LVOV, Western Ukraine — The blue-
und-yellow ancient flag of Ukraine is flying
everywhere around this city of 800,000, tes-
tumony to a wave of re-awakened national
Spirit that is currently sweeping, if not the
Whole Ukrainian republic, at least its three
Western regions. Sometimes, amid the pro-
liferation of symbols, one can also spot the
ted-and-black of the old Nazi-sponsored
Anti-communist guerrillas — which hints
Yarkly of uglier passions and scores waiting
to be settled.

The situation here, as everyone puts it, is
Somplex. There are specific reasons why

Nationalism has sprung up, more intense

And more forceful here than in most regions

Xf the Soviet Ukraine. One is historical:

though the majority of people in the Lvov,

Ternopol and Ivano-Frankovsk regions are
thnically Ukrainian, they were separated
nd isolated from the main body of Ukraine

Ny foreign conquest for over 700 years.

\ They have been ruled by Poles and
ithuanians, then by the Austro-Hungarian
mpire, then again by Poland during the
920s and 1930s. They were re-united with

he Soviet Ukrainian Republic only in 1939,

a result of the Hitler-Stalin pact. While
frost people here — quite unlike those in
e Baltic states — seem to have no argu-
ent with that historical turn of events, the

Western Ukraine remains culturally, socially
nd politically very distinct.

Another key point of difference is reli-
ion. Four hundred years ago the Polish
oman Catholic rulers of this territory
rced the Ukrainian Orthodox population
ere to accept the Pope as their spiritual
ead. In the intervening centuries there
ew up a separate Church with very deep
| roots — Orthodox in practice but
laying homage to Rome — which is
nown variously as the Uniate, Greek
Natholic or Eastern Rite Church.
| Stalin compounded all problems by forc-

g the Uniate Church to merge back into

e Orthodox fold in 1946, All property

longing to the former Uniate Church was

anded over to the Orthodox Patriarchate. .

Today the political problem of restoring

e Uniate Church appears to have been

lved in principle. Uniate congregations
re being permitted to register themselves,
“nd about 400 have already done so in Lvov
gion alone. However, the practical diffi-
\ulties, now deeply connected with nation-
list sensibilities and political upheaval,
pear almost overwhelming.
“Greek Catholics are demanding that all
A roperties which originally belonged to
Meir Church must be handed back imme-
liately,” says Stepan Savchuk, deputy chair
‘f the Lvov Council on Religious Affairs.
In some cases they are taking the law into
hei own hands and seizing church build-
“gs.
“But it can’t be that simple. There are a
\t of Orthodox believers here too. And
Ney say: ‘Remember the centuries of Polish
pression, when the Orthodox were perse-
Aited and not permitted to build their own
urches. Now we must have rights also’.
\s a very hard situation. They are all
krainians, on both sides, and their basic
liefs are extremely close, but they are
ply and bitterly divided over this.
“Part of the problem is that we have no
r accounting of how many believers
nt, ultimately, to go with each Church. It
vill take some time to sort this out, and until
e’ve done that we can’t really figure out a
onable way to divide the property.

= WILL bd

%

SERVICES AT THE POCHAYIS LAYRA CATHEDRAL IN TERNOPOL REGION . .. religious as well as political upheaval in

the Ukraine.

Meanwhile, there are lots of old churches

that haven’t been used for decades that can

be given to new congregations that want to
start up”.

However, this appears to satisfy no one.
At the Svyatova Yura cathedral, in the heart
of Lvov, an extraordinary demonstration is
unfolding on a daily basis. Once the seat of
the Uniate Church, Svyatova Yura is now
an Orthodox cathedral. In the courtyard, an
Orthodox priest is holding service, sur-
rounded by a small group of faithful. On the
terrace above, about 100 supporters of the
Uniate Church have planted themselves,
waving placards and_ yellow-and-blue
Ukrainian flags. They say they intend to
occupy the place until it is turned over to
them.

ALEXANDER GRIBAN

While we stood there watching one after-
noon in late March, an elderly woman came
over to canvass our Ukrainian interpreter,
Vassily: “You must certainly be Orthodox,
aren’t you young man? Surely you’re not
with those Poles over there?”

“Actually, I’m not for either side,” ans-
wered Vassily. “I am for establishing an
autocephalic Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”

Stunned by this intrusion of a third alter-
native, the old woman backed away in con-
fusion.

Then the Orthodox priest began to sing, a
deep, rich Ukrainian hymn. Within minutes

the Uniate protesters on the terrace above
also began to sing. It was a moment of
tragic, agonizing beauty: they were all sing-
ing the same hymn, in the same language, in
unison.

Unlike most regions of the Soviet Union,
or even the Ukrainian republic, the Com-
munist Party in Lvov suffered a crushing,
total defeat in the recent elections. While in
rural areas of the Western Ukraine the party
seems to have held something together, in
the cities not only apparatchiks but also
party members in general were routed.

One of those who got badly beaten by a
former political prisoner and activist for
Rukh, the Ukrainian nationalist movement,
was Alexander Griban, second secretary of
the Lvov party committee. Now, sitting in
his big office in the Lvov gorkom (party
headquarters), Griban is the picture of an
angry man.

““We turned out to be totally unprepared
for open electoral struggle,” he says. “We
had no thought-out theory behind our pro-
gram and no experience in political action.
Those are the causes of our defeat. Of
course other things, such as the changes in
Eastern Europe — particularly Poland —
and the situation in Lithuania, have deeply
affected our people.

“So, today in the city soviet barely 34 per
cent of the deputies are party members.
And if we take into account the process of
fractionalization within the party, even that
can hardly be regarded as solid.

“The thing is that the ‘Democratic Bloc’,
which won the elections, didn’t do so on the
basis of any positive program. It united a
wide spectrum of views, including even
some party members, against us. Among
them there are Greens, Agrarians, the
nationalist movement Rukh — which prob-
ably will declare itself a political party
soon — and even some outright separa-
tists. The Ukrainian Helsinki Union, which
is actually the intellectual core of Rukh, is
for the separation of the Ukraine from the
USSR or, if that can’t be accomplished,
then for the separation of the Western
Ukraine.

“It’s not likely the case that the people

voted for all that. The one thing that is
certain, and which we have to face, is that
they definitely voted against us.

“The party introduced perestroika five
years ago but has proven unable to change
the quality of life, particularly social prob-
lems. This is one important way to under-
stand the highly emotional mood of people
today.

“But the party has also been unable to fill

_ the idea of perestroika with theoretical con-

tent. There are 290 million people in this
country and just as many definitions of per-
estroika ....

“Even now our general secretary keeps
throwing out new ideas that catch the entire
party unprepared. Take the idea of the
multi-party system: Gorbachev seems to
have changed his mind on this point within
the space of two months. I don’t believe
most of us are afraid of this idea, but now it
seems like we’ve been fighting obsolete
debates among ourselves for two years, and
not preparing for what we really had to face

“So now we ask ourselves — a little bit
late — what kind of a party do we need?
We’ve abandoned the idea of a constitution-
ally-guaranteed ruling party. That’s just as
well. But should we become a political club?

An association of voters? That’s not what’:

we built the party for.

“Gorbachev says the party will remain a
‘vanguard’ party. But just what does that
mean? By what magic wand can it be
enforced? We’re going over to full demo-
cracy now, and that means the power will
belong to those who win it in elections. I
think our party has to become a parliamen-
tary party, one that influences policy
through its open political action ....

“We're probably going to lose a lot of
members in these new conditions. Let’s face
it, we had a lot of opportunists in the ranks.
But I think, at rock bottom, we have a good,

_ Solid core of 30,000 here in Lvov. That's

enough to rebuild with. The main thing is to
develop program clarity, to know where
we’re going. It’s not even a tragedy that we
lost the elections if it spurs us in that direc-
tion.”

Pacific Tribune, April 23, 1990 « 9