The Ukrainian Weekly 2011-06

8/7/2019 The Ukrainian Weekly 2011-06

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Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association

$1/$2 in UkraineVol. LXXIX No. 6 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2011TheUkrainianWeekly

InsIde:

Taras Kuzio on Ukraines vicious cycle page 2. Commentary: Canadian Museum for Human Rights page 8. The UNAs 2010-2011 scholarship recipients special pullout section.

LOVING UKRAINE: Two poets collaborateon a book about their beloved homeland

by Zenon Zawada

Kyiv Press Bureau

Loving Ukraine: This is the first

article in a series in which TheUkrainian Weekly highlights Ukrainians

doing something positive for Ukraine.

KYIV Myroslava Kapitanova, aHalychyna native who spent her adultlife in Kyiv, always had deep emotionsabout for her native Ukraine, but it wasonly after she immigrated to the U.S. inthe early 1990s that she was stirred to putthem in writing.

Kyiv native Victoria Ivchenko, 48,also had much on her mind, but it was

only in 1997 that she adopted theUkrainian language and unlocked hersouls depths in the process.

The two poets on either side of theAtlantic crossed paths on the KhaiVei(Highway) website, a forum forUkrainian writers and thinkers. Poetesses Myroslava Kapitanova (left) and Victoria Ivchenko expressed their

love for Ukraine by publishing a book of poetry, That Native Home inDreams in December 2010.

Zenon Zawada

(Continued on page 5)

by Zenon Zawada

Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV The Party of Regions plungedUkraine deeper into legal nihilism whenleading Parliament on February 2 to votein favor of parliamentary elections forOctober 2012, ignoring the provisions ofthe 1996 Constitution of Ukraine that arecurrently in effect and require the elec-tions to be held this year.

There was even more cause for alarm,as opposition deputies alleged that theparliamentary coalition also widelybelieved to have been formed illegally falsified the February 2 vote by castingballots on behalf of several deputies whowerent in Parliament and didnt givetheir voting cards to anyone.

The vote was held strictly out of politi-cal expediency, experts said. TheUkrainian government is currently pursu-ing social and economic policies that arewidely unpopular, and an election thisyear could have resulted in the pro-West-ern opposition retaking control of theVerkhovna Rada.

A strong degradation of Parliament isoccurring, Ukrainian BarometerSociology Service Director ViktorNebozhenko told the UNIAN news wire.The Verkhovna Radas voting reflectstheir fear of losing their seats.

Indeed the parliamentary electionswere supposed to be held on March 27 ofthis year based on the 1996 Constitution.

What made the vote particularly outra-geous, from a legal viewpoint, was thatthe Constitutional Court had ruled onSeptember 30, 2010, that the 2004Constitution was invalid, though it leftintact the five-year terms that nationaldeputies wanted.

So, the Parliament had to amend the1996 Constitution to cherry-pick thoseconditions of the 2004 Constitution that itfavored, namely terms of five years,instead of four. Meanwhile PresidentViktor Yanukovych widely expanded hisauthority with the cancellation of the2004 Constitution, most notably gainingthe power to nominate the prime minister.

President Yanukovych is widelybelieved to have ordered the Court to

cancel the 2004 Constitution in order togain the wide authority offered by the1996 Constitution. The Party of Regionsis essentially engaged in a game ofmanipulating any laws to its advantage,experts said.

If the 1996 Constitution is renewed,then all of its clauses are supposed to bein effect, Viktor Musiaka told theUNIAN news wire. He was among the

Verkhovna Rada amends Constitution

to push back parliamentary elections


by Zenon Zawada

Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV The Ukrainian government for-bid former Prime Minister YuliaTymoshenko to travel to Brussels on aninvitation to meet with European Unionleaders, igniting sharp international criticismof the administration of Viktor Yanukovychand dealing Ukraine the latest blow to itsinternational image.

European Parliament President JerzyBuzek was disappointed to learn that hewont have the possibility to meet with Ms.Tymoshenko, European Parliament Press

Secretary Robert Golanski told the Interfax-Ukraine news service.He was ready to meet with her during

her time in Brussels and discuss the situa-tion in Ukraine and the current state ofUkraine-EU relations in the context of herleadership of the largest opposition party,he added.

Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister CarlBildt called the ban unacceptable, whichwouldnt have been possible in anyEuropean country from the conditions I cantell.

The travel ban was imposed by theProcurator Generals Office of Ukraine,which stated that Ms. Tymoshenko wasneeded for further questioning that day. Theopposition leader has been called in forquestioning more than a dozen times duringthe last several months.

Experts said the Yanukovych administra-tion wants to send a message and is not theleast bit concerned about what Europethinks.

Pressuring the opposition and puttingfences around Tymoshenko is its overridingconcern, said Ivan Lozowy, president ofthe Institute of Statehood and Democracy in

Ukraine imposes travel banon former prime minister

Supporters of Batkivschyna party leader Yulia Tymoshenko picket theProcurator Generals Office on February 2, when the former prime minister was

once again called in for questioning in relation to criminal cases launched againsther under the Yanukovych administration.

Oleksandr Prokopenko/UNIAN

Kyiv. Looking bad and getting condemna-tion from European politicians is a tangen-tial issue that doesnt compete with theiroverriding concern.

It wasnt the only international embar-rassment for Ukraine during the past week.



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Ukrainians evacuated from Egypt

KYIV One hundred twenty-sevenUkrainians working for Ukraines state oiland gas company Naftohaz have been evac-uated from Egypt, according to UkrainianForeign Affairs Ministry spokesmanOleksander Dykusarov. He said that onJanuary 31 it was decided to evacuate thestaff of the national joint stock companyNaftohaz Ukrainy and the families of diplo-mats who are in Egypt. At 7:20 a.m. onFebruary 1, a Boeing-737 aircraft leased byNaftohaz was sent to Egypt to bringUkrainian citizens from Cairo. The aircraftis designed for 156 passengers. Mr.Dykusarov said that the Foreign AffairsMinistry had sent to Cairo two employeeswho speak the Arabic language in order toprovide maximum assistance to Ukrainiancitizens. He also said that the Embassywould continue to receive lists of citizenswishing to leave Egypt. As of the afternoonof January 31, about 50 people had contact-ed Ukraines diplomatic mission in Cairo.

Simultaneously, citizens in Egypt for tour-ism, mainly in the cities of Hurghada andSharm el-Sheikh, did not ask the Embassyof Ukraine for assist their early return home.Earlier, Ukraines Foreign Affairs Ministryhad strongly recommended that tour opera-tors take all measures and fully inform citi-zens of Ukraine who have purchased or planto purchase trips to Egypt about the minis-trys recommendation to refrain from thosetrips due to the unstable situation in thatcountry. (Ukrinform)

A pause in talks on Soviet property

KYIV Ukraine and Russia have pausednegotiations on the disputed property of theformer Soviet Union abroad, UkrainesAmbassador to Russia VolodymyrYelchenko said at a news conference inMoscow. The negotiations on the propertyhave recently come to a halt. Both sideshave assumed extreme positions, and, fail-ing to find a common language, we con-cluded for ourselves [I think the same con-clusion was made by the Russian side] thatit is necessary to take a pause and thinkabout what we should do with this matter,he said, according to February 1 newsreports. Mr. Yelchenko noted that some of

the negotiating positions had lost theirurgency. For example, Kyiv is no longerinterested in some facilities that Russia wasready to transfer to Ukraine in African coun-tries. Mr. Yelchenko said that it was alsonecessary to update the bilateral agreement

regulating the activities of diplomatic mis-sions, which will help improve their work.We will return to this subject as soon as weunderstand that the parties have developednew approaches, he said. In May 2010, theRussian presidents managing director,Vladimir Kozhin, expressed hope thatUkraine would agree to transfer to Russiaall property of the former Soviet Unionabroad. Our position was and remainsunchanged: Russia assumed all the debts ofthe former Soviet republics, and paid themin full. And the entire property abroad wasalso transferred to Russia, he said.Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovychsaid later that he supported the division ofproperty of the former USSR among all ofits member-republics. Commenting on the

position of Russia, which defends its right toretain all the property of the former SovietUnion, he said: We currently see no solu-tion. We will never recognize that. Webelieve that it [the property] should bedivided among the [former Soviet] coun-tries. However, theres currently no mecha-nism of how this could be done.(Ukrinform)

Rada OKs amendments to Constitution

KYIV The Verkhovna Rada hasapproved amendments to the Constitution,setting the date of the next presidential andparliamentary elections. The bill to amendthe Constitution was supported by 310members of Parliament. The Rada plannedto consider the bill in its second reading at

the plenary session on February 3. However,given the high turnout, it was decided toconsider the issue on February 1. OnNovember 19, 2010, the ConstitutionalCourt of Ukraine had ruled constitutionalthe holding of parliamentary elections inOctober 2012. The same day, Parliamentapproved preliminary changes to theConstitution, establishing the date of thenext elections to Parliament as October


ANALYSIS

A typographical error in a headline inthe print edition of our newspaper(January 30) misstated the amount of thedonation made by the Trenton, N.J.,branch of the Ukrainian American YouthAssociation for the Capital ImprovementProject Campaign at the UAYA camp-ground in Ellenville, N.Y. The correct

amount $100,000 did, however,appear in all other instances in the storyand the photo caption.

The photo accompanying the storyConductor Kirill Karabits debuts withNational Symphony Orchestra (January30) should have been credited toEmbassy of Ukraine (not Yaro Bihun asnoted).

Corrections

by Taras Kuzio

In the last 100 years, Ukraine hasexperienced three cycles of national re-birth and democratization followed one a c h o c c a s i o n b y c o n s e r v a t i v e

Russophile counter-revolution.Ukrainians were deluded into thinking

that the cycle had run its course in 1991when the Communist Party of Ukraine(CPU) was banned, as the party had bythen shrunk to a small coterie of imperi-al Communists who supported theAugust 1991 putsch in Moscow. But theywere sadly mistaken.

Although only 5 percent of its Soviet-era 3.5 million members re-joined the re-legalized CPU after 1993, a more seriousthreat emerged eight years later in theform of the Party of Regions. The CPUand the Party of Regions have both inher-ited the Russophile, conservative impe-rial Communist ideological wing of theSoviet CPU.

As we approach the anniversary of twodecades of Ukrainian independence, it isthe Party of Regions that is Ukrainesmost disciplined, best financed and mostorganized political force in Ukraine.

While national democrats are fractur-ing into ever more political parties andunable to unite, the Party of Regions hassuccessfully merged with four formerpro-Kuchma parties and attracted,through various means, many defectorsfrom the senior ranks of the opposition,including some who voluntarily defected,such as Taras Chornovil and SerhiyHolovaty.

Is it Ukraines fate, therefore, to expe-rience repeated cycles of national rebirth-democratization followed by conserva-tive, Russophile counter-revolution? Letus hope not.

From the 1920s until the early 1930s,Ukraine experienced indigenization andUkrainianization that facilitated a nation-al revival in culture, the arts and drama.Ukrainian peasants moving to the grow-ing towns were becoming the newUkrainian-speaking working class.Na t i o n a l Co m m u n i s t s d e f e n d e dUkraines Ukrainianization program andsovereignty. Ukrainianization wasaccompanied by political and economicliberalization.

If permitted to continue easternUkraines urban centers would have

Ukraine must break vicious cyclebecome Ukrainian-speaking and the lasttwo decades would have seen a differentpolitical class emerge in independentUkraine. In 2004 all of Ukraine wouldhave supported the Orange Revolution

not just western and central Ukraine.The tragedy is that Ukraines Russianspeakers and Russian minority havevoted for counter-revolutionary politicalforces, whether the CPU in the 1990s orViktor Yanukovych and the Party ofRegions since 2004. In Eastern Europe,national minorities have supported demo-cratic revolutions against autocrats andstrongly backed their countrys integra-tion into Europe; in Ukraine they havedone the opposite.

From the early 1930s until the mid1950s, the height of Stalinism wasaccompanied by a massive counter-revo-lution against everything Ukrainian, withthe teaching of history returning to theglorification of imperial Russia. TheStalinist counter-revolution began withthe Holodomor (Famine-Genocide) thatled to the deaths of between 3.5 millionand 4 million Ukrainians in 1933.

Timothy Snyders excellent new bookBloodlands calculates that 5.5 millionpeople died from famine in the USSR, ofwhom 3.5 million were Ukrainian and 1million were Kazakhs; Russians were in adecided minority. In addition, Prof.Snyder points out that Ukrainians andPoles living in Ukraine represented themajority of the victims in the GreatTerror.

In the mid-1950s, Ukraine experiencedits second cycle following the death ofJoseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchevssecret speech revealing the horrors ofStalins crimes leading to de-Stalinization

accompanied by political and economicliberalization. Ukrainian cultural, and tosome extent political, elites supported thede-Stalinization campaign and pushedpowerful demands for a change to themanner in which history is written, therehabilitation of countless murderedUkrainian cultural figures and greaterrepublican sovereignty.

Petro Shelest, who headed the CPUfrom 1963 until 1972, gave tacit encour-agement to the de-Stalinization processa n d m o d e r a t e p r o g r a m o f Ukrainianization, advising Ukrainianwriters that they should defend theUkrainian language.

Shelest, who came from Kharkiv thecenter of Ukrainian national Communism

in the 1920s encouraged and distributedto local party branches the hugely influ-e n t i a l I n t e r n a t i o n a l i s m o rRussification? text written by IvanDzyuba (today a fierce critic of Ministerof Education Dmytro Tabachnyk).

The forces of Russophile counter-revo-lution were not asleep and operatedthrough the KGB and two large regionalbranches of the Communist Party thatwere the bastions of conservatism Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk.

In the mid 1960s and early 1970s,Ukraine was engulfed by large-scalearrests of Ukrainian dissidents and cultur-al figures; the 1972 arrests were the larg-est to take place in the USSR since theStalin era and were described by the sam-

vydav (self-published) journal UkrainskyiVisnyk (Ukrainian Herald) as theUkrainian pogrom.

Most importantly, Ukraines rulingelites under three presidents (LeonidKravchuk, Leonid Kuchma and Mr.Yanukovych) began their careers duringthe era of stagnation under VolodymyrShcherbytsky and Leonid Brezhnev.


Taras Kuzio is an Austrian MarshallPlan Foundation visiting fellow, Center

for Transatlant ic Relat ions , Schoo l ofAdvanced International Studies, JohnsHopkins University, Washington. Thearticle is a shortened draft of the intro-duction to his forthcoming book AContemporary History of Ukraine.


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3THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2011No. 6

RFE/RL

A senior U.S. State Department officialsays the United States will strengthenexisting sanctions against Belarus andincrease its financial support for the coun-trys beleaguered civil society sector inresponse to Minsks crackdown on democ-racy activists.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State PhilipGordon, who outlined the new steps at aJanuary 27 hearing of the Senate ForeignRelations Committee, said the sanctionswill ban U.S. companies and individuals

from doing business with two subsidiariesof the Belarusian state oil and chemicalconglomerate Belneftekhim.

The company is considered key toPresident Alyaksandr Lukashenkas finan-cial control of the country.

The U.S. assets of the subsidiaries,Lakokraska and Polotsk Steklovolokno,were frozen under sanctions imposed in2007, but that restriction was suspendedthe following year.

Mr. Gordon also said the United Stateswill expand an existing travel ban on gov-ernment officials and impose additionalfinancial sanctions against individuals andentities.

Along with taking punitive measuresagainst Minsk, Mr. Gordon said the United

States will expand by nearly $3 million itsfinancial support for the democraticactors and the victims of repression.

Last year the United States provided$11 million in assistance towards support-ing civil society, access to information andpolitical competition, and providingopportunities for more interaction betweenBelarusian citizens and the outside world.In response to the recent events [inBelarus] we will increase such assistanceby nearly 30 percent this year, he said.

Responding to the crackdown

The U.S. measures follow condemna-tion from Washington and Western alliesof the Belarusian authorities brutal crack-down on protesters following the disputed

December 19, 2010, presidential election.More than 600 people were arrested in

December during protest rallies in Minsk,including seven of the nine oppositioncandida tes running aga ins t Mr .Lukashenka, who has held a 16-year gripon power.

Official results said the man describedas Europes last dictator won by nearly80 percent of the vote, amid allegations of

widespread fraud.Thomas Melia, the deputy assistant sec-

retary of state in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, tes-tified alongside Mr. Gordon at the Senatehearing and said he informed Belarusianofficials about the new sanctions during atrip to Minsk earlier this week.

I returned on Tuesday less than 48hours ago from Minsk, where I went atthe behest of Secretar [of State Hillary]Clinton to deliver a strong message to thegovernment about the mounting outrage in

the international community and the immi-nence of a sharp reply, which I did in aface-to-face meeting at the foreign minis-try with ashen-faced officials who realizedthat their hopes of rapprochement with theinternational community are going up insmoke before their very eyes, said Mr.Melia.

Mr. Lukashenka, however, has reacteddefiantly to the threat of new sanctions athreat that comes from Brussels as well.

Referring to a possible European Unionvisa ban against him and other top govern-ment officials, the Belarusian presidentaddressed European lawmakers from thecountrys Parliament on January 27. Youhave frightened me with sanctions, withtaking away visas. May God be with you,he said. Ive already lived with visarestrictions for 10 years [and] Im stillalive and well.

Mr. Gordon suggested that the strength-ened U.S. sanctions would be coordinatedwith an EU vote on its own sanctionsagainst Minsk, scheduled for January 31.[Editors note: The U.S. and the EUannounced sanctions against Belarus onJanuary 31.]

Stalinist tactics

U.S. sanctions against Belarus, whichwere originally imposed by PresidentGeorge W. Bush, came in the wake of Mr.Lukashenkas claim of victory in the 2006presidential elections, another vote thatWestern observers said was plagued byfraud and was followed by a crackdownon the opposition.

Those measures froze the property andfinancial assets in the United States ofsenior Belarusian government officials,including Mr. Lukashenka, and U.S. com-panies and individuals were barred fromengaging in transactions with the targetedpersons.

U.S. says it will expandsanctions against Belarus


Embrace the instability, by Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post,January 31, 2011:

In 1991, when Ukraine was about to declare its independence from theSoviet Union, President George H.W. Bush made a declaration (this was theinfamous Chicken Kiev speech) in praise of the Soviet Union. For years, heand his advisers ran around Eastern Europe and the Balkans doing duct-tapediplomacy, trying to piece together again a fracturing world.

Politicians like stability. Bankers like stability. But the stability we have solong embraced in the Arab world wasnt really stability. It was repression. Thedictators we have supported, or anyway tolerated the Zine el-Abidine Ben Alis,the Hosni Mubaraks, the various kings and princes have stayed in power bypreventing economic development, silencing free speech, keeping tight controlof education and above all by stamping down hard on anything resembling civilsociety.

For the past decade, successive American administrations have sometimes

paid lip service to democracy and freedom of speech in the Arab world. SomeAmerican organizations, official and unofficial the National Endowment forDemocracy comes to mind have supported independent human rights activistsin Egypt and elsewhere. But to American presidents and secretaries of state ofboth political parties, other issues oil, Israel and then the war on terrorism always seemed more important.

We should speak directly to the Egyptian public, not only to its leaders.We should congratulate Egyptians for having the courage to take to the streets.We should smile and embrace instability. And we should rejoice becausechange, in repressive societies, is good.

Quotable notes

WINDOW ON EURASIA

Moscow has fewer levers in post-Soviet space than many assumeby Paul Goble

While Russias influence as a countryon Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova is verylarge, Moscow as a government has farfewer levers to influence the situation in

these countries than many assume animbalance that helps to explain the ofteninternally inconsistent pattern of relationsbetween the former imperial center andthese new states.

In a January 30 analysis of the rela-tions between Moscow and what he calls Ea s t e r n m o s t Eu r o p e , Va l e r yBondarenko argues that Russia and theKremlin are hardly one and the samething. Instead, he suggests, Russia writlarge has great influence, but Moscowlacks many of the levers on the regimesthere that others have (www.imperiya.by/authorsanalytics19-9073.html).

Easternmost Europe, Mr. Bondarenkoargues, is characterized by a number ofspecial features. Its main distinguishingfactor is the very high degree of depen-dence on the national leaders. A secondis that the stabilization of the eastern

border of the European Union has some-what limited [their] possibilities for geo-political maneuver.

A third characteristic is the very highlevel of the influence of Russia on this

region, influence that has grown as aresult of the stabilization of the EuropeanUnions eastern border but that only inthe past year or two has been more orless actively controlled by the powersthat be in Moscow.

A fourth characteristic the one that isseldom noted is that while the level ofinfluence of Russia is very high in thisregion, the possibilities (e.g., financial)and non-economic means and abilities forpromoting this influence are quite limited

or more precisely not developed.Today, Mr. Bondarenko points out,

Russia in its near abroad is representedonly by embassies [and consulates] and,for example, in practice does not supportany non-governmental organizations(NGOs) and does not have any structures,

foundations, or programs like theEuropean TACIS, TEMPUS, FARE,Euro-Regions and the like.

Indeed, he continues, in this regard,the U.S. is also represented, defends andadvances its interests with more devel-oped means, techniques and methodsthan does Moscow. As a result, the geo-politics of the European Union and theUnited States is more active and directedat the establishment of optimal institu-tional structures for promoting its influ-ence.

By means of these structures direct orindirect support of specific individuals(the non-governmental press, indepen-dent journalists, NGOs and leaders of theopposition) is provided, an arrangement

that promotes the influence of those whoprovide such help and something thatforms public opinion in these countries.

As of now, Russia does not have suchstructures, Mr. Bondarenko notes, add-ing that why this is so is another ques-tion. And, as a result, today in the arse-nal of the Kremlin is only individualwork with leaders and Gazprom. Andof course, the Ministry of ForeignAffairs and occasionally other bureau-cracies with cross-border interests.

This lack of levers was complicateduntil recently by the lack of an integralpolicy for Easternmost Europe inMoscow. Now with the Customs Union

that is beginning to change, but withoutsuch a policy or doctrine, Moscow isonly reacting to certain events ratherthan attempting to control them.

And for that reason as well, Mr.

Bondarenko continues, one can say that,in the near abroad, there is a high level ofinfluence of Russia but not of theKremlin, a pattern that is just the reverseof the situation in the far abroad wherethe opinon of the Kremlin is comparablylarge and that of Russia as a whole notso.

In fact, he continues, the Kremlin canreally influence the geopolitical situationby means of Gazprom (the price for gas)and foreign trade policy as a whole.That is something serious, but it is alsoa stick with two ends and conse-quently, one should not exaggerate thelevel of seriousness it represents.

Related to this lack of a policy is thevery different importance Moscow gives

to its nearest neighbors compared to rela-tions with the United States and Europe.The latter are far more important in theminds of Moscow officials, but becauseof this the most complicated and con-flict-ridden relations Russia has todayare precisely with its nearest neighbors.

Lacking a policy and lacking the net-work of institutions that both the EU andthe U.S. have, the Kremlin in its geopo-litical influence to a great degree is ori-ented in the CIS as a whole on thepolitical support of particular individualsand not on the support of structures orprinciples.

Such an approach, Mr. Bondarenkoargues, is passive, without prospects andunreliable, if for no other reasons that

leaders do pass from the scene. But sup-porting a personality is much easier thanpursuing a broader policy. In EasternmostEurope, he says, Moscow thus finds itselfcompelled to deal almost exclusivelywith the country presidents.

And as a result, Russia can help anddoes help [them] but in fact it cannot oralmost cannot replace them even if thatdesire arises. Instead, Moscow can onlyoffer support, but this is not one and thesame thing. In many respects, therefore,Russias ability to affect things or workwith the opposition is extremely limit-ed, however much some may assumeotherwise.

Paul Goble is a long-time specialiston ethnic and religious questions in

Eurasia who has ser ved in vario uscapacities in the U.S. State Department,the Central Intelligence Agency and the

Interna tional Broadcas ting Bureau, aswell as at the Voice of America and

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liber ty andt h e C a r n e g i e E n d o w m e n t f o r

International Peace. Mr. Goble writes ablog called Window on Eurasia(http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/).This article above is reprinted with per-mission.


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BRANTFORD, Ontario Member ofthe Provincial Parliament (MPP) ofOntario Dave Levac on January 22 wasnamed a chevalier of the Ukrainian Orderof Merit by Dr. Ihor Ostash, Ukrainesambassador to Canada.

The order, one of Ukraines highesthonors, was awarded to Mr. Levac by theYushchenko administration for his workon increasing knowledge and awarenessof the Holodomor through his co-spon-sorship of the Holodomor MemorialDay Act, 2009.

I am extremely humbled by the honorpresented to me today, said Mr. Levac.The Holodomor was one of the 20thcenturys great horrors, where millionsstarved to death because of the cold indif-ference of a merciless tyrant. The peopleof Ukraine and people of Ukrainiandescent have worked long and hard forthis atrocity to be recognized for what itwas: genocide. It was important for me todo what I could to help them raise

Holodomor awareness across Ontario; Iam incredibly grateful to receive thisaward.

The Order of Merit is one of the high-est Ukrainian awards that originates fromthe Honorary Award of the President ofUkraine, the first decoration of indepen-dent Ukraine instituted in 1992. It isawarded to individuals for outstandingachievement in economics, science andculture, or military or the politicalspheres of activity.

With this award we would like todemonstrate our high appreciation ofMPP Dave Levacs involvement in the

recognition in Ontario of the Holodomor the Famine-G enoc ide in Ukraine of1932-1933, said Ambassador Ostash.

It is estimated that as many as 10 mil-lion people died as a result. TheHolodomor Memorial Day Act, 2009,

co-sponsored by MPP Levac, establishesthe fourth Saturday of every Novemberas Holodomor Memorial Day.

It is indeed an honor to congratulate,applaud and thank MPP Dave Levac forhis efforts in sponsoring Bill 147, and forhi s championing of Holodomorrecognition and genocide education. I amproud that Canada, and in particularOntario, took the lead in establishing theHolodomor Memorial Day on the fourthSaturday in each November, recognizingthe Holodomor as an act of genocide per-petrated by the Stalinist regime againstthe Ukrainian people. Most importantly,Bill 147 will help educate future genera-tions to condemn all acts of tyranny andproactively prevent them from ever hap-

pening again, commented ChrystynaBidiak, president of the League ofUkrainian Canadian Women.

Paul Grod, national president of theUkrainian Canadian Congress, stated:We congratulate MPP Dave Levac forbeing recognized by the Ukrainian Orderof Merit bestowed on him by the govern-ment of Ukraine. Mr. Levac has been astaunch supporter of human rights issuesand is a true friend of the UkrainianCanadian community. We would also liketo thank the members of the LegislativeAssembly of Ontario for their work to

Ontario Parliament member Levacreceives Ukrainian Order of Merit

TORONTO Representatives of theUkrainian Canadian Research andDocumentation Center (UCRDC) met onJanuary 20 with Dr. Clint Curle, a research-er at the Canadian Museum for HumanRights (CMHR). The museum is scheduledto open in 2013 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Dr. Curle, whose research responsibilitiesat the CMHR include the UkrainianFamine-Genocide of 1932-1933, asked tomeet with representatives of the UCRDC inorder to discuss with them the archivalmaterials and resources available at the cen-

ter about the Holodomor.According to the CMHRs website, The

Holodomor will be displayed permanentlyin the Mass Atrocity zone, immediatelyadjacent to the Holocaust zone. This zonewill feature detailed information on theHolodomor and many other mass atrocitiesthat have taken place worldwide

Dr. Frank Sysyn of the Canadian Instituteof Ukrainian Studies, who is a historicalconsultant to the UCRDC, presented the

UCRDC staffers meet with researcher

for Canadian Museum for Human Rights

At the Ukrainian Research and Documentation Center (from left) are: Dr. ClintCurle, Valentyna Kuryliw, Iroida Wynnyckyj, Prof. Frank Sysyn, Switlana

Medwicky and Orest Zakydalsky.

Bozhena Gembatiuk-Fedyna

President Yanukovych made several shame-ful remarks while attending the WorldEconomic Forum in late January. Mostnotably, he invited investors to visit Ukrainein the spring when the womens attire ismore revealing. (See Newsbriefs.)

Meanwhile, state prosecutors filed morecriminal charges against Ms. Tymoshenkoon January 27, this time for allegedly usingstate funds to buy 1,000 vehicles for hospi-tals on behalf of her 2010 presidential cam-paign.

The Procurator Generals Office (PGO)first filed criminal charges against her inDecember 2010 for illegally transferringcosts gained from sales of Kyoto Protocol

greenhouse gas quotas to Japanese corpora-tions in order to cover state pension debts.

European leaders have serious ques-tions on the criminal charges against Ms.Tymoshenko, Mr. Bildt said, which hedescribed as suspicious. He made his com-ments at the 50th anniversary celebration ofthe European Democrat StudentsAssociation in Brussels, which Ms.Tymoshenko was supposed to address too.

The newest criminal charges of abuse ofauthority involve 1,000 Opel Combo mini-vans that the Tymoshenko governmentbought from an Austrian firm in December2009 as part of a government program toimprove medical care in Ukraines villagesand rural areas.

The purchase occurred under numerous

suspicious conditions mini-vans wereselected instead of ambulances; they wereregistered with the State Customs Service asmedical vehicles instead of common vehi-cles; and they each bore the slogan pastedalong the sides, Tymoshenko GovernmentProgram just as the presidential campaignwas nearing its peak.

The PGO alleged the mini-vans werebought for $18,000 each 20 percent higher

than the market price and implying theft

of funds.The Tymoshenko government also

deprived the state budget of more than $1million in customs fees and $4.6 million invalue-added taxes, prosecutors said, as aresult of improperly registering the mini-vans as medical vehicles and therebyexempting them from the payments.

Moreover the state was left with an $18million debt with an Austrian firm for itemsthat cant be used for their stated purposesas ambulances, another violation of the law.

Ms. Tymoshenko denied any criminalviolations in an excusive interview with theUkrayinska Pravda website published onJanuary 28.

She said the Opel Combos are muchquicker than standard ambulances, which

was a necessary consideration for Ukrainesvast rural areas. As a result, hundreds ofthousands of lives were saved in the yearsince they were purchased, she claimed.

Medical institutions in villages aresometimes located 15 and 30 kilometers(between 9.3 and 18.6 miles) away fromsick people who need treatment, she said inthe interview. Villages dont have urbantransport. Sixty percent of village deaths arebecause a doctor cant reach the ill in time.Thats why ambulances werent bought, buttransportation that can get a doctor to thesick in villages in time.

As for the allegedly inflated prices paid,Ms. Tymoshenko told a January 28 pressconference that she bought the mini-vans at$18,750 each (12,500 euros), a price hergovernment negotiated down from $22,650

each (15,000 euros).Instead of such vehicles, the new presi-

dent bought himself a helicopter for 17 mil-lion euros ($23 million) only for the sake ofcomfortably flying to Mezhyhiria, she saidin the Pravda interview, referring to the stateresidential complex that Mr. Yanukovychhad allegedly privatized illegally for him-self.

I counted how many lives could have

been saved in villages if these 17 million

euros went towards buying vehicles forrural medicine, she added.

She said the decals, TymoshenkoGovernment Program, were bought withher campaigns money, not governmentfunds.

But its the decision to classify the OpelCombos as medically designated items inorder to avoid taxes that the former primeminister is having the most difficultydefending. She avoided the question duringthe January 28 press conference and thePravda interview on the same day.

At the time, in December 2009, theTymoshenko government was desperatelycash-strapped and couldnt afford to pay the$5.6 million in customs fees and value-add-ed tax for the ambulances, Ukrayinska

Pravda reported.Thats what likely motivated Ms.Tymoshenko to make the designation,though it was opposed by numerous statehealth officials, including Health MinisterVolodymyr Kniazevych, who told the primeminister during a December 8, 2009,Cabinet meeting that the vehicles cant bemedically designated.

Ms. Tymoshenko nevertheless appearedundaunted.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU),the procurator general and American audi-tors, and [Prime Minister] Mykola Azarovand [President] Viktor Yanukovych person-ally studied every paper I signed during thelast two years, each of my orders, all thedecisions reached by my government andall the state budget expenditures, Ms.

Tymoshenko told Ukrayinska Pavda.And all they could find after this titanic

and very expensive work is a payment froma single treasury account for a Pension Fundloan. So their audit is in essence a rehabilita-tive document as a summary of my two-year activity. I didnt steal factories,UkrTelekom, budget funds, Mezhyhiria, taxadministration vacation homes or mineraldeposits. This audit confirms this, she said.

In the prior week, the government target-

ed more of Ms. Tymoshenkos allies forarrest, including State Reserves Committeeformer acting Chair Vitalii Nikitin and for-mer Chair Mykhailo Pozhyvanov, who hasfled abroad.

Mr. Nikitin was arrested on February 1on charges of stealing more than $30 mil-lion from the state and imprisoned for twomonths. An international search warrant hasbeen issued for the arrest of Mr.Pozhyvanov, who was charged with thetheft of $4.4 million.

At least a dozen former officials whoserved in the Tymoshenko government aresitting in jail awaiting trial on criminalcharges, including former Internal AffairsMinister Yurii Lutsenko. Former Minister ofthe Economy Bohdan Danylyshyn was

granted political asylum by the CzechRepublic.

The Procurator Generals Office statedon January 31 that it has filed more than1,000 criminal charges against officials whoserved in the government of former PrimeMinister Tymoshenko.

A classic example is the companyBabusyni Retsepty (Grandmas Recipes),State Finances Inspection Chair PetroAndreyev told a January 31 Cabinet meet-ing. As soon as the State ReservesCommittee paid it $57 million for meat,which it claimed to have stored, this compa-ny dissolved within three days. Theresnothing left neither meat, nor money.

Even Ms. Tymoshenkos campaign spon-sors are being targeted.

Armed raiders attempted on February 2to reclaim a mansion in central Kyiv that isowned by industrial oligarch Serhiy Tarutaon behalf on unknown businessmen.

The exchange of gunfire in broad day-light between the raiders and the propertysguards that morning conjured flashbacks tothe violent 1990s, when oligarchic clansbattled on city streets for control of assetsand property.

(Continued from page 1)Ukraine imposes...

(Continued on page 5)(Continued on page 14)


5/24


Their mutual love for Ukraine and its people broughtthem to collaborate on a book of poetry, Ta RidnaDomivka u Sni (That Native Home in Dreams),which they self-published in December 2010. They present-ed their work to more than 40 supporters gathered at a Kyivcommunity center on December 4, 2010.

Very many Ukrainians live abroad, yet their soulsremain with those at home, Ms. Kapitanova said. This is

what befell upon us that we understood each other.Theres pain here and there for the lives of the people. Thatall spilled out in this book.

Few nations in the world take poetry as seriously as theUkrainians. While other nations boast of kings and warriorsas their national heroes, the enserfed bard Taras Shevchenkois Ukraines personified, historical icon.

Contemporary poets such as Ivan Drach and LinaKostenko still draw crowds of thousands of admirers, whoderive pleasure from sitting in an auditorium and allowingtheir lyricisms and messages to sink into their conscious-ness.

Writers such as Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky of the late 19thcentury and Vasyl Stus of the late 20th century inspired Ms.Kapitanova and Ivchenko.

On the books back cover, Ms. Kapitanova asks readersto consider Kotsiubynskys words, Life without poetry is acrime. Everyone understands this in his own way, as much

as poetry exists not only in literature.For years, Ms. Kapitanova had piles of notebooks withpoems stashed away in her Brooklyn apartment, waiting forthe right moment and person to help publish them.

It was on KhaiVei (http://h.ua) in 2007 that she cameacross Ms. Ivchenko, who shared her deepest concerns andlongings. Moreover, Ms. Ivchenko had already publishedtwo collections of poetry. They began serious work in 2010and wrote most of the collections 42 poems that year.

We complemented each other, Ms. Kapitanova said.She feels pain for Ukraine. I not only feel pain for Ukraine,but also for its people abroad and in Ukraine.

A graduate of Shevchenko National University in Kyiv,Ms. Ivchenko also had the literary skills to edit Ms.Kapitanovas poems, arrange them aesthetically and sharpentheir tone. Co-authorship resulted.

Through arranging, I was able to make the poetry moredistinguished, make distinct the idea of each poem and con-vey an idea to the reader, Ms. Ivchenko said. They began

Myroslava Kapitanova at the boook presentation.

Victoria Ivchenko recites her poetry.

Zenon Zawada

(Continued from page 1)

Two poets collaborate...

to shine beautifully, like diamonds. But most of all, I wantedto support her and provide spiritual strengthening.

Ms. Kapitanovas work inspired Ms. Ivchenko to pen herown poems, six of which appear in That Native Home inDreams

When Myroslava began to post them on the Internet,my own poems emerged, Ms. Ivchenko said. They alsosounded different. I touched Myroslavas life experienceand human spirit. Of course, my creativity was transformedand that was a great marvel.

Ms. Ivchenko is preparing to publish a work in February,Ya Mavka (I Am a Forest Nymph), consisting of two sec-tions of poetry and a fictional account based on the dramaLisova Pisnia (Forest Song) written by Lesia Ukrainka,the 19th century writer whom she credits with inspiring hercreative spirit.

Shes pursuing independent publishing, avoiding theWriters Union of Ukraine (created during the Stalin era),as well mainstream publishers, who indicated theyrenot interested in poetry with traditional themes of love,

family and nation.Were not allowed anywhere, Ms. Ivchenko said.

Were told we need postmodernism, something hot, some-thing dirty. Then well be published.

But bending values for commercial success isnt some-

thing that interests Ms. Ivchenko, who will continue to pur-sue her work through other channels.

Ms. Kapitanova, 62, doesnt expect a literary career, buthopes that Ms. Ivchenko will help publish the other worksthat remain in her notebooks, to share with those who willlisten.

At the December presentation, she choked up with tearsas she read her poem Call Your Mothers! before a crowdthat included her own two daughters, whom she hadnt seefor more than a decade until she was able to visit her nativeUkraine. Shes now a U.S. citizen. Ms. Ivchenko finishedreading for her.

Call your mothers more often, share your thoughts withthem; Our life is a short moment, which will pass well intoeternity for your mothers sake!

Those interested in ordering copies of Ta RidnaDomivka u Sni or the upcoming Ya Mavka, can con-tact Ms. Ivchenko at: [email protected]. She reads

and speaks English.

That Native Homein Dreams

by Victoria Ivchenko and Myroslava Kapitanova

When at times I dream of home

I recall my far-off land

Where I was destined to be born,

To see green paradise!I spent my childhood there,

And my adolescence flourished like a blossom

I nourished hope in my heart,

For the courage of a brave flight!

Forests boundlessly howled,

And the river slowly flowed

The fields boiled with wheat,

A secret path led on

To the wild will of the steppes,

And the spirit of a live moon

A wicked fate fell upon my land

This violin string still grieves my heart:

That native home in dreams

The transparent, invisible paradise

Appears to me often!

Happinessby Victoria Ivchenko

Its a complicated thing happiness:

Theres not enough for everyone

Its like Holy Communion,

Like sweet pie!

Some cut more for themselves,

And even cut a slice for a brother,

Blaming heavenly paradise

For a hellish, earthly lesson.

And someones destiny was stolen

Seized and cut offAnd for the free person theres free will,

There isnt judgment for him!

There is no happiness on earth,

One poet would say.

There is only holy will

And calm and free thought!

It spreads its wings,

And soars on high and low

In angelic white clothes

It brushes against godly vestments.

And some will lose their souls,

And some will save theirs

Yet scarier than Judgment Day

Is the uncertainty of a dark sign.

As if the soul is blinded, dreams,Searches for water in a desert,

And no cloud in the world

Will water its tracks.

Wake up, lost soul,

Throw away your burdens

The country the one, which is best

Welcomes its toiler!

My Pain Ukraineby Victoria Ivchenko and Myroslava Kapitanova

Ukraine, my nightingale,

I rush to you in my thoughts

My heart feels it seems like loneliness,

I pray for you, my land!

I bitterly cried in childhood:

Beads were lost with the necklace

How now to preserve my own peace?

I see your troubles, blue-eyed!

The evil forces grow even fiercer,

Hovering as hawks

Why in the once grain-producing Ukraine

Is there not enough bread even today?

Some bathe in silver and gold,

Some have nothing to eat!

current state of academic research on the Holodomor, andstressed Canadas leading international role in recognizingthe Holodomor as genocide.

Iroida Wynnyckyj, head archivist at the UCRDC, intro-duced Dr. Curle to the UCRDCs archival collection on theHolodomor. The UCRDC has been documenting theHolodomor since 1982.

Orest Zakydalsky, UCRDC Researcher, spoke about thecenters ongoing joint project with the Ukrainian CanadianCongress (UCC), Sharing the Story, which focuses on thecollection of Holodomor eyewitness testimony.

Valentina Kuryliw of the UCRDC Board of Directors,who chairs the UCC National Holodomor Education

Committee, spoke about the educational resources availableon the Holodomor, presented Dr. Curle with a HolodomorTeaching Kit and stressed the importance of using theHolodomor, a Communist-perpetrated genocide, as anexcellent teaching tool for the 21st century.

Switlana Medwicky, curator of the Barbed Wire

Solution exhibit, reviewed the resources available at theUCRDC on Canadas World War I internment ofUkrainians.

An open and frank discussion followed on how theHolodomor might best be presented at the CanadianMuseum for Human Rights.

Dr. Curle expressed his thanks to the UCRDC for mak-ing its extenstive research materials and archives availableto the museum, and said she looks forward to future cooper-ation.

(Continued from page 4)

UCRDC staffers meet...


6/24


Five years ago, on February 9, 2005, the Manitoba LiquorControl Commission (MLCC), responding to a complaint bythe Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association,announced that it would remove Crimean wines bearing an

image of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin from its shelves.The wines, 1998 vintage port and sherry, depicted the meeting of Stalin, U.S.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winton Churchill at Yalta,Crimea, in February 1945. At the meeting it was decided to forcibly repatriate Sovietcitizens to the USSR, which resulted in the execution of many of those unfortunates

and the internment of millions in the gulag. The 60th anniversary of the meeting atYalta was marked on February 11, 2005.Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, director of research for the UCCLA, commented on the

MLCC decision:This is very good news, and we commend the Manitoba Liquor Control

Commission for acting promptly and removing these offensively labeled wines fromtheir shelves. No mass murderers mug should grace a wine label. We hope that noth-ing like this will ever happen again and although we are not aware of who the import-ers of these wines are, we suggest they alert the winery about how unconscionable itwas to commemorate a conference that resulted in the enslavement or extermination ofmany innocent men, women and children.

Stalin should not be glorified or exalted. Its time we came to recognize that theStalinist dictatorship was responsible for more suffering that any other regime in 20thcentury Europe. We hallow the memory of those many hundreds of thousands ofUkrainians who survived the genocidal Great Famine (Holodomor) of 1932-1933 inSoviet Ukraine, then found themselves in Western Europe at wars end and probablythought themselves safe, only to then be forced back to the USSR at bayonet point, toa horrid fate.

That is what happened as a consequence of the Yalta Agreement, the mass enslavement

of witnesses to genocide, with the Wests complicity. We cannot tolerate that being ignoredor diminished by the use of Stalins image on a wine label for sale in Canada. Ukrainianshave just recently, with their Orange Revolution, rejected the legacy of Communism. Wedont want Stalin exalted here in Canada, even if only on a wine label.

This particular topic was covered by two additional articles in the February 20,2005, issue of The Weekly, including one by Dr. Luciuk and another by OrysiaPaszczack Tracz.

Source: Manitoba takes Stalin off the Shelves, The Ukrainian Weekly, February20, 2005.

Feb.

92005

Turning the pages back...

Each month, without fail, The Ukrainian Weekly publishes a list of donors toThe Ukrainian Weekly Press Fund. Perhaps you dont pay much attention to theselists, but we do. These donations, no matter their amounts, make a big differencefor a community publication like ours that never was a profit-making venture. TheWeekly, you see, has always been published as a community service.

As we write these words, the listing of donors for January 2011 is on our desk.The total is a very significant $7,052 thats well above our average total ofmonthly donations, when you consider that during all of 2010 we received agrand total of $32,182 in contributions to our press fund. (But, it should beexplained that the January list also includes the donations earmarked for TheUkrainian Weekly Press Fund that came in with payments for the Christmascards issued by our publisher, the Ukrainian National Association. And, that listincludes several major donors.)

What is most heartening to us on the receiving end of the donations is that wesee a lot of familiar names people whove sent in stories and letters, folks thathave been mentioned in stories published in The Weekly, and, of course, personalacquaintances and colleagues in community activism. Among them are many sup-porters from the younger generation. That, too, speaks volumes. And, there arerepeat donors, of larger and smaller amounts, including a couple from Toledo,Ohio, whose donations appear each and every month! We see all these donations astangible expressions of support for the work of this community newspaper.

By regularly publishing the lists of our donors, we acknowledge our supportersand offer them a very sincere thank-you. And we do so in a prominent spot in our

newspaper in order to show how much we appreciate your assistance.Turning to a related matter, if you read the section of our 2010: Year In

Review titled Another year at The Weekly, you know that during 2010 we com-pleted an enormous task: all of our newspapers issues published since it wasfounded in 1933 have been digitized and are now available online on our website,www.ukrweekly.com. Thats nearly 4,000 issues! We couldnt have done any of thework on the digital archives of The Ukrainian Weekly, and its (older) sister-publi-cation Svoboda, without the generous support of major donors.

The Shevchenko Scientific Society was the first to offer support to this project,giving us a $15,000 grant in December 2007. Self Reliance New York Federal CreditUnion provided a very generous $50,000 in April 2008 becoming (and remaining)our largest donor. During 2009 the Heritage Foundation of 1st Security Savings Bankcontributed $5,000; Selfreliance Ukrainian American Federal Credit Union, $10,000;a donor who wished to remain anonymous, $10,000; and the Bahriany Foundation,$2,000. In 2010 the SUMA (Yonkers) Federal Credit Union donated $10,000. (Weare always seeking additional grants to support our newspapersdigital archives proj-ect, which is something that is constantly expanding.)

To all of our supporters both individuals and institutions let us hereby extend

an enthusiastic and heartfelt thank-you. Diakuyemo!

A thank you to our supporters

The UkrainianWeekly

During my January visit to New York, Iwas most often asked about the politicalsituation in Ukraine and what hope isthere for the near future.

I am careful in responding to suchquestions, because the fulfillment of oneshope depends on what is being hopedfor. For some, its Ukraines integrationinto the European Union and the NorthAtlantic Treaty Organization. This wouldgive Ukraine stronger democratic institu-tions and protection of individual rights.

Some are also hoping for cultural andlinguistic Ukrainianization policies, whichwere tested by the administration of for-mer President Viktor Yushchenko butnever fully implemented.

My six years of reporting have led me

to hope for three key goals to be achievedin Ukraine:(1) a republic with strong checks and

balances between the judicial, legislativeand executive branches of government;

2) a strong, independent judiciary touphold individual and private propertyrights; and

(3) a sharp reduction in the statesbureaucracy, particularly its role in offer-ing social payments and benefits to thosebelow retirement age.

Euro-Atlantic integration is worth pur-suing only because it would spur signifi-cant progress towards these ideals.

If this is what were hoping for, thenwere not likely to make any progressanytime soon. None of Ukraines leading

politicians are genuinely willing to takethe difficult steps in cutting bureaucracy,reforming the bankrupt judicial system,making the country more investment-friendly and protecting individual rights.

Many are not the least bit interested inthese goals, most notably the Party ofRegions of Ukraine led by PresidentViktor Yanukovych and the Batkivschynaparty led by Yulia Tymoshenko. Whentaking power, both these political forcesshowed no interest in progressive reforms.

Judicial corruption thrived when Ms.Tymoshenko was prime minister in 2005and 2008-2010, largely because the chief

jus tice of the Sup reme Cou rt, VasylOnopenko, was among her closest politi-cal allies and sponsors. Mr. OnopenkosSocial Democratic Party of Ukraine wasamong the three parties to form theTymoshenko Bloc.

Ms. Tymoshenko has become toopolar i z ing a f igure . Whi le theBatkivschyna party is the largest in theopposition, it simply doesnt have enoughpublic support to dislodge the authoritari-an government on its own. If its ever dis-lodged, too many Ukrainians wouldoppose her presidency. More than 74 per-cent of Ukrainians distrust Ms.Tymoshenko, according to a Decemberpoll conducted by the YaremenkoUkrainian Institute for Social Researchand the Social Monitoring Center. Andrightfully so.

That leaves us with two political partiesto consider the Front of Change led by

Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the Svobodanationalist party led by Oleh Tiahnybok.

Nothing in the Svoboda party platformwould indicate that it supports strongchecks and balances, individual rights andreducing the state bureaucracy.Unfortunately, Svoboda appears to admirea form of authoritarianism similar to whatthe Party of Regions has pursued.

Its not clear whether Svoboda supports

free-market economics, some balancewith socialism, or a dangerous form ofnational socialism, as the partys formername alludes to (it was founded as theSocial Nationalist Party of Ukraine.)

To his credit, Mr. Tiahnybok hasreferred to enhancing the ability of aver-age Ukrainians to acquire and trade pri-vate property, as well as the need for a

judic iary with reduced corruption. Yetthese platforms are not much developedand take a back seat to the partys call forporiadok (order) and Ukrainianizationpolicies.

Like the Party of Regions, Svoboda ismore concerned with the ends of achiev-ing its goals than the means by whichtheyre achieved. Thats dangerous, as

weve witnessed during the last year.At first glance, the Front of Changeseems like the party for the diaspora throwits support behind. Its January 22 meetingto commemorate the Act of Union demon-strated that its likely to become the politi-cal force to fill the void left by OurUkraine, which is no longer competitive.

To succeed in Ukrainian politics, aparty needs two things: a charismaticleader and an oligarch sponsor. Theappearance of Petro Poroshenko at theJanuary 22 event means the Front ofChange will have the funding it needs tocompete in the 2012 parliamentary elec-tions.

It was Mr. Poroshenko who providedViktor Yushchenko with the financial fuelpump to compete in the 2004 presidentialelection and ultimately triumph. ThePoroshenko business empire is currentlyestimated to be worth $384 million.

Additionally, several national-demo-cratic parties indicated theyre willing tomerge with Front of Change and make itstronger. Among them is the For Ukraineparty, led by Viacheslav Kyrylenko, whichis Ukraines most reliable political forcefor Euro-Atlantic integration.

Yet, Mr. Yatsenyuk looks very muchlike a repeat of Mr. Yushchenko. Theyreboth bankers with weak wills who areunwilling to challenge the oligarchs thatare interested in maintaining corruption.

After all, introducing a strong judiciaryisnt in the interests of oligarchs because itwould enable their smaller counterparts to

be able to compete better with them on alevel playing field.

A strong judiciary would also introducetort law to Ukraine, which currentlydoesnt exist. That would bring devastat-ing lawsuits against the oligarchs facto-ries and mines, which violate labor laws,as well as safety and environmental stan-dards.

Mr. Yatsenyuk is just as wishy-washyas Mr. Yushchenko, if not more so. Earlieron he supported Ukraines NATO integra-tion. He then backed off from that plat-form when running for the presidency in2010, revealing his vision of a GreaterEurope as an alternative to the EuropeanUnion, with Ukraine at its center.

Hiring Russian political scientists for

his campaign only confirmed that hes anempty shell.At a roundtable discussion last year, I

watched in amazement as Mr. Yatsenyukdeclared his support for the UnitedNations becoming the governing body forthe worlds countries. That would sacri-fice Ukrainian sovereignty on behalf ofworld government.

Our hopes for Ukraine



7/24


Ethnic stereotypes, like ethnic jokes,are out of fashion. If we want to demonizepeople, we are more likely to use politicalcategories: liberals or conservatives,Democrats or Republicans, rednecks orelitists. If they are foreigners, it alldepends on whether they support Ukraine.And if they are Ukrainians, we tend todivide them into supporters and opponentsof President Viktor Yanukovych or YuliaTymoshenko. In other words, since it is nolonger politically correct to stereotypepeople by nation, race or ethnicity, wepigeonhole them by their politics.

In some ways, the demise of ethnic ste-reotypes is unfortunate. For one thing,they are usually based on some truth though there may be other, more important

truths which they ignore or obscure. Foranother thing, they keep us alert to culturaldifferences that todays monotone globalculture tends to blur. Not all ethnic stereo-types are negative think of the level-headed English, the easy-going Dutch, theromantic Italians, the exuberant Greeks.

And, of course, stereotypes make goodpropaganda. There was a time, indeed,when we in the emigration used to playethnic stereotypes for all they were worth.When talking with Americans, we wouldtry to convince them that Ukrainians werereally very similar to them. The Americanshad rebelled against Britain; theUkrainians had rebelled against Russia.America had honest, straight-shootingcowboys; Ukraine had sincere, truth-lov-ing Kozaks freedom-loving individual-ists in either case. Ukraine was a land ofindependent small farmers, just like theearly American republic. Our national poetTaras Shevchenko (a friend of Afro-American actor Ira Aldridge) once askedrhetorically when Ukraine would have itsWashington a quotation inscribed on theShevchenko monument in the city namedafter Americas most famous foundingfather. As Voltaire remarked in hisHistory of Charles XII, Ukraine hadalways aspired to freedom.

Today, all this makes it difficult toexplain to our American friends why somany Ukrainians voted for a presidentialcandidate who curbs civil liberties andseeks closer ties with his countrys formeroppressor. As one observer recentlyremarked, it is incredible that a peopleshould voluntarily return to slavery.Perhaps Dostoyevskys Grand Inquisitorknew something that Voltaire did not.

In fact, all that talk of UkrainianAmerican resemblances sounds less con-vincing when we remember the impas-sioned claims, then current in Soviet-American discourse, about the similaritiesbetween the Soviet people (or theRussian people, which was consideredthe same thing) and the Americans. Afterall, both Russians and Americans hadfounded new nations based on ideas, notblood and soil. Both were working tocreate a just society one through socio-economic equality, the other throughequality of opportunity. In the previous

century, both had abolished human bond-age, defeated southern separatists (thatsus!) and settled a vast frontier. In WorldWar II, they had fought together to defeatfascism. Russians, like Americans, weresimple, down-to-earth folk, focused onthis world, not the next. Russia, likeAmerica, was a land of the common man,with a distrust of European aristocraticculture, a suspicion of intellectualism and

a disdain for manners.But if Ukraine was similar to America,

and America was similar to Russia, then adetached observer would have to concludethat Ukraine was similar to Russia. Anabsurd conclusion! Yet if Ukraine was sodifferent from Russia, how could the U.S.be so similar to both?

Obviously, such stereotypical compari-sons have their limitations. Furthermore,ethnic or national stereotypes easily lendthemselves to abuse, becoming mereexcuses for bias. Like the partisan politicalprofiling of today, stereotypical images area convenience for the superficial thinker, asubstitute for analysis.

So what terms of analysis will help usunderstand current relations among

Ukraine, Russia and the United States?One useful concept is that of nationalinterest. What are these countries severalinterests? This will surely come up at TheWashington Groups LeadershipConference in D.C. on Saturday, February19. Speakers from government and aca-demia will help us understand the coincid-ing or conflicting national interests ofUkraine, Russia and America.

To be sure, national interest is noeasy matter. There are a nations real inter-ests, its interests as perceived by its cur-rent leaders, and what they want others tobelieve those interests to be. Thus, forexample, Russias real interests mayrequire a strong defense of its Chineseborder, and therefore security on its south-ern and western flanks but not necessari-ly outright annexation of Ukraine. But itsleaders may see those interests differently.And by repeatedly rattling the saber overtheir southern neighbor, are they threaten-ing attack, or merely trying to propitiatetheir chauvinists at home while warningthe West to keep its distance? What dothey want the world to believe about theirintentions in Ukraine?

The same analysis can be applied to theU.S. Officially, Americas interests inUkraine include security, trade and invest-ment, freedom, democracy and humanrights. That, of course, is also what theU.S. wants Ukraine (and its diaspora) tothink. Do these represent Americas realinterests? Perhaps Americans, let usremember, are honest, straight-shooting

cowboys. But how far, for example, wouldthe U.S. go to protect human rights inUkraine, especially given its lukewarmdefense of these rights elsewhere? Wouldit rebuff a determined Russian attempt toisolate Ukraine economically, diplomati-cally, politically? What if Russia threat-ened U.S. interests in Central Asia and theMiddle East would America pay theprice to keep Ukraine in the West?Obviously, a nations various global inter-ests must be weighed relative to eachother.

Then there is the Ukrainian diaspora.Are its interests identical with those of theUnited States? A host of UkrainianAmerican civil servants have doubtlesswrestled with this question. And can we

assume that the interests of the diasporacoincide with those of todays Ukraine or of its leaders? Do those leaders evenhave a conception of national interest asdistinct from their private concerns?

Come to the TWG conference and findout!

From images to interests

Andrew Sorokowski can be reached [email protected].

ESSAY: Illumination: A perspectiveby Larissa Kosmos

Its a fiercely cold night in January2009, but the atmosphere indoors iswarm. Im in New York City, at a partyat the top of Rockefeller Center, cele-brating the 75th anniversary of Bridesmagazine, where I occasionally work

as a freelance editor. The mood is fes-tive; the company is lively; and in thisspace which is 70 floors above ground,enclosed in floor-to-ceiling windows,the view of the city lights is spectacu-lar.

On another January night, in 1949,the steam ship Marine Marlin heads forthe New York Harbor, carrying approx-imately 900 people displaced by thesecond world war, among them mygrandparents Natalia and IvanBaczynsky my aunt and my then7-year-old mother.

After fleeing Ukraine in a coveredwagon and journeying west for nearly ayear, surviving a bombing en route thatkilled two family members and livingfor four years in the refugee camps ofGermany, they boarded the ship inBremerhaven, headed to the U.S.

Traveling across the Atlantic, mygrandparents do not come with anAmerican dream. Instead, they willaccept an American reality. Not know-ing English, they, like masses of otherimmigrants, will be limited to manuallabor, my dido first working in the

steel mills of Cleveland and my babacleaning office buildings. Years later,shell tell me how she was instructed topolish spittoons until she saw in themher own reflection.

Waiters circulate with trays, offeringme champagne and an assortment ofhors doeuvres. I mingle with my col-leagues, yet increasingly I am drawn tothe birds-eye view in our backdrop; Iwant to experience it closer, unfilteredby glass. Despite my lack of a coat, Istep outside onto the observation deck.The cold is startling. After a lone smok-er walks past me to rejoin the party, Ienjoy the space to myself, admiring thedense milky way of lights.

Looking out toward the harbor, Iimagine the formidable S.S. MarineMarlin coming within sight of theAmerican shore. I envision my grand-parents, in their 20s, during the finalnight of their two-week voyage, watch-ful of their little girls. They do notknow that they have parted with lovedones whom they will not see for

decades or ever again. They do notknow that they will remain in thiscountry for life.

Sixty years separate these twoJanuary nights, but what they have incommon is the cold pure, uncompro-mising and the lights, the multitudeof lights. Gliding on the sea, even at adistance, the lights of New York Citywould have been visible, those ofRockefeller Center among them. In thesleeping hours, not long before a youngfamily sets foot into a new life, thelights bear witness to the night, reveal-ing nothing, promising nothing, butcertain, steady, persistent in theirbrightness.

Larissa Kosmos of New York is afirst-generat ion Ukrain ian Americanand freelance writer. Her essays haverepeatedly appeared in The New YorkTimes Magazines online columnMotherlode and on the parentingsite Babble.

Mayoral candidate

Rahm EmanuelDear Editor:

Chicago, as some may have heard, ishaving a mayoral election. The frontrun-ner is former White House Chief of StaffRahm Emanuel.

Speaking about his residency, Mr.Emanuel described valued family itemshe left in his house in Chicago. Among

those items were his maternal grandmoth-ers coat, the only object left thatbelonged to his grandfather. In describinghis grandfathers history, Mr. Emanuelsaid that he came to Chicago in 1917from the Russian-Romanian border.

The area Emanuel is describing isZakarpattia (Transcarpathia). In 1917, nopart of Zakarpattia was Russia. In fact,Zakarpattia only came under Soviet con-trol in 1945. Even then, it was not part ofRussia, but was the westernmost oblast ofthe Ukrainian SSR. Today, it is proudlyand firmly part of Ukraine.

Mr. Emanuels description of the areaas Russian-Romanian border may besimply the result of ignorance, or of con-fusion between the terms Ruthenia andRussia. Regardless, the 50,000 plus

Ukrainians in Chicago should not have amayor who makes such a fundamentalmistake.

Vasyl Markus Jr.

Chicago

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

IN THE PRESS: The Demjanjuk caseThe agonizing pace of the last Nazi

trial; The final chance to get justice for27,900 Jews murdered at Sobibor hasdescended into farce, by TonyPaterson, The Independent & TheIndependent on Sunday, January 9:

The proceedings have been slowed

to a snails pace by the aged and appar-ently ailing defendants state of health. They [doctors] are by no means certainthat he will live long enough to witnessthe end of his own trial.

But Mr. [John] Demjanjuks health isfar from being the only barrier in the wayof justice being done and being seen to bedone. The prosecution case is severelyhampered by the fact that there is not a

single witness still alive who remembershaving seen Mr. Demjanjuk in Sobibor.

The court must also decide whether toaccept an argument put forward by theprosecution, which has no legal precedentin post-war death camp trials. This propo-sition, backed by historians research,maintains that simply by being employedas an SS guard in Sobibor, Mr.Demjanjuk would automatically havetaken part in the mass murder of prison-ers. The defense argues that such claimsare ridiculous, and that the prosecutionmust prove not only that he was there butthat he also murdered.



8/24


Canadian Museum of Human Rights

Is the CMHR truly committed to telling Canadian stories?

objection to it. Sadly, its not. For example,the final report of its Content AdvisoryCommittee recommended the allocation of adisproportionate share of permanent exhibitspace to Jewish suffering in the secondworld war.

That partiality was demonstrated by the48 references to the Holocaust this docu-ment includes, compared to only one aboutthe genocidal Great Famine of 1932-1933 inSoviet Ukraine, the Holodomor.

galleries (or zones) to be thematic, compara-tive and inclusive.

One zone, for example, could deal withCanadas internment operations. Thoseafflicted not only Eastern Europeans in1914-1920, but Japanese, Italian andGerman Canadians in 1939-1945 and someQuebecois in 1970. Explaining the baneful

consequences of The War Measures Actupon several different Canadian communi-ties during the course of the 20th centuryhighlights the need for vigilance in defenseof civil liberties in times of domestic andinternational crisis.

Dr. Lub omyr Luc iuk is director ofresearch for the Ukrainian CanadianCivil Liberties Association (www.uccla.ca) and a recipient of a 2010 Shevchenko

Medal.

Front (left) and back (above) of a postcard issued by the Ukrainian CanadianCivil Liberties Association in early January to press Canadian officials to createan independent advisory committee to determine the content of the CanadianMuseum for Human Rights, ensuring that the body is truly representative of the

Canadian population, inclusive and fair-minded.

A second postcard released in early February by the UCCLA and Friends callsfor the CMHRs galleries to be inclusive.

by Lubomyr Luciuk

Prime Minister Stephen HarpersConservatives have boasted of beingthe party that reached out to Canadasminorities particularly in the person ofJason Kenney, the minister of citizen-ship and immigration strategicallyundercutting a traditional source ofpolitical support for the Liberals.Theres truth in this claim. They certain-ly secured broad-based gratitude inUkrainian Canadian circles for settlingissues arising out of Canadas firstnational internment operations a filethe Liberals, for all their pretensions tobeing the party of social justice, never-theless ignored, for decades.

That said, the Conservatives areabout to be reminded that its not justabout a first date going well. Youve gotto nurture nice feelings if you dontwant them to blow away.

If the Canadian Museum for HumanRights were truly committed to tellingCanadian stories or those less well-known, there could be no principled

Likewise ignored were the results of thepublic survey Arni Thorsteinson submittedon March 31, 2008, to the Member ofParliament Jose Verner, then minister ofCanadian heritage. Reportedly, Canadiansrank-ordered themes they wanted addressedat the CMHR as follows: Aboriginal (FirstNations), 16.1 percent; genocides, 14.8 per-cent; women, 14.7 percent; internments,12.5 percent; war and conflicts, 8.7 percent;holocaust, 7 percent; children, 5.9 percent;sexual orientation, 4.9 percent; ethnicminorities, 3.8 percent; slavery, 2.9 percent;immigration, 2.6 percent; charter of rights,

2.3 percent; disabilities, 2 percent; andUniversal Declaration of Human Rights, 1.8percent.

Weve asked for all 12 of this museums

by Oksana Bashuk Hepburn

Perhaps the best that can be said aboutthe stand taken by the decision-makers ofthe Canadian Museum of Human Rights(CMHR) to accord preferential treat-ment to some groups in its exhibit space

is the public deba te around this un-Canadian approach.

A little history first.During the conceptual stages, the

Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), theumbrella entity for some 1.2 millionCanadians, was asked by museum initia-tors, led by Gail Asper, the daughter ofCanadas media mogul Izzy Asper, tolend support. And this was for good rea-

son: the government wished to avoid con-troversy.Several years earlier, a Holocaust com-

ponent was proposed to the yet-to-be-built Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.Veterans organizations and others object-ed. The UCC Ottawa I was then presi-dent sent letters seeking equitableand inclusive representation, arguingthat recognition of one peoples tragedywas discriminatory and un-Canadian invalue. The War Museum was built with-out the Holocaust or other human rightscomponents. The Aspers tried again.

Their request for government fundingfor the CMHR was predicated on thecondition that other groups be on side; inparticular former critics of unilateralism

like the Ukrainian Canadians, a strong

presence in Winnipeg where the museumis to be located. Ukrainian Canadianshave been fighting an uphill battle for therecognition of the some 10 million according to Joseph Stalin, who shouldknow of their own who were starvedwhile the world was ignorant then orchose to whitewash this human calamityfor decades in order to serve its ownagenda.

The Canadian Museum of HumanRights must be based on values we canall be proud of. And that is the reasonUCC agreed to support the CMHR, hav-ing understood that the Holodomorwould have parity.

Apparently this is not the case. The

CMHR approach calls for two permanentexhibits along national lines. Ms. Asperet al cleverly married the Holocaust withCanadas own shame the persecution ofthe Native peoples hoping, perhaps, toavoid criticism of exclusivity or preferen-tial treatment of one group.

The Ukrainian Canadian community isup in arms against this clever but unfairtactic, while the question to fair-mindedtaxpayers is this: Should the museumreceive government funding to highlightexclusively and permanently two selectedhuman evils?

The issue is gathering main streetmedia attention. The discussion on theInternet is heavy; the dominant viewappears to support Canadian values of

fairness and inclusivity.With the physical structure of the muse-um already taking shape in Winnipeg, thecenter of Canadas Ukrainian settlement, itis important for its approach to get back ontrack and avoid further angst. The require-ment now is to make a decision that willnot tarnish Canadas image as a globalhuman rights leader, a backward slide for

How to avoid turning the CMHR

into a symbol of inequality


Oksana Bashuk Hepburn is a formerUkrainian Canadian Congress boardmember and director of the Canadian

Human Rights Commission. Her father,Petro Bashuk, was a political prisoner in

Auschwitz. She and her mother, NataliaLeontowych Bashuk, esca ped Stal insevil empire.



9/24


Rochester community welcomes reps of National University of Ostroh Academyby Christine Hoshowsky

ROCHESTER, N.Y. A fierce winterstorm delayed the arrival of Dr. IhorPasichnyk, rector of the National Universityof Ostroh Academy in Ukraine, and hisassociate, Eduard Balashov, the head of itsForeign Relations Department, to Rochester,N.Y., as they toured several Ukrainian com-

munities in the U.S. and Canada during theholiday season.

To the disappointment of all concerned,this delay forced the cancellation of plannedmeetings on December 13, 2010, with Prof.Randall Stone, director of the Skalny Centerfor Polish and Central European Studies;Peter Lennie, senior vice-president, andRobert L. and Mary L. Sproull Dean of theFaculty of Arts, Sciences and Engineering;and Jackie Levine, director of the studyabroad program, all of the University ofRochester; as well as with William W.Destler, president, and Dr. James DeCaro,director, of PEN International at theRochester Institute of (RIT).

Nevertheless, a community dinner orga-nized to welcome Rector Pasichnyk and Mr.

Balashov proceeded on December 12, 2010,as planned at Olgas Restaurant with goodfood, good wishes and good spirits but, alas,without the honored guests. Dr. Pasichnykand Mr. Balashov extended their apprecia-tion and regrets by phone from Minneapolis.

When the two guests finally arrived atRochester International Airport the follow-ing evening, they were met by Walter andTamara Denysenko, who drove them to thehome of Wolodymr and Irma Pylyshenkofor a dinner meeting that was attended by anintimate group of supporters of OstrohAcademy.

Irene Russnak, one of the honored guests,is an honorary member of the UkrainianNational Womens League of America

(UNWLA), a staunch supporter of TheUkrainian Museum in New York, and a sup-porter of the Ukrainian Research Institute atHarvard. For the last three years, she hasbeen a donor to Ostroh Academy.

Another guest, Dr. Evhen Lylak, profes-sor at the National Technical Institute for theDeaf at RIT, gives generously of his time tothe Ukrainian community and the UkrainianFederal Credit Union, currently as itsSupervisory Committee chair. He organizedteachers workshops on Ukraine at RIT andworked with the Irondequoit-Poltava SisterCities Committee in support of the OpenWorld international exchange program.

The Pylyshenkos were the gracious hostsfor the evening. Mrs. Pylyshenko, who is ofGerman descent, is nonetheless a supporterof Ukrainian culture. The Pylyshenkosretired from teaching and administrativework at the State University of New York atBrockport and now volunteer much of theirtime to the Ukrainian community.

Mr. Pylyshenko is the director and headlibrarian at the Ukrainian Federal CreditUnions community library. Most recently,he compiled the Rochester Ukrainian

Archives Collection, which is housed in theRush Rhees Library at the University ofRochester. Mr. Pylyshenko shares an inter-est in and has a discourse with scholars atthe National University of the OstrohAcademy on the subject of the Ukrainiandiaspora.

Ostroh Academy established the Instituteof Ukrainian Diaspora Studies in January2002 and is the only university in Ukraine tooperate such a subdivision. The institutesmission is to study and document the every-day activity and the creative and scientificachievements of Ukrainians who liveabroad, thereby spreading and developingthe scientific and cultural connectionsbetween all Ukrainian societies.

At a meeting with officials from the National University of Ostroh Academy onDecember 13, 2010 (from left) are: Mirko and Irma Pylyshenko, Irene Russnak,

Rector Ihor Pasichnyk and Christine Hoshowsky.

Yet another guest that evening, Dr.Christine Hoshowsky, is a recently retiredteacher and former department head of his-tory and economics at Irondequoit HighSchool in Rochester. She serves on thescholarship committee of the UkrainianFederal Credit Union and is an active mem-ber of Irondequoit-Poltava Sister Citiesthrough which she coordinates activities aspart of the Open World internationalexchange program. She, too, is a long-stand-ing member of the UNWLA. Dr.Hoshowsky used the occasion of the meet-ing with Dr. Pasichnyk and Mr. Balashov tomake a generous donation to OstrohAcademy.

The Denysenkos took responsibility for

organizing the events of this visit. Mrs.Denysenko, the retired CEO of theUkrainian Federal Credit Union, currentlyserves on the UFCU board of directors. Sheis a founder of the Irondequoit-PoltavaSister Cities, and serves on the UkrainianWorld Congress executive committee andthe World Council of UkrainianCooperatives. In the future, she looks for-ward to working more closely with Dr.Myron B. Kuropas and the many Friends ofOstroh Academy in North America.

The Ostroh Academy, founded in 1576,was constituted as an institution of higherlearning. In 1994, it was re-established bypresidential decree, and in 2000 it was ele-



10/24


GENERATION UKEEdited and compiled by Matthew Dubas

LONDON, Ontario The UkrainianStudents Club at the University of WesternOntario (UWO) is growing in members andactivity each year. Since its rebirth in 2008,the club has become more well-known toLondons Ukrainian community through itsinitiative to uphold the Ukrainian Canadianculture and Ukrainian language.

Founded in the 1970s, it continues toorganize and represent students, particularlyof Ukrainian descent, at the university level.The club provides a balance of social eventssuch as varenyky dinners, sport tourna-ments, pub nights and caroling, but alsocommemorates historically significantevents, such as the Holodomor.

It is led this year by: President DeanaDrozdowsky, Vice-President AnaOstapchuk, finance Danylo Kostruba,events Gleb Naboka, communications

Lyuba Lytvyn, and first-year representativeDiana Stepczuk.

One particular project the club began inNovember 2009, with thanks to pastPresident Illina Frankiv and her executiveteam, is the annual commemoration of theHolodomor of 1932-1933. On Friday,November 5, 2010, the UWO UkrainianStudents Club brought awareness to theUWO community with the exhibitHoldomor: Famine by Genocide from theLeague of Ukrainian Canadians, which wasdisplayed in the main forum of theUniversity Community Center.

This exhibit includes 100 factual andvisual posters. Students and staff of variousethnicities visited the exhibit and were eagerto learn more. With the help of ElizabethMantz, librarian at UWOs Weldon Library,the majority of the posters were also dis-

University students inform community about Holodomor via exhibit

Members of the Ukrainian Students Club at the University of Western Ontario.

Students with members of the League of Ukrainian Canadians.

played at the library on November 19-30,2010. In addition, Ms. Ostapchuk and Mr.Kostruba were interviewed by WesternRadio about the Holodomor.

This public exposure enabled the club tocontinue spreading knowledge about thisgenocide. Also, club members had theopportunity to hear four guest speakers pres-ent their perspectives about the Holodomor.The speakers included Prof. Marta Dyczokof the history and political science depart-ments at UWO, London high school teach-ers Lily Hopcroft and Ola Nowosad, andUkrainian Canadian Congress London

Branch President Daria Hryckiw.The students were deeply impacted by

their stories and greatly appreciated theopportunity. The club thanked the guestspeakers, Ms. Mantz and the donors whocontributed to Novembers events com-memorating the Holodomor. This eventwould not have been possible without assis-tance from the Buduchnist Credit Union,Peter Kryworuk, Mykola Wasylko, JimKozak and the Ukrainian

The Ukrainian Weekly 2011-06

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Transcript of The Ukrainian Weekly 2011-06