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Vol.19 No.17 ISSN: 0049-1713 29 August 1990 SOVIET . , 'ANALYST A 'FORTNIGHTL Y COMMENTARY ... , . \' CONTENTS < I RETURN OF THE EXILES? .. SOVIET MIDDLE EAST ROLE AFTER THE BLOCKADE: THE BALTIC STATES VERSUS MOSCOW ... INDEPENDENT (SAMIZDAT) PRESS IN UKRAINE UNDER GORBACHEV (1) SURVEY r r Return of the Exiles? The publication of President Gorbachev's decree expression of regret, as there had been in the lengthy of 15 Auqust, which annulled earlier Supreme Soviet introduction to the decree on rehabilitating Stalin's Praesidiurn decrees depriving certain Soviet citizens victims two days earlier. An appendix gives the of their citizenship, was a strange affair, and not the names of the 23, and the date of the relevant earlier best advertisement for glasnost in action. Izvestiya decree. Against 14 of the names there is a reference carried a very brief Tass announcement of the to publication of that decree in the Supreme Soviet decree on the same day, and the following day Gazette. Sovetskaya Rossiya commented after the revealed six of the 23 names involved, at the head of list that it represented only part of those deprived of an interview with a member of the Supreme Soviet citizenship, and that the cases of others "could be secretariat concerned with citizenship and pardons, resolved in accordance with the Law regulating Gennadiy Cheremnykh. Those named were the restoration of U.SSR citizenship". writers Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Vassiliy Aksenov and Vladimir Voinovich, the human rights activist Famous exiles Valeriy Chalidze, the chess player Viktor Korchnoy The list of 23 contains several other names by now and the painter Oskar Rabin. well known in the West - the writers Georgiy On 17 August, Izvestiya published a commentary Vladimov, Lev Kopelev and his wife Raisa Orlova, by one of its senior political observers, Albert Plutnik, the Christian poet Irina Ratushinskaya and her entitled "Slow farewell to the past", in which he said it husband Igor Geraschenko, and the first (1966) to had been very difficult "even in the present age of suffer deprivation of citizenship - Valeriy Tarsis, broad glasnosf' to extract (he didn't say from whom) whose semi-autobiographical "Ward NO.7" de- even those names already published. On 18 August, scribed the fate of dissidents locked up in mental Izvestiya added the remaining 17 names in the institutions. For Orlova and Tarsis the restoration is briefest announcement. posthumous. Also on the list are the psychiatrist Anatoliy Koryagin, whose exposures on this subject It was not until 19 August that the full text of the did so much to bring it to the attention of the West, decree was published in, of all papers, Sovetskaya and another leading human rights campaigner, YiJriy Rossiya. It appears to be the only place it was Orlov, both of whom served prison sentences; the published. The paper said that since news of the political scientist Mikhail Voslenskiy, author of an decree had been made public, "newspaper, radio essential book on the workings of the nomenklatura. and television offices have been approached by citizens of our country and readers and listeners Pastor Georgiy Vins was one of five convicted abroad asking for the names of those affected". The Soviet citizens exchanged in April 1979 for two decree itself, which consists of three short para- Soviet spies held in the West, and his place on the list graphs, merely announces the fact of the annulment is another curiosity. Among the other four exchanged of 'previous sanctions and instructs the Foreign were human rights activist Aleksandr Ginzburg, at Ministry to contact those affected about the return of one time the administrator of Solzhenitsyn's fund for their Soviet passports if they so wish, the decree to dissidents and their families, and Valentin Moroz, a take effect immediately. There is no apology or Ukrainian nationalist writer and head of the Ukrainian views on Baltic independence. But the pro-Union munique that not all residents of the Baltic states treaty elements may have unexpected help. Accord- support last Spring's declarations of independence. ing to a recent Tass report, non-Baltic residents in the If this current spreads further within the Baltic, those three breakaway republics have organised resist- pushing a Union treaty line in the Kremlin may ance. At the end of August, local officials from seven outflank those conducting negotiations, and Autumn Baltic towns with Russian-speaking majorities may present a very different picture from the one gathered in Daugavpils, Latvia to discuss their most people in the Baltics had imagined. "difficult political situation". The officials called on Gorbachev to recognise their need for representation (Riina Kionka is a research analyst at Radio Free Europe in independence talks, and stressed in their com- Research.) Independent (Samizdat) Press in Ukraine under Gorbachev (1) By TARAS KUZIO The word samizdat (in Ukrainian samvydav) was The independent press in Ukraine is divided into first coined in the 1960's to describe the new four types: phenomenon of uncensored writings which made a] the majority of them are 4-8-12 page their appearance at that time. Samizdat (which newsletters/bulletins with print-runs of between means literally "self publishing") was described by 5,000-20,000 and are mainly printed in the Baltic Vladimir Bukovsky thus: "I write it myself, censor it republics (primarily in Riga and Vilnius) because of a myself, print and disseminate it myself, and then I do lack of access to printing equipment in Ukraine. time in prison for it myself". Increasingly, though, with the election of democratic The mechanism of samizdat was very simple: local cou cils, printing is being undertaken within "The author types his work on a typewriter (the only Ukraine. means at the disposal of the average Soviet citizen), b] the weightier journals (for example, literary usually with four or five carbons, or photocopies it, almanacks), which number at least ten and average and passes copies out to people he knows. If others between 200-300 pages, are still typed on carbon are interested in the work, they make copies from paper for circulations of only between 10-100. At the their copy and distribute them among their friends" . present time, the editors of these journals deliber- (L. Alexeyeva, Soviet Dissent, p. 12) Samizdat ately use typewriters because computer printers do produced in this manner was extremely inefficient in not punch letters hard enough to make copies time and effort expended upon it. through carbon paper. c] newspapers published by officially registered The term samizdat is no longer applicable and the organisations such as Rukh (Ukrainian Popular term "independent" is far more appropriate. The Movement), Green World and the Ukrainian Lan- independent press is, on the whole, no longer copied guage Society, which have a monthly or bi-monthly by typing carbon copies, but is either actually printed circulation of 10,000 copies each. or photocopied. Today, editors of the independent d] official newspapers co-opted by newly elected press often have at their disposal photocopiers, democratic councils, those which have defected to computers and tete-tax machines, which are no the Democratic Bloc and newspapers published by longer illegal and which have revolutionised the independent enterprises that support Rukh. preparation and publication of independent journals in Ukraine and allow for a large increase in their titles A statistical breakdown of the independent press and circulation. In larger cities such as Lvov, Kiev and Kharkov there are dozens of such newspapers and For the purpose of this study we will deal mainly journals, some of a fine quality, while others still look with the independent press in Ukraine, of which we like the primitive samvydavof the 1960's and 70's. have 183 titles on record as appearing, although this figure is undoubtedly higher, given that not all the The Ukrainian Press Agency has on record 204 titles published reach the West. independent Ukrainian tities which have appeared (or stopped publication) in Ukraine, Russia, the Baltic Outside Ukraine, three appear in Moscow, two of Republics, Poland and Czechoslovakia: which are in Russian and are published by the 183 - Ukraine Ukrainian Helsinki Union, now the Republican Party 3 - Russia (UHU/URP); a third is in Ukrainian and published by 4 - Baltic Republics the Ukrainian Youth Club (a pro-Rukh group). In the 12 - Poland Baltic republics, four publications appear in Ukrai- 1 - Czechoslovakia nian catering for the needs of individual Ukrainian 7 communities, which are all supportive of the local Rukh, specialises in translations from the western popular fronts. press. Others include Ohliadach, reporting on par- liamentary proceedings. Express Novynyand Ohliad In Ukraine, the figure of 183 has been broken down Podiy, presenting a chronology of events around into the following nine categories with numbers of Ukraine, Visnyk Aukhu, giving a stenographic record publications: of Rukh meetings, and Za Narodnyj Par/ament, one Rukh - 46 of many which specialised in co-ordinating the UHU/URP - 23 election campaign. The Rukh flagship is, of course, Youth - 25 Narodna Hazeta. Political Groups - 26 Educational/literary - 21 Ukrainian Helsinki Union/Ukrainian General- 19 Republican Party National Minorities - 16 Religious - 4 The Ukrainian Republican Party. the oldest and Greens - 3 best organised dissident group in Ukraine, has leading members who are highly popular and have Rukh been elected as parliamentarians or local council members. Many are also respected because they By far the largest number of independent publica- were imprisoned under Brezhnev. The figure of 23 tions produced by anyone group in Ukraine are those UHU/URP publications outstrips any other individual published by Rukh - 26.6 per cent of the total political party, the majority of which came on the number. This includes the monthly Narodna Hazeta, scene far later.
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