UKRAINE ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM SELECTION OF ARTICLES, REPRINTS, AND COMMUNICATIONS CONCERNING THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE IN EUROPE NEW YORK CITY, 1919 Published by the Ukrainian National Committee of the U. S. 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City TABLE OF CONTENTS From President Wilson's Memorial Address in France 3 Ethnographic Ukraine 4 Ukrainian Memorial to the President of the United States 7 Memorial Drawn up to President Wilson by the Ukrainian National Council of Lviv .' 9 Historical Background of the Struggle of the Nationalities of Galicia 14 West Ukraine . (Statistical Survey) 24 Kholm 26 The Problem of the Ukrainian Province of Kholm 30 The Ukraine (From the Edinburgh Review) 39 The Ukraine, a New Nation. By Frederic Austin Ogg 49 The Ukraine, Past and Present. By Nevin O. Winter 57 The Economic Importance of the Ukraina 63 A Ukrainian Address in the Former Austrian Parliament 66 Resolutions Drawn up to President Wilson by the Mass-Meeting at Cooper Union Hall on January 16, 1919 71 Ukraine and Russia 72 Polish Imperialistic Designs Towards East Galicia 73 The Imperial Academy of Sciences in Petrograd and the Ukrainian Language 74 A Song without Words; a Story Reminiscent of the Tsarist Rule in Ukraine 75 The Flight of the Three Brothers from Azov; a Poem Translated from the Ukrainian 76 "You are aware, as I am aware, that the airs of an older day are beginning to stir again, that the standards of an old order are trying to assert themselves again. There is here and there an attempt to insert into the counsel of statesmen the old reckoning of selfishness and bargaining and national advantage which were the roots of this war, and any man who counsels these things ad vocates a renewal of the sacrifice which these men have made; for, if this is not the final battle for right, there will be another that will be final. Let these gentlemen who suppose that it is pos sible for them to accomplish this return to an order of which we are ashamed, and that we are ready to forget, realize they cannot accomplish it. The peoples of the world are awake and the peo ples of the world are in the saddle. Private counsels of statesmen cannot now and cannot hereafter determine the destinies of na tions. If we are not the servants of the opinion of mankind, we are of all men the littlest, the most contemptible, the least gifted with vision. If we do not know courage, we cannot accomplish our pur pose, and this age is an age which looks forward, not backward; which rejects the standard of national selfishness that once gov erned the counsels of nations and demands that they shall give way to a new order of things in which the only questions will be, 'Is it right?' 'Is it just?' 'Is it in the interest of mankind?' "This is a challenge that no previous generation ever dared to give ear to." a (From President Wilson's Memorial Day Address at Suresnes Cemetery, France ) The above is the ethnographic map of Ukraine, comprising a territory of 330,000 sq. mi., nearly seven times that of New York State. The population of ethnographic Ukraine is nearly 50 million : 38 million Ukrainians, who in a compact mass inhabit the territory extending from the Carpathians to the Caucasus and from the Pripet River to the Black Sea; the remainder, over 10 million, consists of national minorities — Muscovites, Jews, Tatars, Poles, Greeks, and others, all of whom either live in small groups as the Tatars in the Crimea and the Muscovites near the Sea of Azov, or else they are scattered over the whole of Ukraine. The capital of Ukraine is Kiev, an old city with a population of over 600,000. Odessa is the largest seaport, having now a population of over 800,000. The natural wealth of Ukraine is greater than that of any other country in Europe. Practically all of Ukraine lies in the so-called Black Earth Belt, a soil that is unexcelled for the production of wheat. The Kateri- noslav District in the Donets Basin is exceptionally rich in good coal and iron ore. Near the Carpathians in Galicia there are many excellent pockets of oil. There are large oil fields also in the Kuban District, which has been inhabited by the Zaporozhian Cossacks since 1784. Salt is mined in Galicia, in Ukraine in the vicinity of Kharkov, and near the Sea of Azov. Other natural resources abound throughout Ukraine. The climate of Ukraine is very pleasant and salubrious. Ukraine is distinguished also for its natural beauty; the Ukrainian sky and the Ukrainian night are famous in European literature. The Ukrainian people are a people of an ancient culture; they are an individualistic people who cherish, value, and defend the individual rights — 5 — of the citizens, and particularly of the kernel of the Ukrainian people, the farmers, who are a most stable basis for a modern democratic State. For nearly 1000 years the Ukrainian people have been successfully de fending their ethnographic territories from eastern and western invaders. In spite of the terrible wars the Ukrainian people have fought in the course of history, they have not yielded an inch on their western frontier; in the northeast, east, southeast, and south, they have colonized new lands. The Ukrainian people are famed in history as a really democratic people. Already by the time of Cromwell, Ukraine was a republic with an elected president called Hetman and with other elected state officers. When Poland conquered Ukraine, she introduced the Polish feudal system of slavery and brought the Polish nobility with its concomitant tyranny and oppression. The Ukrainian people rebelled repeatedly against this oppression and slavery. Every Ukrainian war against Poland was a war for the emancipation of the Ukrainian people from Polish slavery. In 1654 the greater part of Ukraine united with Muscovy. Soon after, when Muscovy grew into the large Russian Empire, scheming for world dominion and basing her imperialistic policies upon a centralistic, auto cratic regime, she gradually deprived the Ukrainians of all national rights and made the Ukrainian Republic into a mere Russian province. The Ukra inian people struggled ceaselessly against this subjection. Not until the collapse of the Central European and Russian Empires last fall did there come an end to Polish and Muscovite tyranny in Ukraine. The Polish and Muscovite imperialists, however, refuse to acknowledge this change. The Polish imperialists desire to restore the Polish Empire of 1772 by the force of arms; the Muscovite imperialists are equally desirous of restoring the Russia which existed before March 15, 1917, when the Rus sian Czar signed his last decree. The Polish imperialists began their war for conquest against their east ern neighbors, the Ukrainians, White Ruthenians, and Lithuanians. They occupied Ukrainian Kholm, invaded Polissye (in the neighborhood of the Pripet River) and Volhynia, and started a determined war against the newly organized Republic of Galician Ukraine. The Polish war against the Ukrainian Republic of East Galicia (known lately as West Ukraine) was waged bitterly for six months before the Polish Junkers were successful in driving the Ukrainian troops out of the young Ukrainian Republic. The Polish side in the war is taken by the corrupt nobility, and by men trained in the school of Prussian Kultur pro pagated by such politicians as Roman Dmowski, Stanislaw Grabski, and other leaders of the Pan-Polish party, which emulates in detail the policies and methods of the defeated Prussian Junkers. In opposition to these Polish Junkers and their designs are the four million Ukrainians of East ern Galicia, who include an intelligent and progressive peasantry, a small number of industrial laborers, and tens of thousands of intellectuals form ing an intelligentsia that is really of the people, because it has grown from the ranks of the people, works for the people, and is the people's natural guide in their struggle for liberty; it is not like the Polish intelligentsia, which is an exclusive caste distinct from the people, and which lives its own separate life. — 6 — The Ukrainian people must, of course, defend themselves resolutely against these designs of the Polish imperialists, as also against the greed of the Muscovite imperialists, until they have won justice and until the reign of brutal force has fallen. In this struggle for democracy which the Ukrainian people have been carrying on for 400 years and in which they have never lost their hope and determination, they have a right to count on the assistance of other demo cratic nations and to expect the people of America and England in parti cular not to abandon them. After this long struggle of 400 years' dur ation, a time has come when these two powerful democracies of western civilization can and should lend Ukraine a helping hand. America and England should be well aware of the fact that the re storation of Ukrainian liberty would mean the establishment and insurance of peace in Eastern Europe, just as the continued enslavement of the Ukrainian people would be the best guarantee of ceaseless strife in East ern Europe. Without regard, however, to whether these two mighty democracies aid Ukraine or not, the Ukrainian people will never give up their struggle for liberty; they will never submit to slavery; they will dedicate everything to the attainment of freedom. Ukrainian immigrants in the United States, Canada, and Brazil are rising to the assistance of the Ukrainian people. These immigrants come mainly from Eastern Galicia;* hence they regard it as their first duty to defend that Ukrainian province from the invasion of Polish Junkers. In the United States, Canada, and Brazil, the Ukrainians have organized themselves for the defense of their brothers in Eastern Galicia; they have firmly resolved to give their best efforts to a noble cause: the liberation of their native land, East Galicia, from the Polish yoke, and the union of East Galicia to the mother Kiev State, the Ukrainian People's Republic. * There are 800,000 Ukrainian immigrants from East Galicia in the United States; 300,000 in Canada, and 100,000 in Brazil; while there are practically no Polish immigrants from that country, because the only Poles in East Galicia are the nobility and the government officials. UKRAINIAN MEMORIAL TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES To His Excellency WOODROW WILSON, President of the United States. Mr. President: The Ukrainians of the United States, organized through the medium of their national institutions and associations in this country, having formed a central political organization known as the Ukrainian National Com mittee of the United States, respectfully represent: That they are desirous of having introduced and established in their motherland, Ukraine, and the adjacent Russian territory, American ideals of government and the Amer ican system of education in order to perpetuate sound democratic principles among their people, and to avert future conflict among races in Eastern Europe which were formerly antagonistic to one another, and to that end respectfully request that the President exercise his great influence and kind offices in this behalf: 1. That the Ukrainian ethnographic territory be recognized as one and indivisible. 2. That the ethnographic contents of Ukraine include the larger part of the former Austrian province of Galicia (61%, or the eastern territory as far westward as the River San) ; the northern half of the former Aus trian province of Bukovina; Hungarian Ruthenia; and the province of Kholm, which last-named province was voted by the Russian Imperial Duma as far back as 1912 to be attached to the Kiev General Government, yet was surrendered to Poland by the Austrian and German military authorities, despite the so-called Brest-Litovsk treaty of peace. These districts, to gether with Ukraine proper in Southern Russia, constitute the ethno graphic Ukrainian State and should be accorded the sovereign powers of statehood. 3. That the inhabitants of this ethnographic Ukraine, as above out lined, be accorded their natural right and opportunity of national self- determination through their Constituent Assembly to be elected by free popular vote. 4. That if the eventualities of the Peace Conference, soon to be held at Versailles, should result in the recommendation of a free federation of the peoples inhabiting the territory of former Russia, then that Ukraine be accorded its right and opportunity, as an individual entity, to enter into a free union with the peoples of former Russia on a federalistic basis similar to that which obtains in the United States under the American Federal Compact. We are seriously apprehensive that if the eastern part of the former Austrian province of Galicia extending westward to the River San, and if the province of Kholm in former Russia be not included within the ethno graphic lines of demarcation as indicated in paragraph 2 of this Memorial, perpetual strife and turmoil will go on concerning this contested territory, and an Alsace-Lorraine situation will spring up in Eastern Europe. Eastern Galicia has been since 1848 the seat of modern Ukrainian cul ture, and from time immemorial has been clearly defined as Ukrainian land, as likewise has the Province of Kholm. Hence, we solicit the constructive aid of your Excellency in establishing democratic order and stability in Ukraine, as well as in opening up com mercial and industrial relations between our productive motherland and the United States. We feel that America at its earliest opportunity should avail itself of the rich resources and productivity of Ukraine, and thus prevent its ex ploitation by interests adverse and inimical. We tender ourselves ready and eager to answer any and every call of the American Government for any service on our part which may tend to ward the attainment of these ends. We shall exert ourselves to the utmost to have the democratic sentiments and sound American views, which are maintained and held by the Ukrainians in America, reflected upon our com patriots in the territory comprising the ethnographic Ukraine, so that through our helpful agency the inculcation of these same principles may be fostered and propagated for the amelioration of their condition and the founding of a Ukrainian Republic based on justice and right. New York City, November 29, 1918. UKRAINIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE UNITED STATES, By its Executive Committee, (Very Rev.) Peter Poniatishin, Chairman, Dr. Cyril D. Billik, Vice-Chairman, Viadimir B. Lototrky, Secretary. MEMORIAL Drawn up to the President of the United States of America by the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Council of Lviv, which acts as the •provisional government of the Galician-Ukrainian State constructed of the Ukrainian territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Mr. President: The provisional government of the independent Galician State which arose recently from the Ukrainian territories of the former Austro-Hun garian Monarchy begs to inform the President that in accordance with the principle declared by him, the Ukrainian people of Austria-Hungary elected the Ukrainian National Council at the national Constituent Assembly held in Lviv, which Assembly simultaneously passed a resolution to unite the Ukrainian territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy into one independent State. The Ukrainian National Council was established through the election of an Executive Committee of nine, which as the provisional government will attend to the affairs of the State. In the name of this newly-founded State, its government has now the honor of replying to the note of the Secretary of State of the United States of America addressed on the 18th of October to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Austria-Hungary, inasmuch as the Ministry no longer exists and the note is in reality addressed to all the sovereign peoples of the Austro- Hungarian Monarchy. The above-mentioned note contains a refusal to enter into negotiations with the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy concerning an armistice or peace, be cause, as was stated, the Czecho-Slovaks and Jugo-Slavs, being in a state of war with this Monarchy, have the right to decide upon their own future. This note contains no mention of other peoples. It does not mention the Ukrainian people, which in Austria-Hungary numbers more than four million souls. The Ukrainians of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy do not admit that there should be any discrimination between the peoples which are in a state of war with the Monarchy and others, because if there were suffi cient motives for making such a discrimination in the matter of an armi stice, that act would be inconsistent with the principles advocated by the President concerning the right of every civilized people to unrestricted self-determination. The issue consists in this — how to form a League of Free Nations which would be founded upon the liberty of states and democratic principles. The Ukrainian people believes that the principle of unrestricted self- determination of peoples advocated by the President applies equally to the Ukrainian people. The government of the Ukrainian State in the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy grants the President that if there is any lack — 10 — of clearness in his note concerning the various peoples of the Monarchy, it is due to the fact that these peoples neglected, to their detriment, to ac quaint the political world with their existence and with their efforts. Let it be permitted us to state a few facts in the matter concerning the Ukrainian people. From the ninth to the middle of the thirteenth century the Ukrainian people formed a mighty independent state, the ancient Duchy of Kiev, which extended from the San to the Don, and in the south, as far as the Black Sea. This state, which was the foremost defender of civilization in Eastern Europe, crumbled to ruin in the thirteenth century. The one and only cause of this unfortunate collapse was the invasion of Asiatic hordes and nomadic tribes which at different times overran and devastated Ukrainian lands. Poland and Muscovy (Great Russia), finding themselves in more favorable circumstances, saw an opportunity to profit by the difficult position of the .ruined Duchy; they seized and appropriated various of its territorial pos sessions. By the Treaty of Andrussovo (1667) the Duchy of Kiev (called from this time Ukraine) was divided between two states. Poland and Muscovy shamelessly exploited this rich country and mercilessly oppressed its population. Polish nobles seized large stretches of land, and the Mus covites forbade the use of the Ukrainian language. By the partition of Poland, the remainder of Ukraine was annexed to Russia, with the exception of Eastern Galicia which went under the rule of Austria. It is true that the Ukrainians struggled against national oppression for whole centuries. In the sixteenth century they organized on the Lower Dnie per a Cossack Republic, which was founded upon broad democratic prin ciples, with an elected Hetman or chief. Under the leadership of Hetmans Chmelnicky and Doroshenko, this political Cossack organization succeeded in uniting all the Ukrainian lands and in winning their complete freedom for some time. But enemies sap ped the strength of this organization, and Empress Catherine II dissolved it. Let it be permitted us to add here that the Ukrainian people was able with its own resources to establish a political organization which was de mocratic and republican in fact, the only such political organization in all Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. From that time the Ukrainian people has always striven for a democratic and constitutional form of government. It could not realize its aspirations until the present political period amidst the awful war of peoples. The World War has greatly changed the position of the Ukrainian people. One of the greatest miracles which this war of nations has per formed is the resurrection of this nation of 40 million souls. To-day this nation is celebrating its resurrection. The disintegration of Imperial Russia — that artificial conglomerate- was an impulse to the Ukrainian people to build for itself an independent, democratic, and republican State with the capital at Kiev, and in this way to restore the ancient Duchy of Kiev. It is possible, however, that the present form of its efforts to get liberty will not meet full sanction. Al though the young State had to submit to a foreign guardianship, we expect the resurrected Ukrainian State to be able to maintain its existence and to take its place m the future League of Free Nations, in accordance with the principle of unrestricted self-determination advocated by the President We can expect this all the more when we observe that it is to the interest of universal peace that the old Colossus of the East should not be rebuilt- it would again try to resume its imperialistic aspirations. The establishment of an independent Ukrainian State set free 40 mil lion Ukrainians living in the country extending from the Zbruch and the Pripet to beyond the Don. Four and a half million Ukrainians were left outside the boundaries of the Ukrainian State; it is the aspiration of our people to unite all Ukrainian territories into one political whole. That part of the Ukrainian people which is still struggling for its liberty de serves our special sympathy. Its fate is still uncertain, and its national enemies, Poles and Magyars, oppress it mercilessly. The national territory which is the object of this great dispute comprises the following lands of — li the former Monarchy: the so-called Eastern Galicia, from the River San (with the towns Yaroslav and Sianik) to the Zbruch, with the capital Lviv; the northwestern part of Bukovina (with the towns Chernivtsi, Sto- rozinets, and Sereth) to the River Sereth; and finally the northern part of Hungary, with the important towns of Marmarosh-Sihot, Mukachiv, and Uzhorod. All this territory is the inheritance of the Ukrainian people; all natural and historical facts testify that these lands should be returned to the sovereignty of the Ukrainian people. At the time when the ancient Duchy of Kiev flourished, all the above- mentioned territory was a constituent part of the Duchy. Yaroslav the Wise, son of the Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir the Great, built the town Yaroslav on the banks of the San as a defense against the neighboring Poles. After the fall of the Duchy of Kiev, another Ukrainian state arose on this territory — the Duchy of Halich- Vladimir, the chief towns of which were Kholm, Halich, Peremishl, and Lviv. In 1254, during the reign of Duke Danilo, this state was raised with the Pope's sanction to the rank of a Kingdom, with the capital at Halich (whence the name Galicia or Halichina). Near the end of the thirteenth century the house of the Halich dukes died out. The Poles and Magyars then began their depredations upon this fertile country. After a few generations, this territory was seized by Poland. The Polish domination made the Ukrainian people the proletariat of its own country. Polish starostas (feudal magnates with military and admin istrative rights) appropriated the richest estates and made feudal servants of the peaceful peasants. Ukrainian towns were filled with Polish officials, clerks, artisans, and other Polish elements, all of which received special privileges from the king. In the first partition of Poland (1772), the kingdom of Galicia and Volodimir (a corruption of Halich and Vladimir) was annexed to the Aus trian Monarchy as a crown land. This territory would certainly have be come an autonomous Ukrainian province, if its fate had been dependent upon the wish of the majority of the population. But changes arose in the development of the Austrian Empire which brought about the surrender of the Ukrainian people into the hands of the Polish minority. In 1793 Austria conquered a part of the Polish Kingdom ; she seized the Grand Duchy of Cracow with its environs and the Duchies of Oswencim and Zator, which were permanently annexed to the Austrian Monarchy by the Treaty of Shenbrun in 1809. The Republic of Cracow existed even in 1846. This territory was given the name of New Galicia and later Western Galicia. The Polish aristocracy, enjoying special favors from the Hapsburg Dynasty, persuad ed Emperor Francis Joseph to unite Ukrainian Galicia to the Polish Grand Duchy of Cracow and to the Polish Duchies of Oswencim and Zator, and to call all this land the Kingdom of Galicia and Volodimir (Ukrainian Volo dimir ia on the Bug) with the Grand Duchy of Cracow and the Duchies of Oswencim and Zator. In this way the Ukrainian territory was surrendered to the Poles, the worst enemies of our people. The Ukrainian people pro tested in vain; for in spite of all protests an artificial Polish majority and a Polish hegemony were set up in this territory. Fifty years of compulsory life with the Poles, under the Austrian yoke, constitute the period of continuous struggle between the Ukrainian people and its Polish oppressors, who, enjoying the favors of the central govern ment, seized the administration of the country and gave to the institutions of the land and even to the towns an artificial Polish character. At the same time the class of Polish landowners, the so-called shlachta, used every possible means for the social exploitation of the Ukrainian population, hav ing the sanction of the central government for this oppression. It is true that in spite of all this oppression the Ukrainian people was able to produce a numerous intelligentsia. By overcoming great difficulties this intelligentsia succeeded in instituting Ukrainian secondary schools, and eventually founded important economic organizations which spread over the — 12 — whole country. The master stroke of this great intellectual movement and a realization of the efforts to get liberty was the foundation in Lviv of an academy of arts and sciences under the name of the Shevchenko Society. For this part of the Ukrainian people, the hour of freedom struck when the moldering political organization of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire began to fall to pieces as a consequence of the Great War and equally as a consequence of the principle declared by the President. Our brothers in Russian Ukraine profited by the collapse of the Russian Empire and de clared an independent Ukrainian State ; in a similar manner the Ukrainians of Austria-Hungary profited by the disintegration of the Dual Monarchy and convoked a Constituent Assembly in Lviv on the 18th of October. On the 19th of October this Assembly declared the independence of all the Ukrainian territory in the old Dual Monarchy and founded a sovereign State with the capital at Lviv. The Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Council, acting as the provisional government Of the State, begs to inform the President about the formation of this new State. The territory of this State comprises the following lands: 1. All of Eastern Galicia or the real Galicia (the old Duchy of Halich- Vladimir), whose western boundary is formed by the River San. Also Lemkivshchina, which, though it belongs to Western Galicia, has a solid Ukrainian majority. 2. The Ukrainian part of Bukovina; i. e., the districts of Viznitsya, Zastavna, Kitsman, and Vashkivtsi, and also parts of the districts of Sto- rozinets, Chernivtsi, and Sereth. 3. The Ukrainian territory of Northeastern Hungary, consisting of the following townships: Marmarosh-Sihot, Uhocha, Bereh, Uzhorod, Zemplin, Sharosh, and a part of Selesh (Zios). In this territory there is a population of 6% million, of which the Ukra inians form a majority of 70 per cent, or more. Mr. President: It could have been expected that the national enemies of the Ukrainian people, having settled themselves comfortably in our land — which for several centuries belonged to them by right of might only — would even now, in spite of the fact that the World War sounded the death knell for all im perialism and annexationism, advance claims to some parts of our young State. Thanks to the ideas of national freedom and of democracy and brotherhood of free peoples, which the President proclaimed, a new era is dawning for us — an era which forces victory out of the talons of brutal might and which in its triumphal march is attracting the whole world. The Poles more than anyone else are very loath to part with Ukrainian Galicia and also with Kholm and Polissye, which are exceptionally wealthy and fertile territories. They are employing every possible means to annex these lands to the Polish crown. For some time the Poles were offering the crown to the Hapsburg Dynasty, hoping in this way to get possession of Eastern Galicia. Later they sought the favor of Magyar politicians, especially Count Burian, Count Andrassy, and Count Bastian, who, how ever, feared to lose the Ukrainian population, which the Magyars exploited to the highest degree. This secret political co-operation of the exploiters exists even in the Polish Kingdom, which is at this time striving for a re publican form of government. Polish politicians wish to deceive the political world; they are endeavor ing to prove the necessity of establishing an eastern strategic frontier and are advancing claims to the so-called cultural mission in Ukrainian territory. These are arguments which should not be taken into consider ation under any circumstances, because they are incompatible with the principle proclaimed by the President, according to which principle the Polish State may comprise only those territories that are indisputably Polish, and according to which every people is to work out its destiny in its own land without any interference. With reference to the above-mentioned cultural mission in Eastern Ga licia, let us say that it is only the work of colonizers — exploitation and a poor administration of corrupt, mercenary Polish officials, founded to de- — 13 — fend the interests of demoralization and lawlessness. A half of a century of Polish administration in Galicia is the best indication of this fact. The Ukrainians desire the Polish people to develop peacefully and freely in an independent state built of ethnographically Polish territories. They wish to be on friendly terms with all neighboring peoples, including the Poles. If the greed of Polish annexationists should be satisfied, however, and if any portion of Ukrainian territory should be joined to the Polish State, friction will result in the relations of two contiguous states, and a new war will break out in Eastern Europe. Peace in Eastern Galicia can be certain and secure only through an ac curate ethnographic division of lands among the sovereign states of Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. To that end, rivers of blood were spilled in Eastern Galicia during the World War. Mr. President: The Ukrainians are a democratic people; they are the friends of liberty. Here is an instance of this fact: while laying down the general principles of the state constitution, our Constituent Assembly in Lviv regards the Jews as a distinct nation ; it grants to all national minorities the right of pro portional election, the right of national autonomy, and a representation of the interests of the minority in the government. This indicates that the political organization will rest upon an equal, immediate, and universal right of election. The most important national minority, the Jews, of whom there are one million, support our State and protest against Polish domination. Mr. President: Many thousands of Ukrainians, fleeing from the oppression and ex ploitation which obtain throughout their fatherland, found refuge and pro tection in America, the land of liberty. These Ukrainians are loyal citizens of their adopted country and faithfully discharge all their duties as citizens. With full expectation of success, the newly-formed provisional govern ment has turned to the United States and to the great thinker and diplomat, the President of these States, who was destined to bring about a new era in the history of humanity. Mr. President: We beg to impress upon the President, the fact of our State's revival, and we beg of the President to extend his powerful protection to our really democratic people, which has suffered so much. Our State intends to work out its own destiny peacefully and in con sistence with the principle advocated by the President. Events will show whether it will choose complete independence er a union with the Ukrainian People's Republic. There is no doubt but that the final decision will answer the aspirations of our whole people. We claim the right to send represent atives to the Peace Conference, in order that we may there fully benefit by the right of self-determination. The provisional government protests against all declarations and dis cussions pertaining to the Ukrainian lands of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, inasmuch as it only is competent in this matter. At the same time we recommend to the President's notice the accompanying fundamental resolutions of the Ukrainian National Council, as also the resolutions of the Executive Committee. Accept, Mr. President, our deepest respects. Lviv (Lemberg), Galicia, October 1918. The Executive Committee of the Ukra inian National Council in Lviv, acting as the provisional government of the Galician- Ukraininn State constructed of Ukrainian territories formerly belonging to the old Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE STRUGGLE OF THE NATIONALITIES OF GALICIA "Galicia is a battleground of two Slavic nationalities. Where is the source of this struggle?" This question was propounded by a prominent Polish author a decade ago. This is the question which is asked now by millions of people all over the world. The question occurs of itself to every thoughtful reader of newspaper columns, which are so often full of reports about the bloody strife raging between the Poles and the Ukrainians on the battlefield of Galicia — reports of captures and recaptures of cities, of prolonged sieges, and of sanguine street battles, terminating finally in the passage of all Eastern Galicia into the hands of the Ukrainian troops, with the exception of two cities which are held by the Poles- -viz., the city of Lemberg and the city of Peremishl (in Polish, Przemysl). However new may appear the struggle between the Ukrainians and the Poles in Galicia, there is really nothing new about it. It is necessary to take only a casual glance at the history of Galicia, in order to convince oneself that this struggle was fought for many centuries. It was, in truth, sometimes subdued to a smoul dering state, but it never ended. To give the cause of the struggle in a nutshell, one feels tempted to quote the words of a famous French writer: "They were enemies because they were neighbors." Since the very first Slavonic settlement of this country, a settle ment which dates back to pre-historic times, the country was di vided racially. At the beginning of history, Galicia did not exist. But the racial feud existed already. Along the banks of the River San and farther north along the River Vistula, ran the ethnographic frontier between two groups of Slavic tribes, the — 15 — western group of which passed into tho structure of the Polish nationality, while the eastern group became a constituent part of the Ukrainian nationality. Both the Polish and the Ukrainian tribes changed their masters often, the Ukrainian princes of Kiev and the Polish princes of Cracow dominating them alternately. In the course of time, however, the racial affinities made for the creation of many national states. About the end of the eleventh century, from among the host of petty tribal states there came to prominence the state of the dynasty of Rostislavichi (the descendants of Prince Rostislav). From the city of Halich, on the Dniester, they began to mould all the Western Ukrainian tribes into one national unit, which they called Halichina. in Latin, Galicia. Under the leadership of Vladi mir and Yaroslav, powerful princes of the dynasty, the country became a great power. Its position between the Poles in the northwest, the Hungarians in the southwest, the nomads in the south, and the flourishing Ukrainian principalities in the east, favored commerce, and gave rise to a prosperous merchant class. Its riches invited invaders, and the country was in constant danger of an attack from the Poles and the Hungarians; while the great distance from the city of Kiev, the seat of kindred Ukrainian princes, made a quick and substantial help impossible. Left to depend upon their own powers, the Galician princes learned very soon the lesson of self-help. The external danger demanded a skilful policy against the Poles, the Hungarians, and the Lithuan ians, a new power arising in the north. By clever manoeuvring among these neighboring peoples, the Galician prince Daniel built up a powerful state which comprised not only Galicia but also Lodomeria, the Ukrainian principality of Vladimir (in Volhynia). To his zeal for commerce and industry is to be credited the origin of many cities, including the City of Leo (Lemberg) and Kholm (Holm), of which the latter became his northern capital, and the former became the capital of Galicia after his death. He was to be the last powerful prince of Galicia. The invasion of the Tartars, against whom Daniel made a heroic stand, de vastated the country and weakened it to the utmost. The ex haustion of the country increased the danger of invasion of those western neighbors who, protected by Galicia and other Ukrainian states, suffered from past invasions in a considerably less degree. The trouble began soon after the death of Daniel. When in 1340, about seventy years after his death, the dynasty of the Galician princes became extinct, Kasimir, the king of Poland, invaded the country, but was driven out by the Ukrainians assisted by other invaders, the Tartars. Kasimir had to satisfy himself with carrying away the insignia of the princes, but several years later he in vaded the country again. This time Galicia was conquered and remained united with Poland for more than four centuries. The Polish rule of Galicia was a ruthless oppression. To be sure, the Ukrainian character of the country received an official — 16 — recognition from the Polish government. When Galicia was made, the Ukrainian territory remained for the entire duration of the Polish dominion, a separate administrative unit known as the Palatinate of Ruthenia. But the Poles did all in their power to' obliterate that Ukrainian character of the province. Immediately after its incorporation with Poland, merciless persecutions were started against the upper classes with the object of their complete denationalization and Polonization. After the obstinate ones had been driven from the country or killed in the wars, and those willing to deny their nationality had been rewarded with social re cognition by the Polish nobility, the rest of the people were reduced to serfdom. A Ukrainian was not permitted to hold any public office, or to study in the schools. In the City of Lemberg, once the capital of Galicia, the Ukrainians were allowed to build churches and make processions only in one single street two blocks long, which up to the present day is called the Ukrainian Street. Whereas all the cultural life in those times was centred around the church, and the Galician Ukrainians were then of the Eastern Church, this church was subjected to most trying restrictions and persecutions. Even after the Ukrainians of Galicia had accepted the supremacy of the Pope of Rome in dogmatic matters, preserving at the same time their Eastern rites, the persecutions did not stop, and the new church, known as the Uniate Church, was persecuted just as severely as was the Orthodox Church. The oppression stirred up a counteraction. The first struggle was fought by the Ukrainian aristocracy and nobility. After they had been suppressed or had given up the struggle in exchange for personal comforts and social distinction, the cities through their guilds and brotherhoods continued the struggle for centuries. However heroic and stubborn was their stand, it was a losing fight: the rule of the Polish nobility ruined not only the Ukrainian towns people, but the Polish as well. Even an abundant infusion of German immigration could not raise the cities from complete eco nomic ruin. In this critical moment, the townspeople received support from the most glorious movement in the history of Ukraine, known under the name of Gossackdom. From insignificant looting parties which plundered the Tartars and the Turks, grew an organization so vast that it eventually became national in its character and began to champion the emancipation of the Ukrainian serfs, the rights of religious freedom, and the national independence of Ukraine. At the time when Cromwell's revolution was imprinting its indelible stamp on England's soul, the whole Ukraine was united in an upheaval against her social, religious, and national oppressor. The result of the uprising was the liberation of the eastern part of Ukraine from the Polish rule. The western part, including Galicia, remained under Polish tyranny for more than a century. Long struggles exhausted the country, and the people, tired and weary with centuries of fruitless wars, succumbed in a torpor of — 17 — exhaustion. Deprived of their intellectual leaders, denied an ac cess to culture and civilization, subject to brutal exploitation, they seemed finally to have acquiesced to their fate. But from every oppression not only the oppressed suffers but the oppressor as well. Having conquered a vast empire, the Polish nobility degenerated through laziness and luxury. Upon the stag nation of the intellectual life among the townspeople and villagers, followed a still worse stagnation among the ruling class. The nobleman's exemption from all restrictions engendered intolerance and egotism, and destroyed all patriotism. Political freedom of the nobility degenerated into anarchy, which made any progress of the country impossible. Such a Poland had to fall. The empire remained intact for a long time in spite of all disrupting forces. The Ukrainian Cossack uprising, however, brought Poland into conflict with Muscovite tsars, with whom the Cossacks made a union, in order to gain an ally. The union did not help Ukraine but it brought about the ruin of Poland. The Russian tsars did not stop wars and intrigues until the Polish Empire disappeared from the political map of Europe. At the first partition of Poland, the Palatinate of Ruthenia; i. e., ancient Galicia, was ceded to Austria. With it went to that power the Polish principalities of Cracow, Zator, and Oswiencim, popu lated by a compact mass of Poles, just as Ruthenia (Galicia) was populated by a compact mass of Ukrainians. One might have expected the Austrian rulers to retain the old administrative di vision of the acquired provinces, a division based upon the actual racial differentiation of the population, and to offer each nationality the right of free and unhampered development. But the Austrian Government had in view every object but this. Austrian rulers were adherents of the extreme centralist idea, and were obsessed with the desire to Germanize all the nationalities subject to their dominion. Their vast empire, a conglomerate of many racial units, they intended to hold together by creating antagonism among these units. Thus to make the paradoxical monarchy still more paradoxical, they crowned their work with a new abortive creation of their scheming mind; namely, the union of all the acquired provinces. The Polish Duchies of Cracow, Zator, and Oswiencim were incorporated into one administrative unit with the Ukrainian Palatinate of Ruthenia, once the principality of Galicia. For this artificial creation the ancient name of Galicia was revived, and since that time for almost a century and a half the name of the ancient Ukrainian state was used lo designate an Austrian "crown- land", in which the population is approximately equally divided between the Polish and the Ukrainian nationalities. The very fact that Galicia was the largest administrative unit in the whole of Europe, both in regard to its area and in regard to its population, well testifies the artificiality and absurdity of this political creation. The Austrian policy towards this new abortive progeny was the continuation of the policy that promoted the prosperity of the — 18 — Austrian Government from the very beginning. It was the same old Hapsburg policy of intrigue, malicious distortion of the free development of the national life, and of petty bureaucratic med dling, annoyances, and persecutions. The contempt of the Polish landlord and the Polish priest for the Ukrainian peasant and na tionality, on the one hand, and the hatred of the Ukrainian peasant towards the Polish landlord, on the other, were coined into re munerative capital by the Hapsburg rulers skilful in the old arti fices of "Divide et impera". The desires of the Polish aristocracy to restore tbe old splendor of the independent Polish State were held in check by clever handling of the centuries-old animosity of the Polish and Ukrainian peasantry towards the nobility. The zealous offorts of the Ukrainian patriots, inspired by the so-called Slavic Revival, to educate their people in their own language, met with very severe persecutions from the Austrian Government. The cities of Galicia were once more in the history of the country flooded with German and Germanized officials, whose only object was to exploit and to Germanize. If any steps were made in the sphere of education, they were made with the sole purpose of creating from among every nationality a host of Germanizers. Even the first beneficial measures introduced by Joseph II, which promised to alleviate the lot of the serfs were soon drowned under the bureaucratic absolutism of the Metternich epoch. In short, the annexation of Galicia by Austria failed to deliver the Ukrainians from their slavery and deprived the Poles of their na tional freedom. Metternich's absolutism searly fell in the revolution of 1848, under the blows delivered to it by the growing liberalism and the awakened nationalism of Hungary, Italy, Bohemia, and other na tionalities of the Monarchy. It was saved by the discord among the rebellious nationalities and by the help rendered the dying absolutism of Central Europe by the still vigorous absolutism of Russia. But it was destined to perish shortly afterwards when another blow was delivered to it by the unifying spirit of the Italian and, strange to say, of the German nationalism. This time the emperor saw himself compelled to grant "his peoples" a con stitution. And here again the reader might justly expect that the new constitutional period would be inaugurated by a new policy to wards the nationalities of the monarchy; that the nationalities would be granted the right of free development; that the empire would be divided into administrative units along the ethnographic frontiers, and would be transformed into a federation of auto nomous nationalities. This was the great chance of Austria. But the Emperor Francis Joseph knew well how to miss chances. Even when introducing the constitution, he refused to give up the old Hapsburg policy of ruling by dividing. To uphold the aristocracy, it was found expedient to divide the Empire into two almost fully independent parts. The Dual Monarchy took the place of one and undivided Austria. To assure the German rule — 19 — in the Austrian part of the Monarchy, it was necessary to divide the power still further. The semi-democratic rule by a pseudo-par liament required some way of securing the majority for the future "constitutional" ministries. The Germans had to look around for an ally. Any compromise with Bohemians and Ukrainians was impossible, as neither of these, at that time, had any aristocracy. Italians could not be taken into consideration because of their small number and the traditional policies of Austria. Therefore the Polish nobility of Galicia offered itself as the natural ally of the Hapsburgs and the German aristocracy. The Poles were then ready to accept such an alliance because the recent failure of their rebellions taught them the bitter lesson of the futility of armed ef forts to reconstruct the ancient Polish Kingdom. Thus along with the express Hungarian- Austrian contract, the so-called "Ausgleich" of 1867, there was made an implied contract between the Poles and the Austrian Government. By this scheme the "crownland of Galicia" was preserved in the completeness of its absurdity and anomaly. By a series of laws, the Poles of Galicia were granted the right to deal with the province according to their will. In relation to the central administrative organs, Galicia enjoyed an autonomy considerably broader than that enjoyed by any other province of Austria; internally, it was subjected to a most arbitrary rule of a small minority. The governor of Galicia was a real vice-king in his province; he could defy even the commands of the crown. Only a Pole could be nominated for this post. Similarly, all public offices of the central government which were nominated by the emperor at the recommendation of the governor were as a rule reserved for the Poles. Only a Ukrainian renegade could expect to receive a nomination. This went so far that in 1896 the governor of Galicia vetoed the decision of the senate of Lemberg University to offer the chair of the Ukrainian language to Dr. Ivan Franko, the great Ukrainian writer and philologist, widely known in the country and abroad for his scientific work. By this system of Polonization of the public offices, the cities of Galicia received a considerable infusion of Polish bureaucracy, which together with the Jewish merchant class, constitute the peculiar features of the cities to the present day. Once more Lemberg experienced a change : the receding wave of Germanizers, and the onrushing wave of the Polonizers. The same is true of the judicial branch of the Government. Here too, the rule prevailed that only a Pole could be nominated to the post. The same is true of the schools, from the universities down to the elementary schools. All of them had to serve the purpose of Polonizing the Ukrainian population. At the University of Lemberg the Ukrainian language was allowed as the idiom of in struction for a few subjects only. Every admission of a new Ukrainian professor was opposed by the Poles as a gross encroach ment upon Polish rights; every time the Poles were forced to yield, the fact was proclaimed by them as an example of Polish — 20 — magnanimity, and as a new proof of their just treatment of the Ukrainians. The use of the Ukrainian language was restricted in the teachers colleges, and a law was passed by the autonomous Diet of Galicia prohibiting the establishment of Ukrainian colleges for teachers. Four million Galician Ukrainians were not allowed to have one public, commercial, or industrial school. Polonization was the first object of the elementary schools; education the last. Therefore they were not opened in the villages where the population is purely Ukrainian. Where the school was opened after a pro longed struggle with the "boards of education", the Ukrainian language, the native tongue of the pupils, was treated as a useless foreign idiom. The Ukrainian teachers were sent to Western Galicia to deprive the Ukrainians of the patriotic services of such men. Similar obstacles were placed in the way of Ukrainian associa tions of education and enlightenment. Polish associations enjoyed the help and assistance of the public authorities — they were even forced upon the Ukrainian people by the Polish public officers — whereas the Ukrainian societies were refused the governmental recognition, necessary for their legal existence, or were persecuted by a most elaborate bureaucratic chicanery after they were allowed io organize. However improbable it may seem, still it was true that the appropriations for the assistance of the central Ukrainian enlightenment society were passed by the provincial Diet only after a favorable report had been received from the competitive Polish society. The legislative bodies were also delivered into the hands of the Poles. Formally, the Ukrainians were on a legal level with the Poles, and could elect members to the central parliament in Vienna, to the provincial Diet at Lemberg, to the autonomous legislative bodies of the districts (the so-called "district councils"), and to the local councils. The electoral laws, however, were framed in such a way as to eliminate altogether the voting power of the Ukra inians. These laws, as a rule, were patterned after the notorious class laws of Prussia, and were intended to give the minority of constituents the majority of the representatives. The first breach in this bulwark of aristocracy was made in 1906, when a general suffrage to the Austrian parliament was introduced. But even on this occasion, Galicia was placed under a set of exceptional pro visions, which so successfully destroyed all equality and universa lity of the electoral right that the Ukrainians, who constitute three- fourths of the population of Eastern Galicia, even according to Polish authorities, and who pooled 70% of the votes cast in Eastern Galicia, could elect only 25 representatives out of the total number of representatives of Eastern Galicia. The electoral laws govern ing the elections to the provincial Diet, to the district councils, and to the local councils remained Prussian up to the outbreak of the war, when all constitutional rights were suspended. It goes without saying that the power possessed by the Poles in the legislative bodies, in the courts, and other branches of the — 21 — government was used to benefit only those who possessed that power. The laws passed by the Galician Diet are one long example of the most narrow-minded caste legislation equal only to that of the Prussian Diet and the Hungarian Parliament. This legislation stifled commerce and industry and pauperized the peasantry in order that the landlords might have cheap labor. Owing to this legisla tion, Galicia, without any exaggeration, is the poorest country of Europe. The Galician courts were famous for their cynical par tiality directed against the Ukrainians. The administrative organs of the province were only lackeys of the nobility. Galician elec tions were farces renowned for tragic conclusions, arrests, killing of voters by the gendarmes, and wholesale massacres. The finan cial administration of the province enjoyed well merited proverbial notoriety. The Poles understood well the game which gave them such power over the Ukrainians, and indirectly over other non-German nationalities of Austria. The Polish representatives in the Austrian Parliament used all their influence to support the system that ad mitted them to a share in the spoils. The Polish Club in Vienna was the stanchest supporter of all governmental propositions, and the Hapsburg could always rely upon it when a bill providing an increase of the navy or the army was introduced in the parliament. Thus the Poles became part and parcel of the system that was grinding the non-German nationalities of Austria and the non- Magyar nationalities of Hungary for the benefit of three privileged nationalities. The war did not break the old friendship between the Poles and the Hapsburgs; it rather strengthened it. Immediately after the declaration of the war, the Poles of Austria declared themselves unreservedly on the side of the Central Powers. Polish legions of volunteers were organized and the Polish volunteers in the German armies soon numbered tens of thousands. The privileged position of the Austrian Poles was used as the argument for the Austro-German orientation, according to which Austria and Ger many, in case of victory, were bound to establish an independent Polish state. To be sure, Germany was not expected to yield to this state her Polish provinces. But why should Germany or Austria be opposed to Polish occupation of the non-Polish territory stretching east of the genuinely Polish country? The Poles were reminded of the old glory of Poland ruling the Ukrainian black earth to the very Dnieper and almost to the Black Sea. Why could not the Poles be recompensed for the loss of Polish land to the benefit of Prussia by vast stretches of Lithuanian, White Ruthen- ian, and Ukrainian territories? In such case, Poland would be perhaps much more powerful than Poland embracing all purely Polish provinces. The Poles were given several tangible proofs of the German willingness to agree to such a plan. They were allowed to govern the provinces occupied by the Austro-German armies in Russia, not only those inhabited by the Poles but also those inhabited by — 22 — other races. On November 5, 1916, the Austrian and German Em perors promulgated a decree creating an independent Polish state, granting the Poles all the land east of Poland as far as the firing lines. In a letter published simultaneously, the Emperor of Aus tria gave the Poles to understand that he was willing to cede to future Poland the whole province of Galicia. The collapse of Russia due to the Bolshevist activities opened new possibilities for German conquest in the east. The Junker began to parade under the mask of the liberator of the oppressed nationalities of Russia. But to do this successfully, the national problems of Austria had to be solved. Accordingly plans, were laid for far-reaching changes in the Dual Monarchy, which was to be transformed into a federation of autonomous nationalities. The plan was received favorably by all non-German nationalities of Austria, with the sole exception of the Poles. The Poles and the Germans saw in the plan a threat against their privileged po sition in the Monarchy. For the first time in the history of the Austrian Parliament, the Poles came out with an unyielding opposi tion to the government's plan, this time also together with the Austrian Germans. Future historians will tell how much the defeat of the plan' for the reconstruction of Austria had to do with the dissolution of the Empire. A few months after the heated discussion in the Austrian Parliament on the question of the federal organization of the state, followed Austria's unconditional surrender to the Allies. The nationalities of the Dual Monarchy took advantage of the complete disorganization of the armies and the government, and each of them began to organize an independent government of its own. The Ukrainians, inhabiting in a compact mass the unbroken territory of Eastern Galicia, Northern Bukovina, and Northeastern Hungary, proclaimed their independence. V The independent Ukrainian republic meant abolition of the centuries-long Polish dominion of their country. Although the Ukrainians have never intended to oppress the Polish minorities, dispersed all over the Ukrainian ethnographic territory like ethno graphic islands in the ethnographic ocean of another race, yet the Ukrainians would certainly put an end to the rule of the Polish nobility and Austro-Polish bureaucracy. The Polish aristocracy of Eastern Galicia and the public officers of the defunct state saw their privileged position threatened by the new Ukrainian republic. Thus it happened that when the birth of this republic was hailed with joy both by the Ukrainian and the Jewish population of the villages, towns, and cities, as their deliverance from the national oppression of the Poles, the Poles declared war both upon the Ukrainians and upon the Jews of Galicia. This is not a national war, since neither the Jews nor the Ukrainians are opposed to the creation of an independent Polish state on indisputably Polish territories. This is a war of two principles of international policy, the struggle of the old principle that the minority should rule the majority by force, and the prin- — 23 — ciple of democracy that the majority should rule, and that the people themselves should have the right lo choose the government under which they are to live. With the downfall of Germany follow ing closely upon the un conditional surrender of Austria, fell the last obstacle to the union of all Polish lands. The Poles of Russia, Austria, and Germany, separated forcibly for more than a century, could now see their most earnest desires fulfilled. What such a union meant for the Poles of Prussia and Russia, is needless to say; they were passing from the status of oppressed into that of free citizens. The case of the Austrian Poles was altogether different. By their union with the Poles of Germany and Russia they really gained nothing as far as civil liberties were concerned. As to other possible gains from the union of the whole nationality, setting aside the un doubtful good effect upon the development of national culture and upon the international prestige of the country, the Austrian Poles were not gaining very much. Quite the contrary; should the principle of the self-determination of nationalities prevail at the reunion of the three Polands, then Poland would be reconstructed only out of those lands which possess an undeniably Polish popu lation. In such a case, Poland would lose that part of the Austrian province of Galicia, which lies east of the San River and which is populated by a compact mass of the Ukrainian nationality most resolutely opposed to the Polish rule. In this way the Poles of Austria, with reference to their reunion with the Poles of Russia and Germany into one. Polish state, had to choose between the principle of self-determination, which is nothing else than the democratic principle of the rule of the majority internationally applied, and their privileged position among the Ukrainians and the Jews of Eastern Galicia. The Polish nobility and the Austrian bureaucracy of the Polish nationality were called upon to sacrifice on the altar of the reunion of Polish lands their right to oppress other nationalities. And this they refused to do. WEST UKRAINE (Statistical Survey) We shall begin our statistical view of the Ukrainian lands with so-called Hungarian Ruthenia. Here the Ukrainians inhabit a compact territory of over 14,000 square kilometers. The greatest part of it lies in the Carpa thian Mountains and includes the northern three-quarters of the County of Marmarosh, the northeastern half of the County of Ungh, the northern borderlands of the Counties of Semplen and Sharosh, and the northeastern borderlands of the County of Zips. The total number of Ukrainians in Hungary was 470,000 in 1910, a number which, because of the insufficient Hungarian statistics, may be confidently raised to a half a million, if we consider the fact that even the doctored Greek-Catholic figures of the eighties gave approximately the latter number. The percentages of the Ukrainians in different counties, according to official reckoning, are as fol lows: In Marmarosh 46%, Udocha 39%, Bereg 46%, Ungh 36%, Sharosh 20%, Semplen 11%, Zips 8%. In the east the Roumanians form small scattered language islands, in the west the Slovaks. Amid the Ukrainian population, scattered, but in considerable numbers, live Jews; in the cities, Magyars and Germans besides. The Ukrainians inhabit all the mountain ous, sparsely settled parts of the counties, hence the percentage of them is small, despite the extent of the country they inhabit. The Ukrainian people in Hungarian Ruthenia consist almost exclusively of peasants and petty bourgeois. The lack of national schools causes illiteracy to grow rampant. The upper strata of the people are three-fourths denationalized; the com mon people are stifled in ignorance, and in the consequent poor economic conditions. In Bukovina the Ukrainians, over 300,000 in number (38% of the total population of the land), inhabit a region of 5,000 square kilometers, situated mostly in the mountainous parts of the country. The Ukrainians inhabit the following districts: Zastavna (80%), Vashkivtsi (83%), Vizhnitsa (78%), Kitsman (87%), and Chernivtsi (55%), half the District of Sereth (42%), a third of the District of Storozhinets (26%), besides parts of the Districts of Kimpolung, Radauts and Suchava. Amid the Ukrainian popul ation a great many Jews are settled, scattered, and in the cities many Ger mans, Roumanians, Armenians and Poles besides. The degree of education and the economic state of the Bukovinian Ukrainians are incomparably better than those of the Ukrainians in Hungarian Ruthenia. From the .rural population a numerous educated class has sprung, which has taken the lead of the masses in the economic and political struggle. In Galicia (78,500 square kilometers, 8 million inhabitants) the Ukra inians, 3,210,000, that is 40% of the total population (with 59% of Poles — 25 — and 1% of Germans), occupy a compact space of 56,000 square kilometers, in which they comprise 59% of the population. These figures, are taken from the census of the year 1910, which, because of its partisan compilation, is perhaps unique among the civilized states of Europe. For not only are all the Jews (who speak a German jargon) listed as Poles, but also all the Ukrainians of Roman-Catholic faith, of whom there is more than half a million, and 170,000 pure Ukrainians of Greek-Catholic (united) faith. Basing our calculations, not on these statistics of the vernacular, but on the statistics of faith, which, too, are not unobjectionable, we obtain the fol lowing results: For the Greek-Catholic Ukrainians 3,380,000 (42%), for the Roman-Catholic Poles 3,730,000 (47%), and for the Jews 870,000 (11%). According to religious convictions, then, Ukrainian East Galicia would contain 62% of Ukrainians, over 25% (1,350,000) Poles, and over 12% (660,000) Jews. As a matter of fact, the number of Ukrainians in Galicia, according to the investigations of Dr. Vladimir Ohrimovich, should be raised to at least 3,500,000, and, adding the Roman-Catholic Ukrainians of East Galicia, the number is 4,000,000. We shall retain the figure 3,380,000, however, but for the following view of the districts, the percent ages will be taken from the much more justly compiled census of the year 1900. The greatest percentage of the Ukrainian population, that is 75 — 90%, is found in the Carpathian Districts of Turka, Stari Sambir, Kossiv, Pechenizhin; the sub-Carpathian Districts of Bohorodchani, Kalush, Zhidachiv; the Pokutian Districts of Sniatin and Horodenka, besides the District of Yavoriv in the Rostoche. The percentage of Ukrainians vacil lates between 67 and 75% in the Districts of Lisko, Dobromil, Striy, Dolina, Nadvirna, Tovmach, Zalishchiki, Borshchiv, Rohatin, Bibrka, Zhovkva and Rava. More than three-fifths of the population (60—66%) is made up of Ukrainians in the Districts of Drohobich, Sambir, Rudki, Mostiska, Horo- dok, Kolomiya, Sokal, Kaminka, Brodi, Zbarazh, Zolochiv, Peremishlani, Ber'ezhani, Pidhaytsi, Chortkiv, and Husiatin; 50—60% Ukrainians are found in the Districts of Chesaniv, Peremishl, Sianik, Ternopil, Skalat, Terebovla, Buchach and Stanislaviv. In only two districts the percentage of Ukrainians falls below 50%: in the districts of Lemberg (49%) and Yaroslav (41%)- In the city of Lemberg the Ukrainians comprise only one-fifth of the population, and in other larger cities of East Galicia, too, their percentage is not great. Only in the most recent times is the per centage of Ukrainians in the larger cities of East Galicia becoming greater, as a result of the continued flocking in of the Ukrainian rural population. In the fifty smaller cities of East Galicia, on the other hand, the Ukrainians comprise absolute majorities, e. g., Yavoriv, Horodenka, Tismenitsa. In West Galicia only the District of Horlitsi (Gorlitse) has more than 25% Ukrainians, the remaining four (Yaslo, New Sandets, Krosno, Hribiv) only 10—20%. . x . . ^ . The Ukrainian population of Galicia consists nine-tenths of peasants and petty bourgeois. From them a numerous educated class has sprung in the past century, which has taken the political and cultural leadership of the masses. For this reason, too, national consciousness has advanced most among the Ukrainians of Galicia. Dr. Stephen Rudnitsky. KHOLM In the course of centuries, the country of Kholm has often changed its name and frontiers. The southern part was called in ancient times the Towns of Cherven, after Cherven the principal town. From the 12th century this district was known as the Duchy of Kholm, and in more recent times it formed a part of the government of Lublin. The northern part was called the Country of Dorohytchyne, from the name of its capital; in modern times it was incorporated in the govern ment of Sidlets. The Doulebes, one of the Ukrainian tribes, lived in very ancient times on the banks of the River Bug. For some time this country was under the domination of the Avars, a nomadic race from Asia; but in the 10th century the power passed over to the Poles. At this time a powerful Ukrainian state already existed in Kiev on the Dnieper. On account of the pressure exerted by the barbarian tribes of Asia, Duke Volodimir the Great undertook in 981 a military expedition against Poland, and occupied Peremishl, Cherven, and other towns. The territories of Kholm became a part of the Grand Duchy of Kiev. Poland, however, would not give up the towns of Cherven. In 1018 after the death of Volodimir the Great, Duke Boleslas recaptured them ; and it was not until 1031 that Yaroslav the Wise, the Duke of Kiev, again united them to the Duchy of Kiev. In the 12th century the power of Kiev declined, and the territory drained by the Bug was reunited to Volhynia and the Duchy of Volodimir. The most illustrious princes of Volhynia were Volodimirko (1124—1153), his son Yaroslav (1153 — 1187), Roman (1188 — 1205), and his son Danylo (1205—1264). It was the last, the Duke Danylo, who made the town Kholm (hillock) the capital of his mighty kingdom, which extended from the River San (in Galicia) to the Dnieper, and from the Pripet to the Black Sea. But this capital did not flourish very long; a fire destroyed the town in 1255. Theh the Tatars besieged it and plundered its suburbs. After the death of Danylo, Shvarno his son reigned (1264 — 1269). For some time he was sovereign of Lithuania through his marriage with a Lithuanian princess. Prince Lev (Leo), (1269 — 1301), the third son of Danylo, was married to a Hungarian princess whose capital was Lviv or Lemberg. Lev wished to pursue the projects of Roman and Danylo, and as a consequence he be came involved in a long war with the Lithuanians — a war that was ter minated by a peace "for long years." Twice he besieged Lublin; he cap tured the town in 1290 and placed a garrison there. Youri (George) the son of Lev (1301—1308) moved the capital to Vla dimir in Volhynia. During his reign, in 1302, the Polish dukes took pos session of Lublin. In 1320, during the reign of Lev II., son of Youri (1308—1323), Guedemin the Duke of Lithuania occupied the country of Dorohytchyne (northern section). The last duke of the Romain family Youri II. Boleslas (1323—1340), tried with Tatar help to retake Lublin, but without success. About this time the princes of Lithuania began to annex to their states the disunited provinces of Ukraine. They introduced practically no — 27 — changes into the local life of Ukraine; on the contrary they themselves adopted the language, the laws, and the culture of the Ukrainians. A lan guage composed of Ukrainian and White Russian became the official lan guage, and the Greek Orthodox Religion became the predominant form of worship. The relations between these two contiguous countries were so intimate that in 1340 the noblemen of Volhynia-Galicia invited Prince Lubart of Lithuania to govern them. But there were still two states each of which desired to obtain the right of succession to the Ukrainian lands ; these were Poland and Hungary. A terrible war began, which lasted, with interrup tions, for forty years. Fortune passed from one country to another; first Lubart the Duke of Lithuania and his successor Youri Narymountovitch (1352 — 1377) succeeded in getting the upper hand; then came the turn of Hungary, who dominated the country for ten years; finally in 1387 Poland occupied the land of Kholm. The country of Dorohytchyne also was re united to Poland in 1569. Such has been the political history of the country of Kholm. But during that period the religious question played a very great role, a role that is unknown in our day. This question was closely associated with the na tional question, and almost everywhere in the country of which we are speaking the nationality of an individual was determined by his religious profession. In the first half of the 15th century, therefore, the delegates of the Ukrainian Church, headed by Isidore, the metropolitan of Kiev, attended the Council of Florence, where the metropolitan signed the Union of Churches (called "of Florence"). Isidore was made a cardinal, but he did not suc ceed in obtaining the consent of the grand duke of Moscow. Another delegation composed of H. Potii, Bishop of Vladimir, and Ky- rylo Terletsky, Bishop of Lutsk, went to Rome in 1595 to propose the Union of Churches. Pope Clement VIII. received the delegates with joy and had a medal made for the important event; the medal bore the follow ing inscription: "Ruthenis receptis." In 1596, at the Council of Brest- Litovsk, the Union of the Ukrainian and White Ruthenian Churches with the Church of Rome was definitely proclaimed. The Union gained a large number of proselytes; only the Cossacks stubbornly grouped themselves around an Orthodox clergy. Religious polemics stirred up bitter strife, which resulted in the terrible wars of the Ukrainian schools, ordinarily attached to churches and convents, existed for a long time in the country of Kholm. Already in 1550 there was in Krasnostav a school connected with the Church of the Trinity. In the town of Kholm in 1583, a Ukrainian school was located in a convent. In 1643 Bishop Methode Terletsky (1630 — 1649), who was educated in the schools of Rome, received permission from Pope Urban VIII. to found a Ukrainian academy in Kholm. But the Roman Catholic clergy opposed the institution of this academy. They would countenance the establishment in Kholm of only a college of Basilians. This fact shows that even at this early date the activities of the Greek-Uniate clergy did not have the approbation of the Polish clergy and society, who everywhere created obstacles for the Uniate Church — in public life in schools, and in churches. The Poles considered the Union so serious a danger" that in order to weaken it they did not hesitate, when occasion offered, even to favor the Orthodox Church. Under Polish domination (1387—1772) the country was divided as fol lows- 1 The districts of Kholm, Krasnostav, and Hrubeshiv formed the country of Kholm, which was a part of the Department of Rouss (Ukraine) . 2 The district of Grodno formed a part of the territory of Belz 3. The districts of Dorohytchyne and Melnik belonged to the territory of Pidlachie. 4. The districts of the Bug, around Berestye (Brest), belonged to Lithuania as a part of the territory of Berestie. ,..,,„„„ T «. a +¦ Poland possessed the country of Kholm until 1772. In the first parti tion of Poland (1772), the southern districts of the country of Kholm went to Austria; in the third partition (1795), the Austrian frontier was ex- — 28 — tended as far as the River Bug, so that all of the present government of Kholm was in the hands of Austria. The peace of Vienna (1809) transferred the country of Kholm to the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which in turn was united to Russia in 1815. The Russian government regarded the country of Kholm as Russian, and de sired to reorganize the United Church in order to reduce the Polish in fluence. The Poles, on the other hand, considered Kholm as Polish territory and endeavored with all their power to Polonize the Ukrainian population. But the Russians were very powerful. From 1864 to 1875, numerous changes were introduced to Russify the Uniate Church; the ecclesiastical seminary of Kholm was reorganized, the Basilian convents were closed, and the schools were placed under governmental supervision. Finally the Uniate diocese of Kholm, partly on account of the pressure exercised by the Rus sian government, officially embraced Orthodoxy in 1875. It is a fact that since the remotest times back in the ages, the country of Kholm has been a land where resistance is not an idle word. There was a time when the people of this country would not abandon the "ancient religion" for any price; they lived without baptism for their children, with out marriages consecrated by a priest, without confession, and without funeral services for their dead. The new Orthodox churches remained empty for many years. Government statistics snowed that there were as many as 200,000 "obstinates" who refused to embrace Orthodoxy. It was at this time that through the medium of religion the Poles came in contact with these rebellious populations. The Latin clergy admin istered to the wants of the abandoned renegades, secretly satisfying their religious requirements; and taking advantage of their influence, they fur thered the process of Polonization. The success of the Polish clergy was greater than had been hoped for. In 1905 when liberty to change one re ligion for another was granted to the people, 120,000 former renegades at one time accepted the Roman Catholic rite, so dear to Poland. In 1912 the government of Kholm obtained the following frontiers de fined by the Duma: on the east and north, the River Bug, which separates the government of Kholm from the governments of Volhynia and Grodno; on the west, the governments of Siedlets and Lublin ; on the south, Galicia. The government of Kholm embraced the following districts: Bilhorai, Tomashiv, Zamostye, Hrubeshiv, Kholm, Volodava, Bila, and Konstantiniv. The following is a division of the population according to religion : Orthodoxes 327,322 36.5% Roman Catholics 404,633 45 1 °/ Jews 135,238.....'! 15^% Protestants and others 29,123 3.3 ,0 As in Russia, they were a peasant folk possessing little wealth The land was held by the Polish aristocracy, trade was in the hands of the Jews. The Ruthenians were hardly tenants, but rather farm-hands, earning on — 52 — an average twenty cents a day, and often practically bound for life to their employers by indebtedness. Even to-day, many of them would starve if their kindred beyond the sea, especially in America, did not regularly send over remittances from their savings. In the later nineteenth century the Vienna government did little to pro tect them in their rights; rather, it bought Polish support by openly en couraging the cruel exploitation practised by the landlords, and by sanc tioning a virtual Polish monopoly of political power. For a generation before the present war a cardinal fact in the tangled politics of the Dual Monarchy was the deadly combat in Galicia between the Poles and the Ruthenians. The latter were everywhere on the defensive, waging what appeared to be a losing fight for their language, their cherished educational institutions, and a democratic franchise to be exercised without corruption or intimidation. Meanwhile the Ukrainian spirit, though sorely tried, was not crushed; and in the second quarter of the nineteenth century a national movement set in which is by no means unworthy of being compared with the Greek, Serbian, and Italian revivals of the same period. To prevent the people from losing their sense of racial unity, scholars brought together and fur tively printed and circulated the national songs, legends, and other folk lore. Societies were founded to organize national sentiment. The iron hand of both Russian and Austrian autocracy, however, fell relentlessly upon the movement, and upon all who were suspected of having any connection with it. Typical was the fate of the poet-painter, Taras Shevchenko, the Burns of the Slavic world. Born a serf, liberated through the efforts of the St. Petersburg Aca demy of Art, which recognized his genius; pouring forth in glowing verse the national aspirations of his people; arrested, convicted of "being act uated by his own vicious tendencies," and sentenced in 1847 to ten years of Siberian military service, which broke him in body and spirit, so that he died a year after his release — Shevchenko became the incarnation of the awakened Ukrainian soul. To this day Ukrainians make pilgrimages to his tomb on the bank of the Dnieper, and recite with heaving bosoms such of his verses as : Dig my grave and raise my barrow By the Dnieper-side, In Ukrainia, my own land, A fair land and wide. I will lie and watch the corn-fields, Listen through the years To the river voices roaring, Roaring in my ears. Bury me, be done with me; Rise and break your chain, Water your new liberty With blood for rain! Then in the mighty family Of all men free, Maybe sometimes, very softly, You will think of me. In the early years of the present century there was no room for doubt as to what the Ukrainian patriots wanted. The supreme object of all their labors and sufferings was a revived Ukrainian nationality, to be recognized and dealt with as a great racial body and political unit, with inalienable powers and rights. This would mean, among other things, unrestricted use of the native tongue; schools under Ukrainian control; a native clergy; a free press ; reform of a tax system that robbed the Ukraine for the bene fit of Russia proper; legislation to promote the wider distribution of land; and a separate system of administration, under Ukrainian control. — 53 — There was no expectation of national independence; but the Ukraine it was urged, should be erected into an autonomous political division fede rated with Great Russia on equal terms. All this, the Ukrainians argued meant only a restoration of rights fully guaranteed by the treaty of union of 1654. In Austria-Hungary the movement assumed a more purely separatist character. For a long time its leaders were divided among themselves. The so-called Old Ruthenians, or Moscalophiles, leaned toward Russia; the Young Ruthenians favored union with their fellows of the Russian lands m a totally independent kingdom. Since 1908 the second element has been fully in control. Meanwhile the more immediate demand of all factions was for a divi sion of the autonomous crownland of Galicia into two separate and self- governing provinces— western (Polish) and eastern (Ruthenian)— with two diets, at Cracow and Lemberg, instead of one at Lemberg: To this plan the Poles, who dominated the whole country, were bitterly opposed. The Russian Revolution of 1905-1906 brought the Ukrainians fresh hope. Scarcely had it broken upon the astonished autocracy before the whole southland was aflame with democratic and nationalistic agitation. A flourishing Ukrainian press sprang up at Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, and Poltava; in 1905 alone thirty- four newspapers were founded; popular pamphlets and other literature were spread broadcast; schools were estab lished and patriotic societies founded on every hand; forty representatives went to the first Duma to plead for land reform, federalism, and Ukra inian liberty. In the main, however, these gains were but temporary. The demand for Ukrainian autonomy, and for the reorganization of the Empire on a federal basis, was resisted not only by the extreme reactionaries, but by all the groups that lay between these and the revolutionary parties; and when the wave of revolution began to recede, the Ukrainian program was allowed short shrift. Under Stolypin's artfully contrived suffrage law of 1907 Ukrainian deputies vanished from the Duma; the national societies were again repressed; the Ukrainian tongue was once more forbidden in the schools, notwithstanding the fact that the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences had lately pronounced it an entirely distinct language. The reaction drove the movement under ground again; but to little purpose, for the agitation went steadily on. In 1909, two hundred thou sand copies of Ukrainian books were published; in 1911, six hundred thousand. Furthermore, the Ukrainian question now took on an important inter national aspect by becoming a critical issue between Russia and Austria- Hungary. Galicia, and particularly the university city of Lemberg, had become the principal center of agitation, and the Russian nationalist inte rests hotly resented the incendiary influence exerted from that quarter upon the Ukrainians of the eastern Empire. In 1912 and 1913 Francis Joseph and the Czar Nicholas discussed the subject with feeling, and up to the very date of the Serajevo tragedy of 1914 inspired Russian newspapers were warning Austria that if she did not take drastic steps to curb the Ukrainian propaganda in Galicia, the Czar's government would be obliged to declare war on her as a means of removing the menace. THE UKRAINE IN THE GREAT WAR. When war actually came, the fate of the Ukraine was instantly in volved One of the first major operations in the east was the Russian in vasion' of Galicia, which brought the Ruthenian portion of the province into Muscovite hands. The policy of the conquerors was neither generous nor wise Their sole object was thoroughgoing Russification, with a view to stamping out all connection between the Ruthenians and the Ukrainians across the border. , , On the theory that the country was merely a recovered bit of Russia, the governors in charge during the occupation closed every Ruthenian school prohibited the public use of the Ruthenian tongue and enjoined the use of Russian, shut up all the Ruthenian bookstores when it became known that officers and soldiers were resorting to them for literature forbidden at home, introduced Russian law, replaced Uniate by Greek Orthodox priests, and sent off the Archbishop of Lemberg to Russia, where he remained a prisoner until the revolution of 1917. Under these circumstances, one can readily credit the report that no Austrian regiments on the eastern front have fought with more stubbornness or bitterness than those composed of Ruthenians. . , , At home, to the last of the old regime, Russia concluded to hold the Ukrainians in merciless subjection. Professor Paul Mihukoff and other liberals denounced that policy in the Duma, and the Cadet party passed resolutions favoring a large measure of Ukrainian cultural autonomy; but all expressions of the sort were without effect. After two and a half years came the collapse of the Czar s government, and with it a wholly new turn in the Ukrainian situation. The first proclamation of the provisional government set up in March 1917, restored the constitutional rights of Finland, conceded independence to the Poles, and rescinded the civil and religious restrictions that had hitherto been imposed on the various non-Russian nationalities. It made no mention of the Ukraine; for the new authorities, equally with the old, chose to regard it and its people as Russian. But the Ukrainians were in no mood to be thus slighted. Rather, they felt that at last their day of liberation had dawned. Sending to Petrograd a deputation to request a proclamation of auto nomy and the appointment of a special minister for Ukrainian affairs, the leaders brought together at Kiev, on April 19, 1917, a Ukrainian "national congress" for the consideration of a future policy. The meeting was presided over by Professor Michael Hrushevsky, of the University of Lemberg, a native of the Russian Ukraine, a historian of eminence, and the "little father" of the Ukrainian movement; and it expressed a strong desire for territorial autonomy in a Russian federal republic. An army meeting, held a little later, demanded the formation of separate Ukrainian military. units in the rear, and, where possible, at the front. Neither the demand for political autonomy nor that for military na tionalization was met. Prince Lvoff declared that the political question was one to be decided in the name of the whole Russian people when the Constituent Assembly should convene. Kerensky went to Kiev to explain to the Ukrainians that while the problem of regrouping the army might advantageously be considered after the war, it could not be taken up at the present time. The petitioners were disappointed and incensed, and a racial group declared forthwith for complete independence. THE UKRAINE ASSERTS INDEPENDENCE. Hrushevsky and other leaders counseled moderation, but the Rada could not be restrained from passing a resolution declaring that the provisional government had "acted against the interests of the Ukrainian people." A few days later it put forth a strongly phrased proclamation announcing that, without separating from Russia, the Ukrainian people proposed to set up a diet, or national assembly, on the basis of "universal, equal, direct, and secret suffrage," and to endow this body with power to "issue laws which are to establish permanent order in the Ukraine." The document closed with an expression of purpose "henceforth to regulate our own life." . ,.If 1ot a declaration of independence, this proclamation was at least an indication of a very independent attitude. That it was not mere empty words was evidenced by the immediate organization, by the Rada, of a general secretariat, or oouncil of ministers, to take charge of finance, agri culture, food-supply and other interests. It was significant that amSng the ministers was a "secretary for international affairs." The Petrograd government now took alarm and conceded the Ukrainian position so far as to recognize the general secretariat as the highest ad ministrative organ. On all other matters it was still evasive, preferring to throw the responsibility of a final decision upon the future all-Russian constituent assembly, in which the Great Russians would vastly outnumber the Ukrainians. Throughout the remaining days of the provisional govern ment the wearisome controversy continued. In September, a congress of the nationalities of the Russian Republic brought together at Kiev representatives of not only all the leading na tionalities, but of such less-known peoples as the Kalmucks and the Cri mean Tatars. "The desire for federation," said Hrushevsky in opening the sessions of this body, "has permeated the masses of the Ukrainian people. The idea of federation will in Russia play the same part as in the United States in saving the country from disunion." Then came, in November, the breakdown of the provisional government and the rise to power of Trotzky, Lenine, and their Bolshevik supporters. This rather increased than diminished the friction between the Ukrainians and the Petrograd authorities. Under the provisional government the con troversy was on constitutional questions, mainly Ukrainian autonomy. Under the Bolshevik regime it was chiefly social. The Bolsheviks cared nothing for constitutional technicalities, but they were bent on forcing a social revolution in the Ukraine and in all parts of Russia, and on super seding nationalism with Internationalism. Even the Ukrainian Social Democratic party pronounced the Bolshevik leaders "entirely indifferent to the national, cultural, and political needs of our people." On November 20 the Rada attempted to cut the ground from under Bolshevik feet by issuing a proclamation transferring the land to the peasants and establishing an eight-hour day and labor control over industry — at the same time announcing the formation of a "Ukrainian National Re public, in federation with the Russian Republic," and fixing its boundaries. Already the Rada had under consideration the draft of a future constitution. CIVIL WAR AND GERMAN OPPRESSION. The proclamation further expressed the fervent hope that Ukraine might escape "the abyss of civil war, slaughter, and destruction" into which the Russian lands of the north and center had fallen. But it was not to be. Bolshevik influences penetrated the country, destroyed the unity of the people, sapped the vigor of the "bourgeois" Rada, and ended by bringing on a wretched internecine war which dragged on intermittently throughout the winter. Meanwhile representatives of the Rada presented themselves in the guise of spokesmen of an independent state at the Brest-Litovsk Conference, and on February 9 signed a treaty of peace with the Central Powers. Peace with the Ukraine, Count Czernin had frankly declared, was far more to be desired than peace with Petrograd. The former power, it was believed, could be drawn upon for practically limitless supplies of foodstuffs and metals, while the latter had "nothing but revolution and anarchy to export." In point of fact, peace with Petrograd was signed only one month later, stripping from the once proud Empire three hundred thousand square miles of territory, thirty-two per cent, of its entire population, one-third of its railway mileage, three-fourths of its iron production, eight-ninths of its coal production, and other assets untold. The treaty of peace between the Central Powers and the Ukrainian People's Republic, as the new state was styled, provided for immediate evacuation of occupied territories; establishment of full diplomatic rela tions' a mutual renunciation of indemnities; Ukrainian boundaries so drawn on the west as to include the province of Kholm— inhabited mainly by Poles and heretofore a part of Russian Poland— without taking in any part of the Ruthenian territory of Austria; and "a reciprocal exchange . . . of the surplus of the most important agricultural and industrial pro ducts . . for the purpose of meeting current requirements." In view of Germany's eagerness for foodstuffs and materials of war, this last stipulation was of sinister import. — 56 — All the world now knows what a German-made peace means. The supposed reconciliation with Russia was but a preliminary to war in new guises — fresh invasions, imperious orderings of purely Russian affairs, the stirring of new dissensions, captures of persons and seizures of property, dismemberments and subjugations without end. Ukraine's experience was particularly bitter. On the pretext of aiding the "friendly Ukrainian people" in their struggle against the Bolshevik forces, Austro-German troops pushed into the country, occupying cities, confiscating food-products, seizing war stores, and terrorizing the in habitants. Kiev, Poltava, Kharkov, Odessa, and other strategic places easily fell into the invaders' grasp. Requests from the Rada that the conquest should be halted called out only a demand that the Ukraine should turn over to Austria and Ger many eighty-five per cent, of its grain and all of its sugar except that needed for local consumption. By early summer practically the whole of the unhappy country was in Teutonic hands, and the long arm of Germany's predatory activity was reaching out beyond it to the riches of the Crimea and the Caucasus. Meanwhile anarchy prevailed. A self-constituted Committee of Ukra inian Safety labored to organize resistance, but with little effect; and at length the Rada was itself broken up by German action. A number of landowners and well-to-do peasants then held a convention at Kiev, set itself up as a permanent body, and proclaimed Skoropadski, one of the Ukrainian generals, hetman, or supreme military chief, of the country. The new regime was non-socialistic and in many respects autocratic, and the Germans forthwith - gave it their support, the more readily since it complacently sanctioned their seizure of the grain which the Rada had promised but had failed to deliver. Peace negotiations were entered upon at Kiev, in May, between this revolutionary government and the Bolshevik authorities of Russia. In June it was announced that a "truce" had been signed, and that the delegates would proceed to consider a permanent agreement. But the future of the Ukraine, as indeed that of all Russia, still lies in the lap of the gods, and no mortal can predict the trend of events with any sort of certainty. The United States, however, stands pledged, through the words of Pre sident Wilson, to contribute to the eventual solution of the problem to the extent of procuring, with the aid of our cobelligerents, first, the evacu ation of all Russian territory by the German forces, and an "unhampered and unembarrassed" opportunity for the Russians to determine independ ently "their own political development and national policy"; and, second, the "freest opportunity of autonomous development" for the peoples of Austria-Hungary. THE UKRAINE, PAST AND PRESENT By Nevin 0. Winter (From the National Geographic Magazine, August, 1918) The revolution in Russia has demonstrated to the world one fact lone- recognized by students of Russian affairs. It is that in the old Russian Empire there was little sense of nationalism or cohesiveness While the racial homogeneity of the Slavs, the preponderant element of the popula tion, has always been most pronounced, the term Russia meant little to the vast majority of the people. There was nothing that could compare with the love of the Anglo-American for the Stars and Stripes of the Frenchman for his beloved France, of the Anglo-Saxon for Great 'Britain With the passing of the Czar and the authority of the church the only forces of cohesion disappeared. Were it otherwise, it would not be possible for so many separations of large sections to follow without an apparent pang on the part of those still left or those going out for themselves. It was but natural that Finland should revolt, for the Finns are not even Slavs. But in the case of Little Russia, or the Ukraine, there is a story that is worth the telling. What is the Ukraine? This is one of the many questions that people are asking today. The Poles and the Lithuanians of a few centuries ago knew well this most turbulent section over which they attempted to rule, and Imperial Rursia for a long time was greatly troubled by this very unruly part of her expansive domain. The Tatars and the Turks felt its proximity because of the many raids made upon them by the wild warriors of the steppes. In recent years the Ukraine has quieted down, so that the casual students of today hardly realized that there was such a distinctive section left, living in the belief that the Slavs of the Ukraine, or Little Russia, as it is better known, had become thoroughly amalgamated with the Great Rus sians of the Petrograd and Moscow sections. The events of the last few months, however, have revealed the real situation. The Ukraine has had a troublesome career. The wild Scythians helped to feed ancient Greece and her colonies from these same endless steppes whence Germany now expects to draw sustenance. A thousand years ago Kiev was already becoming an important place. When the Saxons still ruled England, in the long ago, the banks of the Dnieper were a meeting- place for many races, drawn thither by commerce. Religious differences had not yet arisen for all were worshippers of idols. Even then a Slav people were safely established here, sowing and reaping their harvests and sending their surplus grain down this river to the Black Sea. The name Ukraine means "border-marches." For centuries it was the bulwark that protected Poland and Lithuania from the Tatars, Turks, and other migrating Orientals. As a result it has had cruel taskmasters. The native population was largely Cossacks — a wild and unruly people at that time. They were not originally a tribe, but were men who went forth into the wilderness to find freedom. The vast steppes, covered with grass to the height of a horse, within which a multitude of game lurked, lured them on. — 58 — There were Poles and Lithuanians and Russians and even Turks among them. They became marvelous shots, riders, and swimmers; their horses were famous for their swiftness and endurance. Their differences gradually blended in a unity of purpose and principle. PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT REPUBLICAN IN FORM. The name Zaporozhians was applied to the community that was the heart and soul of the great Ukraine. Their government was crude, but very republican in form. Each year the old officers laid down their duties in the presence of a general assembly, even in that day called the Rada, and new ones were then chosen. As any member of the tribe could be elevated to the highest office, it permitted each one to aspire to this dignity. The highest official was known as the "hetman." If unpopular, he was sometimes choked to death — an effective, if cruel, displacement. They carried on an intermittent warfare with Tatars on the east, stealing their cattle and occasionally sacking the unprotected towns. Again, their warring excursions would be directed against the Turks to the southeast, in the Balkans. When tired of this they turned northward to the Slavonic population. These early Ukrainians were ever at war with somebody and for some body. They fought with Poland against Russia, with Russia against Po land, with Poland against Turkey, with Turkey against the Tatars. They assisted in placing an unfrocked monk upon the throne at Moscow. They were simply natural warriors who rejoiced in that occupation. The war rior shaved his head except for a wisp on the crown, which was allowed to grow long enough to wind around the ears. Although professing the Orthodox Greek faith, they were the brigands and the corsairs of Christianity. Though nominally subjects of Poland for a long time, the Ukrainians were constantly involving Poland in trouble with the Tatar and Turkish rulers. At times they even captured Polish peasants and sold them as slaves to the Tatars, who in turn passed them on to Persians. CHMIELNICKI'S TERRIBLE REBELLION. The most serious conflict waged by Poland with her rebellious Ukra inians was during an insurrection under Chmielnicki, in 1649. The mas sacres and cruelties perpetrated by the half-civilized hordes from the Ukraine were as barbarous as those of the American Indians during the onward march of the whites. The conditions existing here are vividly set forth by the famous Polish novelist, Henryk Sienkiewicz (who wrote many other splendid books besides "Quo Vadis," for which he is best known among Americans), in his novels covering different periods in Polish history. Upon the failure of his rebellion Chmielnicki offered the annexation of Little Russia to Moscow. This offer was accepted in 1653, when it came under "the suzerainty of that growing empire." Always striving for complete independence, the Ukraine was never quite able to achieve it. Two wars with Poland resulted from that action. It was more than a century after its incorporation before the entire province was brought into complete subjection by the developing Russian Empire. The "hetman" was maintained for some time; but this office was abolished by the vigorous Catherine the Great, and under her it became an integral part of the Empire. The Ukraine's experiences with war and disaster would long ago have broken the spirit of a race gifted with less elastic temperament. There are elements in his temperament that enable him to stand much oppression without revolt. This characteristic may help the German in his attempts to make the Ukraine a subject nation. The Little Russians have worked hard and fought hard, and they have emerged a fairly united and still vigorous people. The population increases more steadily than that of Great Russia, as the people are greatly attached to home and do not care to wander far from their native villages. They are great lovers of the soil and cling to it with a passionate tenacity. — 59 — EXTENT OF THE UKRAINE. The Ukraine includes southeastern Russia, with the exception of the province known as Bessarabia, which partakes of the character of the Balkan States and is peopled with Roumanians and Bulgarians The great seaport of Odessa and surrounding country have been added to it under the new alignment. The Ukraine does not reach much north of Kiev or east of Kharkov but it is a large State in itself, about as large as the German Empire with some twenty-five or thirty millions of people living in it. The largest city of the real Ukraine is Kiev, around which national life probably centers because of the deep religious associations in connection with the shrines and many holy places. It was at one time the capital of all Russia. Kharkov is the leading commercial town in it, unless Odessa on the Black Sea, is considered. About four million Ukrainians live in Austria, in the province of Galicia and are there known as Ruthenians. They are exactly the same type of people as the majority of those living in the Ukraine and would be classed with them ethnographically. THE LURE OF THE STEPPES. There is a lure about the limitless stretches of the steppes in the Ukraine. In wide, level spaces, or in gentle undulations, they reach out until sky and horizon meet in a barely perceptible line. Parts of it re mind one very much of our own western prairies. In spring and summer it is an ocean of verdure, with the varied shades of green of the growing- vegetation interspersed with flowers of many hues; later, in the autumn, after the crops are harvested, it becomes a brown waste of stubble and burned-up pastures; in winter it is a white, glistening expanse of snow. The unending forest land of the north has disappeared— not suddenly, but by degrees. Most of it is treeless, however, and a feeling of sadness and almost depression involuntarily creeps upon one as he travels over the steppes for the first time. There are not many old towns in the Ukraine. Except in Kiev and Kharkov, one will hardly find a building more than a hundred years old. No old medieval churches built up by the toil of generations of devout hands, no old chateaux of the nobility, no palaces rich in pictures, will be encountered. The great majority of the towns are still big, overgrown villages. The towns are separated from each other by enormous distances, with imperfect communication. The peasants plant their villages in the lee of some swell in the surface or by the edge of a stream in which they can water their flocks during the drought which may come. WINDMILLS EVERYWHERE. The villages stretch down little valleys seemingly for miles instead of being compact, as in most countries. The only conspicuous feature will be a church or two and the many windmills on the horizon. Windmills are exceedingly common and dot the landscape on every hill side. Some will be still, while others, with their broad, far-reaching arms, furiously beat the air that blows over the steppes. Silvery gray they appear from age, as all are built of wood, and they are usually unpainted. Many of them seem ready to fall to pieces from age. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE UKRAINIAN AND THE GREAT RUSSIAN. The general use of windmills is due not so much to lack of water, for they will be found near streams; but the flatness of the country does not give enough fall to allow the use of water-power. They are used to grind grain, and the farmers may be seen bringing their domestic grists to them, as they did to the pioneer water-mills in our own country. In many ways can the dissemblances of the Ukrainians with their former Muscovite com patriots of the north and east be traced. They speak a dialect which varies considerably from that spoken to the north and northeast of them. Their language is said to be nearer the old Slavonic than that of the Great Russians. — 60 — The people are handsomer than the Great Russians. Better nourishment probably has something to do with this, or the natural distinction between a northern and southern people, but the admixture with other races has also left its trace. They are, in general, taller and more robust. The natural brightness and vivacity of the Slav temperament, which one will also find exemplified in the Pole, has not been dimmed by the infusion of the more stolid and melancholic Finnish blood, as is the case with the Great Russian. They have a buoyancy of temperament which leads to a light-hearted gaiety of spirits, such as one does not find among the Mus covites. THE HOME OF RUSSIAN FOLK-LORE. In so far as outside influences have affected the Slav temperament in the Ukraine, it has been that of the Greek and the Tatar. The warm and bright colors of their costumes are somewhat reminiscent of the Orient. They are great lovers of beads, of which they will wear many strings, and the national costume of the women includes a wreath of flowers worn on the head. A vein of romance and poetry runs through the Little Russians. It may not be very deep, but it is wide-spread. It is the home of Russian folk-lore. Lyrical ballad and improvised ballad still spring almost spontaneously from the lips of the peasants. Their nature is rather poetical and they are very musical. The love songs of Little Russia are distinguished by their great tenderness. They have songs for all occasions, sacred and profane. They are also great lovers of flowers. BRILLIANT COLORS MAKE NATIVE COSTUMES A DELIGHT TO THE EYE. The lover of peasant costumes will be in his glory here in the Ukraine. Nowhere in Russia is there so much color in costumes as here, and the general effect is extremely pleasing. The market in Kiev or Kharkov is a study in color. Red is the prevailing color among the women, but there are many other bright bits. The costume is also extremely artistic. The red turbans of the women have embroidered borders and their skirts also have a border which reaches almost to the knee. The women generally wear their skirts rather short, scarcely reaching to the ankles — a style becoming more and more popular the world over today. The blouses are made out of pretty patterns, with unique and original designs worked into the material. Even the heavy coats, which they wear for warmth, have their own design, and all will follow practically the same pattern. Even the men have their little vanity, having their shirts embroidered in red and blue designs, and the young men have quite a dandified look. GO BAREFOOT TO SAVE THEIR BOOTS. Both sexes wear coarse boots, many of them being made of plaited leather, if they are able to purchase them. In summer many will come to the city barefooted, for in that way they save their boots; and leather boots, even in peace times, cost many rubles. In war times they are beyond the reach of the ordinary peasant. On festive occasions many of the young women are wonderful to behold. They don highly colored dresses and have long bright pink, blue, and red ribbons tied in their hair, which stream behind them as they walk. Often times they wear garlands of real or artificial flowers. Several strings of large and small coral or glass beads complete this pretty outfit; and many of the maidens, with their gypsy-like complexions, look very charming when attired in this manner. These people have a great love for vivid colors in everything and even decorate their rooms with striped or checked red and white towels The icon (holy image) shelf is sure to be decorated with these fancy towels and paper flowers. A guest of honor would be given a seat under this little domestic shrine. — 61 — KHARKOV, THE SECOND CITY. Kharkov is the second city of the Ukraine and is almost two-thirds the size of Kiev. Its long, broad, and dusty streets, rather roughly paved, are flanked by houses of nondescript architecture. They are usually two stories high and in colors red, yellow, blue, and magenta stucco predominate. Huge signboards prevail everywhere in the business section on the stores with samples of the goods sold therein painted upon them. The peasant who cannot read can understand the pictures at least. The glittering domes of a number of large, flamboyant Orthodox churches give a semi-oriental general effect. Kharkov's importance is due to the fact that it is the center of a large agricultural district, one of the most fertile sections in all Russia. There is a very large bazaar here, which draws thousands of visitors on several occasions during the year. It is a great distributing center for agricultural supplies and also quite an educational center, with one of the greatest universities in all Russia. ODESSA, CATHERINE THE GREAT'S CREATION. By the new alignment Odessa and the province of Kherson have been added to the Ukrainian Republic. This city of half a million is one of the newest cities in Europe. While Moscow can boast of a thousand years of history, Odessa is only a little over a hundred years of age. Its rapid growth will compare with the cities of the new world. It dates from 1794 and it owes its existence to Catherine the Great. Just a few years before that this territory had been ceded to Russia by Turkey. Her purpose was to establish a strong city as near to Constantinople as possible. A magnificent statue of the empress, representing her as trampling the Turkish flag scornfully beneath her feet, now adorns one square. Odessa is not a typical Russian city. Mark Twain said that the only thing truly Russian about it was the shape of the droshkis and the dress of the drivers. One might add the gilded domes of a few churches. It is an attractive city in many ways and it has the reputation of being a very fast city. It has been in recent years a very important post. The business of the city is largely in the hands of the Jews, who comprise a third of the population. There has not been the best of feeling toward them by the Orthodox population and a terrible massacre occurred in 1905. It has always been a stirring revolutionary center and has caused the imperial government much trouble in the past quarter of a century. KIEV, THE HOLY CITY OF THE UKRAINE. Kiev is the holy city of the Ukraine and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit it each year. The natural landscape is heightened at all times in its pictorial effect by the picturesque groups of pilgrims, staves in hands and wallets on backs, who may be seen clambering up the hills, resting under the shadow of a hill, or reverently bowing the head at the sound of a convent bell. Here is the story as it is recently related by Russian chroniclers. A thousand years ago, or thereabouts, a very holy monk, named Anthony, came to Kiev tnd dug a cell for himself in the hill. The devout life of this monk soon drew other holy men around him, and all at first made their homes in the caves. It is said that many of the early monks never again emerged into daylight after they once entered the caves. Some shut themselves up in niches and remained self-immured the rest of their days, living on the food placed there each day by their brothers. When the food remained untouched, the monks knew that a saintly spirit had fled. The place was then walled in, and the niche remained the monk's home after as well as before his dissolution. KIEV'S GHASTLY CATACOMBS. The catacombs are indeed ghastly to visit, for there are rows upon rows of skulls in them. Access is had by narrow steps, and then through laby rinthine subterranean passages one descends deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth, winding hither and thither along a pathway. Finally — 62 — there begins a series of niches, in which repose the bodies of the saintly recluses. The pilgrims pass each holy tomb, reverently kissing the shriveled hands laid out by the monks for that purpose. They do not distinguish between the holy and the holier, but pay a tribute to each one impartially in order to conciliate all. Much contagion must be spread by this insanitary method of homage. No doubt many an infection, and possibly even a great pestilence, could be traced directly to this spot, where the indiscriminate osculation of church relics is observed. ICON RECEIVES 100,000 KISSES A YEAR. The Cave Monastery, or Pecherska Lavra, is a large stone structure on the hill, at a little distance from the city, and is surrounded by a high stone wall. It is entered through a holy gate. Each monk has his own apartment, with a little garden attached. Several hundred monks live in the monastery and a number of lay brethren are also allowed to dwell there. In the principal church is preserved a miracle-working icon, known as the Death of Our Lady. It was brought from Constantinople and has re ceived no fewer than a hundred thousand kisses a year. It is painted on cypress wood, now black with age. Every line of the picture is marked by precious stones and each head has a halo of brilliants, while an enormous diamond glitters above the head of Christ. The wealth of the Lavra at Kiev is enormous. Each successive Czar has visited it not infrequently and always gave a large donation. What the attitude of the new leaders of the Ukraine toward this mo nastery will be remains to be . seen. The revolutionary movement as a whole has been anti-clerical and shows a revolt against the former influence of the church in Russia. The monks do not live the ascetic lives of their ancestors, although the food still seems plain. Coarse bread is always served, fish frequently, but meat and wine are not unseldom. One monk always reads from the lives of saints while the others eat. The monks seat themselves on benches and they eat off pewter platters. There is an inn at which many stop who can pay, but the fare is too plain for most people. Then there is also a free lodging quarter, where the poorer ones can stop without charge. Sour black bread and boiled buckwheat groats are about the only food provided for this class of pilgrims. PILGRIMS SHARE THEIR FLEAS WITH ALL. Many peasants will travel on foot for days and spend almost their last kopeck for the sake of visiting this sacred monastery in the holy city of Kiev. Sienkiewicz makes one of his principal characters say when faced with danger: "I shall die and all my fleas with me." These pilgrims certainly bring theirs with them to Kiev and share them freely with any one with whom they come in contact. It would be difficult to find a larger or more varied collection of pro fessional or casual mendicants anywhere than congregate here at Kiev during the pilgrimage period. Dressed in rags and wretchedness, these mendicants expose revolting sores and horrible deformities in order to excite sympathy. Some appear to enjoy vested rights in particular loca tions. Many might be classed as pious beggars and have an almost apostolic appearance, with their long beards and quiet bearing. All of them may be worthy objects of charity, but the Russian beggars are most importunate. RUSSIAN PEASANTS EXTREMELY CHARITABLE. The Russians themselves are very charitable toward the unfortunate class. Poor peasants, themselves clothed in rags, will share their little with those poorer than themselves. A foreigner, knowing the poverty of the people and the inadequacy of public relief, cannot but feel kindly disposed toward those who are really helpless. Here, as elsewhere, however, it is difficult to distinguish between the unworthy and the deserving. THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF THE UKRAINA The Ukraina, whose political status and boundaries are still to be de finitely fixed, corresponds roughly to the three districts in the southern part of Russia known as "Little Russia," the "Southwestern Territory," and "New Russia" (exclusive of the Territory of the Don Cossacks), divided into the following governments:* Chernigov, Poltava, Kharkov, Kiev, Podolia, Volhynia, Kherson, Taurida, Katerinoslav, and Bessarabia. It occupies the southwestern corner of European Russia, and is bounded by Austria-Hungary and Poland on the west, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov on the south, the Territory of the Don Cossacks on the east, and Cent ral Russia and Lithuania on the north. Its area of 330,400 square miles is somewhat less than 15 per cent, of the area of European Russia, in cluding Finland, and its population, estimated at the beginning of 1914 at about 30,000,000, is slightly more than 20 per cent, of that of European Russia, including Finland. No recent figures are available regarding the classification of the population according to nationalities, but on the basis of the last census, which was taken in 1897, the Little Russians constituted about three-fourths, the remaining population consisting mainly of other Russians, Poles, Jews, Roumanians, Germans, and Tartars. The Rouma nians formed about 50 per cent, of the population of Bessarabia, the Jews about 13 per cent, of the population in the governments of Kiev, Podolia, and Volhynia, while the Tartars predominated in the southern part of the Crimea, which belongs to the government of Taurida. Among the principal cities may be mentioned Odessa (estimated population, 620,000), Kiev (594,000), Kharkov (248,000), Katerinoslav (218,000), Kishinev (125,000), and Nikolayev (103,000). Agricultural Conditions. A considerable part of the Ukraina belongs to the "black-soil" region of Russia, which yields large quantities of grain, particularly wheat, for export Agriculture is the chief occupation, wheat being the principal grain raised. In Bessarabia corn is an important crop, while large quan tities of sugar beets are raised in the governments of Kiev and Podolia. Owing to the higher fertility of the soil and the presence of extensive in dustries utilizing agricultural products, like the beet-sugar industry and the development of the export trade in grain, the agricultural methods in the Ukraina are on the whole of a more progressive character than those prevailing in the northern part of Russia. While most of the land is split up into numerous peasant holdings, there are many large estates on which agriculture is carried on according to most intensive methods, especially m the sugar-beet region of the governments of Kiev, Podolia, and Volhynia, where many of the estates are owned and managed by Poles. In Little Russia enormous quantities of hay are raised, the area under grass being * A government is an administrative unit corresponding to the French department. — 64 — estimated at over 3,500,000 acres, and some of the hay being exported abroad. The Ukraina is responsible to a considerable extent for the large Russian exports of wheat, one of the principal export products of that country, and also contributes the larger share of the sugar-beet supply on which the extensive Russian sugar industry is based. Industrial Conditions. Within the boundaries of the Ukraina are found the principal available deposits of iron ore in Russia. The development of the iron-ore deposits of the Krivoi Rog district has been mainly responsible for the rapid growth of the Russian iron and steel industry, which now depends to an extent of about 70 per cent, on the iron ore in the southern part of the country. In 1913 the total output of iron ore in the two districts of Krivoi Rog and Kerch amounted to more than 7,000,000 tons, of which the latter contributed about 500,000 tons. The chief iron-ore deposits of the Ukraina are found in the western part of the government of Katerinoslav and the eastern part of Kherson, in what is known as the Krivoi Rog district, situated at a distance of from 200 to 250 miles from the rich coal deposits of the Donetz Basin, where good coking coal and anthracite are mined in large quanti ties. As a result of this comparative proximity of the Donetz coal fields, the southern iron and steel industry has far out-distanced the older iron industry in the Ural region, where a lack of coal and an abundance of forests make charcoal the only available fuel. In addition to the Krivoi Rog de posits, a good grade of iron ore is also mined in the Kerch district, in the Crimea, which, on account of the favorable location of the mines in regard to transportation by water, is exported to a considerable extent, while the Krivoi Rog ore is consumed almost entirely by the local furnaces. Mention should also be made of the deposits at Korsak-Moghila, near Berdiansk, in the government of Taurida, which are situated more advantageously in relation to the coal supply. The iron-ore deposits in the Donetz Basin are also utilized to some extent in combination with the richer Krivoi Rog ore. The iron and steel mills are located in proximity to the principal iron-ore deposits, but there are also some in the Donetz Basin in the Don Territory, so that either iron ore or fuel has to be transported for a considerable distance. The first successful mill established by Hughes in 1872 was located in the Donetz Basin, but the industry has developed largely in the Krivoi Rog district, and the extensive works of the New Russian Co. are located at Yuzovka (named for Hughes), in the eastern part of the government of Kateri noslav, adjoining the Don Territory. In 1913 there were in operation in the whole southern territory of Russia 14 iron and steel mills, employing about 58,000 men, with an output of about 3,500,000 tons of pig iron, or two-thirds of the total production of Russia. The iron and steel industry of Southern Russia depends to a predominating extent on foreign capital, mostly Belgian and French, and is decidedly a large-scale industry, with an output that had been running for some years prior to the outbreak of the war beyond the consuming capacity of the country. The chief products of the southern mills are semimanufactures, rails, structural iron, sheets and plates, and wire, which are marketed largely through the central selling syndicate "Prodameta." In addition to its iron-ore deposits, the Ukraina contains deposits of other valuable minerals, like manganese and graphite. The manganese de posits are found in the Katerinoslav district, where about 280,000 tons of manganese ore were mined in 1913, of which about 37 per cent, was export ed. Graphite was obtained in the vicinity of Mariupol, in the southern part of the government of Katerinoslav, to an extent of 2,000 tons of ore. The beet-sugar industry is another important Russian industry in which the Ukraina occupies the first place. In 1913-14, out of a total Russian production of about 1,600,0000 tons of sugar the Ukraina contributed about 60 per cent. The sugar refineries are located mostly in the governments of Kiev, Podolia, and Kharkov, and the city of Kiev is the center of the Russian sugar trade, as well as of the trade in supplies for the sugar in- — 65 — dustry. The transactions on the Kiev sugar exchange during the year 1912-13 amounted to more than 90,000,000 rubles, or $45,000,000 at the normal rate of exchange. Among other industries of the Ukraina may be mentioned distilling, flour milling, tobacco manufacturing, and tanning. Commerce and Transportation. As a large producer of wheat, one of the most important export pro ducts of Russia, the Ukraina enjoys a large foreign trade, while its do minating position in the iron and steel and sugar industries makes it an important factor in the domestic trade. The wheat for export purposes is handled largely through southern ports, like Odessa and Nikolayev, or is sent by rail to the Baltic Provinces or to Koenigsberg, in Prussia. It should be pointed out in connection with the Russian grain trade that the elevator facilities are very limited, and that, with the exception of those in Petrograd, Odessa, Nikolayev, and Riga, the elevators are generally of small capacity. It is also worth noting that the Russian elevators do not, as a rule, perform the functions in connection with grading of grain that are associated with the elevator system in the grain trade of the United States. The beet sugar and the iron and steel products originating in the Ukraina are intended almost entirely for domestic consumption, and cities like Kiev and Kharkov are important centers in the trade in the above pro ducts, as well as in supplies for the manufacturing and agricultural in dustries of the Ukraina. The foreign trade of Odessa in 1913 amounted to more than $75,000,000, and that of Kherson and Nikolayev exceeded $55,000,000, almost entirely made up of exports. Odessa is the most im portant port on the Black Sea and has five harbors and considerable equip ment for handling cargoes. The railway lines of the Ukraina had a length of about 8,200 miles in 1913, or about 23 per cent, of the total mileage of European Russia, exclu sive of Finland. As the Ukraina occupies less than 15 per cent, of the area of European Russia, its railway mileage is comparatively high, a fact that may be attributed mainly to the favorable conditions for the development of the iron and steel industry and the demands of the export trade in wheat. (From the Commerce Reports, Washington, D. C) A UKRAINIAN ADDRESS IN THE FORMER AUSTRIAN PARLIAMENT DELIVERED BY REPRESENTATIVE VITTIK DURING THE DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN VIENNA ON THE 7th OF MARCH, 1918 What hurts us Ukrainians most is the fact that we have been reproached 1) with helping to obstruct the Revolution, 2) with contributing to a victory of German militarism, and 3) with making use of secret diplomacy. As a son of the Ukrainian people I am constrained to enter into a most minute inquiry of these reproaches. I ask: Did the Ukrainians have sufficient power to fight against militarism? This reproach, therefore, has no found ation. No people in the east, no people in Austria, not even the masses of Germany were able to prevent a victory of military might. Why, then, attach blame to the Ukrainians and reproach them on this ground? And now I recall several interesting facts. It is generally known that it was a large force of Ukrainian troops that helped to dethrone the Czar. A Ukrainian Republic arose. It gave its support to all the efforts of the Revolution. Everyone must admit that from a national and social point of view the Ukrainian Central Rada managed the Ukrainian Republic very well indeed. Every people was given full rights — Poles, Jews, Muscovites, and even Bohemian colonists enjoyed full equality of rights in accordance with the principle of personal autonomy. The Poles, Jews, and Muscovites had their own representations and their own commissaries or ministers. Ukraine even renounced her claims to the Rumanian parts of Bessarabia, because she does not desire any territory that does not belong to her. (Cries of assent). As the first revolutionary government, Ukraine was — and all have admitted this fact — beyond reproach. At first Ukraine supported the Bolsheviki. It might interest you to know — and this has been hanging over our people like a nightmare for centuries — it was the Polish landowners who caused the first dispute between the Rada and the Bolsheviki. The Bolsheviki accused the Rada of extreme leniency in the process of exprop riating the large estate owners, who were mostly Poles. Hence they en deavored to get the Ukrainian government into their own hands. Thus from one quarter the Polish press was pelting the Ukrainian Rada with rebukes and reproaching it with banditism; while from another side the Bolsheviki were arraying all their forces against the Rada. Then came the peace conference at Brest-Litovsk. Trotzky invited all the people to take part in the peace negotiations. Unfortunately he entered into con ference with official diplomacy and German militarism. The Ukrainians also appeared at these negotiations. Since, as was obvious, the Russian military machine was collapsing, the Muscovite and Ukrainian delegates could not offer any opposition to the Central Powers. As for secret diplomacy! Why here in the Parliament and in the dele gations, the representatives of the Slavs, among them the Ukrainian re presentatives, vainly urged that all peoples should take part in the peace — 67 — negotiations. The majority silenced this exhortation with their votes, and foremost in this majority were the Poles. (Hear! Hear!) Bah! even when Count Czernin returned from Brest-Litovsk for the first time, he openly declared that he would conclude peace with Ukraine, and that he would do this with the help of secret diplomacy. The Poles assented to the Count's declaration, and Dr. Dashinski, a delegate, addressed Czernin with such words: "Set out on this thorny road, Your Excellency, and without look ing, either to the right or to the left, fetch us peace and bread; then Your Excellency will be acclaimed an equal of the foremost politicians." But only a week later we heard a different tune here. (One week later Dr. Dashinski told a very different story.) That secret diplomacy was com mendable to the Poles just as long as it had reference to the seizure of Ukrainian territories and to the subjection of the Ukrainian people in Galicia, Kholm, Volhynia, and Polissye. The Polish pilgrims then went to Berlin and Vienna. Here in the Min istry of Foreign Affairs were assembled all the representatives of the Pol ish and other presses, and the Polish Kingdom was proclaimed officially and unofficially. Secret diplomacy was employed; all the Poles conducted their politics against the Ukrainian people secretly, not giving the Ukrainians even the slightest attention. And now when the Polish Pans complain — it is only the outcome of their own diplomacy. (Hear!) He is mistaken, however, who thinks that the strings of this secret diplomacy have already been cut. On the contrary they are being spun further. Count Goluchowski, the first notorious secret diplomat, is spin ning them. When at this point I am asked in what way Count Goluchowski profited by secret diplomacy, I recall the customs war with Serbia. He brought about the passage of custom laws injurious to the welfare of Ser bia, and thereby precipitated that war, which he conducted together with Hungarian barons and landowners. It was Count Goluchowski, Count Pi- ninski, Duke Radziwill, and even Count Tarnowski and other gentlemen from Berlin who took a trip into Hungary to visit the Hungarian land owners, Count Andrassy, Count Vekerle, and others with the sole purpose of getting strength to retain their hegemony, which they see they are los ing. For them everything is not yet lost. As we notice in to-day's news papers, they cherish hopes of saving the Polish estates in Ukraine. But I must take the liberty of warning them: Keep your hands off the Ukra inian Republic! The Ukrainian people will never part with what it has won with such great difficulty. (Applause). We were and will remain the opponents of secret politics. It would be much more agreeable to us if this peace were concluded in the presence of all peoples. Then no charges could be made that unauthorized parties took part in the peace negotiations. Unfortunately the majority, and that is the Poles, prevented the realization of this wish. Why, then, do they now upbraid the Ukra inians with using secret diplomacy. Trotzky expected a revolution to break out in the east at his summons. But his expectation was in vain. At present we hear that the Ukrainians are accused of concluding peace with militarism. Coming now to the conclusion of peace, I must mention the fact that a peace treaty is a contract that is binding upon all parties concerned. I shall say that if the second party, the Germans, think that we should not criticize the peace treaty, they are mistaken. This treaty has placed heavy burdens upon us. Several times have I demanded that all Ukrainian ter ritories, and therefore the Ukrainian lands in Galicia, the Ukrainian parts of Bukovina, and the Ukrainian districts of Hungary, be united with Ukraine, the motherland. Since this union has not been effected, and since Austria has forcibly kept us from getting liberty, it will be Austria's sacred duty to furnish us with a suitable abode. And now let us view this question fvom an economic standpoint The President of the Austrian Ministry and the German State Secretary Bushe declared that the whole treaty would be ignored if Ukraine failed to meet her economic obligations. It is no small task to deliver 30,000 carloads of wheat, 12,000 carloads of sugar, 2,000 carloads of meat, and 1,000 carloads of dried fruit. You gentlemen should consider how great a burden bears down upon Ukraine, and yet this Republic is threatened that the peace agree ment will be ignored if the obligations are not discharged. When all other states withdrew their diplomats from Kiev, the Central Powers, having entered there, should take care not to conduct themselves with the people as they did in Galicia, because Ukraine is loaded with heavy burdens and obligations. Let the Central Powers stand by their agreement, which stipulated that Ukraine was to deliver the above foodstuffs itself; then Ukraine will not be reproached with necessitating a requisition. We strong ly advise against requisitioning in Ukraine. Gentlemen, we are not the authors of certain startling telegrams which appeared in the newspapers without the endorsement of the Ukrainian Government. Ukraine cannot be reproached with defying German militarism through these telegrams. We regard Ukraine as a neutral and sovereign State, and as such the Central Powers must also regard it. Now let us consider the question concerning the boundaries of Ukraine. By the treaty of Brest-Litovsk Kholm was conceded to Ukraine; the limits of this district were to be determined by a mixed commission. The great est indignation arose among the Poles on account of this Kholm territory. We shall adhere to the elucidation of this Kholm controversy by Polish authors — by the famous publicist Leo Vasilewski, a member of the central national committee, and Leo Plochotski. On page 3 of his Kholm and Its Separation, Leo Plochotski writes : "The land of Kholm played an important role during the time of inde pendent Ukraine; this is evident from the fact that Roman Mstislavich, ruling in Kholm, accepted in 1201 the title of sovereign over all the Ukra inian duchies — he even had authority over the Grand Duchy of Kiev, the capital of the Ukrainian State at that time. After the death of Roman Mstislavich, the State broke up into many parts; hence the reason why the Kholm district was unable to maintain its independence. The same fate that befell the whole Duchy of Halich, befell Ukrainian Kholm; it was annexed by Poland in a comparatively short time between 1340 and 1380. The final union of the Kholm lands with Poland was consummated in 1377." In the introduction of a pamphlet which he published in 1916, Leo Vasi lewski rejoices over the entrance of the allied arms into Kholm. On page 9 of the pamphlet, he writes : "In the 16th century the country of Kholm was joined to the Ukrainian Palatinate belonging to the Polish Republic; this Kholm territory formed one of the five constituent parts of the Ukrainian Palatinate." Hence Vasilewski himself admits that Kholm is Ukrainian territory. On page 10 of the same pamphlet we read: "A lasting, mutual union of Polish and Ukrainian elements has existed since the time when the Union of Churches facilitated the reciprocal in fluence of Poles and Ukrainians through intermarriage and through the gradual elimination of differences between the Roman Catholic and Uniat Churches." Later we read: "The Uniat clergy became Polonized. An appreciable part of the mixed population and all of the landowning class professed allegiance to the Pol ish nation. Only the peasant masses of Uniats remained Ukrainians." Farther on he writes: "Czar Peter, immediately after his transgression of the Polish frontiers, within which, as is well known, were Ukrainian lands, gave sanguinary evidence of his hatred for the Uniats. Once when drunk, he forced his way into the church of the Basilians in Polotsku, and while the imperial guard was murdering a priest, he cut off the nose and lips of a monk with his sabre." Now I ask you, gentlemen of Poland, who are the Basilian monks? As is well known, the Basilian monks in Galicia were Ukrainians This fact, given by Leo Vasilewski, proves that Kholm is Ukrainian. — 69 — On page 12 Vasilewski writes: "The sufferings of the Basilians in Minsk at the hands of stern p,K8:a„ -sfBS^ crippled; Onufria Hlubotsky, clubbed "to death? Yosaphata ^ Iroshov kv dashed to death agamst a wall; Nepomutsina Groshkovsky kiUeT wM a club by an orthodox woman; Euphemia Guznisky, buried alive- B^iline Kolinsky, clubbed to death; Alexandra Peksor, eyes put out- Jurtine Turk flogged to death; and Prakside Zaydivsky, eyes put out." ' These names are furnished by Vasilewski himself. Everyone who is ™f r Wlth SlaV1C nomenclature must admit that these are Ukrainian On page 21 we read: "In Drelevi, Captain Andreyev, a staff officer, forbade those peasants who would not embrace Orthodoxy to feed and water their cattle. After being confined in their stalls for over eight days, the cattle perished. "Mayor Kostov ordered all peasants who should assemble about a Greek- Catholic church to be whipped. While the peasants were singing church hymns, they were beaten with the butts of muskets, hacked with bayonets, and shot down. Among those shot down were: Paul Kozak, Theodore Bu- zyok, Simeon Pavluk, Trochim and Andrey Kharatonyuk, Humphrey Toma- shuk, and Ivan Lutsuk." Are these names by any chance Polish names? They are without ex ception the names of Ukrainian peasants. On page 22, Vasilewski writes: "When the people of Patulin opposed the ordination of a priest, whom -they would not admit into the church, the military interfered; there were 13 killed and 30 wounded. Among the fallen were Luke and Constantine Boyko, Daniel Karmashchuk, Bartholomew Osipyuk, Hrintsyuk, Humphrey Vasilynk, Hnat Franchuk, Ivan Andryuk, Michael Vavrishko, and Con stantine Lukashchuk." And here also we find only Ukrainian names. "In the parish of Prokhenka, those who would not be converted to Orthodoxy were kept out in the cold with their faces against the wind •every day for a period of three weeks. Half-dead, the victims were then flogged. Even children were not spared. The following died under the lash: Ivan Antonyuk, Josaphat Hritsyuk, Paul Yusimchuk, and Levchu- kova and 16 year old Paul Ihnatyuk." All Ukrainian names ! The names of the parishes: Rudno, Chekaliv, Rohiv, Khoroshchinyuk, Dovhe Volhynia, Radiri, Russka Volya, where many Ukrainians died for ¦their people and faith, indicate that these are all Ukrainian places. The fact that the Muscovites persecuted the Catholics in Kholm but not in Russian Poland is perfectly logical and comprehensible; the reason is "that Kholm was inhabited by the Ukrainians who belonged to the Greek- Catholic or Uniat Church. The Muscovites would say to the Ukrainians, "You are a 'Russian' and should therefore be an Orthodox." They per secuted and tormented the people of Kholm. It is in vain, therefore, that Polish publicists deny the fact that Kholm is Ukrainian territory. We shall wait for further opinions upon this question. We Galicians cannot be silent, for the maltreatment of Ukrainians remains just as it was before. Gentlemen! We have long outgrown the time when we kept silence while our skin was being bargained for. (Assent). But we will not per mit this bargaining to continue undisturbed. We wish for every people liberty and the power of ruling themselves as they see fit, but we wish to be masters in our own land. (Applause.) — 70 — Now it is said, as we heard it in the declaration of Baron Goetz, for instance, that the Poles wish us a most brilliant development. But how does this magnanimity appear in practice? In Lviv, the capital of Ukra inian Galicia, the Polish city officials forbid the Ukrainian representatives to speak in the Ukrainian language. (Hear! Hear!). It happened in 1875 in Russia that the Ukrainians were forbidden to use the Ukrainian lan guage; but this same intolerance is being repeated in the free city of Lviv to-day. On the 2nd of March, 1918, a Ukrainian speaker had to leave the chamber of the city hall, because the president forbade him the use of the Ukrainian language. Is this the road to an understanding? Is this that tolerance of the Polish Pans of which the Poles are now boasting so much, while they whine about the injuries done them? Who has been wronged here? Is it he who forbids one the use of one's native tongue, or he to whom this natural right is denied? Gentlemen! Nothing has changed in Galicia. Just look at the com position of the Galician representation in this House. Four million Poles in Galicia have 78 representatives in this Parliament; while four million Ukrainians have only 27 representatives in the same House. Is this that most democratic Parliament of which so much is said? The Poles are ac customed to having everything granted to them; they were given many seats in the Parliament at our expense. The same sufferings and the same wrongs still prevail in Galicia; the same evil underlies the central Government's plan for the reconstruction of Galicia. Governor Huyn was very generous to everyone but he does not do what he promised. Gentlemen! Although we Ukrainians have so many enemies, we will never cease to work for the end that the Ukrainian Republic might main tain its existence and that the Ukrainian people might live and work out its destiny freely and peacefully. I must mention the fact that the recent demonstration of the Poles, made under the pressure of Galician author ities, was intended to influence the disposal of the governorship and the starostaships*, and that it proved very suitable for its purpose. But how different was everything with the Ukrainian demonstrations! Many sta- rostas directly prohibited Ukrainian demonstrations. Where are your equal rights? Polish starostas — only Poles are starostas— issue. orders to discontinue work, to strike, and to make political demonstrations; yet these same starostas forbid the Ukrainian population to declare its will through mass-meetings, demonstrations, etc. (Hear! Hear!). That is Polish to lerance, and that is the way in which the boasted equality of rights is ob served in Galicia. But in spite of all these interdicts, Ukrainian demon strations were successfully held. Millions of people gathered — although the press is silent about this fact — and these millions were Ukrainians. Women, children, the aged, the infirm— all held gatherings; while most of our ripe manhood was at the front. These millions are holding demon strations in their own behalf and in behalf of their Ukrainian fatherland. They strengthen us and give us hopes that our work will progress; that we shall secure our political existence against everyone and everything; and that we shall live to see the day when in spite of all the obstacles and embarrassments which have confronted us, we shall live peacefully in a free, independent Ukraine. (Thunderous applause). * A starosta is an official invested with administrative powers. RESOLUTIONS DRAWN UP TO PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON AND ADOPTED BY THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL MASS-MEETING AT COOPER UNION HALL, NEW YORK CITY, ON JANUARY 16, 1919 WHEREAS, our great President, Woodrow Wilson, has deemed it his paramount duty to visit Europe in order to impress upon the representatives of the different governments about to assemble at the International Peace Conference at Versailles the principles which he formally announced as his own peace terms in his famous address delivered before the Congress of the United States on January 8, 1918, setting forth arrangements for the per manent peace of the world, for which principles he said, "we are willing to fight until they are achieved;" and, WHEREAS, the fourteenth point enunciated by the President reads as follows : "XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike." and, WHEREAS, these bases of peace have been accepted by the Allied Governments as well as by the Central Powers, and the intention has been expressed by European statesmen, predicated upon the principle laid down by the President in his plea for an International League that "all govern ments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed," to re cognize and grant the just claims of the smaller nations, as they shall be self-determined by such nations; THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that it is the sense of this meeting that we solemnly pledge our unswerving loyalty and support to our illust rious President in his great mission to the Peace Conference, and in his impartial and conscientious application of the principles which he has laid down for the world's guidance in the direction of a permanent peace; and, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Commissioners Plenipoten tiary of the United States of America at the said International Peace Con ference be, and they are hereby, requested to represent and urge upon the said Conference the right to freedom, independence, and self-determination of all the Ukrainian territory, both in the former empire of Austria-Hun gary and in Russia, so that hereafter no military power of any nation or group of nations shall be suffered to determine the fortunes of peoples over whom they have no right to rule, except the right of force ; and, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of these resolutions, duly authenticated, be forwarded to our illustrious President and to the Ameri can Commissioners. Dr. Cyril D. Billik, Chairman of the Mass-Meeting. — 72 — UKRAINE AND RUSSIA BY THE DELEGATION OF THE UKRAINIAN REPUBLIC AT PARIS, TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE Sir: The Delegation of the Ukrainian Republic, having full power from its Government, asks you kindly to transmit to the Peace Conference at Paris, the following note, which is a development, of the one already presented to you, on the subject of the recognition of Ukraine as an independent and free State: The greatest enemy of the independence of the Ukrainian Republic is Russia with her present Bolshevik Government, following the same im perial policy which was pursued by the government of the Tsar and the provisional government of Russia — thus she wishes to pass over the body of Ukraine, in order to be able to put one hand on the Dardanelles and the Suez Canal, and the other on the Persian Gulf. This is why the Ukrainian Government has waged a bitter war against the Bolshevik Government of Russia for more than a year with little inter ruption. This struggle will continue until the Bolshevik Government of Russia completely renounces its imperialistic designs. In this war Ukraine only defends her country and does not encroach upon the ethnographical frontiers of Russia, because she feels that she has no right to interfere in the internal affairs of a neighboring State. It is true that the Bolshevik Government of Russia, in the desire of concealing its imperialistic intentions, always accused the Ukrainian Gov ernment, saying that the latter energetically opposed the pacifist pro paganda of the Bolshevik ideas on the frontier of Ukraine and prevented the development of these same ideas in Western Europe by the intermediary of Rumania and Hungary- In this war against the imperialistic intentions of the Bolshevik Gov ernment of Russia, the Ukrainian Republic did not remain isolated; the other independent states, notably Finland, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, White Ruthenia, and Georgia, with whom the Ukrainian Republic is on the most friendly terms, were also opposed to the Bolshevik designs. The independent Republic of Ukraine in association with all these states encircling the Bolshevik Russia in this way puts a check upon the imperialistic intentions of the Bolsheviks of Russia. It is also necessary to remark that the former Russia, without any re gard to her alliance with France, was always under a direct and strong German influence, which always upheld Russia, whole and undivided, in her struggle against the separatist efforts of the people. At the sanie time Germany exploited Russia from an economic point of view, especially by her traditional "Drang nach Osten", and she made one way pass by Con stantinople and Bagdad and another by the German Colonies in Ukraine, thus leading towards Central Asia. With the object of reconstructing this one and undivided Russia, Ger many tried to strike a blow at the independence of the Ukrainian Republic by a "coup d'etat" in April, 1918; she effected the appointment of her agent Skoropadsky as dictator of Ukraine. Now the Bolshevik Government of Russia is preparing to unite with Germany for a future attack on Western Europe. The independent Ukra inian Republic in union with the states already named, forms a strong barrier separating Russia from Germany, and this barrier will prevent them from uniting. For this reason the recognition of the independence and sovereignty of the Ukrainian Republic by the Allies and the United States of America seems an indispensable act and is the only means of reestablishing per manent tranquillity and order in Eastern Europe. I am, Sir, Yours faithfully, Gregory Sidorenko, Minister of Roads and Communications and Chairman of the Delegation of the Republic of Ukraine. — 73 — POLISH IMPERIALISTIC DESIGNS TOWARDS EAST GALICIA A NOTE FROM THE UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT OF GALICIA TO THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT PARIS Berne, Switzerland, March 13, 1919. Inasmuch as the negotiations at Lviv for an armistice between the Poles and Ukrainians have been discontinued, and in view of the fact that the mission of General Bartelmy has been unsuccessful, my Government has entrusted me with the duty of giving the Peace Conference at Paris the following information: The failure of General Bartelmy's mission should not surprise anyone who had an opportunity of carefully following the tactics of this mission. After his arrival in Lviv, about the end of January, 1919, General Bartelmy did not try to hide the fact that he had brought ammunition for the Poles. From the very beginning he made no attempt to disguise his partiality to the Poles; he participated in Polish military parades; he made in spections of the Polish front lines ; he constantly emphasized in his speeches the brotherhood of Poles and Frenchmen; he did, in fact, everything that would compromise him in his position of arbitrator in the quarrels between the Poles and Ukrainians. On the other hand he declared publicly that he did not know the Ukrainians; he did not strive to be informed about them, but on the contrary he did just the reverse of what the English and American missions had done. He estranged the Ukrainian military envoys with his haughty treatment of them. He refused to have any relations with the Government of West Ukraine, which commands the Ukrainian army in Galicia, and peremptorily refused to visit the Ukrainian fighting line, where he could examine the conditions personally. At the same time General Bartelmy did not hesitate to send false reports in which the Ukrainian soldiers were slandered as Bolsheviki, bandits, murderers of women and children, etc. At the opening negotiations General Bartelmy should have known that the Ukrainians would consent to a truce of arms only when the basis of the negotiations was the determination of the ethnographic Polish-Ukrainian boundaries in accordance with the principle of President Wilson. Meanwhile he condescended magnanimously to offer the Ukrainians half of their ethnographic territory, the whole of which has been occupied by the Ukrainians for the last four months, making his offer rest upon a supposed agreement of the Allies. When one considers that General Bartelmy submitted his terms to the Ukrainians at a time when these terms were of vital importance to the Poles, inasmuch as military successes were insuring the capture of Lviv, and that he thereby strengthened the position of the Poles, one can easily imagine the feeling prevailing in political and military circles. In these circumstances the resumption of hostilities was a political and military necessity. The Ukrainian Government regrets to say that it has been unable to employ its forces on the eastern front against the Bolsheviki, but is in fact, obliged to transfer some of its forces on the eastern front to the western front in order to defend the land against the Poles. If the west ern frontiers of Ukraine are not determined, then the settlement- of not only tie Ukrainian but also the Eastern European question will be im possible. This is just the reason why the Ukrainian Government, unable to fight on two fronts, feels compelled to concentrate all its forces for the defense of its land against Polish invasion, and afterwards for the systematic liberation of the remaining Ukrainian lands in the east. If our efforts do not meet the success we desired, the blame will rest chiefly upon General Bartelmy, who evidently had no intention of devoting himself to the settle ment of the difficulties between the Poles and Ukrainians, but on the contrary intended to paralyze the struggle of the Ukrainians and thereby to further the interests of the Poles. Dr. Vassili Paneyko, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of West Ukraine. — 74 — The Imperial Academy of Sciences of Petrograd, and the Ukrainian Language When a revolution broke out in Russia in 1904, and when under the blows of this revolution and of many military defeats the very foundations of the Russian State were trembling, the Russian Government made up its mind to change its savage policies and to ameliorate the existing condi tions. The Ukrainian people also was a little affected by this change in Russian policies. A Russian committee of ministers, while considering the restrictions placed upon publication in the Ukrainian language, advised the ministers of education and the ministers of the interior to investigate these restrictions and, after obtaining the views on this subject of the Governor of Kiev, of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and of the Universities of Kiev and Kharkov, to submit their opinions and conclusions to the com mittee of ministers. All the institutions whose opinion was sought in this matter recommended the immediate removal of the restrictions on the Ukrainian language. In particular, the Academy of Sciences of Petrograd prepared a lengthy memorial on this question. The memorial, bearing the seal of the Academy of Sciences, was presented to the ministers. The Academy of Sciences chose a special commission of the most emin ent professors and specialists of Russia to prepare this memorial. The members of the commission — Korsh, Famintsin, Zalensky, Fortunatov, Shakhmatov, Danilevsky, and Oldenburg — were all Muscovites, with the ex ception of Zalensky. Shakhamatov, who was famous throughout Europe as a specialist in philology and old-Russian literature, was commissioned to prepare the most important and detailed report on the subject. , The salient feature of the report of the Academy of Sciences of Petro grad is the declaration that the Ukrainian people is a distinct nation which has its own language and literature and its own historical traditions, and is entitled to an unrestricted national development. The memorial does not contain even a trace of the opinion that the Ukrainian language is a dialect of the Russian language. It clearly regards the Russian people and the Ukrainian people and the Russian language and the Ukrainian language as equally distinct national entities, and does not mention any all-Russian people or language. The memorial shows conclusively that the all-Russian language does not and never did exist, and that the so-called all-Russian literary language is the language only of the Muscovites or Russians and is completely for eign to the Ukrainian people. This memorial of the Academy of Sciences of Petrograd was printed in 1905; and of the very few copies extant, one is possessed by the Public Library of New York City. In 1905, chiefly on account of this memorial the Russian Government repealed the law of 1876 which prohibited all pub lication in the Ukrainian language. — 75 — A SONG WITHOUT WORDS A Story Reminiscent of the Tsarist Rule in Ukraine In the little village of Krestchati Yari under shady willows and slender poplars, we had gathered for refreshment. It was an unusually beautiful day. The trees swayed gently in the breeze, and their leaves rustled as if they were whispering to one another some awful tale of mystery. Behind the willows, within a verdant grove, could be seen a little old schoolhouse, near which newly-clad children, bearing colored Easter eggs in their hands, were romping about, making a queer indistinguishable noise. "Do not pluck those buds," shouted an older boy to one of his younger companions; "they will grow into blossoms and then into fruit." "What's that to you?" retorted the youngster, spitefully tearing the buds from the branch of a cherry tree and quickly running away. A group of men and boys were stretched out on the grass lawn in front of the schoolhouse, pleasantly chatting about something. Suddenly the curly-headed schoolmaster appeared in the open window and announced that it was time to sing. The children rushed into the weatherworn little building with great enthusiasm, pushing and jostling one another in their excitement; while the elders followed in a more dignified way. Soon the entire grove resounded with their singing of a most delightful melody. The music passed through various phases, now swelling into an ocean of passion, now flowing gracefully like a lazy summer rivulet, and at times dying down until it was barely audible. Captivated by its exquisite beauty, I approached the window that I might hear it more distinctly. The whole assemblage was humming the song "Oi, Hal, Mahti." With his hair disheveled and his arms swinging like the wings of an eagle in full flight, the schoolmaster conducted the humming with surprising vivacity. When all of the song had been thus strangely rendered, the nearly exhausted teacher came to the window to get a bit of the cool, fresh air. "What song were you humming?" I asked abruptly. The schoolmaster was not a little startled, but replied graciously, " 'Oi, Hai, Mahti'. " "But why didn't the choir sing the words?" "It is forbidden to sing Ukrainian songs in school; hence we do not sing the songs — we only learn their tunes. I have taught the people many airs; for I believe that if they know the music, they will supply their own words." "And is also the singing of Muscovite songs forbidden?" "No," answered the schoolmaster, "Muscovite songs may be sung. But my pupils do not wish to sing them; they do not like them." After a short rest the singers assembled again, and the crafty instructor had them rehearse another song, "Oi, Seev Poohach." Manly and boyish voices united in one mighty sound, which bore to 'the Creator their com plaint of the injustice on earth. In the early evening, when it was still twilight, we resumed our journey. The peasant singers were just leaving the schoolhouse. They walked along the bank of the River Ross, singing, "Not well, Zaporozhian Cossacks, not well have you managed." The magic words of the song, full of despondency and melancholy, cut sharply into my heart and gave rise to many thoughts of the past. We were well beyond the outskirts of the village, and still the words of that song rang in our ears and reproved us in our hearts: "Not well, Zaporozhian Cossacks, not well have you managed ; The Steppe was broad, the land was fair — Through neglect you lost them." THE FLIGHT OF THE THREE BROTHERS FROM AZOV. (Duma) Translated from the Ukrainian. Oi, from the city of Azov heavy fogs rising! Three brothers are fleeing like gray pigeons From the town of Azov, From Turkish captivity, To the Christian land, to father and mother, to their own kinsmen. Two brothers are mounted; the third one, the youngest, Must run barefooted, must run after his brothers. With white pebbles, with rough-pronged, sun-dried roots His little youthful, Cossack's feet are bruised, His footsteps steeped in blood. Thus he cries to the brothers on horseback: ''0 my own brothers, ye gray Pigeons! do now your utmost, Take me, the youngest brother, between your horses, To the Christian land, to father and mother, To our kinsmen bear me!" The brothers hear him and make answer: "0 little dear brother, thou gray Pigeon, Gladly would we take thee between our horses; But then would the Azov Orda* overtake us, Would cut us down to our stumps, And cause us great anguish." So saying, they quicken their speed, But the younger brother, Barefooted ever, runs and runs after. Seizes the stirrups, and bedews them with tears. "0 my own brothers, ye gray Pigeons, If now between ye, neither will bear me, Shoot me, cut me down ; on the steppes bury me, But leave me not as a prey for beasts and birds!" And the brothers hear and answer: "0 dear brother, thou gray Pigeon! Thy words pierce us like unto knives, We might not lift our swords against thee ; They would fall into a score of pieces: Who sayeth farewell in a manner like this?" * A Tatar horde. — 77— Then the youngest brother, barefooted ever, Buns after them, entreating, "0 my own brothers, ye gray Pigeons. When ye reach the bushy valleys, Cut the tips of the thorn-bushes, Leave Ihem to your youngest brother, barefooted ever, For a mark and a sign How to flee from the hard captivity to the Christian land, To father and mother, to our kinsmen." When the elder brothers reached the bairaki* And the meleusi, valleys of the thorn-bush, They cut down the thorn-tops, as a mark left them For the younger brother, walking barefooted. But when through the valleys there was no more thorn-bush, On the Muravsky highway Bare steppes and endless were stretching before them, Where shone the green grass, Outlines of grave-hills were seen in the distance. Then spake the second brother, "0 my own brother, thou gray Pigeon, Let me now ponder. From our red zhupans tear off the black knots, These on the steppes scatter, As a mark for our brother, our youngest brother, Walking barefooted; For help — that he reach it, the Land of the Christians, The father and mother, the kinsfolk." And the elder brother, hearing, spake thus: "My dear brother, thou gray Pigeon, If we tear off the black knots from our red zhupans, What will we do then when God permits us To reach our father, our mother, and kinsmen? How would we garb us to dance with 'white youth'?". But the second brother listens not to him, Tears off the black knots from the red zhupan, On the Muravsky highway leaves them As a mark for the youngest brother, barefooted. Laughed then the elder: "0 my own brother, thou gray Pigeon, Thou hast brains of a woman To destroy such good raiment! When God allows us To greet father and mother and kinsmen What wilt thou dress in? In what, dance with 'white youth'?" * Bairak — valley in the steppes along river slopes, covered with thorn and wild rose bushes. — 78 — So speaking, they flee from thence, not one day, nor two, Till they reach Savoor-Mohila ; On its top resting, resting three days. Meanwhile the youngest, barefooted walking, Beaches thickets, bairaki; The thorn-tops grasping, to his heart pressing, Bedewing with tears: "Here, too, my brothers, the riders, have passed! They cut the branches and tops of the thorn-bush, To a barefooted walker left for a sign To guide him in flight From hard slavery To the Christian land, To see father and mother and kin." So saying, he ran on farther. He passed through the land of thorns — Of bairaki and meleusi there was no more ; A vast plain only stretched before him. Now he ran along the highway, Saw black knots of a red zhupan, To his youthful Cossack's heart pressed, and bedewed with tears. "Here were my two brothers fleeing, Doubtless Horde of Azov chased them, Cut, and crushed them into pieces. But the Tartars passed me by there, While I rested in bairaki. If I could but find my brothers, Bury them in open steppe, Prey no more for beast and bird." Weary with the drought, starvation, A wind felled him to the earth. But he reached the Vavoor grave-hill, He climbed up the Savoor grave-hill, On the ninth day resting safely, Waiting raindrops from the heavens. Brief his rest — gray wolves came to him, Black-winged eagles fluttered round him, At his head they sat them down. Gloomy, living funeral waiting, Eyes to tear from out his sockets, With these words he spoke unto them, "0 gray wolves and black- winged eagles, My dear guests! Wait ye, wait ye for a season When the Cossack's soul and body Sever, disunite; Tear you out my kari* eyes then, Pick white flesh from yellow bones, River bank canes then will hide them." * Coal-black. — 79 — Then he lay there resting. Now his fingers all are nerveless, Now his feet refuse to bear him. Now his bright eyes seek the heavens And see nothing. He sighs deeply: "Oi, head of the youthful Cossack, Thou hast been in Turkish countries. In the faith of Infidels! Now perish — drought and famine — Now the ninth day hath no bread passed Through these lips. I die of thirsting!" While he spoke thus, Not a black cloud in the heavens, Not a breath of windy tempest. And the Cossack's soul, so youthful, Had departed from the body. Then the gray wolves came yet closer, And the black-winged eagles nearer, At his head they sat them down ; Tore the black eyes from the sockets, Picked white flesh from yellow bones, Covered them with river canes. When the elder brothers meantime Came to banks of the Samarka, When the dark night did embrace them, In this manner spake the eldest, To his second brother saying: "Little brother, let us stay here, Graze our horses on wide grave-hills; The herbage is good, the waters are cold, Let us stop here and wait. Maybe he, our barefoot brother, Maybe he will reach us shortly. Then, because my heart yearns for him, I would cast away my treasure And between our horses grasp him, Bring him to the Christian land." "Ah, brother! Why bore you not him ere this? Now the ninth day all but passes When he might eat bread and salt. Drinking with it water. Doubtless long ere this he's perished." Horses loose a-grazing, Saddles for their pillows, For the dawn-star waiting, Sleep descended on them. When God's sun was rising, — 80 — Saddled they the horses, Crossed Samarka River, To Christian lands a-fleeing. Then the elder brother spake thus to the second: "Little brother, on arriving, What's the tale we shall be telling? If the truth we're speaking, Curses from our father, Curses from our mother! If we lie unto them, God will punish surely, Seen by us, or seen not. "Let us say we dwelt not With the same hard masters, We fled in the night-time From slavery and toiling, But we ran and woke him : 'Wake and flee, 0 brother! With us, Cossack-captives'. But anon he answered, T will yet remain here, Stay to make my fortune'. So with this tale ready, When die father, mother, We'll divide the cattle, We will share the fields, No third one interfering." In this fashion spake they... 'Twas not blue eagles shrieking, But Turk Janizaries Stole from round a grave-hill, Smote and shot them down, Booty and the horses taking back to Turkey. So the heads of the two brothers Fell by the Samarka River, The third head on Savoor grave-hill. But their fame will never die; It will live for ever. FLORENCE RANDAL LIVESAY. (Author of "Songs of Ukraina"). TALE "\ UNIVERSITY UBRARV