Profs: Ukraine Independence Marks End Of Soviet Union

Harvard professors said yesterday that the Ukraine's overwhelming vote for independence marks the end of the Soviet Union and could lead to further democratization in the region.

"The Soviet Union was never a normal state, it was an artificial empire and its collapse was natural," said George G. Grabowicz, the director of Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute. "For all practical purposes the Soviet Union is now dead."

But Grabowicz said that the issue at hand is not the demise of the union but "the shape of the countries and the area in the future."

Grabowicz, who is also the Cyzevs'kyj professor of Ukrainian literature, welcomed the vote as both a statement of self-determination and yet another sign of increasing democratization.

"Things look very optimistic for the Ukraine, given the large support [for independence] of the Ukrainian people," he said.

Harvard faculty members said that the vote, which was 9-to-1 in favor of independence, came as no surprise.

"My first reaction was that it would have been really newsworthy if they had voted no," said Mark Saroyan, assistant professor of Government.

'Birthday Present'

Saroyan said he thought it was virtually impossible for the Ukrainians to vote against independence because "it would have been like saying don't give me a birthday present."

Although the precedent for secession has already been set by the Baltic states, the Ukraine's size makes its bid for independence important, according to Saroyan.

Grabowicz said that it was a foregone conclusion that the Ukraine would declare its independence from the Soviet Union.

"It is only making formal what has been in the cards all along," Grabowicz said.

Grabowicz said he thought one of the most significant aspects of the vote was the fact that the various ethnic and nationalist groups of the Ukraine voted the same way.

Gorbachev Opposed

"Even in areas of the Ukraine where the majority of the population is Russian, the vote was the same," he said.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev has vehemently opposed the Ukraine's secession and he said yesterday that the disintegration of the Soviet Union was "a catastrophe for all mankind."

"[Gorbachev's statement] is a sort of hyperbole," Saroyan said. "But it is a political catastrophe for him."

But Saroyan said he thought any prediction was extremely difficult because "you're dealing with very unstable and fragile states."

Grabowicz said he felt Gorbachev's statement was nonsense and added that he thought Gorbachev really meant "it's a catastrophe for me, but in his pompous manner he replaced mankind for himself."

"Many people, Bush, Mitterand and others made a personal investment in Gorbachev, but he's on his way out," he said. "There is no evidence of strife in the Ukraine and the prognosis is good.