At the turn of the twentieth century, elitism as an antithesis to populism started to appear practically everywhere: in fiction, motifs of liberation and the individual that have something in common with Nietzsche ideas of the «super man»10; in the «riot» of young «naddnipryantsi» who founded the belligerent «Taras Brotherhood» in 1890 in Kharkiv as a counterweight to Kyiv Old Hromada (i.e. society). In 1900, one of these «brothers» would publish the brochure «The Independent Ukraine». This elitism also appeared in a group of «young radicals» of Galicia. One of them, Julian Bachyns’kyj, in 1895 composed a brochure «Ukraina Irredenta» («Unliberated Ukraine»), in which he declared that political independence was the final condition not only for the economic and cultural development of Ukraine, but for its very existence. In 1901, Longin Tsehelsky published a brochure entitled «Rus’ is Ukraine, and Moskovshchyna is Russia», where the readiness of heroes to sacrifice their lives for the independence of Ukraine was articulated for the first time. In order to better understand the European connections and the future radicalization of young minds (Ukrainian irredentism), we have to remember that irredentism (the political movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Italy) merged with fascism after h t t p : / / w w w . j i - m a g a z i n e . l v i v . u a
of Ukrainians kept praying to God for freedom and independence. And independence is a great value for them even under the present conditions, when the state takes care not of them but of the judges who sent them to Siberia. 2 Finally, bugging and shadowing are things of the past. The dream about a life without state escort has come true. So has the dream about freedom of speech and freedom of conscience, about freedom of communication and freedom of movement. And most important of all, freedom from the totalitarian lie enforced by the Kremlin, which infested all generations with its black energy of hopelessness with its instructions for enslavement, and which waged a war against people, against individuality. I had no particular hopes for a happy life: I did not expect people to suddenly redefine themselves and to be young and optimistic. But things are getting brighter…
Oleksandr MAJBORODA, head of the Department of Ethnic Political Studies of the Institute of Political and Ethnic Research at the Ukrainian National Academy of Science
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1 The need for freedom cannot be rationally explained. It is a subconscious necessity. 2 No doubt, there have been changes for the better. At least the external attributes of democracy have appeared – a new wineskin ready to be filled with young wine. Since printing facilities are now privately owned and financially
the First World War. Crossing the threshold of the iron century of totalitarian ideologies, young Ukrainian intellectuals breathed the air of the same crises of old values as throughout Europe, and were infected by the same virus. In this context, the appearance of the work of Vyacheslav Lypynsky on the eve of First World War is no coincidence. Here was an individual who changed the understanding of Ukrainian history. He proclaimed that the goal of the historic existence of every ethnic community was not the striving of the masses for the «rights of the people», but the state, because «there is no citizenry without organization and authority, but only a scattered crowd of slaves that does not understand itself and, indeed, hates itself». Only a «leading force» that is disciplined, wellorganized and self-sacrificing – not populist idea – will be able to lead the stateless masses of Ukrainians to victory. The main role of this «leading force» is to direct the spontaneous movement of the lower layers of the population that, without the leadership of the elite, only creates anarchy and is «destructive» by nature.11 In the second decade of the twentieth century (V. Lypynsky died in 1931), academics and indeed the majority of the intelligentsia expelled from Soviet Ukraine were contemplating h t t p : / / w w w . j i - m a g a z i n e . l v i v . u a
independent, both communists and non-communists can be printed. Debates may not be conducted very properly, but their very existence triggers public reflection. Essentially, nothing has changed. In the early 90s we were dreaming about a fundamentally new way of life. Perhaps everybody desired changes first of all in their own sphere. For example, historians were dissatisfied because their superiors were appointed «from above». We wanted true devotees of science to become our bosses, we did not want the highest academic positions to be appendices to posts in the nomenclatura or just some sort of cosy job. In fact, whereas this had episodical character in Soviet times, it is now becoming becoming general practice. We changed the circumstances, but we did not change ourselves. They did not change either, but they adapted to the new circumstances. This, in fact, is the result of our ten-year development.
Stepan thKHMARA, national deputy of the 12th and 13 convocations of the Ukrainian parliament, former dissident 1 No nation can realize itself without a state of its own. Unfortunately, however, the problem of our state is that it is governed by powers with are essentially un-Ukrainian, opposed to the interests of the people, and destructive. A nation without a proper leader, without an elite, is like a herd of cattle. Ukraine is not independent. Nor is it moving