FOR THE RECORD: Scholars pen open letter to Kuchma on decree of Pereiaslav observances (07/28/02)

FOR THE RECORD

Scholars pen open letter to Kuchma on decree of Pereiaslav observances

Following is the text of an open letter to Leonid Kuchma, president of Ukraine, sent by the presidium of the World Scholarly Council of the Ukrainian World Congress and the presidents of scholarly institutions. The letter was released to the press on July 12.

Dear Mr. President:

Events, which are occurring at the present time in Ukraine, are causing a great deal of anxiety among Ukrainians in America, Canada and other nations throughout the world. This pertains, first of all, to the wide-ranging celebrations planned for the 350th anniversary of the Pereiaslav Council of 1654, which brought the Ukrainian nation long years of oppression.

It is necessary not to forget that the Pereiaslav Council was originally signed as a military alliance that later metamorphosed into an occupation of Ukraine by the Russian military. The crude violation of the agreement set the stage for all subsequent tsarist political interference in the domestic affairs of Ukraine and its subsequent exploitation. Tsarist and later Soviet rulers consciously misconstrued the form and content of the Pereiaslav Council with the intention of creating in Ukrainians a complex of a less worthy "younger brother." The impression emerges that even today, in the development of the independent Ukrainian state, some of the higher representatives of Ukrainian government failed to rid themselves of this complex, and this, in our opinion, threatens Ukrainian independence.

We are calling on you, Mr. President, and members of the organizing committee to withdraw from wide-ranging celebration of the Pereiaslav Council - one of the blackest dates in our history and, moreover, to make a critical investigation of it.

There remain other related and unresolved issues that disturb us. The most important of which is the real, not merely official, status of the Ukrainian language in the nation. Ukrainian should become the compulsory language of instruction in middle and higher-level schools, of television programs, of the cinema and of national civil servants at all levels of government.

Mr. President:

We observe that the position adopted by the Ukrainian government on this issue has no historical justification and does not respond to the interests of the Ukrainian people. We are calling on you, Mr. President, to endeavor to change this situation.

Lubomyr Wynar, Ph.D.
President, World Scholarly Council President, Ukrainian Historical Association

Assya Humesky, Ph.D.
Vice-President, World Scholarly Council
President, Ukrainian American Association of University Professors

The Rev. Oleh Kravchenko, Ph.D.
Vice President, World Scholarly Council
President, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Canada

Arkadij Zhukovskyj, Ph.D.

Vice-President, World Scholarly Council
President, Shevchenko Scientific Society in Europe

Osyp Maryniuk, Ph.D.

Secretary, World Scholarly Council

Oleksa Bilaniuk, Ph.D.
President, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in America

Daria Darevych, Ph.D.
President, Shevchenko Scientific Society in Canada

Stefan Kozak, Ph.D.
President, Polish Association of Ukrainian Studies
President, Shevchenko Scientific Society in Poland

Dmytro Shtohryn, Ph.D.
Chairperson, Ukrainian Research
Programs at the University of Illinois

| Home Page |