Ukrainians in Russia participate in first nationalities congress (05/15/94)

Ukrainians in Russia participate in first nationalities congress

by Viktoria Hubska and Roman Woronowycz
Kyyiv Press Bureau

MOSCOW - Ukrainians who live in Russia have strived to reassert their ethnic identity here since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. Lately, they have achieved a smidgeon of success.

Through more than 70 years of forced assimilation, many quietly maintained their traditions and culture, although others succumbed to Russification. Some were forced to move here in relocation projects conjured up by Soviet demagogues to dilute the ethnic make-up of the nations they subjugated. Others came because, realistically, Moscow was where the jobs and the opportunities were. They were dissuaded from developing community ties - at times through intimidation or even outright violence.

With the collapse of the empire, the Ukrainian "hromada" here slowly began to regroup and coalesce. But it has been difficult, due to the fickle nature of Russian politics. Just as quickly as the country absorbed a degree of democratic liberalism, segments of the population recoiled into fanatic ultra-nationalism. Now, Ukrainians living here must deal with the aftershock and fight a growing popular movement calling for Russia to go back to its imperialistic, Russophilic ways.

But the 6 million Ukrainians who live in Russia are alive and attempting to strengthen their commitment to maintaining their ethnic heritage. Ukrainian organizations are found in all of Russia's regions in the form of Sunday language schools, choral ensembles, parishes (although no Ukrainian churches have been legitimized), libraries and business clubs. Two Ukrainian-language newspapers, the Ukrainian Courier and Selection, are now published, albeit through private funds.

In October 1993, the various Ukrainian-minded organizations united under the umbrella of the Organization of Ukrainians of Russia (OUR). They gained just a bit more credibility on April 29 when the OUR took part in the first ever Congress of Nationalities of Russia (CNR).

Russia has not accredited the CNR. However, 10 percent of Russia's populace was represented at the congress, a force with which the Russian government will eventually have to come to terms. Among the 15 ethnic groups present were Ukrainians, Georgians, Armenians, Jews, Greeks, Azerbaijanis, Kazakhs, Koreans and Turks.

The CNR conference was a one-day affair, at which various speakers presented their views on how the united ethnic front should proceed in developing political power in Russia. The 150 delegates listened first to a greeting from Russian President Boris Yeltsin, immediately followed by one from the Ukrainian National Association of the United States. Mychaylo Chlenov of the Jewish Union Vaad gave the keynote address.

The congress agreed on the most important focus for the near term: to work to develop a consultative assembly of nationalities in the Russian Parliament to support ethnic culture and education.

Vitaliy Zorych, a leader of OUR and a member of the CNR, said, "In the end we want our members to be elected to the Russian Parliament in 1995, because no political party defends the rights of minorities in the current Russian Parliament."

The agenda of the OUR, which was registered with the CNR in February and unlike the CNR has also been allowed to register with the Russian government (also in February), is more aggressive than that. Its initial agenda includes: sustaining the national rebirth of Ukrainians in Russia; working for democratic values and democratic reforms; support for reconciliation in Ukrainian-Russian relations, and cooperation with other ethnic unions.

Financially, the organization has been supported by a contribution from the Russian governmental committee on matters of nationalities and federation chaired by Serhiy Shakhray, himself an admitted Ukrainian. But the most fertile source has been Ukraine's Ministry of Culture, which donated 80 million rubles.

The head of the OUR, Oleksander Rudenko-Desniak, a writer by trade, said another of the organization's goals is to spur the resolution of differences between Ukraine and Russia and to discover points of concurrence, so that the two countries can agree on the integrity of their borders and the need to maintain relations in economic trade.

No one should claim that this Ukrainian diaspora wants to structure itself like the Western diaspora of North America and Europe, they are more likely to support the Kuchma action in the politics of Ukraine than to find a nest within the nationalistic bend of a politician like Vyacheslav Chornovil.

In the elections to the Russian Federation's Parliament, the OUR called for the Ukrainian diaspora to vote for candidates from the PRES-UNION, the party headed by Mr. Shakhray, which was the only political entity that realized the need to reconcile within Russia the problems of minorities in Russia. However, he is not a Vyachaslav Chornovil nor even a Leonid Kravchuk when it comes to protecting Ukrainian interests.

Likewise, no amount of financial support can overcome the policy of inertia of a Russian bureaucracy desiring to continue the subjugation of a Ukrainian minority. The assistant director of the OUR, Volodymyr Zakharenko, who also spoke at the congress said, "We have not a single Ukrainian-language public school here. No law exists regarding the protection of ethnic minorities. Without it we have no guarantees that tomorrow we will again not be subject to persecution. He added that it is the responsibility of the Russian government to pass laws guaranteeing the rights of ethnic minorities.

Yevhen Ahitayev, head of the Commission on Ethnicity of the Moscow City Council and a member of OUR, said, "I dream of a good Ukrainian school in Moscow." He said that right now there is no permanent location for a Ukrainian-language school and that he drives his daughter three hours every Sunday so that she can attend a weekly class.

In the five years of its existence, the Sunday Ukrainian-language school in Moscow has changed its address eight times.

Pavlo Popovych, the former Soviet cosomonaut, now a member of the OUR, said that Mr. Ahitayev is not the only one who makes the long drive. "Kids from all ends of Moscow travel two to three hours to attend classes. They learn literature, history and Ukrainian traditions." Unfortunately, because the school doesn't have its own building and must rent, "Many times classrooms are in short supply," said Mr. Ahitayev.

The Slavutych Society, which cosmonaut Popovych founded in 1988, is currently fighting to have the government allow the program to establish a home in a building where the Ukrainian language was taught in the 1920s and 1930s.

Overt discrimination does not exist, unless you consider the government's refusal to finance public schools in the Ukrainian language as an example. Vasyl Kolomaysky of the OUR explained that he has not witnessed overt discrimination of Ukrainians "on the streets or in the workplace."

But anti-Ukrainianism does linger in the shadows. Mr. Zorych said, "In Russia, anti-Ukrainian newspapers increasingly are being published. One paper, Arguments, wrote that Russian territories have been stolen (by Ukraine)."

Vitaliy Zvarych, another OUR member, said that if you watch the proceedings of the Russian Parliament on television you quickly realize that those who you know to be Ukrainians hide their ancestry. "If you are a Ukrainian patriot (living in Moscow) and express it, then you cannot be politically effective."

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