Posted by John on October 19, 1999 at 20:32:47:
: What a Crap, John!
: ³äñòàíü â³ä Ìîñêâè äî Ïðàãè àáî Áóäàïåøòà ùå á³ëüøà í³æ â³ä Êèºâà äî Óæãîðîäà.
: Àëå öå íå âïëèíóëî íà òå, ùî òàíêè ç Ìîñêâè ïðèáóëè ëèøå çà ê³ëüêà ãîäèí.
: Âîíè íå â³ä÷óâàëè â³äñòàí³, êîëè òðåáà áóëî ðÿòóâàòè ïðèá³÷íèê³â ñîö³àë³ñòè÷íîãî âèáîðó ³ ñïîñîáó æèòòÿ â êîëèøí³é ×åõîñëîâà÷÷èí³ òà Óãîðùèí³.
RE:Soviet tanks advanced to Budapest (1956), Bratislava and Prague (1968) from Transcarpathia (Podkarpatska Rus) and not from Moscow. (Even Alexander Dubcek was kept for a while as a prisoner by KGB in Karpathian Mountains.) One does not need to be a rocket scientist to figure out from a map that Transcarpathia is a gateway to Central Europe. That’s why Joseph Stalin annexed Transcarpathia to USSR and later incorporated it as a province into Soviet Ukraine. Stalin’s despotism and brutality as well as his “free” elections and respect for “people’s will” via Gulag are notoriously known. If you and other nationalistic Ukrainian think that a prosperous Ukraine can be built on basis of justice that was introduced by Joseph Stalin as well as other Soviet and Ukrainian officials, I can only respond by what was published in Vsesmikh. For your recollection, the President Kuchma’s words: “Hospodi ! Ty zh kolis iz khaosu svit stvorev … Dopomozhy Ukraini!” The Almighty’s response: “ E synu, todi az ne takij khaos buv…”.
Thus, the only way for Ukraine is to face all problems honestly without hyping up the irrational nationalism and evoking the Russian menace when it is politically expedient. I know it is easy to tell. However, the fact is that the fate and future of Ukrainian citizens is currently decided in Kyiev, and not in Moscow. Surprisingly, nationalistic Ukrainians, at least on this board, worry more about 700 000 Rusyns in Transcarpathia than about catastrophic economical performance of Ukraine. Out of 13 states in this region, Ukraine was last, and its GDP/capita was less than $1000 (USD), while Slovenia’s reached almost $10 000 per capita. Neighboring countries of Transcarpathian Region had 3 to 8-fold higher GDP than Ukraine. The true enemies of current Ukraine are pretty well characterized by Prof. James Mace in his article “Hollow Men” in “The Day” 38:October 12 1999. These people are dangerous to Ukraine and not Rusyns or Hungarians in Transcarpathia who want less bureaucracy and corruption, more efficient administration, jobs, less environmental pollution and destruction of their Karpathian mountains, better schools and health care. Briefly, they want a decent life and some control over it, and not the control by the hollow men. The strength of Ukraine is in its diversity and not in its uniformity. By the way, I do not worry even for security of my country of origin, since it is a member of NATO. Also, ECMI (Denmark and Germany) is involved in minority problems of Transcarpathia and not Moscow.
Finally, the first Slavic state, Great Moravia, the Byzantine missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, acceptance of Christianity in 863 as well as the White Croatians principality, its destruction and execution of its prince Laborec by invading Magyars are only fairytales for you, and perhaps other nationalistic Ukrainians as well. Of course, everything is true what nationalistic Ukrainians claim about history of its own country. The problem is that they sound very much as the Homo Sovieticus and, therefore, I do not see any useful purpose in continuing this discussion.
Sincerely, John