Wives of heads of state traditionally adopt causes during their husbands’ tenures in office. In the United States, Laura Bush has made adult literacy her crusade, while Nancy Reagan became associated with anti-drug efforts. Closer to home, Ludmila Kuchma did a great job as first lady in adopting ing the plight of children as her prime area of concern. Her patronage of the Ukraine to Children Fund, which aided needy mothers and kids, and the Hope and Kindness Fund, was invaluable. She was a force behind helping children afflicted by the Chornobyl disaster and helped raise funds for orphanages and other care facilities for kids.
Now it’s the turn of Viktor Yushchenko’s wife, Katerina Chumachenko, to choose a cause to represent. I’d like to suggest one for her: she should take the responsibility for rebuilding Ukraine’s shattered relations with its close to 5 million-strong Diaspora community in the West.
For a number of years, Ukraine’s relationship with ethnic Ukrainians living in the West has been terrible, for a variety of reasons. Some are historical. Diaspora Ukrainians tend to be from Ukraine’s nationalistic west, former Polish territory, with no Russian influence until World War II. Many felt alienated by a Ukraine in which the Russified east had a lock on political and economic power. They also disliked the country’s post-Soviet leadership, which had close ties to Moscow, and many of whose members had been part of the Communist power structure.
Diasporans made a tactical mistake, meanwhile, by stressing the language issue. In a country in which even many true Ukrainian patriots feel comfortable speaking Russian, the Diaspora’s anti-Russian fixation was bound to alienate people.
That independent Ukraine has been extremely corrupt has not helped relations, of course. A country in which an estimated more than half of the economy is in the shadows and the president is implicated in major crimes is not the country Diaspora Ukrainians helped to create. After the moral and practical support Diasporans in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and elsewhere gave to the Ukrainian national idea, they’ve felt betrayed by reality.
The nadir perhaps came in August of 2003, when the Ukrainian World Congress, a Diaspora organization, tried to hold a meeting at Kyiv’s Ukraine House. At the last minute, in what appears to have been a dirty trick played by someone in high office, the facility was made unavailable. The message from the Kyiv power class was clear: Diaspora stay out. The Diaspora took the hint, and in fact had already been staying away for years.
At present, no Diaspora organization is playing an important role in Ukraine.
Room to help
Now Ukraine has changed, and the Diaspora should be encouraged to return here. They can accomplish a tremendous amount. Various national diaspora communities have done great work on behalf of their respective countries in the Baltic countries, in Israel, and elsewhere, and informed, well-intentioned foreigners can do the same thing here. The Ukrainian Diaspora is big, well-educated, rich and looking for an excuse to return to a country to which it’s still very attached.
Chumachenko is the person who can rebuild the shattered relationship. A Diaspora Ukrainian herself, she was born in Chicago, and speaks Ukrainian with an American accent. (She’s even technically a U.S. citizen, as the Ukrainian citizenship she applied for during the presidential campaign has not yet come through.) She’s attractive and a good politician in her own right.
What could she do specifically? Go back to the States, and of course to Canada, home to a massive Ukrainian ethnic population. She could meet with the leaders of the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress and of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, on their own turfs. She could be a regular presence at the Ukrainian Institute of America on 5th Ave. in New York City, lecturing about developments here in Ukraine and attending social and cultural events. She could make herself a patron of the Ukrainian Museum in Manhattan’s East Village, which this spring will take a massive step forward by moving into new premises. She could get involved with the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, and with the Ukrainian studies program at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute. Diaspora-driven charity organizations like the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund will be glad for her attention, and she could help steer Diaspora money to Ukrainian hospitals and Ukrainian schools. Chumachenko could make an effort to be present in the lives of the Ukrainian-American communities in New York City, New Jersey, her hometown of Chicago, and the many Canadian towns and cities where Diaspora sentiment is strong.
The Diaspora’s alienation from today’s Ukraine is a fact, but it’s wider than it is deep. People of Ukrainian descent all over the world want to come back to Ukraine, bringing their money and their expertise with them. The new Yushchenko government could be what draws them, and Chumachenko should be its best diplomat.
Jed Sunden is the Kyiv Post’s publisher.
