The
Union Moujik
...
“Yes, they are few. A rapidly increasing
number of our people are so docile and feeble-minded that they scream their
fanatical support of their leaders and their policies without taking a moment
to understand historical and evolutionary truths about the issues that are
tormenting them. Back in the day of the Soviet Union, some of our compatriots
propagated the notion of ethnic revival in a delirious manner, hardly aware of
their full genealogy. Permit to dwell on the sad case of Ukraine.”
“What about Ukraine now? Don’t we already
know much about that frontier outpost and its inclination to choose leaders
that are against everybody?” Mikhail Pugo intoned.
“My point, my dear comrades, is that Russians
by nationality make up twenty-two percent of the population of this promising
part of our revered motherland. You will also find ethnic Poles, Slovaks,
Czechs, Magyars, and other minorities in Ukraine, nationalities that cannot be
ignored and should not be ignored. But what is the stupid Galician from
Volhynia doing?”
“You tell us,” a shrilling voice in the crowd
said.
“Of course, I will. Leonid Kravchuk is
pressing ahead with his agenda of creating a Ukrainian Ukraine where the
Ukrainian language and culture completely dominate
as if there are no other unifying cultures in the land. Is that realistic, I
ask you? Mustn’t non-Ukrainian speakers who also constitute ethnic Ukrainians,
have a say in the direction of the country’s affairs? Tell me, I repeat. Is
that realistic?”
“No,” Boris grunted.
“No, no, no, comrades,” Nikolai Mazepa
affirmed.
“Of course, the answer is no,” Eno Gallinin
said.
“I can’t even count the number of times I
have ruminated this problem over while lying in my bed. Believe me, I always
arrived at the familiar conclusion that Ukrainians are unaware of their
historical origins. A millennium ago, the world knew Eastern Slavs as the
people of Rus, otherwise called Kievan
Rus. Yes, our ancestors were Rusyachie or
Kievan Rusians. For centuries, the Eastern Slavs identified themselves to
others as Rusyachie. Only with
further probing down the years did they express themselves as Great Russians,
White Russians, or Ruthenians, otherwise called Little Russians or what we know
today as Ukrainians. Those three people from Rus are today’s Russian,
Belarusian, and Ukrainian peoples respectively.”
“Isn’t Ruthenia a Latinized version of the
name Rus?” Taidje interjected.
“Yes, comrades! Ruthenia was how the Catholic
West referred to Rus. The Eastern Orthodox people led by the Greeks called Rus,
Rossia, a transcription Muscovy took upon itself, later calling the empire that
resulted from its expansion The Tsardom of Rus, otherwise called the Tsardom of
Russia. By doing so, Muscovy claimed sovereignty over all the lands of the
former Rus, even though the southern and western parts were under the control
of Poland and Lithuania at the time. And since Galicia–Volhynia was the first
part of the former Kievan Rus that attempted to create an independent entity
after the Mongols invaded Kievan Rus, the people of Western Ukraine would like
everybody to believe that they are the true successors of Rus or Ruthenia, as
they would like to call it. After all, they were Catholicized during the many
centuries that they were under Polish, Lithuanian, and Austrian rule.”
“What do you mean?” Taidje queried.
“The people of Galicia hold that Muscovy
usurped the role of unifier of Rus. And to counter that more seriously, they
are postulating this myth that the people of Moscow were never a part of Rus
and that Muscovy did not start as an Eastern Slavic political entity. And to
make their point even crazier, they hold that the Eastern Slavs of today’s
Russia are different from those who were under the subjugation of the West for
centuries. Based on their claim, Ruthenia does not extend to Russia. As a
matter of fact, they are even trying to narrow it down by making Ruthenia and
Ukraine synonymous, when you and I know that Ukraine means borderland, a
reference made to the frontiers of Rus, which included Ryazan, Pskov, Lvov,
Galicia-Volhynia, Zaporozhe, Podolia etc. at different times in our
history.”
“Thank you, my dear comrade. You shed a lot
of light on that hazy aspect of our history.”
Thank you, Comrade Taidje. To tell the truth,
most of our people don’t know that we Ukrainians are descendants of East Slavic
tribes that settled in the Don and Dnieper regions, just like our Russian and
Byelorussian brothers. We had very little division among us until the advent of
Polish and Lithuanian influence and control in what is our historical lands.”
“The damn chauvinistic Polaks set in motion
the confusion that is haunting Eastern Slavs today! Now I understand why Gogol
wrote Taras Bulba and extolled our Eastern Orthodox heritage. Hmm! I also see
why Galicians and some Western Ukrainians don’t get the sacredness of the ties
we share as children of the Rodina.
They have been Polonized in their religion, in their language, and in their way
of thinking,” Yury Turchuk said.
“I
agree with you, Comrade Yury. Poland’s occupation of the western lands that are
in Ukraine today did a lot of damage to our sense of oneness or unity! It
caused a marked distinction between Ukrainians and their Eastern Slavic
brothers of Russia and Byelorussia, even though we share a common Eastern
Slavic root that is still strong today. If you pay attention to the different
Ukrainian dialects, you will find that they are markedly influenced by
Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, and Slovakian in the west and that they change as
you move eastwards, to the point where the Ukrainian dialects in the eastern
regions of Lugansk, Donetsk, and even
Kharkov are basically Russian in content but Ukrainian in phraseology,” Nikolai
Mazepa said.
“Syntax you mean?” Boris interjected.
“Yes, Comrade Boris. The morphology and
phonology in Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian are basically the same. Foreign influences
altered the syntax only.”
“The damn Polaks and Lithuanians,” Taidje
growled.
“Come on, my Gilyak friend! Why do you take it so hard as if you are
someone with Eastern Slavic roots as well?” Boris said with a laugh.”
“I feel Russian too. And I know that in years
to come, one of my Gilyak descendants would have Russian blood too. The law of
total probability is what I am hinging my argument on, Comrade Boris!”
“Ha, ha...ha-ha!” Boris guffawed, and then
continued expressing his mirth as several others joined in the laughter,
forcing a smile out of Taidje’s lips.”
“The story you were about to tell, Comrade
Ivan!” Taidje said with a shrug.
“You see, comrades! We didn’t have time on
our side in the historical evolution that was taking place before the demise of
our great country. Time would have bridged those differences caused by alien
powers. Time could have bridged those differences even after the collapse of
the Soviet Union, had that stupid Galician-Volhynian not become Ukraine’s
president. Ah, comrades, he feels little about our mutual solidarity and
compatibility. After all, his region was under the control of Poland, Austria-Hungary, and Czechoslovakia until this
century,” Nikolai Mazepa cried.
“The grief of our times,” someone commented
from the far end of the tavern.
Nikolai Mazepa brooded for a moment and then continued. “I don’t think I’m
going off on a tangent on this one. Isn't it true that a disturbing percentage
of Ukrainians are unaware of our history; isn’t it true that they are unaware
of the fact that for four hundred years, we khokholi
shared a common history with our Bulbash and
our Moskal or katsap brothers? Did you know that we shared a common history as
one nation and one people called Russkie,
in what was Kievan Rus at the time? What if Kievan Rus instead of Muscovy
had survived the Mongol onslaught and grown to become the Rus Empire, otherwise
known as the Russian Empire?”
“The Mongols stopped that from happening. So
why even imagine something like that?” Boris said.
“Stretching my imagination, that’s all. Had
Kievan Rus evolved into the Russian Empire, the discriminating voices of
Russo-phobic Western Ukrainians would have been absent today. Hmm, comrades!
The Mongol hordes did a devastating job on our land and derailed our common
history with the invasion and destruction of Kievan Rus. Most of the
present-day confusion emanates from their conquest. Nonetheless, much of the
blame goes to the feeble-minded usurpers who hijacked Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, and then decided to draw
from the little differences that arose during those years or centuries our
lands were separated from one another, all caused by foreign powers. Yes,
comrades, they failed to draw from the things we share that make us a single
nation in the Western sense of the word.”
“Khokhol,
Moskal, katsap, Bulbash! Some
would call those descriptions ethnic slurs, but I am okay with them. Comrade
Nikolai, I like the way you used those funny words in referencing our Eastern
Slavic brothers. When I said Slavic brothers, I meant those who identify
themselves as Ukrainians, Russians and
Byelorussians,” Mikhail Pugo said with a mocking smile.
“Forget about Comrade Pugo here. You were
about to say something important,” Taidje interjected, fixing his eyes on Eno
Gallinin.
“Oh, comrades! It is sad,” Eno Gallinin
assented.
“Of course, it is sad!” Nikolai Mazepa affirmed. “I’m a Don Cossack. We
Cossacks have been greatly assimilated into the ways of life of what became
Byelorussia, Russia, and Ukraine. We are
the most lost of all the Soviet peoples if nationality or any other form of
identification is considered the basis of classifying people. Some Cossacks
from Ukraine join hands with exclusionist Ukrainians and stir the ugly pot of
nationalism as if they are unaware of the fact that the bulk of their Cossack
brothers is in Russia. I support Comrade Temudin in his similar assertion of
Tatars in the autonomous republic.”
“Saboteurs, saboteurs, saboteurs,” Boris
muttered with quivering lips.
“Saboteurs, they certainly are,” Nikolai
Mazepa growled in a dejected manner and
then clenched his fist. “What good shall those heads of state of the former
Soviet Republics do to the people they deceived with their rhetoric and now
profit by lording over?”
“It is pathetic,” Boris said, paused, and
then continued. “I pity the ethnic Ukrainians who do not reside in Ukraine.
Fifteen percent of ethnic Ukrainians are accepted as citizens in other parts of
the former Soviet Union. Comrades, they love the lands of their births or
adoption with the same fierceness as their compatriots in those lands. Like any
other settler population, they were overwhelmingly against the disintegration
of the former Soviet Union. I’m sure they would have even fought for its
preservation had they been asked to decide on it. Didn’t we all witness their
high level of support for Gorbachev’s proposal to reform the Soviet Union into
the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics? Didn’t our people manifest their
support in the all-union referendum in 1991, something you and I know was a
progressive manifestation that Boris Yeltsin and his collaborators sabotaged?”
“Stop mentioning the name of that muzhik who
betrayed his origins for the illusion of a capitalism he knew little about,”
Taidje interjected.
“Yes, Comrade Taidje; yes, my dear comrades.
Yeltsin is a whim. He led the leaders of the other Soviet Republics into
dishonoring our people’s vote against the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Now, what is my point on this one?” Boris intoned.
“You tell us,” an unknown voice in the
crowded tavern hollered.
“All I’m trying to say is that Ukrainians
residing in the other former Soviet Republics are the most realistic
Ukrainians. Yes, my dear comrades; those Ukrainians do not see themselves as
different from their Russian brothers. You can call them Little Russians if you
want to. After all, that’s how we of the south have been known for centuries.”
“It is similar to the way we try to get over
our divisive history in the hands of foreign powers by calling ourselves White
Russians. I don’t buy the ridiculous notion that the whiteness of our Rus is
because we are devoid of Mongol blood in our veins,” Natasha Goncharova, the
Byelorussian with the knack for reproducing the works of Chagall said, raising
her head above the crowd in an effort to be conspicuous. She was immediately
hushed down by several murmuring voices that did not approve of her utterances.
“Comrade Boris was up to something
important,” Ivan Gamuchin, the head-scratching Krasnoyarsk-born Yenisei Ostyak
said in a loud voice.
“Yes, yes…yes,” the crowd affirmed.
“We shouldn’t be harsh to our Comrade
Natasha. In fact, there is a high degree of truth in her words. Truth be told,
she had a strong point. There is always a nucleus around which we can build
something cohesive. If Russia is the nucleus around which little, white, pink, and other words are attached or compounded by the people of our lands to
identify themselves, then so be it.”...
Culled by Janvier T.Chando, author of THE UNION MOUJIK, “ Ukraine: The Tug-of-war between Russia and the West https://amazon.com/dp/B0B2T4XWWD/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_YWGHMQF2P1RE0PPJXH0…
