THE THINGS WE DO...: A never-ending story, or why we still need to do what we do (08/20/06)

THE THINGS WE DO...

by Orysia Paszczak Tracz

A never-ending story, or why we still need to do what we do

Remember the late 1950-mid-1960s? Remember registering to study political science and Russian at college? (Ukrainian was not offered at the time.) We were going to free Ukraine, or at least strive our damnedest to get close to that goal for our parents and for ourselves.

We were also the ones who made presentations about Ukraine in our grade schools and high schools, and explained - whether they wanted to hear it or not - that Ukraine was not Russia; no, we are not Russians; yes, we are Europeans, and a separate nation even though we are part of the USSR ... (And we were the only ones in school who had the excuse notes for being absent on January 6 and 7.)

We did this willingly, on our own, with a zeal that surprised even our parents. They were still afraid of "them." We were not. And I doubt that most of us were consciously indoctrinated with that Ukrainian patriotism. I think we got it through osmosis. We felt the pride, and the pain, and the sorrow.

I am saying "we" because I do not think that I was the only one feeling and thinking like this. I do not know how many of "us" there were, but I am sure that the number of Ukrainian Canadians and Ukrainian Americans active in Ukrainian life over the past half-century indicates that there were more than a few.

And our children and grandchildren, born and nurtured on North American soil, are dually patriotic, fiercely American or Canadian, and at the same time, very Ukrainian - and see no problem in this at all.

This voluntary patriotism is not limited to the post-World War II, DP (displaced persons) generation. Those refugees arrived to the welcoming arms and homes of the Ukrainians already established on the new continent for almost a century. The churches, schools, associations, publications and cultural institutions were here already. The newcomers joined in, or created new ones, and sometimes, regrettably, caused rifts in the old ones.

The early pioneers who were not planning to return to Ukraine were still patriotic Ukrainians while integrating into Canadian and American society. The later immigrations owe them a great debt. The many "born-again Ukrainians" are from those earlier generations, just as fiercely patriotic, often learning the Ukrainian their parents had forgotten or tried to hide in order to blend into whatever they thought the establishment was.

After hoping against hope for a free Ukraine for so many decades - lifetimes even - and not fully imagining how this would come about, the Orange Revolution caught most of us by surprise. A brilliant, joyful, God-bless-'em surprise. So many of us helped in whatever way we could. And now the let-down after the euphoria. What in the world is going on with the leaders there? They promised! How easy for us here - and there - to expect instant democracy, instant good order. After what Ukrainians have gone through in just the 20th century, they'll just roll with the punches over the few steps back mixed in with the steps forward.

The major problem is overcoming the influence of the insatiable neighbor to the north, and his fifth column within Ukraine. No wonder the "yanychary" (native Ukrainian traitors of Ukraine) word is so appropriate now. The Russian imperialist mind-set has permeated so deeply into Ukrainian life in the past century that its influence will not be easy to eradicate. One obvious and ugly example is the prominence of the Russian language, thought to be more "prestigious" than Ukrainian (which, in the late 19th century was declared not to have existed and will not exist). How much and how long will it take for young Ukrainians to realize and accept the beauty and originality of their own language?

The fifth column of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine is a ticking time bomb. Two titles covering this scary subject are: "Litos" by Halyna Mohylnytska (Brovary: Ukrainska Ideya, 2005. ISBN 969-7958-01-9) and "The Mitrokhin Archives," I and II by Christopher Andrew (London: Allen Lane, 1999 and 2005. ISBN 0713993588 and 0713993596).

Soon after August 24, 1991, I began hearing what I deem a Ukrainian urban legend, because I never heard anyone actually say it, but only as something heard from someone else. It did not make sense. Since Ukraine was now independent, there was no need anymore for those outside Ukraine to continue "being Ukrainian."

The discussion even made it into a mystery book by Canadian writer Paul Grescoe, of the prolific and talented Grescoe writing family, in the Dan Rudnicki mystery "Blood Vessel" (Toronto: McLelland and Stewart, 1994; paperback; 1993 hardcover):

"I figure there are Ukrainian North Americans like you and me, then there are Ukrainians who happen to live in North America. And it's all those professional Ukrainians who have been trying to preserve the old ways - because they thought their heritage was being lost back in the homeland. So now that Russia has loosened its grip on Ukraine, the Ukrainians here don't have to preserve their identity so defiantly."

"Wrong. Do you know how many Ukrainians over here are trying to help them over there as they struggle through independence? For the first time, they can travel freely back and forth. And every time we send aid, or set up joint ventures, the ties between us and them keep growing - and so does our sense of Ukrainian-ness. Anyway, don't lump me in with you as one of those wimpy Ukrainian North Americans. I'm proud of being Ukrainian."

"Professional Ukrainians" - that term comes up often, not necessarily in a positive light. No, these are not Ukrainians who happen to be professionals, but those few who use their Ukrainian-ness for personal gain, not for the greater good - somehow their Ukrainian soul is missing. Now, a person can advance on talent and ambition - more power to him or her - but when people around sense that the community is being used, well, that is different. They are Ukrainians of convenience. Then there are the prominent writers, artists and academics who seem to be unhappy being of Ukrainian origin, and yet return to Ukrainian themes in their works, often in a negative light. The half-empty glass they bring to the public eye contains the unseemly aspects of Ukrainian life and history, so often viewed through the prism not of historical accuracy and good research, but through sources not objective to Ukrainian matters.

Of course, there is the negative in any family, group or nation. But what makes some people concentrate and select specifically the crud from under the few rocks there are? Are they so unhappy with themselves and their lives, or just don't know any better, or want to endear themselves to the mainstream? For example, one writer goes searching for her father's family in Ukraine, and tries to find out if there was any anti-Semitic activity during the war, because there probably would have been. Instead of concentrating on her father's experiences of survival during the war, she looks for what possibly might have been - because that is what she supposes.

From the west, there is the other former imperial neighbor, Poland. While official diplomatic relations are polite and good, there is still that undercurrent of anti-Ukrainianism, and the defamation of Ukrainians as cruel and bloodthirsty. The few Volyn villages where the Polish residents were victims of "cleansing" during and after World War II get much publicity. Yes, this action was cruel, and it and similar incidents should not have happened. What is ignored by these accusers is the whole history of western Ukraine under Polish occupation over the centuries - serfdom, "Pacification," Akcja Wisla. Talk about cruelty and bloodthirst. And all on Ukrainian land.

Action causes reaction, and revenge is cruel. Sometimes Ukrainians are too gentle in reminding the world who invaded, occupied and persecuted whom. If one stopped to compare cruelty of actions over the centuries ...

Ukraine is now independent. No matter what happens with the Verkhovna Rada, the politicians and the yanychary, there is no going back. Ukrainians will progress, will learn, will figure out how to be themselves.

As for us outside of Ukraine, we cannot let that urban legend persist. There is still so much to do, the way we have always done. In academia, we have to win back Ukraine's prehistory and history - there should not be any books today about archaeological work on the plains of "southern Russia," on Byzantium and "medieval Russia," on trade of "Kievan Russia" and Western Europe.

And speaking of "Kievan" - not only do we need to eradicate the Russian transliteration of Ukrainian place names in the media (oh, what a battle - and yet Mumbai and Beijing were so easy to change instantly), we still have a few of our own that need to be convinced to change. Also, the establishment in Ukraine needs to get its act together about the correct transliteration from Ukrainian. Official documents are still all over the place on this. A small matter, you may say? Not that small - it is a matter of pride and national identity.

The prize-winning highly acclaimed "Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World" by Margaret MacMillan barely mentions Ukraine or Ukrainians, and only in relation to the Poles in western Ukraine at the time. The index has: "Ukraine: capital of, 227; Polish history of, 211, 215-216. Ukrainians: Catholic vs. Orthodox, 225; nationalism of, 71, 225-226; Polish conflicts with, 215, 217, 227, 228." Surely there was more to Ukrainian history in 1919 than that.

There are still books on genocide in the 20th century that do not mention the Holodomor at all. And some books on Stalin's reign do not cover the terror of the 1930s in Ukraine.

If the events since 1991 had not happened, we would have continued promoting the Ukrainian cause in our own ways. Independence and the Orange Revolution happened before our eyes, and we pray that present events do not let matters slip back to where they were before. Our compatriots in Ukraine must see to that. We just have to continue doing more fervently what we have always done, helping from afar.

In a recent e-mail to a friend in Kyiv, I wrote tongue-in-cheek, "Ukraina sche ye?" (Is Ukraine still there?) He replied: "Ukrayina ye i bude, bo natsiyu trymaie v istoriyi schos' mitsnishe za polityku i politykaniv ... Tozh, Ukrayina i Ukrayintsi ye" (Ukraine is and will be, because the nation is held in history by something stronger than politics and politicians ... So, Ukraine and Ukrainians are!)

Let us pray that more and more Ukrainians think likewise.

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