"Building a Future '96" is theme of joint conference in Edmonton (11/10/96)

"Building a Future '96" is theme of joint conference in Edmonton

by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

PART I

EDMONTON - The mood at the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies was an interesting mixture of festivity and foreboding. On October 5, at the Ukrainian-owned Chateaux Louis Hotel and Conference Center, the CIUS joined forces with the Alberta Provincial Council of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) to hold a conference, "Building a Future '96."

Since the CIUS, based at the University of Alberta, is an institution whose record in publishing and scholarship has, according to some, equaled if not eclipsed that of its older U.S. counterpart, the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, there was much to be festive about.

And yet, since it is operating in a country whose provincial and federal governments are reconsidering their erstwhile deep-pocket approach to spending on post-secondary education, the warnings were equally appropriate.

All sessions were heavily attended, as conference organizers coped with the crush of about 300 scholars, educators, business leaders, legal and medical professionals and community activists with happy bewilderment.

Imperiled Ukrainian studies?

During one of the day's panels, "Ukrainian Studies and the Community," Dr. Danylo Struk of the University of Toronto department of Slavic languages and literatures, editor-in-chief of the five-volume encyclopedia and CIUS associate director, was among the first to sound the note of foreboding about the peril the current atmosphere of cutbacks presents to Ukrainian studies across the country.

"One of my colleagues told me: 'OK Struk, don't pull a Cassandra speech, this is celebration,' " the Toronto-based scholar began, "but I don't want to be a Cassandra, because she was a seer who wasn't believed, and I hope you will believe me."

Dr. Struk said the present Ontario provincial government's "inventory approach" to educational funding has university administrations insisting that courses, even entire departments, with low enrollment should be cut, no matter how seminal they might have been in a liberal arts curriculum.

For Ukrainian language and literature studies, levels of six to eight students per class previously considered "normal" are now beginning to be considered insufficient.

"It's not a question of me losing a job," Dr. Struk explained, "I have tenure and I specialized in Russian literature, so I can go back to teaching that - it's a question of losing what we spent the last quarter of a century building, in just one year."

The encyclopedist asked everyone in the Ukrainian community to be more assiduous in cajoling their student-aged children to attend Ukrainian university courses, and to guard against sapping enrollment in established university courses by signing up for overlapping courses offered by individual institutions. He encouraged the latter to harmonize their programs with offerings at post-secondary institutions.

Next up was Dr. Frank Sysyn, director of CIUS's Peter Jacyk Center for Ukrainian Historical Research, who addressed the change in relationship between the community and the fields of Ukrainian studies before and after political independence was secured overseas.

Dr. Sysyn related that throughout the 1950s and 1960s, both Ukrainian philology and social studies were labeled as marginal and narrow, and many of the scholars working within the fields were immigrants or first-generation descendants of immigrants, who were often tagged as "professional ethnic scholars."

The Harvard-educated historian also mentioned the career of Columbia University's Prof. George Shevelov, who suffered from the chilling influence of the Soviet academic line in Slavic linguistics, and the condescension of a respected University of Toronto scholar who in 1980 questioned one of the candidates for the Chair of Ukrainian Studies there: "Why are you looking to get into this Ruritanian [sic] studies thing?"

"I don't have to be paranoid to know that people are out to get me," Dr. Sysyn quipped.

Since Ukrainian independence, the gradual realization of the country's strategic importance, the availability of limited but not insignificant forms of economic opportunity associated with working there, and the slow sloughing-off of the Sovietological academic perspective ("those who missed the break-up of the Soviet Union," Dr. Sysyn joked), a new generation of ethnically non-Ukrainian scholars has been attracted to the field.

Dr. Sysyn suggested that a new focus on bringing students and scholars to Canada on exchanges could do much to allay the specters of program reduction because of low enrollment. For obvious reasons, study in North America is hugely attractive for Ukrainian academics.

Dr. Sysyn pointed out that Ukrainian Canadian scholars should not be disappointed that the rate of expansion in their field is not as great as it is in the U.S. (where new centers of study are being established at such institutions as the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University - and in new areas such as anthropology and sociology) and in Germany (where demand for experts on Ukraine in the private sector is booming). Given the disproportionately high level of institutional presence achieved in Canada, and the cutbacks now being imposed, Dr. Sysyn urged people to be realistic in their expectations.

Peter Savaryn, the former chancellor of the University of Alberta and former president of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians, reiterated some long-standing themes, stressing the need to maintain the "three pillars" of Ukrainian identity: biological continuity, cultural cohesion and religious identification. He said the Ukrainian Canadian community's elite needs to focus on the specifics of preserving Ukrainian identity, a task he said should be easier now that a Ukrainian state exists.

The moderator of the panel, CFUS President Morris Diakowsky, said one of the roles of Ukrainian studies is to "act as a proxy ancestor to all Canadians of Ukrainian origin" - to transmit the cultural, political and linguistic heritage.

The other role, Mr. Diakowsky said, is that they are "a measure of our position in Canada - if Ukrainian studies flourish, we can say that 'Yes, we are in the mainstream.' If they wither and die, then cease to occupy that position as we should."

Embattled multiculturalism

Another note of malaise was sounded during the panel on "The Campaign for Multiculturalism," in which Dr. Manoly Lupul, one of its most active proponents in Canada, and James Jacuta, past president of the UCC's Alberta Provincial Council, which is based in Edmonton, ostensibly at the center of the strongest Ukrainian demographic stronghold in the country, addressed the issue.

Dr. Lupul, CIUS founding director who served from 1976 until 1985, began with a historical overview of multiculturalism's institutional roots in Canada, then said the final piece in the puzzle was the influence of a left-wing Ukrainian intellectual "mafia," which, with virtually no mandate from the community, accomplished much on behalf of all Ukrainian Canadians.

Dr. Lupul sketched the influence of figures such as Mr. Hohol, who pushed the concept of the CIUS through the Alberta Cabinet; Julian Koziak, former minister of education, who shepherded the adoption of multiculturalism as an object of study in primary and secondary schools; and Laurence Decore, mayor of Edmonton and a member of the national Consultative Council on Multiculturalism, who pushed for the adoption of Section 27 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to enshrine the policy in the Constitution.

Dr. Lupul thundered that multiculturalism "was not born in a social and political vacuum." He asserted if the policy is to survive, everyone must recognize that the benefits of the welfare state are not "socialist aberrations," but positive steps taken to overcome the inequities of a vertical (ethnically hierarchical) mosaic.

In conclusion, Dr. Lupul said only continued involvement in the political process from the grassroots to the highest levels will ensure that desired appropriations are made.

In response to a question from the floor, Dr. Lupul added that the days of elitist mavericks alone pushing policy are over. He said the community has to put action and commitment where its mouth is. "Politicians are not fools," he said, "If we holler for this and that, and then nobody shows up in the classroom, or at a rally, or at a museum, then you can guess how long they're going to keep listening."

Mr. Jacuta averred that he had not come up with any systematic way of tackling or analyzing the situation facing proponents of multiculturalism, but had a series of overlapping observations. He said given "the way the 'public interest' is defined in governmental program reviews of the policy, lately it simply means that multiculturalism has fallen off the agenda."

He added that Ukrainians and Canadians in general have failed in communicating the meaning and positive aspects of a multicultural policy to French Quebecers. Mr. Jacuta said ongoing hostility to the policy in Quebec and the strength of a separatist movement in the province has frightened federalists in the Liberal government into dropping multiculturalism as a priority.

The former UCC-APC president stressed the need for Ukrainians to position themselves in the top echelon of the private sector, and not concentrate on government (an area of visible success in the past) as much, because the globalization of the world's economy has wrested many levers of social control from governmental hands.

Mr. Jacuta also recommended a layering of Ukrainian organizations willing to push varying degrees of a strong activist line in lobbying the government, as done by the Chinese and Jewish communities in Canada.

He also encouraged the use of Section 27 of the Constitution (which refers to Canada as a "multicultural society in a bilingual framework") in court challenges to government policy in order to secure appropriations for community programs. Mr. Jacuta recognized that this goes against the traditional Ukrainian grain of deferring to majoritarian authority, but it is a rich area of opportunity since so few cases have been brought under the clause.

Independent Ukraine: path to the future

Among the first, and best attended, sessions marked the return to Edmonton of former CIUS director (1986-1991) Bohdan Krawchenko, who has more or less taken up permanent residence in Kyiv as a part of Ukraine's academic firmament. Together with Dr. David Marples, director of the CIUS's Stasiuk Program for the Study of Contemporary Ukraine, they offered a balanced and cautious estimation of the five-year-old democracy taking root north of the Black Sea.

Dr. Marples led off by noting that in the past five years Ukraine has emerged, from a position of upheaval (in 1991), then international isolation (over the issue of de-nuclearization and because of conflicts with Russia) and a state of economic crisis, to establish itself as the most stable of the former Soviet republics.

Despite Leonid Kuchma's diplomatic efforts and Russia's increasing embroilment in the Chechen conflict, Ukraine has largely remained what many of its envoys sought to avoid it becoming: a buffer zone between Russia and Europe.

Dr. Marples said both former Soviet politico-economic organization and simple geography have led to a growing regionalization within Ukraine. However, the oft-touted east-west divide is much less significant, in the Stasiuk program director's opinion, than contention between various industrial-political fiefdoms (such as the Donetsk vs. Dnipropetrovsk standoff).

The economic historian said the crippled Chornobyl nuclear plant continues to be a problem, both environmentally and as an ongoing source of energy, and will likely be one in the long term, as hydro-electric power production is stagnant and the coal industry is deeply inefficient.

Dr. Marples said large-scale health problems that are the legacy of Soviet carelessness about pollution, including a recent resurgence in previously controlled diseases, continue to plague the country (literally), but that the government has finally become clear-headed about addressing the problem.

He described the adoption of a Constitution in June as a "triumph for Ukraine," and discounted detractors' claims that the delays in ratifying it boded ill for the polity. "As you know, I also study Belarus," Dr. Marples said, "and they're already tired of their Constitution, at least the president [Alyaksandr Lukashenka] seems to be."

Dr. Marples concluded on a note of "cautious optimism" and, ironically, with a typically Ukrainian sentiment: "it's better than in Russia."

Elites and institution-building

Dr. Krawchenko, now serving as the vice-rector of the Institute for Public Administration in Ukraine, the dean of graduate studies at the University at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and chairman of the Soros Foundation in Ukraine, offered a characteristically forceful assessment of Ukraine's half decade of independence, its present and its prospects.

"When all is said and done," the former CIUS director began, "it is a miracle that Ukraine is an independent state." He said the fifth anniversary celebrations, replete with well-groomed soldiers bearing standards emblazoned with national slogans, were a symbol of how far the country had come.

Dr. Krawchenko added that nobody should have any illusions about how difficult the past five years were. To dramatize the magnitude of the institution-building accomplished, the Oxford-educated scholar said while Ukraine had inherited the third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and the fourth largest standing army in the world, its Ministry of Defense was practically non-existent. "For the longest time, it had only seven people working in it," he said.

The country had no ministry of finance to draw up, let alone administer, a budget for a complex industrial economy ridden with "colossal problems." A surrogate currency, the "coupon," had to be issued without the supervision of a central bank. "All of the people who would have taken charge of such matters were in Moscow," Dr. Krawchenko said.

What distinguishes Ukraine from countries of the Third World that have found themselves in similar situations, the German-born academic said, was that most officials in Ukraine have "an unbelievably fast learning curve, outstanding mathematical and analytical skills."

Supremely able individuals, such as National Bank of Ukraine Chairman Viktor Yushchenko and Vice Prime Minister Viktor Pynzenyk, have proven to be crucial.

Fastening on a favorite topic, Dr. Krawchenko said President Leonid Kravchuk's principal achievement was in securing the loyalty of regional elites. "A national political class was forged, and regional elites were integrated into a national elite," he said. "There is a political class in Ukraine now that will not sell Ukraine down the tubes."

According to the former CIUS director, since regional power centers, particularly those from the Donbas, concentrated on trying to assert control over the country as a whole rather than simply focus on local needs and move toward separation, the progressive course toward full-fledged national independence was assured.

The government's accent on citizenship rather than ethnicity in determining allegiance to the new state also produced relatively calm internal political discourse.

Allegiance was bought by way of concessions to "red barons" who controlled major industrial and agricultural enterprises, which resulted in terrible economic performance and a plundering of state assets, but also in short-term political stability.

In Dr. Krawchenko's opinion, there was probably no other way, since he believes that there was no single sector of state power that could be organized and moved against one of the powerful interests. "The billions of dollars that left Ukraine during this period was probably the price that had to be paid for statehood," he said.

Since the ascension of Leonid Kuchma to the presidency, Ukraine's progress along the road of economic reform has paved the way for an estimated $3 billion in foreign investments that are expected to be brought into the country. "It is interesting to note," Dr. Krawchenko said, "that Cyprus appears to be the origin of most of the money, obviously from 'off-shore' companies, and in fact, in terms of percentage (5.1 to 5.0) exceeds that of Russia's input." Dr. Krawchenko took this as a sign that Ukraine's flight capital was coming back.

Other yardsticks for success will be a rationalization of the tax system, whose exorbitant rates have driven half of the country's gross domestic product into the shadow economy. Dr. Krawchenko said 70 percent of the construction industry and 80 percent of the transport industry are part of the shadow economy, and thus outside the taxation system.

"Of course," he concluded, "if you're going to have all of the things entailed by civilization, such as a health, welfare and education system, you need to have a tax base that will support it."

Dr. Krawchenko recalled a recent conversation he had with Vice Prime Minister Pynzenyk about the number of tax officials in Ukraine, of which the latter was not aware.

"You have 15,000," the adviser recalled telling Mr. Pynzenyk. "France has over 150,000, so unless you get the human component working here, you may have the best policy in the world, but if there's nobody around to implement it, it's not going to do you any good."

In response to a question about technical assistance from the West, Dr. Krawchenko said, "it's a very big game, and a lot of people have done very well for themselves, but there has been a vast evolution in the kind of technical assistance provided."

The adviser to the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers said the country had been "killed over the first three to four years" by the flood of consultants.

The good assistance projects, according to Dr. Krawchenko, are those which build institutions that will survive, which will build capacity and contribute to human development. "Don't waste money on airfare by coming to deliver seminars on governmental management," the former CIUS director said, echoing his priorities during his tenure atop the institute for five years, "write and publish a book, which can then be used as a text, and have the knowledge spread widely - that's good technical assistance."

CONCLUSION