www.ukrweekly.com INSIDE:• Ukrainian studies in the spotlight at Yale, Columbia — pages 6-7. • Dumka Chorus performs 50th anniversary concert — page 11. • A look at Ukrainian Easter traditions — centerfold. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXVIII HE KRAINIANNo. 18 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 30, 2000 EEKLY$1/$2 in Ukraine T Non-traditionalU sources Errant missile hits apartmentW building near Kyiv by Roman Woronowycz “I would like to express my condolences to of energy may be key Kyiv Press Bureau the relatives and offer my apologies to all the injured and to those who suffered emotional KYIV – An errant missile fired from a trauma and material losses from this tragedy,” to Ukraine’s future Ukrainian military training ground hit an apart- said Gen. Kuzmuk. ment complex in the city of Brovary, just out- While stating that he holds ultimate responsi- by Roman Woronowycz side Kyiv, on April 20 killing three residents, bility for the tragedy, Gen. Kuzmuk vehemently Kyiv Press Bureau injuring five others and leaving 91 people homeless. rejected the possibility of human error and laid KYIV – The lone office of the govern- The surface-to-surface missile, of the 9M- the blame on mechanical failure. ment-run Institute of Non-Traditional Energy 79 class, was launched from the President Leonid Kuchma defended Gen. Engineering is found in a sparse and dimly lit Honcharivskyi firing range during a routine Kuzmuk and the Ukrainian army at a public building in the shadow of a giant water tower training session of the Rocket Brigade of the appearance the same day. He said the tragedy near Kyiv’s central hot water-generating Northern Operations Command and was sup- does not reflect the state of the armed forces but plant. The building needs repair, the halls are posed to travel 60 kilometers (40 miles) to its rather the need to replace and modernize mili- bare, the office furniture is old and worn. target at the Desnianskyi firing range. Due to a tary equipment that is nearing the end of its Literally and in a figurative sense, it is a yet undetermined mechanical failure, it failed operating life. long way from the institute to downtown to descend and traveled another 30 kilometers Army officials are currently investigating Kyiv, with its granite buildings and marble (20 miles) before dropping on the apartment several possible causes of the accident, includ- halls, where government power and decision- building. The powerful missile has a range of ing a failure of the control system and hydro- making authority are found. 120 kilometers. drive operations; de-pressurization of high-pres- Once looked at with keen interest, a Initially, Ukrainian armed forces officials sure pipelines and computer failure. Ukrainian government choked by money denied responsibility for the destruction of the The 6.4-meter, 18-ton training missile, which shortages has cast aside any serious work on building and said the missile had hit its intended was not carrying an explosive warhead but did the development of non-traditional renewable mark. They maintained, at least for the first day, contain fuel, entered the nine-story building energy sources, such as wind and solar that a crater found about 25 meters from the tar- vertically from the roof at 3:09 p.m. and bored power, as an alternative to its primary get was evidence that the missile had not gone down through the floors to the second story. reliance on atomic energy. off course. The military began an investigation Residents of the building said that, rather than Ukraine has made much of the West’s only after civilians found a metal plate from the causing an explosion, the entering projectile delays in providing financing to complete missile with its serial number intact inside the made an initial sound more akin to a television two traditional and controversial new reactors destroyed building. that Kyiv wants completed to offset the tube bursting, according to the newspaper Den. At a press conference four days after the Others said it was more like an earthquake. power that will be lost when Chornobyl shuts incident Minister of Defense Oleksander down at the end of this year. However, there Kuzmuk officially apologized for the accident. (Continued on page 3) are those here and in ecologically minded countries such as Germany who believe that Ukraine has no recourse but to reconsider non-traditional energy sources as well, which Embassy of Ukraine hosts launch of Hrushevsky volume could do the work of the nuclear power plants as efficiently and with none of the risk. by Yaro Bihun Bohachevsky Chomiak of the U.S. National One such person is the institute’s director, Special to The Ukrainian Weekly Endowment for the Humanities. Viktor Shulha, a gray-haired, 60-something Substituting for Ambassador Kostyantyn scientist with a strong belief that Ukraine WASHINGTON – The Embassy of Gryshchenko, who had to leave for Kyiv to must turn to wind and solar power to meet its Ukraine on April 12 hosted a book launch of participate in Secretary of State Madeleine K. energy demands. Mr. Shulha said he has been Volume 7 of the English-language translation Albright’s visit there, Minister-Counselor frustrated in his attempts to turn the govern- of Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s “History of Oleksii Berezhnyi underscored the impor- ment’s ear to his cause by the most familiar Ukraine-Rus’.” tance of the publication of Hrushevsky’s his- of laments in Ukraine: there simply is no Volume 7, which covers the early Kozak tory. money for it. period from the late 15th century to 1625, is “The restitution of Ukrainian historic Mr. Shulha became the director of the part of a planned 10-volume (11 books) trans- memory and culture has been one of the Institute of Energy Engineering when it was lation of Hrushevsky’s monumental work. It greatest projects of independent Ukraine,” he is the second volume to be completed. formed 10 years ago by the Ministry of said. Volume 1 was released in 1997. Energy, and at one time had an extensive As the head of the Hrushevsky Translation The book launch was co-sponsored by the group of advisors and experts. The team Project, Dr. Sysyn expressed the project’s Peter Jacyk Center for Ukrainian Historical already had developed recommendations and gratitude to the many individual and organi- Research at the Canadian Institute for a plan for developing wind energy when it zational donors who made the project possi- Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), University of came up against the insurmountable wall of ble, and especially to Canadian philanthro- Alberta; the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Ukraine’s current economic reality. pists Mr. Jacyk, whose million-dollar endow- Wilson International Center for Scholars in “We decided that for Ukraine the best ment launched the Center for Ukrainian Washington; and The Washington Group potential would be to develop wind and bio- Historical Research, and Olga Pawluk, who (TWG), an association of Ukrainian mass sources, and the government put the gave $100,000 for the publication of Volume American professionals. accent on wind energy. But, as it turned out, 7 in memory of her husband, Stephen. On hand to help launch the book in the Ukraine had no finances and the experts He also singled out the U.S. National United States were Librarian of Congress moved on,” said Mr. Shulha. Endowment for the Humanities for its timely James Billington and Kennan Institute Today Mr. Shulha singlehandedly keeps contribution. Director Blair A. Ruble, as well as the those the candle burning in the government and “Had it not been for the NEH in the crucial involved in this CIUS publication: Jacyk awaits the day when the situation may moment of the development of this project, Center Director and the history Editor-in- change. when we were looking for funds for transla- His institute is not without its accomplish- Chief Frank Sysyn, Associate Director Serhii Plokhy, CIUS Press Director Maxim tion, it is hard to imagine how we would have ments. Currently there are eight government- gotten this project going as we did,” Dr. run wind energy plants operating in Ukraine: Tarnawsky, Petro Jacyk Educational Foundation Director Nadia Jacyk and Martha (Continued on page 5) (Continued on page 3) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 30, 2000 No. 18 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS Chornobyl’s continuing political fallout Chornobyl survivors march in Kyiv the ban. Parliamentarians from Germany, the Czech Republic and Russia were to by Paul Goble And, at the time of the accident, Moscow KYIV – Approximately 1,500 survivors monitor the demonstration. On April 25 RFE/RL Newsline had concentrated nuclear power plants in of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster marched Reuters reported that Belarusian authorities Ukraine, Belarus and western portions of in Kyiv on April 23 to mark the 14th had lifted their earlier ban on a demonstra- Fourteen years ago on April 26, an the Russian Federation. anniversary of the accident at that nuclear tion by those opposed to Belarusian explosion and fire at the Chornobyl nuclear Ostensibly, Moscow did so to position power plant on April 26, wire services President Alyaksandr Lukashenka after the power plant in Ukraine spread a cloud of itself to sell electricity to its East European reported. Yurii Andreiev, the head of the opposition agreed to stage the march in the radioactive fallout over a large part of satellites, but many in Ukraine and Belarus Chornobyl Union, told Reuters that the outskirts of Miensk rather than in the city Eastern Europe and triggered a series of have said that they believed Moscow chose Ukrainian government’s contribution “to center.