UKRAINE FOR UKRAINIANS - Walt chooses his side

Agent 1, who is of Ukrainian descent, used to complain about being called "Asian" of "Eurasian". "We are Europeans!", she said. Even worse, during the Soviet Days, was to be called a Russian! "We are not Russians!" she said. "We have our own flag, our own language. And the Russians have taken our land!"

That, in a nutshell, is what the violent demonstrations raging in Kyiv -- the capital of the Ukraine -- are all about. The Ukraine is a country divided geographically, and by language and religion. The conflict -- which could escalate into a civil war -- is about much more than whether the country should face the future as part of the European Union or as a satellite of Russia. It is about whether the Ukraine can hold onto its fragile independence.

The division between the western and eastern parts of the Ukraine runs more or less along the Dniepr River, which runs right through Kyiv. The economy of the eastern Ukraine is dominated by mining and industry; that of the west is chiefly agricultural.

The eastern Ukraine was thoroughly and deliberately "Russified" during the Soviet era. The use of the Ukrainian language was discouraged, even prohibited; people were ordered to speak Russian. Similarly, the Ukrainian Catholic Church (aka Byzantine Rite or Greek Catholic) was dispossessed and the so-called Ukrainian Orthodox Church was the only Christian church tolerated by the atheistic Communists.

For most of the 20th century, the Ukrainian people -- particularly those of the west -- were ruled by people who were similar to them (Slavs) but still "foreigners". First the Poles, then the Russians. And they objected, as forcefully as they could, to the tyranny of "the other".

When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Ukrainian nationalists saw their chance to resurrect the short-lived Ukrainian republic, which had flourished for a few months in the aftermath of World War I. A volunteer army was formed, to fight on the side of the Nazis against their Soviet (read "Russian") overlords.

Inevitably, the nationalists became disillusioned and formed the УПА -- Українська Повстанська Армія (in English "Ukrainian Insurgent Army") -- which waged military campaigns against both Nazi German and Soviet forces. Theirs is the red and black flag you see here...and waving in the streets of Kyiv today.

The УПА was the military wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists — Bandera faction (OUN-B), originally formed in Volyn (in the northwestern part of the country) in 1943. Its official date of creation is 14 October 1942, the Feast of the Intercession of the Theotokos. The goal of the OUN was the re-establishment of a united, independent national state on Ukrainian ethnic territory -- "the rebirth, of setting everything in order, the defence and the expansion of the Independent Council of the Ukrainian National State".

OUN also revived the sentiment that "Ukraine is for Ukrainians". With the downfall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and the rebirth of the Ukrainian republic, it was thought -- perhaps "hoped" is the better word -- that goal had at last been achieved.

A quarter of a century later, the Ukrainians find themselves ruled once again by corrupt, repressive, Russian-speakers whose aim seems to be to bring Ukraine back to the bosom of "Mother Russia". And that, dear readers, is why true Ukrainians are in the streets of Kyiv today. May God bless them and Our Lady protect them! Ukraine for the Ukrainians!