Taras Shevchenko and Ichkeria, present-day Chechnya

by Bohdan Klid

Who among us has not heard the following lines recited at a concert honoring Taras Shevchenko?

"Boritesia - poborete,
Vam Boh pomahaie!
Za vas pravda, za vas syla
I volia sviataia!"

Struggle, and ye shall overcome the foe,
For God shall succor you in battle's throe.
His strength is on your side, and freedom stands
With justice on the threshold of your lands!

When I first heard these words recited as a boy, I thought Shevchenko had written about Ukrainians, and our struggle for freedom from Russian domination. In an indirect way he did. However, as I later learned, the lines are from the poem "Kavkaz" (The Caucasus), which Shevchenko wrote in support of the Caucasian peoples in their ongoing fight against Russian subjugation in the first half of the 19th century.

When I first read the entire poem as a young adult, it struck me as a very powerful piece, but it was not until some time during the first Russo-Chechen war of 1994-1996, when I reread it, that the poem's universal validity, timeliness and timelessness struck me.

Last year, when preparing a lecture on 19th-century Ukrainian literature for a course on Ukrainian history and culture, I chose "Kavkaz" in English translation as one of the three poems by Shevchenko that would be read and discussed in class. In preparation for the lecture I also read a short work by Ivan Dzyuba, "Zastukaly Serdeshnu Voliu ..." (Wretched freedom cornered ...), first published as two articles in the journal Suchasnist in 1995, and an article, "Temne Tsarstvo" (The Dark Kingdom), by Ivan Franko, first published in 1881.

The Russian invasion of Chechnya last fall, which marked the beginning of the latest Russo-Chechen war, caused me to turn to "Kavkaz" once again. This time, after reading the poem, what struck me was Shevchenko's intuitive understanding of the principle of the equality of "small" peoples with larger, more powerful nations, and their right to govern themselves.

I also felt great sorrow for the Chechens, whose just struggle was largely unknown then, and who today have been largely abandoned by the world community to a horrible ordeal in their fight for independence. I also felt great admiration for their bravery, both for having fought the Russian invaders in the 19th century for 50 years, and for facing, against seemingly insurmountable odds, the same foe twice at end of the old and beginning of the new millenium.

Shevchenko wrote "Kavkaz" in 1845 upon learning of the death of his close friend Yakiv de Balman, a nobleman who died fighting in the ranks of the Russian army "pacifying" the peoples of the Caucasus. It is for this reason that Shevchenko lamented toward the end of the poem that de Balman had shed his blood not for Ukraine but "for her executioner." Remarkably, however, Shevchenko held no animosity to those who killed his friend, but rather supported their struggle to remain free of Kremlin rule. Instead, Shevchenko flung all his fiery invective, irony and searing sarcasm against the Russian imperial machine, the real executioner of his friend and destroyer of the freedom of the peoples of the Caucasus.

According to Mr. Dzyuba, Shevchenko's defense of the "small," "uncivilized," "lesser" and "non-historical" nations was a phenomenon not known in European poetry of the time. The Greek struggle for freedom from Turkish rule in the first part of the 19th century had been popular among the European intelligentsia, and the English romantic poet Byron lost his life fighting in the ranks of Greek insurgents.

However, the Greeks were Christians, who were fighting Moslem Turks; moreover, the Greeks were seen as a people with a long history who had bequeathed classical civilization to the world. In comparison, who were the Chechens and other Caucasian peoples? They were seen as "wild," "uncivilized" tribes who had no future as peoples or nations, and the idea of allowing or promoting some form of self-government for them was unthinkable.

Shevchenko's defense of "barbaric" peoples was even more remarkable when one considers that the Caucasian nationalities were largely Moslems fighting a Christian power. In some of the most ironic passages in "Kavkaz," Shevchenko exposed the crass hypocrisy of the Russian Orthodox Church, which supported and was an integral part of the imperial machine. (Not much has changed from that time when one reflects on the support of the Russian Orthodox Church today for Russia's latest attempt to reconquer the Chechens.) Overall, Shevchenko described brilliantly the essence of imperial power, its manifestations and ideological masks. With great skill and pathos he stripped off these masks to expose the hypocrisy of the practitioners of and apologists for Russian imperialism, and showed masterfully its rapacious nature.

Another strong point in Shevchenko's poem is the way he emphasized what was truly of value in life. He noted the outward splendor and wealth of the Russian Empire, but concluded that its subjects were really "naked," because they were slaves. In well-known lines he characterized Russia as a country that "teem[ed] with tribes and prisons, past all counting," where each of the many peoples under the rule of the Russian emperor "in his own language holds his tongue, Since our benevolence his speech has wrung." What was truly valuable for Shevchenko was "this wretched thing called freedom," that the Caucasian peoples possessed and which the Russians did not have, but wanted to take away.

In his article, Ivan Franko wrote that "Kavkaz" was a fiery invective against the "kingdom of darkness" written from an ecumenical point of view, and that it perhaps contained the poet's strongest expression of what it meant to be human. "Kavkaz," according to Franko, was one great explosion of feelings, in which the great poet poured out his feelings as a true humanitarian. The poem "Kavkaz" shows that Shevchenko's humanism was not framed by national boundaries.

Reflecting on today's news on the war in the Caucasus, one is struck at how successful Russia, the imperial power, has been in dehumanizing and demonizing the Chechens, and in delegitimizing the struggle of its victim for self-rule. In Shevchenko's day, the Chechens and other peoples of the Caucasus were referred to as "savages"; today they are besmirched as "terrorists" and "bandits." (It is worth noting here that Russian political and military authorities have recently referred in published interviews to Russia's "experience" in fighting "bandit-Banderites" in western Ukraine after the second world war.)

European, Canadian and U.S. political leaders have "acknowledged" Russia's right to fight terrorism, which really means that they have given their consent to the destruction of the Chechen military and government, the president of which was elected in an internationally monitored vote in 1997.

Statements by President Bill Clinton on Chechnya have been particularly shameful and despicable. During the 1994-1996 war, he compared Boris Yeltsin to Abraham Lincoln, and in an essay published in Time magazine's first issue of 2000, he wrote that he had no sympathy for the Chechen "rebels," and described Russia's brutal assault on Grozny as one aimed at its "liberation." Mr. Clinton obviously did not read an earlier interview published in Time with one of Russia's generals, who referred to the Chechens as "monkeys."

Imperialist thinking, which at times manifests itself in racist terms, and which categorizes peoples in hierarchies, still holds great sway over global politics, and we, in the more established democracies, have also been largely informed by this colonial discourse.

To be fair, Russia has been criticized for its actions by world leaders, including President Clinton, but most have meekly chided Russia for its military actions that have harmed civilians, and for human rights abuses. Not one leader, however, has mentioned that, under international law, the Chechens have the right to self-determination, and that Russia has been consistently violating international norms and agreements in its dirty war in the Caucasus. It is clear today that this spineless policy of appeasement has not prevented the commission of crimes against humanity by Russian troops, or the ongoing genocide of the Chechen nation.

Although it seems that the "kingdom of darkness" has once again enveloped Chechnya, as Shevchenko wrote in "Kavkaz," the spirit of freedom, symbolized by Prometheus (a relief of whom stands next to Shevchenko's statue in Washington), will never die. Imperialism, which leads to wars of conquest and the destruction of smaller peoples, will be defeated. This defeat will come sooner if imperial thinking, which justifies the domination of the strong over the weak, and acts of barbarity on the part of great powers in the name of "higher principles," will also be recognized for what it is, and finally abandoned.

The Chechens, like other small nations of this world, will take their rightful place as equal members of the international community.

Rereading Shevchenko's "Kavkaz" today confirms that it was timely in its day, remains so in the present, and will be relevant for the future. "Kavkaz" is a great anti-colonial poem that is timeless and deserves to be acknowledged as a world classic.

Bohdan Klid, Ph.D., works part-time at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and teaches world history at Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 5, 2000, No. 10, Vol. LXVIII

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