Eye on Books (12/31/77)

Eye on Books

by Dr. Aleksander Sokolyszyn

The Ukrainian Herald issue 6: Dissent in Ukraine; An Underground Journal from Soviet Ukraine. Introduction by Yaroslav Bilinsky. Translated from the Ukrainian and edited by Lesya Jones and Bohdan Yasen. Baltimore, Smoloskyp Publishers, 1977, 215 pp.

This valuable source of information about Ukraine under Soviet domination appeared clandestinely, in Ukraine, in March 1972 as an underground publication. Prof. Y. Bilinsky, in the introduction to it, points out that this work has been circulating in the underground in Soviet Ukraine, informing the people about the continued Russification, and, I should add, about the Soviet persecution, arrests and deportations.

The preface states, that this publication is defending the rights of the nationalities of the Soviet Union, and of course in the first place of Ukraine. It exposes Moscow directed nationality policy as an imminent threat to Ukraine's existence as a nation. "...The Ukrainian movement couples civil rights with national rights...", and arrests were made in accusation for "nationalist activities", defending Ukrainian language and culture. Ukrainian national dissidents were severely persecuted and deported to Siberia, forming an overwhelming majority among the political prisoners.

It mentions that the Ukrainian historian Valentyn Moroz served a four-year term in a labor camp and prison from 1965 to 1969, then in 1970 was sentenced to another six years in prison, three years in a special-regime labor camp, and five years exile, a total of fourteen years. This is more than a harsh treatment, which Ukrainians in the free world and some influential political persons have protested in vain. The free Western world must react. Financial pressure should be applied, other persuasive forces should be found.

The Soviet call for internationalism in the final analysis results in the Russification of Ukraine and the destruction of Ukrainian culture. This method should create a new "Soviet nation" in the USSR, which would be Russian above all. In 1964 for example, the year of the 150th anniversary of Taras Shevchenko's birth, a librarian at the Ukrainian Academy of Science set fire to the collection of Ukrainian historical documents, and remained free. The underground publication, "On the trial of Pogruzhalsky", contains a condemnation of this barbaric act against Ukrainian historical sources, which were priceless and irreplaceable. The Soviets condemn the preservation of Ukrainian language, culture, customs, arts, literature, historical ties, religious traditions as "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism." This uncensored underground publication, presents the facts about Muscovite Russian chauvinism and, especially, Ukrainophobia. The publication starts by exposing the arrests and house searches in Kiev, Lviv, and the Ivano-Frankiske Region (Stanyslaviv) in western Ukraine.

On pp. 21-62 it contains Vyacheslav Chornovil's essay "What Bohdan Stenciuk Defends and How He Does it: Sixty-Six Questions and Comments to an 'Internationalist'", continued from the previous issue. There are questions 38 through 66, regarding the Ivan Dziuba's book "Internationalism or Russification?; A Study in Soviet Nationalities Problem", edited by M. Davis and printed in London in 1968, and a second edition published in 1970. Dziuba in this work criticizes the Muscovite Russian educational methods, the true Russification policy in the Ukrainian educational system Bohdan Stenciuk was ordered by the Soviet authorities in Ukraine to write a reply, "What I. Dziuba Stands For, and How He Does It", which was printed in the English language in Kiev, in 1970. Dziuba was arrested, and under pressure had repudiated his previous writings. He is now a minor writer in Soviet Ukraine. Vyacheslav Chornovil, in March 1970, wrote at the end of his questions, "I ask once more: do not believe fools!"

Dziuba's work is also analyzed in the section dealing with "facts and evidence" in this book. An author signed N.N. writes "Under Chauvinist Pressure; On the State of Instruction in the Ukrainian Language in the Schools of the Capital of Ukraine", with statistics proving that there indeed exists a policy of Russification of schools in Ukraine.

In "On the State of the Ukrainian Language in the Crimean Pedagogical Institute" only part VIII deals with "general observations and recommendations", and in an essay, "Whose Mother is Dearer?", the Muscovite Russian plan of forcing upon Ukraine a notion of Ukraine's "total dependency and subordination" to the "big brother's" culture and language.

This volume contains some material dealing with "The Case of Valentyn Moroz"; a statement from political prisoner Valentyn Moroz to Petro Shelest, First Secretary of the central committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine; "Petition to the Prosecutor of the Ukr.S.S.R. from Political Prisoner Valentyn Moroz", signed in Kiev, KGB Prison, May 16, 1968; his demand to the Chairman of the KGB; his statement to the Prosecutor of the Ukr.S.S.R.; and his essay, "Instead of the Last Word".

It also includes letters written by various persons in defense of Moroz. A section is devoted to the memory of Ukrainians destroyed by the Soviet regime, statements in defense of Nina Strokata, Anatoliy Lupynis, Mykhailo Soroka, a chronicle, notes and index.

This publication proves that the USSR is not a free state, but rather a concentration camp, and provides the Anglo-Saxon world with first-hand information of what is going on in Ukraine under the Russian rule.

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