Window on Eurasia: Ukrainians Made an Enormous Contribution to Allied Victory in World War II

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 4 – Moscow propagandists have criticized the plans of Ukrainian President-elect Petr Poroshenko to attend the 70^th anniversary commemorations of the D-Day landings in Normandy suggesting that Ukraine was not one of the allied countries and that Ukrainians supported the Nazis.

            But those implications are untrue, Yury Shapoval, a member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, says, and in fact, “Poroshenko is going to France as the representative of a people which made an enormous contribution to the victory over fascism” (ng.ru/politics/2014-06-03/3_kartblansh.html).

                In an article in yesterday’s “Nezavisimaya gazeta,” the historian cites the words of “Saturday Evening Post” writer Edgar Snow in January 1945 that the eastern front during World War II was not so much an example of “Russian glory” but  rather “in justice should be recognized in the first instance as a Ukrainian war.”

            “World War II was for many reasons a ‘Ukrainian’ [conflict],” the Kyiv author says.  On March 15, 1939, Hungarian forces invaded Carpathian Ukraine, “which had just proclaimed state independence.” The Ukrainians fought back against what was the first military attack by an ally of Hitler, but they lost and were absorbed by Hungary.

            And at the other end of the war, on September 2, 1945, the Ukrainian historian continues, “a young general of Ukrainian origin, Kuzma Derevyanko signed the act of capitulation by Japan on the American battleship Missouri.”

            The war passed across Ukraine twice, once “from west to east” and then “from east to west.”  On its territory were at one time “up to 60 percent of the divisions of the Wehrmacht and almost half of the military units of the Red Army.” In the latter, there were between six and seven million Ukrainians.

            Although Moscow has done everything it can to understate the Ukrainian contribution, there were more than 300 generals of Ukrainian origin in the Red Army. The number was in fact larger. Although Shapoval does not mention it here, officers of Ukrainian origin were allowed to change their nationality to Russian upon reaching the rank of colonel.

            And the Ukrainians showed they knew how to fight. Nearly one in every five Soviet soldiers named a hero of the Soviet Union was a Ukrainian. Of the 115 who were given the award twice, 32 were Ukrainians, and ne Ukrainian – pilot Ivan Kozhdeub -- received it three times.  

            Ukrainians did not just fight in the Soviet Army or on the territory of their republic, Shapoval points out.  Between 35,000 and 50,000 Ukrainians served in the Canadian military during the wr, approximately 11 percent of that country’s uniformed services. Almost 40,000 Ukrainians took part in the Overlord operation as part of the American military.

            Five thousand Ukrainians in France fought  in that country’s Foreign Legion, and many rose to leadership positions in the Resistance. Every eighth member of General Vladyslav Ander’s Polish forces was a Ukrainian, even though in most cases, they called and were called Poles.

             “The Ukrainian theme sounded loudly and tragically in the apocalyptic symphony of the Second World War,” the Kyiv academic concludes. “One should not forget about that,” however much Russian propagandists and those elsewhere who follow their lead try to obscure the facts of the case.

            Poroshenko thus has every right to be in Normandy as the representative of a nation which gave so much of its blood and treasure to defeat the common enemy of the United Nations. That is especially the case because unlike the Soviet Union which Vladimir Putin likes to celebrate, Ukraine did not use the end of the war for liberation to enslave others.

Window on Eurasia: Russia’s Environmentalists ‘Who are Still Free’ Mobilize to Free Vitishko

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 4 – Saying that it is a very good thing Russian environmental activists are “still free” to meet, Yeveniya Chirikova, a leader of the movement for the “Ecological Defense of Moscow City and Oblast,” says that Moscow’s repressive actions have created the need for a --new term analogous to “prisoner of conscience” --“prisoner of the environment.”

            That term applies, she told a Pushkino conference at the end of last week, in the first instance to Yevgeny Vitishko, now serving a three-year prison term on trumped up charges for his work to attract attention to the harm those who organized the Sochi Olympics inflicted on the environment (bellona.ru/articles_ru/articles_2014/1401445913.35).

            Chirikov said that in the 20^th century, the main challenges activists had to respond to were in the field of human rights but in “the 21^st, they are ecological ones,”  and those challenges are even more difficult to overcome because governments and big businesses in the pursuit of power and profit are united against them.

            As a result and especially in Russia, things are now very grim for environmental activists.  The authorities have killed some, like Mikhail Beketov; they have driven others, like Suren Gazaryan, to flee the county -- he is now in Estonia – and they have imprisoned others, like Yevgeny Vistishko.

            Efforts to ensure Vitishko’s security are ongoing, both within Russia and around the world, she said. And “today there is an agreement with one company that if we gather 100,000 signatures, then it will pay for an appeal to the European Court [for Human Rights],” Chirikova said.” This possibility must be used.

           

            Ever more environmental protection and human rights groups in other countries are also organizing and demonstrating on behalf of Vitishko, who has become the symbol for many of popular resistance to the environmental destruction being inflicted by the Russian government and Russian corporations. These efforts are documented at freevitishko.org/.

            Vitishko, 40, was trained as a geologist and specialized in coastal protection and anti-erosion techniques. He is a member of the Ecological Watch on the North Caucasus and first attracted attention for his exposes of the dumping of dangerous chemicals into the water supply by major Russian oil and gas companies.

            But he became an international celebrity and object of persecution by the Russian government in February 2011 when he and three colleagues exposed the way in which the environment was being harmed by the construction of a dacha for Kuban Governor Aleksandr Tkachev. They were sentenced to ten days detention for resisting arrest.

            In December 2011, the Russian authorities launched a criminal investigation against Vitishko and his fellow activists, and in May 2012, he and Gazaryan were tried and convicted on trumped up charges.  The two were sentenced to three years imprisonment, but at that time, the sentence was suspended.

            The Eco-Hostage Organization declared that Vitishko and Gazaryan were victims of persecution for the defense of nature. The Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners said the charges against them were politically motivated. And Russia’s Memorial included Vitishko in its list of political prisoners.

            But despite this official persecution, Vitishko continued to work to expose the destruction of the environment by those organizing the Sochi Olympics.  As a result, on December 20, 2013, the courts changed his sentence and ordered him imprisoned.  According to Freevistisko.org, “the initiators [of that change] were the local siloviki.”

            Immediately, the most important international environmental and human rights organizations spoke out in his behalf: Bellona, Greenpeace, and Memorial, among others. But to date, the Russian government has been deaf to their appeals for justice, and Vitishko remains incarcerated in a prison colony in Tambov Oblast.

            To advance his case while continuing to work to protect the environment, Russian activists have both met with journalists to try to attract more coverage of Vitishko and their issues and launched an online journal, “Ecology and Law,” to spread the word (bellona.ru/articles_ru/articles_2014/1401522460.59).

            The latest issue – available online at bellona.ru/filearchive/fil_EiP_54_site.pdf  -- is devoted to the use of social media and Internet technologies in environmental activists.  In addition to articles and interviews about such issues, it features a poster in defense of Yevgeny Vitishko.

Window on Eurasia: Closed Facebook Pages Helped Abkhaz Opposition Bring Down Ankvab

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 3 – Closed forums on Facebook helped the Abkhazian opposition organize and ultimately bring down former republic president Aleksandr Ankvab, according to Islam Tekushev, editor of the Prague-based “Caucasus Times” and a widely cited authority on the politics of the North Caucasus.

            Many commentators have pointed to the role of social media in general in recent political turmoil in the Middle East and elsewhere, but Tekushev’s observation about the role of closed forums “in the exchange of information and the coordination of the actions” of the opposition points to a still-neglected aspect of this trend (caucasustimes.com/article.asp?id=21291).

            “From the very beginning,” he writes, “the conflict between the ruling elites and society  [in Abkhazia] existed in the virtual world, particularly on Facebook pages” where “the opposition and the people discussed urgent problems and the actions of the leadership of the republic.”

            As a result, Tekushev says, “the social networks became a platform for the discussion of a broad range of problems, including passportization, the lack of transparency in the process of distribution of money flows from Russia, and much else.” In this sense, then, the Abkhaz events fit within the parameters of the color revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia and the Arab Spring.

            But he also points to two specific aspects of Abkhazian society which made closed Facebook pages more important and shaped the outcome of the rising: the relatively small political base of Ankvab, and the tradition in Abkhaz society of “resolving domestic conflicts” by peaceful means, including intense discussions.

            Consequently, it would likely be a mistake to extrapolate what happened in Abkhazia to many other societies. But because of what happened there, it would be an even greater mistake not to pay attention to social media in general, Facebook pages in particular, and closed – that is, approved membership – Facebook pages in particular.

Window on Eurasia: Ukrainian Petition Seeks Ban on Moscow Patriarchate Operations in Ukraine

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 3 – A petition calling for a ban on the operations of the Moscow Patriarchate on Ukrainian territory highlights in the religious sphere a dilemma Ukrainians face elsewhere as well: If Kyiv moves to protect itself, it will be criticized for violating human rights; if it doesn’t, it may be allowing Moscow institutions to continue subverting Ukraine.

            Last week, Ukrainian activists who identify themselves as the Initiative Group of Orthodox Believers in Ukraine began collecting signatures on petitions to the Verkhovna Rada to ban the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate on the territory of Ukraine (joinfo.ua/sociaty/929911_Nachalsya-sbor-podpisey-zapret-UPTs-MP.html).

            The group’s appeal, the text of which Joinfo.ua has not provided, said that the ban was necessary because “there is no place on our land for criminals and occupiers.” 

            Such negative attitudes toward the Moscow Patriarchate “toward any sources of imperial ambitions from Russia are nothing new,” the Russian religious affairs portal, Reliopolis.org commented, but it added that “such a sharp expression of antipathy” to the Moscow Church does not correspond “to Ukraine’s declared commitment to freedom of conscience and belief.”

            The Ukrainian parliament is thus likely to reject the petition, the portal continued, “since in the civilized world such cases can be resolved only in the courts. Moreover, it pointed out, this appeal is likely to provoke supporters of the Moscow Patriarchate to respond with petitions of their own (religiopolis.org/news/7765-argumenty-neterpimosti.html).

            Indeed, the situation regarding the various Orthodox Churches in Ukraine is so murky that it is even entirely possible that the petition now being circulated is a provocation by the Russian side to embarrass Ukraine and to force Kyiv to slow the process of the formation of a single Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

            That process is very much ongoing with some hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine having declared their support for Ukraine against Russian secessionist actions and some of the priests of that denomination already transferred their allegiance to one or another of the Ukrainian Orthodox groups.

            As many in the Orthodox world are aware, the Moscow Patriarchate may be the biggest loser as a result of the Kremlin’s Anschluss of Crimea and subversion of eastern Ukraine. Almost half of all its parishes are in Ukraine, and the absorption of many or all of them in a single autocephalous Ukrainian church would reduce the Moscow body’s influence in two ways.

            On the one hand, it would reduce the ROC MP’s size and income, depriving it of its predominant position in Eastern Christianity especially on the territory of the former Soviet Union. And on the other, the formation of a consolidated Ukraine ROC would likely trigger a “parade of sovereignties” among Orthodox groups elsewhere.

            That would strengthen the statehood of countries where the Orthodox form a majority of the population and reduce the threat that the Moscow Patriarchate would interfere.  And perhaps even more immediately important, it would mean that Patriarch Kirill’s stock in the halls of the Kremlin would fall precipitously because he would no longer be able to offer as much.