Zbruch: River of Unity or Border?

Ten years ago, a human chain linked Kyiv and Lviv, as if confirming again the unity of Ukrainian lands, proclaimed by the Act on the Unification of the Ukrainian People’s (or National) Republic and the West Ukrainian People’s Republic of January 22, 1918. Only two years would pass, and the East, West, South, and North of Ukraine would all vote at a referendum for Ukraine as a united independent state. But when the euphoria of this expression of the popular will receded, it became clear that the human chain should have been extended as far as Kharkiv, Donetsk, or Simferopol. Now, on the eve of Day of Unity, the Ukrainian Parliament divided into the majority (which can find support above all in Western Ukraine) and the minority (with strong positions mostly in the East and South).

Does the Zbruch River, the old border between Western Ukraine and the rest of the country, divide this country into two parts, ten years after the human chain? Has the juxtaposition between the Ukrainian West and East intensified or abated?

This is the question The Day’s Oleksandr MIKHELSON asked Valery KHMELKO, Doctor of Philosophy and head of the Department of Sociology at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy:

“I suggest we speak about certain differences in political views rather than about a juxtaposition. This is manifested in various aspects, the most important of which for this country is attitude toward statehood. The seven western oblasts differed from the eastern ones in 1991, when Ukraine won independence, but now these differences have slightly decreased.

“The divisions in public sentiments have had, of course, a number of negative consequences. There were and still are attempts to play on the radical feelings of the masses. However, while the ultra-Right at least defends statehood, the ultra-Left in fact rejects it and plays exclusively on the popular discontent with living conditions. Incidentally, state-defending sentiments in Ukraine are being strengthened by the domestic policies of Russia. Each new war in Russia will increases the level of Ukrainian national self-identification. This is also occurring now, during the current war in Chechnya.

“But still, the living conditions of the population play an important role. Even if improved socioeconomic realities do not increase the number of the supporters of statehood, they will surely decrease the number of those who oppose it.”