When in Ruthenia . . ., Part 2

Ruthenians will wake up and bloodlessly separate from Ukraine? Part two

A new republic is this close to appearing in Transcarpathia

Yuri Snegirev

The Soim of the republic of Subcarpathian Rus' on 25 October adopts an "Act of the proclamation of the restoration of Ruthenian statehood". To the Transcarpathian Oblast Rada was in essence delivered an ultimatum: if the deputies do not recognize Subcarpathian Rus' as a Ukrainian autonomy within the composition of Ukraine, then the Ruthenicans are declaring themselves totally independent. Our observer ended up in the center of the struggle for Ruthenian statehood.

Everybody's running, running, running...

I found my way to Uzhgorod on a simple Ukrainian electric commuter train. If Gogol were alive, he would have written yet another immortal creation about the peculiarities of national transport. While in one pigeonhole were taking place intensive arguments about morality, smoothly spilling over into face-smashing, right alongside a little old lady - God's dandelion - was calmly finishing up eating a boiled egg. Cripples of all stripes and simply beggars prowled around the railcar, like in the "Happy family" relay. Conductors were going through the car a fifth time already, collecting money for unpurchased tickets. I sat down next to a sprightly granny with two grandkids. We got to talking - it's a long road, after all.

Romania - that's how the elderly woman introduced herself - was returning the grandsons to a son in Uzhgorod after a trip amongst relatives. And she herself hasn't been living in the Ukraine for a long time already.

"Romans we are!" - Romania laid bare her heart. "My sister and I work in shifts as housekeepers in Italy. Salary? Well, 1500 euros it comes out to. And the social package besides. Why, half of Italy over there is our people, Transcarpathians."

Even in the Soviet time, Transcarpathia was considered just about beyond the border - the provision, the contraband goods, the resorts... On a teensy clump of land were concentrated four state borders at once: the Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, and Romanian. As soon as the Union crumbled to pieces and the borders opened - the Transcarpathians began to flow, including the Ruthenians, to earnings in Western Europe. On Fridays and Mondays it's best not to go to the border: all the roads are clogged with "businki" (kind of like our marshrutki [public transit mini-buses--Trans.], only of pan-European conveyance). That's Gastarbeiters coming in for the weekend from Italy, Spain, Hungary, and Austria. Those who have not gone away for earnings also aren't sitting around doing nothing. With Ukrainian passports and a local residence stamp you can penetrate all of 50 kilometers into the European Union. So it is that the little old ladies and little old men take cigarettes and diesel fuel to Europe (you can take across one canister and one carton of cigarettes in your hands). They get around 20 dollars from each outing. And back to the Ukraine they export (you aren't going to believe this!) pork lard and sausage. Since a certain time, when the "oranges" began to manage the economy, European meat delicacies became cheaper than domestic ones.

The outflow of working hands to the West has affected not only the male population of Transcarpathia. The intergirls [foreign-currency prostitutes--Trans.] in the hotel, where I lived, to say it directly, were not distinguished by beauty and youth. The security guard explained this metamorphosis to me:

"The young 'uns have all gone to you Moskali [derogatory Ukrainian term for all "Russkies", even those not from Moscow--Trans.], and to the West. And these gals - housewives. While the husbands are straining their backs in Hungary, they also earn a kopeck for the home. So as not to sit idly by!"

But from Transcarpathia they don't only leave. Every year there arrive here, according to the estimation of the Ruthenians, no fewer than 100 thousand illegals from Africa and South-East Asia. They live in basements and on abandoned farms. And then in groups run across the border. They get caught and sent back to Transcarpathia, to a camp outside Mukachevo. The European Union even pays Ukraine money for this. But this doesn't reduce the number of illegals.

I always considered that the western Oblasts of Ukraine had amicably voted for the "oranges". Turns out - no! In Transcarpathia, everybody with whom I met amicably damns Yushchenko. Although Yanukovych gets his fair share as well.

"Can't live like this any more!", declared to me Andrey, owner of a tire shop. "There, in Kiev, they've gone completely bonkers! How many months without [government] power! But they keep on pulling taxes [out of us]!"

And against the background of universal dissatisfaction there sounded the ancient hymn of Subcarpathian Rus': "Subcarpathian Ruthenians, leave your deep sleep!" Just the time for the collapse of the country. And here on top of that we've also got an economic crisis and imported lard... Russian political scientists often assert that political processes in the Ukraine go almost the same was as in Russia, but with a delay of 10-15 years. If one believes this, then still ahead is the "White house", tanks in Kiev, and the other horrors of the time of troubles.

Interview from the underground

The next day after my meeting with the leader of the Ruthenian "insurgents", father Dmitry Sidor, in the church of Christ the Saviour, elections of the government of Subcarpathian Rus' were supposed to take place. This I found out under great secrecy, having made a sworn promise that I would publish this information only after the elections. Therefore we appointed the next meeting for the evening. But father Sidor's plans were not fated to be. Right after the morning service, policemen burst into the church.

"That was me they were looking for", I would be told later by one of the ideologists of the movement, chairman of the party "Subcarpathian Rus'" Petr Grecko. "But I was in a conspiratorial place at this time."

The policemen broke down the doors, searched the facilities. The mighty father Sidor stood up in defense of Orthodoxy. With one hand, he attempted to photograph the police mayhem with a photo camera, with the other - was beating off the invaders. He ended up having to sacrifice the photo camera - the policemen smashed it, but didn't start to touch the padre. And so they left with nothing. The elections of the organ of self-administration did not take place. The telephones of the entire pinnacle of the Ruthenian movement with the aims of conspiracy were turned off. The "insurgents" lay low. But I nevertheless managed to speak with Petr Grecko in this uneasy time for the Ruthenians.

"We don't want civil war and bloodshed!", he declared to me from the underground. "But after those repressions to which you were witness, we don't have another way than to proclaim ourselves an independent republic. Our road does not lie together with Ukraine's. We don't have common historical roots. This land was ours, until we lost it by the will of Stalin. And then there was forced Ukrainianization. They didn't even recognize us as a people. They wrote in passports - Ukrainian and that's all! And how Ukraine plundered us over the years of Soviet and anti-Soviet power! How many beech forests perished! The climate has changed! The rivers have turned shallow! The rains have washed away the soil. But all the resorts and juicy morsels of land were bought by gentlemen from Kiev. We did a calculation here. Ukraine in the capacity of compensation has to pay the Ruthenians 20 billion euros. The number is precise."

"What are you going to live on, if you separate? Until the compensation comes..."
"And what are pipelines for?" 'Urengoi-Pomary-Uzhgorod' - two pipes. And then there's 'Druzhba'. And then Poland-Romania. Every branch 200 kilometers. If you take money for transit, then you can live [on that]! Then there's tourism. We've got 14 castles. Waterfalls and mineral springs. Just like Switzerland!"

"Well, and if the European Union doesn't recognize you?" - my doubts - an homage of respect to the undergrounder. It's clear anyway that it won't recognize.

"How's this? But we've already met privately with Hungarian deputies. And Slovakia also isn't against. After all, they see there that the Ukrainian powers are systematically annihilating the Ruthenians. Look, the Banderovtsy [followers of Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian nationalist fighter assassinated by the KGB in Munich in 1959--Trans.] promised to hold their next congress here, in Uzhgorod. They're threatening us. In Kiev they've taken up criminal cases against us. While we're trying all these 17 years to assert the right to autonomy in a parliamentary way. According to the latest information, the Banderovtsy are preparing a frightful provocation: they'll blow up pipelines, but will lay everything on us. Therefore we're going to demand the introduction into Subcarpathian Rus' of the rapid reaction forces of the European Union and the Russian Federation. Only then will everybody be able to sleep peacefully.

Pipelines - this is serious. This is your money and mine. This isn't only the yachts of "bizneses", but also pensions and benefits for the poor. Indeed, if they yank "Druzhba" - the whole world will turn its gaze at the problem of the Ruthenians! Both freezing Europe, and Russia that heats it. And that's just what the Ruthenians need. So that's it - the secret weapon of Subcarpathian Rus'!

A revolution doesn't have a beginning...

Et the very end of Orthodox embankment (formerly Muscovite. Good think at least they didn't call it the Dudayev [embankment]. What, in Lvov, and indeed in all of Western Ukraine in every town there's a Dudayev street--Auth.) [named after Dzhokhar Dudayev, first president of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, evaporated by two laser-guided Russian missiles in 1996--Trans.], across from the Oblast procuracy stands the cathedral of the Protection. It was built in the year 1930 by Russian emigrants in memory of compatriots who had perished in the First world [war]. The abbot there is father Nikolai. I found him as he was donning secular dress and getting ready to go home after a service. We talked nearly an hour about the problem of the Ruthenians.

"There is no such problem!", father Nikolai assured me. "Transcarpathia this is such a multi-national Oblast. And I personally see no difference between a Ruthenian or a Ukrainian. Besides this, historically other nationalities reside here. Hutsuls, and even Gypsies. So what - everyone's supposed to break away?

I won't say [anything] about the Hutsuls - I didn't see them. But of Gypsies there is a great multitude here. They're not at all like they are in Russia. They don't harass with all kinds of nonsense on the street. They walk quietly around the town, dig around in scrap heaps. Or sit in a corner - ask for alms. And aren't thinking at all about breaking away.

"I don't know what our bishop father Fedor thinks about Ruthenian statehood. How he tolerates that such strange things go on in the cathedral. I only know that a clergyman must perform services. And a politician engage in politics. And you shouldn't mix the one with the other.

I had already written that in the Transcarpathian Oblast Duma, the one to which the Ruthenians had delivered the ultimatum, I was unable to meet with a single deputy - they all ran from the Moscow correspondent as from fire. But one intrepid deputy nevertheless did agree to talk. Under the condition that I would not name his name even at the Last Judgment. I'll only say that by nationality he is not a Ruthenian. Indeed, quite the opposite - a hundred-percent Ukrainian.

"The Kievan power took both the Ruthenians and the non-Ruthenians 'for a ride' back in the year 1991. Then there was a referendum, in which there stood two questions: 'for an independent Ukraine' and 'for a self-administered territory (an autonomy) of the Ruthenians'. 78 percent of the population of Transcarpathian Oblast voted 'for' the one and the other. But the Supreme rada ratified a decision with respect to the first question, but the second one it ignored. But the referendum consisted of two questions. Therefore, at the given moment, strictly juridically, our Oblast doesn't have anything to do with Ukraine.

If you dig deeper, then, when Stalin based on the results of the Second world war annexed Transcarpathia to Ukraine, a delegation of Ruthenians arrived in the Kremlin, in order to ask about the founding of a 16th republic in the composition of the USSR. Stalin did not receive them. And quickly conducted a 'phoney' referendum on the annexation of Transcarpathia to Ukraine. Then there were still combat operations going on, and the results of this 'phoniness'" in any case are illegitimate! But the Ruthenians existed then and they exist now, even if all of 10 thousand people called themselves Ruthenians. And we are obligated to reckon with this."

"In Kiev they blame 'the hand of Moscow' in all this..."

"This is "the hand of Kiev'! I will reveal a small secret to you. Today's head of the administration of president Yushchenko, Viktor Baloha, is a native of these parts, a Ruthenian by nationality. Only with an assist from him did the Ruthenian displays begin. I can't tell you everything, but this is advantageous for Baloha. He's pursuing his own objectives. The creation of a Subcarpathian Rus' is not among them. In your history you had father Gapon. Here is something similar..."

"How will the deputies react to the ultimatum of the Ruthenians? 1 December is just around the corner..."

"They've already bought 15 deputies from our faction... If there will be voting, then its outcome isn't obvious. To sit and not notice the problem - is not a way out. I'll tell about myself: the Ruthenian people ought to be given self-administration. At the very least so that the people would quiet down. I will note: no withdrawals from the composition of Ukraine whatsoever are being spoken of!"

...When I returned to Moscow, Petr Grecko called me from an unknown telephone:
"Yuri! Director of the Security service of Ukraine Valentin Nalyvaichenko promised live on the air to transplant [lock up--Trans.] all our activists. In connection with the open terror against Ruthenians on the part of the Ukrainian power a decision has been adopted that within days we will declare ourselves independent. Not waiting for 1 December!"

The revolution continues...