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the realization that women too are the others who de serve equal happiness. At present, there are four types of women’s organi zations in Ukraine, and serious attempts are being made to establish an umbrella organization, a genuine Coun cil of Women of Ukraine, that would promote the con cerns and causes of women in society and women as women. The Afghan mothers is a groundswell movement, very Eastern European in its stress on the role of the mother in taking care of her sons. Its major impetus came from the increased awareness of the abuses to which the young soldiers were subjected. Combined with resentment at an unpopular war in Afghanistan, a war in which the sympathies of the Soviet people were not necessarily on the side of the Soviet Army, the Mothers’ Committee now spans all the republics in bringing women together for the cause of peace. In Ukraine considerations of peace are linked with con cern for the ecology, and especially the dangers of radi ation. Ukraine was destroyed not only by Chernobyl, a disaster that could not be supressed, but also by less well known yet equally disastrous ecological catastro phes brought on by irresponsible exploitation of land and resources for the welfare of the center and not of the local population. Ecological concerns, combined with the pervasive and pernicious Russification of the population were the major stimuli in the formation of the democratic movement Rukh to help along the pro gram of restructuring of the country. The women noticed that few women actually bothered participating actively in the work of the Rukh, writing it off as yet another futile attempt of the government to galvanize the popu lation. The unwritten effect of the Soviet system has been the destruction of the belief in the efficacy of polit ical action. The regeneration of political life in the coun try has led to the attempts to organize the women. The women’s Society in support of Rukh is a major women’s organization that is seeking to ensure that the needs of women not be overlooked again in this latest attempt at self-generation of the area. I have had a number of meetings with women of this group during my last two trips to Ukraine. I am always impressed by the fact that these women repres ent the whole population of Ukraine. One can meet a few Jewish women in the joint struggle of women for a safer Ukraine. In August, two came up to me to ask me to pass the message to American women that unlike the situation in Russia, there is no danger of pogrom of the Jews in Ukraine except if there is a rightist attack of Russians against Ukrainians in Ukraine. Then the Jews and the Ukrainians will be at risk. In addition to these organizations there is also the Women’s Union which originated in Western Ukraine and is quickly spreading East. I suppose the Rukh women and the women’s Union, which pursue basically the same goals of women’s contribution to the shaping of the course of reform in the country will at some point probably merge. Women in Ukraine face difficult challenges. They are overworked, since all of them work outside the home and then face the second shift of shopping for scarce items or trying to organize those that do not exist on the market — clothes, dishes, shoes. Men have not had their consciousness raised, and while some try to help out in the apartment, most expect food on the table, clothes washed and ironed, and the children taken care of. While washing machines are more common in the cities now, dryers are not, and dishwashers unheard of. Only a few supermarkets exist in the major cities and shopping is a major and frustrating chore. Even worse, the women are disgusted with the decades of political repression, corruption, and hypocrisy. It is difficult to get them to see the need for direct involvement to use the opportunity to change the system. At times, one hears voices that men messed up the system, let the men put it right. Then the women will do their share. Women find solace in religion and ethnography, especially in rediscovering old songs, rituals, food, clo thing. In Kiev there emerged an organization called the “She who preserves,” — Berehynia — which obviously misses much in the translation. Limited to middle-aged city women with a college or professional education, this organization attempts to preserve the folk dress, food and recreate some folk customs that one never really knew existed. A combination of back to nature and back to the simple farm days, the organization tries to fill the void modern life with no family and by neces sity limited social life leaves for all Soviets. Apartments are small, and the political insecurity in the previous years limited to social contacts to those one really knew well. Berehynia will not be a mass movement, and will have the nostalgia of a quilting revival on a small campus. Organized religion Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and the rapidly spreading Baptist faith offers more than solace to women. Orthodoxy is tainted by having been — and some maintain still being — a handmaiden of the Rus sian state. The independent Ukrainian Orthodox church is having a difficult time establishing a legal hold in Ukraine, although its success has been quite striking lately. Some attempts are being made at establishing Or thodox Church women’s societies, known as sisterhoods, that in the eighteenth century supported charity and promoted education. Catholicism, which has been ac tively persecuted by Moscow and only recently reestab lished, has a tradition of supporting women’s organiza tions for charity, prayer, setting up day care and food centers, and church beautification programs. The tradi tion of married clergy in the area created a social ideal not unlike that of a Victorian parsonage. The new Ca tholic women’s organization, who took the name of a nineteenth century one — The Myrrh-bringers — the women who visited Christ’s tomb only to be the first mortals to see the Risen Lord, are spearheaded by a former jailed dissident poet who has brought the cause of peace and liberation to her group. The Baptists do not form separate organizations. But their small communities help each other so their families could prosper. Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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