How Are Ukrainians Faring in Russia? Not Too Well, by All Accounts
Since Ukraine became an independent state, the size of the worldwide Ukrainian Diaspora has grown considerably, owing to the fact that among the so-called “foreign Ukrainians” are also our compatriots who live in what was once Soviet territory. In particular, the latest census indicates that three million Ukrainians live in Russia alone. Yet according to unofficial information of the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council (UWCC), there are about ten million Ukrainians in the Russian Federation today.
In 2002-2003 the UWCC, an organization tasked with defending, among other things, the rights and interests of our fellow countrymen abroad, adopted a number of measures aimed at supporting and determining the true situation of Ukrainians in the eastern diaspora. UWCC chairman Mykhailo Horyn told a press conference that delegations from his organization have visited a number of areas densely populated by Ukrainians: Kursk; Murmansk oblast; the Republic of Karelia; the Krasnodar, Primorye, and Khabarovsk Territories; Sakhalin; and Kamchatka. Unfortunately, the conclusions reached by the visitors are far from optimistic: unlike Russians who live in Ukraine, Ukrainians residing in Russia have no opportunities to realize their national, linguistic, cultural, and other rights. “In Ukraine there are millions of books, newspapers, and magazines published in Russian, which are easily accessible to patrons of the overwhelming majority of libraries; Russian-language radio and television channels; more than 5,500 state schools with Russian as the language of instruction, sixteen Russian-language theaters, and so on,” states the resolution passed by the UWCC after the visits to Russia. “But in the Russian Federation there is not a single more or less regular Ukrainian-language publication, and the Ukrainian-language press is mostly the responsibility of civic organizations. There is not a single state school with Ukrainian as the language of instruction, not a single Ukrainian-language theater. There is just one Ukrainian library — in a country with a population of 150 million — which is in fact just a branch of Moscow City Library No. 147.”
According to Mr. Horyn, this situation can only be improved if governmental bodies duly address the problems of our compatriots in the ex-USSR countries and work in close cooperation with civic and governmental institutions. UWCC members say that the question of creating proper conditions for the full-fledged ethnic cultural development of Ukrainians in the post-Soviet countries must be raised during the negotiations on the Single Economic Space.
The UWCC plans to make similar trips this year to Ukrainian-populated areas of Central Asia and Transcaucasia, and will continue supporting Ukrainian communities in Russia. At the same time, Mr. Horyn expressed concern about the future of his organization, given that this year Ukraine’s national budget forecasts an almost tenfold cut in funding. He claims that the protracted talks with the Ministry of Finance resulted in the allotment of 55,000 hryvnias — just enough to cover the costs of maintaining the UWCC office. Nevertheless, Mr. Horyn hopes the 2005 budget will improve the situation, for the UWCC is one of Ukraine’s most powerful civic organizations.
