter of post-World War II history.

The opening weekend of the exhibit on November 4-6 was particularly nota-ble, with presentations by experts in their fields: Prof. Mark Wyman, author ofDPs: Europes Displaced Persons, 1945-1951; Dr. Lubomyr Y. Luciuk, author ofSearching for Place: Ukrainian Displaced Persons, Canada and the Migration ofMemory; and Dr. Myron B. Kuropas, author of The Ukrainian Americans: Roots

and Aspirations 1898-1954. Dr. Kuropas spoke on the topic The DisplacedPersons Act of 1948: It almost didnt happen. (You can read the full text of hisvery enlightening presentation in The Weeklys November 27 issue.)

A bilingual (English-Ukrainian) catalogue was published as a worthy compan-ion to the exhibit, which was arranged chronologically and by themes, such asthe diverse facets of camp life, and included a recreated DP camp room. A LivingMemory wall was a place for former DPs to write down basic information aboutthemselves and their experiences.

A story by William Hageman in the Chicago Tribune reported on this highlysuccessful exhibit: Some quarter-million Ukrainians were left in Germany afterthe war. About half ended up in the camps converted army barracks and oldwarehouses and buildings mostly rather than return to Ukraine, where theywould have been at the mercy of Stalins troops. The exhibit features an amazingcollection of artifacts from the camps: embroidered blouses and shirts madefrom parachutes, a punch bowl that was repurposed as a sports trophy, a doc-tors collection of equipment that he used to treat people in the camps. Theresalso a giant map noting about 100 camp locations.

The artifacts are a concrete manifestation of the highly organized communitylife that flourished in the DP camps in less than ideal conditions. They said onething they cant take away from you is whats in your mind, Mr. Hrynewych toldthe Tribune. So they pushed education. It was their mantra. They set up gradeschools, high schools, a university. The vibrancy of DP camp life and the resil-ience of the DPs laid the groundwork for these refugees later success as migrsand citizens of the countries where they ultimately settled after World War II.

The DP story is a proud one that deserves to be shared. We sincerely hope thatthe Chicago organizers of From DP to DC take this exhibit on the road to othermajor cities where it can educate even more segments of the public about thisimportant historical episode.

From DP to DC

The UkrainianWeekly

Fifty-five years ago, on December 30, 1956, approximately3,000 protesters gathered at Manhattan Center in New York to

protest the Soviet occupation of Ukraine. Organized by theUkrainian Congress Committee of America, the protest featuredaddresses by U.S. Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell, U.S. Sen.-elect Jacob K. Javits (D-N.Y.), U.S Rep. Michael Feighan (D-Ohio);

and a statement by incumbent Sen. Herbert H. Lehman (D-N.Y.) was read by StephenJarema, UCCA executive secretary.

Mr. Mitchell, in his address, said: Recently two highly significant documents found theirway to the free world, disclosing the most appalling conditions in forced labor camps. Thesedocuments were written by two Ukrainian political prisoners at the gigantic Soviet forcedlabor camp complex located in Mordovia, about 400 miles southeast of Moscow.

The original Ukrainian texts, dated September and October 1955, are painstakinglywritten on pieces of linen cloth that may have been torn from the lining of coats. Bit by bit,through secret means, they have found their way to the free world. These documents areparticularly significant because they show that despite the promised elimination of forcedlabor camps after the death of Stalin (forced labor camps which incidently had never beenacknowledged to exist); despite this promise, these documents show that the concentra-tion camp system still remains a basic institution in the Soviet economy.

Michael Piznak, master of ceremonies and UCCA executive treasurer. noted that thefight for Ukraines freedom from the Soviets continues, as it did with the UkrainianInsurgent Army (UPA), the Ukrainian underground, and the partisans and students whoserebellion in Kyiv incited Moscow to send in and fire tanks on the protesters.

Dmytro Halychyn, president of the Ukrainian National Association and the UkrainianCongress Committee of America, stated that reports from Ukraine showed that UPA fight-ing units, in their fight against Soviet Russian troop and MVD detachments, were able toderail Soviet troop trains and blow up bridges used by the Soviets to quell the Hungarianuprising, and pointed to the fact that Ukrainians, proud and unconquerable in spirit,

Dec.

301956

Turning the pages back...

by Ulana Baluch Mazurkevich

Ukrainians have lost a great friend.Philadelphia has lost a great man, a manwho demonstrated that the law and thepursuit of human rights were not mutual-ly exclusive. A man blessed with unlimit-ed humanity, a man blessed with bound-less compassion. Jerome Shestack (1923-2011) was a leading human rights activ-ist. He was ambassador to the UnitedNations Commission on Human Rights,president of the International League forHuman Rights and president of theAmerican Bar Association. He passedaway on August 18.

I met Jerome Shestack at the Sakharovhearings in Washington. This was duringthe heyday of the Soviet Union, when the

gulags were filled with poets, writers anddissidents of all stripes. The only crimecommitted by these brave men and womenwas demanding their basic human rights.Mr. Shestack spoke passionately and elo-quently on their behalf.

When Mr. Shestack became ambassadorto the Commission on Human Rights at theUnited Nations, he was one of the first toraise names of the imprisoned with Sovietofficials. Prior to that, no public official everraised a specific name of a political prison-er. This was the first time that Ukrainianpolitical prisoners were named. Amongthose mentioned were Mykola Rudenkoand Levko Lukianenko.

Mr. Shestack spoke for the poets, for thewriters, for all those who were silenced by

the brutal regime. He was their voice. Hegave them a face. He gave them a name. An,above all, he gave them hope. They werenot forgotten.

The Ukrainian Human Rights Committeeworked with Mr. Shestack on many proj-ects. His office and his home were alwaysopen to us. Through him we met manyimportant dignitaries who would workwith us in raising awareness of the situa-tion in Ukraine. Mr. Shestack and I wouldwrite op-ed pieces for the PhiladaelphiaInquirer, to give light to the thousands lan-guishing in labor camps. He decried thosewho remained silent in the face of atroci-ties.

Every year without fail Jerome Shestackwould join the Ukrainian Human Rights

Committee in commemorating January 12as the Day of Solidarity with UkrainianPolitical Prisoners. Anytime a human rightsactivist was sentenced to a labor camp orpsychiatric hospital, Mr. Shestack wouldjoin the committee in demonstration,always to raise awareness of what wasgoing on in the Soviet Union. He was pas-sionately committed to the defense ofhuman rights and to human freedoms.

Mr. Shestack wanted the White House tobe informed of the Soviet Unions denial ofhuman rights in Ukraine, and to that end heorganized a meeting of the UkrainianHuman Rights Committee with Vice-President Walter Mondale at the WhiteHouse. At this meeting the vice-president

was informed about the situation inUkraine and the arrest of Mr. Lukianenko.When the nuclear accident occurred atChornobyl, Mr. Shestack joined the commit-tee in protesting the nuclear disaster; eachyear he would join us in observing thisanniversary date.

Mr. Shestack continued to be a goodfriend to Ukraine. After Ukraines indepen-dence and the Orange Revolution, Mr.Shestack and I spoke about honoringPresident Viktor Yushchenko with thePhiladelphia Liberty Medal. As a highlyrespected member of the board of thePhiladelphia Liberty Medal Committee, Mr.Shestack persuaded the board to award theLiberty Medal to Mr. Yushchenko, contraryto the wishes of some on the board who

wanted the medal to be presented to BillClinton. The following year, formerPresidents Bill Clinton and George Bushshared the Philadelphia Liberty Medal.

Mr. Shestacks commitment to Ukrainiancauses will be greatly missed, as will hissteadfast dedication to the cause that allhuman beings have God-given rights thatno power on earth could be permitted totake away.

I will always remember Jerome Shestackas the epitome of the tireless and passion-ate champion of universal human rightswho once said, in speaking of the denial ofhuman rights, It is only a short step fromsilence to complicity.

IN MEMORIAM: Jerome Shestackdedicated champion of human rights

At a White House meeting (from left) are: Vice-President Walter Mondale, UlanaMazurkevich, Jerome Shestack, Orysia Hewka, Chrystia Senyk, Sam Dash and Vera

Andryczyk.

The memorandum was signed by UWCPresident Eugene Czolij, Channel 5 Editor-in-Chief Volodymyr Mzhelskyi and IMB+Records President Bohdan Mouzitchka inthe presence of representatives of all

(Continued from page 1)

Weekly TV program... three organizations.This memorandum is an important

step in informing Ukrainians living inUkraine and beyond its borders about thesocial, national-cultural, educational andinformational activities of the over 20-mil-lion-strong Ukrainian diaspora and theUkrainian World Congress, stated UWCPresident Czolij.(Continued on page 22)


7/24


Actually, they are not just Arabs. Theyinclude Persians, Egyptians, Ethiopians,Greeks and other peoples in the Middle Eastand Northeast Africa. And in this instance Iam not speaking of the Muslims. Rather, Ihave in mind the millions of EasternChristians in troubled countries like Iraq,Egypt, Syria and Ethiopia. Most Christians inthose countries are either Orthodox orEastern-rite Catholic. They are thus thebrethren of Ukrainian Orthodox andCatholics in a special sense, and despite dif-ferences of geography, language and culture.

In the political turmoil that has shakenthe predominantly Muslim countries theyinhabit, these Christians often end up asvictims.

On October 31, 2010, for example, 42Christians, two of them priests, were fatallyshot by terrorist gunmen in Our Lady ofSalvation Cathedral in Baghdad. LastJanuary 1, as parishioners of the CopticChurch of the Two Saints in Alexandria,Egypt, were leaving a New Years Eve massshortly after midnight, a bomb planted in acar parked at the church entrance exploded,killing at least 21 people. (Touchstone,March/April 2011, p. 10). Last March, thou-sands of Islamic extremists set fire to 59churches and at least 28 homes in andaround Asendabo in western Ethiopia, kill-ing at least one person believed to belong tothe Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Over 4,000people were displaced in the violence, afterMuslims accused a Christian of desecratingthe Quran. (Touchstone, May/June 2011, p.10). Just last October 9, police and armedforces at Maspero in Cairo attacked demon-strators protesting the burning of churches.Twenty-seven people, most of themChristians, were killed. Anxious about theirfuture in a post-Mubarak Egypt where theMuslim Brotherhood may gain control,many Coptic families are emigrating. (DavidIgnatius, Cairos Christians Worry aboutEgypts Next Chapter, The WashingtonPost, November 8, 2011).

But why, aside from ordinary compassionand (in some cases) common faith, shouldUkrainians take a special interest in the fateof these Eastern Christians?

First, we have common problems and

experiences. Many of these Churches histo-ries resemble ours, marked by foreign con-quest, schism, decline, reunion and revival.Some have experienced the pressures ofLatinization. Like Ukrainians after WorldWar II, many Northeast African and MiddleEastern Christians have been driven fromtheir homelands by hostile regimes, warand revolution. Thus, for example, while in1932, one in five Iraqis was Christian, todayit is one in 33. Moreover, Middle Easternmigr churches face the same challengesof cultural and spiritual survival as ours. Insome North American cities like Detroit, weare neighbors.

In addition, familiarity with theChristian experience in these lands canhelp us better understand their politics,

and the effects of our nations policies. Hasour military presence in Iraq upset the del-icate inter-religious balance? Can it bringstability and toleration?

And finally, it is in the Middle East andNortheast Africa today that the Church ismost threatened and most alive. For mar-tyrdom is not just something that hap-pened in ancient Rome. It is happeningtoday in the streets and squares of

Baghdad and Cairo, Alexandria and Mosul.So what are these Eastern Christian

Churches? Their number and variety arebewildering. They fall into several ritualtraditions: besides the Byzantine rite withwhich we are familiar, there are theArmenian, Chaldean (or East Syrian),Antiochian (or West Syrian), Coptic andEthiopian rites. Most of their followersinhabit lands that were Christian beforethe Arab and Turkish conquests.

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople is based in officially secularbut overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey, whereChristians number less than 0.2 percent ofthe population. The largest Christian com-munity in the Middle East, on the other

hand, is in Egypt, with more than 10 percentof the population. Of these, about 95 percentare Coptic Orthodox. To the south, Ethiopia,the worlds oldest Christian state afterArmenia, experienced the anti-religious pol-icies of the Marxist Derg regime between1974 and 1991. Today, Orthodox Christiansmake up 43 percent of the population.About 10 percent of the inhabitants of Syria,or 2 million people, are Christian, of whichabout half belong to the Antiochian OrthodoxChurch. In Lebanon, the Maronite Catholicminority, with over a million and a half faith-ful, retains its historic influence. A mix ofChristians, mostly Greek Orthodox, officiallyconstitutes 6 percent of Jordans population.In Iraq, dictatorship and war have contribut-ed to the steep decline of the Christian com-munity. Since the Iranian revolution of 1979,most of Irans Christians have emigrated tothe West. Israels Christian minority num-bered nearly 20 percent at the creation ofthe Jewish state. Over a third was lost whenthe Palestinians fled in 1948-1949. Today,Arab Christians predominantly MelkiteGreek-Catholics constitute some 2 percentof Israels population. Further emigrationcould eliminate the Palestinian Christianpresence in the Holy Land. While SaudiChristians officially do not exist, the king rec-ognizes that many expatriates in SaudiArabia are Christian. (Christians in theMiddle East, cited below.)

From a theological perspective, the pic-ture is complex. The Assyrian Church of the

East goes back to the 5th century, when itrejected the Council of Ephesus of 431. TheOriental Orthodox Churches arose from dis-agreement with the Council of Chalcedon of451. More familiar to Ukrainians are theEastern Orthodox Churches. Several of theOrthodox Churches have Uniate counter-parts which, like the Ukrainian CatholicChurch, represent Orthodox who at somepoint re-united with Rome. The Lebanese-based Maronite Catholic Church, however,has no Orthodox counterpart.

So when we sit down to Christmas Evesupper, let us remember our fellow EasternChristians in the Middle East and NortheastAfrica. Many of them are giving their livesfor their faith. Perhaps connecting withthese present-day martyrs will give our

own flagging faith a reanimating jolt.Further reading: Ronald G. Roberson, CSP.

The Eastern Christian Churches: A BriefSurvey (7th edition). Washington, DC:USCCB, 2011. Christians in the Middle East(Special Edition), One (New York: CNEWA),Vol. 36, No. 5 (September 2010).

Our Arab brethren

Andrew Sorokowski can be reached [email protected].

Vaclav Havel, living in truth, edito-rial, The Washington Post, December19:

[Vaclav] Havel pioneered an entire-ly new form of political revolution onethat is as relevant in the tumultuous yearof 2011 as it was when he first spelled itout in the mid-1970s. His simple butextraordinary idea was that the mosteffective way to defeat a totalitarian

regime was for citizens to reject its liesand live in truth. That meant, first of all,telling the truth in answer to official pro-paganda, but also behaving as if funda-mental human rights which most dic-tatorships claim to respect could betaken for granted.

This was a peaceful strategy but alsoone that required enormous courage.After writing his seminal essay Power ofthe Powerless in 1978, Mr. Havel spentnearly five years in prison, where his

health was badly damaged. For 16 yearsafterward he suffered incessant monitor-ing and harassment from the secretpolice of Czechoslovakia, the most coldlyrepressive regime of the Soviet bloc.

The stunning success of the 1989

Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution, whenthe sight of massive crowds gathered inPragues Wenceslas Square prompted a rot-ting Communist bureaucracy to collapse,proved that Mr. Havels strategy could work.It also helped to establish a model that hasspread around the world to Serbia andUkraine, Lebanon and Kyrgyzstan, andnow in another landmark year of rev-olution Tunisia and Egypt.

Putins Black Eye and YanukovychsBeauty Sleep, by Alexander J. Motylon his blog, Ukraines Orange Blues,on the World Affairs website,December 16:

Regardless of how the current post-election protests in Russia turn out, themany thousands of ordinary Russianswho took to the streets to demand theirrights deserve three big cheers. Theircourageous behavior has dispelled a few

myths about Russia and sent a powerfulsignal to all post-Soviet dictators.

The mostly young and middle-classdemonstrators have effectively squashed

IN THE PRESS: Havel,Putin and Yanukovych

by Heather Maher

RFE/RL

Leaders from all corners of the worldhave paid tribute to Vaclav Havel dissi-

dent, revolutionary, playwright, and the

first president of the Czech Republic who died on December 18.

But from the Kremlin there has beenonly silence.

Neither President Dmitry Medvedev,Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, nor

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has pub-licly commented on Mr. Havels death. Mr.Medvedev did, however, offer a swift

reaction to the passing of North Koreandictator Kim Jong Il, who died one day

earlier but whose death was announcedone day later. The Russian president sent

his condolences to Pyongyang almostimmediately.

As reported by website Czechposition.

com, the Russian Embassy in Prague toldthe CTK news agency on December 20

that it had sent an official letter of condo-lence in the name of the Russian leader-ship to Czech President Vaclav Klaus. (It

was reported on December 21 thatRussia will send Vladimir Lukin, the

countrys ombudsman, to the funeral onDecember 23.)

Mr. Havels hatred of communism andsymbol as a democratic reformer puthim at odds with Russia after the col-

lapse of the Soviet Union, and he wasespecially critical of Putin.

But news of Mr. Havels death pro-pelled many ordinary Russians out of

their warm apartments and houses andthrough the cold Moscow streets to theCzech Embassy, where a book of condo-

lence had been set out. Radio stationEkho Moskvy reported that a steady

stream of people was still arriving atclosing time on December 19.

In the face of the Kremlins silence, hun-

dreds of Russians have found their ownways to express their feelings. A website

has been set up in Mr. Havels memory,www.havelinmemoriam.ru, and the text,

written in both Czech and Russian, reads:

Vaclav Havel, a man who embodied

the strength of personality and talent inthe face of totalitarianism... was a rare

model of politics in which consistentdefense of, and loyalty to, principles and

ideals is above all else. Havel will remain

forever in our memory as a brave anduncompromising fighter under a totali-tarian regime, against which he was able

to build honesty and human dignity.

Unfortunately, the president of theRussian Federation Dmitry Medvedev

has found it unnecessary to express con-dolences to the Czech nation. More

important for the Kremlin was the deathof DPRK leader Kim Jong Il.

We understand that mutual relationsbetween Russia and the Czech Republic

were sometimes strained, but that doesnot apply to relations between our

nations...We share the grief of loss that the

Czech Republic is currently experiencing,and we express our deep condolences to

the relatives of the Czech nation and ofVaclav Havel.

It ends with several hundred signa-

tures and an invitation to readers to addtheir own thoughts of sympathy.

Mr. Havel wrote his last commentaryfor Novaya Gazeta, on December 9, about

the disputed Russian parliamentary elec-tions days earlier. There can be no talk

of democracy as long as the leaders ofthe state insult the dignity of citizens,

control the judiciary, the mass media andmanipulate election results, he wrote.

On December 19, Deputy Editor VitalyYaroshevsky wrote in praise of Mr.

Havels unflagging concern for Russianfreedom: The passing of Vaclav Havel is

not just a loss for Czechs. Its a loss for usall, because now it will be much harderfor us to struggle with the complex cir-

cumstances within our country.

Copyright 2011, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted

with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW,

Washington DC 20036 (see http://www.rferl.org/articleprintview/24429114.html).

Kremlin leaves Havel tributes to others



8/24



9/24


COMMENTARY: Should Ukraine forget its history?by Alexander Motyl

PART I

Back on November 25, 2010, while ona state visit to Kyiv, Israels PresidentShimon Peres noted: If Ukrainians wereto ask me for advice, I would say: forgethistory. I confess to having been, and stillbeing, stunned, intrigued and perplexedby Peress comment so much so that Iwould like today to look more closely atthe notion of forgetting history and tryto determine whether and under whichconditions such a thing might be possibleor desirable, in general and in the case ofUkraine in particular.

Let us start by engaging in two thoughtexperiments. Let us imagine what a soci-ety that forgets all history would look like.Then, let us imagine the opposite a soci-ety that remembers all history.

A society that forgets all history wouldbe even more nightmarish than George

Orwells. Remember: Orwells state need-ed history. It manipulated history, by con-tinually rewriting it to meet the politicalneeds of Big Brother. A society that for-gets history would have to destroy everysingle book, journal, article, blog, record-ing, film and artwork no later than oneday after it appeared. In effect, such asociety would live exclusively in themoment and be engaged in an unceasingattempt to obliterate everything thatcould serve as memory.

And since anything can serve as mem-ory, it would have to destroy everything starting with all religions, all commemo-rations, and all distinctive buildings andending with years, months, days and pos-sibly, even numbers. The past and future

tenses would also have to be banned, theformer for obvious reasons, the latter forimplying that the present is the past inrelation to the future. Indeed, semanticchange would have to go and the meaningof words would have to be fixed forever.

A society that remembers all historywould be equally dystopian. This societywould not only preserve every single text whether written, painted, filmed, orrecorded but it would have to recordevery conversation, every whisper andevery thought. No less important, itwould have to incorporate every singlerecorded text into a continually evolvinggrand historical narrative.

A society such as this would actuallyresemble Orwells not because it wantsto distort history, but because it needsboth obsessively to rewrite history everyhour of every day and ceaselessly to prop-agate a maximally comprehensive narra-tive served up in its most up-to-date ver-sion.

Let us ask a few more questions aboutthese dreadful societies.

First, is either society possible intodays world? The answer, fortunately, isno.

An utterly forgetful society wouldrequire such a massive concentration oftotalitarian power as to make Orwellsstate or North Korea seem liberal bycomparison. I do not see how such a sys-tem could emerge at a time of mass com-

munications, market economics, massdiversity, mass education and the like.

At first glance, an utterly rememberingsociety seems more possible, inasmuch asthe Internet is creating a permanentrecord of every electronic communica-tion. On closer inspection, however, it isclear that, since the amounts of data sucha society must collect would be infinitelylarge, a comprehensive and grand histori-

cal narrative could never be attained.Second, can we, living human beings,

actually follow President Peress adviceand, in the absence of a mega-totalitarianstate, forget history of our own volition? Ido not see how.

For one thing, we would have to forgethow to remember not to rememberaccurately, but just to remember. Thatseems logically impossible.

For another, most people in most coun-tries of the world today live in societiesthat involve some form of public conten-tion and every form of public conten-tion always draws on memories, historiesand some record of some past.

Thirdly, we live in an age in which allpeople everywhere have some kind ofcollective identity with some sense ofwhat the groups boundaries are and ofwhere it came from. For better or forworse, identity presupposes memory orhistory, or some combination of the two.

Finally, even if some society decided to

forget history, it could succeed only ifevery other society were to forget history.Since non-forgetters could manipulateforgetters, however, there would be littleincentive for potential forgetters to followin the footsteps of the first forgetter.

In that sense, forgetfulness resemblesdisarmament. Who would do it first,knowing that historical disarmamentwould encourage others to retain theirarsenals of history? And just as it isextremely difficult to get countries withhuge nuclear stockpiles to disarm, so tooit would be extremely difficult to getcountries with huge stockpiles of memo-ry such as all of Ukraines neighbors toforget history.

There is another barrier to forgetful-

ness, one specific to Ukrainians and otherpost-colonial nations.

In order to forget history, one mustfirst remember it. And in order to remem-ber history, one must first have a history a recorded narrative relating the nationsdevelopment over time. Call that a nation-al history or narrative. Like any historicalnarrative, a national narrative is perfectlycompatible with all norms, ideologies andvalues that do not explicitly deny the verypossibility of national narratives. Liberals,conservatives, nationalists, feminists,socialists, fascists, Catholics, Protestants,Orthodox, Muslims, Buddhists and Jewscan all produce equally good nationalnarratives if they do their homework,write with integrity and arrange genuinefacts in logically coherent chronologicalnarratives.

There is no necessary reason to writenational narratives one can, after all,write the history of salt, sex, celebrities,codfish, textile workers, rock music, andso on but for better or for worse many, ifnot most, histories are written in thismanner.

And, as we know from Frantz Fanon,newly independent nations and stateshave a proclivity for these types of narra-tives, as independence creates a particu-lar vantage point for history writing,demands that national narratives emergeto provide legitimacy for the new nationsand states, and enables formerly

oppressed peoples or groups to find theirvoices and recover their memories.

There are three possible types ofnational narratives. Consider a newlyindependent state called Slobbovia. First,one can write a history of the Slobbovianstate. That would entail tracing all thepolitical formations that contributed tothe emergence and consolidation of theadministrative and coercive apparatus

registered in Latvia which had won anapparently fake tender, while EnergyMinister Yuriy Boyko asked the SBU to findout who was behind the reports about thedeal (Zerkalo Nedeli, May 27, June 4).

A survey conducted by the International

Finance Corporation last year revealed chill-ing figures: an average Ukrainian companyspends some 10 percent of its annual turn-over on corruption, and the share of thosebusinesses which used unofficial ways ofsolving problems with state officials rosefrom 35 percent in 2008 to 46 percent in2010 (Kommersant-Ukraine, November 2).

Unsurprisingly, Ukraine slipped 18 posi-tions in the Corruption Perceptions Index

(Continued from page 2)

Ukraine loses...

known as the State of Slobbovia. Second,one can write a history of the Slobbovianpeople, or nation. That would entail trac-ing all the social, economic, political andcultural developments that led to theemergence and consolidation of a self-conscious ethno-cultural communitycalled the Slobbovians. Third, one canwrite a history of the territory ofSlobbovia. That would entail tracing allthe relationships between and among allthe people and peoples inhabiting the ter-ritory of Slobbovia.

Which of these national narratives isbetter or best? The answer is that, otherthings being equal, they are all equallygood or all equally bad as historical nar-ratives. If the historians do their home-work, write with integrity, and arrangegenuine facts in logically coherent chron-ological narratives, then each resultingnarrative is valid.

Fair enough, one might say, but is notthe very notion of national narratives

pass? Should not truly serious historiansdevelop non-national or post-nationalnarratives that boldly venture into bor-derlands and other marginal spaces out-side the state and the nation? Is not thatkind of history intrinsically better histo-ry?

The answer is no. As we shall see, thereare excellent theoretical reasons for writ-ing national narratives.

I adopt the view of history developedby the philosopher Arthur Danto inNarration and Knowledge. Danto engag-es in a thought experiment and askswhether an ideal chronicle consisting ofevery single historical fact would amountto a genuine history. His answer is that aninfinitely large collection of facts would

not and could not be a usable or evenadequate historical narrative. Why not?For the simple, if somewhat counterintui-tive, reason that complete comprehen-siveness is antithetical to history. In reali-ty, every history is and has to be partial,every history is and has to be slanted,and every history is and has to be a story.And stories, as you know, are always sto-ries, never of everything, but always ofsomething with a beginning, middle andend.

As a result, all historians always andeverywhere, intentionally and purpose-fully, write intrinsically imperfect andincomplete narratives that make perfectsense for the historians writing from par-ticular vantage points reflective of their

place in time. Every history is thus a nev-er-ending work in progress, because thevantage point of the historian can neverbe frozen in time.

Although Dantos view of history may

appear to coincide with post-modernistclaims about indeterminacy, meaning-lessness, subjectivism and relativism, it isactually rooted in fairly traditional under-standings of history. Facts exist in Dantosreading, and historians are able to deter-mine what they are. Historians musttherefore pay obeisance to chronologicaltime, they must produce coherent narra-tives, and they must demonstrate that thefacts they claim as facts are indeed facts that is, that they are statements aboutreality that, by virtue of their being sup-ported by persuasive evidence, actuallycorrespond to reality.

Histories can therefore be objectiveaccounts of what happened, but they cannever be full or final accounts producedfrom some transcendental vantage point.Multiple incomplete histories of anythingare as inevitable and unavoidable as mul-tiple lines intersecting some one point. Afeminist history can therefore be as goodor as bad, as a historical narrative, as an

anti- or non-feminist history. A nationalistor national history can, by the same logic,be as good or as bad, as a historical narra-tive, as an anti-nationalist or non-nationalhistory.

It follows that dominant or hegemon-ic historical narratives need not actuallybe better as coherently organized chrono-logical arrangements of facts. They onlyappear to be better because we or, moreprecisely, historians and reading publics deem them better. Other things beingequal, certain histories strike us as betterthan others because they are more rele-vant to present-day concerns or morereflective of present-day views or norms.Thus, a feminist history may strike us as abetter reading than a non-feminist histo-

ry, but that is so, not because, to quoteLeopold von Ranke, wie es eigentlichgewesen sei is demonstrably feminist,but because, inspired by feminism, welook for, and find, feminist facts in as itreally was.

By the same token, the current infatua-tion with borderlands is right to treat bor-derlands as a legitimate way of engaginghistory, but it is wrong to suggest thatborderland approaches are intrinsicallysuperior to national narratives. They arenot. They just happen to be different, butit is a difference that, today, strikes us asbetter and that, tomorrow, when ourvantage point changes, could just as easilystrike us as worse.

Above is the text of the WolodymyrDylynskyj Memorial Lecture delivered by Alexander J. Motyl, professor of politicalscience at Rutgers University-Newark onMay 6 at the University of Toronto.

for 2011, which was released byTransparency International on December 1.Ukraine now shares position 152 out of 183with Tajikistan. This is the lowest positionfor the country ever, and Ukraine is lower onthe list than all of its peers in the Central andEastern Europe region including Russia. Itscored only 2.3 on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0indicating the highest level of corruption,down from 2.4 last year.

At the same time, Ukraine has failed toestablish an independent anti-corruptionbody by the December 1 deadline set by theEuropean Union. This has been one of theEUs requirements for visa liberalization(Kommersant-Ukraine, December 6).

The article above is reprinted fromEurasia Daily Monitor with permission fromits publisher, the Jamestown Foundation,www.jamestown.org.


10/24


U. of Ottawa hosts Danyliw Seminar on Contemporary Ukrainian Studiesby Oksana Zakydalsky


OTTAWA Sixteen presentations and 27scholars and doctoral students fromUkraine, Western Europe, the United Statesand Canada comprised the program of the2011 Danyliw Research Seminar onContemporary Ukrainian Studies.

Held on October 20-22 at the Universityof Ottawa, under the auspices of its Chair ofUkrainian Studies and sponsored by theWolodymyr George Danyliw Foundation,this was the seventh annual seminar orga-nized by Prof. Dominique Arel, who holdsthe Ukrainian Studies Chair.

The papers presented were gatheredunder four themes: Ukraine and Politics,World War II and Memory, Educationand Identity, and Holodomor and Gender.(The full program of the seminar is avail-able at www.ukrainianstudies.uottawa.ca.)

The largest number of papers six were presented under the theme of WorldWar II and Memory. Some of the papers

challenged accepted views and raised con-tentious issues which have resulted incontested memories of the war period.

John-Paul Himka (University of Alberta)presented a paper titled The Organizationof Ukrainian Nationalists, the UkrainianPolice and the Holocaust, which sought toshow the connections between theUkrainian police, the OUN and its role inthe Holocaust. Prof. Himka set out toexplain the role of the OUN in the forma-tion of the Ukrainian police. But althoughOUN members did not join the police to killJews, they joined a force that played amajor role in the Holocaust in westernUkraine, he claimed.

Kimberley Partee (Strassler Centre forHolocaust Studies, U.S.) focused on the con-

cept of collaboration and showed how thelegal imperatives generated by the trials ofthe Trawniki men (Trawniki was a train-ing camp for guards used in implementa-tion of the Final Solution) influenced theperception of collaboration.

The trials relied on legal codes, whoseconventions misrepresented and distortedhistory, for example, in equating anti-Semi-tism with Nazism. She pointed out that col-laboration during a time of terror and bru-tal occupation is a difficult activity to defineand publicly condemn.

Serhiy Kudelia (George WashingtonUniversity) dealt with the causes of thedefeat of the post-war insurgency in west-ern Ukraine. He explained that it was not,

as has been widely believed, that it failedbecause the Soviets built a wide intelli-gence network within the UkrainianInsurgent Army (UPA). It was collectiviza-tion that helped the Soviets defeat the

nationalist underground.Prior to the onset of collectivization in

1947, the UPA had used strategic violence(violence against identifiable groups). Ascollectivization proceeded, it became hard-er to differentiate between those whojoined the collectives voluntarily and thosewho were coerced. The UPA turned fromstrategic to indiscriminate violence, whichled to the collapse of the cooperative bar-gain between the insurgents and the locals,and the insurgency was left withoutresources to continue its operations.

Aleksandra Melnyk (University ofToronto) analyzed in detail, through Sovietdocuments, the investigation of a case ofanti-Jewish violence in Kyivs Podil district,perpetrated on September 30, 1941, whichresulted in the hanging of three local peo-ple three years later.

Myroslav Shkandrij (University ofManitoba) spoke on nationalism and litera-ture in the Inter-war period. He claimedthat interwar Ukrainian nationalism wasnot only a political and ideological phe-

nomenon but also a literary current. Sevenprominent writers most often associatedwith the nationalist literature of the OUNare Yevhen Malaniuk, Olena Teliha, LeonidMosendz, Oleh Olzhych, Yurii Lypa, UlasSamchuk and Yuri Klen.

Although they were influenced byDmytro Dontsovs writings (the dichoto-mous structures friend or foe, the West orRussia; the need for a total severing fromthe past; the justification for violence, amo-rality and passion), they did not acceptthem uncritically. They gave literaryexpression to the ideology and helped toforge the new mentality and sense of politi-cal community.

Orest Zakydalsky (Ukrainian CanadianResearch and Documentation Center,Toronto) described one of the oral historyprojects of the Center interviews withUkrainians who rescued Jews during theHolocaust in Ukraine. The first section ofthe paper, where evidence was drawn frominterviews with survivors and aid givers,dealt with the complexities surroundingrescue and aid. The second section wasfocused on the role of rescue in the politicsof memory of the Holocaust in Ukraine.

His central point was that neither theHolocaust nor rescue and aid during theHolocaust are integral parts of the discus-sion and remembrance of the Germanoccupation of Ukraine.

There were three papers under thetheme Ukraine and Politics. Stephen

Shulman and Stephen Bloom (both ofSouthern Illinois University) asked thequestion does nation-building increasethe strength of citizen loyalty in Ukraine?and provided a theoretically grounded

account with statistical analysis of the datafrom a survey done in May 2011 for whynationhood might not, in fact, boost civicloyalty.

Anton Shekhovtsov (George BellInstitute Kreiser-Fellow, Crimea) spoke onThe Rise of the Ukrainian Far Right. Hehighlighted the paradox that the presenceof far right parties is an indication of thedemocratic nature of Ukraine while, at thesame time, it poses a threat to the develop-ing democracy.

The rise of the Svoboda party has beensuccessful due to efficient strategies andorganization, and the growing legitimacyof the far right. He also drew attention tothe fact that, although it is not in theVerkhovna Rada, there has been a dispro-portionately high presence of Svoboda ontwo main Ukrainian political talk-shows:

Yevhen Kyselyovs Velyka Polityka andSavik Shusters Shuster Live. Associates ofparty leader Oleh Tiahnybok have beeninvited to every second program of eachshow.

Iryna Solonenko (InternationalRenaissance Foundation, Kyiv) examinedthe role of the European Union as an actorin Ukraines transformation. The paperexplained why and under what circum-stances the EU was able to push forimprovements in some areas, while it failedin others, by examining two case studies:public procurement legislation and judicialreform. The first was a success, but not thesecond.

The theme of education was consideredthrough three prisms: disadvantagedyouth, citizenship identity and the ques-tion of historical guilt. Alla Korzh(Columbia University) examined howUkrainian youth alumni of orphanages envisage the role of education in their lives.Her methodology included interviews andfocus groups. Herr conclusions were notvery promising for the disadvantagedyouth: vocational education is still produc-ing factory workers with manual skillsdemanded in the Soviet centrally plannedeconomy, while education fails to providefull-time employment opportunities to uni-versity graduates.

Antonina Tereshchenko (University ofPorto, Portugal) inquired about waysyoung people in Ukraine understand and

construct their citizenship identities.Analyzing this question was complicatedby the fact that citizenship is a contestedconcept in Ukraine. Her discussion was acomparative study in two borderlandregions of Ukraine Donetsk and Lviv. Thefindings suggested that there was a needfor curriculum reform in citizenship educa-tion which would refocus on accommodat-ing within-nation diversity.

Tetyana Kloubert (University of Jena,Germany) presented the results of aresearch project that investigated thequestion of coming to terms with the pastand focused on the issue of historical guiltas taught in adult education. The empiricaldata was gathered in 2009 through con-versational interviewing and the guidingresearch question posed to teachers inadult education was: Is the problem ofguilt and responsibility with regard to theUkrainian past discussed in Ukrainianeducational institutions?

Tatyana Zhurzhenko (University ofVienna) spoke on the contested meaningof Holodomor memorials in Ukraine. Usingtwo examples, the Kyiv memorial Candleof Memory and the Kharkiv memorial tothe victims of the Holodomor, the paperanalyzed public debate and political con-

flict around both projects. The internation-al recognition of the Holodomor as geno-cide became a top priority of Ukrainianforeign policy while rituals of collectivemourning become part of nation-building.Yet, three years after their official inaugu-ration, the new Holodomor memorialsremain politicized.

Oksana Kis (Institute of Ethnology, Lviv)observed that both scholarly and popularwritings on this subject [Holodomor] tendto visualize the horrors of starvation pri-marily with heartbreaking pictures of des-perate women.... Constructing the histori-cal image of a Ukrainian woman as aneternal helpless victim of historical pro-cesses ultimately dislodges the very possi-bility of recognizing and exploring wom-ens agency in history. Her study focusedon patterns of womens survival strategies,forms of resistance and modes of accom-modation to the structural restrictionsthrough which women managed to sup-port their families during the Famine.

Maryna Bazylevych (Luther College,U.S.) examined the meaning of the highpercentage of women in the medical pro-fession in the USSR and, subsequently, inUkraine, from the standpoint of theunderstanding of feminism. She conclud-ed that womens experiences of post-socialist transformations have not beenuniversally negative or disadvantaging.Many women have been able to benefitfro

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