HUMANITARIAN POLICY OF YANUKOVYCH:
Will campaign promises be translated into actions?

In Sevastopol the Party of Region hung many posters stating that friendship between two fleets mean friendship between the states. However, there are many question regarding translating campaign promises of Yanukovych into actions. Russian language as the second official language — this point is articulated not so loudly. Maximum — as a regional language in places of "the compact settlement".

Not long ago I met the leader of a Ukrainian socio-political movement. We discussed many questions revealing many concealed issues. In particular, we paid attention to the interesting regularity, or we may call it just a detail. There is a certain regularity in Ukrainian power shift.

Pendulum of economy and svidomism

Leonid Kravchuk was the first President of the Ukraine. Under his rule, despite the vast joy regarding the USSR collapse, the economy experienced the first and rather strong blows of the real world. Against this background it was Kravchuk who laid the foundation for radical movements such as the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists. After this there was a spell of Kuchma rule. He was busy with economy revival, having shifted the emphasis from the establishment of nation-centered state. Later, Juschtschenko came to power. He is famous for banderization of any event or item. And in accordance with the basic theory, President Yanukovych today aims at economy and finance. I don’t know, is it worth speaking about the second term for President Yanukovych, but some regularity is still seen.

It is characterized not only by the shift between the desired and the fact. I should state from the very beginning that I don’t trust conspiracy theories, Masonic Hands etc. On the other hand, the very position of the present Ukrainian state doesn’t allow any other ways of development except the fluctuation of vectors. Despite the desire of some representatives of western regions to get closer to the EU and far from Russia, it is impossible from the point of view of economy. In many spheres Russia is the main trade partner of the Ukraine.

The most powerful ace of trumps of Ukrainian trade are metal and agriculture and it is doubtful that they are capable of finding their place in Europe. On the contrary, the Ukraine suffers damage from China, selling its metal for lower prices, and from countries like Canada, which are rather experienced in selling their crops. Thus, when the Ukraine is not a success it recollects that Russia is an important factor of supporting the state, just because it is a large market both for the Ukrainian aircraft production and crops. So the necessity to create stability advances the "thaw" in the attitude of official Kiev to Moscow.

Not by bread alone...

What is the reason to prove once more the statement that Russia has been a lifebuoy for the Ukraine through all the years of its independence? However, with each spiral turn those individuals, who call themselves nationalists, exert more pressure and falsification of history of two nations becomes more obvious. And when the new government tries to stabilize the situation in the country by doing casual things the return to the primary positions in relations between the Ukraine and Russia is considered to be a great benefit.

Judge for yourself. The ukrainization started before Juschtschenko came to power. He was just the first to deal with it as the only challenge. Leonid Kuchma, who wrote "Ukraine is not Russia", conducted "multivector" policy. Or simply wagged the tail waiting for preferences. As well as Victor Yanukovych he solved the problem with the Black Sea fleet and gained economic benefit. It means that in some strategic issues — military, economic, etc. — there were made steps profitable for Russia. From the point of view of the culture, the situation hasn’t changed.

President Juschtschenko was in power. The opinion that Russia is guilty in all the disasters turned to be "the conventional wisdom", at least, in the western regions of the Ukraine. According to all the laws of physics and psychology, this wisdom will be difficult to change.

According to the opinion polls, almost any resident of Lviv consider himself to be a Ukrainian. Nine out of ten say they are Galician, eight out of ten that they are Western Ukraine residents. Every fifth thinks that he is a European and every third that he is a Banderovite. The younger the respondents are the more there are people among them who identify themselves with Ukrainians, Galicians and Europeans. And on the contrary, the elder the residents of Lviv are, the more of them define themselves as "Soviet people".

Taking this into consideration, the notion "Soviet person", from the point of view of social culture and mentality, may be the equivalent of the trendy term "representative of Russian cultural space". It is possible to state the obvious success of Bandera ideologists. Due to history and literature textbooks many young people joint the movement. In this case it is clear why the order of city councils on the prohibition of the term "Great Patriotic" has been accepted so smoothly. It was the Antifascist Committee of the Lviv region which took the case to the court opposing the prohibition. The coalition in power didn’t do it despite the intention "to reconstruct friendly relations with the neighbor". It is easier to stop the process at the primary stage. And any year of preferring economy to ideology leads to the possible turning of the Ukraine into somewhat like Iraq.

Today we have wide opportunities regarding the economic integration. But the only chance for both states to have decent future is to conduct the integration based on bilateral development and not on the private "exploiter" profit. Here we need an ideology. Firstly, this ideology should explain that speculations on historical issues are not profitable either for the Ukraine or for Russia. Secondly, it should show the regularity of Ukrainian-Russian relations, which is today concealed by svidomism.

Russian language as a factor of economic perspective which is not taken into account

There is an opinion that Ukrainian authority will have to obey in the sphere of finance by it is not capable of overcoming negative attitudes, which remained after the ruling of Juschtschenko. They won’t develop the policy of Russophobia. Today it is not profitable, besides, they have no money. They will just conserve the present humanitarian situation to deal with it sometime later. It is just a possibility.

Of course, there will be slogans telling about "detente". In Sevastopol the Party of Region hung many posters stating that friendship between two fleets mean friendship between the states. However, there are many question regarding translating campaign promises of Yanukovych into action. Russian language as the second official language — this point is articulated not so loudly. Maximum — as a regional language in places of "compact settlement". Moreover, Victor Yanukovych addressing the III International Congress of Ukrainian diaspora in Lviv claimed: "I confirm that Ukrainian will be the official language in the Ukraine". An attempt to maneuver is obvious: even if Victor Yanukovych just tried to stabilize the situation not mentioning the Russian language issue, it is clear that a self-consistent leader wouldn’t be afraid to do it.

Meanwhile, toning down sharp details in socio-cultural field is fraught. Not for Russian economic interests. But for the future of the Ukraine itself. Everything will be spoilt unless we start to set the "i"s which is already presented in the Ukrainian alphabet.

May be President Yanukovych doesn’t have enough force and opportunities. But I don’t think so. When he needs to replace a henchman of Juschtschenko at any level, to deal with problems concerning gas or credit discount, the decision is taken rapidly, firmly and Ukrainian officials need only one day to reconcile the deal with Moscow. The quantity of deputies, forming the ruling coalition, allows to tackle the current problems, except for the Constitution amending. And nevertheless no law in humanitarian sphere, which could facilitate the life of people, was passed.

There were flirty attempts to put into life the things discussed. For example, to show films in Russian in the cinema. There was even a draft, which was widely advertized. However, it stated that there would be Russian dub in the cinema only if it will be done by the Ukrainian company. It means that they wanted Ukrainian experts to make the Russian dub of films that were primarily in Russian. This is the mentality of Ukrainian humanities and film critics... It is economically efficient, but it doesn’t take the perspective into account. Because the dub is financed by companies which are rights holders. In the case with Russian film it is Russian companies. The question is: if right-holders have already invested money into soundtrack for Russia, why should they do it once again for the Ukraine?

Of course, many Ukrainians don’t go to the cinema. In Crimea they even have the industry of reincarnation of films which is done by non-professionals, when films are re-duped again into Russian. However, time passes and the discrimination of Russian cinema as a means of undermining of Russian-Ukrainian relations may contribute greatly to the inability of Ukraine to be economically and politically sovereign and developed state.

Meanwhile, on June, 24 the meeting of the Council of Regions, devoted to the cadre policy in the sphere of state service, was held. President Yanukovych presented a set of bills. The main news: the officials of I-II category should speak one of the official languages of the Council of Europe fluently (the norm will be introduced since January, 1, 2015). That is English or French. Not Russian. It is a casual phenomenon. If most of state internet sites have no Russian version, the language which is spoken by at least half of the population.

Furthermore, it seems that the Party of Regions understands its name very literally. Not long ago Ternopil deputies from the Party voted for the granting supplementary pension to "the Ukrainian Insurgent Army fighters". But uplift for the veterans of the Great Patriotic War were not discussed. The reason is perfect. Veterans are thought to live well due to the presents they get on May, 9. At the same time the leader of the Party, who is the President of the Ukraine, mourned on the ninth of May, demonstrating respect to veterans and promising to improve their poor economic conditions.

To sum up, we can say the following. We see the concrete economic events, but the attempts made in humanitarian sphere are ephemeral. Today we are willing to see long-awaited package of laws, which was said to shed the light on the shadowy future. Much attention is paid to the activity of the commission which allegedly must present the renewed history textbooks that won’t contain Russophobian nonsense and will have a certain historic value. I think that I’m not the only person interested in it. The results of local elections which will be held on October, 31 will show if the curiosity will be satisfied by the present administration.

Andrey Polevoy