The Great Divide

By Volodymyr Kish 

If you are Ukrainian, you will discover that one of the inescapable factors that will affect your life in the Ukrainian community is that you will find yourself forced to choose which side you are on. This will apply to almost every aspect of your life – politics, religion, marriage, traditions, cooking, you name it. As my cousin Hryts from Pidkamin once noted, Ukrainians are good at arithmetic - they divide everything into two (sides that is). Further, once you choose which side you are on, relations with those on the other side becomes anathema.

It is analogous to one of the fundamental discoveries of particle physics that postulates every particle of matter has a corresponding anti-matter twin. When matter and anti-matter collide, you have spectacular fireworks that lead to mutual annihilation. I have formulated this into what I call Kish’s First Law of Ukrainian Cultural Dynamics, namely: “Every aspect of Ukrainian life is governed by an immutable propensity by Ukrainians to divide into mutually antagonistic camps so as to ensure a perpetual state of chaos.”

One does not have to look far to see this. Let us start with religion. Originally all Ukrainians were pagan, but thanks to the pragmatic political vision of Volodymyr the Great, they all became Orthodox Christians some one thousand years ago. Alas, it was not to last. When the Poles became rulers of Western Ukraine (Halychyna), they engineered the conversion of a good number of the inhabitants under their sway to Catholicism. Despite the fact that Poland no longer rules any part of Ukraine, most of these Catholics have chosen to remain Catholic, despite the fact that few if any of them have any understanding of the Union of Brest of 1596 that coerced their ancestors to swear allegiance to the Pope in Rome. This is not some trivial matter of historical inertia. I have seen Ukrainian families break up and become alienated when one of them marries “outside the faith”.

And of course, in the diaspora, the big divide has always been between the Banderivtsi and the Melnykivtsi political factions. Originally, before the split, they were all fervent Ukrainian nationalists with the common cause of liberating Ukraine from the Polish, German and Russian Communist oppressors of the day. In 1940, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) split into two bitter rival camps, OUN-B and OUN-M, under their respective leaders Stepan Bandera and Andriy Melnyk.

The importance or relevance of the political bickering that led to the split has long ago faded into history where it belongs, nonetheless the political movements and rivalry that the split created lasts to this day, particularly in the diasporan community, where some “old guard” inflexible political posturing still holds sway, primarily in what’s left of the Banderivtsi faction. An unfortunate consequence of this arcane historical feud has been that it has succeeded in alienating succeeding generations of young Ukrainians who see little purpose or relevance to the prolongation of this obsolete political conflict. I remember as a teenager being shocked when the various Ukrainian youth groups in the city where I lived tried to organize a dance where we could all get together, only to see the whole thing kyboshed when the elders at the SUM Hall vetoed the idea for fear that their youth might be contaminated by the ideas of “other” not so likeminded Ukrainian youth.

But wait, there is still more. There is for instance a strong geographic divide, particularly between Western Ukraine (Halychyna) and Central and Eastern Ukraine, known more commonly as Velyka Ukraina. When I was a teenager, a Ukrainian neighbour who was from Velyka Ukraina and who was blessed with several comely daughters, made a point of telling my father to ensure that I and my brother did not get any ideas about his daughters, since obviously such a cross cultural mix would just not be proper.

And then of course, there is the big divide between the SUM and the PLAST scouting organizations. Having been fortunate enough to avoid having any experience with either, I cannot speak too authoritatively on the subject, but I am assured by friends who are alumni of both organizations that there was no love lost between these two competing, if you will pardon the expression, camps.

And yes, the divide extends even unto that grand common denominator of Ukrainian cuisine, namely varenyky or pyrohy. Although I do enjoy eating a plateful of boiled varenyky smothered in sour cream, my favourite way of enjoying them is pan-fried until they are a nice crispy brown. I have been told by some Ukrainian cognoscenti that this is utter sacrilege, and that varenyky should never, ever be fried!

Ah well, being Ukrainian, I guess I am an anarchist by nature.