November 1992
Contents
Tell me about your
ethnic background.
Tell
me about your feelings about being bi-cultural?
What
do you think about nationalism (anti-US, pro-Ukraine)?
Are you a "good
Ukrainian girl"?
What are your parent's reactions to your lesbianism?
Tell
me about your cousin in Kiev and your pen-pal in Latvia?
What do you know
about Ukrainian men?
Did you
realize any Ukrainian class issues -- give me an example...your parents?
What
are your thoughts about the future of the former USSR, including Ukraine
as a nation, etc.
How have perestroika
and glasnost affected the ex-Soviet society?
Now
we're having a backlash against women there. Do you have a hope for
women there?
Tell me about your ethnic background.
My mother was born in Kiev, Ukraine and was a refugee during World War II. She endured extreme hardships and witnessed terrible atrocities at a young age, rescuing her family at age 8 from forced deportation back to the USSR. My maternal grandmother, who I affectionately refer to as Baba, not only lived through the war, but lived through the Great Famine of 1932-33. This Famine was deliberate genocide by Stalin against the Ukrainian people, especially the land owning peasants (kulaks), to break the people of their will for independence and their hatred of collectivization. Consequently, my grandmother saw hundreds literally dying in the streets and being carted away to mass graves. She herself subsisted for a while on grass, horsemeat, or anything else remotely edible, at risk of being shot by police for eating what was "state property". My maternal grandfather, was a Ukrainian nationalist who fought in the Petlura army and was sent to Siberia twice for his involvement with counterrevolutionary activities.
My mother's family began their escape to America in 1942 by being taken by the retreating German army to Berlin for the remainder of the war. They came to Hartford, Connecticut through the sponsorship of a church.
My father's story is quite different. He had a quiet, happy childhood in upstate New York. The son of a physician, he grew up with the privilege to attend to private schools, country clubs, and Yale University. He met my mother in graduate school, married, and began a career in Washington, D.C. Baba also lived with our family after her husband died.
Tell me about your feelings about being bi-cultural.
I have many mixed feelings about being half Ukrainian and half American, or, more accurately, half Anglo-Saxon, and feel ambivalent towards both cultures. No less complicating is that I am also a Lesbian, which is hardly esteemed by both cultures.
Like many other children, my parent's cultural background influenced my outlook on the world. The dichotomy between my mother's and grandmother's refugee background and my father's upper middle-class world affected me in subtle ways. As a young child, I didn't notice any differences from my peers, except that I spoke another language, ate different food, and missed Saturday morning cartoons to attend Ukrainian school. But as I got older, I noticed more cultural differences between myself and both my American and Ukrainian peers, differences that were not conducive to "fitting in" with either group.
My American friends ridiculed my grandmother and referred to her as a "maid" because of the shawls she wore on her head and because she did all of our household cooking and cleaning. I often felt foolish because I was usually overdressed for cool weather, and because both my mother and grandmother were overprotective of me. I also began to feel guilty about my privileged childhood when my mother compared me to herself during the war, reminding me how tough her childhood was, and how much harder she had to study.
My sense of not fitting in the Ukrainian world came mostly from adults. My Ukrainian was not as good, some felt, because I had an American father, and I sensed their pity. In religion class, I fit neither the Catholic or Orthodox mold, as I normally attended my father's Episcopalian church. When placed in an Orthodox class (because my mother's family was Orthodox), I was humiliated when the priest pretended he could not pronounce my American name.
As I grew older I began to feel ashamed of my grandmother. I developed low self-esteem and began to hate myself. I remember looking in my mirror and telling myself how ugly my face was, how ugly my eyes were. I was a complete and utter "nothing" who didn't look like anyone, at least like any of my American peers. I began to think of myself as a misplaced "half-breed" long before I was aware that that was a term reserved for mixed blood Native Americans.
Was this source of confusion and self-hatred a result of the way I was raised or a result of the realities of growing up different in America (however slight the difference may be)? How much of my childhood was influenced by my mother's experiences in the War? My mother and Baba were sometimes critical of me and had high expectations of me. They also tended to be pessimists. Were these traits derived from Ukrainian culture, or were they expressions of trauma received during the Famine/War, or both? Because I was confused about the source of such behavior, I distanced myself from Ukrainian culture. I saw Ukrainians as being overprotective, domineering, and emotionally overbearing and I clung to the cool etiquettes and polite objectivity of my father's world.
At this point I've been cautiously trying to get in touch with my Ukrainian side again. To analyze what parts of that culture I like, and what parts perhaps have been destructive. Gloria Anzaldua's Borderland has helped me understand that I'm not a traitor for having negative feelings about my culture, and her analysis of mestiza/mestizo culture has also helped me understand how many of my own negative feelings have stemmed from growing up bi-cultural in America. I've been able to see how some of my hatred about the Mongolian fold of my eyes stems from an all-American learned racism turned inward.
What do you think about nationalism (anti-US, pro-Ukraine)?
I also have mixed feelings about nationalism. I was raised to have strong sense of nationalism towards Ukraine. With the exception of a brief period during 1918 one must understand that Ukraine has not been an independent state since the days of Kievan Rus. Since those times, one conqueror after another has swept its plains, including Tatars, Mongols, Turks, Poles, Austrians, and the Russian/Communist Empire. It's not wonder that "Ukraine" means a country whose name means "borderland" or land without borders. Simply learning these facts in school promoted a sense of nationalism.
I also leaned towards nationalism in self defense. Throughout my school years, peers and adults would inquire about my ethnic background, and I would always explain laboriously where Ukraine was, who Ukrainians were, and reinforce the important distinction between Ukrainians, Russians, and communism. Such explanations grew tiresome, but also reinforced my protective feelings towards a country that most considered as only a region ("the" Ukraine), a language that was often banned from Ukrainian society, and a people that weren't legitimately considered Ukrainians, but were known as "Little Russians".
Likewise, I was raised to be a patriotic American, as America saved my mother's family from Stalin's purges and gave them a second chance. My father also has always believed wholeheartedly in the American constitution and democratic process.
Yet I haven't ended up being particularly patriotic towards America and am ambivalent about Ukrainian "patriotism" as well. To me, patriotism holds the potential for nationalism and jingoism, and I find nationalism dangerous. Extreme nationalism has allowed people to feel superior to others, to feel justified in committing acts of terror against neighboring countries or within their own country. I find that nationalistic feelings can border on irrationality because it is precisely these kinds of feelings that dictators such as Hitler and Stalin catered to when enjoining the support of the masses. It just doesn't feel right, and in America's case, is downright hypocritical by not taking the diversity of American culture into account. Especially within the last few years, the trend in America has been that there are only certain ways to be patriotic.
Thus, I can't be a patriotic American if I'm for Native American rights. I can't be a patriotic American if I'm a lesbian...and in the military. And supporting arms control implies support for Communism - yet another betrayal of Ukraine as well as America. So you see how confusing the issue of nationalism has become for me.
Yet I'd be lying if I didn't admit to the sparks of nationalism and pride that sweep my thoughts when hearing about a newly independent Ukraine. There's nothing wrong with my pride and joy at finally being able to refer to the country of my heritage. The danger of nationalism is if I become so proud that I believe Ukraine can do no wrong, that its past history is inconsequential to its actions in the present. It's about perspective and how one paints the picture.
Are you a "good Ukrainian girl"?
That depends, of course, on one's definition. In my opinion, the concepts of patriotism, sexuality, religion and culture all intersect with the idea of what it means to be a good Ukrainian girl. But the effects of generational and historical influences also may alter the definition of what others might consider to be a good Ukrainian girl. Of course, when I speak about a good Ukrainian girl I speak from my experience as a Ukrainian-American lesbian. I cannot speak as a Ukrainian native and from the values in Ukraine today as they have undoubtedly changed in the last 70 years.
When I think of a good Ukrainian girl I think of someone who is fairly devout (either Uniate Catholic or Orthodox), a virgin until she is married, and devoted to her parents and to the Ukrainian community. I feel that I have failed to meet this criteria. I'm not religious, nor was I ever raised solely within a Ukrainian denomination. I am a lesbian, and therefore cannot get legally married, and live thousands of miles from my family in a town with few (if any) Ukrainians in it.
But my definition of what makes the perfect Ukrainian girl is molded by my biases, and will certainly differ from one generation to another, from diaspora to Ukraine, and from men to women. I think that today, most Ukrainians, whether in Ukraine, or the diaspora, are so delighted to meet someone who speaks their language, who has more than a passing interest in their culture, that the other "criteria" doesn't really matter. I think of a friend of mine who was born Ukrainian but does not speak the language any more nor practice any Ukrainian customs. Her daughter, also born of Ukrainian and American parents, is enthralled by the culture, takes Ukrainian lessons, and is constantly travelling to centers of Ukrainian culture in Canada. So who's the "real" Ukrainian girl?
So I look at my life again and can't say I've failed entirely! Within the last few years I've developed an interest in learning more about my Ukrainian roots, partly because I think it's important to understand where I've come from in order to understand others and my reactions to others. And I've been trying to understand the negative feelings I had as a child and to learn not to be afraid of the "difference" within myself - whether that differences is my Ukrainian side, my lesbian side, or my American side. I miss the everyday Ukrainian customs and foods that I had as a child, and miss Baba dearly, despite her chronic lectures! I've enjoyed reading Ukrainian books to her on tape bother to entertain her and to keep up my accent. I enjoy corresponding with my relatives and hearing about their lives in Ukraine.
I've also begun to reach out as a Ukrainian-Lesbian and try to develop a new kind of community through corresponding with other "Ukie dykes" and learning about their feelings and experiences. Through a little effort (and an letter in Lesbian Connection) I've discovered new friends in Santa Barbara, Australia and Canada. I even met a Gay Ukrainian Catholic priest!
I think that my family is beginning to see that there are many ways to be Ukrainian outside of the heterosexual mold, and am proud that they compare me less often with my heterosexual peers.
What are your parent's reactions to your lesbianism? How have your relatives in Ukraine reacted?
My parents' reactions were definitely more dramatic than those of my Ukrainian relatives. I'm not sure if this is because modern-day Ukrainians have more tolerance than immigrants who remember the old world, or if I'm just lucky to have accepting relatives. I think it's probably the latter as I have yet to meet a Ukrainian lesbian still living in Ukraine!
I came out to my folks during my first year of college, when I was eighteen. The first thing my parents did was send me to a counselor that I'd seen in high-school. She felt I was well-adjusted, and that my parents were the ones with a problem to solve. Indeed, the news was difficult for them to bear as I'm an only child, and all chances of grandchildren rest with me. Relations between my mother and myself became quite strained as she went through stages of self-blame, denial, and grief. At times she felt that attending PFLAG meetings were helpful, particularly as the leader of the group was also a former refugee. At other times she chose to avoid the subject as much as possible.
My father remained fairly aloof. My mother seemed to understand how I could have such feelings, having had strong platonic friendships with women herself, but my father has had trouble understanding my preference for women and has felt squeamish about the issue. They kept my lesbianism secret from Baba for awhile, so I was lucky to be able to approach her first. Baba was always accepting of my lesbianism, if not always in my choices of lovers! Her only concern has been that I wouldn't have a man to "take care" of me and she feared for my loneliness as I grew older. She couldn't quite understand why I wanted to throw an opportunity for marriage away.
Fortunately, this situation in my family has not lasted long. My parents are far more accepting, and recently invited myself and my lover to spend a week with them. The only down side is that my mother strongly prefers that I not come out to the Ukrainian community as this would embarrass her and the other Ukrainians would either gossip or see my lesbianism as a sign of her failure as a mother.
But hiding my lesbianism makes it extremely difficult for me to approach Ukrainian communities and feel genuine. I start to feel guilty for not allowing people to know all of me, and I find attachments difficult as I'm always wondering if the Ukrainian community would accept me if they knew who I really was.
I came out to my cousins in Ukraine in the summer 1989 when they were visiting us. My lesbianism was a complete turn-on for my cousin's husband, who thought of it as some kinky perversion that he wanted to know more about. My cousin and I talked about it for some length, but I was unable to get my true meaning across to her as I don't have the vocabulary to express abstract thoughts. I didn't even know the Ukrainian word for lesbian! She does accept that I'm queer, but has a hard time understanding the concept. She is firmly convinced that I'm gay because she thinks I've had rotten experiences with men, although I explained to her that I didn't have much personally against men. I simply identify sexually with women.
I came out anonymously to the Ukrainian community in 1991 when responding to a particularly anti-feminist, anti-semitic, and homophobic column written by Dr. Myron Kuropas in the "Ukrainian Weekly". To my surprise my letter was not only printed, but accompanied by an anonymous letter written by another lesbian. Only one anti-lesbian letter was printed and at least three positive letters appeared in the following weeks. So I think that the Ukrainian community's views are changing. As I mentioned above, I think that most Ukrainians care only that you care about the Ukrainian culture, and care more about who and not what you are.
Tell me about your cousin in Kiev and your pen-pal in Latvia?
I first met my cousin on my trip to Kiev in the summer of 1984. Before that summer I had not known of her existence because I was unaware that my mother had two older half brothers that were lost during the war. My family discovered my cousin and her family when we stopped at an information kiosk and looked up my half-uncle's address. Since that time I've been corresponding with her on a regular basis.
Unlike most Ukrainian women, my cousin does not work outside the home, although she used to work in a turbine factory. Part of this reason is because she suffers from severe asthma that is exacerbated during the winter. My cousin is also fortunate that her mother lives with her and helps with the daily struggle to find food. She also helps my cousin raise her two boys.
I asked my cousin to write a few words about her situation as a modern-day Ukrainian woman. Her tone is one of extreme hopelessness. She writes:
I am a simple person, and simple people are looked upon as trash. All the time this demeaning treatment gets a person down. We completely lose our sense of self-confidence. One loses hope in one's abilities. You feel like you are nothing, that you can't even help your own children, you can't even protect them from humiliation, because one is in the same humiliating situation. No matter how hard you try to become someone you can't, it's just not possible.
In our society there are women who have achieved a certain status in life. But these women are rare. All positions of leadership are held by men. This is my opinion. In our society behind every woman stands a man. This is the father, or the husband, or lover, or mentor. What this means is you cannot make it in any other way. At first they will push you in your work, then perhaps make you a little more visible. Then, if you are a talented woman you can continue out on your own. This has been and shall be. The only equality of women is that women do the heaviest labor, the kind that's not in her physical capability. In general we have to sustain incredible injustices. I don't know if these can be fixed.
Medea is a 23 year old Latvian lesbian who became my pen-pal after I contacted her through an advertisement of the U.S.- Soviet Gay and Lesbian Pen-Pal Project in March of 1991. She currently lives in Riga, although she spent a few months in England in an attempt to get citizenship so she could continue her career as pop singer and a model. Her artistic idol is Madonna, and she has performed lipsync as a Madonna impersonator across the USSR and has been reviewed in many foreign and Soviet newspapers. Madonna is her idol because she likes "extravagant sexuality and bright individuality in woman". One of Medea's big dreams is to live in America, specifically California, which she refers to as her "most favorite country". This is because she has found lesbian life in the Soviet Union "very unhappy and lonely." Although she has many gay male friends, she has found very few lesbians, and prefers to meet women from other countries.
Since she was very young, she knew she was "different" and had never felt completely at home or safe until her mother began to have gay males as friends. As Medea says:
Their life is my life. I adore every one of them. I can feel good only in Gay people society. In "normal" "natural" people society I feel very bad, sad, gloom, because I feel that nobody don't understand me...I'm homosexual since childhood and it is big happy for me that I found so long time ago my society Gay. Otherwise I probably would make killing of myself. Because "natural" men always have wanted sleep with me or rape me...But together with Gay men I always felt safe.....
But I hate be woman because I've never felt like woman. And it is hard role for me in this life -- be woman. Especially I hate be woman because almost every "natural" man want sleep with me. It is big humiliation for me. But I've been must doing it because people in Riga thought that I'm not normal and wanted to put me in clinic. And therefore I've been must do it for "normal" society.
Even her appearance as a Madonna impersonator causes problems, for she is not dressed as the "normal" Soviet woman:
In S.U. haven't lady's who looks like me. And in S. Union I ever have been big problems for my appearance. Soviet people don't understand my style right and I can't go on the street alone...I wore cloths like Boy George and Cyndi Lauper. My hair was pink, red, yellow, blue, green, etc. Soviet people was very shocked and thought that I'm crazy!
Since I've begun corresponding with Medea, I've been trying to send her as much information (newspapers, magazines, books, etc) about gay and lesbian life in the U.S. At the moment, however, mail delivery anywhere in the former republics is not trustworthy, so we have been simply been trying to stay in contact.
What do you know about Ukrainian men?
Some of what I know about Ukrainian men I learned from my mother. As a child I wondered why my mother had married an American, when all of my Ukrainian friends had Ukrainian fathers. She did not explain fully, as I was pretty young, but she made it clear to me that she did not want to be under her husband's control, and when she told me more about my grandfather, I began to understand why. My grandfather was extremely strict with his daughters. He forbade my mother to go to dances before she was eighteen, and generally dictated all the rules and regulations of the household. In contrast, it was the women of the household that did most of the work (my grandfather had various jobs outside the home as a janitor, painter, or factory worker). My mother also implied that my grandfather, a university-educated man, married my illiterate grandmother precisely because he knew she could never stand up to his education. My grandmother also corroborates this perception, but adds that he was always a good provider, and took "good care" of her as regarded reproductive responsibilities. He didn't really try to please her sexually, however, and Baba told me that she pretty much couldn't wait form him to get off of her.
My own experiences with Ukrainian men first occurred in my childhood with immigrant men that I met through my mother's community. As I got older, I noticed rampant sexism pervaded this community. For example, when I was about ten, I asked a friend's father if he would teach me to play chess. He kindly refused because I was a girl. I told him he must be kidding (I was attending an all-girls school at the time and wasn't familiar with such blatant sexism), but he insisted it was not a game for women. Another time the altar boys at my mother's church panicked and began yelling at me when I came too close to their sacred quarters behind the church altar.
I also had to endure numerous passes and sexist comments from young Ukrainian men who toured with us on our trip to Ukraine in 1984. One young man kept insisting that he could "spot a queer a mile away" while simultaneously making passes at me!
Native Ukrainian men have not seemed much different. Although my cousin's husband is kind and helps around the flat, he also sees no conflict of interest in having a few affairs and behaving like a real "ladies man" the moment his wife is out of his presence. He not only made several advances towards me but also towards my mother.
Sexism is certainly not limited to the social and familial realms. A friend of mine who attended the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute relayed to me that she was discouraged from applying to a particular program by a male professor, while all of the men enquiring about the program were eagerly encouraged to apply.
Did you realize any Ukrainian class issues -- give me an example...your parents?
I became gradually aware of Ukrainian class issues by observing the way my middle class friends treated my grandmother with disrespect, and by the way I often felt superior to my Ukrainian friends who had a lower economic status. I went to private schools, they did not. I lived in a wealthier neighborhood. I felt less bound to the culture than they did, and thus far more cosmopolitan.
I also learned about Ukrainian class differences from my mother. For many years, I had believed that she came from a working class background, only to find out that she vehemently denied this. I had assumed that because she was poor as a child, and because her family was poor in America, that she was definitely from the working class. My mother explained, however, that her family was not working class because my grandfather had had a higher education, and had come from a family of cattle ranchers who had owned their own property prior to collectivization. I didn't understand that for my mother, education meant the difference in class status.
The issue is complicated because what is working class in Ukraine today by our standards is not necessarily so to Ukrainians, just as their standards of living and luxury differ from ours. I consider my cousins to be working class: my cousin's husband drives a bus, and my cousin used to work in a factory -- yet they are economically better off than most by having a their own car and dacha. Finally, there's always the hypocrisy of what "working class" really means in both communist and post-communist Ukraine. Certainly all of the country's communist leaders must have been working class in order to attain their positions of power -- but "working class" is a meaningless phrase when describing leaders who's lives are luxurious compared to the standards of living of the average person. And the economic gap between the two classes is not any smaller now in post-communist Ukraine, as the people in power now are mostly former communists who still retain their former connections and privileges.
What are your thoughts about the future of the former USSR, including Ukraine as a nation, etc.
I think that the future of Ukraine and the other former republics is shaky. I think that the Baltics may have the best chance because they were not oppressed by communism for as long, and the people there may still remember what it takes to get a market economy going. From my mother's experiences in a free Ukraine, she does not see any immediate change for the better occurring. Certainly there is more freedom of the press, but even this freedom is not guaranteed in all circumstances, and the government controls the media more than the West would like to believe. Although he won his office last December in a generally free and fair election, President Kravchuk, the former president of the Communist party in Ukraine, is an authoritarian at heart. His government has recently hauled reporters from two newspapers into court for published criticisms of his government. Moreover, Kravchuk, through the official news agency, threatened to expel Ukrainians from the diaspora for uttering criticisms of his government during and after the World Forum of Ukrainians.
As my cousin wrote in her last letter:
Ukraine now exists [as a nation]. But the government has been the same as before. It is not to the advantage of the people in the government to make reforms in society. These people have all been left in leadership positions. Earlier they were called "democrats" of the communist party and they were located in all the regions and counties of Ukraine. Now all these people are called representatives. There are very few new people who are breaking through as true democrats. And it is difficult for them to make progress because they are being halted by threats.
Now there is such chaos in Ukraine. Laws are not obeyed, the government is falling apart. Nobody is responsible for anything, and nobody takes care of anything. Many people are losing hope that there will ever be better times. People are just trying to exist from day to day, each person for themselves. Family members try to support one another. Survival here is very hard.
Prices for consumer goods and food are increasing exponentially, so much so that butter has gone from 6 kopeks to 400 rubles in less than a year. At this time the exchange rate for Ukrainian coupons (temporary currency until the new hryvnia is introduced) 700 to the dollar. Inflation is increasing approximately 60% each month.
However, the groundwork for progress is being laid. The first wave of two groups of Peace Corps Volunteers will arrive soon. One group will be teaching English in the schools; the other will be helping small businesses get started. Over 70 U.S. business are now investing in Ukraine. And Ukrainians in the diaspora are mobilizing each day to bring their talents and skills back to the country they left so long ago.
How have perestroika and glasnost affected the ex-Soviet society?
I think that both perestroika and glasnost started the process of free thought and free speech that eventually went "out of control" by communist standards. I don't think that Gorbachev had any idea that his reforms would set into motion one of the largest bloodless revolutions in history, and although a part of me will always admire him for beginning the process that led to Ukraine's freedom, I think Gorbachev would have thought twice about what he was doing had he anticipated its effects upon his own power. The effects upon Ukrainian society are tremendous. For example, when I visited Ukraine in 1984, no Ukrainian native would be seen speaking to me within any vicinity of a government building or an Intourist hotel. I remember communicating to relatives via pads of paper or following them outside the building to "have a chat". Phone conversations were always marked by the clicking sound of wire taps.
Now hundreds of publications abound and everyone is interested in politics. A plethora of political parties exist, although Ukrainians are still trying to understand how the process of gaining support for a party works.
Still, the effects of perestroika and glasnost are not fully realized. Economic reform is slow, and there are many former communist leaders still in positions of power that slow change by complicating bureaucracy. Most of the land is still owned by the state, and privately owned cooperatives and shops are still in the minority. Furthermore, the sense of openness that initially swept the country is diminishing as Ukraine struggles to develop itself as a nation. For example, sometimes my taped letters to my cousin contain erasures about undesirable topics (in my case -- a discussion of the recent San Francisco Gay Freedom Day!). Letters have arrived torn up and obviously read. And another by-product of communism, corruption, makes it impossible to send parcels of any worth overseas (even old clothing) as the contents are immediately ransacked and often stolen by mail personnel. I have already discussed how the government is warning citizens against the diaspora's negative influence.
I think that a conscious sense of feminism is not going to form quickly among Ukrainian women. First glasnost brought the freeing up of speech and thought. Now the Ukrainian people are trying to change the basic structure of their lives: how to find work, how to buy property, and how to learn a new language (for those who live in the largely Russified eastern Ukraine). In a very real sense, Ukrainian women are busy with the process of surviving the transition from a communist to a capitalist economy. My relatives are too busy hunting for potatoes and sugar to think about organizing consciousness raising groups -- or even to protest against lack of women representatives in the congress. Many women do not see their problems in relation to Western feminism at all. My cousin's mother read some articles from "Woman and Earth" that I had mailed to her and kept muttering that she didn't understand any of it.
Glasnost has also encouraged religious freedom as well as the freedom to propagate stereotypes. I know that the Ukrainian Orthodox faith is taking a stronger hold each day -- and is successful not only because of cultural pride but because of the population's need for solace during these incredibly tumultuous times. Stereotypes are propagated through traditional western forms as well. In Perestroika and Soviet Women, Solomea Pavlychko notes that
This misogyny appears in different forms -- women's beauty and loving heart are idealized in poetry, written by men. In fiction, women are usually depicted as emotional creatures with a longing towards 'true love'. The walls of the subways in big cities are plastered with pornographic posters. Numerous beauty contests have become a major television entertainment...This list goes on....[The] roots [of this phenomena], however, lie not only in the legacy of seventy-two years of communist regimes, but also in a strong peasant ethos, in Christian traditions and in certain aspects of Ukrainian history and culture specific to a non-sovereign country. (p. 84)
Another increasingly popular concept is the "ancient cult of Berehynia" which promotes the cult of the mother, the child, and the home and hearth as the most desirable ambition for a Ukrainian woman to attain. Much of the characteristics of this cult are nostalgic and remind one of Ukrainian peasant life in the small villages centuries ago. In reality, then, this concept of the "salvation of rural culture" is equated with the entire national culture, which also means that old peasant patriarchal structures are once again being encouraged and revered. (p.91) (Italic lines cited from Perestroika and The Soviet Woman, ed. Mary Buckley, Cambridge University Press, 1992
Finally, Ukrainian women historically have rarely considered themselves
as acting feminists in their own behalf. I think of the title of Martha
Bohachevsky-Chomiak's ground breaking work Feminists Despite
Themselves and think of how those words apply to the Ukrainian
women in my life. My stoic grandmother considers herself to be devoutly
religious within the patriarchal framework of Orthodoxy, she supports the
idea that women should be priests. Baba also unequivocally supports a
woman's right to choose, especially as her own mother died in an abortion
attempt. My mother refuses to think of herself as a feminist, yet equally
refuses to remain in a traditional female role - either at work or within
the Ukrainian community, and often thinks of herself as "one of the
boys". It's simply a question of perspective for both western
feminists and post-Soviet women, perspectives on issues all too familiar
to all women.
© 1992 Julie Murphy
As published in Women's Glasnost vs. Naglost: Stopping Russian Backlash by Tatyana Mamonova