EDITORIAL

Ten years ago: a landmark hearing

Ten years ago, in the wake of Ukraine's Declaration on State Sovereignty, the Subcommittee on European Affairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on "Soviet Disunion and the Growing Nationalities Problem."

The meeting occurred at a point in history when the Soviet Union was changing almost daily, when constituent republics, as well as the Baltic states - which the United States never recognized as part of the USSR - were asserting their separateness and even independence from Moscow. In fact, by the end of 1990 all Soviet republics had declared their sovereignty, while Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia had proclaimed their independence.

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware convened the July 24 hearing by noting that this was the first congressional hearing on the break-up of the Soviet Union. He went on to state that the "principle of self-determination is the most dynamic force" in the world today. Indeed, the top witness at the hearing, Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor in the Carter administration, urged the United States to base its policy on support for democratic self-determination.

Dr. Brzezinski said the nationalities issue - which he characterized as "the most central to the Soviet Union" - had been neglected over the years in policy as well as in scholarship. He predicted that the "existence of the Soviet Union is doomed ... and [the USSR] will probably cease to exist as we know it in a few years. ... Even Russified republics such as Byelorussia and Ukraine have asserted themselves." Stating that "imperial Russia cannot be a democratic Russia, and a democratic Russia cannot be an imperial Russia," he pointed out that "democracy and self-determination are tied together."

He explained that "the current [Soviet] system is based on coercion" and that "the only force for maintenance of the Soviet Union would be based on Russian nationalism, which would result in intensification of national conflicts and a non-democratic system." Thus, he argued, U.S. policy should be "to encourage democracy from the top down by helping [Mikhail] Gorbachev, but not exclusively, and to encourage democracy from the bottom up." Dr. Brzezinski asserted that "if Gorbachev's goal is serious and sincere, then it means pluralism and self-determination. This means, not guided democracy from the top down, but true democracy, which is spontaneous."

In expounding on what U.S. support means, he stated that the United States should: deal with Gorbachev directly, but also help mayors of democratic majorities in key cities; deal with leaders of Soviet republics engaged in internal democratization; support movements on the republic/national level which are democratic and seek self-determination; and channel economic assistance to republic levels, "particularly to those asserting sovereignty of their laws." U.S. policy "should support democratic self-determination of the peoples inhabiting the Soviet Union and allow them to determine their relationship," he underscored.

The Weekly's editorial in reaction to this historic hearing was headlined "Self-determination, at last." Self-determination - a policy this paper had supported since its founding in 1933 - had suddenly taken center stage and it became obvious that promoting the realization of the right to self-determination was the only logical move.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 23, 2000, No. 30, Vol. LXVIII

| Home Page |