Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1918 — UKRAINE'S STRUGGLE for SELF-GOVERNMENT [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

UKRAINE'S STRUGGLE for SELF-GOVERNMENT

... ;/ V-;- r - ■; / Leader in Nationalistic Movement Tells Hqw Race Kept Its Individuality Under ■ Alien Masters—He Was Not in Favor of Complete Independence

By Professor Michaelo Hrushevsky

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,|- , n. HE history of the Ukrainian question. I dates from the middle of the sevenI teenth century, that is, the time of the great Ukrainian revolution of 1648, which hadt given a glaring publidty to the problem and caused at m A. 1* t j, e game time the partition of the ft M Ukraine between the Muscovite eraJX pire and the kingdom of Poland. From that day began the decadence of Ational Ukrainian life. About the middle of the sixteenth century Ukrainian life had lost much of Its strength. The aristocracy, deprived of any participation in politics, was forced to submit to the paramount race (Poles and Lithuanians), while the middle classes were subjected to every kind of vexation. The peasant had lost the right to possess either house or land. He had become a serf. Numerous taxes weighed him down till he was a mere accessory of the earth. The Orthodox church, which in those times was the representative of the nation, had become dependent upon a government as ill-disposed toward it as to the peasants. It~underwent a crisis which nearly brought about Its dissolution. Up to this period Lithuanian Ukraine had progressed slowly, but from the middle of the sixteenth century it progressed more rapidly under the influence of the Polish institutions. Moreover, about 1509, nearly all the districts of Lithuanian Ukraine were taken from its rule and simply annexed to the Polish republic. They were Volliynia, Eastern Podolla, Podlachje (the western Bug district), j and Kyjever. The Polish aristocracy came in numbers to reside in its new territory, the Ukrainian aristocracy became influenced by the Poles, and the individual life of the Ukraine ceased to exist. • This did not take place without a reaction and a desire for a national renaissance. Having regard to the special circumstances in western Ukraine, where the aristocracy* in particular had been nearly demolished, one will see that the intellectual and national regeneration could not hope to succeed in the long run. It found support, however, in a new social and political factor which at this critical moment appeared in eastern Ukraine, that Is to say, the Cossacks. The Cossacks did not hesitate to proclaim the immunity from all jurisdiction, all foreign suzerainty, all taxes, and all personal service of those who submitted to the power and jurisdiction of the Zaporogue (Cossack) army. Thus they drew toward them an enormous number of peasants, who at the end of the sixteenth century were leaving western and northern Ukraine for the east in order to escape the heavy burdens of serfdom. About 1590 the Cossacks came Into couflict with the Polish government, and their disagreements grew more serious as time went on. Each struggle Inspired fresh energy in the Ukrainians, till at last prolonged reprisals (1638-47) led to a revolution. . In 1648 the people rose, led by Bohdan Chmielnitzky. ■ The Polish army was beaten, and the rising spread over the Ukraine, even to the distant regions of the west. In spite of the number of insurgents, who totaled about 300,000 men at the beginning of the war in 1648, their leaders did not consider the liberation of the people possible by the means at their disposal. Chmielnitzky hesitated between two methods. The one was to create a federation of the orthodox states, Muscovy, Ukraine, Moldavia, and the Slavs of the Balkans. This alliance would have been directed against Poland and Turkey. Several reasons, and above ail the weakness of the Turkish government, inclined Chmielnitzky to decide for Muscovy. For some time Muscovy had not dared to accept the protectorate of the Ukraine. It feared war with Poland and remembered the cruel defeats which that nation had Inflicted at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Not till J 653 did Miscovy decide to eatend its protection to the Cossack army and to the Ukraine by Committing Itself to war with Poland. In March, 1654, the treaty was signed bearing the name, “Articles of Bohdan Chmielnitzky;” therein was defined the position of the Ukraine to Muscovy. From the moment the Empress Catherine came to the throne the days of the Ukrainian autonomy were, however, over. In 1772, when Poland was first divided up, western Ukraine, now eastern Galicia, became part of the Hapsburg kingdom in virtue of certain long-stanuing claims of the Hungarian crown to this country. Some years later, Bukowina (the present region), which formerly belonged to Moldavia, was added to it. , This passing of western Ukraine into the rule of Austria awoke a new national fervor in the country. Insignificant as were in reality the reforms brought about, this attitude nevertheless created a deep impression upon the Ukrainian population, which once again enjoyed a sense of nationality and Ipst the feeling of despair with which It was stricken during the later years of Polish supremacy. Even after the Austrian government, under the influence of the Polish aristocracy, had characterized Its Ukrainian pdficy by a strongly reactionary feeling, the energy of the national movement was not completely dissipated. On the other hand, the Ukrainian territory which had fallen to the share of Russian rule on the partition of Poland had no cause to look for any revival of nationalist aspirations. The rigor with which the Polish or Polonized aristocracy ruled the Ukrainian peasantry became now more merciless still, supported as the Poles were by the authority of Russia. The longing to see the old constitution restored made itself manifest from time to time, especially on such occasions as the Russian government Bought to recruit the Cossack militia in the Ukraine. The study of ethnography, and dialects, the researches into the life of the people, the renaisgance of the Ukrainian language and literature, Buch as we see at the end of the eighteenth century and especially in the first half of the nineteenth century, brought together the intellectual classes. Under the influences of which we have just spoken, and thanks to the ideals imported from western Europe, Ukrainian political thought abandoned its aspirations toward an independence that was no longer feasible In order to replace them by a realizable political program. The oldest of these programs that was In any

way realized dates from 1846. It was started by the Ukrainian organization of Kiev, known as the Guild of Cyril and Methodius. They desired a democratic and liberal constitution which would abolish privileges and classes and everything in fact of a nature to debase the people. Absolute freedom of speech, of thought, and of religion was to be guaranteed. Actually all this practical activity was killed at birth. For, in the year 1847 one of the students informed on the leaders and denounced them, with the result that they were arrested and condemned. This repression put a stop to any development of political thought in the Ukraine, now that the most talented and active leaders were reduced to silence. When they returned from their exile and assumed theif patriotic task, circumstances, such as the suppression of styfdom in Russia and the amelioration of the lot of the peasantry, compelled them to labor chiefly for the comfort of the peasants. They were occupied In teaching the agricultural classes and in educational work of various kinds as well as in creating a popular literature, etc. In spite of such moderation in thought, the Russian government regarded this activity with an unfavorable eye, because at the outset it hated any national Ukrainian mov.Anent, however moderate It might be. Moscow held strongly to the doctrine of “the unity of the Russian people.” Moreover, it regarded. as dangerous any desire to establish a separate Ukrainian literature and any endeavor to awaken national feeling in this unfortunate race. For these several reasons then, the activities of the Ukrainians of Kiev were suppressed, no matter how modest or how politically innocent they might be. >Any establishments or organizations where Ukrainian scientific workers congregated were forbidden, and in the spring of 1876 the celebrated ukase appeared determining the fate of the movement for many years. This ukase forbade the publishing in Ukrainian of any work other than those* of a historical or literary nature. The Ukrainian movement, however, was not to be extinguished by such coercive measures. The educated classes of the Ukraine fought incessantly in Russia for the national movement from 1880 to 1900, and endeavored to turn to their own advantages any possibilities which offered themselves. When the movement became no longer possible in Russia, It sought an outlet beyond ihe frontier in the territory of Austrian Ukraine. The exodus of the Ukrainians or the divergence of the national activity toward Austrian Ukraine, toward Lemberg, which became a center for the national life, was weighty with results not only for the Ukrainian movement In Russia, but also for the development of Austrian Ukraine Itself. Already, about the year 1860, after the first prohibition of the Ukrainian language In Russia, this event had contributed to the sustenance «of the Ukrainian national life In Austria at a very critical moment In the development of this section of the subject peqple. After the movement had gradually grown weaker In the second quarter of The nineteenth century, under the pressure of the general reactionary movement in Galicia, the year 1848 poured a refreshing breath over the Ukrainians of Austria. The Austrian government sought in the Ukrainian population something to set off against the Polish revolutionary movement. The final liberation of the serfs, the admission of the moral and political rights of the Ukrainian people (or Ruthenians), the crentlop of the first Institution of any Importance in the- domain of culture and politics, the nationalization of the schools, the formal promise of a university for Lemberg, the administrative separation of the two Galicias (Ukrainian and Polish), which had been artificially united -in 1772: all these Influences assisted the birth of a

new era' in the life of the Austrian Ukraine. But these years that were so full of hope soon passed, to be followed in their turn by the reaction of 1850, which brought to the Ukrainians of Galicia the most bitter deceptions. The promises made were completely forgotten for the most part, and the Ukrainians of Galicia, after having aided tho Austrian government in its combat against the rising of the Polish aristocracy, were left to tho unscrupulous rule of these same nobles, into whose hijpds the whole administration of Galicia passed onee again In the year 1850. Thus arose a painful crisis in the national life of the Ukrainians of Galicia. Disillusions and doubts followed one-another, and the way was open for therTtussophil current toward which the Polish aristocracy was eagerly driving the Ukrainian element. The arrival of fresh Ukrainian immigration, coming in 1863 to employ their activity on Gall- f clan soil, after the suppression of the Ukrainian movement in Russia, cannot, under the drcum stances, be too highly appreciated. At a critical moment this. influence brought the necessary aid to the Ukrainian element, chiefly of the younget generation—which had remained faithful to the program of 184$! From about 1880 this “popular” Ukrainian movement, as it was called, took a 'firm hold of thi people in Galicia, nor did it fall to keep in touclj with the IRtrainian movement in Russia as well. The end of the century. was signalised by a rapprochment between the two Ukraines. Thil had a most happy result for the natlena) life, thanks to the reciprocal control exerted on political questions. ' From this moment the progress of national culture in Russian Ukraine has made rapid progress, in spite of all attempts made to stop its course. The stormy years of 1904-1906 brought to thu fore the whole question of thd Russian reactionary powers. The Petrograd academy addressed a memorandum to the Russian government' proving that the current conception that the Russian literary language (Great Russian) was employed by the whole of Russia, was false, and did no! include the Little Russians (Ukrainians). In the most positive manner this memoir afllrms the right of existence to the Ukrainian language and literature. In spite of this, the delay brought about in the progress of the language was not immediately dissipated; this only occurred In 1906, when the law concerning newspapers was repealed. This law did away with,all restrictions in respect of special idioms, under which term the Ukrainian language was included. It looked at this period as if the most Joyous future were In store for the Ukrainian movement in Russia. Influenced by the aspirations toward political liberty shown by their brethren, the Austrian Ukrainians also claimed universal suffrage Galicia was moved by a stronger national impulse than it had ever known before. It was hoped that once “oecumenical” Ukraine achieved freedom In Russia, its Intellectual and political power would be strong enough to release its slater states from foreign hegemony. These hopes, however, were hot realized. A new reactionary movement disappointed all hopes, and all the promises made to the Russian people in 1905 and / 1906 were completely forgotten. This blow was especially hard for Ukrainians. Under the blow of the survival of the old aspirations and the disillusions they had received there arose a party in the Ukraine who wished to attempt mice again the fight for -the* Independence of the country. Such hopes which are found in the associations of the nationalist youth at the end of the nineteenth century awoke once again with renewed energy in spite of the 111-luck which had always hitherto pursued them.