Sifting Through The Ashes

Dr. Myron Kuropas

As the neo-Soviet calamity that is President Viktor Yanukovych slowly sinks in, our community is in a state of shock and disbelief.  We scratch our heads and ask how it was possible for the flame of 2005 to end in the ashes of 2010?

Anger and finger pointing is the response of some. They fault Viktor Yushchenko who convinced 5% of Ukraine’s voters to vote “none of the above”, allowing Viktor Yanukovych to squeak by with a 3% margin. Others blame Yulia Tymoshenko.  Her personal ambition and greed destroyed the Orange Coalition. And still others point to Kateryna Yushchenko. She was jealous of Yulia.

Does it matter?  No. Let the historians sort it out.

Meanwhile, opposition to Mr. Yanukovych is crumbling. By the time you read this, Yulia may be in jail. And now, The Kyiv Post informs us that Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence Bloc is considering joining the Yanukovych bloc. Former Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, a Yushchenko ally, argues that “Our Ukraine lost the presidential and parliamentary elections because it failed to find the necessary slogans and programs for all of Ukraine.  We had a lot of populist slogans, and, instead of Our Ukraine’s consolidation with the Party of Regions within the coalition, we let the Communists come to power.”  Oh yeah, Yuriy, selling out and eliminating the opposition will save Ukraine.

A cinder among the ashes of the Orange Revolution is Ukraine’s membership in the Bologna Accord.  The Accord was created in 1999 by the Ministers of Education of 29 European countries in an effort to standardize academic degrees and to assure academic quality. The ultimate goal was the acceptance of a three-tier (bachelors, masters, doctorate) system of higher education. A total of 47 have signed the Accord to date, including Ukraine which came on board in 2005.

Today, however, Ukraine still does not recognize foreign university degrees and the only university to adopt the three-tier system is Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.  As former rector Vyacheslav Bruikhovetsky pointed out in Chicago recently, his Ph.D. students understand that their doctorates may never be recognized in Ukraine.

Anyone familiar with universities in Ukraine knows that quality education was and remains a problem, especially in the social sciences where all knowledge was once subject to a Marxist spin.  Ukrainian history, for example, was dominated by a Russian/Soviet compass.  During the past twenty years, fortunately, Ukrainian history courses improved dramatically. Historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky was rehabilitated, his national perspective prevailed, and textbooks were rewritten to reflect the truth about Ukraine’s past.

Enter Dmytro Tabachnyk, President Yanukovych’s choice for Ukraine’s Minister of Education.  Today, Ukrainian history textbooks are being rewritten to reflect a more “inclusive” (i.e. Russian) perspective. College entrance exams are being eliminated and “khabar” is once again the coin of the realm. It’s bye-bye Bologna.

I have been a participant-observer at the annual, week-long Ukrainian educational conferences at the University of Illinois for the past twenty years. These unique conclaves have brought together scholars from Australia, Europe, Ukraine and the United States, allowing me to gain a comparative familiarity with the calibre of Ukraine’s professorial class.  With few exceptions, I found most of them not only woefully unfamiliar with the academic world’s standards outside of Ukraine, but indifferent and often hostile to those criteria. When I confronted them with the fact that some academics in Ukraine actually purchased their degrees, or had others write their dissertations for them, I was greeted with indignation. “Oh, as if your degrees aren’t bought and sold,” they retorted.

So where does Ukraine go from here?  Are there any glowing embers among the ashes? Yes. An entire generation of young people has been educated in the new Ukraine, a Ukraine that has enjoyed a modicum of civil liberties for twenty years. It was the youth that led the Orange Revolution and I believe that a young elite will emerge again.

And we shouldn’t discount the Ukrainian diaspora in Western Europe. Thousands of Ukrainian women living there have tasted freedom. When they return to Ukraine, they could be a powerful force for change.

And what about us here in North America?  What do we do?  We continue Plan A, involving ourselves in the politics of our respective countries. Russian imperialism is on the rise. Ukraine is geo-strategically situated to serve as a buffer against further Russian expansionism.  We must convince our leaders, our academics, and our media that what happens in Ukraine will ultimately impact North America.

The U.S. Secretary of State is planning a trip to Ukraine early in July. There is every indication that Hillary Clinton will be accompanied by at least one Ukrainian American. Similar trips by high-ranking Canadian officials, accompanied by Ukrainian Canadians, would be helpful as well.

It’s not over, folks. Have faith. Ukraine will rise again!