Once Ukrainian, always Ukrainian

A tribute to my fellow compatriots from the Ukrainian diaspora

AS PART OF MY CONNECTION WITH GOOD PEOPLE all around the world, it was fascinating to find out that there are maybe more people of Ukrainian descent abroad than people in Ukraine itself. While we certainly know about the Ukrainian diaspora that started to take place around 150 years ago, I didn't realize that it comprises about a whole other Ukraine if considered US and Canadian citizens in the line of ancestry of someone born in the historical territories of Ukraine.

The decision of immigrating was motivated by conditions of extreme adversity most Ukrainians were living at that point of history, when famine, slave labor, and repression were in the order of the day. Having the geopolitical bad luck of being located in the site of disputes among empires, the dominant classes of the society were culturally and politically assimilated by the successive powers and joined the repression against the peasantry mass, precisely those segment of the society who kept the components of Ukrainian heritage, especially language and customs, now seen as inferior in the eyes of their own upper-class compatriots of the time.

To the regular Ukrainian of the period between 80 and 150 years ago, life overseas was a matter of survival, not an ordinary opportunity. They were not only denied work and land to work, they were banned from speaking Ukrainian and keeping religious traditions. They were not second-class citizens, they held in practice no citizenship. Going abroad, in this way, was an escape route to keep existing.

For Ukrainians, for the ordinary Ukrainians, for the simple person from the countryside who always felt very Ukrainian for generations and spoke Ukrainian language even though never had a State called Ukraine to call their own, these unique traditions that defined their lives for so many centuries were too important to be left aside. Taking entire families abroad was also a measure of cultural salvation since the recipient countries in the American continent offered protection of ethnic customs while extending opportunities under the sense of freedom and the rule of law.

When our grandfathers left homeland, they were poor, miserable, homeless, and starving people, while nations like the United States, Canada and Australia received us with generosity, bread, and land to work. Land that was denied for us in the territory of our ancestors, we found them in America. Not before surviving the ship journey of three weeks on average, when many Ukrainians perished, especially children, often left in the sea after a lot of tears and prayers over their little bodies.

Then millions of Ukrainians followed the path of immigration. Thousands of miles and kilometers away, they could openly exercise their "Ukrainess" in a way they couldn't in their own homeland. The settlers established schools, churches, passed traditions to their sons and their grandsons, and were being little by little contributing with their share to the social fabric of every nation they're part of. 

Traditions like our dishes, our unique religious customs (Orthodox or Catholic depending of the particular group), our folk dances, the elements that distinguishes our society while associates us with the universal values of hard work and generosity, these are kept very well guarded within the Ukrainian communities of the diaspora, even if not so many retained a functional command of the language of their forefathers. 

The collective memory among these communities, many times, could preserve our traditions more consistently if compared to communities in Ukraine itself. Those who remained in the historical territories of Ukraine were increasingly forced to abide by everything that did not make reference to the empire of the time, in particular the Russian one (and the Soviet Union that followed).

Being Ukrainian, above all, means to be proud of a nation that is very alive in the hearts of Ukrainians for more than a thousand years but only had the chance to achieve real independence 32 years ago. 

Ukraine seems to be younger than me, but I was born Ukrainian, as my parents and at least six generations of predecessors as far as I know. Ukraine was present in the souls of the first Ukrainian newcomers in America that arrived with passports of some other empire but never presented themselves as Austrian or Russian to the new authorities.

If you have Ukrainian heritage, be absolutely proud of it. By being forged under so much suffering and persecution, even if it accounts more than a century, this is too strong to leave a soul. It will never happen. Once Ukrainian, always Ukrainian.

Love for all my compatriots by descent or by heart.