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ment. In contrast to the Committee of Mothers of Soldi ers, the Rukh Women’s Society is a major women’s organization that seeks to ensure that the needs of women not be overlooked again in this latest attempt at reforming the area. Rukh Women spearheaded a major women’s de monstration in Kiev on March 8,1991, to underscore the demands of women and stress that a continuation of a show holiday on International Women’s Day is no longer adequate for women in Ukraine. Aided by the strong support of the Mothers of Soldiers, with the cooperation of the newly formed “Great Family”, a society of moth ers who have more than five children, and “Mother-86,” a group of mothers whose children were born at the time of the Chernobyl disaster and immediately after wards, as well as the Union of Women of Ukraine, this rally was the largest women’s gathering in Kiev. It had its share of rhetoric and emotion. A reporter noted that “Ukrainian, Russian, Belorussian, Jewish, Bulgarian, Korean women chanted how difficult it is to live in slav ery, and in unison, humbly, repeated the words of Our Father.”35 They voted to establish a representative and all-encompassing Council of Women of Ukraine; it will seek international recognition. The meeting was opened by Laryssa Skoryk, a member of the Ukrainian Parlia ment, who pointed out that women want to be mis tresses of their own land and not hired hands of some central authority. Speaker upon speaker noted the sad condition of women and the fact that no one will help citizens of Ukraine unless they help themselves.36 The theme that brought out the strongest response was still the fate of the soldiers, the fate of the 75 boys still held captive in Pakistan and of others held in Afghanistan, and the ratification of the law limiting service to the ter ritory of the republic.37 Realizing the need for an institu tional base for effective action, the women also voted to create an umbrella organization, a genuine Council of Women of Ukraine that would promote the concerns and causes of women in society and women as women.38 28. Text in Radianska Zhinka, No. 11,1990, p. 27. 29. Mykhail Horyn, a deputy from Ukraine in a speech in Washington on January 28,1991, commented that Yeltsin noted that Russia needed the same kind of law. The movement appears to encompass all women of Ukraine. Trukhmanova is considered a patriotic Ukrainian who happens to speak Rus sian. Women of Jewish, Armenian, and Russian ethnic back ground consider themselves and are considered by others to be Ukrainian. They are united by the community interests of the land in which they live and in which most of them have been born. For them that is nationalism. 30. In most atlases the name of this city is spelled Lvov, which is its Russian variant, but in 1991 the Lviv Regional Council passed a law that in all languages the name should be rendered in its Ukrainian variant -- Lviv. 31. At a meeting of the Lviv Regional Council and the representatives of the Regional Military Command, held at the initiative of the Committee of the Mothers of Soldiers in the Lviv Region, the director of the political division of the Regional Military Command, Oleksander Kyzym, and the director of the draft board Victor Ivanov, expressed a personal willingness to cooperate with the wishes of the mothers but pointed out that the decisions cannot be regionally made and depend on the Supreme Soviet of Ukraine. Andriy Voloshchak, ‘‘Soldatski materi, yednaytesia!” Za Vilnu Ukrainu, 27 March, 1991, p. 1. 32. Ibid.; Za Vilnu Ukrainu, for February 5, 1991, published a statement of the Coordinating Council of the Mothers of Soldiers in Ukraine, accusing both the elected deputies and the government of not following through on the promise to limit service of the boys to the home country. The heading of the statement: "We will defend our sons.” 33. History plays such an important part in the contempor ary liberation movements in Eastern Europe because historical knowledge was consciously manipulated by the parties in power to justify and enforce control. At every opportunity the people of Eastern Europe wanted to find out what really happened at the critical periods of history: 1939, 1945, 1953, and so on. 34. Even a very general newspaper published in Kiev in English for readers outside the USSR, News from Ukraine, no. 40, 1990, noted in its report (written by Marianna Kozyntseva) on the UN Commemorative Seminar to mark the 10th anniver sary of the Convention on the Elimination of All Discrimination Against Women, held in September 1990 in Kiev that “never since the 20s, when the independent feminist movement in this country was banned as ‘bourgeois’ have the governmental women’s commissions been anything but mere rubberstamps. The big question now is if they will change their role or become the antipode of the popular women’s movement,” The article noted that the signing of the convention itself meant nothing, and quoted Svitlana Yevtushenko, Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Trade Union Council “We ratified the Conven tion in 1983 but if you ask people if they have heard about it you’ll see that only a few women activists who attended the UN and similar seminars are actually familiar with it.” 35. Hennadiy Kyryndiasov, “Choho khoche zhinka, toho khoche Boh,” Vechirny Kiev, 11 March, 1991. The title trans lated one of the slogans of the meeting: The will of the woman is the will of God. 36. Volodymyr Skania, "Povernemo im sviato,” Hoios U- krainy, March 12, 1991; also Stanislav Yatsenko, “Zovsim ne sviatkovy mitynh,” Molod’ Ukrainy, March 12, 1991. To unders core its political character, the meeting was held at the October Square which since the hunger strike of the students in October, 1990, that resulted in the resignation of Vitaly Masol, the Prime Minister of Ukraine [the only such case in the history of the whole USSR,] is being referred to as Independence Square. 37. The women passed an open letter to the Women of Afghanistan asking for mercy for captive soldiers and assuring the Afghans that Ukraine has not supported the invasion of their country and would like to live in peace with it. The leaflet, passed at the meeting, was later widely copied. 38. A Council of Women of Ukraine had been established, under the impetus of Gorbachev’s central government in 1985, as a means of galvanizing additional support for his policies. This it has failed to do, barely fulfilling the traditional ceremon ial functions of women’s organizations in established commu nist regimes. Apparently it is now cooperating with the new council. Continued in next issue... НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, СІЧЕНЬ 1992 21
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