Ukrainian-American students' perspective on independence (08/26/01)

THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF UKRAINE'S INDEPENDENCE

Ukrainian-American students' perspective on independence

by Andrew Olesnycky

I was 9 years old when Ukraine declared independence. That made me old enough to understand how much the event meant to those I loved, but naive enough to think that we were celebrating an end to the problems of our troubled homeland.

Of course, at the time I believed I understood the implications of freedom. The issue seemed simple: we were a prosperous country made poor by Soviet usurpers; freedom would instantly bring back our prosperity, culture and worldwide respectability. I, who imagined the leaders of the old regime shamefully riding their tanks back to Moscow in the tradition of the Soviet war parade, would years later painfully discover that the Communist Party still holds considerable clout in Ukraine, and that at one point more than a third of its citizens favored reuniting with Russia.

I also assumed that the people of Ukraine would be as nationalistic as our grandparents were. I didn't understand that the residue of communism, like the Russian language, couldn't be easily wiped clean from the Ukrainian psyche.

As Ukraine faced the necessary tribulations that come with starting a government from scratch, my generation was left to wrestle with the sobering realization that the Ukraine we'd have the chance to visit in the coming years wouldn't be the perfect, mythical land we'd heard about as children.

For some of us, this learning experience culminated in a visit to Ukraine. While the child in us wondered whether we'd be seeing any Kozaky, the adult in us gazed at the Soviet radio-jamming towers and struggled to communicate with those in Kyiv that could speak only Russian.

Some young Ukrainian Americans have distanced themselves from the ancestral homeland that now feels foreign to them, though many are doing what they can to help create a renaissance of Ukrainian prosperity and culture.

But today, Ukrainian nationalism requires more than wearing an anti-Communist T-shirt. Without an imperialist power to oppose, political activism is much more complex, involving more thought and research.

The following are excerpts from conversations with my peers about how the youth of the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States and Canada have responded to the evolution of Ukraine since its inception as a modern free state on August 24, 1991.

Damian Hornich
Age 21
Hamilton, Ontario

When Ukraine was under the USSR, the diaspora had a clear-cut, tangible goal: to free our nation from communism. Now that Ukraine is free, some of the youth of the diaspora have become less nationalistic, thinking that there's nothing left to fight for, but a lot of us are excited at the new opportunities to be active in Ukraine.

I think that, in North America, Ukrainian society pushes our youth more toward Ukrainian cultural expression rather than political activism. It seems that we're more interested in maintaining our heritage than planning for the future.

I've definitely become more nationalistic since independence, because, besides getting older, I've also met people from Ukraine and heard their stories, getting insight into what it is like in Ukraine. Getting to know them is an inspiration because it brings me closer to what is happening overseas, raising both my awareness and national pride.

North American youth will be most likely to help Ukraine if they visit and actually experience what's going on there. I admire the Jewish community for organizing trips that allow their youth to see the current problems in their country, putting all the history they learned into perspective. If we spend some time in Ukraine and make more of an effort to interact with new Ukrainian immigrants, we'll gain more of the tools we need to solve Ukraine's current problems.

Paul Farmiga
Age 20
Clifton, N.J.

Before Ukrainian independence, the USSR was, in some respects, a crutch. If we in the diaspora were upset with the state of affairs in Ukraine, we always had someone to blame. Now we realize that bashing the USSR won't lead to progress. Instead, we need to help our country succeed. And the young Ukrainians in the diaspora need to do all they can to help.

There are young people in the diaspora working hard to protect Ukraine's future, but a lot of us are comfortable here overseas. A lot of us are happy to just sit for four hours on Saturday morning at a Ukrainian school. I think we're not as active as we could be.

I've been to Ukrainian fundraisers where a dozen youths show up even though much more were expected. However, if it's a social function, you'll have 200 young people show up, with less of the young Ukrainian community missing the event. Much of our activity in the Ukrainian community is done for our own enjoyment. After all, we're young and don't see any particular emergency to go out of our way to help Ukraine.

Roman Holowinsky
Age 22
New Brunswick, N.J.

A lot of our generation is complacent or uninterested in helping Ukraine. Without having lived through the tougher moments in Ukrainian history, we don't fully appreciate Ukraine's independence and consequently are less interested in the current situation in Ukraine. Maybe as we get older, we'll want to revert to our roots, but in general we've lived an easy life. Our grandparents set up organizations like the UNA [Ukrainian National Association] and the UFA [Ukrainian Fraternal Association], and built the Ukrainian resorts. We were born into the Ukrainian culture without having to work to develop it. When I was the president of the Rutgers Ukrainian club, it was pretty clear that a lot of people my age weren't concerned with Ukrainian politics. It's hard to get people active for a cause that they're not passionate about.

But finding ways to get involved with Ukraine can be confusing to our generation. Never having lived in Ukraine and with only a superficial knowledge of Ukrainian politics and lifestyles, there seems to be very little we can do from the outside. I have the heart to help Ukraine in a significant way, but I feel that I don't have the means to do something that will have a lasting positive effect.

What young Ukrainian Americans who are daunted by the challenges in helping Ukraine should do is start helping the established organizations based in the U.S. and Canada. Organizations like the CCRF [Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund] are working hands-on with people in Ukraine, helping them get to the point where they won't need any outside help. Once Ukraine is in better shape, it will be easier for us to get involved on a more personal level.

Yarema Belej
Age 20
Toronto, Ontario

Our generation is going to grow up with a free Ukraine, as opposed to our parents and grandparents who grew up with the promise of a free Ukraine. I think how that will affect us is yet to be seen.

The young Ukrainians in North America want to help Ukraine, but we're going to have to learn to do it differently than how it was done before independence. Right now there are few examples to follow in how to effectively aid Ukraine's growth. Our generation is going to have to find out what works in Ukraine.

In the future, we're going to be involved more with development. We've been somewhat active with Ukraine thus far, but we'll help even more so in the future once things in Ukraine get sorted out. It will take time for Ukraine to move away from the effects of communism. Once they do that, it will be easier for us to help.

Not that we should keep our hands off Ukraine for a few generations, but until Ukraine has rid itself of the remnants of communism, I don't think we can expect to see real results. It's only been 10 years since independence; historically speaking, that's very little time in the evolution of a country.

Christina Baranetsky
Age 19
Short Hills, N.J.

Before independence it seemed like everyone in the Ukrainian American diaspora was fighting for Ukraine's freedom. Now it seems that the younger generation isn't as worried and thinks that, because Ukraine has made it 10 years, it will develop just fine on its own. But it's not fair to say that people have completely stopped helping; I know a few people our age who are volunteering in Ukraine this summer.

I think our generation must pay more attention to current events in Ukraine and try our hardest to visit. If we're uninformed about Ukraine, the only frame of reference we have is what we learned about Ukrainian history. Visiting Ukraine can tell us what the real problems are and what we can do to help them, but most importantly it would inspire us to get involved.

As we lose people from our grandparents' generation, we're bound to lose some of the motivation to help Ukraine, because they are the ones with first-hand experiences in Ukraine. They don't love Ukraine because they were taught to love it in Plast or Ukrainian school; they love it because they grew up there. To make sure that activism doesn't die out in the American diaspora, our generation needs to gain its own first-hand experiences in Ukraine, finding causes that we're passionate about.

Christian Koschil
Age 20
Torrance, California

As a 10-year-old watching broadcasts of Ukraine's declaration of independence, I expected a quick and complete return to the strong and glorious Ukraine that I had learned about from my elders. But as I grew older, I spoke to people who had visited and saw how long it was taking to make small political changes. Then, as a teen, I was forced to make a very grown-up realization: a modern Ukraine wouldn't be the same place I had read about in my Ukrainian schoolbook.

Now I feel out of touch with modern Ukraine. The Ukrainian people have been through such a different experience than what we've had in the United States. The youth of the American diaspora are happy that Ukraine is free, but we're unsure of what to do about it. We don't really know where the country is headed, and we're not sure about our future role.

Also, the idea of nationalism, which was so clear during the time of Russian occupation, has become very blurry in the eyes of Ukrainian American youth. It was much easier just to oppose the Communists.

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