EDITORIAL: The independence anniversary: 10 years ago, and today (01/21/01)

EDITORIAL

The independence anniversary: 10 years ago, and today

Ten years ago, in 1991, as The Ukrainian Weekly was preparing to write an editorial about the anniversary of Ukraine's independence proclamation of 1918, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev ordered a crackdown in Lithuania against the freedom-loving people of that nation and their democratically elected leaders in a vain attempt to hold together the USSR. In the midst of perestroika, Soviet troops seized buildings in Vilnius and proclaimed the republic of Lithuania to be under the control of the so-called National Salvation Committee.

It was a chilling example of how fragile freedom can be.

"The new Gorbachev is an old Soviet," our editorial declared in condemning the military action. Indeed, as the old adage says, the truth was stranger than fiction. Here was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate ordering a crackdown that resulted in the spilling of blood: the deaths of 14 persons and injury to nearly 200 others in the Lithuanian capital. "In this space, on a date that we usually recall the proud history of the independent Ukrainian National Republic, we feel compelled to once again sound the alarm and insist that Soviet force must be stopped," we noted.

In Ukraine, which was then preparing to mark the double anniversaries of independence in 1918 and the Act of Union of 1919, rallies meant to celebrate those historic events turned into protests against Soviet brutality in Lithuania. "We are with you! Your cause is our cause!" the Ukrainian nation told its Lithuanian brothers. In the West there was similar solidarity, as Balts, Ukrainians and others demonstrated.

In Kyiv, what was to be a commemoration of the 73rd anniversary of the independence proclamation took on a somber tone in the wake of the Soviet crackdown. More than 15,000 citizens gathered in Kyiv's St. Sophia Square to pay tribute to all freedom fighters who had perished in the struggle for independence.

The reality of the day may have altered the celebratory nature of the gathering, but it did not prevent participants from recalling that on January 22, 1918, the Central Rada had issued the Fourth Universal and proclaimed that "from now on the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) is the independent, free and sovereign state of the Ukrainian people." Ukrainians also remembered the formation of the Western Ukrainian National Republic (WUNR) in the wake of the disintegration of Austria-Hungary, and the WUNR's union with the UNR on January 22, 1919, via the Act of Union. Perhaps most importantly, Ukrainians gathering in Kyiv 10 years ago manifested that the struggle was continuing and that Ukraine would one day be free again.

Here in the West, the two events that took place on January 22 in 1918 and in 1919 had been celebrated for many years by the Ukrainian diaspora with the same reverence that Americans celebrate the Fourth of July. And, the fateful events of January 1991 may have been seen as a setback, but only a temporary one. Just seven months after the crackdown in Vilnius came the proclamation of Ukraine's independence.

Today August 24 is the day Ukrainians around the world celebrate as Ukrainian Independence Day, and we can state with conviction that the independence of 1918-1919 was a steppingstone to the independence achieved decades later in 1991. Thus, we should continue to celebrate the date of January 22 as a glorious milestone in our nation's history as it continues on the path of nation- and state-building.

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