Unity Day — then and now

Ninety-five years ago, on Jan. 22, 1919, a new European nation, Ukrainian National Republic was created through the Act of Unification entered by two heretofore independent Ukrainian states — Ukrainian National Republic with Kyiv as its capital, and West Ukrainian National Republic with Lviv as its capital — both established at the end of World War I as the result of collapse of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, respectively. The official announcement of the unification took place in Kyiv near the then-900-year old St. Sophia Cathedral. Many thousands of Kyiv residents as well as delegates of other regions of Ukraine and Ukrainian military units joyfully applauded the act.

    Sadly, the young Ukrainian nation was not destined to stay independent and united for a long time. Unable to defend itself against several aggressors, mainly the “White” Russian armies supported by Western powers who wanted to re-establish the czarist Russian empire, and the Red Army of the Russian communists, the lands of Ukraine got divided among the four neighbors — Communist Russia which eventually took the name Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia. Ukrainians, who continued to struggle to regain the independence and unity, were subjected to various oppressive, often draconian, actions, including the genocidal, artificially created famine in 1932-1933 resulting in the loss of close to 10 million Ukrainian lives.

    Many Ukrainians were hoping, perhaps naively, that World War II, which resulted in millions of lost Ukrainian lives, both military and civilian, and the destruction of infrastructure, cities, towns and villages, would end similarly to WWI — that is, with the collapse of both Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Russia. Unfortunately, only Germany was defeated. Stalin’s empire, with the help of its western wartime allies Great Britain and the United States, got even stronger and was able to continue to subjugate Ukraine, now united with a name of Ukrainian Soviet Social Republic, but not free nor independent.

    The centuries-old dream of patriotic Ukrainians became a reality in 1991 when the “Evil Empire,” the USSR, finally disintegrated, and the Ukrainian parliament (“Verkhovna Rada”) proclaimed Ukraine’s independence on Aug. 24, 1991, which was confirmed by more than 90 percent of voters in the Dec. 1, 1991, national referendum.

    The neighbors of Ukraine, especially Poland, became some of Ukraine’s staunchest friends, but not the pseudo-democratic Russian Federation which, especially under President Vladimir Putin and his idea of “Russkyi Mir” (Russian World), assisted by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill, continues to create problems in Ukraine up to and including the suggestion, through covert agents and their Ukrainian collaborators, of breaking up Ukraine into at least two separate nations.

    The current massive demonstration “EuroMaidan” in Kyiv of mostly young Ukrainians, including students and veterans from all regions of Ukraine, shows the world and President Putin that the act of unification of all Ukrainian lands into one sovereign, independent and democratic Ukraine proclaimed 95 years ago is a reality that is dear to all patriotic Ukrainians.

    The Southwest Florida Ukrainian American community will commemorate the 95th anniversary of the Act of Unification at 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Religious and Cultural Center in North Port.

    Atanas Kobryn covers the Ukrainian community for the North Port Sun. He can be emailed at atanask@aol.com.

Our Neighbors — The Ukrainians

by Atanas Kobryn