aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] Fwd: Open letter from Oksana Zabuzhko: The tinderbox that is Ukraine

[Vitaly Chernetsky <vchernet@fas.harvard.edu>]

Dear Colleagues,
FYI.

VC

----- Forwarded message from Roman Senkus <r.senkus@utoronto.ca> -----
    Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 16:45:20 -0400
    From: Roman Senkus <r.senkus@utoronto.ca>
Reply-To: Roman Senkus <r.senkus@utoronto.ca>
 Subject: Open letter from Oksana Zabuzhko:  The tinderbox that is  Ukraine
      To: unlisted-recipients@


Oksana Zabuzhko is a well-known Ukrainian writer and journalist.

>Date:   Mon, 25 Oct 2004 16:16:06 -0400
>From:   Uliana Pasicznyk <uliana.pasicznyk@utoronto.ca>
>Subject: Re: The tinderbox that is Ukraine
>
>         I have confirmation from Oksana (via Olia Hnatiuk) that she wants
> this letter circulated as widely as possible and authorizes its
> publication. Please act on that wish, especially if you have contacts
> with the press.
>
>>**********
>>Kiev, October 24 2004
>>
>>Dear friends,
>>
>>I'm writing you this from the country, now haunted with the gory
>>prospect  of being forcefully turned, in a week, into one of the most
>>terrible thugocratic dictatorships that Europe has witnessed since Hitler
>>and  Stalin. You may find this an exaggeration, yet it's not. It's
>>usually so human,  to refuse to believe the worst - until it's too late.
>>Besides, from my  recent conversations with my friends and journalists
>>from EU, I know how little information can be found in the European media
>>on the situation in  Ukraine - and, as a result, how little understanding
>>there is of what is really at stake here this fall.
>>
>>Last night the first blood was spilled on the Kiev pavement.
>>The  autocratic post-Soviet regime, which since the late 1990s has been
>>smothering the budding Ukrainian democracy, and is by now wholeheartedly
>>hated by the vast majority of population (from 67% to 85%, according to
>>the polls!),  has given us its final proof, that there'll be NO - however
>>heavily  falsified -
>>"free elections" on October, 31. There'll be a WAR - an open
>>war,  launched against the people of Ukraine by the handful of gangsters
>>now at power, whose only goal is to stay at power after the 31st - at ANY
>>price.
>>
>>Until last night they've been using the "cold-war" methods (to skip
>>the  case of an attempted poisoning of the oppositional candidate,
>>Victor  Yushchenko, whose chances to win the elections in an honest game
>>are undeniable). There's been a disgusting and overwhelming campaign of
>>lies in the media (most of them, with very few exceptions, controlled by
>>the power),  there've been all the dirty, illegal tricks used (payments,
>>threats, repressions etc.), as well as cheating with the voting lists
>>(with, say, tens of thousands of the dead included on them, etc). Nothing
>>of these, though, proved efficient enough to guarantee next Sunday the
>>smooth and peaceful victory to the "candidate of the power" - the
>>present-day Prime Minister
>>(appointed by the president), a  former (?) criminal, back in his youth
>>twice convicted for robbery (no kidding!).
>>
>>Yesterday, the grand "orange" manifestation (orange being the colour
>>of  the oppositional candidate) of some 150000-200000 people filled the
>>square in front of the Central Election Committee, under the slogan "For
>>honest and transparent elections". It's been a warm, tranquil sunny day
>>(do you know how beautiful is Kiev in the fall?), and the 3-million city
>>was all celebration - of joy, and hope, and solidarity. It's been a long
>>time  since I've seen so many happy, smiling faces in the streets - in
>>fact, since  the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet then, in 1991, as the
>>past 13 years  have proved, our celebration was definitely premature.
>>With no change of the political elite, with just very small burgeons of
>>civil society, with -
>>well, why don't I put it plainly - no REAL revolution, Ukraine, after a
>>while, started sliding back into the dark shadow of Sovietization.
>>It's  only now, that the dragon of Soviet totalitarianism - in the
>>meantime considerably shrunken, losing one part of his body after another
>>(Eastern Europe - the Baltics - then, last fall, Georgia...), all rotten
>>up to the marrow of his bones (its true - criminal - skeleton now fully
>>exposed!) -
>>is REALLY agonizing. And the convulsions of the dragon could be terrible -
>>isn't the case of Russia conspicuous enough?
>>
>>Vladimir Putin, who has so quickly turned his country back into a
>>concentration camp, fully browbeaten with the fear of terrorism,
>>now  serves as the major support for the Ukrainian thugs. Small wonder,
>>as criminals  and the KGB officers used to belong together since good old
>>Gulag times. The whole presidential campaign of our "candidate of the
>>power", Victor Yanukovich, is a brainchild of Moscow professionals.
>>Politically and intellectually, Kiev now more and more looks like the
>>city under Russian occupation.And what exactly have they plotted to
>>ensure "the succession  of power" in Ukraine, has become visible last night.
>>
>>About 23.00, after the singing "orange" crowd in front of the Central
>>Election Committee dispersed, and only some 150 people - among
>>them  women, and senior citizens - stayed to wait for the results of the
>>session
>>(which was held inside) to be announced (on the agenda was an attempt to
>>falsify some 2 million voices, due to the machinations with the voting
>>lists!) -
>>the dragon has bared his teeth for the first time. Some 50
>>black-leathered  men appeared out of the darkness, and attacked people,
>>who were waiting on  the park benches, with clubs and knives. There was
>>no police around (!), but three of the attackers - when the
>>parlamentarians and the bodyguards ran  out of the building - were caught
>>and handicuffed. According to their IDs,  they all appeared to be
>>disguised policemen - of the specially trained  "killers'
>>detachments".
>>
>>Yes, there've been rumours circulating before - of some "special
>>detachments" arriving from all over the country and concentrating
>>around  the city. Of some strange, and highly suspicious manoeuvres noted
>>by the city-dwellers in some areas. Now, next morning after the "night of
>>the  long knives" (as a result of which, 11 peaceful demonstrators were
>>taken to  the hospital, some of them seriously wounded), there's no doubt
>>left: the war has been announced. The gangsters at power aren't going to
>>leave in any case. They are going to fight - most probably, after the
>>voting-booths  will be closed.
>>
>>Could any, however "specially trained", groups of murderers REALLY work
>>against hundreds of thousands of people? (For people ARE going to go into
>>the streets on the election night, and Ukrainian internet is now boiling
>>with the discussions on how and where to meet, how to protect oneself
>>against the attacks, etc.). Well, maybe they couldn't. And Ukrainian army
>>will hardly agree to turn its guns against its own people, either. But on
>>October, 28 - three days before the elections - there'll be a military
>>parade (!) in Kiev (nothing like this was ever held before on
>>this  date!). And Russian president Vladimir Putin is coming to Kiev -
>>allegedly, to  take part in the parade (?). And to stay in Kiev for 5 (?)
>>days more. Again, there're rumours - oh, these rumours! - that he'll be
>>bodygarded by some bayonets. More precisely - with two divisions being
>>particularly famous  of their operations in the Caucases...
>>
>>Maybe Ukraine has only one week left. One last week of the electrifying
>>autumn of free political discussions in the cafes and clubs,
>>of  gatherings, manifestations, and - well, of hope. For, despite
>>everything, there's an extremely strong, and growing hope, I even
>>daresay, an upsurging belief, that the Ukrainian part of the dragon will
>>be killed next Sunday with the free will of the people. Today the
>>anchorman on the last Ukrainian free  TV channel yet unclosed (Channel 5)
>>was smiling the same way people were yesterday in the streets. (For quite
>>a while persecuted, now sued,  Channel 5 is under the threat of being
>>closed tomorrow night - but the anchorman  was smiling like a winner.)
>>Now covering no more than 30% of the country's territory, Channel 5 was
>>the only one which gave a full report on the  events of the last night.
>>Characteristically, none of the beaten witnesses  sounded "victimized" -
>>they all talked indignantly, but righteously: that is,  like people aware
>>of their rights, and ready to protect them.
>>
>>It's a totally irrational, yet overwhelming feeling: that "we",
>>the  people, are stronger than "them", the corrupted power. And that it's
>>"them", not "us", who is scared.
>>
>>On the night of the elections I'll be in the streets, too. I don't
>>know  what is going to happen there. That is, what forces will be turned
>>against us, and what will be the final result. Yet, even if the worst
>>happens, and  the Putin's bayonets help to turn my country, for
>>God-knows-how-long, into a criminal-presided reservation of the degraded
>>Stalinist type, we'll be in the streets - if only to be able to say, that
>>THIS IS NOT OUR CHOICE.
>>
>>Knowing how easily (and, more than once, eagerly!) does Western press buy
>>the "made-in-Russia" political myths on the current Ukrainian situation
>>(on Ukraine being allegedly "split" into East and West, "pro-Russian" and
>>"pro-Western", Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking parts, each
>>of  them allegedly delegating its own candidate for the presidency), I
>>just wanted  to let you know how the things look and feel here in the
>>reality. By  spreading the truth further, you'll make your own
>>contribution into killing the dragon. For, as we all know from this old
>>guy Orwell (WHO on earth has  ever been so careless to have claimed him
>>outdated?) - what the dragon needs  most badly for its survival, is
>>precisely the fake, artificially constructed mental picture. And -
>>needless to say that - the agony of the dragon  should by no means be
>>lightheartedly taken as a local process only...
>>
>>It's not a farewell letter - it's a letter of hope.
>>
>>Please keep your fingers for us this week!
>>
>>With warmest regards,
>>
>>Oksana Zabuzhko
>>
>><http://www.zabuzhko.com>http://www.zabuzhko.com
>>
>

ROMAN SENKUS / POMAH CEHbKYCb
Director, CIUS Publications Program www.utoronto.ca/cius
Managing Editor, www.encyclopediaofukraine.com

Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Toronto Office
University of Toronto
1 Spadina Crescent, Room 109
Toronto, ON
M5S 2J5
Canada

tel. (416) 978-8669, 978-6934
fax (416) 978-2672

----- End forwarded message -----