EDITORIAL: Eighty years ago (01/17/99)

EDITORIAL

Eighty years ago

Before Ukraine's Parliament adopted the Act of Declaration of the Independence of Ukraine on August 24, 1991, Ukrainians around the world faithfully celebrated January 22 as Independence Day. Indeed, what started as local observances grew into national events, with Ukrainian businesses and schools being closed in honor of the day and government officials issuing proclamations on the occasion - the net result being that the dream of Ukrainian independence was kept alive.

Then, soon after the 1991 proclamation of independence, which was confirmed by the people of Ukraine in a nationwide referendum later that year, the government of Ukraine declared that August 24 would be celebrated as Ukrainian Independence Day. The diaspora followed suit.

This year, however, is a particularly important anniversary of our original Ukrainian Independence Day, as it marks the 80th anniversary of the January 22, 1919, Act of Union that joined all Ukrainians lands into one Ukrainian National Republic. The act came one year to the day after the Ukrainian National Republic had been declared in Kyiv and two months, three weeks after independence was proclaimed in western Ukraine on November 1, 1918.

This historic union occurred at a time of great chaos: the collapse of authority, social turmoil and war (during this period six different armies occupied Ukrainian territory). It came after the Ukrainian National Rada, the representative assembly of the Western Ukrainian National Republic, voted on January 4, 1919, in Stanyslaviv to unite with their compatriots in Kyiv. The official Act of Union was proclaimed on January 22 in St. Sophia Square in Kyiv, and was confirmed by the Labor Congress, the de facto Ukrainian Parliament, six days later.

To be sure, this Ukrainian independence did not last long, falling victim to various internal factors (inexperience of political leaders, and, most significantly, the fact that state-building began while nation-building was in its infancy) and external elements (the superior military forces of Poland in the west and Bolshevik Russia in the east, and the inability of the Ukrainians to secure theEntente's recognition).

Two historians, authors of recently published histories of Ukraine, argue that the Ukrainian revolution was not a failure, however.

Orest Subtelny underlines: "National consciousness, which had been limited to a part of the intelligentsia, spread to all segments of Ukrainian society" and "the rise of Ukrainian governments taught peasants to identify themselves as 'Ukrainians.' ... [Thus] the upheaval of 1917-1920 was not only a socioeconomic but also a national revolution."

Paul R. Magocsi argues that "even if these efforts did not bring about the hoped-for independence, the revolutionary experience itself instilled in Ukrainians a firm sense of national purpose, achieved, moreover, not after several generations of peacetime cultural work, but in less than half a decade. From such a perspective, the Ukrainian revolution was a remarkable success."

So, as the 80th anniversary date of the Act of Union approaches, it is fitting to ask: which independence day should be celebrate? Surely, the answer is August 24. However, can we forget the historic events of January 22, 1918, November 1, 1918, and January 22, 1919, and we might add, June 30, 1941, when a short-lived Ukrainian state was announced by the faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists led by Stepan Bandera? Just as surely, the answer is "no."

All these dates in the history of the homeland to which we trace our roots are significant; all were steps on the way to the independence ultimately achieved on August 24, 1991, and confirmed overwhelmingly by the multi-ethnic population of Ukraine in a plebiscite on December 1, 1991. Let us mark this milestone anniversary, then, by reflecting on where Ukraine has been and where it is headed.

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