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OUR LIFE Monthly, published by Ukrainian National Women’s League o f America Vol. LXV JANUARY 2008 Editor: TAMARA STADNYCHENKO From the Desk of the President The New Year is upon us and most of us hope that we will be able to keep the resolutions we made for 2008. One of my resolutions was prompted by young readers of Our Life who said they were interested in seeing articles about important individuals and events in Ukrainian history, not only in the Ukrainian pages of the magazine but also in the English-language pages. My resolution, therefore, is to have material of this kind in every forthcoming issue of Our Life. On January 22, 2008, Ukrainians all over the world will mark the 90th anniversary of an event that took place in 1918, and in keeping with my resolution, that event is the subject of this column. On that day in 1918, the Ukrainian Central Rada issued a manifesto that pro claimed: “From this day, the Ukrainian National Republic becomes an independent, free and sovereign state of the Ukrainian people.” This historic act reestablished an independent Ukrainian State for the first time since the Hetmanate was abolished. The proclamation ignited a spark in the hearts of those who yearned to live in a Ukraine that was not under the oppressive hand of a foreign power. Unfortunately, the spark was immediately threatened by powerful forces determined to prevent an independent Ukraine. A Bolshevik uprising broke out in Kyiv and was put down with difficulty. Soon after, the Ukrainian army units in Kyiv were forced to retreat as Red Army units advanced upon the city. Only a very small part of the regular army remained to defend the capital. All other resistance to the Bolshevik onslaught was short-lived; the defenders were slaughtered or forced to retreat, and Kyiv was seized by the Bosheviks who took immediate repressive measures against the city’s population. As these events unfolded, the newly formed government of the Ukrainian National Republic fled to Zhytomyr, where it continued to direct the struggle against the Bosheviks and also continued the work of defining and stabilizing the Ukrainian National Republic. The government passed laws about citizenship and established a monetary system. A national emblem was created and currency was designed and printed. The new government even proposed a division of Ukraine into thirty regions that were to be part of the new national entity. Cultural life flourished and Ukrainian schools were established in all territories still free of Bolshevik rule. All too soon, the Ukrainian National Republic fell victim to geopolitical events that strengthened Ukraine’s enemies while weakening Ukraine. In 1978, the 60th anniversary of the 1918 proclamation of independence, Iwan Kedryn, then editor-in-chief of Ukrainian-language daily Svoboda, wrote in the Almanac of the Ukrainian National Association that some historians believed that the Central Rada did not know how to take advantage of the initial enthusiasm of the masses and was unable to sustain an independent Ukraine. As Mr. Kedryn noted, UNR failed because the first sparks of enthusiasm for independence were “a straw fire” and not a steady flame. They were not based on conscious nation building but only on a fervent desire to be free of foreign domination.
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