ing its Austrian part. It took root and grew tremendously in strength and power until the Ukrainian people once more proclaimed their will for independence during the World War by seizing the opportunity for self-determination in the formation of the Free Republic of Ukraine 1917-1919. New partitioning of Ukrainian territory (1919), new persecutions of Ukrainians for adhering to their language and their church in Poland, bloody purges of Ukrainian nationalist leaders in Soviet Russia, new re-partitioning of Carpathian Ukraine to Hungary (1938) has not solved the Ukrainian problem nor killed the will for independence. If for centuries between the time of the last independent Kozak state (1615-1654) and the formation of the Republic of Ukraine in 1917 the Ukrainian people were not assimilated and discouraged from grasping the first opportunity for self-determination, it stands to reason they will never be assimilated nor discouraged, especially when they have the moral support of their Americanized brother Ukrainians who have found a haven in American independence, for basically the spirit of the Ukrainian is freedom-loving, and he is anxious that his brothers in Europe should attain it.
In spite of all denationalization processes in Europe the Ukrainian people are keeping their identity intact by privately owned Ukrainian libraries and schools where they can continue to pass on to their children the Ukrainian heritage. Persecutions serve only to bring about fiercer tenacity to Ukrainianism until some day when the opportunity presents itself again, the Ukrainian people will rise again and claim the right for self-government.
Had not Poland interfered with the granting of full autonomy rights to all of Carpathian Ukraine, by her intrigue with Hungary in supporting her demands for Ruthenia, this section might have presented the opportunity for which the Ukrainians have waited, to make it a starting point for a revival of an independent Ukrainian state. Poland was much too wary and
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