1991
As I spoke about yesterday, the Ukraine proclaimed independence in 1918. This independence was extremely short-lived, but it has remained fresh in the country’s consciousness.
For example:
In January, 1990, thousands joined hands to celebrate that first independence in 1918. This would have been unheard-of, even two or three years before. But the tone of the world at that time was one of upheaval, change, hope. Countries breaking free of their chains. Pope John Paul ratified the structure of the Ukrainian Catholic Church
Once we hit 1990, history starts speeding up again. After decades of silence.
In March of 1990, elections are held throughout the republic. The democratic opposition comes to power.
On June 16, 1990, there is a Declaration of Parliament stating that the Ukraine will be neutral and nonatomic.
In autumn of 1990, there were student strikes, and miners’ strikes. The students were demanding the resignations of all the Soviet leaders (many who had been incorporated in this new government.) The country was sliding into chaos.
In August, 1991, there was the infamous coup d’etat attempt in Moscow. Which is interesting on 5,000 different levels, but basically what the coup d’etat did was reveal (once and for all) the indecisive incompetence of the leaders in Moscow. The Ukraine decided immediately to choose its own destiny, and the Supreme Council proclaims the Ukraine’s independence on August 24, 1991.
Since then, the Ukraine’s executive branch has basically been taken over by gangsters. It is so amazing how many of the former countries of the USSR have nearly identical experiences following the collapse.
The governement is like a mafia. It embezzles cash. It manipulates elections, appropriates businesses, destroys the media, blackmails people it doesn’t like. It’s a netherworld of vaguely criminal activity.
More and more Ukrainians are emigrating.
I have to admit I don’t know the steps in between 1990 and now, which would lead to this development (except for the fact that it’s the same old story in all the former republics — they have no experience with representative democracy, the Soviets crushed the infrastructure of the government, there is a power vacuum and so these gangster mafia types have a very easy time filling up the gap).
There is also the little matter of ethnicity and ethnic cleansing, which is such a common theme in these former republics. In the 1980s and the 1990s a virtual war was fought in the Ukraine over language. 350 years of Russification had obliterated Ukrainian. There was a ban on printing books in Ukrainian. Etc. Well, the Ukrainians started rebelling. There was a desire to get rid of all Russian. To go back to their roots.
A lovely theory, no? The only problem is is that there are millions and millions of Russians who live in the Ukraine, and who have lived there for generations, and who consider themselves Ukrainian. They speak Russian, but they think of themselves as belonging to the Ukraine, as well. The Ukrainians beg to differ. This is the same old “we belong here, you don’t” bulls*** which causes so much trouble all over the world.
It is like the colonists who ended up fleeing Angola when the revolution occurred. These were Portugese people, yes. They were the “colonizers”. Whatever. These people had lived in Angola for generations. Angola was their home. But the natives disagreed and rode them out of the country on a rail. Of course, too, the Portugese were the only people in the country who knew how to do the things which would keep a country running. But the natives weren’t thinking logically. They were thinking ethnically.
So now, the Ukraine has been described as two countries: Eastern and Western. These two sides have almost completely different characters. None of this has been resolved yet, by the way. The nation has not cohered, or worked it all out. The current president, Kuchma, was re-elected in 1999 by intimidation and fraud. The Ukraine is losing it, quite frankly.
The Western side of the Ukraine belonged to Poland before the war. It is definitely more Ukrainian than the eastern side of the country. They speak Ukrainian here. The soul of the country and the people survived here, through the Soviet tyranny.
The Eastern side of the Ukraine is a different story, resting, as it does, right up against the Soviet Union. 13 million native Russians live here. The “Russification” campaign was brutal on the eastern side of the Ukraine. The entire Ukrainian intelligentsia was murdered by Stalin, in the 1930s, and, of course, the country has not yet recovered from that loss. It will take generations more.
