Viktor Yushchenko
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InsIde: • “2009: The Year in Review” – pages 5-35 THEPublished U by theKRA Ukrainian NationalIN AssociationIAN Inc., a fraternal Wnon-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXVIII No.3 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2010 $1/$2 in Ukraine Outgoing New Jersey governor creates Yushchenko’s declining support: Eastern European Heritage Commission Does he really deserve the blame? TRENTON, N.J. – Outgoing New Jersey The 21-member commission will coordi- by Zenon Zawada their staunch support for Ukraine’s inte- Gov. Jon S. Corzine on January 11 signed nate an annual Eastern European Month Kyiv Press Bureau gration into Euro-Atlantic structures. an executive order creating an Eastern Celebration along with other events and Volodymyr Fesenko, board chairman European-American Heritage Commission activities highlighting the rich culture and KYIV – Five years ago, hundreds of of the Penta Center for Applied Research in the Department of State. history of Americans of Eastern European thousands of Ukrainians risked their lives in Kyiv, offered consulting to the “New Jersey is home to over 1 million ancestry. The commission will also work for Viktor Yushchenko to become Presidential Secretariat occasionally dur- Americans of Eastern European ancestry, with the Department of Education to con- Ukraine’s president. Now only about 5 ing Mr. Yushchenko’s term. He’s consid- including Americans of Polish, tinue to develop content and curriculum percent of Ukrainians fully support ered among Ukraine’s most reliable and Hungarian, Ukrainian, Slovak, Czech and guides on Eastern European history for President Yushchenko and would vote for objective political analysts. Mr. Fesenko Lithuanian ancestry. The commission will school children, noted a press released from him in the January 17 election, according studied at Columbia University’s ensure there are opportunities for all of the governor’s office. to an October 2009 poll by the Razumkov Harriman Institute and Queen’s New Jersey to share and celebrate their The governor filed the following direct Center. University in Kingston, Ontario. rich history,” said Gov. Corzine, who lost appointments to the Eastern European- That raises the question: Does the *** his bid for re-election to Republican Chris American Heritage Commission: Peter C. Ukrainian president deserve all the blame Christie, and made his final State of the Eagler (Clifton), Thomas J. Kazalski he’s been getting? Question: The constitutional changes State address on January 12. (Mr. Christie (Union), Thomas J. Duch (Wyckoff), The Weekly played the role of devil’s that took effect January 1, 2006, reduced will be inaugurated on January 19.) Michael Koziupa (Cedar Knolls), Marianne advocate for President Yushchenko, much of the authority of the Ukrainian During a campaign stop on September E. Balazs (Fort Lee,), Michael A. Kaufman defending his political record against top presidency and shifted key levers of 14, 2009, at the home of Cami Huk-Masier, (East Brunswick), Kaya Sawczuk political scientists. power to the prime minister. The only where representatives of New Jersey’s (Morganville), Annajane M. Fencik Dr. Taras Kuzio is a professor at the organs left directly under the president’s Eastern European communities had gath- (Bayonne), Louis J. Kady (Holmdel), Institute of European, Russian and authority were the Defense Ministry, the ered, Gov. Corzine pledged to establish an Wieslaw “Vinnie” Krajewski (Freehold) Eurasian Studies at Carleton University Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Security Eastern European Heritage Commission in and Roma Lisovich (Union). in Ottawa. Dr. Oleh Soskin is director of Service of Ukraine, the state oblast the state before the end of the year. And, he The Ukrainian Americans appointed to the Kyiv-based Institute of Society administrations and the Procurator pledged to do so regardless who would win the commission, Mr. Koziupa and Ms. Transformation, who studied at the General of Ukraine. In light of this, is the gubernatorial election. Ms. Huk-Masier, Lisovich, are both executive officers of the Economics Institute in Boulder, Colo., President Yushchenko receiving more a Ukrainian American, is a member of the Ukrainian National Association. He is the and the Brookings Institute in blame than he deserves? Governor’s Ethnic Advisory Council and UNA’s second vice-president, and she is the Washington. the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Both Drs. Kuzio and Soskin are both Immigrant Policies. (Continued on page 39) highly critical of the president, despite (Continued on page 36) 2009: Requiem for the revolutions by Brian Whitmore As the world marked the 20th anniversary of the RFE/RL fall of the Iron Curtain last year, the different fates of the countries of the 1989 revolutions came sharply TBILISI, Georgia – In 1989, seven months before into focus. Former Soviet vassal states like Poland, the Berlin Wall came down amid jubilant celebra- Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are free, tions across Europe, Ghia Marghulia joined thou- stable and prosperous democracies safely nestled in sands in the center of the Georgian capital to protest NATO and the European Union. Soviet rule. But countries like Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova, Now the director of a Tbilisi public school, Mr. which won their independence following the 1991 Marghulia sits in his office and recalls the tense and Soviet collapse, have experienced a tumultuous two heady atmosphere two decades ago when, in the decades as they struggled to fully break free from midst of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s pere- Moscow’s grip, establish functioning democracies stroika-era reforms, Georgians contemplated the and fully join the West. unthinkable – breaking free from Moscow’s grip and Mr. Marghulia notes that most countries emerging winning their independence. from Soviet rule were simply not prepared for what “We had already swallowed some freedom and it came next once they achieved independence. was not possible to go back to the old limits,” Mr. “We made a lot of mistakes. We all yearned for Marghulia says. “We began to talk about how freedom, but we did not prepare for this freedom,” Georgia needed to be a free country.” Mr. Marghulia says. “We all thought that when we But the Kremlin had other ideas. In the small got freedom, then everything else would take care of hours of the morning on April 9, 1989, after days of itself. We weren’t prepared. We didn’t prepare peo- demonstrations, Soviet troops moved in to surround ple to be good ministers, good administrators. We the demonstrators, and attacked them with military didn’t have any concept about how to develop our batons and spades. Nineteen Georgians were killed, state.” including a 16-year-old girl. Leadership deficit Tbilisi’s bloody spring of 1989 was followed by an autumn of change in Eastern Europe, when peace- Analysts say these newly independent states, hav- ing spent seven decades under direct Soviet rule, had ful protests in places like Prague and East Berlin – largely internalized the USSR’s authoritarian politi- and more violent clashes in Romania – toppled AP/Yefrem Lukatsky cal culture and had scant democratic traditions to Soviet satellite regimes across Eastern Europe, Five years ago, during Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, sup- brought down the Iron Curtain, and ended the Cold porters of Viktor Yushchenko are seen gathered outside the War. (Continued on page 44) Verkhovna Rada building. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2010 No. 3 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFS Yushchenko and Yanukovych Holodomor trial kicks off in Ukraine world in terms of quality of life, accord- ing to the results of a survey carried out in an electoral alliance? KYIV – The Kyiv Court of Appeals on by the Irish-based magazine International January 12 launched a pre-trial hearing in Living. Such factors as cost of living, cul- by Taras Kuzio the Holodomor case opened by the Security ture and leisure, the economy, the envi- Eurasia Daily Monitor Service of Ukraine (SBU), officials of the ronment, freedom, health, infrastructure, Procurator General’s Office (PGO) said. The On December 25, 2009, the UNIAN news safety and risk, and the climate were SBU launched the Holodomor investigation taken into account during the compilation agency published a secret agreement “On in March 2009; in December the case was Political Reconciliation and the Development of the survey, it was reported on January transmitted to the PGO. The Ukrainian 11. Ukraine scored 62 out of 100 points, of Ukraine” leaked by Yaroslav Kozachok, investigation established that genocide was the deputy head of the Presidential surpassing other countries from the post- committed by way of creating an artificial Soviet space, except the Baltic states and Secretariat’s department on domestic affairs famine using such mechanisms as isolation Moldova. Ukraine received 61 points in and regional development. Mr. Kozachok of Ukraine’s territory by special armed mili- the sphere of culture, 41 points in econo- resigned in protest at the secret agreement tary units, inscription of districts and locali- my, and 75 points in freedom. The coun- between President Viktor Yushchenko and ties onto so-called black lists, blockades by try also scored 60 points in infrastructure, Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych troops, a ban on people’s movement outside 71 points in safety and risk, and 78 points to appoint the former as prime minister in the the bounds of these areas, seizure of food- in the environment. For the fifth consecu- event of Mr. Yanukovych’s election. stuffs and seed stocks, a trade ban and tive year, France was chosen the world’s The Yushchenko and Yanukovych cam- restrictions of the free movement of peas- best place to live. Also making the top paigns – not surprisingly – alleged that the ants looking for foodstuffs. In the course of five were Australia, Switzerland, document was a forgery (Ukrayinska Pravda, the investigation, Ukraine has received evi- Germany and New Zealand. Sudan, December 28, 2009).