It has been a mere 20 years since Ukraine won its independence from the breakup of the Soviet Union. Summing it up now, what has changed for the better or worse?
One thing for certain, we have seen the emergence of people, some of whom became incredibly wealthy overnight, while the greater remain impoverished. Many have been able to milk the system and extract huge fortunes to be whisked away to foreign banks or to acquire sizeable industrial properties at fire-sale prices at what would seem very shady transactions.
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The rest, particularly in the rural villages, seem poorer than under the previous regime.
I have good connections with our ancestral village in Ukraine, Toki, situated on the western bank of the River Zbruch, about 50 kilometres east of the provincial capital, Ternopil. This river served for years as a boundary of a divided Ukraine: the west occupied by the Austro-Hungarians and later by Poles, and the east occupied by Czarist Russia and later by the Bolsheviks.
Conditions within the village worsened with each passing year. Farm equipment that had sustained the farm in the past was either worn out or in a general state of disrepair.
Sold or pilfered overnight, no one assumed responsibility for an astute dispersal process. With no equipment at hand, the greater portion of the land not distributed was allowed to go to weeds. Whatever crops the individual peasant was able to harvest were offered for sale, but brought low prices because the government allowed imports to artificially keep the price low.
With poverty upon them, the luckier ones that had family members on pension had some leeway to stay alive. With the borders open, many family members sought work on the black market in Italy, Spain or Germany and sent money back to support the rest of the family or pay debts.
In Ukraine today, there are great numbers of people working in other countries, sending back the needed hard currency, which in the end swells the nation’s GDP in an otherwise grossly mismanaged economy.
Having been brought up in a state where one is told what and when to do in every moment of life, the thrust of democratization upon one’s mental capacity to adjust was beyond the capacity of most to cope with.
With the apparent loss of income from a functioning collective, the despair of many turned toward alcoholism. With family members drunk or working abroad, children would suffer the most, becoming destitute or vagabonds. Gradually, I am told, the general health of the village has deteriorated.
In the area of agricultural reform, some individuals who seemed well versed in the way western countries have combined modern technology into what we now call economies of scale. Having found money somehow, they would proceed to buy the best of western machinery so they could farm many hectares of land.
Today, our village lands are part of 13 villages that have rented their holdings to a single individual that has capitalized enough modern machinery to till it all with little help in manual labour.
The rent paid is nowhere near what individual landowners here in Canada would garner. With barely three years of operation under his belt, he has recently bought a complete sugar refinery in a neighbouring town.
This is capitalism at its finest. In its wake, however, the villagers remain poor.
In other parts of the country, a more ominous situation is arising; that of encroaching foreign ownership.
We are aware that certain countries desire guaranteed access to a food supply, like Saudi Arabia or Germany. All of a sudden, like Esau, Ukraine is slowly selling its birthright, lands that nations have coveted and invaded in centuries past.
In a state of local poverty, it is a short sighted, short-term solution to its problems.
It is barely 150 years since Ukraine rid itself of absentee landlords who basked in the excesses of Paris and Vienna, while serfs tilled the land like slaves.
If the proverbial wheel is executing its complete circle in Ukraine, the western-induced form of modern agriculture, where robotic machines assume tasks of unbelievable proportion, even the need for serfs will be eliminated.
For those struggling with the rapid changes, it can be unnerving indeed.
