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Oleg Smirnov
Jan 31, 2015, 11:46:45 AM1/31/15
to
> <http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=3312>
>
> 11 July 2007, 12:39
>
> Presentation of the memoirs of Vasily Vavrik, a prisoner
> of the Tallerhof death camp near Graz, Austria, about the
> first Russian genocide in the early 20th century -
> extermination of the Russian Orthodox population in
> Galicia and Carpathorussia right before the WW1. The Genocide of
> Carpathorussian Russophiles: A Silenced
> Tragedy of the 20th Century was published jointly by the
> Ukraine department of the CIS Institute and the
> Conservative Club. ..
>
> The book deals, on the one hand, with the history of
> Russian national revival in Galicia and Carpathorussia in
> the late 1890s and early 20th century. It includes many
> Uniats converting back to the Orthodox Church, when on
> major church feasts as many as 400 church procession
> crossed the Austrian Empire’s border to come to the
> Pochayev Lavra.
>
> On the other hand, the book describes Austro-Hungarian
> imperial genocide of Russians on those territories,
> including the political trials of ‘Russophile’ clergy and
> common folk who became Orthodox or spoke Russian. It also
> tells about death camps and mass killings, which took
> over 60,000 lives. The book evaluates the role of the
> ‘Ukrainian-Austrian party’ ..
<http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/pdf/talerhof.pdf>
For centuries Orthodox Carpatho-Russians and Galicians lived under Polish
or Hungarian and then Austro-Hungarian oppression. This oppression included
a superficial Uniatism enforced by starvation on this profoundly Orthodox
people. Like so many other national groups, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes,
Croats and Serbs among them, they waited patiently in their poverty-stricken
homeland, waiting for the day of freedom from the Austro-Hungarian prison
of the peoples. When Austria, backed by warmongering Prussianised Germany,
declared war on Orthodox Serbia and Russia in August 1914, at last the
Russian Army arrived to free them under the directions of the Orthodox Tsar
Nicholas II.
However, at once the Austrian authorities began their policy of genocide.
They declared that they would pay 300 Austrian crowns for every ‘spy’ (=
Carpatho-Russian or Little Russian patriot) who was turned in to them.
Traitors, especially pro-Polish and pro-Austrian ‘Ukrainian’ separatists,
eager to make money, were found, and many innocent people perished. Victims
were hung from scaffolds erected in densely populated areas or from trees
along the roads. In this way tens of thousands of pro-Russian Galicians
and Carpatho-Russians were victims of reprisals carried out by the Austro-
Hungarian authorities in Galicia and Carpatho-Russia during World War I.
Not content with this, the Austrians also opened concentration camps for
them. One was Terezin (in German, Theresienstadt), now in the Czech Republic.
During World War I, this military fortress was used as a camp and many
thousands of Galicians and Carpatho-Russians were placed there by Austro-
Hungarian authorities. ..
However, the second camp was by the village of Talerhof (in German Thalerhof)
near Graz in the province of Styria. (It is now under Graz Airport,
constructed by the former Nazi President of Austria, Kurt Waldheim). This
camp was operated by the Austro-Hungarian imperial government for three
years from 1914 to 1917 and was mainly intended for patriots from Galicia.
Among them were at least 1,915 Carpatho-Russians (some sources place this
figure as high as 5,000) from 151 different villages. ..
Between 1914 and 1917, anywhere from 14,000 to 30,000 prisoners (many think
about 20,000) passed through the camp. They suffered brutality, starvation
rations, filth and epidemics of typhus and other contagious diseases, which
contributed to a very high mortality rate. ..
In many Carpatho-Russian villages in Poland (Lemkovshchyna) during the period
between the two World Wars, memorial crosses were erected to commemorate the
victims of Talerhof. On the tenth and twentieth anniversaries, in 1924 and
1934, Talerhof Memorial Days were held in L’viv, now in the Ukraine, though
then in Poland. Four volumes of a memorial book were published, Talergofskii
Al’manakh (1924-32, reprinted 1964) and a Talerhof Museum was established in
1928 in L’viv, containing physical artefacts of the camp’s inmates and also
archives. ..
>
> 11 July 2007, 12:39
>
> Presentation of the memoirs of Vasily Vavrik, a prisoner
> of the Tallerhof death camp near Graz, Austria, about the
> first Russian genocide in the early 20th century -
> extermination of the Russian Orthodox population in
> Galicia and Carpathorussia right before the WW1. The Genocide of
> Carpathorussian Russophiles: A Silenced
> Tragedy of the 20th Century was published jointly by the
> Ukraine department of the CIS Institute and the
> Conservative Club. ..
>
> The book deals, on the one hand, with the history of
> Russian national revival in Galicia and Carpathorussia in
> the late 1890s and early 20th century. It includes many
> Uniats converting back to the Orthodox Church, when on
> major church feasts as many as 400 church procession
> crossed the Austrian Empire’s border to come to the
> Pochayev Lavra.
>
> On the other hand, the book describes Austro-Hungarian
> imperial genocide of Russians on those territories,
> including the political trials of ‘Russophile’ clergy and
> common folk who became Orthodox or spoke Russian. It also
> tells about death camps and mass killings, which took
> over 60,000 lives. The book evaluates the role of the
> ‘Ukrainian-Austrian party’ ..
<http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/pdf/talerhof.pdf>
For centuries Orthodox Carpatho-Russians and Galicians lived under Polish
or Hungarian and then Austro-Hungarian oppression. This oppression included
a superficial Uniatism enforced by starvation on this profoundly Orthodox
people. Like so many other national groups, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes,
Croats and Serbs among them, they waited patiently in their poverty-stricken
homeland, waiting for the day of freedom from the Austro-Hungarian prison
of the peoples. When Austria, backed by warmongering Prussianised Germany,
declared war on Orthodox Serbia and Russia in August 1914, at last the
Russian Army arrived to free them under the directions of the Orthodox Tsar
Nicholas II.
However, at once the Austrian authorities began their policy of genocide.
They declared that they would pay 300 Austrian crowns for every ‘spy’ (=
Carpatho-Russian or Little Russian patriot) who was turned in to them.
Traitors, especially pro-Polish and pro-Austrian ‘Ukrainian’ separatists,
eager to make money, were found, and many innocent people perished. Victims
were hung from scaffolds erected in densely populated areas or from trees
along the roads. In this way tens of thousands of pro-Russian Galicians
and Carpatho-Russians were victims of reprisals carried out by the Austro-
Hungarian authorities in Galicia and Carpatho-Russia during World War I.
Not content with this, the Austrians also opened concentration camps for
them. One was Terezin (in German, Theresienstadt), now in the Czech Republic.
During World War I, this military fortress was used as a camp and many
thousands of Galicians and Carpatho-Russians were placed there by Austro-
Hungarian authorities. ..
However, the second camp was by the village of Talerhof (in German Thalerhof)
near Graz in the province of Styria. (It is now under Graz Airport,
constructed by the former Nazi President of Austria, Kurt Waldheim). This
camp was operated by the Austro-Hungarian imperial government for three
years from 1914 to 1917 and was mainly intended for patriots from Galicia.
Among them were at least 1,915 Carpatho-Russians (some sources place this
figure as high as 5,000) from 151 different villages. ..
Between 1914 and 1917, anywhere from 14,000 to 30,000 prisoners (many think
about 20,000) passed through the camp. They suffered brutality, starvation
rations, filth and epidemics of typhus and other contagious diseases, which
contributed to a very high mortality rate. ..
In many Carpatho-Russian villages in Poland (Lemkovshchyna) during the period
between the two World Wars, memorial crosses were erected to commemorate the
victims of Talerhof. On the tenth and twentieth anniversaries, in 1924 and
1934, Talerhof Memorial Days were held in L’viv, now in the Ukraine, though
then in Poland. Four volumes of a memorial book were published, Talergofskii
Al’manakh (1924-32, reprinted 1964) and a Talerhof Museum was established in
1928 in L’viv, containing physical artefacts of the camp’s inmates and also
archives. ..
Oleg Smirnov
Jan 31, 2015, 2:00:05 PM1/31/15
to
<http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/ruthenia.htm>
.. In the Ukraine, the situation is yet more serious, because the annexation
of territory in Polonophile Uniat Galicia by Stalin has upset the demographic
balance of the Ukraine. It has left a large anti-Russian and anti-Orthodox
majority in the west. This is quite different from the eastern Ukraine and the
Crimea, whose inhabitants do not even call themselves Ukrainian, but are
solidly Russian and Orthodox.
The situation is even more complex in annexed Subcarpathian Russia, the
south-west region of the Ukraine, which the 'ex-Communist' Ukrainian
government still persists in calling 'Transcarpathian Ukraine'. Until its
occupation by the Red Army in 1944, this area had been part of Czechoslovakia,
and would have had an autonomous status within that country, had it not been
for Czech centralism. That centralism came about through fear, for
'Transcarpathian Ukraine' was inhabited neither by Czechs, nor even by
Slovaks, but by another people altogether: the Rusins. ..
The Rusins, also spelled Rusyns, also called Rusnaks, Carpatho-Russians and
more correctly 'Subcarpathian Russians', have for perhaps a millennium and a
half lived in Subcarpathian Russia. In Latin, they were called Ruthenes (the
Latin form of Rusins) and their territory 'Ruthenia'. .. Persecuted beyond
belief, in the seventeenth century many Rusins were forced into Uniatism in
order to escape Hungarian feudal oppression and serfdom. .. Orthodoxy in
Carpatho-Russia was only restored at the end of the nineteenth and beginning
of the twentieth centuries by new heroes, such as Archimandrite Vladimir
(Terletsky) (1808- after 1874), Archimandrite (now St) Alexis Kabaliuk
(1877-1947) and Archimandrite Vasiliy (Pronin) (1911-1997). In particular,
many Rusins returned to their ancestral Orthodox Faith after the fall of
Austro-Hungarian tyranny in 1918. ..
Today, many Rusins want their freedom from Ukrainian nationalist tyranny. If
other peoples, like the Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Georgians and
others, now have their own independent States, why should the Rusins not also
have their own independent State? ..
The most obvious choice would be that 'Transcarpathian Ukraine', a name
invented by Stalin's lackeys in 1944-5, should cease to exist and be called
and governed autonomously as Subcarpathian Russia.
True, this would not reunite the Rusins there with those in Slovakia and
elsewhere. Above all, this is not a realistic option. Although Rusin activists
have pressed their case for such a change again and again since the early
1990s, the Ukraine is dominated by an old Soviet-style centralized
bureaucracy, which is profoundly corrupt. For Subcarpathian Russia to exist in
the Ukraine, it would require a federal Ukraine to come into existence. At
present the Ukraine understands nothing of federalism, only Mafia-run
Unionism, insisting that Rusins are Ukrainians! .. The 'ex-Communist'
anti-Rusin nationalism in the north-western Ukraine, especially Galicia, wants
to ukrainianize everything within its grasp, so suppressing everything Rusin.
Its Mafia gangster regime and attacks on Rusin activists since the fall of
Communism have hardly endeared it to Rusins. Moreover, the older generation
cannot forget how they suffered under the selfsame Galician Ukrainian
nationalism before 1939. .. Furthermore, what can the Ukraine offer? Like
Subcarpathian Russia itself, it has no history of its own as an independent
nation, rather it has a history of anarchy. Who wants to belong to a country,
whose very name is unrecognized by its own population in its eastern half and
in the Crimea, and means 'the borderland'? Does the Ukraine actually have a
future? It certainly has no past. ..
In the nineteenth century and up until the First World War, Russia, the
Protector of Orthodox Slavdom, showed its favour to the Rusins. However, it
never managed to free Subcarpathian Russia from Austro-Hungarian tyranny.
Though Russophilia and Russian Messianism were strong in Subcarpathian Russia
right up until 1944, Soviet enslavement then traumatized Rusins. The Soviets
of Moscow attached the Rusins to the Ukraine. Ukrainianization followed, the
name 'Rusin' was banned. For Soviet Russia, Subcarpathian Russia was merely an
outlying province of the Ukraine - 'Transcarpathian Ukraine'. ..
If 'Ruthenia' were to live as an independent nation, it resources would be its
natural habitat. This would have to be restored after the ravages of
Communism, its militarization, tree-felling and anti-environmental
hydro-electric schemes, as on the Rivers Tereblia and Rika. Its eco-system
would have to be restored after the new Ukrainian cowboy Capitalism, with its
tree-felling, now causing regular and disastrous floods along the valleys of
the Rivers Tisa and Uzh. ..
Fr Andrew Phillips
Felixstowe,
England
16/29 October 2006
St Longinus the Centurion
.. In the Ukraine, the situation is yet more serious, because the annexation
of territory in Polonophile Uniat Galicia by Stalin has upset the demographic
balance of the Ukraine. It has left a large anti-Russian and anti-Orthodox
majority in the west. This is quite different from the eastern Ukraine and the
Crimea, whose inhabitants do not even call themselves Ukrainian, but are
solidly Russian and Orthodox.
The situation is even more complex in annexed Subcarpathian Russia, the
south-west region of the Ukraine, which the 'ex-Communist' Ukrainian
government still persists in calling 'Transcarpathian Ukraine'. Until its
occupation by the Red Army in 1944, this area had been part of Czechoslovakia,
and would have had an autonomous status within that country, had it not been
for Czech centralism. That centralism came about through fear, for
'Transcarpathian Ukraine' was inhabited neither by Czechs, nor even by
Slovaks, but by another people altogether: the Rusins. ..
The Rusins, also spelled Rusyns, also called Rusnaks, Carpatho-Russians and
more correctly 'Subcarpathian Russians', have for perhaps a millennium and a
half lived in Subcarpathian Russia. In Latin, they were called Ruthenes (the
Latin form of Rusins) and their territory 'Ruthenia'. .. Persecuted beyond
belief, in the seventeenth century many Rusins were forced into Uniatism in
order to escape Hungarian feudal oppression and serfdom. .. Orthodoxy in
Carpatho-Russia was only restored at the end of the nineteenth and beginning
of the twentieth centuries by new heroes, such as Archimandrite Vladimir
(Terletsky) (1808- after 1874), Archimandrite (now St) Alexis Kabaliuk
(1877-1947) and Archimandrite Vasiliy (Pronin) (1911-1997). In particular,
many Rusins returned to their ancestral Orthodox Faith after the fall of
Austro-Hungarian tyranny in 1918. ..
Today, many Rusins want their freedom from Ukrainian nationalist tyranny. If
other peoples, like the Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Georgians and
others, now have their own independent States, why should the Rusins not also
have their own independent State? ..
The most obvious choice would be that 'Transcarpathian Ukraine', a name
invented by Stalin's lackeys in 1944-5, should cease to exist and be called
and governed autonomously as Subcarpathian Russia.
True, this would not reunite the Rusins there with those in Slovakia and
elsewhere. Above all, this is not a realistic option. Although Rusin activists
have pressed their case for such a change again and again since the early
1990s, the Ukraine is dominated by an old Soviet-style centralized
bureaucracy, which is profoundly corrupt. For Subcarpathian Russia to exist in
the Ukraine, it would require a federal Ukraine to come into existence. At
present the Ukraine understands nothing of federalism, only Mafia-run
Unionism, insisting that Rusins are Ukrainians! .. The 'ex-Communist'
anti-Rusin nationalism in the north-western Ukraine, especially Galicia, wants
to ukrainianize everything within its grasp, so suppressing everything Rusin.
Its Mafia gangster regime and attacks on Rusin activists since the fall of
Communism have hardly endeared it to Rusins. Moreover, the older generation
cannot forget how they suffered under the selfsame Galician Ukrainian
nationalism before 1939. .. Furthermore, what can the Ukraine offer? Like
Subcarpathian Russia itself, it has no history of its own as an independent
nation, rather it has a history of anarchy. Who wants to belong to a country,
whose very name is unrecognized by its own population in its eastern half and
in the Crimea, and means 'the borderland'? Does the Ukraine actually have a
future? It certainly has no past. ..
In the nineteenth century and up until the First World War, Russia, the
Protector of Orthodox Slavdom, showed its favour to the Rusins. However, it
never managed to free Subcarpathian Russia from Austro-Hungarian tyranny.
Though Russophilia and Russian Messianism were strong in Subcarpathian Russia
right up until 1944, Soviet enslavement then traumatized Rusins. The Soviets
of Moscow attached the Rusins to the Ukraine. Ukrainianization followed, the
name 'Rusin' was banned. For Soviet Russia, Subcarpathian Russia was merely an
outlying province of the Ukraine - 'Transcarpathian Ukraine'. ..
If 'Ruthenia' were to live as an independent nation, it resources would be its
natural habitat. This would have to be restored after the ravages of
Communism, its militarization, tree-felling and anti-environmental
hydro-electric schemes, as on the Rivers Tereblia and Rika. Its eco-system
would have to be restored after the new Ukrainian cowboy Capitalism, with its
tree-felling, now causing regular and disastrous floods along the valleys of
the Rivers Tisa and Uzh. ..
Fr Andrew Phillips
Felixstowe,
England
16/29 October 2006
St Longinus the Centurion
Oleg Smirnov
Jan 31, 2015, 4:37:29 PM1/31/15
to
Kerryn Offord, <news:majesf$qi8$1...@dont-email.me>
> On 1/02/2015 4:44 a.m., David E. Powell wrote:
>>> And you think the Ultra nationalist Ukrainians don't
>>> have a similar idea of "ethnic cleansing" of Ukraine
>>> that the Serbs had?
>>
>> Um, no. I heard they mentioned Ukrainian as being the
>> official language. Do tell me how bad that is. If the US
>> said English was our official language, would that be
>> unfair or simple reality?
>
> You misheard..
>
> What they were doing was proposing to drop Russian as one
> of the current official languages of Ukraine.. (And
> remove anything hinting of Russian culture from the
> country.. they now have bilingual road signs.. Ukrainian
> and English.. replacing the previous Ukrainian- Russian
> signs)
>
> There is nothing wrong with Ukrainian being an official
> language..
>
> In NZ Maori is an official language (as is Sign
> language).. as well as English
>
> It is a bit of a problem when a language that is
> currently an official language (and spoken by more than
> 40% of the population in places like Crimea and Donbas)
No, in places like Crimea and Donbas it's very much high.
'More than 40%' is all-Ukrainan total average.
Here are results of sociologic research of Academy of Sciences
of the Ukraine, of 2006, published in 2009. It was during
presidential term of Yushchenko. He pushed the 'Ukrainization'
harshly, so one has no reason to suspect the results might be
'tweaked' in favor of Russian (the opposite is possible).
<http://www.i-soc.com.ua/institute/Vishnjak_monogr_2009.pdf>
In what language do you speak at your home?
47.2 Russian
43.7 Ukrainian
the rest Both
In what language do you speak on the street and in public places?
48.2 Russian
39.4 Ukrainian
the rest Both
In what language do you speak at your work?
50.0 Russian
37.7 Ukrainian
the rest Both
In what language do you think thoughts?
45.7 Russian
37.9 Ukrainian
the rest Both
> Is suddenly reduced to no longer being an official
> language..
>
> It is the first language of a lot of people in Ukraine
> (especially in the east)..
>
> Suddenly people who have spoken Russian all their lives
> can't use Russian language documentation. They have to do
> all official business in Ukrainian...
>
> Imagine if the Mexico border states suddenly tried to
> enact laws making English the only language to be used in
> official capacities?
>
> And then started removing any Spanish language road signs
> etc..
> On 1/02/2015 4:44 a.m., David E. Powell wrote:
>>> And you think the Ultra nationalist Ukrainians don't
>>> have a similar idea of "ethnic cleansing" of Ukraine
>>> that the Serbs had?
>>
>> Um, no. I heard they mentioned Ukrainian as being the
>> official language. Do tell me how bad that is. If the US
>> said English was our official language, would that be
>> unfair or simple reality?
>
> You misheard..
>
> What they were doing was proposing to drop Russian as one
> of the current official languages of Ukraine.. (And
> remove anything hinting of Russian culture from the
> country.. they now have bilingual road signs.. Ukrainian
> and English.. replacing the previous Ukrainian- Russian
> signs)
>
> There is nothing wrong with Ukrainian being an official
> language..
>
> In NZ Maori is an official language (as is Sign
> language).. as well as English
>
> It is a bit of a problem when a language that is
> currently an official language (and spoken by more than
> 40% of the population in places like Crimea and Donbas)
No, in places like Crimea and Donbas it's very much high.
'More than 40%' is all-Ukrainan total average.
Here are results of sociologic research of Academy of Sciences
of the Ukraine, of 2006, published in 2009. It was during
presidential term of Yushchenko. He pushed the 'Ukrainization'
harshly, so one has no reason to suspect the results might be
'tweaked' in favor of Russian (the opposite is possible).
<http://www.i-soc.com.ua/institute/Vishnjak_monogr_2009.pdf>
In what language do you speak at your home?
47.2 Russian
43.7 Ukrainian
the rest Both
In what language do you speak on the street and in public places?
48.2 Russian
39.4 Ukrainian
the rest Both
In what language do you speak at your work?
50.0 Russian
37.7 Ukrainian
the rest Both
In what language do you think thoughts?
45.7 Russian
37.9 Ukrainian
the rest Both
> Is suddenly reduced to no longer being an official
> language..
>
> It is the first language of a lot of people in Ukraine
> (especially in the east)..
>
> Suddenly people who have spoken Russian all their lives
> can't use Russian language documentation. They have to do
> all official business in Ukrainian...
>
> Imagine if the Mexico border states suddenly tried to
> enact laws making English the only language to be used in
> official capacities?
>
> And then started removing any Spanish language road signs
> etc..
Oleg Smirnov
Mar 14, 2015, 1:20:35 PM3/14/15
to
<http://from-ua.com/news/341122-rusini-trebuyut-priznat-ih-nacionalnim-menshinstvom.html>
Rusyns demand to recognize them as a national minority / 03/02/2015 12:11
The campaign to collect signatures for the autonomy of Transcarpathia and
recognition of Rusyns as a national minority has finished in the
Transcarpathian region. ..
Rusyns call for preserving the Ukraine's integrity, however, they consider an
important step for the restoration of historical justice shall be recognition
of the results of the 1991 referendum on the autonomy of Transcarpathia and
implementation by the Ukrainian authorities the resolution of the UN's
Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination, adopted in 2006 in which
the UN called on Ukraine to recognize the Rusyns as a national minority. ..
".. We ask to return to dialogue on the results of the referendum of December
1, 1991, in which 78% of inhabitants of the region voted for autonomous status
of Transcarpathia."
<http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2687363>
Transcarpathian Rusyns have demanded autonomy / 14.03.2015, 19:25
Congress of Rusyns' communities of Transcarpathia has decided to seek from the
Ukrainian authorities to recognize the Ruthenian nationality and extablish
autonomy of Carpathian Ruthenia through dialogue with Kiev. This was said in a
statement issued by the Congress .. to recognize the result of the referendum,
which took place in 1991 in Transcarpathia, in which about 80 percent voted in
favor of granting autonomous status to the region" ..
> <http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/ruthenia.htm>
Rusyns demand to recognize them as a national minority / 03/02/2015 12:11
The campaign to collect signatures for the autonomy of Transcarpathia and
recognition of Rusyns as a national minority has finished in the
Transcarpathian region. ..
Rusyns call for preserving the Ukraine's integrity, however, they consider an
important step for the restoration of historical justice shall be recognition
of the results of the 1991 referendum on the autonomy of Transcarpathia and
implementation by the Ukrainian authorities the resolution of the UN's
Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination, adopted in 2006 in which
the UN called on Ukraine to recognize the Rusyns as a national minority. ..
".. We ask to return to dialogue on the results of the referendum of December
1, 1991, in which 78% of inhabitants of the region voted for autonomous status
of Transcarpathia."
<http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2687363>
Transcarpathian Rusyns have demanded autonomy / 14.03.2015, 19:25
Congress of Rusyns' communities of Transcarpathia has decided to seek from the
Ukrainian authorities to recognize the Ruthenian nationality and extablish
autonomy of Carpathian Ruthenia through dialogue with Kiev. This was said in a
statement issued by the Congress .. to recognize the result of the referendum,
which took place in 1991 in Transcarpathia, in which about 80 percent voted in
favor of granting autonomous status to the region" ..
> <http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/ruthenia.htm>
Paul F Austin
Mar 14, 2015, 5:00:23 PM3/14/15
to
Paul
Tom Keske
Mar 22, 2015, 12:45:05 PM3/22/15
to
< Persecuted beyond belief, in the seventeenth century many Rusins were
forced into Uniatism
< in order to escape Hungarian feudal oppression
Western Ukraine, in the Carpathian mountains, near the Transylvania border.
Vladimir Putin would perhaps make a better President of Transylvania than
of Russia, since even his ex-wife remarked what many people can easily see,
that he seems like a vampire.
I had thought while young that this grandfather was simply "Russian". The
word "Ukrainian" was not heard. Also had imagined naively that Ukraine and
Russia were just part of one, big, happy family ("those Ukraine girls really
knock me out").
Was confused to find the grandfather's birth certificate and see it saying
"Austria-Hungary". Thought it a contradiction at first, before becoming
clear
on the story of how Ukraine had been invaded, occupied, severely abused
and changing hands many times. A cousin's wife's father fought against
Nazis and communists, then had to flee the country.
I have more sympathy than this cousin for what the communists wanted -
the decent communists, anyway, who just wanted a decent life for unskilled
workers
who were otherwise treated as so many farm animals and factory machines,
living
in squalor to support others who lived in luxury at their expense. I
denounce
the human rights crimes against Ukraine in the Holodomor as much as would
the cousin's wife, but I do not believe that such abuses are inherent to the
philosophy of communism any more than the CIA's long support for butchering
dictators should be seen as abuse that is inherent to capitalism.
I think that the problem is not so much good and bad philosophies as it is a
matter
of good and bad implementations, effective or ineffective governments,
details, follow-through.
When a sub-group wants autonomy, should they have a right to it?
I do not believe that there are timeless principles that answer that
question,
no system of credible philosophy that yields an answer in every situation.
Like all questions of right and wrong, there are no right and wrong answers.
They are matters of opinion. Accusations of "inconsistency" in position is
one
of the few pseudo-rational arguments that can be offered, but even that is
an illusion because there is no compelling rationale to treat all such
instances
as being identical, when the circumstances can be unique.
When there is not an philosophical absolute guideline, all one can do is to
stand
up and be counted, which is all that is really happening, anyway. The
philosophical
discussion is largely as so much attendant noise.
The U.S government could be accused of hypocrisy to have suppressed the move
for independence of the South during the U.S. Civil War, when its own
Founding
Fathers had proclaimed something about "will of the governed", which they
clearly had not enjoyed in the South.
My position is that the U.S. would have been perfectly fine to invade the
South
even if it had been a fully independent country since 1776, in order to
abolish
the obscene institution of slavery. When the will of the people is
perverse enough,
they are not entitled to enjoy their own will. Who has right to make that
judgment?
I acknowledge no rights that are "God's" exclusive province to make, seeing
as
how "God" has capriciously allowed this world to wallow in misery and
injustice
for so long while claiming dubiously to have worlds of Paradise just waiting
for
us all. This is ridiculous superstition, partly contrived perhaps to render
us
in a submissive state that preserves precisely such exploitation and
injustice.
Who has the right to judge? Why the slaves do, the sympathizers of the
slaves do,
those who see the situation and take it upon themselves do.
I would never say that I have any "right" whatsoever, in absolute sense,
other
than in a legal sense, even a right of free speech or right to life. To use
such language
would be an act of carelessness. I would only say that I choose to lay claim
to
such-and-such right and will fight for it if anyone tries to take it away,
or would not.
The only rights that you really ever have are those for which you would be
be willing
to fight and die when denied. No supernatural force guarantees you rights
of any kind.
It would certainly seem hypocritical of Russia to protest anything that
Ukraine might
do to suppress by force a "separatist" movement in eastern Ukraine, in view
of
how brutally Russia suppressed a separatist movement in Chechnya. Not to
mention that
the so-called "separatists" in Ukraine might in large part be agitators
manufactured
by Russia as a propaganda pretext for a land-grab.
I would sympathize with separatists in Chechnya because they were never
really part
of Russia, culturally, as much as they represented an occupied territory of
an
expansionist, power-hungry empire.
I would not sympathize with separatists in eastern Ukraine for much the same
reason. The Russian presence in eastern Ukraine is similar to what China
is
doing today in its brutal suppression of Tibet, trying to encourage an
influx
of ethnic Chinese in order to kill and suppress Tibetan culture, to
culturally
assimilate the land, and secure their own dominion.
If the "separatists" of eastern Ukraine are so fond of Russian when it is
being
led by a cynical megalomania and murderer, let them repatriate to it, not
try to steal Ukrainian territory, just so that Russia can have a land-access
to its naval port. It is enough for Ukraine to make a treaty as a kind of
"easement" allowing the naval base and its land access, not to cede the
land.
If Russia had treated either Ukraine or Chechnya kindly enough, they would
want freely to stay with Russia. Russia is being as despicable in Ukraine
as the United States was despicable in Vietnam and Iraq.
No one makes war on people who are genuine friends. No one terrorizes
people who are seen as genuine friends.
Friendship is possible in this crazy world, just as U.S. and Japan went
from being "friends" before WWII- the cherry blossoms from Japan now
nearly ready to bloom in Washington- to being bitterest of enemies,
leading to Hiroshima - to being "allies" again.
It would be a good reminder to Russia not to wait for friendship
to bloom improbably again after an unexpected turn of events similar to
Hiroshima. Is much better for future generations to tread more carefully
through the mine-fields of history.
Tom Keske
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