Evening star., 1927-12-10
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

enemies of the allies and associates,
but 1t refused to release Ukrainia,
with her 40,000,000 peoples, from
Russia, the former ally of the allies.
| for, when the peace settlement was
made, Russia was undertaking a
kerensky republican form of govern.
ment, and professed friendship to her
former allies.
, Time was when Poland covered that
entire region of southern Russia from
the Baltic (White) Sea to the Black;
that included all of Ukrainia in Rus.
sia. But when Russia, Prussia and
Austria "partitioned Poland" little
over a century ago, the Ukrainian
| territory, originally part Of Poland,
was split up among the three di.
viders. So not all Ukrainians are
! today in Little Russia, and while
| Russian -Ukrainians seek independence
| from the Soviet government of Mos.
COW, their longings will be supported,
by other Ukrainians, from altogether
different motives.
| 1t is estimated that in Little Russia
there are today $4,000 900 Ukrainans,
In other parts of Russia, 10000 in
| Galicia. 3,500,00O; in Hungary. 500, 900;
in Bukovina. 100000; in the United
| States, 100000; Canada, 100000, and
| South America, $4,000.
* X X X
According to a jointly written book
'Ukrainia's Claim to Freedom" by
four eminent students of Ukrainia,
| this is the more recent story of her
| cry for independence from Russia:
Ukraine sent 40 representatives to
| the first Duma, who stood for home
| rule of a kind that could not possibly
menace the conference of the empire
| (of the Czar). Their demands won the
approval of many Radical and Liberal
members of that Duma, without re.
gard to race or creed or nationality.
But in official circles these demands
were branded as 'Mazeppism,' which
is the established Russian term for
Ukrainian separatism.
Their bitterest opponents were
found in the Polish group of repre-
sentatives composed exclusively of
big, aristocratic landholders. One of
these announced publicly that If the
government would only grant auton-
omy to greater Poland, including
Lithuania, White Russia and Ukraine,
| the Poles would undertake to butcher
every revolutionist within that terri
tory inside of two months
Two facts should be clearly TO-
cused in this connections: First. that
the non-POliSh territory indicated
holds less than a million Poles to
nearly 100000 of Ukrainians, White
Russians and Lithuanians, and, Sec
ond. that since the outbreak of the
present war (he World War; began
10 raise new hopes for an autonomous
Poland, the Poles all too often have in
sisted that their ambitions will remain
| unachleved unless they are given con.
troll of all provinces that. at one time
or another. used to be Polish-prov-
| inces. that means, where the majority
OF the population hate Polish noble
man as much as the devil, and much
more than a Russian"
The same book certifes that in
Gallcia the Ruthenian Ukrainian)
peasant Is one of the poorest creatures
IN the whole world. He is not at all
| a peasant in the true sense but merely
a farm hand who gets about 20 cents
DAY and remains practically tied to
the soil. where he has to till without
any profit to himself. Forty.five per
cent of the land is owned by the
Polish gentry. of whom Biornsterne
b1ornson once wrote that in their
understanding. liberty means nothing
| but license for themselves to do what
thev please"
With such a background of history.
the lineup of races in the threatened
crisis in Eastern Europe becomes
comprehensible-and more serious.
tCopvright 1927 nv Paul CoIlinsl