Ukrainian community in Russia: steadily blossoming (11/16/97)

Ukrainian community in Russia: steadily blossoming

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

MOSCOW - The cultural and community life of Ukrainians in Russia, if not yet in full bloom, is steadily blossoming. You can be sure of that. There are educational centers, music salons, libraries, Sunday schools for kids, and a steadily developing network of local organizations spread across the vast reaches of the Russian Federation that are united under the Association of Ukrainians in Russia.

Since the demise of Soviet Union in 1991, civil society in Russia has slowly taken shape, but according to the president of the association, Oleksander Rudenko-Desniak, it has some way to go before it reaches the state of community development that exists in the United States or Canada.

"The diaspora in Canada or the United States was built through the course of 100 years. We have been building for five [years]. So we don't have that experience," explained Mr. Rudenko-Desniak.

"About five or six years ago there was a fascination with national self-identification. Traditional dance and song became popular, as did a sense of nostalgia. This wave then somehow died. Today, new processes have begun, new organizations are emerging. But today they are being created with a certain sense of professionalism."

Mr. Rudenko-Desniak said that in Moscow a Ukrainian Institute, comparable to the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, has been established at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, while in Perm, a city located in Siberia, an educational organization was recently started.

He explained that, given time, professional organizations of lawyers, doctors and teachers are sure to arise. "Ukrainians will continue to gather, let's say during Christmas or whenever, but the everyday work of the community will take on a specialized character. One group will deal with religious matters, others with social services, and so on," explained Mr. Rudenko-Desniak.

Five million Ukrainians are scattered throughout Russia. They live in the major cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as in outlying regions, most notably in the oil and gas regions of Tiumen. There are communities in Zelenyi Klyn, at the eastern edge of Russia, where many Ukrainians settled in the last century; in Perm, where the notorious concentration camps for political prisoners were located; and in the Kuban region, a land that historically was Ukrainian. They are organized at a level far higher than one would expect merely seven years after something approaching democracy was established in Russia. Following is a look at three communities.

Ukrainian life in Moscow

Russian government statistics state that 265,000 people who identify themselves as Ukrainian live in Moscow, although many people here say that it is really closer to 1.5 million. Ukrainians here have developed a community infrastructure centered around the Ukrainian National Educational Center, whose building is currently under construction on the Arbat, the center of the old market district of Moscow located in the shadow of the Kremlin. Just as the development of Ukrainian institutions will take time, so will the construction of the center of Ukrainian life in Moscow. Leaders of the Ukrainian community here expect to wait another couple of years before the building is finished. The reason? "As usual, the issue is a lack of money," explained the president of the Association of Ukrainians in Moscow, Valerii Symonenko.

Mr. Symonenko said his organization has been legally registered in Moscow since October 1992 and currently represents 15 organizations. It does not have its own offices but works out of the temporary offices of the educational center, also located on the Arbat.

Mr. Symonenko said no Ukrainian churches exist in Moscow, and that the only Ukrainian church in the region, the Epiphany Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate in Noginsk, 30 miles north of Moscow, was recently shut down by the Russian government. He explained that the cathedral catered mostly to Russians because few Ukrainians live in Noginsk.

He also said no official government-sponsored day schools exist in Moscow, but that the government sponsors one after-school program for Ukrainian kids and that there is a private Sunday school program.

For Ukrainians in Moscow seeking intellectual stimulation, in addition to the recently organized Ukrainian Institute at the Moscow Pedagogical University, there is the Library of Russian and Ukrainian Literature (soon to be renamed), which was given to the Association of Ukrainians in Russia this past July. It has been functioning since 1987 and has a collection of 30,000 Ukrainian books and periodicals from all over the world, according to the library's director, Oleksii Hryhorovych.

Mr. Hryhorovych said the library is actually an extension of a similar one established in Moscow in the 1920s by Lenin and shut down in 1936 by Stalin.

Meanwhile, those who want to hear Ukrainian music can turn to the Ukrainian Music Salon to satiate their thirst. The salon offers classical, theatrical and pop music in the Ukrainian language on a monthly basis, featuring performers from such renowned centers of music as the Bolshoi Theater and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow.

Mr. Symonenko said that although many Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians take part in Ukrainian cultural events, unfortunately, only several hundred of the thousands of Ukrainians in Moscow are active participants in Ukrainian life. "If there is a concert, many will show up, but when it comes to working there are only several hundred we can count on," explained Mr. Symonenko.

Shevchenko to return to St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg can not be considered one of the centers of Ukrainian life in Russia. The city, long known for its artists, writers and the Hermitage, which houses the world's finest collection of art, has about 200,000 Ukrainians, few of whom are active. Many of them are the ancestors of Ukrainian Kozaks who worked and also died in the 17th century to build the city.

There are no Ukrainian schools in St. Petersburg and no churches. Zina Yolos, a delegate to the Congress of Ukrainians in Russia, said the two Ukrainian organizations in St. Petersburg are working to establish at least one school. "Right now we are doing what we can to have a Ukrainian language program." Her daughter, who was with her in Moscow at the congress, spoke halting Ukrainian, although her mother explained that she understood the language thoroughly. She said that most of that knowledge was a result of visits to Ms. Yolos' hometown of Poltava.

The two Ukrainian organizations of St. Petersburg, the Shevchenko Cultural-Educational Society and the Fund for Ukrainian Culture, are also working to complete an ambitious project to finally establish a monument to Taras Shevchenko in the city where he studied and achieved fame as an artist.

The two groups have commissioned a bust of the Ukrainian bard from the famous Ukrainian Canadian sculptor Leo Mol. Ukrainians in St. Petersburg covered the cost of the work, which was a minor problem compared with finding a place to erect the monument. That had to be obtained through the city government. Ms. Yolos said the city of St. Petersburg finally gave them a square not far from Nevsky Prospect, the city's main thoroughfare. Currently the foundation for the monument is being erected. An unveiling is scheduled for March 1998.

Life in the hinterlands

On the other side of the Ural Mountains, in the rich oil and gas fields of the Tiumen region of western Siberia, life for Ukrainians is not bad. More than 250,000 Ukrainians, many of whom spent time in the political prisoners' camps of western Russia and their families, as well as others who traveled to the region to work after oil and gas were discovered in 1954, live in the region today. They form the largest minority group in the Tiumen region, ahead of the Tatars and Bashkirs. But, more importantly, they earn an average of up to $500 a month in the three large refineries located in the area, and the work is steady.

The president of the Association of National Cultural Autonomy of the Hantymantsivskyi autonomous district, Petro Yaremchuk, who arrived there in the early 1960s from Zhytomyr as part of the Komsomol movement that encouraged young people to move to Siberia to work in the oil and gas fields, said seven organizations fall under his umbrella organization, and they are all very active.

"In the city of Surgut, we have had a Sunday school for five years now," explained Mr. Yaremchuk. "More than 100 students attend every year. We have Russians who have come to us wanting to learn Ukrainian."

A major project for Mr. Yaremchuk's organization is the establishment of a day school in the city of Surgut, where many Ukrainians in this region live, which would be the first in Russia. "We are trying to have the regional authorities give us permission for one daily school that would teach Ukrainian," explained Mr. Yaremchuk.

He said a Ukrainian Cultural Center has been established in Surgut's Palace of Culture through the efforts of Hanna Lytvyn, who is assistant director of the palace. Ms. Lytvyn is also director of the Ukrainska Rodyna (Ukrainian Family) Society, which established the cultural center.

The center has its own choir, the Zoria Choral Ensemble of Slavic Music. The group performed in Great Britain during celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

But what truly binds the Ukrainian community in this region is the Ukrainian evenings sponsored by the cultural center. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, Ukrainians come together at the center for cultural events and concerts by Ukrainian performers. Not long ago Nina Matvienko performed, as has the Yavir Ensemble.

When there are no concerts, there are dozens of periodicals from Ukraine as well as videocassettes and audiocassettes, all courtesy of the Ukrainian Consulate located in Tiumen.

This community also has the benefit of a priest from Ukraine who travels here during Christmas and Easter, which is a rarity for Ukrainian communities in Russia. Oddly, he is a priest of the Greek-Catholic Church. But at least he is Ukrainian. "Some people don't like it because most people here are Orthodox. But they come to hear liturgy anyway," said Mr. Yaremchuk. As for a Ukrainian Orthodox Church presence here, Mr. Yaremchuk said, "we don't hear much from them."

That, however, appears to be a minor obstacle for this active Ukrainian community to overcome.

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