Turning the pages back... September 1, 1991 (08/28/05)

Turning the pages back...

September 1, 1991

"The Ukrainian SSR no longer exists. Its legal government has abolished Soviet power, seized the property of the Communist Party and declared that now there is an independent Ukraine. And just to make certain that this is what Ukraine's inhabitants really want, a plebiscite on the question has been scheduled for December 1."

That was the opening paragraph to an analysis by Dr. James E. Mace (1952-2004), a historian, former staff director of the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine and author of "Communism and the Dilemmas of National Liberation," published in the September 1, 1991, issue of The Ukrainian Weekly.

"This might seem the realization of the hopes and dreams of all whom the bonds of ancestry and affection hold to this land, so generously endowed by God and benighted by history. It is, however, only a beginning, and the storm clouds are already peeking over the horizon. Let us hope they will pass, but let us be prepared that they do not," he continued.

In his op-ed piece - which today provides a fascinating snapshot of time - Dr. Mace also wrote:

"Those who know something about Soviet and Ukrainian history will no doubt recall Lenin's Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, promising free right to secession to the oppressed nations of the former Russian Empire. Lenin then prompted the establishment of rump Soviet governments in each of those nations and re-conquered as many of them as he could, including Ukraine. Will Russia be similarly "democratic"? In the television news footage of Moscow demonstrations we see tsarist military uniforms, originally worn by representatives of a state, the official policy of which was that there never did, does not now, and never can exist a 'Little Russian dialect,' as the 1863 Valuyev circular and 1876 Ems Ukaz called the Ukrainian language which they banned. This is not a hopeful sign. ...

"The vestiges of a union government still exist, with [Soviet President] Mikhail Gorbachev still clinging to his position with bloodied fingernails. It can by no means be ruled out that either he or [Russian Federation President Boris] Yeltsin will demand some sort of compensation for the various economic boons allegedly showered on Ukraine during seven decades of Soviet rule.

"Given that Ukraine stands little chance in claiming compensation for its share of the union treasury, for the resources and capital drained from it, as well as for the cultural destruction and millions of lives claimed by Stalinism, we must support the position that all state goods and resources located on the territory of Ukraine belong to Ukraine, unless Ukraine's authorities themselves decide otherwise.

"We must defend not only Ukraine's right to self-determination, which it has decided to exercise in the context of strict observance of the rights of all nations inhabiting its territory, but also its right to dispose of its resources, including foodstuffs, on the basis of its national interests and economic fairness. ...

"We must defend Ukraine's right, should it seek to exercise it, to issue a call to all troops from Ukraine now stationed outside the republic to return to their native land, and its right to safeguard itself from the inherent danger posed by non-Ukrainian troops in the republic. We may hope that the new alliance will provide for the withdrawal of non-Ukrainian troops and their replacement by locally recruited forces. We now know that there are nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Let us hope that there will be shared control of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, such that no one republic can use those weapons unilaterally either against another republic or the outside world. And we must uphold Ukraine's right to safeguard the inviolability of its borders, especially should Mr. Yeltsin continue his evolution from democrat to autocrat."

"And most of all," Dr. Mace concluded, "we must do everything in our power to encourage the continued democratic evolution of Ukraine's politics, a process still only half-realized. When Ukraine declared its independence in its Fourth Universal on January 22, 1918, it did so as a democracy, committed to social justice and the strict protection of the rights of all its inhabitants, Ukrainians, Russians, Poles and Jews alike. Let us hope that the declaration of August 24, 1991, will lead to the fulfillment of the aspirations of the Fourth Universal."

Source: "Storm clouds on the horizon the demise of the Ukrainian SSR," by Dr. James E. Mace, The Ukrainian Weekly, September 1, 1991, Vol. LIX, No. 35.

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