People Who Matter: Academic Yuri Shevchuk

Yuri Shevchuk was born in Volodymyrets, Rivne, in Ukraine. After graduating from the Taras Shevchenko University in Kyiv with a  PhD, he taught English in Rivne and then studied Political Science in New York. In 1999, he immigrated to Canada and lived in Toronto for five years. He was then offered a position at Columbia University in New York where he teaches Ukrainian Studies and is the director of the Ukrainian Film Club. For 15 years, he has lectured at the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute. In addition, Shevchuk translated Orest Subtelny’s “Ukraine. A History” into Ukrainian. During Shevchuk’s recent visit back to Rivne, he shared his impressions of the North American Ukrainian community and his views on the political situation in Ukraine with New Pathway’s correspondent Roman Tashleetsky.

RT: You have lived both in Canada and the United States. How do the two diasporas compare?  

YS: I have lived in only two diaspora centres: in New York and Toronto. My subjective opinion is that because the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada is larger in relation to the total population of Canada, it has a greater political, economic, intellectual clout. Lately there’s been the so-called fourth wave of immigration from Ukraine. It’s not at all organized, a purely economic immigration. They are very rarely interested in the established diaspora, and they don’t belong to Ukrainian organizations.

RT: What can Ukrainians in Canada learn from those in Ukraine?

YS: To wholly give up the idealistic view of Ukraine and its culture. This view has very little to do with the reality. Very often Ukrainians in Canada, especially those who grew up in Canada, have an idealized image of the old country – pastoral and ethnically oriented. When they come to Ukraine, there’s very little in common with what they expected to see.

RT: How can Ukrainians in Canada best help the situation in Ukraine?

YS: That’s an easy question: keep your money within your own structures. Do not give your money to Ukrainian organizations in Ukraine. The best way to support the Ukrainian cause is to support Ukrainian programs in Canadian and American universities, like the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies because through them Ukraine has a channel to the outer world to exerts its cultural and political influence. These institutions are centres of intellectual thought. They have serious intellectual resources. 

I think it’s a great mistake on the part of Ukrainian organizations in the diaspora to divert [to Ukraine] their very scarce financial resources, which are like water in desert sand. It changes nothing in Ukraine, while there [in North America] it can make a difference.

Also, giving money to Ukraine demoralizes Ukrainians: it nourishes a parasitical existence, a psychological attitude of sitting around and waiting for a rich uncle in Canada to materialize and solve all your problems. This is what is happening with the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (KMA). I love this university; they do a great job, but I think that its future financially is in Ukraine, with Ukrainian oligarchs, not in Canada...The money they are raising all around North America is diverting people’s attention from what truly should be the target. They should reorient themselves and target local rich people. I know this is a very unpopular opinion…but, sincerely, this is what I think.

One way the diaspora can help Ukrainians is in “cognitive liberation,” which is when an oppressed group starts believing in its self-sufficiency. Very often the Ukrainian diaspora allows Ukrainians to realize that they don’t need to look for support from Moscow and that they are interesting because their culture differs from the Russian culture. I gave a lecture at the Karpenko-Kary Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television and said that people in the world prefer originality, not imitation: for the students it was a revelation.

RT: What are the biggest challenges facing the relationship between Ukraine and the diaspora?

YS: On the part of Ukraine one of the most serious challenges is the xenophobic attitude manifested in many pronouncements by Ukrainian political leaders vis--vis the diaspora. The diaspora is viewed with a mixture of suspicion, sometimes envy, sometimes contempt, whereas it should be viewed as a natural God-given ally. I think this unspoken xenophobia is the continuation of the Soviet mentality.

A challenge for the diaspora is to stop looking down on Ukraine as a savage desert where people are all idiots, unable to understand things that are obvious to the civilized world. Look at them with respect, try to understand why they do things the way they do. That would be much more helpful.

RT: What do you think of the Ukrainian Canadian arts scene?

YS: Ukrainian artists have a lot to offer Ukraine, and there is no doubt that there would be a great interest in their work here. I know a fantastically interesting modern artist Natalka Husar whose pictures are in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. I think the public in Ukraine deserves to know about such people and art.  From my own experience of viewing Husar’s work, I can say her work offers a completely unexpected look through American eyes at the reality of things in Ukraine, how Ukrainian people try to make a home in the United States or Canada when they immigrate, and the conflicts between new immigrants, old immigrants, and the alien American cultural milieu.  Often it’s a very critical look.

A Ukrainian documentary filmmaker, Halya Kuchmij, who won a Genie Award is now working on a documentary film about the bandura music tradition, and I’m sure she’ll uncover things nobody expected.

RT: What about the Ukrainian Canadian academic scene?

YS: It is very rich, but the public in Ukraine is not cognizant at all of the incredibly rich intellectual resources that Canada commands in Ukrainian Studies. All these people who speak both languages – Ukrainian and English – and who are excellent experts in their fields – they are nowhere to be seen in the Ukrainian media. They are not consulted. I think the Ukrainian public deserves to learn their names, to know what they think about.

RT: What is your prognosis for the Ukrainian political situation?
YS: I feel a coalition between Our Ukraine and the Party of Regions (PR) would be the best outcome given the reality because I don’t see any substantial difference in thinking and acting between the two forces.  The pronouncements are all very well, but they say one thing, do another thing.

RT: But what about their different views on NATO and the EU?

YS: The PR absolutely wants to join NATO and EU; it wants their respect. Russia won’t give them respect. It regards them as its vassals, not as serious partners, and PR realizes this. Simply behind them there are millions of people who have an animal fear of everything Ukrainian and PR is their hostage. But when PR is in power, they will sing another song. I think PR will achieve more for the European integration of Ukraine than this toothless and chaotic government we have now. It should have been done from the very beginning–unite with PR. Tymoshenko’s bloc will be a great opposition and bridle them all. She’s very charismatic; if in five years she persuades Ukrainians that she has an alternative, people will vote for her.

In my opinion, the Orange coalition has no future. These are completely different people, who hate each other; it will be a paralysis. On the other hand, it [that the democratic process of forming a coalition is taking place] is done for the first time in Ukraine. We should take this into account and not be frustrated.

[Sometimes], I get the impression that if Parliament never worked, no one would notice and life would go on...If laws are adopted, does anyone observe them? The problem is not in the laws, there must be political will to do things: to support culture, to not hinder business, etc.

RT: Would you consider moving back to Ukraine?

YS: I would like to move to Ukraine very much. I never considered staying abroad forever...But when I came to teach at KMA, I felt an absolute absence of interest on behalf of my colleagues in what I could offer. In two months teaching no one showed any interest as we had shown interest in New York to those who came to us from KMA. For me, it was evidence that no one waits for me here; on the contrary, [they] see the presence of a person who possesses different research tools and can use other sources as undesirable.

For me, it was an indicator of the environment. I don’t want to struggle, but to use the time I have more usefully. I see that scholars in Ukraine spend much time struggling with ghosts of the past. What keeps me abroad is a system of support that enables self-actualization. If the same situation existed [in Ukraine] I would work here eagerly.