I can imagine that people in Ukraine are afraid to say their true feelings, but when I was there in Middle Ukraine [not the East] people told me openly that they were upset that the USSR was gone. The vast majority of people in Uman went to the Russian Orthodox Church [near the local bazar]. Now you might counter that that was because it was in the city center, while the large Ukrainian Orthodox church was out a bit from the main city. But even so, that does not answer it, because there was also a small Ukrainian Orthodox church on Sadova Drive [also city centre], and that was open just a few hours on Sunday. But the Russian Orthodox Church was open all the time--from morning to evening every day, and always had plenty of people in it. And on Sunday, it was packed--hardly room to move.
Of course, now the government has closed it, and made it illegal. Even the Communists never did that during the entire 70 years they were in power. [I admit that there was talk among the Communist officials during the 1980's to close it, but they never did.]
