Turning the pages back... May 29, 1977 (05/25/03)

Turning the pages back...

May 29, 1977

The Ukrainian Weekly reported on May 29, 1977, that a group of eminent émigré East Europeans, who were dissidents or political prisoners in their respective countries, had signed a statement supporting Ukraine's right to independence and calling for the destruction of Soviet colonialism. Called "A Declaration on Ukrainian Affairs," the landmark statement appeared in the May 1977 issue of the Polish-language journal Kultura (Culture) published in Paris.

The primary reason for the declaration, the 14 activists wrote in the lead paragraph of the statement, was to initiate closer cooperation among East European émigré circles. Their secondary reason was to state that Russian imperialism and Soviet imperialism are alike in that all imperialism has one goal: to subjugate people. "The Soviet Union today is the last colonial empire and, sooner or later, the different national self-determination movements within it must destroy its anachronistic existence," they argued.

The declaration was signed by Russians - Andrei Amalrik, Vladimir Bukovsky, Natalia Horbanevskaya, Vladimir Maksimov (editor of Kontinent) and Viktor Nekrasov; Poles - Zbigniew Birski, Josef Czapski, Jerzy Gedrojc (editor of Kultura), Gustav Gerling-Grudzinski, Josef Lubodowski and Dominik Morawski; Hungarians - Tybor Merej (editor of a Hungarian literary magazine); and Czechs - Aleksander Smoliar and Pawlo Tygryd (editor of a Czech quarterly).

The 14 former dissidents divide the Soviet sphere of influence into "limited sovereignty" and "total domination" - limited sovereignty exists in the East European satellite countries, while the 15 union republics are totally dominated by Moscow. "... the fates of both groups are tightly intertwined. There can be no true free Poles, Czechs or Hungarians, without free Ukrainians, Byelorussians or Lithuanians," they claimed. The activists also wrote that freedom from "imperialistic ambitions" should be a goal of Russians before true freedom can be attained in Eastern Europe.

The signatories dedicated their statement to the Ukrainian nation "because it is the most subjugated nation in the USSR." They added that for many decades Ukrainians had stood up against Soviet oppression. "Ukraine did not capitulate. On the contrary, Ukrainian patriots have filled the prisons and concentration camps, and the opposition movement in Ukraine has become synonymous with the nationalities movements inside the empire."

Source: "Fourteen émigré East Europeans support Ukraine's freedom, call for end to Soviet colonialism," The Ukrainian Weekly, May 29, 1977.

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