Dear Editor:
In his column of April 9, Andrew Sorokowski raises an interesting question: If we got lost on our historical march, could we go back in history to a point where we went wrong and restart again on a different track? Of course we cannot do it physically, but a mental walk can be very instructive for finding the correct or better path.
Looking back in history, one can often readily see events that went wrong and learn from this what to do and what not to do in the future. Dr. Sorokowski focuses on the years 1917-1919. I want to look at the years 1919-1921, when the Treaty of Versailles was signed. The issue is that Ukraine had to fight its oppressors without it being recognized as an independent country by the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty recognized the sovereignty declared by Czechs and Slovaks, Hungarians, Romanians, Estonians, Finns, Latvians, Lithuanians, Belarusians and Poles, but not Ukrainians. The rationale given was that Ukrainians were not yet ready for their independence.
The task of preparing Ukraine for independence was given to Poland, which instead undertook an intensive program of Polonization. Among many other things, it began to settle Polish farmers in the Galician countryside. This was one of the main factors for the creation of the UPA. The two Ukrainian representatives to the Versailles Conference, Vasyl Paneiko and Stepan Vytvytsky, worked hard to convince the delegates that Ukraine deserves its independence, but to no avail. The course of Ukrainian history could have been different if its representatives were better qualified to win in these discussions.
A more recent event that could have made a difference is the 2010 election of the president of Ukraine. There was only 3 percent difference between the votes that Viktor Yanukovych and Yulia Tymoshenko received, and I have no doubt that had the two patriotic parties united, dropped their personal ambitions and hatreds, and intensified their campaign, the course of history would have been different.
Dr. Sorokowski has done well by drawing our attention to the fact that things do not have to be only one way. But we have to study history to understand what went wrong in the past and make sure that we do not repeat the same mistakes.
Today Ukraine is again at a fork in the road. It is being violently attacked from the outside. Dr. Sorokowski points out that it naturally chooses to go with the West. But the situation is not simple, as Ukraine’s influence in the West is not very strong. Its influence can be extended by the Ukrainian diaspora, as has been the case in Canada. But it needs U.S. assistance in modern arms and possibly at some point U.S. boots on the ground. This could establish a new path in history. But the Ukrainian diaspora community must keep on working hard. The alternative, to do nothing, would pull Ukraine back into its traditional position of being dominated by Russia.
I commend Dr. Sorokowski for raising issues related to historical events. It is timely to have a serious re-thinking of both the past and the present.
Toronto