As Ukraine Fractures, a City Seeks Unity
After weeks of rising tensions culminated in the Russian annexation of Crimea, the crisis in Ukraine, which some analysts dubbed the most serious geopolitical conflict since the end of the Cold War, seemed to be de-escalating. Although Russian troops were still positioned along the Ukrainian border and many in the West remained concerned with the implications of appeasement, the threat of a hot war in Ukraine seemed to be passing. EU and U.S. economic sanctions seemed to have made Moscow blink, perhaps initiating in a renewed détente.
Then on Sunday, separatist protesters in the Eastern Ukrainian cities of Kharkov, Donetsk, and Lugansk stormed and occupied regional administration buildings, calling for referendums on joining the Russian Federation to be held. The balkanization of the East is happening quickly: leaders of the spontaneously proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk are calling for such a referendum to be held no later than May 11.
Just as the Middle East clawed its way back onto the front page of The New York Times, Eastern Ukraine took a page out of the Crimean playbook.
The flare-up is a reminder that although Putin’s appetite is momentarily sated, the crisis in Ukraine is far from resolved. Kiev is tasked with conquering internal enemies: economic mismanagement, corruption, and tensions between the pro-Russian East and the pro-Western West. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has introduced a series of austerity measures, and the central government has begun to countenance lustration of corrupt officials. Closer association with the EU makes overcoming these barriers increasingly likely.
The task of uniting east and west, however, is far more problematic. The Ukrainian government has been unable to counter propaganda from Moscow that imagines repressions of ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine. Large swaths of the population in Eastern Ukraine are happy to accept Putin’s sound bites and would support closer ties with Russia, if not outright annexation.
So far, Kiev has done little to appease pro-Russian populations in cities like Lugansk, Donetsk, and Kharkov. The Cabinet of Ministers is overwhelmingly made up of representatives from Kiev and Western Ukraine. Top governmental officials had not made any official trips to Eastern Ukraine until the recent flare-up. Shortly after former President Victory Yanukovich’s ouster in February, some parliamentarians proposed revoking legislation that makes Russian an official language in certain regions in Ukraine’s south and east.
It has become clear that cultural unity cannot come from the top. Desperate to preserve Ukrainian culture and statehood, some civil society leaders from cities in Western Ukraine have initiated efforts to unite the fracturing state.
A separate past
Lviv, the cultural capital of Western Ukraine and the most staunchly anti-Russian stronghold, is situated only 70 kilometers from the Polish border. It is an overwhelmingly pro-Ukrainian city: during the EuroMaidan movement, activists frequently made the 8-hour trek to Kiev on weekends to protest the corruption of former President Yanukovych’s regime, rather than protest in their own city; support for the Maidan was a foregone conclusion in Lviv.
Historically part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Habsburg Empire, Ukrainians from Lviv never fully accepted Soviet occupation, fighting against the Red Army with varying degrees of success in the inter-war and post-war periods. Precisely because of the city’s opposition to Soviet and Russian imperialism, Russian media have targeted Lviv with a barrage of propaganda recently, calling it the center of neo-fascism and radical nationalism. The story goes that rabidly anti-Russian Banderites (supporters of Stepan Bandera, a 20th century Ukrainian nationalist whom Russians accuse of having collaborated with the Nazis) are spreading Ukrainian nationalism beyond the Lviv city walls and threatening ethnic Russians and Russian speakers elsewhere in Ukraine. These threats have provided the pretext for Russian incursions in Southern and Eastern Ukraine, including in the once-Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Bandera’s collaboration with Hitler Germany and his followers’ massacre of Poles during the Second World War make him a problematic symbol of Ukrainian nationalism. Yet, Banderite nationalism still resonates in Lviv and elsewhere in Ukraine. I jokingly asked a resident of Chernivtsi, a city in Western Ukraine not far from the Romanian border, whether he identified as a Banderite. He responded “Yes” without a hint of irony, explaining that although he grew up speaking Russian, he decided to begin speaking exclusively Ukrainian nearly a decade ago as a way to express support for Ukraine’s independent statehood. To many, to be Banderite is not necessarily to accept Bandera’s militancy but to reject Russian imperialism. Few in Kiev objected to Bandera’s picture being hung on the Maidan to commemorate the anniversary of his birthday on January 1.
Towards reconciliation
In the face of a steady barrage of propaganda from Russian media, residents of Lviv have undertaken several projects to reunite Ukraine. Though the new Ukrainian government in Kiev has made few overtures to Russian-speaking minorities, residents of Lviv have actively promoted the idea that Ukraine should be a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual state.
On February 26, residents of Lviv spoke exclusively Russian as a show of solidarity with their compatriots in Eastern Ukraine.
Now, residents of the city have begun an even more ambitious venture. Activists in Lviv are inviting youth from Eastern Ukraine to Lviv to experience Western Ukrainian culture as a means of dispelling the untruths imbedded in Russian propaganda. Local restaurants are feeding visitors, and universities, hostels, and hotels are partnering with the event organizers to house Eastern Ukrainians free of charge. Residents of eastern cities need only book a train ticket to Lviv, and the rest of their “East to West” weekend will be covered. They are taken on excursions throughout the city and introduced to local university students. Because local businesses are covering the expenses, organizers say the event is costing the city almost nothing.
The event, which began on March 21, will continue every weekend for ten weeks. Thus far, it has been remarkably successful: more than 100 people traveled to Lviv during the first weekend. More than 1,500 people have already registered for the event, including 200 from Kharkov, one of the hotbeds of separatist activity in Eastern Ukraine. Lviv is struggling to keep up with demand: Julia Hnativ, one of the project’s organizers, says some students may have to be turned away because of a shortage of beds in the city.
Hnativ says the project is intended to “find out what we have in common…we are one country, one people. Sometime we speak in different languages, have different cultures, different religions, but it means that our country is rich. This is a rich country with different nationalities and languages…all of these are opportunities. This does not divide us, it only makes us richer.”
Even though tourism has slowed since the crisis in Ukraine began, businesses see the East to West event as more of an opportunity to cultivate national unity than as a way to boost dwindling profits. Kristina Tuzyak of Fest, a chain of restaurants in Lviv says the event is an overture to Southern and Eastern Ukraine, to make sure everyone “understands our country can’t be separated. And we want so much to get rid of a pro-Russian stereotype that we are ‘vicious Banderites,’ because we want to show that to be a patriot is a good thing for the country.”
The Lviv city government has actively supported the venture: Andriy Sadovyi, the Mayor of Lviv, is meeting with students every weekend as a part of their introduction to Western Ukraine.
Unlike the government in Kiev, Hnativ says the local government in Lviv has been “very active” in helping the project.
Though Kiev has heretofore been unable to bridge the gap between East and West, Tuzyak and other residents of Lviv are confident that Ukraine’s unity can be preserved: “We want to show once again that Lviv is a city with European values and spirit, open-minded and with very hospitable local people, to show that Ukraine is different but united.”
Hnativ says confidently, before returning to her preparations for the East to West event, “If you are doing the right things, you will win for sure.”
Isaac Webb
