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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

For Your Freedom and Ours

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

Thirty years ago on the night of August 20/21, 1968, Warsaw Pact forces entered the territory of Czechoslovakia, and the people took to the streets of Prague to defend their freedom. In the city's Red Square they raised a banner reminiscent of the Polish uprisings of the previous century, “For your freedom and ours.” Soviet tanks ended the all-too-brief Prague spring, burying forever the dream of socialism with a human face. While a handful of dissidents in Moscow protested under the watchful eyes of the KGB, the Communist machine emerged victorious – victorious over freedom, over democracy, and over a people who yearned for such forbidden fruits.

Seven years ago on August 19, 1991, the GKChP (Putsch) committee in Moscow ordered troops into Moscow to topple Gorbachev and restore hard-line Communism. The people went out into the streets to defend their freedom and human dignity – and this time they prevailed. Hard to believe it was only seven years ago. It seems like a lifetime since we listened to Radio Liberty for the latest word, argued among ourselves, believed, and expected.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko said of the August Putsch, “They wanted to herd the people back to the barn, but the people did not want to.”

Seven years ago, after the abortive Putsch Ukraine proclaimed its independence: for your freedom and ours.

Oh, how easy it then was to breathe and believe that the gloom of Communist dictatorship had perished. Unfortunately, dictatorship has shown its ability to revive, be it under the banner of fascism, communism, national chauvinism, or bureaucratic obstinacy.

One gets the impression that our functionaries deeply love Ukrainian independence as a holiday and do everything possible to celebrate the date. But let us allow ourselves to state that Ukrainian independence is not merely a festive meeting in the Ukraine Palace and a military parade. Each day it becomes more difficult and distasteful to fulfill one’s service obligations. The more so that when the issue is one of work, one can ask to what end. Can one really equate that routine with a military parade? The line between them is short and direct: Hup-two-three! Pretty, isn’t it?

Seven years have passed, and we have discovered the world. We feel free: free ideologically, politically, and economically. Now we have only to learn the main lesson: “They wanted to herd the people back to the barn.” It depends completely on us whether we will go back into the barn or not! For your freedom and ours!

Photo by Viktor Marushchenko,The Day:

ON RENEWED KHRESHCHATYK A MILITARY PARADE WAS REHEARSED

 

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