Ten years of work on behalf of Ukraine: notable highlights
by Bohdan Hawrylyshyn
PART II
A Washington dinner
In November 1990, a month after the students' hunger strike, George Soros was lecturing before some 400 people in Washington on his theory of reflexivity. Mr. Soros was regarded at the time as a great financier by philosophers and as an interesting philosopher by financiers. I was invited to the lecture and to a dinner for some 30 people after the lecture.
During the dinner, the U.S. ambassador to China was asked to describe the massacre that had occurred during the students' demonstration on Tiannanmen Square in June of that year. He described it in detail. One could almost see the tanks crushing the students.
Somewhat unexpectedly I was asked, immediately afterwards, to analyze the situation in Eastern Europe. I suggested that I would focus on Ukraine and, instead of an orderly analysis, I offered vignettes of a few important milestones in the march of Ukraine towards independence. I described in detail and with still obvious passionate feelings the students' October hunger strike and particularly the fact that no violence took place and that the Parliament capitulated to the students' demands.
The contrast between what had happened in Beijing and what had happened in Kyiv was great and obviously impressed the audience.
The next morning before breakfast, Mr. Soros came to see me at my hotel. He said that if what I had described the previous evening was possible, I could have a few million dollars to try and help firm up the democratic processes in Ukraine. The funds would be forthcoming from the Karl Popper Foundation in Switzerland, financed by a relative of Mr. Soros.
Upon my return to Geneva, I wrote a concept paper, a plan, prepared a budget and discussed it with the board of the Karl Popper Foundation. It was approved without any changes. I set up an office in Geneva to manage the Karl Popper Program for Ukraine.
During the next four years some 40 projects were prepared and implemented, varying in amount from several thousand to several hundred thousand dollars and in nature from an exchange of farmers between Ukraine and Canada, and training of Ukrainian reporters by the Canada Broadcasting Corp., to study visits abroad by Ukrainian parliamentarians. The program operated for a few years in parallel, but quite independently, from the International Renaissance Foundation.
Council of Advisors
Leonid Kravchuk, then chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, attended the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 1991.
This is an annual weeklong gathering of over 1,500 business and political leaders worldwide held to assess the state of the world and ponder future developments. The symposium was initiated in 1971 by the International Management Institute in Geneva, which I directed, to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
After attending the symposium, Mr. Kravchuk came to our home in Geneva for dinner. After dinner he took me aside and asked if I would become his advisor. I reflected for a minute and told him that I did not think this was a good idea. He asked if this was because I did not want to be an advisor to a Communist, if I was afraid of what people would say about that. I replied that it might be more awkward for him vis-à-vis the Central Committee of the Communist Party to have a person known as a Ukrainian patriot as his advisor. Instead I suggested to create a group of advisors, to be called the Council of Advisors, consisting of well-known personalities from different countries, who would advise the Presidium of the Parliament, in which different political currents were represented, rather than just the chairman. Mr. Kravchuk immediately agreed.
I wrote a paper with a suggested mandate for the council and its modus operandi. I then contacted a group of personalities, some of whom I had known for many years before. They were all people with political experience in legislative and executive branches of their respective countries and/or people with international experience and standing.
Somewhat to my surprise, all the people whom I approached accepted immediately. The composition, with a few changes over time, was as follows:
On March 12 the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada made the decision to officially create the council, though we had to add, mostly for cosmetic reasons, the same number of Ukrainians to the council. This was done against the strong objections of some members of the Presidium, who thought that the proposed Ukrainian members did not have any more wisdom or political experience than the members of the Presidium itself. This turned out to be an irrelevant issue, because the Ukrainian part of the council atrophied very quickly.
Most of the foreign members, however, were active, being in fact the first ambassadors of Ukraine - even before Ukraine became independent. They spoke on behalf of Ukraine in various international settings, such as the Council of Europe and the European Parliament. Most of them came for several visits to Ukraine to participate in workshops and to give advice on the organization of various ministries. All of them made important contributions to the Constitution, reacting to proposed laws, supplying information about legislative processes in other countries, relations between legislative, executive and judicial branches, etc.
The council had a secretariat in Kyiv, which produced the Digest of Foreign Press pertaining to Ukraine and an Update on Ukraine, which was disseminated to the council members and to whomever they felt appropriate, organized as well as council members' visits, workshops.
It was, therefore, with a sense of gratitude, but also with much regret that I decided to dissolve the council in March 1998, since under the new Constitution the Presidium of the Parliament no longer existed. More importantly, the apparatus of the president, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Parliament had grown, and many people in these various organs acquired some knowledge of legislative and executive experiences of different countries, and many advisory groups had emerged, from Germany, the United States, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, etc.
The Act of Declaration of Independence
In Kyiv, after the August 19 putsch, a special session of the Parliament was called for Saturday, August 24. One could not help but feel that something of importance would happen. On late Friday evening, August 23, I arranged to take the next flight to Kyiv the following morning. From Boryspil airport I went straight to the Parliament, which was in recess after a bitter debate in the morning about whether to disband the Communist Party first and then declare independence, or to declare independence first.
I joined a few people, gathered around a table in front of the chairman's office, who were putting the final touches on the wording of the Act of Declaration of Independence. A question was suddenly raised as to what we should call the country that was about to be declared independent. An immediate answer came:" Naturally, the Democratic Republic of Ukraine. "Just as quickly a retort followed: "There were so many so-called 'Democratic Republics'! Why not simply the Republic of Ukraine?" Then, Mr. Pavlychko, in his passionate fashion, exclaimed: "Why not simply 'Ukraine'?" The agreement was instant. Thus, the name of the country was decided upon by eight people in less than half a minute.
The recess ended. The session was about to start. It was obvious, however, that a number of deputies were missing and the quorum would not be met. Chairman Kravchuk was skillfully delaying putting the Act of Declaration of Independence to a vote, while deputies were slowly coming back into the assembly hall. It was rumored afterwards that a number of Communist deputies had tried to escape through an underground passage, in order not to take part in the vote, but were blocked. The tension in the legislative chamber was palpable.
Finally, the act was put to a vote and, surprisingly, carried almost unanimously. Some of us ran to the windows on the second floor of the Parliament building, opened them up and greeted the mass of people gathered in front of the building. As I looked at those people - delirious with happiness, shouting: "Slava Ukraini!" - I could have jumped out of the window to share their joy.
On Monday, August 26, at 4 p.m., the Presidium of the Parliament met to discuss just one item on the agenda: the Communist Party of Ukraine. Some of the members of the Presidium and a few deputies sitting at the back of the room as guests demanded the immediate dissolution of the Communist Party and nationalization of all of its assets. Chairman Kravchuk with great calm kept deferring for legal advice, particularly to Attorney General Shishkin, to ensure that whatever would be done would be genuinely legal. After an hour and a half of debate, it emerged that it would be possible to ban the party, to freeze its assets and keep just one account open to pay the salaries of the administrative employees of the party.
Just before putting the proposition to a vote, Chairman Kravchuk asked, with a touch of irony, how many of the members of the Presidium had never been members of the Communist Party. Just one hand went up: it was that of Les Taniuk. All the others, including Mr. Kravchuk, had been members, some had handed in their party membership cards a year earlier, some a few months earlier, some during the previous few days and some probably still had them in their pockets. Curiously though, when the resolution was then put to a vote to disband the Communist Party of Ukraine, it was carried unanimously.
Communists were obviously on the run. A pity that they subsequently were given the chance to regroup. During the subsequent year and a half, the democratic forces, though in minority, could have taken over the power and established a government of people who had never been members of the Communist nomenklatura.
Securing independence
The decision to have a referendum on the question of Ukraine becoming independent and to hold presidential elections at the same time was a wise one, meant to give full legitimacy to independence through the expression of the will of the people. Had the Parliament been satisfied with its own declaration of independence, by now independence would be in a serious jeopardy. The referendum took place smoothly and provided extraordinary positive results.
The official ceremony of proclaiming the independence of Ukraine took place in the Parliament on December 5. It was a very moving experience for me and my wife to watch the ceremony and listen to the Veriovka choir singing "Bozhe Velykyi, Yedynyi." A number of countries recognized the independence of Ukraine in quick succession.
A few days later, a meeting took place in Belarus between Kravchuk, Mikhail Gorbachev and a few leaders of other Soviet republics and the Soviet Union was formally dissolved. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was created. President Kravchuk, who precipitated the dissolution of the Soviet Union and concurred to the creation of the CIS, saw it, however, as "a divorce procedure" rather than any kind of replacement for the USSR.
Opening some doors
The young Ukrainian state had few contacts and little knowledge of the outside world, of the international institutions. On December 16, 1991, I went to President Kravchuk to suggest that Ukraine should apply for membership in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. I presented to him draft letters in English and Ukrainian, addressed to the president of the World Bank and the managing director of the IMF, saying that if he would get them typed on his official letterhead and signed, a World Bank consultant, who was going to Washington, would deliver the letters personally. Mr. Kravchuk did not know much about these institutions at the time, but accepted the idea immediately. Letters were delivered as promised and Ukraine was three weeks ahead of Russia in submitting its applications for membership in the above two institutions.
Mr. Kravchuk had attended the Davos Symposium of the World Economic Forum in January 1991, but he was there in his capacity as a chairman of the Parliament of a Soviet republic. Now that he was president of an independent state, it was important for him to appear in that capacity and speak at a plenary session, rather than take part in some lesser events. This was done at the end of January 1992. Mr. Kravchuk spoke and behaved in a dignified fashion, as befits the president of an important country. He did the same in subsequent similar settings and diplomatic encounters. It was good to be with him in Davos as part of a small Ukrainian delegation, to help arrange some of the meetings with other heads of states and attend official dinners.
There were other international gatherings, though somewhat smaller and less prestigious, where it seemed useful for me to ensure Ukraine's participation. One of these was the Forum de Crans Montana, in the western part of Switzerland, where a number of prime ministers, ministers from various countries and a few hundred business leaders gather for three days. Since I was on the international advisory board of that organization, then headed by the prime minister of France, it was easy enough to get invitations for Vice-Prime Minister Roman Shpek and several vice ministers. Ukraine was present, it could speak for itself directly. The very presence of its representatives prevented whatever negative things the Russian delegation might have been tempted to say about Ukraine.
There was yet another annual event in Switzerland, which was unique in its conception: a three-day international management symposium, organized on the grounds of the University of St. Gallen for 500 students and 500 executives from around the world. Students are invited by the executives who participate from their respective countries. The idea is to have a meeting of two generations in response to the students' revolution of 1968. I chaired the event for 24 consecutive years, until 1997. While the symposium is organized by students it attracts world-level speakers.
I was most anxious to get some Ukrainian students involved, but they did not have any corporate sponsors. Because I had chaired so many symposia, I persuaded the organizers to pay each year for five students from Ukraine. They came from Ternopil, Lviv and Kyiv. It is useful for our young Ukrainians to meet with their fellow students and brush shoulders with important personalities from around the world.
The Ukrainian students who attended the May 1993 symposium will certainly remember it. Chancellor Helmut Kohl was one of the main speakers. I introduced him briefly. He stood up, an imposing personality of enormous size and of great political stature; I sat beside him, appearing by comparison utterly insignificant, yet in the chairman's seat. Chancellor Kohl spoke well, with clarity and conviction. The audience listened in rapt attention. Listening also were three other earlier speakers: Dr. Vaclav Klaus, prime minister of the former Czecho-Slovakia; Leszek Balcerowicz, deputy prime minister and the architect of the Polish economic miracle; and the minister of finance from Hungary.
The consummate politician that he is, Chancellor Kohl used the occasion to emphasize that a top priority of German foreign policy was to have friendly relations with Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. After very long applause, Mr. Kohl stepped down and sat in the first row, beaming with the self-satisfaction of having done a great job. After the applause died down, I said: "Chancellor Kohl, your speech would have been perfect had you also mentioned good relations with Ukraine among your policy priorities." The audience, well aware that I was Ukrainian, burst out in laughter. Chancellor Kohl was bewildered.
Nonetheless, I must give the man full credit for his memory and his sense of humor. Two years later he came on an official visit to Ukraine. I was with Ivan Pliushch, then chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, waiting to meet Chancellor Kohl. Chancellor Kohl walked into the room, spotted me, walked up to me, shook my hand before greeting Mr. Pliushch and let out his thundering "ha-ha-ha!" This was yet another occasion on which I saw that truly important personalities, normally treated with great deference, enjoy being dealt with occasionally as ordinary people, particularly when done with some humor.
Back to my region
I love my native village, Koropets, even though we moved from it when I was only 4 years old. It is a big village with some 6,000 inhabitants, located in the valley on both banks of a little river by the same name. When you look down from one of the hills towards the Dnister, you see how it winds majestically as if embracing one river bank and pushing away the other - it's breathless. I am proud of the village, because it was nationally conscious at an early age, very patriotic; it had a disproportionately high number of its people involved in Ukrainian resistance organizations.
I have been visiting my village at least once every year since I returned to Ukraine, praying at my mother's grave, visiting relatives who survived Siberia, feeling happy that one of my nephews is the only doctor in the village and lives in the house that belonged to my great-grandfather. Another nephew graduated from the faculty of law, but has not made a real career since the unspoken rule in the village was that one had to choose between the Communist Party or the family and the village. He chose the latter.
Under Polish rule the village belonged to the region of Ivano-Frankivsk, then called Stanislaviv. I still feel that I belong to that part of the country, partly because Ivano-Frankivsk is close to the Carpathian Mountains, which have been and remain to me the dearest, most attractive part of Ukraine. Under the Soviet regime the village was re-assigned, with the surrounding territory, to the Ternopil oblast.
Like it or not, I now belong to Ternopil and have assumed this "regional citizenship." In a way I had no choice, because Ternopil laid its claim on me. I was elected president of the Ternopil Academy for National Economy, whose rector is an exceptionally skillful academic administrator and a very enterprising person. I make annual visits to the academy, which is essentially an economics university with 4,000 full-time students and another 6,000 or so part-time or correspondence students. I enjoy lecturing to its alert, patriotic students. I also preside over expeditious meetings of the senate of the academy and delight in the fact that this kind of quality institution exists in my oblast, with a number of well-known graduates, like Viktor Yuschenko, chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine, important people in the presidential administration and other leading figures.
The academy has good contacts and real cooperation with western universities, particularly in Germany, Holland and the United Kingdom. We recently held an international conference on the integration of Ukraine into the European Union, which took place at the academy's branch in Crimea. Three such annual conferences have been conducted thus far on various aspects of integration. In this and some other fields, the academy is ahead of the government.
PART II
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 28, 1999, No. 9, Vol. LXVII
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