The current crisis in Kyiv

[Robert De Lossa]

Dear Colleagues,

As many of you who read the "Statement of Scholars and Professionals
on the Current Crisis in Ukraine" will have gathered, things in
Ukraine aren't peachy. To put things in perspective, think of the
reaction on SEELANGS to Dr. Maxwell shutting down a single department
at Drake. We've recently been contending with the president in
Ukraine threatening to shut down _everything academic_ in Lviv (among
other places) if they don't toe the line there. This is serious:
there have been threats of deportations of foreign professionals,
students have been arrested to shake them up, the Secret Service has
"talked" with rectors and professors, and violence has been provoked
at demonstrations--the whole nasty Soviet-style nine yards. The
American Association for Ukrainian Studies and the Canadian
Association of Slavists have responded by sponsoring the Statement.
We soon will have a parallel statement from our students. Both are at
the new AAUS website (http://www.ukrainianstudies.org).

We know, from published discussions, that our efforts have made a
difference in the dialog of resistance among academics and
intellectuals in Ukraine. It has been extremely important to them at
this critical time to know that they are not forgotten and that there
is an international community that cares about their freedom. The
current crisis is not a story about ethnic conflict, language
conflict, or regional conflict. At its core, various corrupt
oligarchic clans are vying for power, while a reformist democratic
constituency is trying not to be completely shut out of the picture.
News in Ukraine has been severely curtailed and the internet has
proven to be vital in keeping avenues of information open. This is a
struggle to determine what kind of country Ukraine will be for the
next generation, if not longer.

Several of us here in the States are receiving news releases and
personal analysis from various individuals and opposition
organizations. Much of this information is ephemeral--it goes to a
small group of people and is not posted elsewhere. At the same time,
there is much of value on Ukrainian websites right now that those
with Cyrillic-capable browsers can access. The opposition includes
several good webmasters.

At the risk of losing what little sleep remains to us, we've decided
to start posting most of the information that comes into us to the
AAUS list that our group maintains. This will allow archiving for
future reference, but also broaden the public that is informed about
these things. I will be careful, though, to sanitize sources to avoid
the possibility of reprisal for the originators.

Those who wish to join the AAUS list should send the following
message (make sure there is no signature following it) to
"majordomo at fas.harvard.edu". The message should read "subscribe
aaus-list". The list is intended for professionals, but we are
willing at this point to open it up to all those interested in
Ukraine. Dominique Arel's "Ukraine List" (which is our equivalent of
Johnson's Russian List) is disseminated on aaus-list.

At this point, also, I would like to issue a call to all those
interested in joining the American Association for Ukrainian Studies.
It affords membership in the International Association for Ukrainian
Studies (IAUS), we meet twice yearly at AAASS and ASN, and members
receive the journal "Harvard Ukrainian Studies" and the AAUS
bulletin. AAUS is open to individuals from North America and Europe,
but Canadians should note that the Canadian filial of IAUS is the
Canadian Association of Slavists. Many of our members belong to both
AAUS and CAS.

All those interested in joining AAUS should contact the
Secretary-Treasures, Alexander Dillon, at dillon at fas.harvard.edu.
Membership is $30.00 for active professionals, $20.00 for students
and the retired, $40.00 for joint membership (one subscription).

All the best,

Rob De Lossa, AAUS
--
____________________________________________________
Robert De Lossa
President, American Association for Ukrainian Studies
1583 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138
617-496-8768; fax. 617-495-8097
http://www.ukrainianstudies.org
reply to: rdelossa at fas.harvard.edu

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