NEWS AND VIEWS

The killing of a Ukrainian songwriter in Lviv,
Western journalists, historians of Ukraine and us

by Bohdan Vitvitsky

A Ukrainian singer-songwriter, Ihor Bilozir, is singing Ukrainian songs in a cafe one evening. A group of Russian toughs, incensed over his singing Ukrainian songs, catches up with him later that evening and beats him so severely that he dies of his wounds in a hospital several weeks later (June 4). Unbelievable? It becomes more so when you consider the following. This savagery took place not in Russia, but in Ukraine. It took place not in 1930, 1950 or 1960, but in the year 2000 - almost nine years after Ukraine became independent. And, it took place not in Donetsk, Luhansk or Crimea, but in Lviv.

Notably, this tragedy did not make the front page of The New York Times, or the third page or even the 50th page. It did not, to my knowledge, catch the attention of any other Western wire service or newspaper. And it is not something we can expect to appear on the radar screen of CBS's "60 Minutes."

What are we to make of all this? As always, the killing of a human being is, first and foremost, a tragedy of personal and familial dimension. But this killing also has many, many other dimensions.

To begin, it is extraordinary that a gang of Russian thugs should feel confident enough of their status even in the year 2000 and even in, of all places, Lviv to attack a Ukrainian for having the unmitigated gall to sing in Ukrainian. (Try, for example, to imagine a gang of Ukrainians beating up a Russian singer in St. Petersburg. You can't, right?) But old habits die hard, and former masters are loath to acknowledge their subjects' humanity, much less their equality.

Perhaps, however, we should not be surprised by all this. Twenty-some years after Volodymyr Ivasiuk was killed in Lviv, his family still has had no success in finding anything out about the true circumstances of his death. And in painful contrast to what happened in South Africa with its Truth and Reconciliation Commission, no one in Russia or Ukraine has ever come clean about the millions of Ukrainians murdered by the Soviets, nor has anyone ever been held accountable for anything.

Second, if, God forbid, a singer of Russian or Jewish ethnicity had been beaten to death by a group of Ukrainian thugs, that would have been "news." Western news media would likely have covered the event as exemplifying Ukrainian "nationalism," and so on. But why is it that when Russians kill a Ukrainian singer in Ukraine, that's not newsworthy?

There are probably several reasons. Journalists, with few exceptions, are not the brightest people in the world. Their perceptions are far too often shaped by conventions, stereotypes and prejudices, both positive and negative. Those events that happen to fit their particular set of preconceptions get noticed and reported upon. Those that do not, don't. The fatal beating of a Ukrainian singer by Russian thugs in Lviv apparently did not fit any Western news media's or individual reporter's preconceived notions of what is newsworthy.

To be fair to journalists, however, it behooves one to acknowledge that many Western scholars of the former Soviet Union are not much smarter. Note, for example, Jack Matlock's recent idiotic observation that under the Soviets Ukrainians were not discriminated against.

But why is it that the killing of a Ukrainian by Russians does not register on anyone's radar screen? In good part it is because historians and other writers about Ukraine have not even begun to scratch the surface in telling the story of the monumental depredations visited upon Ukraine and Ukrainians in the 20th century alone. They have not even begun, in any sustained way, to tell the story of the physical, cultural, social and economic wars waged against Ukrainians by Soviet Russian power through its various henchmen. They have not even begun to develop the vocabulary to describe the viciousness, breadth and scope of the murderous terror imposed upon Ukraine, or the brutality and unrelenting nature of the oppression and the degradation suffered by Ukrainians.

Another reason is that we Ukrainians have never effectively challenged the various historical distortions, items of disinformation and falsifications relating to our history that others have concocted and propounded. And, in some instances, we are simply thick. Western journalists, including some who really should know better, routinely refer to any Ukrainian individual or group that stands up for the rights of Ukraine and Ukrainians as being Ukrainian "nationalists." Instead of bellowing in protest, we say nothing, apparently unaware of the subtly discriminatory and derogatory use of language. Consider: does anyone ever call an American president or a Canadian prime minister an American or Canadian "nationalist?" Might that be because the term "nationalist" connotes extremism? Might it also be that while everyone assumes that Americans and Canadians have the right to stand up for their rights and to pursue their interests, there is an unspoken, and perhaps even subconscious, assumption that Ukrainians do not?

Isn't it high time that these respective tasks and issues be commenced and addressed? Is there really any other way to honor the memory of Bilozir and Ivasiuk and Stus and ...

Bohdan Vitvitsky is a lawyer, writer and lecturer who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and is a long-time contributor to The Ukrainian Weekly.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 23, 2000, No. 30, Vol. LXVIII

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