PERSPECTIVES: A letter to the chairman (09/13/98)

PERSPECTIVES

by Andrew Fedynsky

A letter to the chairman

Dear Chairman Tkachenko:

Please accept my congratulations on assuming the chairmanship of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada. This is an extremely important position and the leadership you provide will have a historic impact. Few people ever have that opportunity, and my prayers are with you to make the right decisions for Ukraine and the world. Allow me now to offer a few thoughts about your Independence Day speech on August 23. I wasn't there, but I read about it in The Ukrainian Weekly. According to reporter Roman Woronowycz, you asked the people at the Ukraina Palace of Culture not to be ashamed of the 70-plus Soviet years and called for a return to closer ties with Russia. You praised Volodymyr Scherbytsky, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine in the 1970s and 1980s, and condemned those who counseled a policy of "Away from Moscow!"

Before I go on, you should know that I'm not a citizen of Ukraine; I'm a Ukrainian American. I must also let you know that my family has bitter feelings toward the Soviet government you once served and whose legacy you now praise. My mother and father were both Ukrainian patriots who made the painful but unavoidable decision after World War II to leave the country they loved. Like hundreds of thousands of others, they left because they couldn't live with the policies of the Soviet government. I mean that literally.

Like every other Ukrainian, my parents lost family members and friends to the NKVD (secret police). My father's brother, for example, was murdered in 1940 or 1941 - no one knows exactly when or how he died or where his body was tossed. He was studying for the priesthood. To the Soviets that was a crime and they killed him for it.

Because Polish authorities had arrested my father in 1934 for distributing pro-Ukrainian leaflets, he would certainly have been executed by the Soviets in the 1945 had they been able to arrest him. So, really, my parents had no choice but to become political refugees.

It was painful: for the rest of their lives, they were filled with an aching sense of longing and loss for the land they loved. Life in America was good, but still they hoped someday to be able to go home. I regret they didn't live to see the glorious day of Ukraine's declaration of independence in 1991.

So what did I think of your speech? The great American political leader, Tip O'Neill is remembered for saying, "All politics is local." (Like you, he was a parliamentary leader, in his case, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.) I have to admit, therefore, that my reaction to your Independence Day speech is "local," a reflection of my family's tragic experience. In short, I didn't like your speech.

But it's not just about my family. Just consider: during the 70-plus Soviet years, the Cheka, OGPU, NKVD, KGB, MVD and other criminal organizations murdered millions of Ukrainians. The people know. Go to any city in Ukraine and ask where the torture chambers were, where the people were murdered and where the bodies are buried. They'll tell you. In Kyiv, it's in the Bykivnia woods.

In the countryside, where millions died in the artificial Famine of 1932-1933 that forced the peasantry from their land onto collective farms, it's different. There the killing fields were everywhere.

This is a shameful legacy that only the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge and Mao Tse Tung's Communists can match.

It's harsh, I know, but it's the truth. In the desperate straits Ukraine finds itself today, there is no room for lies. Yes, the legacy of Soviet rule is shameful, but shame can be a healthy emotion, provided it's accompanied by a resolve to change course and make amends.

In your speech you mentioned your admiration for Volodymyr Scherbytsky. I met Mr. Scherbytsky in 1985 at a reception at the U.S. Capitol hosted by the same speaker, Rep. O'Neill. I was probably the only American there who spoke Ukrainian.

In the reception line I took the opportunity to challenge Mr. Scherbytsky about his language policy. How can it be, I asked, that you as leader of Ukraine would promote a policy that will inexorably lead to the death of your own language? To my mind, he seemed embarrassed and annoyed, but he stood his ground and said this was a "normal process." Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin was standing by his side, monitoring his every word, so what else was Mr. Scherbytsky going to say? But then he probably believed what he said.

Today, Ukraine's language and culture have barely begun to recover from the Russification that Moscow ordered and Scherbytsky carried out. There are even members of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada who speak Russian during official deliberations. This is Volodymyr Scherbytsky's legacy. For the leader of one of Europe's oldest and largest nations, it's a shameful way to be remembered.

I must admit, Mr. Chairman, that there is one part of your speech I agree with. That was your praise for the New Economic Policy (NEP) of the 1920s.

As you'll recall from history, the new Bolshevik regime headed by Lenin nationalized industries and implemented wholesale grain requisitions. The result, not surprisingly, was economic depression and famine.

Under the NEP in 1921, small and medium-sized businesses were denationalized, private trade was legalized and the beginnings of foreign trade were initiated. Very soon, shops began opening, goods became available and people had food to eat. Lenin called it a New Economic Policy. Today, we call it the free market, and it's what Ukraine needs.

Collectivization and a whole series of Five-Year Plans, of course, wiped out all the progress of the NEP, and Stalin proceeded to build communism with the same methods the pharaohs used to build the pyramids.

Now in its eighth year of independence, Ukraine has enormous prospects, the country must look within for a solution to its problems. With vast expanses of fertile land, natural resources and people willing to work if they're rewarded, the country can take its place among the community of European nations. What's holding the country back are the old Soviet structures and outdated Communist attitudes. As for Moscow, there are no solutions there. Moscow has its own problems the are not going to be solved anytime soon. The Soviet empire fell apart seven years ago. Now it's the Russian Federation's that's in the process of disintegrating.

As a politician. I'm sure you realize that your Independence Day speech was a flop. According to Mr. Woronowycz people were turning away as you delivered it and no one offered to shake your hand afterward. But that's just one speech. You, along with President Kuchma, have a country to lead.

May I suggest that the first step toward a sound policy is to look truth in the eye and admit that the Soviet era was a disaster for Ukraine. As chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, you can provide the leadership to dismantle the failed Soviet structures, starting with the collective farms. Insist on an honest government and an honest society. Believe in the people, in their strength and their resources. And believe in Ukraine. You can go down in history as a great son of your nation. My prayers are with you.

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