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«ЖІНОЧИЙ СВІТ» 25 THE PLIGHT OF UKRAINIANS IN SOVIET RUSSIA ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR ROBERT E. IRETON, OF THE UNIVERSI- TY OF DETROIT, AT THE UKRAINIAN PROTEST MEETING, IN ARMORY HALL, LARNED AND BRUSH STS., DETROIT, ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, O’CLOCK NOON. LADIES AND GENTLEM To every person in this country enjoying the bles- sings ої liberty and the advantages of our free insti- tutions, the unhappy story of the Ukraine must make а profound appeal. It із a harrowing and inhuman indictment of Russia’s present rulers and of the pseudo civilization which they recognize and practice. That these men were ever themselves the victims of tyranny and injustice in the old czaristic da when they became the rulers, one should think would make them the more anxious to give those subject to their au- thority an ever-enlarging measure of social justice, equality and liberty. But, this they have not done. Their record is a shameless and unconscionable denial ап betra of practically every human legal and social right. Their rule has been a reign of terror, their regard for life and property is a ery, their professions — even in the form of treaties — are mere pretensions, their sense of obligation to those within or without Russia is non-existent, while their dispensation of justice leads either to confiscation of property ог destruction of human life. From a government which denies the existence of the Almighty, the sanctity of marriage, the obligation of a contract, and rejects those conventional imposed upon all members of the world’s ety of nations, one can only expect mischief and madness. You unhappy fellow countrymen, my Ukrainian friends, have been especially the victims of Soviet rule. You are a brave and suffering nation and your wrongs are many — in the past under Imperial authority and, in the present, under Soviet tyranny. The change has made but little difference to the Ukraine and to it’s suffering people: indeed, it seems, it has but increased the severity of their misfortunes. Their tragedy but emphasizes a belief, which is now very general, that the Treaty of Versailles is not so complete an adjustment of Europe’s national bounda- ries as many seemed to consider it in January, 1920, when it became effective. restraints soci 1933, AT 12 but then, unhappily, fell a prey 10 Tartar invasion. It passed under Polish domination about that time; but later, when the Tartar power declined, the Ukrainians bravely set up a new republic, in an attempt to re- constitute and resettle their country. As a result war with Poland followed and lasted intermittently until the seventeenth century,” when a Russian protectorate followed. In the next century, of U Russia acquired full control aine, and attempted to Russianiza its people. sufferings began anew, but this hardy and valiant people did not submit. On the contrary, they did everything possible to keep the vital spark of race consciousness alive, and the desire to be a nation— free and self-controlled. They developed a literature of respectable content in the nineteenth century, but with the dawn of the present century, affliction and misery descended upon them. Victims of Tartar, Pole, Russian and Bolshevik, in turn, through many centu- ‘ies to the present, the Ukrainian people are still vigorous and purposeful. They drew inspiration from the martial and 5 ring lyrics of their beloved poet, Shevchenko, a great artist, and a matchless patriot, who, in his short life of 47 years, only enjoyed nine years of freedom, For thirty-eight years, he was, in turn, a serf, a prisoner a suspect, Yet he lived to immortalize his people, to sing of their valor in by-gone years, and to leave them, as his last will, the task of freeing the Ukraine and onstructing their national life. They visit his grave on the Dnieper today, by the thousands as do the Mohammedans that of the Prophet at Mecca. Russia, today, is a so-called union of Soviet republics. The Ukraine suffers the disadvantages of being one, The world’s interpretation and understand- ing of the word “republic,” however, does not coincide with Russia’s, or, perhaps, it would be more just to say, with the clique in power at Moscow. At one time complete independence and the right of each of these its own form of government, and to units to set up its separate itself from the “union” if it desired, was ities. How has that ir- “The Ukraine, with its І of more than thirty million people, covering an area of almost 500,000 square miles, was a great and valiant nation many centuries ago. From the ninth to the thirteenth century it represented the best traditions in all Russia, by the ruling assurance been observed with the Ukraine? Voltaire said: “Ukraine has always aspired to be free,” and the record of it’s struggles proves that he spoke advisedly. Well, the truth is that the freedom and right to
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