Evening star., 1939-09-24

tween one-seventh and one-fifth Of all
Poland's people are Ukrainian.
80 1t would give him Ukrainian
"minorities" in three Eastern European
countries: Russia, Rumania and Hun
gary. Minorities have paved the way for
Hitlers empire in the past.
Any thought of an independent Uk-
raine is based on the proposition that
the Ukrainians themselves would be
willing to unite. Such agreement is un-
certain, although Ukrainian independ-
ence movement has been growing since
1918. There are Ukrainians In Poland
who don't care to be called Ukrainians;
they insist in being known as Ruthenians.
Also, deep religious cleavage exists be-
tween those who live in Poland and those
who live in Russia.
Puppet Might Rebel.
The protector" of an independent Uk-
raine, whoever he might be, would run
the risk of setting up puppet who
wouldn't respond to the strings. Soviet
Ukrainians' revolt against Communism
was disclosed in the Kiev trials of 1890.
The Polish Ukrainians' Illustration of
German troops of occupation in 1918 is
an historic classic. Their strikes"
against the Polish government in 1885
and 1887 are equally famous Their his
tory as whole indicates they would de-
fend freedom once they had it.
The Ukrainians have a fighting in
heritance. Their ancestors were the
Cossacks, landless poor who roamed the
Russian steppes in the l5OOs, gradually
occupied lands and castles abandoned by
mobiles of the ancient Kingdom of Kiev,
and finally emerged as the f1ercest fight
ers In that part of the world.
Ukrainian cultural unity grew in the
militant Cossack atmosphere. The unity
is being reborn today in more modern
and more peaceable medium-the con-
sumer cooperative. which appeals to
poor Ukrainian farmers because it en-
ables them to share savings through
mass purchases of living necessities
Working against this unifying influence
Is the religious issue. Polish Ukrainians
are members of the Uniat Church
Russian Ukrainians are orthodox. That
split has been there since the Ukrainian
monarchy disintegrated in the l4th
century.
Was Kingdom Of Kiev.
At least the Ukrainians say it was a
Ukrainian monarchy. 1t went under
the name of the Kingdom of Kiev, and
was at its peak in the 9th and 10th
centuries. The Kiev kings then were
known as Ruthenians. Later they were
called Russ, whence comes the modern
Russian. Their nation dissolved be-
cause of internal disputes and attack
from Tatars commonly known as
Tartars). Only the western part re-
mained-the province of Galicia-under
Kiev king named Daniel, puppet of
the Tatar Khan. In 1889 even that
province was divided up by force under
a secret treaty between Poland and
Hungary, much as a part of Czecho-
Slovakia was divided up by the same
two nations 600 years later.
The Ukraine was truly independent
only once after that, beginning in l64s,
when the Ukrainians revolted against
the Poles. That ended when Poland
and Russia split up the Ukraine again in
the peace of Abrussova in 1867.
Since then the ill-starred peasant folk
have been used as a political pawn by
virtually all the great powers of Europe
at one time or another. With them,
Russia rose to dominance. Later Gather
inc of Russia divided them to protect
herself from invasion. Napoleon planned
to free them so as to cut Russia off from
the Black Sea and give France Ukraine
markets and raw materials. Bismarck
calculated on using them to dismember
Russia. Austria used them to keep the
Poles embroiled when part of Poland was
under Austrian rule after the last Polish
partition. Russia recognized their in
dependence in 1918 to keep conquering
Germans off her neck Whoever had
them had the balance of power.
Yet when the time came for the
Ukrainians to speak for themselves they
got no further than proclaiming their
independence on paper at the close of
the World War. Their pleas to the
Paris Peace Conference to support them
as new, democratic state were drowned
out by the demands of Poland. Not only
did those pleas fail, but they provoked
the Poles to attack and seize the Western
Ukraine.
Today history is repeating itself-in
reverse.
Poland, which attacked the Ukraine
20 years ago after promising the allies
she would not do so, is now being at
tackled by Germany after Germany prom
ised the allies at Munich she had no more
opobifio,,e