What does the “Velvet Revolution” in ex-Czechoslovakia have in common with the latest events in Ukraine? Obviously, their distinctive feature is the people’s aspiration to live in a state that respects freedom and the rule of law. The writer and diplomat Roman Lubkivsky recently visited Prague, where he met Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic and one of the main participants of the Velvet Revolution. Mr. Lubkivsky told the Czech revolutionary that he has been nominated for honorary membership in the Taras Shevchenko Scientific Society, a longtime and highly prestigious scholarly association in Ukraine. Mr. LUBKIVSKY revealed to The Day some details of his interview with Vaclav Havel.
“Let me note that the Society won all-Ukrainian and worldwide acclaim under the guidance of Mykhailo Hrushevsky. Ivan Franko and Vlodymyr Hnatiuk also took an active part in its work. In different years, Albert Einstein, AndrО Mazon, Aleksei Shakhmatov, Jan Baudouin de Courteney, Watroslav Jagicz, and Tomas Garrigue Masaryk were full members. A good society, isn’t it? It became a popular tradition to elect as honorary members individuals who had made a considerable contribution to research, education, and culture, the assertion of humanist ideals, the development of democracy and mutual understanding among peoples and cultures.”
“Lately, Ukrainians have been focusing mostly on Poland rather than the Czech Republic.”
“During our last meeting Vaclav Havel commented on this, saying: ‘We express our broad, albeit largely inconspicuous, solidarity with Ukraine. Down here there are no orange-capped people thronging the streets, as is the case in Poland. We don’t have this by force of our historical traditions and upbringing. The Czechs are more inclined to contemplate and await the outcome, while preserving their opinion. Still, I cannot say that the official attitude of the Czech Republic to the Ukrainian events differs from that of Poland. Naturally, Poland is playing a far more important role here than the Czech Republic, but in principle our attitudes are very similar.’ Havel could not have expressed a different opinion about what is going on in Ukraine. I’ve known him for many years. I was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Czech Republic for several years. I must admit that after I came back home, we mostly saw each other on the territory of Ukraine. He was once in Lviv on his way to Zboriv, Ternopil oblast, to visit the graves of Czechoslovak soldiers. Another time he came to see the restored Hrushevsky museum, which includes an exhibit exploring the relationship between Mykhailo Hrushevsky and Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of the Czechoslovak Republic. I think I can confirm that Ukrainian and Czech leaders have always maintained contacts. Further proof is the fact that Vaclav Havel recently wrote a brief letter of greetings to Viktor Yushchenko, which I handed over in person.
“We also analyzed the Velvet Revolution in ex-Czechoslovakia. Vaclav Havel pointed out similarities with the events that occurred here. He said: ‘What is similar is a great and largely unexpected upsurge of the popular will. This arouses feelings of solidarity and sacrifice in the people, who take to the streets, stick together, and acquire their symbols. They behaved peacefully, which in fact puts me on my guard. This photo is now famous: a girl giving flowers to an armed man in Kyiv. This photo comes from Ukraine, but in 1968 similar snapshots were coming from us. When the Warsaw Pact countries invaded us and our people had no weapons, there was a conflict between fantasies and jokes and a brute, material force. It is here that I see a similarity between the Ukrainian events and the ones that occurred in my country 15 years ago. Yet I also see an important difference. Down here, people would first rise up and only then their representatives were told to assume offices and form a government, i.e., everything was implemented, including staff replacements. In Ukraine, it is the other way round. First, there was a dispute about those who rigged the votes, which touched off a wave of people’s indignation. That is the main difference, although there are other ones, because Ukraine still has if not communist, then largely postcommunist, relations. In many respects, this is a kind of heritage, a special postcommunist mixture of economic and clan-related interests, a certain combination of economic and political forces disguised as formal democracy. In other words, formally there exist such institutions of parliamentary democracy as the ostensibly free but covertly manipulated press and other media. Of course, this is being done far more subtly than before.’
“Incidentally, Oksana Pelenska, a journalist from Radio Liberty, also took part in our conversation. She asked if democratic changes in Ukraine could influence the political situation in Europe.
Havel said in reply (I quote him in detail, just from the voice recorder, because I am sure the reader will find it interesting), ‘A new order has been emerging over the past 15 years, when communism collapsed, as did the bipolar division of the world. The former comprises a definition of new identities and the formation of their interrelationships. This raises the question, from the international perspective, whether Ukraine has a certain center of civilizational circles, certain limits and directions. This does not mean that what is in the East is less valuable than in the West; of course not. I hope these identities will be absolutely equal in the future. To live in peace, they must know where one begins and the other ends. There should be demarcated borders, because most wars break out near borders. I remember speaking many years ago with a prominent politician, who wielded a great deal of clout in world events. He asked me who Ukraine belonged to. Was it part of the East, where Russia lies, or the West? I told him it was up to the Ukrainians themselves to decide. But no matter what they decide, there must be a borderline between the two identities. Afterwards, these two identities must establish good contacts. If the future and, I hope, essentially democratic, leadership of Ukraine chooses to lean toward Western structures and Ukraine decides to join the European Union and NATO, it is all the more important for these reasons that the country’s leaders take care of its eastern part, that the new government be also the government of eastern residents and understand the specifics of these large industrial regions.’ I am certain that a wide circle of Ukrainians agree with Havel.”
“This is why not only political leaders but also scholars and cultural figures maintain contacts, although cultural ties have somewhat weakened lately.”
“They may have really weakened or maybe the press is not writing about this often enough. I am personally preparing an anthology of contemporary Czech poetry. I am also going to edit a book of scholarly and journalistic articles by Maksym Slavinsky, the ambassador of the Ukrainian National Republic to Czechoslovakia. The activities of my distant predecessor spanned a wide range of political and cultural topics. He translated some European works into Ukrainian, including some poems of Heinrich Heine (in collaboration with Lesia Ukrayinka).
“I also consider that the Prague-based activities of Avhustyn Voloshyn, the president of Carpathian Ukraine, were also important for our common history and modern times. It is gratifying that he was posthumously awarded the exalted title of Hero of Ukraine in the years of independence. This outstanding religious figure, statesman, and politician was a victim of the totalitarian regime, and when he died, he left behind a blessed memory in the hearts of Czechs, Slovaks, and Ukrainians.
“When I was an ambassador, I persuaded the Security Service of Ukraine to give me a copy of Voloshyn’s prison file. Apart from records of his interrogations and death, it contains Voloshyn’s political testament in which he calls on us to love and defend the interests of Ukraine with all our might.
“Here’s a very positive fact: a Consulate General of the Czech Republic, headed by Milan Jandera, was recently opened in Lviv. A few weeks ago we visited the museum of Kornylo Ustiyanovych in the village of Vovkiv, Pustomytiv district: it has a small exhibition on the life and deeds of Frantisek Rzegorz who resided on the territory of Ukraine. This figure was in frequent contact with Ivan Franko and many Polish intellectuals in the second half of the 19th century.
“There used to be a huge Czech community in Lviv. Czech architects built a lot of the buildings in Lviv; among the city’s musicians, artists, and skilled craftsmen were ethnic Czechs. Knowing all these facts is indispensable if our countries are to forge closer contacts. Incidentally, Vaclav Havel vehemently supported the idea of staging an exhibition in Prague on the Orange Revolution. It will vividly illustrate the wide range of contacts between the Velvet Revolution and our aspirations for democracy.
“I must also mention the huge number of Ukrainians who have gone to the Czech Republic in search of jobs. Some will come back; others will find a second homeland there. As for me, I am madly in love with Prague and I wrote the following lines back in 2002, which turned out to be surprisingly prophetic:
“I have imagined you in my mind and stitched you up with fantasies. I calculated every movement of yours during wild invasions. You found, won, and glorified your spring. You recognized yourself in the name of Havel. You greeted the sanctuary of my country with your old temple of Hussite glory. In the sultry August of a scorching summer I heard immortal steps in Saint Vitus’s Cathedral-and I took a step toward you...”
