A quarterly journal devoted to the study of Ukraine Winter, 1992 THE UKRAINIAN REVIEW A Quarterly Journal devoted to the study of Ukraine EDITORIAL BOARD Slava Stetsko Roman Zwarycz Editor Associate Editor Prof. Nicholas L. Fr.-Chirovsky Borys Potapenko Assistant Editor Associate Editor Prof. Lev Shankovsky Dr. Oleh S. Romanyshyn Assistant Editor Associate Editor Prof. Volodymyr Zarycky Stephen Oleskiw Assistant Editor Associate Editor Price: £5.00 or $10.00 a single copy, Annual Subscription: £20.00 or $40.00 Editorial correspondence should be sent to: The Editors, “The Ukrainian Review”, 200 Liverpool Road, London, N1 ILF. Subscriptions should be sent to: “The Ukrainian Review” (Administration), do Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, Ltd., 49 Linden Gardens, London, W2 4HG. Overseas representatives: USA: Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine, Inc., 136 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10003. Canada: Ucrainica Research Institute, 83-85 Christie Street, Toronto,Ont. M6G 3B1. Printed, in Great Britain by the Ukrainian Publishers Limited 200 Liverpool Road, London, N1 ILF. Tel.: 071-607-626617 T h e U k r a in ia n R ev iew Vol. XL, No. 4 A Quarterly Journal Winter, 1992 C ontents Editorial: Referendum Anniversary is Low Key 2 Politics A Brief O verview of Ukraine’s International Position Tanya Tarapacky 3 Deepening Crisis in the CIS 0. Chabarivskyi 6 Problems of Corruption in Ukraine 8 History T he NKVD and the Tragedy of the Ukrainian C atholic Church IvanBilas 10 Younger Than Springtime Ralph G.Bennett M.D. 17 T hree Towns of the Rus People (Old H ypotheses R evised) Sergij E. Maksimov 22 “M y Neighbours Want to K ill Me .. A Study of Ukraine During the Interwar Period (Conclusion) Peter E. Lycholat 33 Literature I van Franko — A Selection of Po e m s ............................................................ 40 “The Stone Hewers” ........................................................... .. 42 “T he Spirit of Revolt” ................................................................................... 44 “This is not the T ime. ..” ........................................................................... 45 “T he Modern Haydamaky” ........................................................................... 46 NEWS FROM U K R A I N E ................................................................................... 49 DOCUMENTS & R E P O R T S ........................................................................... 92 Published by The Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain Ltd. Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine Inc. (U.S.A.) Ucrainica Research Institute (Canada) ISSN 0041-6029 EDITORIAL Referendum Anniversary is Low Key KYIV — Hard-pressed Ukrainians marked the first anniversary of the referendum that won them independence from Moscow with indifference, but their president told them there was no doubt they had made the right choice. The streets of Kyiv had nothing to remind Ukrainians of the referendum on December 1,1991, in which more than 90 per cent of the voters backed their parliament’s declaration of independence. The outcome, coupled with the election of Leonid Kravchuk as president, dealt a fatal blow to Mikhail Gorbachev’s attempts to hold the Soviet Union together. It was followed within a week by the USSR’s formal collapse. Ukrainians inured to monthly inflation of 20 per cent, plunging living standards and fast rising unemployment paid scant attention to sombre newspaper and television stories devoted to the outcome of a year of independence. A rally recalling the referendum in Independence Square drew no more than a few hundred people in temperatures well below freezing. Kravchuk, interviewed on Ukrainian television, admitted the past year had provided little for his people’s well-being. “The situation is contradictory — we have a state recognised internationally but no improvement in living standards”, Kravchuk said. “It is in the field of economics that doubts have appeared. Did our people make the right choice last year? A year is a short time in history, but our children and grandchildren will undoubtedly say that we did the right thing”. A representative of the self-styled Cossack movement, interviewed on television in full national dress, praised the restoration of Ukrainian statehood after seven decades of Soviet Russian rule. But the mood contrasted sharply with last August’s first anniversary celebrations of parliament’s independence proclamation, when all Ukrainians here and abroad joined street festivals or watched the national guard march in their new uniforms. “We have learned that independence is not a ready buttered piece of bread”, wrote the parliamentary daily “Holos Ukrainy”. “Rather, it is the possibility to grow grain and chum butter in our back yard for our own needs and export”. Since the August celebrations, an unpopular conservative prime minister widely viewed as a brake on reforms was dismissed and replaced by Leonid Kuchma, former head of Europe’s largest missile factory. Kuchma has won respect from Western financial institutions by ending confusion over policy, promising a gradual transition to the market, a campaign against corruption and crime, and help for pensioners worst hit by economic tumult. Opposition groups, too, have been willing to give him a chance for the time being. And Kravchuk, still one of Ukraine’s most popular politicians, said the long-term resilience of Ukrainians meant they would never perish. “Only a person without a candle can lose his way in a tunnel. Our people will not lose their way”, he said. “Be there a cataclysm, war, earthquake, drought or flood, our people will always find a way out”. 3 Politics A Brief O verview of Ukraine's International Position By Tanya Tarapacky As a result of a long struggle, in 1991, Ukraine reappeared on the international scene after centuries of national repression. The Ukrainian state has transformed itself from a colony of the Russian empire in its Soviet expression into an independent state. Ukraine’s refusal to sign Mikhail Gorbachev’s Union Treaty precipitated the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Commonwealth of Independent States was hastily formed in an attempt to keep the former colonies together. Ukraine is one of the CIS’s fiercest opponents. In fact, Leonid Kravchuk, Ukraine’s President, only agreed to join this alliance as a temporary measure to facilitate a peaceful breakup of the Soviet Union. Ukraine refuses to participate in a common military pact and Kravchuk has constantly maintained that the CIS is not a legal entity. President Kravchuk did not attend the CIS summit on May 15. Ukraine has also decided to leave the rouble zone. Dmytro Pavlychko, the Head of Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Commission had said that it is time that “the world realise that the CIS is a rather unstable and cumbersome alliance with the tendency towards self- destruction. The secession of Ukraine from the CIS should be tied to the system of collective security in Europe”. Ukraine is one of the key players in post-communist Europe. Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe and it provided the former USSR with more than one fifth of its GNP. However, the primary reason for Ukraine’s importance is geopolitical. Ukraine provides an important geographical buffer between Russia and Europe and it could assure political stability in Eastern Europe. Ukraine also separates Russia from its former satellite states Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania and Moldova, which were historically subjects of Russian expansionist foreign policy. On the other hand, Ukraine has declared itself a neutral, non-nuclear state. This may prove to be critical in keeping Russia’s imperial interests at bay, especially considering that Russia is a nuclear power. As Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote: “Above all it is geopolitically essential that Ukraine succeed in stabilizing itself as a secure and independent state. That will automatically increase the chances of Russia’s evolution as a democratizing and increasingly European post­ imperial state. Accordingly a critical component of Western strategy has to be the 4 THE UKRAINIAN REVIEW deliberate effort — not only economic but also political — to consolidate a stable and sovereign Ukraine. Elsewhere in the former empire the process of nation building is likely to be even more complex than in Ukraine, and yet it too will have to be supported simultaneously with the postcommunist socio-economic transformation itself’. (“Foreign Affairs”, Fall 1992) A main aspect of Ukrainian foreign policy is the inviolability of all existing borders in Europe. This principle is a basic component of a policy which intends to ensure stability in Europe. A main aspect of Ukraine’s internal policy is the installation of a functional system for the protection and guarantee of human rights in the personal realm, and minority rights for groups and individuals. Ukraine has already forged good relations with its neighbours, and has expressed its willingness to become the fourth partner in the Vysegrad process. Ukraine also desires good neighbourly relations with Russia, but this goal needs a transformation of the Russian mentality which includes the recognition of Ukraine not only as a geographical denomination. The focus on Europe has been another cornerstone of Ukraine’s developing foreign relations. The government is aware that the inclusion of Ukraine in the European Community requires profound transformation of the political, economic, social and cultural system.