On February 5, 1944, Moscow greeted the liberation of Lutsk
from the Nazis with an artillery gun salute. More than fifty years have
elapsed since then, yet the populace shows different reaction to the date
commemorating the return of the Soviets. The fact remains that tens of
thousands of residents of Volyn were sent to Gulag death camps on charges
of "bourgeois nationalism" and simply because they refused to live by the
Soviet standard, let alone join collective farms. However, the date remains
an official holiday in Lutsk and there are hardly several dozen veterans
who liberated the city still alive.
In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of Soviet troops' withdrawal
from Afghanistan a Memorial Room has been opened at the oblast office of
the Ukrainian Union of Afghan Veterans. The opening ceremony began with
mothers weeping over their sons who fell in pitched and senseless battles.
There was nothing left for these women except memories.
Two years ago a convent started being built in Mykhnivka, a small village
in Polissia. At the time the cloistered community numbered only several
sisters. Several days ago the newly built Convent of Candlemas was ceremoniously
opened by Archbishop Nifont of Lutsk and Volyn. There are 20 nuns aged
25 on the average. The secular world with its cruelty and chaos makes young
people seek refuge in monastic cells, denying themselves the present and
future.
In contrast, those in power enjoy the present day, doing their utmost
to make their current prosperity last into the future. So-called public
meetings were held in all oblast centers, setting up local organizations
of the all-Ukrainian Zlahoda Association. Their purpose is emphatically
stated as "working out correct approaches to the elections of the President
of Ukraine." Of course, the right approach, from the nomenklatura's standpoint,
is in voting for the present one. "The people of Volyn have always been
considerate," stressed Governor Borys Klymchuk when setting up the Lutsk
district Zlahoda. Fortunately, he proved wrong; not all are considerate
the way he and his like want them to be.
Lutsk Mayor Anton Kryvytsky sharply criticized the central government.
"The chief is unconcerned about the Indians' fate," he said, adding that
official Kyiv is launching an unprecedented offensive on the municipal
authorities, remaining deaf to the fact that the housing-municipal sector
and city transport are shifting from red to black, leaning increasingly
heavily on local budgets where such expenses are not envisaged.
While sanctioning countless preferential terms, top-level bureaucrats
do not bother their heads about how to secure them. Determined to curry
favor with the electorate, they try to solve specific problems using ridiculous
Soviet methods: electricity cutoff? Out goes the Power Industry Minister
(as though he were generating it). We all watched Jordanians weeping and
shouting, "Our king cannot be dead!" We Ukrainians should also weep because
our king somehow cannot stay alive; those in high offices seem unable to
keep track of what is actually happening in this country.
By Oleh POTURAI, The Day,
Lutsk
