Mykola Kulinich
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Australia (2015–21), PhD in History, Full Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Law and International Relations of Borys Hrinchenko Kyiv University
DOI: 10.37837/2707-7683-2023-3-1
Abstract. The article presents an analysis of the attributes and historical experience of the emergence of the Ukrainian diaspora in post–World War II Australia. The subject is relevant in the current context of Ukraine’s resistance against large-scale russian aggression.
Since February 2022, the devastating consequences of the aggression have forced a significant number of people to leave Ukraine. The massive wave of ‘Ukrainian migration’, notable by its scale and impact, allows the author to draw parallels to the migration flows witnessed in ravaged post-war Europe.
The article’s author argues that modern Ukraine could benefit from exploring the adaptation, organisation, and formation experience of the Ukrainian communities that evolved into influential diasporas in the United States, Canada, Australia, etc. Once rallied, the worldwide Ukrainian diaspora’s potential to oppose the ‘muscovite evil empire’ holds the promise of becoming a powerful force for defeating the global aggressor. The historical experience of consolidation and affirmation of Ukrainian identity and the strength of Ukrainian traditions, language, and culture constitute a genuine weapon against the influence of the ‘russian world’.
The size, influence, and authority of the global Ukrainian community as a whole and of particular Ukrainian diasporas in the major countries of Europe, America, and Australia are a contributing factor to the build-up of concerted efforts of the civilised world on a unified front against the revanchism of totalitarian ideology, the imperial ambitions of moscow, and their attempts to dismantle the democratic values of humanity. The author emphasises that today’s world is undergoing the formation of a new global order, where Ukraine’s victory in the war against the ‘moscow regime’ will emerge as the very achievement for which generations of Ukrainian people fought and fell in Ukraine and across the entire world.
Keywords: global Ukrainian community, Australia, Ukrainian diaspora, World War II, russian aggression.
References
1. Vassilios Vassilias (2015) In search of hope and home. Sydney: Plast, p. 18.
2. Ibid. P. 21.
3. Senko, D. (2020) Ukraine downunder. Sydney, Melbourne: Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, p. 11