Hurrah! Vsi Za Yedynu (Sovietsku) Ukraiinu! (англ)
03/09/2002 | Serhiy Hrysch
For Ukr. Pravda.
Hurrah! Vsi Za Yedynu (Sovietsku) Ukraiinu!
Nigel Pemberton, Southern Ukraine
Taras Shevchenko's annual commemoration is again with us and its time to celebrate Ukraine1s greatest poet. For the local party of power this creates dilemmas because until only ten years ago they celebrated Shevchenko in the traditional censored Soviet manner as a former Serf who struggled for social justice and union with Ukraine's "elder brother".
These views of Shevchenko are no longer compatible in an independent Ukraine and so its time to change, but not too much. After all, the party of power which is now united openly for the first time in Za Yedinu are unable to completely cut their ties to the past as they ARE Ukraine's Soviet past. Their mannerisms, political culture and style of work in Ukraine are merely an adapted Soviet style. It was not too difficult to change half of the Soviet Ukrainian flag, crimson for yellow.
The Shevchenko concert in Odesa on Wednesday reflected this uneasy transition of the kharcholiuby from Soviet to independent Ukraine. The flag on stage was now blue and yellow but little else was different to the Soviet era when Shevchenko was commemorated. Introductory speeches before the concert played up Shevchenko's role in developing a "national idea" that led Ukraine to an independent state. The concert that followed included little new from concerts of Ukrainian folk culture I had seen on countless occasions in the Soviet era when the USSR allowed Virsky and Veriovka to tour the West. Za Yedinu's attitide to Ukrainian culture and language is like the Communist Party of Ukraine's - purely declarative. Folk culture is used as a fig leaf to mask the reality of the ruling party's disinterest in Ukrainian language or culture and its preference for all things Russian.
The party of power could not resist using the occasion to insert the word "Yedinu" throughout the two speeches preceding the concert. The audience were left in no doubt that Taras Shevchenko is spiritually linked to the Za Yedinu block through the "national idea" and his support for a "consolidated, yedinu Ukraiinu". In the Soviet era he was described as ideologically tied to the Communist Party of Ukraine because of his support for social justice. If you love Shevchenko then you need to vote for Za Yedinu!
Ninety per cent of billboards in Odesa are for Za Yedinu. They are pictures of smiling young children in Ukrainian costumes and other party slogans. They resemble the Communist Party of Ukraine propaganda posters we often saw on the nicely produced photo albums sent by our relatives in Ukraine to the West in the Soviet era.
The former Soviet Ukrainian elite who are today's Za Yedinu cannot rationalise themselves in any other way because, despite a decade of independence, they remain Homo Sovieticus in their political culture. As in the Soviet era, Za Yedinu say one thing officially and do another thing privately. In the Soviet era they campaigned for communism without believing it any longer from the "era of stagnation". Today, they talk about "market economic reform", 'democratisation" and "returning to Europe" while doing the exact opposite. In the same week that the harant was telling Madeleine Albright that Ukraine will hold a free and fair election the MVD was holding a secret meeting to undermine Yushchenko's Our Ukraine presided over by the Deputy Head of the Presidential Adminstration.
Za Yedinu are running their election campaign just as they did in the Soviet era by looking at elections as only a formality. In between elections citizens are meant to stay quiet and delegate all of the tasks of ruling the country to those that know better while in elections they are "guided" as to how to correctly vote. In the Soviet era they denounced "Ukrainian bourgoius nationalists" as "Banderovtsi". Today, they issue posters in Eastern Ukraine showing a direct line from Ivan Mazepa-Symon Petliura-Stepan Bandera-Viktor Yushchenko in an attempt to scare voters from supporting Our Ukraine.
If we want to build a deformed Soviet Ukrainian state Ukrainians should therefore vote for Za Yedinu (Sovietsku) Ukraiinu!!! Slava Heroyam!
Hurrah! Vsi Za Yedynu (Sovietsku) Ukraiinu!
Nigel Pemberton, Southern Ukraine
Taras Shevchenko's annual commemoration is again with us and its time to celebrate Ukraine1s greatest poet. For the local party of power this creates dilemmas because until only ten years ago they celebrated Shevchenko in the traditional censored Soviet manner as a former Serf who struggled for social justice and union with Ukraine's "elder brother".
These views of Shevchenko are no longer compatible in an independent Ukraine and so its time to change, but not too much. After all, the party of power which is now united openly for the first time in Za Yedinu are unable to completely cut their ties to the past as they ARE Ukraine's Soviet past. Their mannerisms, political culture and style of work in Ukraine are merely an adapted Soviet style. It was not too difficult to change half of the Soviet Ukrainian flag, crimson for yellow.
The Shevchenko concert in Odesa on Wednesday reflected this uneasy transition of the kharcholiuby from Soviet to independent Ukraine. The flag on stage was now blue and yellow but little else was different to the Soviet era when Shevchenko was commemorated. Introductory speeches before the concert played up Shevchenko's role in developing a "national idea" that led Ukraine to an independent state. The concert that followed included little new from concerts of Ukrainian folk culture I had seen on countless occasions in the Soviet era when the USSR allowed Virsky and Veriovka to tour the West. Za Yedinu's attitide to Ukrainian culture and language is like the Communist Party of Ukraine's - purely declarative. Folk culture is used as a fig leaf to mask the reality of the ruling party's disinterest in Ukrainian language or culture and its preference for all things Russian.
The party of power could not resist using the occasion to insert the word "Yedinu" throughout the two speeches preceding the concert. The audience were left in no doubt that Taras Shevchenko is spiritually linked to the Za Yedinu block through the "national idea" and his support for a "consolidated, yedinu Ukraiinu". In the Soviet era he was described as ideologically tied to the Communist Party of Ukraine because of his support for social justice. If you love Shevchenko then you need to vote for Za Yedinu!
Ninety per cent of billboards in Odesa are for Za Yedinu. They are pictures of smiling young children in Ukrainian costumes and other party slogans. They resemble the Communist Party of Ukraine propaganda posters we often saw on the nicely produced photo albums sent by our relatives in Ukraine to the West in the Soviet era.
The former Soviet Ukrainian elite who are today's Za Yedinu cannot rationalise themselves in any other way because, despite a decade of independence, they remain Homo Sovieticus in their political culture. As in the Soviet era, Za Yedinu say one thing officially and do another thing privately. In the Soviet era they campaigned for communism without believing it any longer from the "era of stagnation". Today, they talk about "market economic reform", 'democratisation" and "returning to Europe" while doing the exact opposite. In the same week that the harant was telling Madeleine Albright that Ukraine will hold a free and fair election the MVD was holding a secret meeting to undermine Yushchenko's Our Ukraine presided over by the Deputy Head of the Presidential Adminstration.
Za Yedinu are running their election campaign just as they did in the Soviet era by looking at elections as only a formality. In between elections citizens are meant to stay quiet and delegate all of the tasks of ruling the country to those that know better while in elections they are "guided" as to how to correctly vote. In the Soviet era they denounced "Ukrainian bourgoius nationalists" as "Banderovtsi". Today, they issue posters in Eastern Ukraine showing a direct line from Ivan Mazepa-Symon Petliura-Stepan Bandera-Viktor Yushchenko in an attempt to scare voters from supporting Our Ukraine.
If we want to build a deformed Soviet Ukrainian state Ukrainians should therefore vote for Za Yedinu (Sovietsku) Ukraiinu!!! Slava Heroyam!