2005: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: The Ukrainian diaspora: scattered near and far (01/15/06)

2005: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

The Ukrainian diaspora: scattered near and far

As many as 7 million Ukrainian citizens currently reside outside the borders of Ukraine. This statistic was presented during a 2004 discussion in Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada of a draft bill delineating a "Concept of a National Policy Regarding Ukrainians Abroad," which led to the creation of a national agency to handle migration-related matters. Signs of organized Ukrainian community life have been discerned among large numbers of legal and illegal immigrants from Ukraine in a dozen or so countries, including Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece. In fact, these immigrants, or temporary workers, are creating new Ukrainian diaspora communities, wrote Serge Cipko in the July 24 issue of The Ukrainian Weekly.

Following are some of the developments in the geographically expanding Ukrainian diaspora, as reported on the pages of The Weekly during 2005.

Early in the year, the British Ukrainian community suffered a loss when fire destroyed the Ukrainian cultural center in Manchester, England. There were no injuries, and no wrongdoing was reported regarding the cause of the February 2 fire. A community member reported that the assembly hall building was completely destroyed, but the original building that housed a social club and school rooms remained functional.

In May the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) issued a release on the 60th anniversary of the conclusion of World War II. It stated that, taking into account the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, any actual celebration was inappropriate. It was emphasized that May 9 should be an occasion for Ukrainians around the world to honor its martyrs and encouraged the UWC's membership to hold commemorative observances, liturgies and requiem services for those who "fought in different uniforms but with independent Ukraine in their hearts."

Among other projects in 2005, the UWC established a special Eastern Diaspora Fund in response to the many deficiencies brought to light by the presidential elections of 2005 in Ukrainian diaspora communities of Moldova, especially the separatist region of the Transdniester, and the Russian Federation. Although strict rules against election fraud had been instituted in Ukraine by the time of the December 26 election, they did not apply to polling stations in the diaspora, where foreign government influence and Russification are the norm, despite endeavors of Ukrainian community organizations like the Association of Ukrainians in Russia.

The UWC also said it will allocate monies from the Eastern Diaspora Fund to benefit Ukrainian diaspora projects in Moldova, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Coinciding with commemorations of the end of World War II in May, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, with the support of other Ukrainian organizations throughout the world, launched a campaign to establish an official Commission of Inquiry on Soviet War Crimes against Humanity in Ukraine. Participants from around the world mailed postcards to President Viktor Yushchenko demanding justice for extensive Soviet war crimes perpetrated in Ukraine. There was no response from the Yushchenko administration.

Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization made The Weekly's Ukrainian diaspora news twice in the past year. First came a report about summer camps held in December/January in the Patagonian Andes of Argentina. The second involved an ongoing struggle for Plast's membership in the Geneva-based World Organization of the Scouting Movement (WOSM).

Recognition by the WOSM would allow Plast to represent Ukraine as the nation's premier scouting organization in the world arena. Only one scouting organization from each nation is allowed to send delegates to its World Scout Conference, and WOSM was ready to designate SPOK (Spilka Pionerskykh Orhanizatzii Kyieva) as Ukraine's representative, despite objections from Ukraine's political and spiritual authorities.

Plast's credentials for membership in WSOM include an 84-year-old history in Ukraine, adherence to scouting principles set forth by scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell, and 10,000 members nationwide, encompassing Ukraine's diverse population. The WOSM announced that it had postponed its decision on which scouting organization will represent Ukraine.

On April 9-10 some 100 delegates representing 80 organizations from 46 Russian regions met in Moscow at the fourth Congress of the Association of Ukrainians in Russia to discuss past achievements and develop new plans. The congress acknowledged progress in the informational and cultural development of the Ukrainian diaspora in Russia, but expressed a need for professional support for its activities in order to become a stronger public association. Separate committees were proposed to deal with legal issues, education and language, mass media, religion, science, support of families and women, and business ties between Russian and Ukrainian entrepreneurs.

Regional representatives expressed frustration at the lack of legal grounds for their activities in Russia. The delegates also criticized Ukraine's state authorities for their lack of support of the diaspora and for their failure to realize the national program, "Foreign Ukrainians of 2005." The congress adopted resolutions for promoting its national-cultural program to the Russian government level and creating committees to head cultural activity, informational support, education, freedom of conscience, migration and legal issues, youth and sports events, business and veterans' issues.

In June it was reported that a monument to commemorate Ukrainian victims of the Soviet regime had been completed and erected in the town of Sandarmokh in the far northern Karelia region of Russia. Larysa Skrypnykova, leader of the Kalyna Association of Ukrainian Culture thanked all Ukrainians from the United States, Canada and Ukraine who personally donated funds for the creation of the monument and acknowledged Nadia Svitlychna and Bohdan Fedorak in particular for their efforts. It was also reported that some of the first donations for this monument came from then National Deputy and now President Yushchenko and Veniamin Trokhymenko, son of a Sandarmokh victim.

In July a project team backed by President Yushchenko enlisted the help of the Australian Ukrainian community in developing ways of marketing Ukraine to Western nations. Stefan Romaniw, chairman of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations (AFUO) agreed to help develop a 15-part documentary series aimed at providing insight into Ukraine's social and economic strengths, as well as President Yushchenko's new direction for Ukraine. Mr. Romaniw said he also intended to monitor activities that promote Australia-Ukraine relations, streamline business activity between the two nations via the Ukraine-Australia, House in Kyiv, promote new skilled migration opportunities for Ukrainians who can fill employment voids in Australia and sign a new agreement between Monash and Lviv universities.

An annual meeting of the Ukrainian World Congress, led by President Askold Lozynskyj, took place in August in Kharkiv with 14 countries represented, including leaders from new Ukrainian communities in Italy, Spain and Portugal. According to Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) President Michael Sawkiw Jr., newer diaspora communities had the opportunity to get advice from established ones.

The UWC issued a memorandum to President Yushchenko, with whom they had a special meeting, and discussed the main points with Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn. At the top of their agenda, the UWC asked the Ukrainian government to recognize the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists - Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The UWC also stated that Ukraine must make voting more accessible to the more than 5 million Ukrainian citizens living and working outside Ukraine by increasing the number of voting precincts abroad. Another issue raised was the UWC's dissatisfaction with the government's efforts at linguistic and cultural "Ukrainianization" efforts.

Other topics discussed were the center to assist Ukrainians abroad established by Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Ministry, the World Forum of Ukrainians that was to be held November and the March 2006 parliamentary elections.

During their stay in Ukraine, Ukrainian World Congress officials also met with Ukraine's political and religious leaders, including Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk and Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate. UWC President Lozynskyj also had opportunities to meet briefly with Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and all Ukraine Yakov Bleich.

In the fall, the chairman of the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council, Mykhailo Horyn, reported that the fourth World Forum of Ukrainians had been postponed once again. He said a non-scheduled session of the UWCC Presidium, which was convened in mid-November had passed such a decision. At first, the fourth World Forum of Ukrainians was to be held on August 24, 2004, but was postponed until November 2005. Now, it was postponed again - this time to August 19-23, 2006.

Chairman of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists Mykola Plawiuk, Secretary General of the World Congress of Ukrainians Viktor Pedenko, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Foreign Affairs Ihor Ostash, Chairman of the all-Ukrainian Association Congress of the Civil Society Borys Kozhyn and Chairman of the European Congress of Ukrainians Yaroslava Khortiani were the initiators of the press conference. They explained that the decision to postpone the forum was due to the change of the political regime in Ukraine, the difficulties of the new administration and, thus, the unavailability of state bodies and world Ukrainian public organizations to stage such a large-scale event.

In September The Weekly reported on the growth of credit unions in Ukraine, noting that although membership was increasing, credit unions still relied heavily upon support from the Ukrainian diaspora. The credit unions in Ukraine number 711 with more than 942,000 members. About 20 percent of these credit unions belong to the National Association of Credit Unions in Ukraine (NACUU), which in the next five years hopes to obtain official government status as a self-regulatory organization, change the law to allow credit unions to expand their services, install a new computer program and introduce electronic payment systems with plastic cards.

Two months later, Mykhailo Parypsa, head of the Association of Ukrainians in Kazakhstan, visited Washington at the invitation of the Council on Defense and Assistance to Ukrainians of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA). Mr. Parypsa informed Ukrainian Americans about the community life of Ukrainians in Kazakhstan and thanked Americans for their moral and financial support in constructing Ukrainian churches in Pavlodar and Astana, as well as opening a Ukrainian school and civic center in Kazakhstan.

Mr. Parypsa expressed satisfaction about the Ukrainian government's decision to make the Foreign Affairs Ministry responsible for contacts and cooperation with Ukrainians abroad. He said he believed this would facilitate the establishment of close cooperation between the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian diaspora. Mr. Parypsa also outlined a few possibilities for Ukraine's assistance to the Kazakh community, among which was the creation of a museum dedicated to former political prisoners in the USSR.

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