1982: a look back: Dissent in Ukraine (12/26/82)

1982: a look back

Dissent in Ukraine

This was truly a difficult year for human-rights activists in the Soviet Union, particularly Ukraine. With 26 of the original 37 members of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group behind bars or in exile, the Soviets launched a campaign to wipe out dissent in Ukraine.

The KGB, first under Yuri Andropov and later under Vitaliy Fedorchuk, began a two-pronged assault on human-rights activists and nationalists, particularly former members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

A new tactic adopted by authorities saw the re-arrest and sentencing of dissidents just prior to the expiration of previous terms.

Early in the year, Yaroslav Lesiv, a 37-year-old physical education instructor and member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, was sentenced to five years in a labor camp on the eve of his scheduled release. He had served three years after being charged with possession of narcotics.

Vasyl Sichko, 25, and Vasyl Striltsiv, both sentenced in 1979 to three-year labor-camp terms, were given new sentences. Mr. Sichko was sentenced to an additional three years, while Mr. Striltsiv got a six-year term.

In April Petro Sichko, 56, Vasyl's father, and Yuriy Lytvyn, a 48-year-old poet, were given new sentences. Mr. Sichko got three years in a labor camp, while Mr. Lytvyn was sentenced to five or six years. Incredibly, it was Mr. Lytvyn's fifth term.

A similar fate befell Vasyl Ovsienko, a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.

The campaign against former nationalists was even more brutal. In May, news reached the West that five former members of the OUN were executed for membership in that organization.

Mykola Dufanets, Artem Bubel and Pylyp Rubachuk were shot in the town of Lutske in the Volhynia region. The others - Ivan Rumyha (a.k.a. "Sokil") and Yuriy Butnytsky ("Burlaka") - were executed in Horodenka in the Ivano-Frankivske oblast.

In addition, it was learned that month that former UPA member Vasyl Mazurak ("Buriy") had been sentenced early in the year after a three-day trial to 15 years in a special-regimen labor camp for nationalist activities. He had previously served an eight-year term from 1946 to 1954.

Among better-known dissidents arrested and sentenced in 1982 were Mykola Plakhotniuk, who was sentenced in the spring to four years' imprisonment on a phony homosexuality charge; Mykhailo Horyn, 52, sentenced in June to 15 years' imprisonment and exile; and Olena Antoniv Krasivska, 45, who was arrested in Lviv in September. In addition, Soviet filmmaker Sergei Paradjanov, whose "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" is considered a cinema classic, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for associating with "undesirables." An Armenian from Soviet Georgia, Mr. Paradjanov had been accused of being a Ukrainian nationalist because of his Ukrainian-language films.

The scope of the anti-dissident campaign also included former political prisoners and those seeking to emigrate. Volodymyr Andrushko, a Ukrainian patriot who had been imprisoned in the 1960s, was arrested and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." During the summer, Yevhen Antonenko-Davydovych, the son of poet Borys Antonenko-Davydovych, was sentenced to four years' imprisonment.

Also arrested was Oleksander Shatravka, 32, an author who tried to escape to Finland in 1974. In September, the KGB arrested Iryna Ratushynska, a Kiev poet, charging her with "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda."

It was also reported that Halyna Maksymovych, 50, and her son, 23-year-old Oleksander, were each sentenced to two years' imprisonment for trying to emigrate to the West.

Dissident sources also reported that several imprisoned Ukrainian dissidents were gravely ill. It was learned that Yuriy Shukhevych, who has served over 30 years in Soviet prisons and labor camps for refusing to renounce his father, the late Roman Shukhevych, leader of the UPA, had lost 99 percent of his eyesight while imprisoned. In addition, it was learned in 1982 that Ivan Svitlychny is near death following two strokes, the latest in December 1981.

It was also reported that Ukrainian political prisoner Yuriy Badzio, who was sentenced in 1979 to a total of 12 years' imprisonment and exile, began a hunger strike, vowing not to eat until authorities restore his visiting privileges.

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