With the collapsing USSR in the late 1980s, I saw the increasing relevance of Europe to Ukraine.
I had taken all the required core curriculum courses at Columbia College. This nationally recognized core curriculum is extremely Euro-centric. Its origins stem from America’s involvement in Europe during both World Wars and the Marshall Plan. Columbia University’s faculty felt that its students as future American leaders should know what they were getting involved in when they participate in European affairs and wars.
The Columbia core curriculum in the late 1980s seemed to me to be very relevant to Ukraine. Ukraine’s western borders were no longer going to be lined with watchtowers and electrified fences.
Ukraine, in my opinion, would finally have the opportunity to learn, relearn and re-explore its alleged European roots and become a genuine nation-state. After all, it had been one of the most isolated corners of Europe since the collapse of the Kyiv Rus. Conquered first by the Mongolian Golden Horde, it had been ruled by the Eurasian Russians for centuries. In the past, even Poland had not been considered European since it too had been absorbed by the Eurasian Russian Empire.
In addition, Europe’s vibrant cultures and ideas would enable Ukrainian intellectuals to quickly put the sectarian dogmatism of Marxism-Leninism behind them. I also sensed that the collapse of communism could lead to an ideological void and fundamental loss of direction. Such a cultural, ideological, political, and even economic void could lead to unforeseen dangers, missed opportunities, and perpetual stagnation. I did not even think of corruption.
In addition, because of centuries of underdevelopment and suppression, Ukraine did not have an intellectual infrastructure of its own. It had to begin many accepted disciplines developed in the West from scratch. What it had had often been grossly distorted by the ideological offices of Comrade Suslov.
No less important, the European standard of living and civic life had soared since World War II. Europe often seemed the most civilized place on earth!
Its benevolent influence, I thought, might impel Ukraine to reform and catch up.
Columbia University obviously was very enthusiastic about my proposal to transplant the core curriculum to Ukraine. I had flattered them.
I persuaded then Academician Viatcheslav Brioukhovetsky to pursue this lead. The University of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy was still only an idea at the time.
The transplant did not work.
The potential middleman in the project, Professor Ivan Fizer, an American professor of literature of Ukrainian origin at Rutgers and an adviser to Academician Brioukhovetsky was not enthusiastic. Unfortunately, the UKMA did not yet exist, American foundations were more interested in Moscow and the emerging Russian Federation, and Ukraine was not yet even independent.
Then soon to be Rector Brioukhovetsky had other things to worry about.
The death stroke to the project was that the Diaspora wanted Ukraine to be Ukrainian and not European. They were more interested in reestablishing embroidery and folk dancing in Ukraine. They thought of Ukraine as a suburb of Toronto or New York rather than a part of socialist Europe.
I eventually founded the USA/USA Program in order to enable at least one or more students to take part in this Columbia core-curriculum. My misfortune has been that our fifty four students have attended virtually every elite university in the USA except Columbia. Two of our students were admitted to Columbia but one chose to attend Harvard and the other Princeton.
I also worked very hard to have our students relate to Europe in other ways. Our students have studied in Norway, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. One even wrote her senior college thesis on commercial relations between the European Union and China. This is all directly as a result of our program and the remarkable generosity of American colleges and prep schools which footed the bill.
In addition, six of our alumnae (all women) have represented Ukraine in the European Youth Parliament.
At the time of the collapse of the USSR, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, an American of Estonian origin and also a Columbia College alumnus, had essentially the same idea. He eventually immigrated to Estonia, became a politician, later the Foreign Minister of Estonia, and as such recruited Columbia students and alumni via Jenik Radon, a Columbia alumnus, to help bring Estonia into the EU. I know some of these people.
Toomas Hendrik Ilves succeeded!!
Finally, he became the President of Estonia which he is to this day. Yet, he has yet to succeed in getting a university in Estonia to adopt the euro-centric Columbia core curriculum.
I have worked with hundreds of Ukrainian students. I have met Georgi Gongadze, Yuri Andrukhovych, Ivan Malkovych, Vitaly Klychko, President Kuchma, and heard many other leading Ukrainian figures speak. I have tried to persuade influential members of the Diaspora of my vision. I read and analyzed how this could be done in other ways.
Ukraine has squandered its relationship with Europe. That includes all four presidents and all its citizens. It also includes the diaspora.
So, what is my conclusion to all of this?
Ukraine has squandered its relationship with Europe. That includes all four presidents and all its citizens. It also includes the diaspora.
It even includes the American based Ukrainian Studies Fund which fought very hard to put Ukrainian Studies into the sphere of the very Eurasian oriented Harriman (aka Russian) Institute at Columbia University and under the tutelage of an expert on the Soviet military!! At Columbia University, Ukraine remains under Russian tutelage within the Harriman Institute to this day.
Europe is hardly perfect. It has been the home of some of the worst wars and genocides in the history of mankind, and it has been the force of imperialism and conquest beyond its borders. One should not idealize Europe.
On the other hand, it has evolved and perhaps has become the leader in the creation of a new and more peaceful political entity characterized by it union. It is also the home of great culture, science, and heritage to which Ukraine bears some relationship.
At the same time, Europe has been very ambivalent about Ukraine and justifiably so.
Ukraine is a new country; its contributions to European culture are marginal. It is also fundamentally corrupt.
Ukrainians really know very little about Europe. They assume that they are European because they are white, Christian, and reside in what they consider to be the center of Europe. But as the Wall Street Journal once pointed out, there are many physical centers of Europe.
With reference to culture and power, there is little doubt that France and Italy have been at the center of Europe for millennia.
Ukrainians have made no fundamental choice since independence to be European. They have made no effort to learn. They have made no effort to establish and live by European norms.
This holds true for western Ukraine, in my opinion, as well as for eastern Ukraine.
It is as true of President Viktor Yushchenko as it is of President Viktor Yanukovych. It is also true of the Yushchenko and the Yanukovych mentality present in nearly every Ukrainian that I have met from Ukraine and in the diaspora.
This is painfully obvious to the outsider. It is difficult for Ukrainians to comprehend.
I think that the Estonians, the East Germans, the Czechs, and the Hungarians, when under the Soviets, missed and suffered for Europe.
Ukrainians did not and do not miss Europe because they have never known it.
Even after 20 of independence, Ukrainians do not know what Europe is.
But it is never too late to begin to learn. Ukrainians are as intelligent as any people. They all know how to read. They have eyes and they have ears. They can even smell the roses. There is Internet.
They can do it. But they have to be willing to learn first, apply what they have learned, and then show their collective will to be in Europe.
This holds true for western Ukrainians as it is for eastern Ukrainians.
No one can learn for you. You have to do so yourself.
Likewise, Europe does not miss Ukraine because it has not known it. Given the current state of affairs in Ukraine, I am not certain that it needs it.
In conclusion, if Ukrainians genuinely want to join Europe, then the ball is in their court. They have to do it on their own.
That is the reality.
Bohdan A. Oryshkevich is founder fo the USA/USA Program in New York City. http://on.fb.me/jiWGAg
