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hold fast to our only support — the Truth — the old and current. It is painful and sad when a whole nation can be easily fooled. For instance, following 1917 in Russia factories, businesses and land was expropriated by the government, but Ukraine was made an exception; the land was divided among the peasants. This exception was necessary because here the situation was unstable and it was necessary to somehow “buy” the Ukrainian. And buy they did! When the new government was firmly established and the games with the “chachol” (Russians referred to Ukrainian peasants by this name) were no longer necessary, then other gods of the revolution so adroitly fleeced Ukraine as to cause in 1921 a year of massive, unprecedented famine. 1921 saw nine million Ukrainians hungering; it was a year of ditches filled with the dead from starvation, while grain was being trans ported out of Ukraine, watched by the dying. The press is still silent about the genocide of the Ukrainian people during the lifetime of Lenin. Today, it is also easy to fool people, saying that the coupons are the new rule of the Lviv Regional Council, while the lack of products in stores is the result of the incoming new democratic influences. When there were no democrats, there was plenty of everything. A large part of Ukrainians even today are midsled by the thought that the idea of sovereignty is bad for Ukraine, because the country cannot survive on it own. It is the undisputed truth that national sovereignty is the aim of national existence, and national independence is the national ideal in the sphere of international rela tions. Yet still, we are tempted with the idea of One Roof, a soviet common market, which will give us the raw materials for the normal functioning of our busi nesses. Such talk is heard not only in Cherson or Dni- prodzerszczynsk, but also in Lviv. Somehow the fact that we have had experience living under One Roof is not taken into account. The results of such a system are pathetic, for he have been stripped down to nothing. There is no need to overcount the “gains” of this sys tem. However, there is one which must be addressed, and that is the Ukrainian family. The Marxist-Leninist ideology knew how to pene trate the most important unit of a nation — the family. We were given unnatural perceptions about the role and position of a woman in the family and in society. At all levels of a family’s development, no matter how compli cated, its most important function is to raise and edu cate its children. The communist ideology most actively penetrated the ancient formula ’’parents — children.” In order to de-nationalize and de-christianize (a spiritual genocide), it was imperative to change that formulate to ’’parents — country — children.” The country assumed the responsibility of raising children. What has such a situation produced? Perhaps it can be said, and we all know it that new customs were forced upon us, which we accepted little by little, forsak ing our ancestral ones. The results are such: in Ukraine every third marriage ends in a separation; in Ukraine there is no population growth; crime abounds; the weeds of national nihilism and indifference are blooming. How long can a nation exist when its greatest deficit is in people? Concurrently, there is a desire to return to the source of ones own culture, to traditions; there is a nat ural feeling of self preservation, to reassert oneself and throw off the yoke of the spiritual void. Our task is to help our brothers and sisters in this difficult process of reassertion, while uplifting and cleansing our spiritual selves. Actually it should be emphasized that everyday life prepared the people to defend their spiritual sanctuar ies, their ideals, their homes, their land, and therefore their country. When there is talk about the times of the Kozaks, about the heroes who fought for the freedom of Ukraine, it is usally forgotten that it was the women, who in spite of their motherly concerns gave courage to those dearest to them, preparing for battle. But that was not all. Writing about Ukrainian women, Polish author V. Charevych said, “they know how to carry a sword and when needed could take charge in defending a city.” In those olden times no one tugged at the con science of society, no one lobbied to be responsible for the fate of the nation — the family had influence over this, particularly the mother and the child was raised with the songs, legends, and stories which she imparted. In Europe a woman is an object of worship or scorn, or as during the XIX century — a woman was a gentle, gracious individual for whom contact with the real world was dangerous. She was not able to partici pate in politics and could not have control over her own property. Noted philosopher Bertrand Russell said with irony, ”lt was a great self sacrifice on the part of men to free women from the dirty work in politics.” It was customary for Ukrainian women to have the right of ownership, to own land, and no major decisions were ever made without women. Only at the end of the XIX century did the woman lose her standing prestige, on which Ivan Franko commented, ”As long as a woman will assume second class status in relationship to a man, there can be no discussion about equality nor about any kind of freedom.” (I. Franko ’’What is Social ism” Tvory, Kiev, 1986). Therefore there can be no talk about any kind of freedom. As we know, a nation is identified by certain cir cumstances such as its forms, substance and spiritual ity. Losing one of these, the nation stops being a nation. The simplest form in a nation is the family, then comes the community, followed by the country. The spirit of a nation is nurtured in the family. The qualities of a family are common ideas, common sense, discipline, solidarity and a sense of responsibility (one can have an automo bile filled with gas, but when there is no one who can 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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