Ultra-nationalists, politicians using May death of composer Ihor Bilozir for their own gain, many say
itself is hardly bigger than a kiosk. Its most outstanding feature is a spacious outdoor patio where, on one recent Sunday, several dozen people sat lazily sipping cocktails and chatting in the hot, late-afternoon sun.
It could be any outdoor cafe in any city in the world.
But on the night of May 20, Tsisarska Kava became the scene of a fight that, according to media outlets both inside and outside Ukraine, has ignited ethnic tensions between Russian and Ukrainian nationals in Western Ukraine’s largest city.
The fight began when several Russian speakers attacked some people singing Ukrainian songs, among them composer Ihor Bilozir. Severely injured in the brawl, Bilozir died in hospital six days later.
His death sparked a brief flame of anti?Russian sentiment in western Ukraine. Sympathizers, many nationalists among them, showed up en masse at Bilozir’s funeral, after which an angry mob vandalized the cafe.
Since then, dozens of media reports from Russia, Ukraine and the West have cited an increase in tension between Ukrainian and Russian nationals in Lviv.
The people of Lviv, however, tell a different story. Tension does exist between ethnic Russians and Ukrainians, but the conflict has been overexaggerated for political reasons, some say.
“The death of Bilozir, who has been turned into a martyr for Ukrainian culture, played a favorable role for extreme [Ukrainian nationalist] parties like UNA-UNSO and Rukh,” said Sergey Yevseyev, head of the Russian Movement of Ukraine, a local group dedicated to preserving Russian culture. “Now they’re trying to manipulate the masses.”
The scene of the crime itself, where patrons still converse freely in both Russian and Ukrainian, hardly seems like a flashpoint for ethnic hatred. That would appear to lend credence to the claims of many that the Bilozir killing was an isolated incident that various demagogues are intent on blowing out of proportion.
Both Ukrainian and Russian nationals have latched onto the issue – Ukrainians angry at the killing; Russians wary of what they describe as a city-mandated crackdown on their culture.
Politicians on both sides are the ones making the most noise. On the Ukrainian side, the Lviv city government passed a vague ordinance banning the loud playing of “vulgar” foreign music for six months in city cafes – a measure clearly targeted at Russian music. That prompted a wave of criticism from none other than the Russian State Duma, or parliament, which denounced what it described as Ukraine’s “policy of discrimination against the Russian language.”
But all the hype has angered some local Russian leaders, who claim the city of Lviv is playing up the issue to focus people’s attention away from the region’s declining economy.
Yevseyev, of the Russian Movement of Ukraine, is one proponent of that theory.
“Since [President Leonid] Kuchma won a second term as president, the price of bread has doubled; the city has problems with water and electricity; we have the highest unemployment rate in Ukraine,” Yevseyev said. “I think the authorities have intentionally blown up the language issue so that people forget their many social problems – for which the authorities bear much of the blame.”
Yevseyev accused the city authorities of playing into the hands of Lviv’s handful of extreme Ukrainian nationalist groups, who are dedicated to what he calls the “de-Russification” of the region. Those groups by no means represent the majority of Ukrainian nationals in the region, he says.
“What de-Russification are they talking about?” Yevseyev says. “Everything is [already] Ukrainian here. Even hospitals have signs, ‘Here one must speak Ukrainian.’ Yet the [de?Russification] meetings attracted only some 60-80 people.”
Few would deny that there is real tension between ethnic Russians and Ukrainians in Lviv, which has long been a hotbed of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. The Russian Cultural Center is constantly being daubed with anti?Russian graffiti. Radical groups like UNA-UNSO hold meetings in which leaders launch fiery diatribes advocating de-Russification.
But local Russian leaders contend it’s not as bad as it’s been made out to be by recent press reports. Nationalism in the region is on the decline, they say, as evidenced by the ever?declining numbers of people attending ultra-nationalist rallies.
“Sure, you can get insulted on the tram for speaking Russian,” said Oleg Petrov, the head of the Russian Societies Council said. “But that’s not a widespread phenomenon.”
Ultra-nationalists use the language issue as their main call to arms. After 10 years of Ukrainian independence, Russian is still the language of choice of about half of all Ukrainians. Russian is even more popular in the cities. All that is evidence, nationalists say, that the forced Russification of the Soviet era is alive and well today.
But the miserable state of Ukraine’s economy has taken many peoples’ minds off nationalist issues, and the passing of time has healed old wounds somewhat. The result is that average Lvivans want to let bygones be bygones and get on with life.
“Learn from other cultures and do not neglect your own, [Ukrainian poet Taras] Shevchenko used to say,” said Polinka Kozachenka, a Ukrainian national. “I think that the main task for Ukraine is to build its own strong economy and eliminate poverty.”
