I promised a thumbnail sketch of Ukraine.  It needs a big thumbnail.

 

Ukraine, a country of 47 million people, is the second largest European country, after Russia.  Many Ukrainians are proud of their former role as Russia’s “little brother” – the most loyal and trusted of the U.S.S.R.’s satellite states.  Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe, and much of the large country (a bit smaller than Texas, but twice the size of California) is devoted to farming.  There are a few regions in Ukraine which you may know quite a bit about:  Chernobyl, Yalta, the Crimean peninsula, Sebastapol and Odessa are all in Ukraine.  Kiev is the capital and largest city.  The second largest city is L’vov, known as the Paris of eastern Europe, and we will be living in the third largest city, Dnipropetrovsk.

 

Seven countries border Ukraine:  Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova.  The entire southern part of Ukraine is the northern coast of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

 

A large river, the Dniper, divides the country from north to south.  This is a useful way to visualize cultural and political divisions as well.  Most Ukrainians are bilingual in Ukrainian and Russian. East of the Dniper, the population is largely Russian speaking, and Russophile.  Many there would like to rejoin Mother Russia.

 

West of the Dniper the population is largely Ukrainian speaking (though they understand and can speak Russian).  This was the heartland of support for the Orange Revolution which resulted in ViktorYuschenko becoming president in 2004.  He was mysteriously poisoned during the campaign, leaving his skin and face disfigured.  He was evacuated to Vienna, where he nearly died.  A telegenic and Kennedy-esque looking man (he has a lovely young American-born wife and small children) now looks like a different, and much older, man.

 

Moscow and Vladimir Putin’s favored candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, was initially declared the winner of the election.  Ukrainians flooded central squares in Kiev, held a vigil for days and nights, and demanded a run-off election, observed by outsiders.

 

After two years of Yuschenko’s policies, last year’s (2006) election yielded a mixed outcome, and the election was in dispute for more than six months.  Eventually, Yuschenko was compelled to share power with his old foe, Viktor Yanukovitch.  A wild card for the past 18 months or so has been a popular and charismatic woman politician, Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the Socialist party, who took her party with her when she resigned as Prime Minisher in Yuschenko’s government in 2005.  In a parliamentary system with many parties, this spelled political difficulty for Yuschenko, and he was reluctant to build coalitions to maintain his power.

 

Yuschenko’s administration also suffers from a revolution of rising expectations.  Yuschenko has been unable to provide economic growth and stability at a rate that pleases the Ukrainian population.  He lost to Putin’s power play with natural gas lines for a few days last winter when no natural gas was available to heat homes and offices.  This kind of struggle has now moved to Belarus, which faces the same problem this winter.  At times, Yuschenko’s government has been unable to pay teachers and other government workers. Some Ukrainians are understandably frustrated with the current administration.

 

Ukrainian is spoken, therefore, in most of the western part of the country.  It is now the language of education for some, but not all, schools in Ukraine.  Others still teach in Russian. The majority of the population is Eastern Orthodox Christians, who, of course, follow a slightly different religious calendar. Their “priests” are allowed to marry.  In fact, there have been many schisms since the eleventh century, when what was to become the Eastern Orthodox Church split from the Roman Church, so there are many different Eastern Orthodox sects in Ukraine.  

 

Adherents to other religions did not fare well in Russia or Ukraine.  Over the past 150 years, a series of civil wars, pogroms, invasions, clearances, deportations and legal and economic discrimination traumatized these groups.  Protestants, like many Jews, fled Ukraine, although some from both groups remain.  As a result, the United States and Canada have populations of Ukrainian Anabaptist, Mennonite and other religious communities.

 

About 250,000 Jews live in Ukraine, which was once the center of eastern European Jewish culture, and home to three million Jews.  Synagogues are reopening slowly, after decades of serving other uses. Poles also live in Ukraine, and many work in Ukraine. Although Ukraine is currently struggling, it has more resources than many of its neighbors.  Moldova, for instance, is the poorest country in Europe.

 

And, is it Slavic? European? “Ukraine” means borderland, and Ukraine has open doors and windows in both directions east and west.  Ukraine was the origin of much of Russian culture, and the Rus people originated in Ukraine. Many famous political leaders and intelligentsia in Russia during the past 100 years were originally from Ukraine. Many Ukrainians do business with Moscow, or travel to Moscow for government positions, education, or other opportunities.  Russia and Ukraine are each other’s largest trading partners. Ukraine intends to join the European Union in a few years, and is making progress in that direction.

 

So, that’s a thumbnail!!! Enjoy winter – it’s snowing here today.  We are packing boxes and suitcases.  Hope you and yours are all well.

 

Linda