A faithful son of Ukraine has died

The week has begun with extraordinarily said news. At five in the morning an outstanding Ukrainian died at the age of 90 – world famous economist, philosopher, and philanthropist Bohdan Hawrylyshyn. The final moments of his life Hawrylyshyn spent with his family at Kyiv apartment. The news has been reported by Hawrylyshyn Foundation on Facebook.

On October 19 Bohdan Hawrylyshyn celebrated his anniversary, on the occasion of which and for his significant contribution to Ukraine’s development he was awarded the Order of Freedom from the president of Ukraine and the Order of St. Nicholas from the Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate).

Bohdan Hawrylyshyn published several books, including Towards More Effective Societies: Road Maps to the Future (1980) and A Ukrainian Forever (2011).

Bohdan Hawrylyshyn rose from a logger boy to a member of one of the most powerful unions of world’s leading intellectuals – the Club of Rome. He was born in 1926 in the village of Koropets, Ternopil oblast. In 1944, during World War Two, he was taken at the age of 18 to Germany for work. From there he immigrated to Canada in 1947. He worked as a woodcutter and later became a student at the University of Toronto, where he received a master’s degree in engineering. Later, he received MBA at IMI Geneva and a doctorate in economics and social sciences at the University of Geneva.

Photo by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day

Yurii SHCHERBAK, writer, diplomat:

“The death of Bohdan Hawrylyshyn is very sad news for me. He offered me to talk on first-name terms, even though I was younger than him. Still, he called me Yurko, and I called him Bohdan. His death cut short the thread that bound me to the past and the European horizons which he brought to our lives here. I first met him in 1987, when he read my book Chornobyl and offered to publish it in Switzerland in German. He looked quite young and active then. I agree that he was very witty and optimistic with a delicate and well-developed sense of humor. This sense of humor set him apart from us because he was a free man, formed in a completely different system of coordinates. He had a very difficult path in the West. Even so, he proved that Ukrainians could be leaders in the Western world and full members of Western societies. Thanks to their sense of freedom, Ukrainians can easily adapt to the new reality and feel comfortable in the European and global system of values. Hawrylyshyn was not just a great Ukrainian, but also a great citizen of the world. He was one of the most prominent figures in the world globalization and embodied its features. Born a Ukrainian, he was a Canadian citizen, lived in Switzerland, spoke several European languages fluently, and created the Institute which became the prototype of many scientific institutions and symbolized a figure that was significant for the entire world.

“Hawrylyshyn told me how he traveled around the world and lectured on the organization of management in that institution of a new type which he created in Switzerland and was the first director of the Institute. Subsequently, such a management institute appeared in Ukraine as well. Only as it approached the 21st century, the humankind finally understood that management practices had to become more than just a tool of spontaneous struggle for markets and capitalist aggression, as they had to be governed by certain rules and principles as well. It is these principles that were developed by Hawrylyshyn.”

Volodymyr VASYLENKO, international law expert:

“Bohdan Hawrylyshyn was an outstanding figure. He did a lot for Ukraine, and many of us still need to fully appreciate it. I first met him in 1990, when the new parliament was elected in the first free election. The Soviet Union was still alive and Ukraine had not voted for its independence yet. The media were still controlled by the Communist Party, but one could choose among several candidates for one seat. It was then that about 120 legislators entered the Verkhovna Rada who positioned themselves as representatives of the national democratic movement. It was a qualitatively new situation which eventually allowed that body to declare the state sovereignty of Ukraine and pass a number of other legislative acts, which opened the way for the proclamation of independence of our country.

“Hawrylyshyn closely monitored these developments, being not just an observer, but an active participant as well. He tried his best to help us to gain statehood and transfer qualitatively new experience to leaders and legislators. In particular, thanks to his efforts, an advisory council was established to assist the speaker of the Rada, which included representatives of a wide range of experts from Ukraine and the West. Some of them were politicians who were very well known in Europe and the world, MPs from several Western nations. Even before the first session of the new parliament opened in May 1990, Hawrylyshyn ensured that an educational seminar was held for Ukrainian legislators. Lecturers of the seminar were representatives of the parliaments of several European countries who told their students in simple terms what the parliamentary system should be like in a democratic state and how a parliament should function. These measures helped us in getting the Verkhovna Rada to work. It was just one of the many examples of Hawrylyshyn’s practical work.

“As for the last years of his career, I can say that he complained to me, too, that the ruling elite of Ukraine were practically ignoring him. Moreover, not only Hawrylyshyn found himself unneeded in the eyes of these new leaders. The current government does not listen to the opinions of the expert community, Ukrainian and international alike. Instead, they invite nationals of other countries to take specific official positions, which is absolutely wrong and unconstitutional, for international experts should be advisors, not members of the government. The government should be formed exclusively of Ukrainians and we have enough qualified professionals who also need to gain experience and become true statespeople, both in their minds and in practice. It is them who need high-level advisors of Hawrylyshyn’s caliber, and he was very worried lately that this was not happening.”