V-th ICUS Resolutions

The 5^th International Congress of Ukrainian Studies (ICUS) met in Chernivtsi on the campus of the Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University during 26-30 August 2002, with 730 scholars in attendance, including 201 participants from 23 countries outside Ukraine. The Congress held 135 section- and topic-oriented sessions, 20 roundtable discussions, and featured presentations of over 15 recently released academic publications, among them the first ever concordance of a Ukrainian writer (Taras Shevchenko).

Considerable attention at Congress sessions centered on studies of Bukovyna – its history, geography, linguistic heritage, culture, and ethnology.

I. Congress participants resolved that the International Committee and the Bureau of the International Association for Ukrainian Studies (IAUS) shall:

Publish all Congress proceedings;
Convene subsequent congresses once every 3 or 4 years, and organize inter-disciplinary symposia in the interim, preferably annually;
Review relevant proposals and hold the next VI-th ICUS in 2005 (or 2006) on the campus of either Donetsk or Chernihiv Universities;
Commit 3 full days for lectures and one half day each for opening and closing ceremonies at future congresses;
Organize more inter-disciplinary sessions;
Hold a coordinating meeting under the auspices of the IAUS Bureau prior to the next Congress, to determine the organization of sections, sessions and roundtable meetings, and define the role of participants, etc.;
Reinstate the functions of the Audit Committee and fill its seats with IAUS members that are not IAUS Bureau officials;
Request former IAUS officials to have the previous Audit Committee submit its completed report;
Establish a By-Laws Committee to review and propose amendments to the By-laws that would be voted on at the next ICUS;
Ratify the V-th ICUS resolutions, release them to the press and distribute them to government officials.

II. Congress participants express deep concern in regard to the status of the Ukrainian language in Ukraine and call on the President of Ukraine, Parliament, Cabinet of Ministers, Ministry of Science and Education, Ministry of Culture and other government bureaus to:

Create a Committee on Language Policy in the Parliament, which will report annually on the status of the Ukrainian language in Ukraine;
Enforce compliance with the Law on Languages at all levels of government;
Ratify the “Proposal on the Latest Ukrainian Orthography,” which meets current usage standards of Ukrainian;
Open a number of solely Ukrainian language educational and cultural television channels and enforce compliance of licensing regulations at other television and radio broadcasting stations;
Expand the current Cabinet of Ministers’ Committee on Orthography to include specialists from the previous Committee to guarantee continuity systematic effort and continuity in standardizing the Ukrainian language;
Develop regulations, based on the principles in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, that will govern the certification of Ukrainian language qualifications of personnel in governmental institutions and local municipalities, as well as for applicants for Ukrainian citizenship;
Initiate a project under the aegis of the Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, to develop a definitive national library of the Ukrainian language consisting of standard collections of manuscripts, printed and electronic texts in Ukrainian (analogous to the Estonian “Eesti kirjakeele korpus,” the Dutch “Leiden Corpus,” etc.). Together with other academic institutions, the Institute of Ukrainian Language should oversee the compilation of the texts according to their philological classification. This project will provide a wider lexical base of the Ukrainian language for the development of information technologies in science and society, the production of new high-quality dictionaries, grammars, text books, and for resolution of discrepancies in orthography;
Establish a network of organizations outside Ukraine similar to the “Goethe Institut” and “Alliance FranVaise” to promote Ukrainian national culture;
Provide additional tax relief to publishers of Ukrainian language materials in Ukraine;
Amend current tax laws to provide tax incentives to patrons who sponsor academic, educational and cultural projects.

III. Congress participants express deep concern about the state of Ukrainian historical studies and policies establishing the commemoration of historical dates in Ukraine and call on the President of Ukraine, Parliament, Cabinet of Ministers, Ministry of Science and Education, Ministry of Culture and other government bureaus to:

Revoke the Presidential Decree on commemorating the anniversary of the Pereiaslav Treaty of 1654. Previous celebrations in 1954 and 1979 were blatant attempts to falsify Ukrainian history and legitimize the Soviet political regime in Ukraine. Instead of issuing such a politically motivated decree and holding grand celebrations based on past models, the Ukrainian government should provide the necessary resources for publishing documentary sources and conducting new research on the entire Khmelnytsky era, including the Zaporozhian Host’s contacts and diplomatic relations with the Crimean Khanate, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden, Transylvania, Muscovy and Ottoman Empire. Ukrainian historical studies have only just begun to emerge from under the strictures of Soviet totalitarianism. Such a decree jeopardizes this transition, tarnishes the reputation of Ukrainian historians and may cause discontent within Ukrainian society.
Establish an all-national Institute of Rememberance for the study of the 1933 Famine Genocide in Ukraine, based on similar institutes in Armenia, for the study of the Armenian genocide, and Israel, in researching the Holocaust. In addition, this institute should study the repressions in Ukraine, perpetrated by the Soviet and Nazi regimes against Ukrainians, Jews, Poles and other nationalities throughout the entire 20^th century.
Annul the planned birthday commemoration of Volodymyr Scherbytsky’s birthday 3⁄4 a key henchmen of the Soviet regime in Ukraine, who was personally responsible for the political persecution of dissidents, academic and cultural activists, and enforcement of russification policies in Ukraine. The catastrophic ecological situation facing Ukraine today is also directly attributable to Volodymyr Scherbytsky. A commemoration of this type of anniversary will scorn the memory of countless victims of the Soviet regime in Ukraine and may cause discontent within Ukrainian society.