“Twenty years is, undoubtedly, a long time, but this is also an opportunity to stop to reconsider the past, analyze what has been done, and ponder over what more should be done,” Iryna Kliuchkovska, the institute’s director since 2004, noted at the beginning of the interview. She added that the institute, usually referred to as MIOK, owes its undeniable success to the entire team. “It is extremely important for me that next to me there are very reliable, devoted, creative, and REAL people,” she said. The interview with Ms. Kliuchkovska focuses on the stages of the MIOK’s development, the importance of the institute’s mission, its ultimate priorities and number-one problem.
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Ms. Kliuchkovska, could you recall what prompted the establishment of the International Institute for Education, Culture, and Links with the Diaspora?
“The institute emerged in 1992 – right after the proclamation of independence. Obviously, the initiator of its establishment, Iryna Kalynets, a 1960s dissident and Brezhnev-era political prisoner, knew very well what the worldwide Ukrainian diaspora was and what role it could play. So, when our institute was established in 1992, it chose opening the worldwide Ukrainian community to Ukraine as its main goal. Those were in fact the first steps, when diaspora people got acquainted with Ukraine because the borders opened up. But has Ukraine got acquainted with them? For even now, as practice and our activities at all levels in Ukraine show, there is no understanding what the diaspora is and what role it can play for Ukraine. I think that this ignorance, which is reflected in the passed or non-passed laws and in the pursued or non-pursued policies, results in very serious things. Such things should be instilled in an individual since their schooldays: when a schoolchild or a student, a citizen of Ukraine, is aware of this, this awareness assumes a higher dimension. Undoubtedly, the MIOK has been tackling different tasks at different stages of its development, for both our state and the diaspora have also been changing in the course of time.
“Two phenomena have emerged in the diaspora’s milieu in the period of independence. Ukrainian communities have come up in the post-Soviet space. There are very many of them, and the state should take a great care of them. What can be called an entirely new phenomenon is the latest wave of emigration which is actively integrating into foreign countries and is in fact beginning to form an integrative model of the diaspora itself. We had to respond to the questions the new time was putting. So we considered working with the eastern diaspora, particularly with Ukrainians in Russia, as our top priority. We were among the first in Ukraine to begin to work with labor migrants. What prompted us to do so? Very simple things. When we scrutinized the press, we saw a very negative image of the migrant worker. They were usually described as women of easy virtue or as traitors who, having an independent state of their own, abandoned it in search of an easier life. The press also focused on the underworld that had extended its activities across the borders of Ukraine. But when we took a closer look at these people, we saw that things were entirely different. Undoubtedly, like any other phenomenon, the labor migration of Ukrainians has its pluses and minuses, but most of those who go abroad are well-educated and socially active people capable of a concrete action – they did not sit still, just complaining of being unable to keep the family well fed. Theirs is not an easy way. An estimated 4.5 to 7 million people are now outside Ukraine. So we set ourselves a goal to try to break this stereotype, this negative image of a migrant worker, which began to strike roots in our society. I think we were among the first to broach this subject. I am pleased that this process has been brought into motion at various levels – from civic organizations to governmental bodies. There is a group of experts in the Cabinet of Ministers, who tackle the problems of labor migration. This issue has also been discussed at parliamentary hearings.”
What can you put on the honorary list of your achievements?
“At the first stage, the institute established contacts with the world Ukrainian community. This stage is over. Then it was important to streamline the performance of our institute and identify its priorities. Now we have a clear-cut structure. The organizational department is implementing the project ‘Let Us Open the Ukrainian Diaspora, or the World Ukrainian Community, to Ukraine.’ We really mean the world Ukrainian community because not all the people who stay abroad are a diaspora – some citizens of Ukraine bear Ukrainian documents and, I hope, temporarily live outside Ukraine. Ukrainian society should finally understand that a similar thing also happened in many countries, such as Israel, China, Ireland, and post-Soviet states. Or take, for example, Armenia which has a huge diaspora and came to a conclusion long ago that it is necessary to cooperate with its compatriots who live abroad. Our second department deals with Ukrainian studies. It was not just our whim to choose these directions – of great help were biennial congresses ‘The Diaspora as a Factor that Promotes the Influence of the Ukrainian State on the International Community.’ Actually, it is the synergy of theoreticians, practitioners, and people who work abroad that determines the range of problems. Therefore, our department of Ukrainian studies supplies resource literature for educational institutions abroad. We are convinced that education is a powerful instrument for Ukrainians to preserve their national identity abroad. There are, naturally, lots of such instruments: the family, civic organizations, the church, etc. But we are firmly convinced that education plays the main role. It is now a time when the old diaspora badly needs its obsolescent educational literature to be updated, while new schools need entirely new manuals – almost all of them are crying out: ‘We have nothing to work with.’ So we set ourselves a goal to produce, by our modest means, a number of textbooks, teaching aids, and guides, and set up summer schools to teach the Ukrainian language. This is also a response to the challenge because the old diaspora says it is losing the language – unfortunately, Ukrainian is in fact a foreign language for the younger generation. Even the latter-day labor migrants are saying that their children, whom they took along with them, are so actively being assimilated in a foreign environment that they forget their mother tongue very fast. And our third department, still being formed, will deal with studying migratory processes.”
Why was your institute formed on the basis of Lviv Polytechnic?
“First of all, I will say that it is a boon for the university and for us. We find it comfortable to work at Lviv Polytechnic, while the latter can be proud to have a unique institute as part of its structure. There is no other one in Ukraine. It is a very good question because the problem of the university’s mission in the current conditions is being debated at various levels. Many leading academics and philosophers argue that universities have already exhausted their mission as institutions that are in line with the role of a nation state. In the conditions when Ukraine is not yet a nation state, we should put emphasis on a different mission of our university – that of an institution of enlightenment. And there is a vast field of action here. We believe that our institute as part of a higher educational institution is an absolutely logical thing because we carry out the humanitarian projects which Lviv Polytechnic has always supported on the public and educational levels. For this reason, we easily and logically became part of the university’s structure. Teaching is the lion’s share of our work, which enables us to stay in contact with various universities on different continents and establish very valuable contacts for us in particular and for Lviv Polytechnic in general. Let me give a few examples. Our contacts with Ukrainians in Kazakhstan contributed to the signing of agreements with several higher educational institutions in that republic. I hope that specialists in other, including technological, sectors will also be involved in these projects. For instance, negotiations are underway to conclude an agreement with Ust-Kamenogorsk University. This year, when we visited Astana and their universities, we saw that the latter were greatly interested in cooperation with Lviv Polytechnic. We receive students of Moscow Liberal Arts University. Now we are studying the possibility of our students’ trip to Moscow. We also stay in contact with Canadian universities. It is imperative that Lviv Polytechnic continue to be aware of the importance of this cooperation. We are convinced that only the liberal arts knowledge furnishes an individual with a broad outlook which will help him or her to easily apply their professional skills and work in different spheres.”
Could you recall some of the most significant meetings with representatives of the world Ukrainian community? Who did you discover for yourselves?
“We discover people not only for ourselves – we try to discover these personalities for as wide a circle as possible. Naturally, we discover, first of all, for Lviv residents. But, thanks to the newspaper Den, which gives us such a nice opportunity to spotlight MIOK events, we discover them for the entire Ukraine. In particular, it was very interesting for us to meet the Brazilian poetess Vira Vovk, winner of the National Taras Shevchenko Prize, about whom Den wrote. Ms. Vovk not only writes in Ukrainian – she is also a superb translator and propagates Ukrainian literature in the world by way of translations. Likewise, I cannot but mention the meeting with Bohdan Hawrylyshyn, a broadly-minded person, an internationally-acclaimed economist and public figure, about which Den also wrote. I also consider Vasyl Babenko, rector of Moscow University’s affiliate in Ufa, a unique figure. And there is no end to such meetings. The Ukrainians helped us recall some totally forgotten names, such as the actress Nina Pevna who was exiled to the Khanty-Mansi Territory – Den also wrote about this. Of special interest were meetings with Larysa Skrypnykova, honorary chairperson of the Karelian republican civic organization ‘Ukrainian Cultural Society Kalyna’; Yury Dmitriev, researcher, editor of the Karelian republican Memorial Book of the Victims of Political Repressions, secretary of the Political Repression Victims Rehabilitation Commission; and Sergei Koltyrin, director of the area studies museum in the Karelian city of Medvezhegorsk. Den covered all these events on its pages, for which we are sincerely grateful to the editor-in-chief, Ms. Larysa Ivshyna. We also had interesting meetings with the Ukrainians of Brazil, France, Tatarstan, and Bashkortostan. In other words, our institute allows Ukraine to meet the people who work daily for the Ukrainian cause outside our state. In this context, I cannot but recall the World Ukrainian Community’s Garden laid out, on the initiative of Den’s editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna, on April 13, 2010, in the Shevchenko Grove [Museum of Folk Architecture and Everyday Life. – Ed.]. Incidentally, Ms. Ivshyna specially came to Lviv to take part in this really significant event and planted a winter apple tree she got from Russia’s Ukrainians. She was assisted by Roman Zayets, a Russian citizen and a student at the Lviv Academy of Arts. Firstly, all the seedlings struck root. Secondly, it is very important that this nice event occurred on the eve of the congress ‘The Diaspora as a Factor of the Ukrainian State’s Growing Influence in the World Community’ attended by Ukrainians from all over the world. We took them to the Shevchenko Grove to show the garden. So the newspaper Den is for us an inexhaustible source of not only information, but also of good ideas. And, naturally, it is our reliable partner.”
What problems do you come across in your work and are there any problems that you cannot solve?
“It will not be a discovery if I say that funding our projects is the chief problem. We have laid down the idea of ‘meeting one halfway’ as a basis for our cooperation. In other words, we think that the world Ukrainian community, which has been preserving our culture, traditions, and spiritual treasures outside Ukraine for 100 years or so, is now in need of our support. So there are very many projects that need to be funded. The last words in our institute’s name – ‘…Links with the Diaspora’ – are, oddly enough, a major obstacle. The point is that our society has a stereotyped view of the diaspora as rich people ready to make financial infusions, and whenever we turn for financial aid, we often hear: ‘We will not give you money.’ But, of course, there are some foundations that support us. For example, Bohdan Hawrylyshyn’s foundation helped publish our textbook Step One. The same applies to Arsenii Yatseniuk’s foundation and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church – its education commission is publishing our textbook Traveling in Ukraine (we could not get it funded for three years). But, unfortunately, these are exceptions rather than rules. We are preparing a major project for December – marking the 110th birth anniversary of Edward Kozak, an artist, cartoonist, and political writer, who is well known abroad but not in this country. We submitted the project to Rinat Akhmetov’s foundation Development of Ukraine but were denied financial assistance. It is too bad because we have an agreement about this large-scale project with Donetsk Technological University’s Sofiynist center which deals with humanitarian matters… So we will use our modest means to mark the artist’s anniversary – we will do what we can. Incidentally, much to our pleasure, one of the project’s goals is an all-Ukrainian caricature competition supported by the newspaper Den. We are also planning an exhibit of Kozak’s works at the National Museum.”
What else is there in the MIOK’s plans for the near future?
“We are going to hold the 2nd all-Ukrainian conference ‘The Ukrainian Language in the World’ on November 8-9 to time with Literacy Day. Many foreign representatives wish to take part in the forum that will see debates on the functioning of Ukrainian as a foreign language, a presentation of educational classroom literature, as well as master classes for teachers who work with Ukrainian as a foreign language. We are also planning an anniversary event in memory of the MIOK founder Iryna Kalynets. We also expect to hold major events next year. In particular, we have already begun to prepare for the 4th Congress of the Ukrainian Diaspora which we will dedicate to the 200th anniversary of Taras Shevchenko’s birth. We are deliberately doing this a year before the poet’s jubilee, for we are thoroughly convinced that such a great figure as Taras Shevchenko, which rallies Ukrainians together inside and outside Ukraine, deserves to be spoken of not only at anniversary events. We will also host the 10th Ukrainian World Congress. All this is very important because the congress’s official website mentions ‘20 million outside Ukraine,’ which is in fact a half of Ukraine’s population. And it is an enormous resource which may, in case of favorable conditions and wise policies, play a huge positive role for Ukraine itself, particularly as far as the improvement of its image is concerned.”
