UC-NRLF 00 o Ukraine, Poland and Russia and The Right of the Free Disposition of the Peoples by .S.iShelukhib fr- (Former Secretary of Justice of the Ukrainian Republic) (With One Map) Published by Friends of Ukraine, 345 Munsey Building, Washington, D. C. 1919 Foreword From the Treaty between Ukraine and Russia (Concluded at Pereyaslav on March 14, 1654) ARTICLE 1 First of all, that your Czarian Majesty do deign to confirm our laws and our military liberties, in accordance with the time-honored custom in the army of Zaporogue, which owed obedience to its own particular laws and possessed franchises in property and in justice which neither a voievoda, nor a boyar, nor a stolnik could meddle with in the military tribu- nals, but that members of the military brother- hood be judged by their elders; for where there are three Cossacks, two ought to judge the third. On this article the Sovereign has passed his fiat and the boyars have voted that it be so done in accordance with their petition. ARTICLE 6 And if the Lord Hetman should come to die, which God forbid, (but every man is mortal, and he, the Hetman, the same as the rest) that the Zaporogue army itself, do elect a Hetman from among its number, and make the announce- ment to his Czarian Majesty, for it is an ancient custom in the army. The Sovereign has ordered and the boyars have voted that it be so done according to their desire. ARTICLE 14 As to Ambassadors, who from time im- memorial came from foreign countries to the Zaporogue army, that it be lawful for the Lord Hetman and for the Zaporogue army to receive them, if they come for a good purpose; that this shall not be disagreeable to His Czarian Majesty, and if anything should be directed against His Czarian Majesty, we would warn him of it. The Sovereign has ordered and the boyars have voted: Ambassadors who are bearers of good messages will be received and sent on their way, and the Sovereign will be advised as to what business they came upon and with what manner of answer they were dismissed; but Ambassadors who shall have been sent on busi- ness contrary to the interests of his Majesty will not be dismissed; and as to the Sultan of Turkey and the King of Poland, without an Ukase from the Sovereign, no relation will be entered into with them. UKRAINE, POLAND and RUSSIA POLES AND RUSSIANS AGAINST UKRAINIANS It would be a grave error to regard the struggle of the Poles and Russians against the Ukrainians as a result of the European war, or to seek the explanation of it in Bolshevism. The world war has only served to crystal- lize the relations between the Russians, Ukrainians and Poles, and when Russian Bolshevism appeared on the scene the war between these nationalities had been in existence already for a long while. The war now going on between these three nationali- ties is only the development of the conflict which already existed before the war of the great powers. It is a war purely national and its source is found in history, its ex- planation in the divergencies of national psychology; in the difference of ideas, of aspirations and of social ten- dencies. PRISONS OF NATIONALITIES Well before the war the national problems of Aus- tria-Hungary and of Russia were very clearly defined and the national relations were greatly strained. The great war has only given to these problems more poignancy. The national yoke in Austria-Hungary and in Russia has shown itself so onerous that these empires have ac- quired the appellation of "the prisons of nationalities." These great imperialist organizations have comprised different nationalities and have only existed in an artifi- cial way, because no internal bond knitted together the nationalities of which they were composed. The subject nationalities aspired to liberty, while the dominant ones expended great energy in order to continue in power and to delay the moment of the dissolution of their empires. A situation like this paralyzed all the creative forces of Austria-Hungary and Russia and little by little prepared for their inevitable fall. The world 1 war has hastened the moment of the catastrophe with- out, however, causing to disappear the war of national- ities. To avert that war, it would have been necessary before all to bring into action those great modern princi- ples which ought to preside over international relations, a thing that has not been done up to now. We know that in Austria-Hungary the dominant nationalities were the Germans, the Hungarians and the Poles; and the subjugated nationalities the Czechs, Ukrainians, the Slovenes, Italians, Slovaks, the Croats, and the Roumanians. In order to obtain the power to subjugate the Ukrainians of Galicia, the imperialistic Poles, wishing to satisfy their national egotism, betrayed the Slav cause. They voluntarily offered their services to the Germans and to the Hungarians and in the Aus- trian Parliament have always ranged themselves against oppressed nationalities, and at every opportunity have placed obstacles in the way of their liberation. In Russia the dominant nationality was Russian; all the others were oppressed and persecuted, especially the Ukrainians. Their persecution has been so bitter that they were forbidden even to sing national songs, to em- ploy their orthography and to call themselves Ukrainians. PERSECUTIONS OF UKRAINIANS IN AUSTRIA AND RUSSIA At the moment when the great war broke out, the Ukrainians of Galicia were accused by the Austrian Poles of the crime of high treason in favor of Russia, and their persecution increased. The accused were maltreated in prisons, they were reduced to hunger, were subjected to tortures, were hanged and shot down. In the prison of Talerhof alone more than 3,500 Ukrainians were done to death. Many unjust laws were also promulgated against the Ukrainians; for example, that of the fifth of Novem- ber, 1917, by the Emperor Francis Joseph, in which he disposed of the Ukrainian people in a manner that landed proprietors formerly disposed of their serfs. In Russia, the very day after the declaration of war, a whole series of instructions and orders were given 2 against the Ukrainians; their newspapers were sup- pressed, so were their national organizations, while the Poles were permitted their national liberties and the pos- sibility of national resurrection. After the occupation of Galicia, Russia granted many liberties and privileges to the Poles and at the same time subjected the Ukrainians to a regime and persecution so severe that even the offi- cial journal of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army protested against such treatment. They threw Ukrainians in thousands into the Russian prisons and exiled them to Siberia. The Panslav, M. Sazonoff, prom- ised Roumania to recompense her for her military assist- ance, Banat with the Servians and Bukovina with the Ukrainians, while giving her full liberty of action for the future Roumanization of Ukrainians and Servians. Not only in reactionary centers, but also in the liberal press and in the Duma, governmental measures were used to repress the reawakening of nationalities. Even after the revolution the Russian government, composed for the most part of representatives of the parties of the left, did equally their utmost to crush the impulse of the Ukrainian people toward liberty and national rebirth. The Russian populace proceeded to massacre the Ukrainian emigrants in the governments of Samara, of Saratof and of Penza and to despoil them of all their possessions, driving them back toward the Ukraine. Later on, when the Bolsheviki came into power in Russia, they fought against the Ukrainian people, with the object of stamping out their liberty and of re- storing the Russian domination over Ukraine under the Bolshevik form. In this way the national relations be- tween the Poles, the Russians and the Ukrainians have become more and more strained, even to the point of war between Ukraine, Poland and Russia. A WAR OF NATIONALITY A war of nationality between Ukrainians, Russians and Poles has in truth merited its name since the moment when Russia and Austria-Hungary disintegrated and the new states arose on the ruins of the two empires. 3 In this war, thrust upon the Ukrainians, the latter have stood always on the defensive, setting up no claim to neighboring territory and consequently attacking none of their neighbors. As to Russia, there is no nationality freed from her yoke and having formed her own state who does not declare her firm resolution never again under any circumstances to be united with Russia. As to Poland, there is no neighboring nation with whom she lives on good terms, and every neighbor of Poland de- clares that she would be better pleased without the honor of being Poland's neighbor. All the newly formed states, Ukraine, Lithuania, White Russia, Lettonia, Georgia, wish to maintain their complete independence and have put forth all their efforts to consolidate their independence and to safeguard it. They have even formed a union for the purpose of de- fending their independence against the attacks of Poland and Russia. This fact is not due to chance, but to internal causes, the principal of which is found in characteristic traits of Polish and Russian society, in their tendencies and atti- tude toward other nationalities. UKRAINE ALWAYS ASPIRED TO LIBERTY Since the dawn of history, the Ukrainian* people have proved themselves the protector of democratic or- der. Never have they betrayed that ideal. In the sixteenth century the Ukrainian people as- sumed the task of realizing the idea of liberty, equality and fraternity, by forming themselves into an independ- ent and free state. The organization of the association of Zaporogian Cossacks astonished the whole world. Led on by the principle of liberty the Ukrainian people have struggled for the independence of their democratic republic against the Poles and the Russians. That strug- gle caused Voltaire to write, "Ukraine has always aspired to liberty." The realization of that idea is only possible The name Ukrainian which others have wished to dispute with the people who have borne it for centuries we meet with in the most ancient documents going back to the twelfth century. The chronicle Hypace of the year 1187, as well as the chronicles of 1189 and 1213, speak to us of this' name as being- universally recognized. under a democratic regime. With this democratic regime the Ukrainians have laid the foundation of the social structure of their state. It was with this reservation that Ukraine placed herself under the protectorate of the Muscovite Czar, while conserving all her rights as a state, all her institutions, and her entire social organism. Cromwell spoke well when he apprised Hetman Khmel- nitzky, "that never would Muscovy respect Ukrainian liberty." The Ukrainian people, in fact, lost it after a long and painful struggle. Russian politics put in its program the destruction of the Ukrainian culture and the absorption of their nationality by the Muscovites. Here is the reason why the centralizing regime of Mos- cow proceeded to destroy all the Ukrainian institutions and to prevent manifestations of Ukrainian nationalism. But it was impossible or at least difficult to annihilate among the Ukrainian people the national spirit and psy- chology. In Russia, no more than in Austria, where the lot of the Ukrainians was not enviable, have the Ukrain- ian people ever abandoned their national sentiment. Taught by their own history, they have treasured up and elaborated their ideals and have awaited the auspicious moment for their realization. THE UKRAINIAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC In 1847 was founded the "Brotherhood of Cyril and Method," the object of which was to organize the inde- pendent Ukrainian Republic. It put in its program the diffusion of the same idea among all the Slav races. To- ward 1880 Professor Drahomanov enlarged this program and extended it to all nationalities. The Ukrainian Dep- uties of the first Duma (1906) unfolded a plan for the realization of that idea. Since the beginning of the Revo- lution of 1917 the entire Ukrainian democracy has worked to establish the Ukrainian Republic on lines truly demo- cratic. In order to realize this idea in accord with the neigh- boring nationalities, the Ukrainians summoned their rep- resentatives to a Congress which opened its sessions at Kiev, September 21, 1917. The principles on which 5 THE NEW MAP OF EUROPE APPROXIMATE BOUNDARIES OF PEOPLES HERBERT ADOLPHUS MILLER 1918 SLAVS IN STRAIGHT LINES fORMER EMPIRE OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY UKRAINE AREA: 330,000 square miles. POPULATION: 45,000,000. FORM OF GOVERN MENT: Republic. ESTABLISHED: 1917. A F R I C A CAPITAL CITY: Kiev. Wiim BLACK SEA IAN ^Q JERUSALEM Ukrainians founded the organization of their state and of their international relations are the same as those enunciated by the greatest thinkers. Seneca saw long since that the whole of mankind was composed of nationalities and that a nationality was the result of the harmony of its members, hence a na- tionality is a positive force and the most important factor in the life of humanity and its development. Conse- quently the development of the national conscience al- ways marks a stage of progress in the history of human- ity. Every nationality has the right to an independent existence and to the free development of its faculties in close union with other nationalities without injury to their rights. This idea is based on the solidarity of interests and the union of humanity. Logically we must concede the recognition of the right of self-determination to all peoples, powerful and weak, even though they are more or less civilized. The existence of a sovereign state only serves to as- sure the independence and the possibility of the free development of a nationality. Therefore, each state should only establish herself within ethnographical boun- daries, peopled in the majority by her citizens, fellow nationals, with special constitutional guarantees to insure the rights of minorities. The ethnographical principle based on actual facts and figures averts the possibility of imperialism and the development of militarism, while the autonomy of national minorities secures them against vexations and servitude. A strong state should not take advantage of a weak state and use it as a tool for her own interests. Imperialistic designs should be destroyed for- ever. THE RIGHT OP SELF-DETER/AINATION The Congress of nationalities at Kiev accepted all these principles as the foundation of national states. Con- sisting of ninety-three representatives from all the na- tionalities living in Russia, it proclaimed in its resoluton of September, 1917 (well before President Wilson had enunciated his fourteen points which were to serve as the basis of a final settlement) : 8 1. The right of self-determination of peoples within the limits of their ethnic boundaries. 2. The right of these entities to international rep- resentations. 3. The abolition of all fetters, political, civil and religious, in international relations. 4. The right of national minorities. Finally, it proclaimed the right of all nationalities in Russia to elect a constituent assembly which, armed with national sovereignty, would have the right of ulti- mately pronouncing on the question of confederation of the peoples of Russia. The federative principle had for its object not only the enfranchisement and union of the peoples of Russia, but at the same time the guarantee of their independence against Germanic domination. (See paragraph 6 of the resolutions of Congress.) The Congress gave its unqualified sanction to the action of the Ukrainians, and strengthened their position for the creation of an independent Ukrainian Republic, while opening up broad views of national development to other nationalities. After the Congress, but without any connection therewith, President Wilson made a de- claration developed later on in his speeches on peace, international relations, etc., the principles of which were in perfect accord with the claims of the Congress of Na- tionalities. The principle of the delimitation of states according to their ethnographical boundaries found here its prac- tical application. In Point Thirteen President Wilson defined the future frontiers of Poland as embracing only those territories peopled by an indisputable majority of Poles. Taking their stand on the principles proclaimed by the Entente Powers, the Ukrainians have included as constituting one single state, the Republic of Ukraine, all the territories peopled by Ukrainians belonging to the former Russia. Within her ethnographical boundaries, Ukraine occupies a territory of 330,000 square miles, with a population of approximately 45,000,000 inhab- itants. Ukraine would have been able to concentrate all her forces on the internal and external organization of the country had not the Russian and Polish imperialists hindered the work; now, however, Ukraine is obliged to spend her forces in a defensive war against Russia and Poland. POLISH ACTIVITIES IN UKRAINE In the course of the history of Poland, the Polish population has been divided into two very distinct classes, the aristocrats and the farmers. The aristocrats have assumed the representation of the entire people, have enjoyed liberties of every kind, and have enslaved the farmers. Many in number, they haye vied with one another in pursuit of the pleasures of life and have there- by drained the resources which were necessary for the enslaved agricultural population to carry on their labors. Poland within her actual ethnographical boundaries numbers 20,000,000 million inhabitants, of which 15,000,- 000 are Poles. To gratify their greed for pleasure, the Polish aristocrats were therefore obliged to conquer ad- jacent countries and to enslave their inhabitants. To assimilate these inhabitants and neutralize centrifugal forces they have created a complete system of Poloniza- tion. Hostile to every democratic principle, they have established a system of the most severe servitude for the national minorities. Thus there has been developed in Poland an exaggerated imperialism having for its ideal a greater Poland stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and in which all the inhabitants would belong to the same nationality while embracing, all of them, one re- ligion only, Catholicism. The Poles have displayed the greatest energy in sub- jecting the Ukrainian people. Pacific by nature, they have been obliged to sustain continual struggles with Po- land for the defense of their independence, and Poland, enfeebled, when attacked by her neighbors, saw herself delivered over to "partitions." Despite her misfortune, Poland has bequeathed to her descendants the old ideals of conquest they seek to realize today. 10 POLISH I/APERIALISA There has been elaborated for a long period a pro- gram of Polish activity with regard to the other nation- alities and particularly the Ukrainians. This program was published in 1848 and reprinted in 1862 in the Ukrainian magazine, "Osnowa." One of the articles of the program recommends the Poles to keep the Ukrain- ians in ignorance, to regard all that which was Ukrain- ian religion, language and education, as characteristic of a primitive culture, while at the same time the Ukrain- ian people should be encouraged to accept with the Pol- ish nationality all its culture. The latter was represented as the highest point of progress. In order to subject the Ukrainian people more easily the Poles were advised not to entrust any important position to any Ukrainian. An entire doctrine of imperialism, of chauvinism, of national intolerance, of hate for everything which was not Polish and particularly with regard to everything which was Ukrainian, was propagated. To that doctrine adhered even men of superior intellect, like Henry Sienkiewicz, who devoted the force of his talent to propagating it. It is clear that this system of methodical "civilizing" employed by the Polish nation and applied to education and to the formation of a Polish body politic would have disastrous results on the morality of the nation. Far- sighted Poles have seen this and have warned the nation of the pernicious consequences of that deification of the Polish nation, which has annihilated among the Poles the sense of justice, put a drag on the wheels of their prog- ress and caused them to retrograde to eighteenth century conditions. It is therefore natural that in beginning to rebuild their state the Poles have dreamed of conquering adjacent territory and of satisfying their nationalist aims at the expense of the Ukrainians, the Lithuanians, the White Ruthenians and other neighboring peoples. The Poles have many times declared in their publications that Poland should count forty millions of inhabitants. It is also quite natural that the Ukrainian people, who have endured so long the Polish yoke, will never accept, after 11 having been raised into an independent' state, the doom of being buried again in a servitude so abhorrent. Never will the Ukrainians yield their rights to their hereditary foes, even though the Poles, reinforced by sympathizers from among the Lithuanians and the White Ruthenians become more numerous. It is obvious that the struggle now going on exhausts the Ukrainian people, but sustained as they are by the cause of liberty, they will remain ever consecrated, and in such measure will come new strength. Throughout this period will Europe be deprived of peace, and the neighbors of Poland, through her fault, will be totally prevented from work- ing out their internal and external organization and strengthening the foundations of peace and order. RUSSIAN I/APERIALIS/A While the doctrine of imperialism and the racial hatred were being developed among the Poles by educa- tion, among the Russians the same sentiments originating in their natural character, grew stronger and stronger with the unfolding of the history of their country. But while the Poles stopped short in their dreams of con- quest on the borders of the Baltic and the Black Sea, the Russians saw themselves masters of the whole of Europe and of Asia, saw themselves crossing the Darda- nelles and masters of all seas. One may truly say that the Russians are tainted with megalomania. This fact is recognized even by Russian authors beginning with Samarin and ending with V. Soloviev, who have declared that the Russian people are inclined toward brute force, that they accept things on authority without other ex- planations. The above ideals are for them an object of education. Those who attribute the imperialistic policy ,of Russia to the government alone make a great mistake. The government has always found in the traits peculiar to the Russian national character the support of its imperialism and the source of its power. Peter the Great, Ivan Kalyta, and Andrew Bogolubsky only engendered the incarnation of this spirit of the na- tion of Muscovy. Consequently Russia from the beginning of her existence has only waxed great by subjecting for- 12 eign nations, by assimilating them and by the domination due solely to brute force. The history of Russia is the his- tory of imperialism, the history of the absorption of other nationalities by violence, in order to make one entire na- tionality to which was given the name of "official nation- ality." For that reason too little attention has been paid to the development of a real popular education. Deprived of substratum, Russia naturally fell to pieces the day when the other nationalities had an opportunity to resume their own existence. In liberating themselves these nationalities made no attack on the nationality who had kept them under her yoke. The Great Russians, however, have put forth their efforts to re-establish that prison into which the newly formed states have no notion of ever entering again. TREATY OF UKRAINE WITH RUSSIA The Ukrainian people entered into a free union with Russia under personal allegiance to the Czar in 1654, with a reservation for preserving their own republic, their governmental system, and their political and social or- ganization for economic and cultural development. The treaty consecrating that union has not been respected, and the Ukrainians in defense of their independence have not found support in any class of the Russian people. The individual cases which have shown themselves favor- able to the Ukrainian movement have been only the ex- ception ; the political parties, liberal or conservative, have always in practice resisted the awakening of national sentiment in Ukraine, though in theory they compromised with it. The Ukrainians have undergone savage persecutions. An impossible gulf has been fixed between the Russian and Ukrainian nationalities. Drahomanov, about 1880, in his work on Historical Poland and the Democracy of Great Russia, drew attention to this phenomenon. Don- zow, Lozynsky, Levynsky, Yefremov and others treated the same question in their publications. The only reply on the Russian part consisted in a continuance of the ag- gression and of the regime of persecutions directed against the Ukrainians. 13 Voices were raised in the Duma of 1906 against the regime. Necessary measures were taken to prevent the re-election of deputies favorable to the cause of the Ukrainians. Not the Bolsheviki only, but the rest of Great Russians as well, show themselves hostile to the Ukrainian national awakening. The revolution has changed nothing in these relations. RUSSIAN POLITICAL PARTIES AND UKRAINE The provisional government, composed of liberals and socialists, has always shown itself to be a centraliz- ing and imperialistic power so far as the Ukrainians are concerned. It has taken special measures and passed exceptional laws against the Ukrainian government. In the course of all the meetings and all the assemblies in which the Russians found themselves in the majority, from the extreme left to the extreme right, there pre- vailed the same chauvinism, the heritage of Czarism. When Russian Bolsheviki seized the power, they de- clared war on the Ukrainian nationalists even on those who never took part in politics, such as Professor Sumt- sov and Mrs. Yefimenko, on no other ground than that they had greatly contributed to the intellectual develop- ment of the Ukrainian people. The other Great Russian party, the reactionaries, do not differ essentially from the Bolsheviks on the Ukrain- ian question. Their attitude before the war is only too well known. Grouped around General Kolchak and General Denikin, they make at this moment every effort to reconstruct the Russia of the former regime, with all its system of enslavement for the Ukrainian people. Outside these two parties there is a third, for the moment passive, which is called "The Russian Demo- cratic Party." Its representatives have recently pub- lished a manifesto in which they declare that they do not recognize the Ukrainian government, proclaiming the All-Russian Constituent Assembly and discrediting all the constituent assemblies of the several nationalities. It must not be overlooked that in an All-Russian Constituent Assembly the Great Russians or Muscovites will neces- 14 sarily be in the majority, and consequently the principle of self-determination of peoples will not exist. The Rus- sians will dispose of the destiny of other nationalities. "Federation" is for these so-called democrats only a mask to conceal their real sentiments, and it does not deceive the intelligent. If they only had the power they would act with regard to Ukraine just as did the Poles, the reac- tionaries and the Bolsheviks. UKRAINE AND HER RIGHT TO SELF-DETER- MINATION. Each nationality has a right to its own development, which can never be assured except in its own state. The Ukrainian nationality, the Russian and Polish nationali- ties have everything which is necessary from an economic point of view, cultural, social and national, for the found- ing of independent states. Russia and Poland can exist as well without Ukraine as Ukraine can without them. Neither of these states has any rights over Ukraine any more than Ukraine has any rights over them. It is sheer imperialism to occupy the territory of neighbors. The Ukrainian government, which cherishes no such aspira- tions, in order to ensure the rights of national minorities, Great Russians, Poles, etc., has promulgated a law on particular national autonomy. Today a war goes on between the Ukrainians and Russians. Russians and Poles not only in the past, but in the present, show that they reject in their international relations the principles approved by the Entente and by the civilized world. In acting thus Poland forgets that it is by grace of these principles that she has been restored and that she has been able to enter into the League of Nations established precisely by the application of these same principles. Further, the Poles actually make use of the assistance brought to them by the Entente for the purpose of directing it against the Ukrainians. The Rus- sian Bolsheviks are strong in the support of Bolsheviks of other nations, the forces of reaction grouped around Kolchak and Denikin, while receiving aid from the En- tente, would restore that former Russia which would in- .evitably engulf Ukraine. 15 Ukraine, who has commenced to realize the Wilson- ian principles, and who seeks in nowise to make con- quests, is not as yet received into the League of Nations and receives no assistance. Her hope rests entirely on the conviction that there exists an Immanent Justice. She strongly believes in the law of life which abuses the pow- erful when they abuse their power. In that truth she will find the force requisite for the defense of her inde- pendence and of her national liberty. That truth which wills Poland to the Poles, Russia to the Russians, wills equally and with the same force Ukraine to the Ukrain- ians. That truth alone is strong enough to make people strong and to put an end to war. 16 S453 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. . i 'j#