A New Breath of Freedom

The phenomenon of the Orange Revolution will forever light up Ukraine’s movement toward freedom in the new era. But didn’t we have freedom before? What about the independence that was achieved in 1991 or Ukrainian institutions and attributes of Ukrainian statehood?

The term “dosage,” to describe the nature of the Orange breakthrough, comes to mind. Until recently we were struggling to win freedom in doses, small but vital parts that prevented us from suffocating or lapsing into lethargy. These were breaths of freedom, vivifying but inadequate. This was the harsh reality for most older and middle-aged Ukrainians, who simply put up with it or took it for granted. But the younger generation no longer wished to indulge in wishful thinking, and rebelled. From now on, this new breath of freedom must, and will, evolve into breathing freely of liberty that we will no longer be receiving in small doses.

Clearly, this will be difficult to accomplish. The stereotypes of the totalitarian system deformed the Ukrainians’ consciousness, causing such notions as “traitor” and “collaborator” to become firmly rooted in people’s minds. Arguably the largest number of such labels was applied to our national bellwether Symon Petliura (1879-1926). He was called a “traitor,” “leader of a bourgeois nationalist counterrevolution,” “one of the leaders of the counterrevolutionary Central Council,” “exterminator of the Jews,” etc. All these misleading myths are now being dispelled by contemporary historians, who offer an objective view of Symon Petliura’s multifaceted political, governmental, and civic activity. In 1999 Kamyanets- Podilsky State University hosted a scholarly conference entitled “Symon Petliura within the Context of the Ukrainians’ Struggle for Independence,” timed to coincide with the 120th anniversary of his birth. The organizers compiled a collection of conference papers on Symon Petliura whose views largely reflect those of our contemporaries. He supported Ukraine’s integration into the European space and championed the principles of political realism, alliances with other countries, and the capacity to negotiate, particularly with the Bolsheviks (V. Ustymenko). Petliura played a crucial role in the revival and development of national education and sought to secure official status for the Ukrainian language (Yu. Teliachy).

Conference participants dispelled the myth about Petliura’s anti-Semitism and persecution of Jews (Yu. Shapoval). Without a doubt, all of the above is proof that Petliura’s objectives should be implemented, recognized by contemporaries, and preserved for posterity.

Kamyanets-Podilsky, the seat of the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) in 1919, played a major role in Symon Petliura’s life and work. On June 6, 1919, Kamyanets-Podilsky welcomed the government’s representatives, who were to restore administrative structures in the city. The next to arrive were members of the Directory headed by Symon Petliura, and the staff of the UNR Council of Ministers. Their arrival marked the beginning of a major phase in the national struggle for liberation led by the Directory, which came to be known as the Kamyanets Period. By mid-November 1919 the city was home to the UNR’s provisional state center, where political, administrative, and socioeconomic goals, which were exceedingly difficult to accomplish in a country ripped apart by war, were planned. According to Isaak Mazepa, a leading political figure in the UNR (prime minister), “The Kamyanets Period is one of the most tragic in the history of our liberation struggle for the revolution of 1917-1920. The Kamyanets Period has special significance for us. It is here and in this period that we saw all the shortcomings and flaws that weighed heavily on our society throughout the Ukrainian revolution, thereby significantly complicating our liberation struggle.”

Symon Petliura and the UNR administration had a close relationship with Kamyanets-Podilsky State University, which was established in the period of the Hetmanate (1918) and chaired by Rector Ivan Ohienko. The university worked actively for the benefit of Ukrainian culture, educating the nation’s intelligentsia. Students from the university served in various ministries as government officials at different levels. After returning to Kamyanets-Podilsky on May 2, 1920, Chief Ataman Symon Petliura met with a student delegation eager to contribute to his administration’s state-building efforts. Petliura approved their initiative, and a mobilization committee was soon formed to register volunteers and assign them to different ministries. With Petliura’s backing, the students of Kamyanets-Podilsky formed a separate Podilsky Regiment. Many university students fought as part of the Zaporizhia division of the UNR army, while university staff tended to wounded Cossacks of this army. Many lecturers and staff members of the university were members of the Podilsk branch of the Ukrainian Red Cross headed by Rector Ivan Ohienko.

The name of Stepan Hryshchenko, a student at the Faculty of Philology, correspondent of the magazine Selo [Village], and soldier of the Podilsky Regiment, is inscribed in golden letters in the university’s history. Olimpiada Pashchenko, an associate of Ivan Ohienko and cofounder of the university, mentions Stepan Hryshchenko in her 1936 memoirs entitled The Founding of Kamyanets-Podilsky Ukrainian State University. She recalls that Hryshchenko delivered a fiery speech on the university’s opening day, October 22, 1918. He “displayed patriotism and readiness to sacrifice his life for a better future for his people and showed hope for a glorious future for Ukraine.” He was killed one year later. On May 30, 1919, he went to Chemerivtsi, a raion near the city of Kamyanets, where he traveled from village to village, reciting his poetry and urging people to struggle for an independent Ukraine. The Kamyanets- Podilsky area was occupied by Red Army regiments under Andreyev’s command. In the village of Zherdia Hryshchenko was spotted by some village activists, who reported him to the Red Army. Stepan was arrested, and the Bolsheviks unleashed their vengeance on “Petliura’s scout.” Before being killed by a Red Army officer, Hryshchenko shot two other officers. Stepan was a close friend of Mykyta Hodovanets, his fellow student and the future Ukrainian fabulist. Hodovanets dedicated a poem to Hryshchenko, as well as a story entitled “For the Freedom of the Native Land; in Memory of the Poet Stepan Hryshchenko,” and an obituary, which appeared in Selo, which was then being published in Kamyanets-Podilsky.

Chief Ataman of the UNR Army Symon Petliura held Kamyanets-Podilsky University in high esteem, visited it three times, and ordered the Directory to issue large stipends to students from disadvantaged families.

Thus, it is only natural that Kamyanets residents wish to commemorate Symon Petliura. On September 4, 1997, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the building that once housed Petliura’s headquarters on a street known today as vul. Yu. Sitsynskoho. This was achieved with the support of the city fathers (Mayor A. Kucher) and the London-based Symon Petliura Society headed by Mykola Sydorenko. The community of Kamyanets-Podilsky hoped a monument would be built in 2004, the 125th anniversary of Symon Petliura’s birth. In its July 2, 2004, issue, the local newspaper Kamyanets-Podilsky visnyk carried an article by Vasyl Peklo, chief of the Kamyanets-Podilsky Union of Architects, who urged that monuments should be erected to the two great figures, Symon Petliura and Ivan Ohienko: “The chief ataman of the UNR army and chairman of the Directory,” who turned our city from a provincial capital into the capital of Ukraine (the Ukrainian National Republic), and the founder and first rector of Kamyanets-Podilsky State University and translator of the Bible into Ukrainian (1962). In his article the author writes: “These two historical figures deserve to be carved in stone, the first with a trident and the second with a Bible in his hand, to become symbols and an example for Kamyanets-Podilsky. So far I can’t see any other figures that have brought our city worldwide fame.” The authorities did not heed this plea because the election campaign of the pro-government candidate was gathering steam.

Later, party and civic organizations of the city spoke out. They sent an appeal to Kamyanets-Podilsky City Hall, requesting the municipal executive to consider erecting a monument to Symon Petliura. The appeal was signed by the heads of ten organizations. It reads in part, “The current year 2004 is the 125th anniversary of Symon Petliura’s birth, a jubilee year. Symon Petliura was the most outstanding fighter for the statehood and independence of Ukraine. It was under Petliura, from June to November 1919, that Kamyanets was the capital, even if a temporary one, of the Ukrainian National Republic. Symon Vasyliovych spent over 100 days working tirelessly in Kamyanets. Now that Ukraine has been enjoying its statehood and independence for fourteen years, it is time for the authorities of Kamyanets-Podilsky to bring this idea to life.” The authors of the appeal also quoted an article by the journalist Oleh Budzhey, published in the local newspaper Podolianyn, in which he proposed a concept and site for the monument.

On the eve of the first round of the presidential elections, Kamyanets-Podilsky City Hall decided “not to allow party and civic organizations of Kamyanets-Podilsky to erect a monument to Symon Petliura at the intersection of Ivan Ohienko and Kniaziv Koriatovychiv Streets on the site of the stele commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Great October Revolution.” That same evening local television aired an interview with Mayor Oleksandr Mazurchak and Communist deputy Oleh Hiliovsky, who commented on this decision. Both agreed that it was a provocation on the eve of the elections.

In order to help matters somewhat, I (one of the signatories of the appeal) responded by sending the mayor a message with a photocopy of Larysa Ivshyna’s introductory article “A Word to Readers” from the book Wars and Peace (2004) with the following lines highlighted: “I cannot help mentioning the fact that the 125th anniversary of Petliura’s birth passed unnoticed. We have no memorial in his honor in Kyiv either. Meanwhile, the word ‘memorial’ is derived from the word memory. Does the absence of historical memory mean the absence of leaders? We are a nation that has eternally struggled for its freedom and suffered colossal casualties in the process. Yet we have no gravestones. But I believe that some day there will be a pantheon of great Ukrainians.”

Did my message reach the mayor? I have no idea, as I have yet to receive a reply.

But all of a sudden an orange whirlwind swept through the country. The first rally in Kamyanets convened almost simultaneously with the one in Kyiv. It was 2 p.m., November 22. The rally was opened by the famous historian, correspondent and expert of The Day, and professor of Kamyanets-Podilsky University, Valery Stepankov. His emotional speech resonated with words about liberty and independence, and a warning against repeating past mistakes. As a result of pressure from the public and members of the strike committee, the municipal deputies passed a resolution of “no confidence in the Central Electoral Commission” with a demand to revoke the election results in those constituencies where election fraud had been reported. The deputies thus saved their face. But what about specific deeds? It remains to be seen whether the Orange Era, in particular the year 2005, which will rightfully be the Year of Ukraine in Ukraine (after the Year of Russia in 2003 and the Year of Poland in 2004), will shift some accents in terms of state-building ideology and propaganda in Ukraine. National heroes who were hushed up and discredited must be restored to us. Otherwise, we will not be a full-fledged nation. After all, for the first time the world has seen Ukrainians as a strong, free, and shining nation.

During the Orange Revolution, students with a penchant for creativity tied an orange ribbon around the hand of Ivan Ohienko’s bas-relief on the wall of the university’s main building. In those days Ohienko was with us, but Petliura wasn’t. But he will return to us because, with his devotion to the idea of an independent Ukraine, he deserves this. Roman Skrypin, a Channel 5 host, says that the rudiments of the Soviet system inherited by the Ukrainian elite must disappear. We are certain that there must be an end to the authorities’ political deafness and myopia. Why else did the people gather on Independence Square?

There’s no stopping the freedom of the spirit!