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m ines, of suppressing hum an rig h ts in U kraine concluding w ith th e statem en t th a t ‘in re ality, U kraine is a colony of R ussia.” All of th e accused w ere sentenced to 15 years im prison m ent. In tim e, a rre sts grew in in ten sity. Dozens of intellectuals w ere trie d and convicted w ith a to tal d isregard fo r Soviet law. T rials w ere held in alm ost all m ajor cities of U kraine in an e ffo rt to stem th e tid e of th e national renaissance. In th e end, th e tria ls backfired on th e Soviet leadership. H uge crowds g a th ered to cheer th e accused and in tim e th e n a tu re of th ese trials came to th e atten tio n of the W estern world. V iacheslaw Chornovil, a young jo u rn alist covering th e trials, w as asked to rend er a false deposition ag ain st fo ur of th e accused who had been close friends of his. W hen he refused, he was severely re buked by th e au th o rities. F ac ing im m inent a rre st, Chornovil collected every scrap of in fo rm a tion concerning a num ber of trials and m anaged to sm ugle these docum ents out of U kraine. Chornovil w as arrested last N o vem ber b u t his testim on y is safe. E arly th is S pring his p a pers w ere published in U k rain ian and m ore recently, M cGraw- Hill cam e out w ith an E nglish edition. A dding credence to th e te s ti m ony of M arxists in U kraine are th e voices of C om m unists o u t side of th e Iron C urtain. A n ex am ple is a w ork entitled “E d ucation in Soviet U k rain e” by John K olasky, a U krainian-C an adian com m unist fo r over 30 y ears. K olasky atten ded th e H igher P a rty School of th e Cen tra l C om m ittee of th e Com m it tee of th e C om m unist p a rty of U kraine w here he had firs t hand acces to statistica l inform ation concerning th e p resen t sta tu s of education in U kraine. In his w ell-docum ented book he w rite s : “The aim of R ussian policy is to m ain tain a tig h t control over education in U kraine and other national republics, to re stric t U krainians and o th er nationals from progressin g beyond th e el em en tary and secondary level, to denationalize th em . . . to in crease . . . th e continuous influx of R ussians to occupy posts in governm ent, education, science, and other fields.” In addition, a special delega tion from th e C om m unist P a rty of Canada, led by Tim Buck, v is ited U kraine in A pril of 1967 and upon retu rn in g , vigorously objected to R ussian discrim ina tion in U kraine. T hus we see th a t from th e h istorical perspective, th e ques tion of hum an rig h ts in U kraine has alm ost come full circle. W e began w ith th e obliteration of U krainian freedom d uring th e th ird Bolshevik offensive and th e ensuing period of m ilitan t Com m unism . W e th en w itnessed a period of heroic e ffo rt on th e p a rt of U krainian M arxists such as S krypnyk, K hvylovy and Shum sky to obtain a m odicum of th e rig h ts g u aran teed U kraine by th e Soviet C onstitution. Then cam e S talin. Follow ing his d eath th ere w as an o th er period during w hich tim e a second heroic ef fo rt w as m ade by U krainian M arxists such as Symonenko, D ziuba and Chornovil. The ques tion now is, is it possible th a t th e events occuring in U kraine today are a prelude to ano th er S talin ist period? As we reflect on th e p resent stance of U kraine’s continuing hum an rig h ts revolution, it is well to rem em ber w h at enligh t ened, supposedly progressive th in k ers in th is country w ere saying and w ritin g about th e non-R ussian people of th e USSR a few sh o rt years ago. George F. K ennan, fo r exam ple, re ferred to th em as “bew ildered linguistic groups,” and labeled th e ir feeble stru gg les fo r cultural autonom y th e re su lt of “Irresponsible n a t io n a lis m .” In response to a let te r from th e editor of th e T ri dent Q u arterly who protested th e reference “R ussian” to U krainian ath letes p articip atin g in th e Olympics, th e editors of Life m agazine w ro te : “Though we realized th a t M iss L aty n in a is U krainian and th a t others belong to d ifferen t n a tionalities, it has become th e custom in th is country to call all citizens of th e USSR “R us sians.” T his is p a rtly a m a tte r of convenience and p a rtly a r e su lt of th e fa ct th a t th e USSR is th e successor of th e R ussian em pire.” George W eller, a noted foreign correspondent spent tw o weeks in U kraine in 1961 and in a sub sequent series of articles con cluded th a t “U krainian n atio nal ism is dead.” F inally D ean Rusk, in com m enting on th e proposal to establish a p erm anen t Captive N ations C om m ittee in 1961, said: “The U nited S tates G overn m en t’s position is w eakened by any action w hich confuses th e rig h ts of fo rm erly independent peoples or nations w ith th e s ta t us of areas such as U kraine, A r m enia, or Georgia, w hich are trad itio n al p a rts of th e Soviet Union. R eferences to th ese la t te r areas places th e U nited S tates G overnm ent in th e unde sirable position of seem ing to advocate th e dism em berm ent of a historic s ta te .” One can only w onder w hy it is th a t in th e ir zeal to eradicate colonialism in A frica and A sia, so-called progressives in th is country are p erfectly w illing to accept and even encourage th e continued existence of th e m ost nefarious colonial em pire th e world has ever known. Isn ’t it tim e th a t we realized th a t any attem p t to obtain hum an rig h ts fo r all m en in th is w orld is doomed to failu re unless a t th e sam e tim e, we repudiate categor ically th e discrim ination policies of th e Soviet Union. R E G IO N A L COUNCIL E X H IB IT The UNW LA R egional Council in R ochester, N. Y., h as begun w ork on a p erm anen t Folk A rt E xhibit, w hich will serve th e needs of th e en tire Region. The firs t p ro ject w as U k rain ian n a tive dols, w hich will be followed by E a ste r eggs and em broide ries. 16 НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ — ВЕРЕСЕНЬ, 1968 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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