DATELINE IVANO-FRANKIVSK: A celebration of independence (11/24/96)

DATELINE IVANO-FRANKIVSK: A celebration of independence

by Helen Smindak

The Ukrainian Weekly correspondent Helen Smindak took an eight-week excursion last summer through the Carpathian Mountain foothills in southeast Poland, eastern Slovakia and western Ukraine. Traveling solo, she visited Lemko and Rusyn folk festivals (see Dateline Zdynia, September 15, for the Lemko festival), toured museums, art galleries and vintage wooden churches, and celebrated the fifth anniversary of Ukraine's independence with the residents of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. Her description of the Ivano-Frankivsk celebration follows.

IVANO-FRANKIVSK - For two days last August, the citizens of western Ukraine's second largest city reveled in the ecstasy of Ukraine's fifth anniversary as a free nation, setting aside worries about unemployment, unpaid pensions, inflation and the lack of hot water.

Thousands of residents, many of them in embroidered shirts, and a clutch of visitors from the United States and Canada joined civic and regional officials at a viche (rally) outside the regional administration building on the morning of August 24. During the afternoon, they strolled through the streets of the town center, browsing through crafts exhibits, taking in an outdoor stage program presented by the city's choral and folk dance ensembles, and nibbling pastries purchased from street vendors. In the evening, they streamed into Rukh stadium to view a theatrical pageant featuring 1,000 costumed performers.

On Sunday, they assembled at two commemorative programs marking the 140th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Franko, western Ukraine's foremost poet and writer, for whom the city and region were re-named in 1962 (they were formerly known as Stanyslaviv). The ceremonial placing of wreaths and garlands of flowers was held at the Franko monument in the afternoon, while a formal program of speeches, poetry, drama and music took place at the Ivan Franko Philharmonic Music and Drama Theater in the evening.

Patriotic sentiment ran high, for this region is part of the heartland of Ukrainian nationalism as well as the center of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), whose soldiers fought both German and Russian invaders during World War II.

Golden sunshine and blue skies, reflected in bright yellow-and-blue banners and national flags bedecking shop windows, squares and streets, embraced the weekend following weeks of wet, dreary weather.

Slava Ukrayini!

While crowds gathered for the rally in front of the white building on Hrushevsky Street that houses Ivano-Frankivsk's administrative offices and cultural organizations and societies, cries of "Slava!" and "Slava Ukrayini!" were shouted repeatedly by bystanders and uniformed contingents assembled around the square.

Large statues of a bandurist and a dulcimer-player, symbols of the unity of central/eastern Ukraine and western Ukraine, looked benignly at dignitaries gathered on stage in front of the "White House," as the administrative building is popularly called.

Main speaker Stepan Volkovetsky, a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada from Ivano-Frankivsk and chief administrator of the Ivano-Frankivsk region, brought greetings from Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and told the cheering crowd: "We will never return to totalitarianism; we will go forward to a better future." His address culminated with the declaration: "Our nation exists, and will exit for ages to come."

Listening to Mr. Volkovetsky and to speakers who referred to August 24, 1991, as a "singular event" that saw "the beginning of a new era for Ukraine," Daria K. Detsyk nodded her head emphatically, tears glinting in her eyes. The septuagenarian, who served as one of Ivano-Frankivsk's deputies to the first Verkhovna Rada of independent Ukraine, has spent years on the national UPA board and with the Memorial Society, trying to bring the reality of Soviet crimes against Ukraine to the knowledge of its newly sovereign citizens. (In October 1992, The New York Times had carried a story about Mrs. Detsyk by Steven Erlanger titled "A Life as Prisoner of Europe's Hatreds.")

Homemaker and embroidery expert Yaroslava Slutsky, secretary of the local Rukh organization since its inception in 1987, had a blissful smile on her face, a smile that said, "We are free."

Elsewhere in the crowd, Ihor Petrovsky, an employed refrigerator technician, and his wife, Oksana, a part-time nurse, held their young sons, Yevhen, 4, and Artur, who was born on Independence Day in 1991. The youngsters, sporting embroidered shirts and bright blue shorts, gazed wide-eyed as dozens of the region's top athletes, including Olympic participants Roman Virastiuk and Serhiy Osovych, jogged into the square to the acclaim of the crowd.

Charging the event with excitement and high emotion were the strains of the Ukrainian national anthem, played by the band several times during the rally; the bright voices of pre-school children reciting and singing patriotic verses, and the rhythmic clatter of soldiers' boots striking the pavement in unison during the parade at rally's end.

Army veterans, former Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and UPA members, Ivano-Frankivsk's police force, the National Guard of Ukraine, Soyuz Ukrayinok members, athletes and a group of young men in Kozak garb joined in the march past the reviewing stand.

Vivid tableaux

As the sun dipped low on the horizon on Saturday evening, the blare of three trembitas resounded across the stands of Rukh stadium, echoing through nearby Shevchenko Park and rippling across the rooftops in the southwest corner of the city.

The plaintive call of the Hutsul folk instruments, an integral part of the people who inhabit the southern portion of the Ivano-Frankivsk region, heralded the entrance of 100 flag bearers and initiated a four-hour pageant observed by some 20,000 persons.

Formal opening ceremonies included the singing of "Bozhe Velykyi, Yedynyi" by a mixed choir, a reading of the act proclaiming the independence of Ukraine, and the playing of the Ukrainian anthem while the national flag was hoisted into the air.

The history of Ukraine unfolded in a series of vivid tableaux portraying prominent leaders of the past, who appeared on stage and addressed the audience - the early ruler Askold, the Princes Yaroslav Mudryi, Volodymyr Monomakh and Danylo Halytsky, and Hetmans Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Ivan Mazepa, who were accompanied by a group of Zaporozhian Kozaks. They were followed by the Hutsul chieftain Oleksa Dovbush, the Sichovi Striltsi and UPA soldiers, whose appearance on the field drew a standing ovation from the audience.

Woven together by a dramatic narrative, the inspirational portraits were accompanied by presentations from choral ensembles, soloists, orchestras and folk-dance groups from the city and the region, assisted by a guest dance troupe from Zaporizhia. The tableaux were performed on three stages - a large main stage with a raised rear deck and two circular stages set at the ends of the field.

The 1930s famine was depicted by gaunt figures on a darkened field; the period of detention and internment by black-clad men with dogs and groups of people carrying tablets inscribed with the names of concentration camps. The tragedies of Chornobyl and Babyn Yar were mourned by three women in black and white clothing to the accompaniment of tolling bells.

Actors portraying poets Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko and Lesia Ukrayinka, quoting their own works, voiced their conviction that the Ukrainian people could not be vanquished.

The compelling production concluded on a high note with a half-hour extravaganza of Hutsul dancing and a mass scenario representing the freedoms and benefits enjoyed by Ukrainians today, presented by hundreds of dancers, singers, teenage acrobats, children, army bands and a column of National Guard soldiers.

Directed by Merited Artist of Ukraine Volodymyr Nesterenko, who was assisted by Volodymyr Oleksiuk and Roman Bratkovsky, the pageant featured vocal soloists Oksana Domshynska, Lazlo Gabosh, Mykhailo Popeliuk and Yaroslav Krainyk, a host of distinguished actors, and bandurist Pavlo Suprun. Oksana Ivanytska and Oleksander Shymansky, who delivered the narration, gave the production an extra punch.