FOR THE RECORD: Remarks by Zbigniew K. Brzezinski (04/23/00)

FOR THE RECORD: Remarks by Zbigniew K. Brzezinski

The following is a transcript of an address delivered on April 13 at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington by former White House National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski on the occasion of his receiving an honorary doctor of laws degree from the Ukrainian Free University in Munich. (The transcript was prepared by Yaro Bihun for The Ukrainian Weekly.)

"The Ukrainian Free University" - when one speaks those words, one has to think of Vienna, of Prague, of Munich. It's a long road - a very long road - a road that was pursued by independent Ukrainian intellectuals at a time of great national difficulties. Indeed, the beginning of that road coincided with a major national defeat.

The founding of the University in Vienna occurred at a time when Ukraine lost its bid for independence, when Soviet power was firmly established in Kyiv and Kharkiv, when the Polish-Ukrainian effort failed, when, earlier, the Polish-Ukrainian war ended in the victory for the Poles. This was a time when Ukrainian intellectuals could not pursue independent thought, free of ideological indoctrination in Ukraine, and when Ukrainian intellectuals where denied the opportunity to have their own university in Lviv.

This was a hard time for the Ukrainians. And yet, a group of Ukrainian intellectuals had the vision, the determination, the foresight to realize that national destiny can best be fulfilled if the nation is conscious of two very important elements, and in doing so, the Free University performed an incredibly important role in preserving, maintaining and sustaining that which Ukraine eventually became, which is: independent.

The first of these was the emphasis on national consciousness. And I think it's particularly important to emphasize this point here in Washington, because, in a way, this ceremony, by being held here today thanks to the Free University in Munich, testifies to the special role that the Ukrainian diaspora played in the preservation of Ukrainian national consciousness.

That consciousness was first falsified and then suppressed in the years of Stalinist terror and of Soviet rule; it was progressively corrupted. But the diaspora, which the Free University epitomized, preserved a sense of genuine, intense, living Ukrainian national consciousness. And that was absolutely essential. It is probably difficult to argue that Ukraine would be independent today if that sense of national consciousness had not been preserved. And it was preserved more freely and more vitally, and more creatively by the Ukrainians in the diaspora, because they had the opportunity to do so, and some had the imagination and the determination to create an institution which stood for that.

After a brief spell in Vienna, the university moved to Prague, and then, after the end of World War II, when it was obvious that there was no longer an opportunity for the university to continue in Prague, it relocated in Munich. It kept the flame alive and, in that sense, it stood as the spearhead of a national awareness that Ukrainians outside of Ukraine preserved even though at home that awareness was being suppressed and, maybe even worse than that, corrupted - corrupted, diluted, melded into something which wasn't truly national. And that was an extremely important role: the preservation of national consciousness.

But there's a second role that the diaspora has played, that the university epitomized, and which remains very important. And that is sustaining Ukraine's Western identity. That is just as important. For it is not only a question of preserving a distinctive, self-conscious national awareness - that's important - but it's also important what is its content, what is it filled with, what is its substance, what is it related to in a world in which we're all interrelated. And the Free University, by operating out of Prague, and then out of Munich, sent a very important message, namely, that Ukraine is part of Europe and is part of the Western civilization. It is not a Eurasian state; it is not part of some strange, often politically exploited, Slavic idea. It is a historic nation, with deep roots in the Western civilization - partakes of it and contributes to it. And that's an extremely important message, a message that gives much more definition to the idea of national consciousness.

And it's a message which, combined with the emphasis on national consciousness, is particularly important for Ukraine's future. For if Ukraine is to be a successful state - if it is to be a successful state, because in all frankness we cannot yet say it is a successful state - it has to be part of the Western community, because then it is part of something that reflects its own inner spirit and identity; it is true to itself.

Ukraine has been successful in sustaining its independence for the last 10 years, and that is an important success, which has to be emphasized and for which credit has to be given to the Ukrainians in Kyiv, in Lviv, in Kharkiv, in Donetsk and elsewhere. But Ukraine is not yet a successful state, and one should have no illusions about that. An enormous amount of work has yet to be done to create in Ukraine a state that operationally serves the people and that reflects underlying values inherent in Ukraine's national consciousness and Western identity. And that is still a long way before it's achieved.

And here the diaspora, again, can be terribly important. As one looks at the progress that Ukraine has made, as one looks at the younger Ukrainians that are surfacing and seeping into positions of political leadership, one has reason to be optimistic that historical change is pointed in a positive direction, but one should not overlook the difficulties and the consequences of the loss of independence, of the degradation, of the terror, and of the moral and political corruption, some of which still lingers and acts as a contagious malady affecting the quality of political and economic life. And that can only be overcome if the country is motivated, and particularly its elite is motivated simultaneously, by a strong sense of national identity and of membership in the Western community. And membership in the Western community involves a set of principles and of procedures, and modes of conduct that define the essence of the state and of the society which the state is supposed to serve.

And here, it seems to me, it is self-evident that the Free University, by being an outpost in the West, serves as a bridge with the West and is a source of magnetic attraction and identifies Ukraine more closely with the West. And it is, in my view, also the longer-range destiny of Ukraine, as a country, to be more integrally related to the West.

When one looks to the future, when one asks oneself where do you want to see Ukraine 20 years from now, I hope most Ukrainians both realize and yearn that the answer be clear: Ukraine in the European Union, Ukraine in the Atlantic Alliance.

And those are difficult choices. Not all Ukrainians are prepared to make it. Not all Ukrainians realize the consequences of these choices and the price that has to be paid. But there are also people who realize that if that choice is not made then Ukraine's future destiny becomes more questionable.

Rector [Miroslaw] Labunka referred to a speech which I made after a trip to the Soviet Union back in the 50s, and I, frankly, had forgotten it. But it appears that I said that in Ukraine there was still the flame of national identity alive, in contrast to Belarus. And that contrast is still important and it is particularly significant to reiterate it today, because there are a great many people, some of them in Ukraine, who would like Ukraine to be like Belarus, and to have external connections like Belarus, and to have a status like Belarus. And the implication of that is not positive - neither for Ukraine's national consciousness nor its Western identity.

So the decisions, the fundamental choices, still have to be made. And it is by reminding ourselves of what the diaspora has been committed to, and by creating closer links with Ukrainian intellectual life that the historically positive answers are more likely to be given. And this is why your mission still remains relevant, and this is why I'm very proud to wear this gown and these colors.

Thank you very much.

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