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

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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