The Ukrainian Weekly 2010, No.34
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www.ukrweekly.com HAPPY UKRAINIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY! THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal Wnon-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXVIII No. 34 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2010 $1/$2 in Ukraine ‘Reforms’ in education take Moscow Patriarchate makes moves Ukraine back to Soviet era toward takeover of Caves Monastery by Zenon Zawada launched 12-grade education, she noted. by Zenon Zawada Lavra) clergy. Patriarch Kirill’s July visit Kyiv Press Bureau President Viktor Yanukovych on July Kyiv Press Bureau offered the pretext that politicians and 22 signed legislation, approved by clergy alike were long looking for. KYIV – Education Minister Dmytro Parliament two weeks earlier, that imme- KYIV – For more than a century, a Concessions offered by Ukrainian pol- Tabachnyk spent the summer implement- diately cancelled the 12-grade system and simple three-story brick building – lying iticians were considerable. The stretch of ing retrogressive measures in Ukrainian replaced it with 11 grades. The law also in the shadow of the Kyivan Caves Ivan Mazepa Street adjacent to the mon- education that call for the immediate introduced mandatory kindergarten for Monastery’s largest bell tower and over- astery was renamed Lavra (Monastery) introduction of a neo-Soviet model of 11 5-year-olds; previously school attendance looking the Dnipro River – has groomed Street, while the Kyiv City Council voted grades of mandatory schooling to con- was required of 6-year-olds. and hosted some of Ukraine’s most tal- on July 15 to transfer ownership of the form to the systems of the Russian The retrogressive measures will signif- ented artists, including Kateryna Bilokur, monastery to the government led by Federation and Belarus. icantly hurt the ability of Ukrainian stu- Heorhii Yakutovych, Maria Prymachenko Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. The plan radically subverts Ukraine’s dents to compete with their European and Yurii Khymych. Until then it was the Kyiv City path towards the 12-grade system – wide- counterparts and gain admission into Among the thousands of annual visitors Council, whose members traditionally ly employed in Western nations – which European universities, Ms. Aivazovska to the Caves Monastery Studios in recent held pro-Ukrainian political positions, was implemented in 2002 and was set to said. years were former Indian President Avul made decisions regarding the 74-acre ter- produce the first graduating 12th grade “Twelve-year schooling was a guaran- Abdul Kalam, Ukrainian Olympic swim- ritory known as the National Kyiv- class in 2013. The nation’s entire curricu- tee that a Ukrainian [high school] diplo- ming champion Yana Klochkova and for- Pechersk Historical-Cultural Reserve, lum will need to be rewritten and new ma would be recognized in European mer U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos home to 122 monuments of architectural textbooks published, observers said. countries, as well as the possibility of Pascual, who regularly practiced his significance. “Radical changes of direction every gaining admission to the world’s univer- Ukrainian there. On July 27 Mr. Azarov, who spent year can’t be called reform,” Olha sities absolutely calmly, without any Yet the studio, currently home to about more than half his life in the Russian Aivazovska, board chairman of the Opora additional measures,” she explained. 30 artists, could eventually be evicted by Federation and is notorious for his citizens network, said at a July 22 press Instead, the measures serve the inter- the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Russophile views, announced his deci- conference in Kyiv. ests of the Kremlin, which wants to keep which has already begun the process of sion ordering the eviction of “all institu- “Reform in education is a process Ukraine’s next generation oriented taking many of monastery’s structures tions and organizations that don’t have which goes towards some direction. What towards Moscow rather than gravitating under its control with the support of the any relation to the reserve and monastery is proposed today and being called towards Europe, observers noted. administration of President Viktor within course of a year.” reform is truly a return to the conditions Yanukovych. While no specific institutions were that preceded the reforms of 2002” that (Continued on page 24) “The Caves Monastery will be vacated identified, this could include the art stu- not simply for expansion, but for a com- dio; a hospital that treats HIV/AIDS plete takeover of the monastery by the patients; dozens of cultural institutions, [Ukrainian Orthodox Church] Moscow such as the National Historic Library and Patriarchate,” warned Volodymyr James Mace Memorial Archive Yavorivskyi, a national deputy of the (Continued on page 29) Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. to open at Kyiv Mohyla Academy [Editor’s note: There NUKMA the United States to Ukraine. Since are two Ukrainian 1993, he was a professor of political Orthodox Churches in KYIV – The opening ceremony of science at the National University of Ukraine – one under the the James Mace Memorial Archive Kyiv Mohyla Academy (NUKMA). He aegis of the Moscow Library at the National University of was a strong supporter of the Academy Patriarchate of the Russian Kyiv Mohyla Academy is to take place from the its first years of re-birth after Orthodox Church, and the in September, with the exact date and the fall of the Soviet Union, and other the Ukrainian time of the opening to be announced in according to his own written memoirs, Orthodox Church – Kyiv the near future. he spent the happiest years of his life Patriarchate.] James E. Mace (February 18, 1952- teaching and researching at the univer- At the heart of the May 3, 2004) was an American histori- sity. He was a prolific writer, academic conflict, ignited by the an and prominent researcher of the and colleague to many. July 20-28 visit of ROC man-made 1933 Great Famine known As many have commented in the Patriarch Kirill, is as the Holodomor. Born in Oklahoma, past, he must have been destined to be whether the Kyivan he held an undergraduate degree from Ukrainian. Dr. Mace stated “Your dead Caves Monastery should Oklahoma State University. After have chosen me,” referring to the vic- receiving a Ph.D. degree in 1981 from be an exclusively reli- tims of the Holodomor. Based on his gious institution, under the University of Michigan with a the- years of research, he considered the sis on national communism in Soviet the control of a single Holodomor a premeditated act of geno- Church, or if it holds Ukraine in the 1920s, he worked as a cide aimed at the spiritual, moral, lin- post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard national historical signif- guistic, and cultural extermination of icance and should serve Ukrainian Research Institute. the Ukrainian nation. He was arguably Following the advice of Omeljan as a cultural institution the first to stress the need to recognize accessible to the public. Pritsak, the director of the Institute, he the Famine as an act of ethnocide. started doing research for Robert The election of a pro- His widow, Natalia Dziubenko- Russian government in Conquest’s book on the Great Famine Mace, a distinguished writer, poet and Ukraine this winter set in Zenon Zawada in Ukraine, “The Harvest of Sorrow.” journalist, has dedicated herself to his motion what had been Among the artists threatened with eviction from the In 1986-1990, Dr. Mace served as memory and is a collaborator on the the executive director of the U.S. only fantasies held by Caves Monastery Studios is Petro Hanzha, who has Commission on the Ukraine Famine in the more radical ele- painted the portraits of many visitors, including one of Washington. In 1993 he moved from (Continued on page 29) ments of the Caves Georgian writer Guram Petriashvili that hangs in his Monastery (Pecherska studio. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2010 No. 34 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFS Ukraine returns disputed gas Well-known journalist missing of Ukraine. It was reported on August 17 that the money will be used for joint cultur- KYIV – The chief editor of a weekly al, educational, scientific and practical to RosUkrEnergo company newspaper based in Kharkiv has been miss- activities in Ukraine and abroad, the publi- by Pavel Korduban authorized the deal with Ms. ing for nearly a week and police are investi- cation of literature about the life of gating possible foul play, RFE/RL’s Eurasia Daily Monitor Tymoshenko. However, such an appeal is Ukrainians abroad, studying the needs of unlikely, as Mr. Firtash has powerful Ukrainian Service reported on August 17. Ukrainians in Romania, Slovakia, Russia, There are indications that the allies in the current government (Zerkalo Vasyl Klymentyev, 66, of Novyi Styl (New Poland and Hungary, and media support to Ukrainian government has agreed to Nedeli, August 7). Fuel and Energy Style), was last seen on August 11. He is Ukrainians abroad. The funds will also be return to RosUkrEnergo (RUE) the dis- Minister Yurii Boiko is a long-standing well-known for his articles criticizing the spent for the production and dissemination puted gas that the Stockholm court ruled friend of Mr. Firtash. local authorities. His deputy, Petro of materials on the history and present-day belongs to RUE. According to the ruling, The Stockholm court ruling cannot Matvienko, told RFE/RL that Mr. status of Ukraine, activities to implement Ukraine has to either accept by come into force without approval by a Klymentyev writes mainly about human interstate and interdepartmental agreements September 1, or appeal by September 8. Ukrainian court, so RUE turned for such rights violations, corruption and abuse of with Moldova, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland The government apparently chose to an approval to a district court in Kyiv in power among local law enforcement offi- and Germany, as well as for participation in return the gas, as there is little chance that mid-July.