www.ukrweekly.com Published by the Ukrainian National Association inc.. : I I c. a fraternal non-profit association| rainian Ш Y Vol. LVI No. 25 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JUNE 19,1988 25 cents Russian Orthodox Church celebrations Catholics in Ukraine secretly mark of its 'Wllennium" move to Kiev Christian Millennium of Kievan Rus' JERSEY CITY, N. J. - After a week Monastery of the Caves (Pecherska JERSEY CITY, N.J. - While news hierarchs gathered, first in Moscow and of officially-sanctioned Millennium Lavra), which was given to the Russian of the official celebrations of the so- then in Kiev, the site of the baptism of celebrations in Moscow, the seat of the Orthodox Church, after being under called Millennium of the Russian Or­ Kievan Rus' by Prince Volodymyr the Russian Orthoddx Church in the Soviet government control since 1961, visits to thodox Church have made headlines Great in 988, representatives of the Union, the jubilant commemorations of the Great Patriotic War Museum and a throughout the world during this past approximately 4-million-member U- 1,000 years of Christianity moved to reception at the Supreme Soviet of the week, as divine liturgies were held amid krainian Catholic Church gathered where they should have begun — Kiev, Ukrainian SSR. However, the highlight ecclesiastical pomp in a state that has outside such villages as Buniv and capital city of Ukraine and the original of the three-day Kievan celebrations been militantly atheistic for the better Bilichin throughout western Ukraine site where Prince Volodymyr the Great was to be a solemn liturgy at the foot of part of this century, the outlawed to solemnly honor their 10-centuries- baptized his people in 988. the monument to St. Volodymyr, whose Ukrainian Catholic Church comme­ old faith. The Ukrainian Catholic, or More than 500 spiritual leaders statue overlooks the Dnieper River. morated the 1,000th anniversary of Uniate, Church has been banned in the representing over 100 nations on June According to several news reports, Christianity by holding secret masses in USSR since its liquidation by Stalin in 5-18 joined the hierarchs of the Russian this last proposal encountered difficulty the woods, its members reported. 1946. Orthodox Church to celebrate the (Continued on page 12) As the Russian Orthodox Church According to reports provided by the Christian faith in a society where the Reuters news service, the liturgies took official line toes atheism. place independently of official celebra­ According to Metropolitan Filaret of Hunger strikes begin in USSR, tions in Kiev, where, on June 14, a Kiev and Halych, exarch of Ukraine, jubilee service in St. Volodymyr's the Millennium celebrations in Kiev Cathedral was attended by Russian were scheduled to include a solemn act focus on political prisoners Orthodox Church leaders and their on Tuesday morning, June 14, to open JERSEY CITY, N.J. - During the bers of the Coordinating Committee of guests. the three-day celebrations. Also third conference of the International Patriotic Movements, which also includes Stepan Khmara, a Ukrainian Catho­ scheduled for that day were wreath- (All-Union) Committee for the Defense activists of the Baltic states, supported lic Church activist and medical doctor, laying ceremonies at the Tomb of the of Political Prisoners, held in Lviv, this defense action, which began on who spent seven years in labor camp for Unknown Soldier, and divine liturgies Ukraine, on June 10-12, representatives Monday, June 13. "anti-Soviet agitation and propa­ at St. Volodymyr's Cathedral and the of this organization decided to support Initiated by the Ukrainian chapter of ganda," reported that such forest litur­ other nine houses of worship that a chain of hunger strikes to focus the All-Union Committee with the gies, "lisovi sluzhby" were celebrated on remain open in Kiev. attention on ail political prisoners in the support of the Kiev-based Ukrainian May 29 and June 5. "The powers that be The following day, the Russian Soviet Union, reported the Ukrainian Culturological Club, the action was to doubtless knew about the masses, but Orthodox Church leader said that a National Information Service based in run through the start of the Communist this time they chose to turn a blind eye," solemn liturgy would be held again at Washington and the External Repre­ Party Conference in Moscow, sche­ he said in an interview with Reuters. St, Volodymyr's , to be followed by a sentation of the Ukrainian Helsinki duled to begin on June 28. One of the 186 Ukrainian Catholics festive concert at the city's Opera Group in New York. The action, which features a series of who last year signed a petition for House. Representatives of the Ukrainian, 24-hour hunger strikes by individual legalization of the Church addressed to On Thursday, June 16, the Armenian and Georgian chapters of the human rights activists began with both General Secretary Mikhail Gor- celebrations were to include visits to the All-Union Committee, as well as mem­ (Continued on page 2) (Continued on page 13) UNA Supreme Assembly approves B.C. bureau, scbolarsbips, donations KERHONKSON, N.Y. - The an­ June 10. several important matters, voting to: lion's board of directors in Canada; nual meeting of the Ukrainian Na­ Participants of the meeting - the ^ open the Ukrainian National Asso­ о award SI 15,300 in scholarships to tional Association's Supreme Assembly fraternal benefit society's supreme ciation's Washington office for govern­ deserving students who are members of was held here at the Soyuzivka resort on executive officers, supreme auditors mental relations, effective July 1; the UNA; Wednesday, June 8, through Friday, and supreme advisors — acted on ^ approve by-laws of the organiza- e donate 566,500 to various Ukrai­ nian community organizations. Although the Supreme Assembly's sessions began on Wednesday, June 8, the UNA Scholarship Committee held its meetings a day earlier. During their daylong deliberations committee mem­ bers reviewed scholarship applications submitted by undergraduate and gra­ duate students enrolled in colleges and universities throughout the United States. The committee proposed that 241 scholarships in amounts ranging from SlOO to S2,000 and totalling SI 15,300 be allocated for academic year 1988-89. The opening of the Supreme As­ sembly's annual meeting was preceeded, as has become tradition, by a brief ceremony at the Taras Shevchenko monument at Soyuzivka. Supreme President John O. Flis delivered a concise speech, and then Supreme Vice- Presidentess Gloria Paschen and Gene- vieve Zerebniak, an honorary member UNA Supreme Assembly members during their annual meeting at Soyiizlvka, (Continued on page 4) THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JUNE 19,1988 No. 25 \A GLIMPSE OF SOVIET REALITY Crimean Tatars rebuffed ott au/onomous homeland demands Soviet press publishes report JERSEY CITY, N. J. - All hopes for responded by vowing greater respect for a Crimean Tatar motherland faded minority cultures and traditions, but on anti-nuclear protest in Kiev earlier this month when a high-level has refused to make territorial conces­ Soviet commission rejected Tatar de­ sions and redraw boundaries, wrote the by Roman Solchanyk exploiting the second anniversary of the mands for an autonomous homeland, Times' Moscow correspondent. Bill Chornobyl accident to "fan passers-by reported the New York Times on June Keller. The Kiev weekly News from Ukraine, into illegal actions." Further, it stated 10, citing TASS. Some 250,000 Tatars were relocated to which is intended for Ukrainians a- that 17 people had been detained and The commission, chaired by Soviet other parts of the USSR on the orders broad, has published a fairly informa­ one placed under [administrative] arrest President Andrei Gromyko, was creat­ of Stalin, who claimed that some of tive and, perhaps most important, for 15 days. ed in response to mass protests by the them had collaborated with the Nazis surprisingly objective article on the Two days later, the same newspaper Tatars in Red Square last year. It stated, during Worid War II. The Tatars claim anti-nuclear demonstration that was published a selection of five letters from however, that the Tatars, which number that nearly half of the deportees died in held in the Ukrainian capital on April readers, all of which denounced the about 300,000, may return individually transit or upon arrival in Soviet Central 26, the second anniversary of the Ukrainian Culturological Club and the to the Crimean peninsula, from which Asia. Chornobyl disaster. demonstration. Stalin forcibly deported them iii 1944, The Soviet government politically The demonstration was organized by It is interesting to note that News wrote the Times. ^ rehabilitated the Tatars in 1967, and has the Ukrainian Culturological Club and from Ukraine, having been rebuffed by Individuals would, however, need the admitted they were treated unjustly, had previously been reported by dissi­ the Kiev militia when it sought more same work and residence permits re­ wrote the Times. Most of them live in dent sources. It was also mentioned very detailed information, decided to con­ quired of any other citizen, a prere­ Uzbekistan and the Krasnodar region briefly by the party and government duct its own investigation. It inter­ quisite that has in practice limited the of Ukraine. daily Radianska Ukraina in a lengthy viewed witnesses of the April 26 events, migration of newcomers to the penin­ The commission stated that the two-part article criticizing various quoting them as describing the demon­ sula, a resort region on the Black Sea. population of the Crimea had tripled aspects of the club's activities; Radian- stration as "a peaceful gathering of Advocates of a Crimean Tatar home­ since World War II, and is now made ska Ukraina characterized the demon­ about 50 people." Among those inter­ land reportedly reacted with disap­ up of predominantly Russian and stration as an attempt to transform a viewed was Mr.