LUTSK — The village of Zabuzhzhia is located 50 km away the raion center Liuboml and even farther from the oblast center. The Bug flows just behind the vegetable gardens marking the Ukraine-Poland border.
Many years ago I was shown a street there named after… Yevhen Marchuk. No, he had never been to Zabuzhzhia to have a street named in his honor. It became “Marchuk Street” because the peasants had been drowning here in mud for decades on end and only after writing “to Marchuk in Kyiv” did they have the road repaired at last. Naturally, this was the effect of the social programs carried out by the Marchuk government, but the people, who had been suffering for years from inefficient authorities, immediately linked the positive solution of a problem with the name of the then prime minister. Yet, when my journalistic roads brought me again to Zabuzhzhia about three years ago, several village council chairpersons had changed and the new one… knew nothing about the street improvement story — he received an already improved road.
I recalled this story in the assembly hall of Volyn National University’s Culture and Recreation Center filled with 500 first-year students, where Mr. Marchuk was delivering a public lecture. In his afterword, the rector, Prof. Ihor Kotsan, called the lecture “historic” and said that such lectures ought to become a tradition for this university. The teachers present there, who had been to Oxford and Cambridge, said it was a lecture of those universities’ level.
When the lecturer spoke in the same hall two years ago about NATO and Ukraine’s prospects of membership, he was speaking about the things that the audience knew more or less well, but now… Now his speech dealt with the beginning of Ukrainian independence, a history that is 18 years old. But to what extent do the so-called “independence peers” know it? Indeed, the hall was filled with those who are 18 or 19. They practically do not know it. Incidentally, well before he began the lecture, Marchuk told the journalists of some national and Volyn regional publications that he would be speaking about what they, unfortunately, would not read in books and manuals, about some episodes and stages of Ukrainian independence that even specialists may not know, about the events which he personally had participated in or witnessed.
History told in the first person always attracts one with interesting details. But as far as state-formation processes are concerned, such details also prove that there were quite real, not mythical, dangers to this process. The three political figures — Boris Yeltsin, Leonid Kravchuk, and Stanislav Shushkevich — whose talks in Belovezhskaya Pushcha brought down the Soviet Union and the former union republics received a chance to be independent, were risking their lives in the direct, physical, meaning of these words. Marchuk organized a safe return for Kravchuk from Belovezhskaya Pushcha. But the Soviet Union was still there, with Moscow still holding air defense and other military force in its hands. The young and not so young generations are, in fact, unaware of the almost warlike situation that emerged in the period of the so-called GKChP, when there was an abortive attempt on Aug. 19, 1991, to stage a coup d’etat. Marchuk recalled that top Ukrainian politicians stayed awake for three days and nights (“and we not sleepy at all”) in order to forestall bloodshed in Ukraine.
The Crimea face-off displayed an unusual pitch of feelings and clash of characters, which endangered the Crimea’s territorial integrity and its status as part of independent Ukraine. Some regional political parties were pursuing an active anti-Ukrainian policy; the Crimea had a base for the Black Sea Fleet that was subordinated to Moscow and had a fairly legal intelligence department. There was also a 1,500-strong marine brigade. A large number of men aged 30 to 45 were brought to the Crimea in the guise of tourists and stationed in certain holiday centers. The Crimea had its own, totally pro-Russian, president Meshkov who was guarded by heavily-armed Moscow commandos. Everything was ready for the H-hour, when the Crimea would have ceased to be Ukrainian and the integrity of Ukraine itself would have been called into question. Marchuk emphasized the personal courage of Leonid Kravchuk, which helped, without undue exaggeration, to keep our state intact,
Hearing the “mournful cry” of some Ukrainian leaders about the difficulty of improving Ukraine, you can well believe that now, too, there are threats and challenges to our statehood. Yet the latter are absolutely different from those which such politicians as Yevhen Marchuk had to endure in the first years of independence.
“The main thing now is internecine clashes between five Ukrainian politicians and their teams. Most of the Ukrainian highly-placed officials just do not want to learn Ukrainian history,” Marchuk said. “I do not mean history for a teacher, I mean the periods when Ukraine would lose its statehood due to personal ambitions of its leaders. Suffice it to recall Symon Petliura, a military person, who remained unheeded, although there was quite a real threat to the state. Now the Russian president is sending a threatening letter to his Ukrainian counterpart — he would have never sent this kind of letter to the president of France or even Belarus.”
The 1.5-hour-long lecture contained very much information about how, to quote the Volyn University Rector Ihor Kotsan, “one should love, develop, and defend Ukraine,” but this was still not enough for the students. They said there should be at least three lectures of this kind. Their teachers were also sharing impressions.
Ihor KOTSAN, rector, Volyn Lesia Ukrainka National University:
“This is not the first time Mr. Marchuk gives a lecture at our university. This person, a former prime minister and an army general, has made a great contribution to the preservation and strengthening of our state. We are very pleased that these meetings are now traditional at Volyn University. It is common knowledge that theory is only part of the expertise that a specialist should have in modern-day society, whereas practice shapes a professional. So for the students who are acquiring a profession at the faculties of international relations, law, and history, such a forum is an opportunity to not only see and mingle with a well-known political figure but also hear the first advice and instructions about their professional activities in the future.
“Our university always tries to ensure that students receive both knowledge as well as practical skills. Therefore, lectures combined with the huge life experience of such figures as Mr. Marchuk are for them the first serious step towards being professional.”
Ihor YAKUSHEV, Candidate of Sciences, Associate Professor; dean, Law Faculty:
“I can remember how surprised Lviv residents were in 1989 or 1990 when they saw yellow-blue flags near Lviv University. This was so long ago and, at the same time, so recently. Reading about Ukrainian independence in books (clearly not in textbooks!) was one thing, but seeing at least these flags in such a large number was another. This is why we must highly appreciate what Mr. Marchuk and his colleagues have done for our statehood.
“It is a pity and pain that one can hear this only at a lecture like this — this should be written in books and manuals. People like Mr. Marchuk deserve this, and Ukraine should utilize their experience. It really causes pain that gaining independence is such a distant period for the current students, as the history of World War One is for our generation. So we look forward to seeing Mr. Marchuk again with new lectures.”
Natalia ROMANIUK, Candidate of Sciences (Geography), Associate Professor, Faculty of International Relations:
“We must give credit to Mr. Marchuk, a direct participant in the establishment of Ukrainian independence and a well-educated, wise, and self-possessed person. As a lecturer, I would like to note his ability to keep the audience rapt without resorting to any coercive measures. There were people like him at the dawn of Ukraine’s independence, who were ready to perform an exploit for the sake of the great national idea. It seems to me that now, too, there are people ready for an exploit — but only for big money.
“I teach the course ‘The Topical Problems of Ukraine’s Foreign Policy,’ so the information I gained is doubly valuable and interesting. You begin to understand things differently. The young student elite, which will soon be forming the face of Ukraine, needs the experience of such personalities as Mr. Marchuk.”
Viktoria LYTVYNIUK, first-year student, Law Faculty:
“The lecture made a wonderful impression on me, for I had never happened to hear a first-person account from an eyewitness of and participant in events, to hear about what was going on, figuratively speaking, behind the scenes of the events that ensured success and helped preserve our independence. You know, this even arouses a feeling of pride that, thanks to people like Mr. Marchuk, Ukraine did not lose its independence.”
Mykola KRAVCHUK, Associate Professor, Candidate of Political Science:
“I am, so to speak, a full-time hearer of Mr. Marchuk. I will never miss his speech or lecture if there is an opportunity to attend one. What do I like? His ability to keep the audience rapt in a mild and unobtrusive way. But he also knows who has come to hear him. As there were also law students in the hall, he took this into account. He said that a high-ranking official should make and obey laws but sometimes — for the sake of an exalted goal, such as Ukraine’s independence, — one has to agree to compromise, because Ukraine was obtaining independence while another state — the Soviet Union — still existed. Some were lying low, but people like Mr. Marchuk put serving the people above all. I think he found serving the people of Ukraine as his ultimate destination. Personalities have always played a crucial role in history, and examples of such self-denial and state-oriented thinking are very important for young people.”
