It’s been a sobering week watching events play out over the borders between Ukraine and Russia. I sometimes think that I’m not a political person, but there’s something about hearing the words “World War Three” that make me sit up and take notice. It’s actually made a lot of people notice: countries, companies and individuals are imposing sanctions on Russia and voicing their support for Ukraine. Even Saturday Night Live made New York’s Ukrainian choir Dumka the headliner last Saturday and another choir sang the Ukrainian national anthem before an NHL game in Winnipeg. With the modern-day capability of being able to film everything, nothing that the Big Bully of Eastern Europe does goes unnoticed.
One look at a map, comparing the size of Ukraine to Russia, is enough to make one furious. It reminds me of something my preschool son Simon once said to a playground bully: “Hey you mean guy! Leave him alone!”
When I was in university some thirty plus years ago, I took a course one spring session in Ukrainian Folklore. It was actually a required course for anyone who had been hired to work at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village for the summer as an interpreter – someone who dresses up in period costume and provides an immersive experience for visitors. I wasn’t working there, my part-time job as a bank teller was too good to give up, but I wanted to knock off some credits towards my degree and thought it would be an easy mark. After all, I am Ukrainian – I should know this stuff.
It turns out I got a lot more than I bargained for, namely a new minor for my degree. I fell in love with the subject – especially of material culture, the objects that remind us of who we are and what we do as a particular people. A lot of it was due to an infectious teacher, Dr. Andriy Nahachewsky, one of the few professors whose full name I remember. We watched the movie Taras Bulba in class, we learned the poetry of Taras Schevchenko, and we started calling any person named Terry by their new nickname, Taras. But a good part of it was the awakening of an affinity to my heritage, the pride that comes with identifying with a historical people.
It was during my time at the University of Alberta, taking lots of classes from the Slavic Studies department, that the Soviet Union fell apart. Nations that had supposedly been absorbed started to rear their nationalistic heads, those heads adorned, so to speak, in Ukraine with vinoks and sheepskin hats. It was heartening to see that self-determination was so stubborn. The nations were still there, no matter how hard the Soviet Union had tried to subdue them.
After Little Simon stood up to a much bigger boy on the playground that day, we found out that it was actually his own little brother that he was bullying. People, just like countries, want their own self-determination. Russia is the economically and geographically bigger than Ukraine. But that doesn’t mean that Russia gets to boss Ukraine around. It’s heartening to see the world stand united to tell the Mean Guy Russia to leave Ukraine alone.