Ukraine has been in the news for months after a whistleblower revealed that President Donald Trump had secretly blocked $400 million in military aid for the war against Russia. Careers have subsequently been derailed; others were put in jeopardy – all in the context of mind-boggling intrigue with clownish characters seeming to have come to life from a preposterous crime novel. And yet, it’s deadly serious – literally: 14,000 Ukrainians have been killed in the war in the Donbas and more are dying every week.
A century ago this January, the post-World War I Versailles Peace Conference concluded, with the map of Europe redrawn. Peoples subject to imperial rule from Berlin, Petrograd, Vienna and Istanbul (Ukrainians among them), petitioned the powers that be, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson among them, to grant their nations a sovereign state. Most succeeded, but not Ukraine.
In his diary, Wilson’s private secretary Stephen Bonsal recounts how he was ordered to toss 10 pounds of Ukrainian documents into the incinerator at a Paris hotel. He did so with misgivings and regret. “In my judgement,” Bonsal wrote, “if we are to bring the blessings of peace to Eastern Europe, 40 million of its inhabitants should not be ignored.” He advised Ukrainian activists: “…place your trust in the League of Nations.”
The League was singularly ineffective and Bonsal’s fears related to Ukraine were prophetic. Post-war peace was fleeting, with none in Ukraine where Symon Petliura, Mykhailo Hrushevsky and others unsuccessfully fought “White Russians” seeking to restore the empire and Bolsheviks vying to establish a new one. How different history might have been had America and the allies supported the Ukrainian National Republic diplomatically and with surplus military equipment. Arguably, there would have been no Soviet empire, sparing the world untold catastrophes. We’ll never know; we only know what happened.
The 1920s started well. Ukrainians failed to defend independence, but still their culture burgeoned in the new Soviet polity: literature, cinema, theater, art, music, journalism, religion, etc. History remembers it as “the Renaissance.” And just as culture flourished, so did rural Ukraine, where farmers embracing the Bolshevik slogan “Bread, Peace, Land” cultivated a private-sector economy. These social/cultural/economic trends collided with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s ideological vision of an all-encompassing, centrally controlled state with a “social realist” culture dominated by the Russian “elder brother.” What followed in the ‘30s was “liquidation of the Kulaks as a class,” Holodomor, Terror, genocide. Millions died.
Ukraine was also central for Adolph Hitler. He saw the land as the granary for the Third Reich and “Lebensraum” (living space) for a growing Germany. For him, Ukrainians were an impediment to his imperial vision no less than they were for Stalin. Labeling them “Untermenschen” (subhuman), Hitler decreed they were to become slaves and, once no longer useful, would be “exterminated.” Jews came first; Ukrainians later. It’s all there in “Mein Kampf.” History records how the two dictators in August 1939 collaborated to start another world war and then, turning against each other in 1941, fought the length and breadth of Ukraine for four years. Millions died.
Given the horrific losses in the 1930s and ‘40s, it’s astounding that Ukraine not only survived as a nation, but its people rose up to fight for independence. Tens of thousands, supported by millions, joined the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) to oppose both the Nazis and the Soviets, an unequal and ultimately unsuccessful struggle lasting into the early 1950s. In the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, a handful of dissidents, enduring harassment, prison and political murder, maintained the national flame. Their sacrifice was redeemed in 1991 when Ukraine, to Moscow’s shock and global amazement, declared independence, ratified in a referendum with more than 90 percent nationwide voting “yes.” In the Donbas, there was more than 80 percent support, in Crimea – 56 percent. The blue-and-yellow flag, currency, anthem, sports teams, religion, national holidays – those cannot be over-estimated for their global importance.
Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski understood the history and politics of Central/Eastern Europe as no one in his position had before. Independent Ukraine is the linchpin to peace and security in Europe, he later wrote, insuring Russia would not revert to empire to threaten its neighbors and global security. President Carter implemented policies based on that view. President Ronald Reagan followed, famously labeling the USSR “the Evil Empire” and forcefully opposing that evil. Its fall was a triumph for the world.
Russian president Vladimir Putin disagrees. For him that was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.” And so, applying 21st century tools to age-old Russian tactics, he’s been working for the past 20 years to reconstitute Russian hegemony, suppressing dissent, assassinating opponents, deploying an army of disinformation specialists and unwitting “useful idiots” to undermine elections and democracy in the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands, etc. Now, he’s blaming Poland – the victim – for the world war his Kremlin predecessor started.
Ukraine’s independence remains crucial to the global peace Bonsal, Brzezinski and so many others spoke to. It hasn’t been easy. Kyiv’s Maidan has been the scene of multiple dramatic turning points: a student strike and mass demonstrations in 1991, the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. The front line has now moved east to the Donbas, where Ukrainian men and women are militarily defending their freedom and independence and, with that, Western interests and American values. The battle is also on the ground and in cyberspace throughout Ukraine and abroad, in countless social, political, cultural, economic realms.
Mark Twain said that history does not repeat, but often rhymes. A hundred years ago, Bonsol incinerated Ukraine’s appeals with all the dire 20th century consequences. Ukraine today remains just as important as it was in 1920, only now with overwhelming support from diplomats, journalists, Peace Corps volunteers, tourists, the diaspora. Based on their votes, nearly every member of Congress is for Ukraine and according to news, President Trump’s closest advisors argued the same. Whether at Mr. Putin’s behest or to further his own election (perhaps both), President Trump insisted on blocking aid to Ukraine until he got caught. He became the third president to be impeached. The Senate trial expected this January comes a century after Versailles.
January 2120? None of us will be there, but I’m confident Ukraine will not only have survived, it will have prevailed, the impeachment of President Trump relegated to a footnote from a century back.
Andrew Fedynsky’s e-mail address is [email protected].