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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Tradition Lives

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

In 1991, when the USSR collapsed and the newly independent states emerged, in our enthusiasm many us mistook them for new independent states. In fact, what happened here was simply that a pre-existing state, the Ukrainian SSR, became independent, renamed itself and a number of its components, and the same people continued to run the same structures in basically the same ways as before.

One recent example was Speaker Tkachenko's speech on Independence Day last month, in which he, inter alia, extolled the achievements of old Soviet Ukraine. So was his opposition to buying and selling land, along with his recent defense of the collective farms (renamed collective agricultural enterprises), which are in principle incapable of evolving into modern agribusiness (business requires flexible labor inputs, and on collectives the labor supply is a given).

In fact, when agriculture was collectivized (into artels, readers of Mark Olivensky's piece should note), it was done largely by mobilized urban workers. As often as not, the hapless interloper would round up the heads of household at gunpoint, take them to the local village club, orate something about the bright future awaiting them, and, finally, fed up with their recalcitrance, tell them they would stay there, until they signed. Many sat up with their charges three days and nights, but finally the peasants did sign up "voluntarily." This is the real origin of the "voluntary" nature by which Ukraine's commercial banks are being forced to exchange the state bonds the state cannot pay on time. The Prime Minister's hostage-taking of budget deadbeats also reminds one of just how much remains of that bright future we thought we had left behind us.

Of course, he has forgiven the debts the formerly biggest budget debtor, Mr. Tkachenko ($70 million run up by his Land and People Association under state guarantees and the state footing the bill), but then, in Ukraine loyalty, like everything else, has to be paid for.

 

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