FACES AND PLACES: Ukraine's communist cancer growing (08/03/97)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Ukraine's communist cancer growing

When the Soviet Union deteriorated, I believed Ukraine's Communist cancer would be excised once and for all. I was wrong. The cancer went into remission as Ukraine's Communists went underground for a brief period to await developments. Once the Communist Party was legalized, the cancer returned, as malignant as ever.

Bolshevik strategy in Ukraine is simple: sabotage current efforts at economic reform and convince the voting public that independence is the cause of all their problems. Taking full advantage of Ukraine's new democracy, today's Bolsheviks are making headway in their hostile battle to recapture control of Ukraine, and to destroy the very democracy that allows them to function.

A leading conspirator is Oleksander Moroz, a Socialist who is chairman of Verkhovna Rada. Posturing as a blue-and-yellow patriot by day, the slick Mr. Moroz is closely allied with the left in Parliament.

Bright red in his approach to Ukraine's future is Petro Symonenko, secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine. He has condemned efforts to recognize the role of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in the struggle to attain Ukraine's independence. Demanding that all OUN and UPA veterans be indicted for "crimes against the Ukrainian people," Mr. Symonenko points to recent demands in Canada for a more vigorous prosecution of Ukrainian "fascists." According to Visti Kombatanta (No. 3, 1997), Communists in eastern Ukraine are gathering signatures of local citizens for petitions that condemn the OUN and UPA. Signatories are promised more land or a higher salary.

A red deputy of a different hue is Natalia Vitrenko, chairman of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU) and a darling of Lyndon Larouche. According to the July 14 issue of The New Federalist, an official publication of the LaRouchies, Ms. Vitrenko, Volodymr Marchenko, another strident deputy of the Left, and some 70 PSPU members recently completed a hunger strike protesting President Leonid Kuchma's efforts to fulfill pledges made to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which will guarantee future loans. Arguing that the recently passed budget is "against the national interest," Ms. Vitrenko and her followers demanded the immediate resignation of both President Kuchma and the Verkhovna Rada, the immediate elimination of wage and pension arrears, full employment in existing jobs, the creation of new jobs, "a nationwide referendum on the question of Ukraine's social-economic development, and the adoption of a new constitution."

The July 21 issue of The New Federalist featured a rather glamorous photo of Ms. Vitrenko holding her pet cat and an appeal to send messages of support directly to the PSPU press center at 011-380-44-228-5492. I called that number to see if I could get more information, but no one there spoke English. Interesting.

Another deputy, Anatoly Motsban, is openly pushing for a return to a command economy with a national monopoly on all exports as well as on the manufacture and control of all alcoholic beverages, and the full nationalization of commercial banks.

Inadvertently, the United States government may be helping Ukraine's old-line Bolsheviks maintain themselves. In a July 5 article in The Chicago Tribune, Tom Hundley wrote: "The Clinton administration says it wants to encourage privatization of agriculture, but last year it helped underwrite a $187 million purchase of 1,049 John Deere farm combines which, say critics, will only prop up the state farms and the bosses that run them." The Rada, Mr. Hundley pointed out, "remains firmly in control of the bosses who are set against anything that threatens their privileged status."

Local Ukrainian farmers complain that the government once offered private farmers loans but that source dried up two years ago. If loans are provided, the interest rate is 100 percent. According to Mr. Hundley, "last year's John Deere deal was a classic example of how one aspect of the administration's foreign policy - the aggressive promotion of overseas sales for American corporations - can undermine another. In this case, the need for Ukraine to privatize its agricultural sector and move toward a market economy. At the administration's urging, the Export-Import Bank agreed to finance the Deere and Co. deal despite Ukraine's shaky credit rating and reputation for rampant corruption." The sale was good for Deere, but not for Ukraine's farmers who "make do with broken-down Soviet equipment and manual labor."

At present only 2 percent of Ukrainian farmland has been handed back to private farmers. Some 13 percent of the land remains in private plots, while the rest is under the control of giant state farms.

But not to worry. According to the July 22 issue of Svoboda, a special presidential economic commission of 30 individuals has been appointed including 16 deputies, among them Mr. Moroz, Vitalii Masol, Vitold Fokin and Yevhen Marchuk. Asking people like that to work on behalf of Ukrainian interests is like asking a fox to guard the chicken coop.

Greed and corruption have permeated many other Ukrainian institutions, including hospitals. On July 27 "60 Minutes" broadcast a balanced portrayal of the way babies were sold to American parents by a Dr. Doroshenko in Lviv for fees ranging up to $9,000. One of the babies was found to be brain-damaged and was returned by the American parents as "damaged goods."

Apparently, American institutions have also been corrupted. Have you ever wondered why it is that young Ukrainian professionals you know can't get visas while other less savory individuals arrive here weekly? Rumors persist regarding certain people in the American Embassy who sell visas for up to $5,000. I have spoken with individuals who know people who have been contacted, but are afraid to come forward with the information lest they or their families suffer harm. I have been tracing this abomination for eight months and have been in touch with special agent Alan Boroshok at the State Department. Anyone out there who has information can contact me via The Ukrainian Weekly, 30 Montgomery St., Jersey City, NJ 07302; or Mr. Boroshok, (703) 284-1919. (Contacts can be anonymous if need be.)

In conclusion I want to thank Walter J. Dziwak for correcting my math. In my last article I wrote that 11,000 is .0003 percent of 36 million. It's not. It's .0003 which is .03 percent.

Myron Kuropas' new e-mail address is: mbkuropas@compuserve.com

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