The UO Cover Cartoon for August portrays several individuals currently on the political scene in Ukraine. It's a humorous view of what they might be doing were they in Kyiv in the year 2020. The appearance is comical. Unfortunately they're a pretty comical lot in this year 2003. Taken together brings to mind the truism about there being a fine line between comedy and tragedy.
I frequently refer to Ukraine in writing preceded by the appellation "the new nation" as in "the new nation Ukraine" or sometimes just "the nation Ukraine" Why I do this I'm not quite sure. I believe I do this to put a point to somewhere...to gain currency on an idea that to me is sometimes illusory.
As a nation, this now 12-year old experiment is new. But, the idea is old. Centuries ago there was in existence an entity know as Kyivan Rus. Out of the peoples and tribes of that existence grew much: a more or less common language; lands that were sometimes together, sometimes not, always seemingly in flux; sometimes in small parts and at times absorbing, expanding, contracting, migrating; being much conquered, again in parts and sometimes the amoebic "whole", if whole is the right word; and never again being a whole and never a nation until the 20th century. Now only a nation declared and "lasting" in the year 1991.
And thus my "new nation Ukraine" borne from a need for description and out of historic confusion. As I try to grasp an understanding of this Ukraine I have to think and sort through: Eastern Ukraine, Western Ukraine, Galicia, Volhynia, Carpathia, Bukovyna, Crimea, Right Bank/Left Bank, Zaporozhian lands and much more. Then there is the history of the sometimes conquerors: Russia, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Lithuania (and what of now Belarus, Romania, the Czechs, the former Ottomans?). And the time periods and treaties, the religions, etc. And then the Cossacks, the Tatars, Lemkos, Hutsels and all. One must define in a time period the who and the why of the names: Rus, Rusyns, Ruthenians, Mallorossians, Cossacks and others.
But through it all somehow a people: the Ukrainians.
And a nation: Ukraine.
A people generally through time mostly poor, mostly oppressed, frequently enslaved, often brutally removed from their lands, a part and at times an object for extermination; millions killed in wars, by man-made famine, in forced labor and migration in the 20th century alone. Possibly no people over time more persecuted except perhaps for those Jewish (and it is estimated that 25-30 per cent exterminated by the Holocaust were Ukrainian).
A group of people united in disparate lands to begin as a whole for the first time in the 20th century. Wars of the 20th century brought Right Bank and Left Bank Ukraine together, and for the first time in centuries, Galicia in 1939. Crimea (Krim) an unexpected addition to curry Russification was added in 1954.
The unexpected and swift collapse of the Soviet Union brought opportunity. Ukraine (new nation Ukraine) became independent in 1991.
The unparalleled opportunity at birth fell upon a people unprepared. The con artists and the greedy and those with powers derived from places of authority in the prior association only were ready. They were prepared to steal, to control, to kill for their power and to obtain wealth. The people, used to authority and unfamiliar with liberty only stood by. For this there is blame to be assessed. But it's difficult to ascribe to whom.
Oh, it's clear that some of those now known as oligarchs, the "mafia", the former apparatchiks who saw opportunity and greedily took advantage of authority are at fault. But, as nature is said to abhor a vacuum, they merely succeeded by osmosis, but with much chicanery, fraud and a good deal of force and brutality.
Then there is much blame in my view with a world that stood mostly by watching. As in all matters these days it seems they did provide some money, some loans and some investment. But the people sent to help were the governments' usual staple of alphabet organizations, NGOs and others more interested in their own contracts and there own jobs. Smart businessmen of the world came too with investment plans. They came, they saw and they left; investment mostly intact. Those not so smart quickly were relieved of their own funds and had to leave. The mere opportunists, and their were many, came, some stayed but, all in all, they were mostly nuisance. A few multinationals with needed products to sell and a market came and mostly still prosper.
And the people watched. And the people suffered.
Maybe this sums up what the Ukrainian people are all about. The centuries of grief and suffering have left them passive. And ready and expecting and willing to endure and with proven capability to suffer. I hope not. I think not.
Back to those people pictured on the Cartoon Cover. Twenty years hence I doubt anyone will give a particular damn where they are or what they do. These "leaders" of today are very small people. They've stood for nothing; save perhaps avarice, corruption, abuse of power and a long list of other particulars that might be put in an indictment were they not, by grant to themselves, above the law. Were they to list there own major accomplishments then "staying alive" might top the list.
The days that group has spent contemplating the needs of the people have been few, if they've thought at all. The idea that their first priority is to represent the people would come as a shock. The time devoted to pension reform, hospitals, the whole medical delivery system, education, roads (that don't lead to their estates) and the like much less fair elections, civil liberties and the idea of a social compact with the people I doubt have been much. The people as nuisance probably is considered. Thus holidays, a few parks, some monuments, some malls, some airport and train rehab and glorification (all of which invariably puts considerable budget funds in discrete places).
So who represents the people? The answer for the year 2003 is nobody.
For the future it is the people's responsibility to find those who will represent them. Remaining passive will not do. Passiveness will lead to the lost of nationhood. It will mean suffering continued in new generations.
Collectively the people must act. Individually they must be responsible. The people must forget the "State". The "State" can do nothing for the people except enslave them and cause suffering. And the amorphous "State" can never be the new nation Ukraine.
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