Ukrainian Helsinki Group marks 20th anniversary in Kyiv (11/10/96)

Ukrainian Helsinki Group marks 20th anniversary in Kyiv

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Forty-two of them spent a total of 550 years incarcerated in the prisons and gulags of what was the Soviet Union. On November 6 those who survived the tyranny of the times gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian Public Group to Promote the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords, or as it came to be known, the Ukrainian Helsinki Group - the legendary people who did not give in, who decided that at all costs, their lives included, they would fight for an independent Ukraine.

Some did not survive. Many of those who did, gathered to pay tribute to an organization that spurred, if not ensured, eventual independence for Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Helsinki Group was formed on November 9, 1976, in Kyiv to monitor implementation of the Helsinki Accords that were signed in August 1975 by 35 countries, including Canada, the United States and the Soviet Union. The accords guaranteed the human and civil rights of people with respect to the countries in which they resided.

The group assumed three principle tasks: to monitor the implementation of the accords in Ukraine; to gather and disseminate information about their violation; and to secure an independent role for Ukraine in subsequent negotiations and in international affairs.

Mykola Rudenko, Oles Berdnyk, Oksana Meshko, Gen. Petro Grigorenko, Ivan Kandyba, Lev Lukianenko, Myroslav Marynovych, Mykola Matusevych, Nina Strokata and Oleksa Tykhiy were the founding members, all of whom eventually served time in Soviet prisons or camps for their involvement.

The surviving members who were able to attend were introduced and asked to come on stage and sit at the head table. Mykola Rudenko, who gave the introduction, along with his wife, Raisa, were already there. Then came the long-haired and white-bearded co-founder Mr. Berdnyk, National Deputy Lukianenko and Mr. Kandyba, followed by Bohdan Rebryk, Iryna Senyk, Iosyf Zissels, Mykhailo Horyn and National Deputy Vyacheslav Chornovil. It went on and on ...

Twenty minutes later those who had gathered on stage and those mentioned who were not there more than represented the political dissident movement of Ukraine of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980. They were it, with few exceptions.

Within two years of the founding of the organization - which also was the seed that gave birth to the Ukrainian Republican Party as well as the Popular Movement of Ukraine, Rukh - all the original members were arrested and sentenced to anywhere from two to 10 years for their activities, all on trumped-up and unsubstantiated charges. More arrests and incarcerations followed in the next six years.

Mr. Rudenko, the leader of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, said the goal at the conception of the organization was largely an unspoken one. "Yes, we thought that there would be a free Ukraine eventually. No, we did not think that it would happen in our lifetimes. We knew we would spend time in prison and in the camps."

In his opening statement he said 42 members of the group were sent to the camps during the Brezhnev repressions. Five did not return. He spoke of Vasyl Stus, Valeriy Marchenko, Yuriy Lytvyn, Yevhen Sniehirov and Mr. Tykhiy.

With about 3,000 people listening at the House of Cinema in Kyiv, mention of those who didn't survive or had passed away since, including the late patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, Volodymyr (Vasyl) Romaniuk, provoked the deepest emotional response. Many in the audience shed tears when placards bearing their images were carried onto the stage and family members were introduced.

The deceased were honored with a full minute of silence. Ms. Meshko, whom Mr. Lukianenko called the guiding force of the UHG, was honored again and again as the survivors gave personal testimonials.

The idea for a Ukrainian Helsinki Group began on a late autumn night, Mr. Rudenko explained. He and Mr. Berdnyk went to meet Ms. Meshko at her place on Verbolozhna Street to discuss political matters, as they often did. "We decided that we would announce a Helsinki committee to implement the accord, or simply put, a Helsinki Group," said the 76-year-old writer, who today is nearly blind.

He explained, "We were no longer going to accept the imprisonment of writers, journalists and others when they spoke out, or to be sentenced to death as was Lev Lukianenko, who sat on death row for 70 days before being resentenced to 15 years."

Mr. Lukianenko, who was the symbol behind the force that would soon become the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, according to Mr. Rudenko, was visited by him and Mr. Berdnyk. He was asked to commit to the new direction dissidents pushing human rights and a free Ukraine were about to undertake.

They asked for his involvement, to which Mr. Lukianenko replied, "I need 30 minutes to think about."

Mr. Lukianenko didn't need that long to agree, as he stated at this commemoration. "I needed to think only about the direction my sacrifices had taken, and then to realize that because the Helsinki Agreement was signed by many countries, which included the Soviet Union, that now we could monitor with an official voice," he explained. "The Soviet system could not deny our voice before the world."

Then Kandyba came aboard, then Grigorenko, Matusevich, Tykhiy ...

"Ten people proclaimed our declaration, our statute, truly remarkable people," said Mr. Rudenko.

No one from the Ukrainian government was present at the commemoration, no declarations were sent. Oles Shevchenko, asked to speak by Mr. Lukianenko, gave a telling statement of how the government looks upon those who suffered because of their affiliation with the Helsinki Group.

"In the five years of a free Ukraine, the Ukrainian government regularly honors distinguished people. The head of the presidential administration, Dmytro Tabachnyk, has been tasked with this. Not once in five years has the government honored one of these people, those dead or alive, with a tribute, a memorial, or by naming a street after them," he stated. "Although that is very sad, we do not need this, we know who the heroes are."