www.ukrweekly.com Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc I I c. a fraternal non-profit association j rainian Y Vol. LVI No. 47 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBEHR 20,1988 50 cents Thousands gather in Kiev Makar freed from Lviv prison to protest ecological hazards Remains under investigation JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Demanding featured speakers from the Ukrainian JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Thirty-one- a clean-up of the environment in U- Writers' Union, including Dmytro year-old Ukrainian national rights kraine, thousands of Ukrainians jam­ Pavlychko, who called for the forma­ activist Ivan Makar, widely known as med Kiev's Central Stadium Square, on tion of a Ukrainian National Front to the first political prisoner of the glasnost Sunday, November 13, reported the Promote Perestroika. Similar organiza­ era, was released from the Brygidky Associated Press. tions have been created in various cities prison in Lviv, Ukraine on the evening The ecological crusade — reportedly throughout the Soviet Union and have of November 9, reported several a reaction to a chemical factor explo­ become powerful voices for economic sources. sion in Uman, located southwest of and cultural autonomy. Mr. Makar, a construction engineer Kiev, on Friday evening, November 11 The Kiev crowd, according to one and Communist Party member from — was organized by the Club Spad- participant interviewed via telephone the village of Halivka in the Lviv region, shchyna (Heritage), founded by the by the AP, swelled to 20,000. The was imprisoned since August 4, when he capital city's scientists; the Hromada people stood for more than three hours was arrested hours before one of a series Society of Shevchenko State Univer­ in freezing weather, listening to speakers of mass public rallies held in Lviv this sity; the informal association Noosfera; express concern over the environmental summer in support of official reform and the Zeleniy Svit (Green World) damage in the republic, including the attempts was violently dispersed by riot Association. consequences of the Chornobyl disaster. - police. Officially sanctioned, the meeting (Continued on page 6) Despite his release the criminal case against Mr. Makar, a leader of the Democratic Front to Promote Pere­ stroika, remains open, and under review, v Soviet speciaiists blame acid rain according to reports by the Agence France Press news wire service and the press service of the Ukrainian Helsinki tor mysterious malady in Chernivtsi Union. Ivan Makar Originally, Mr. Makar was charged reportedly badly treated and beaten, JERSEY CITY, NJ, - Acid rain are being treated in hospitals in Kiev under what the UHU's press service particularly during his five-week long carrying the heavy metals thallium and and Moscow, called "a potpourri of articles of the hunger strike, reported the UHU's press aluminium from across the Polish and The situation is apparently getting Criminal Code" of the Ukrainian SSR service. Rumanian borders may be responsible worse with a minimum of 16 new cases for organizing these public meetings, Mr. Makar's arrest in the period of for a mysterious malady that has reported two weeks ago among the which reportedly attracted up to 50,000 democratization drew wide criticism afflicted 113 children in the Ukrainian southern Ukrainian city's 37,000 chil­ at their peak. These charges included from local and Western groups and city of Chernivtsi, according to a report dren under age 14, said the official trade articles 71 ("organizing mass public individuals, both public and govern­ by Fravda as reported on November 10 union newspaper, Trud. disorder") and 62 ("anti-Soviet agita­ mental. This pressure apparently caused by several Western news wire services. Upon the first outbreaks of the illness tion and propaganda"). These charges, a great deal of problems for local The peculiar disease, which has in August, a government medical team however, were dropped early on, par­ authorities and the local procurator, caused children between six months and was set up to investigate the mysterious tially because one of them, article 62, is who attempted to transfer the activist to 14 years old to shed hair, caused disease, said Pravda. The team re­ under review by Moscow for possible another region (oblast), reported the hallucinations and irritability, affects portedly found traces of thallium, a rare reform. UHU. the central nervous system, Soviet poisonous blueish-white metallic che­ As of September 28, two charges This public pressure, which included Health Minister Yevgeny Chazov was mical element used in making among remained against Mr. Makar, under appeals on his behalf by individual quoted by Pravda as saying. The other things rat poison, in most of the members of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. afflicted children. articles 187-1 (anti-Soviet slander") and majority of the children affected by the 187-3 ("disrupting public order") of the Helsinki Commission, the state depart­ illness were fair-haired and blue-eyed, "Thallium is very toxic. One milli- Ukrainian SSR Criminal Code. ment, the U.S. delegation to the Vienna according to Pravda, and many of them (Continued on page 4) In prison the young activist was (Continued on page 4) Ukrainian author gets final word on repressions - posthumously by Bohdan Nahaylo Kharchuk, who died in January at Kharchuk's literary career took off but also discusses the trammels the age of 57. Born in western U- again with the arrival of more placed on the national-cultural life of The monthly Ukrainian literary kraine before it came under Soviet propitious times. his nation since the end of the 1920s. journal Prapor seems to have stret­ rule, he became quite a well-known According to Prapor's editors, Mr. Mr. Kharchuk does not simply ched glasnost to its limits by pub­ prose writer and author of children's Kharchuk's essay "The Word and the blame the Stalin era for all the lishing in its October issue a re­ stories. In 196p he was one of the People" was found after his death misfortunes which have befallen the markable essay that is both a highly signatories of the "Letter of the 139" among his manuscripts. It is first and Ukrainian nation over the last de­ unorthodox critique of the Soviet protesting against the violation of foremost a passionate defense of the cades. Instead, he presents a de­ experience and a forceful condemna­ human and national rights in Ukrainian nation and its language; it vastating indictment of Soviet na­ tion of Soviet nationalities policy. Ukraine. In 1973, after the political is simultaneously a cry of anguish tionalities policy gefterally, claiming Its author, a recently deceased Ukrai­ and cultural purge in Ukraine and an expression of defiance. The indirectly that Moscow's aim has nian writer, treats Stalinism as a which brought Volodymyr Shc;her- author traces the difficult history of been not merely the economic ex­ phenomenon that has survived into' bytsky to the helm in Kiev, Mr. his people and their language from ploitation of conquered regions, but the 1980s, leading the Soviet Union Kharchuk came under fire from Kievan Rus' to the present, marvel­ also the destruction of the spirit and into a morass from which the only defenders of ideological orthodoxy ling at how they have managed to languages of vanquished peoples escape is to grant freedom, both to for his Ukrainian patriotism. survive despite numerous attempts to through a combination of "force" the individual and to nations. He also Eventually, in July 1974, the writer destroy them. Breaking with ofr and "refined, cunning" denationa­ accuses the Soviet authorities of was forced to publish a statement ficially accepted practice, though, he lization. The result, in the case of his seeking to efface the national dis- amounting to a recantation. A mem­ not only details the various bans on own people, Mr Kharchuk writes, is tinctiveness of the Ukrainian nation. ber of the Writers' Union of the Ukrainian language which were that "Ukraine has been prodai- The piece was written by Borys Ukraine and of the CFSU, Йг. , imposed by thC: tsarist authorities, (Continued on page 4) THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1988 No. 47 A GLIMPSE OF SOVIET REALITY GLASNOST DIARY: Razing of Chornobyl makes recording changes in the USSR future of plant uncertain Ukrainian-language schools, out of a The fall course list total of 30. by Dr. David Marples Chernihiv Oblast about 65 kilometers Recently, the oblast newspaper, to the northeast, or from Zelenyi Mys, Ukrainian universities have resumed Kirovohradska Pravda, wrote that A recent article in Pravda has ques­ on the border of the 30-kilometer zone offering courses for upgrading the there are few Ukrainian language kin­ tioned the decision to raze to the ground by the Kiev Reservoir. qualification of Ukrainian language dergartens, in the area and even the the city of Chornobyl some 30 months Aside from Slavutych, the accommo­ teachers, reported the Moscow-based existing ones are Ukrainian only in after the nuclear accident of April 26, dation is essentially makeshift. Photo­ Tass press agency recently. name. In teaching, the Ukrainian lan­ 1986. Pravda suggested that the city graphs published of 2^1enyi Mys indi­ Also, this year, as of September 1, guage was found to be almost non­ could be decontaminated and repopu- cate that the small town resembles an five more hours were allotted to the existent in vocational schools, technical lated, like some cities in the Byelo­ army barracks rather than a com­ study of Ukrainian language and colleges, as well as in creative institutes russian republic north of the damaged fortable residence. Recent evidence literature in schools each week. This and teacher training establishments. reactor, which reportedly suffered suggests that many plant operatives are could have some kind of correlation higher levels of radiation fallout than dissatisfied with this situation.