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The artists performed three Phantasie Stucke by Schu mann (Opus 73), Rachmanifoff’s "Vocalise” and "Bal lad”, a work dedicated to the memory of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster by Ukrainian composer Volodymyr Huba. Prior to the program, Ms. Bayromova had re quested synopses of the texts that would be read so that she could select music that would be appropriate to the literary themes. At the close of the literary and musical portion of the evening, winning tickets were picked from those previously purchased by guests. Prizes were oil paint ings by Ludmila Morozova and Jurij Hura, a lithograph by A. Olenska-Petryshyn, an embroidered purse, and en embroidered pillow case. A wide assortment of pastries and coffee were also available for the guests’ enjoyment. MARTHA BOHACHEVSKY-CHOMIAK WOMEN AND THE UNDERSTANDING OF EASTERN EUROPE In August, 1990, at a mass meeting in the city of Zaporizhzhia, the Committee of Mothers of the Soldiers in Ukraine, headed by Liudmyla Dmytrivna Trukhman- ova, a Bulgarian-Ukrainian, demanded shortened army service, increased leave time, and the establishment of permanent medical commissions, responsible to the local elected councils and working closely with the Commit tee of the Mothers of Soldiers to ensure the safety of the draftees. The women also demanded that the Minister of Defense of Ukraine be a civilian; there was even a sug gestion that Trukhmanova head that post. To top off the rally, the women passed an emotional statement directed to all draftees: Soldiers, sailors, non-commissioned officers! You are all our children. Each one of you is some body’s son. You defend our tranquility...But think of this: is it possible for us, mothers, to be calm when our sons are dying in the armed forces in peacetime? Children, come to your senses! You should love, marry, raise your children — (that is the task before you). Don’t bring grief into the house of others, and grief will not enter your home. You are men, and a man should be a defender, not a murderer. We call upon you to end “hazing," to defend one another, to part (at the end of your term of service) as friends not as enemies. We want you to come home healthy. Keep your moms in mind always.28 In Ukraine the mothers for peace have already won two significant victories: the democratically elected repre sentatives of local government in Western Ukraine have suspended the obligatory draft for this year; the Kiev representatives are seriously considering the demand that Ukrainian boys serve on Ukrainian territory, except in cases of war.29 But the implementation of these reforms appears to be desultory and some hold women responsible for the delay. In an article published in Lviv30 on March 27, 1991, a student charged the women with lack of zeal in pressuring for the implementation of the reform.31 The elected democratic deputies accuse the army of reneg ing on its promises, while the military wait for decisions from above, but they all agree that "mothers could play a particular major role in this situation. But they, unfor tunately, still remain passive.”32 The charge does not appear to be quite accurate. Men look toward history to justify change; women have no such support.33 With the disintegration of ideology, the historical past — real or potential — comes to per form the legitimizing function that ideology never could perform. Women for the most part identify with the general history and are slow to learn about the new and quite untranslatable discipline — women’s studies. Ne vertheless, awareness of women’s rights and of patriar chal control is slowly emerging.34 Feminism, in the sense of assertion of women’s rights and of self-liberation is not easily understood in Ukraine, where the woman even more than the man is raised in the tradition of ser vice and self dedication to others or to an ideal. Pursuit of individual happiness is not an openly desired cultural trait there, nor is it a valid goal for an individual. Women’s concerns are still very much community oriented — i.e. women as a group want to play an autonomous but vis ible role in reshaping society. The goal is not emancipa tion or liberation, but rather, as had been the goal of early American women activists, the happiness of their community, making life better for others. One unwritten effect of the Soviet political system has been the destruction of the belief in the efficacy of grassroots political action. The reestablishment of the women’s movement must be viewed within the context of the regeneration of political life in the country. Women in Kiev noticed that few women participated actively in the popular democratic movement, writing it off as yet another futile attempt of the government to galvanize the population. They formed a Women’s Society in Support of Rukh, the umbrella popular reform move 20 ‘НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, СІЧЕНЬ 1992 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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