NEWS AND VIEWS: Ukraine at thirteen (09/12/04)

NEWS AND VIEWS

Ukraine at thirteen

by Natalia Gawdiak

Undoubtedly, every nation arrives at a crucial crossroads at one or more times in its history. The Ukrainian people have had more than their share of such crucial times, coming through wars, famines and the crucible of foreign occupations. Historically, the people have persevered through various means. When open dissent led to the death of the dissenters, stoicism helped the people survive. Intellectuals suppressed their ambitions and their dreams (like the couple who urged their would-be poet daughter to study chemical engineering instead). When foreign alliances, forged against a supposed "common" enemy proved undependable or resulted in outright treachery, many in Ukraine succumbed to varying degrees of xenophobia.

Nevertheless, there have been those who heroically challenged what they knew to be wrong. Some wrote what was in their hearts and paid for it dearly. In today's Ukraine, there are those who, like the heroes who came before them, have suffered repression, exile and death as the price for their bravery. People in the news profession are not always known for leading saintly lives, but surely Ukraine has had its share of martyred journalists who have died for the cause of truth.

On this day one can call attention to Ukraine's achievements. One can mention advances in macro-economics or contributions to foreign alliances. But a nation does not fulfill its potential for greatness by becoming a good trading partner or by providing mercenaries for a larger nation's wars. It does not fulfill its potential by disillusioning the hopes of its poets or silencing forever the voices of its journalists. It does not advance as a nation by standing by as lawlessness, both on a petty and a grand scale, permeates every level of its administration. It does not prove its ultimate worth by becoming an obedient sacrificial lamb in the "sphere of influence" of its larger, more powerful neighbor.

The young woman who studied chemical engineering under the Soviets was finally able to publish her poetry after the fall of the USSR, but her husband was not so fortunate. Having survived the gulag under the Soviet regime, he did not survive under the new "independent" Ukraine. Today, his life-like statue welcomes tourists to a city park in Lviv.

On this 13th anniversary of Ukraine's latest era of independence, a borrowed phrase taken from one of two crucial campaigns this year perhaps says it best. Ukraine can do better. The talented, long-suffering people of Ukraine deserve better. If there is any way we in the diaspora can help them, it is our sacred duty to try.

Natalia Gawdiak is a community activist from the Washington, D.C., area. She is a retired research and information analyst at the Law Library of the Library of Congress.

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