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OUR LIFE M ONTHLY, published by Ukrainian National Women's League o f America VOL XXXVII MAY 1980 No 5 SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT WOMEN PERSECUTED FOR THEIR BELIEFS BY NADIA SVITLYCHNA, P O LITIC AL PRISONER IN THE USSR, 1972-1976 Volodymyr Bukovsky, answering a question about the number of political prisoners in the Soviet Union today, appropriately responded: ”250 million!" Truly, all Soviet citizens are prisoners of their own country, but their situations vary and one can group them according to various criteria. I wish to describe the situation of a few Ukrainian women political prisoners whose case histories illustrate the status of persons in the Soviet Union imprisoned for their beliefs. KATERYNA ZARYTSKA: In 1971, in the Mordovian camp for women political prisoners, Kateryna Zarytska — a former Red Cross activist during the Ukrainian independence movement — was finishing up the 24th year of her incarceration. Her husband, Mykhailo Soroka, had been imprisoned even earlier, and all these years they had not seen each other. In June 1971 M. Soroka died in Mordovian camp no. 17 and his body was brought to a hospital located in a camp in the women’s zone. When the women political prisoners discovered this by chance, they all petitioned the camp administra tion to allow Kateryna to see her husband, now that he was dead. She was not granted permission. Her husband was buried like other political prisoners: with no relatives in the funeral procession, with only an indentification tag on his foot, in a special zone of the camp where only numbers, nothing else, is permitted on the graves — no crosses, rails, flowers. Even after her release, Kateryna was unable to visit her husband’s grave because she was taken out of the camp in a convoy. She was not allowed to settle in the same town with her old mother, nor her son, whom she had borne while prisoner. She was even punished for visits from her family. IRYNA SENYK and OKSANA POPOVYCH: Both of these women were arrested at a very young age — 19 and 20, respectively. During their imprisonment of ten years, they had become invalids. I. Senyk’s back was injured, and Oksana Popovych was shot in the foot. In 1975, in Mordovian camp 38513 they met again, having been accused as ’’especially dangerous government criminals.” I. Senyk, a lyric poet, was sentenced to 6 years of severe regimen and 5 years of exile for her poetry. Oksana Popovych was sentenced to 8 years of concentration camp and 5 years of exile because she asked for 25 karbovantsi to aid political prisoners and because, a according to one witness, she gave someone I. Dziuba’s work "Internationalism or Russification?” to read. Oksana Popovych was brought to the camp (where she still lives today) on crutches. I remember how the head of the women’s zone a captain Zubkova, threatened to punish her due to the fact that she, an invalid, did not lend herself to ’’re-education" through forced labor. Iryna Senyk, on the other hand, needed a special brace for her injured back, which had been operated on. For several years, she asked to have such a brace provided for her. Finally, when some friends in Moscow ordered it for her, captain Zubkova told Senyk that when it was received at the camp, it would be cut open to check for any possible hidden materials. Driven to desperation, Iryna cursed at the captain, for which she was punished with 15 days of special camp regimen for "insulting the uniform.”. She was driven to cold quarters, where she was given hot gruel only once every two days. Otherwise, she was given only bread and water, and provided with a bare bunk for sleeping. 22 НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ, ТРАВЕНЬ 1980 Ірина Сенин Iryna Senyk 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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