INSIDE:• Election bloc profile: The Socialist Party of Ukraine — page 3. • Hearing focuses on Famine memorial in D.C. — page 4. • Hollywood film industry honors three Ukrainians — page 14. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXXIV HE KRAINIANNo. 10 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 2006 EEKLY$1/$2 in Ukraine Even in post-Orange Revolution Ukraine, Jackson-VanikT GraduationU Coalition W election environment has lingering problems activists meet to define strategy by Natalka Gawdiak Wexler (D- Fla.), and Tim Holden (D- by Zenon Zawada Pa.). Kyiv Press Bureau WASHINGTON – Jackson-Vanik Among those representing the Graduation Coalition representatives met Jackson-Vanik Graduation Coalition KYIV – To protest a Natalia Vitrenko on February 28 on Capitol Hill with were Ambassador William Green Miller, rally in Dnipropetrovsk on January 19, members of the Congressional Ukrainian 18-year-old Liudmyla Krutko brought co-chair of the coalition; Nadia Caucus to work out a definitive strategy with her a blue-and-yellow flag and McConnell, president of the U.S.- to achieve the goal of their campaign to stood across the street. Ukraine Foundation; Mark Levin, execu- graduate Ukraine from the restrictions of Just the sight of the Ukrainian flag tive director of NCSJ; Ihor Gawdiak of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. was enough to offend the chair of the the Ukrainian American Coordinating The three co-chairs of the Vitrenko Bloc’s oblast headquarters, Council; Michael Bleyzer and Morgan Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, Reps. Serhii Kalinychenko. Williams of SigmaBleyzer; and Dr. Zenia Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), Marcy Kaptur (R- Along with two other men, he alleged- Ohio), and Sander Levin (D-Mich.) were Chernyk and Vera Andryczyk of the ly grabbed Ms. Krutko, threatened her joined by Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R- Ukrainian Federation of America. with a gun, and dragged her to a group of Fla.), and Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.) to work Representatives of the Jackson-Vanik about 20 nearby protesters, demanding out how the graduation issue should be Graduation Coalition expressed their that they all get rid of their Ukrainian approached. great frustration at the failure of the flags. Rep. Gerlach’s bill, HR 1053, urges House to take action on the bill, in partic- “The one who held Liuda tried to hit the House to remove Ukraine from the ular since the Senate had passed such a me several times,” reported Viktor Orel, restrictions of the 1974 Jackson-Vanik bill in November 2005. a worker at the oblast’s Liberal Party Amendment and grant normal trade rela- Although there were varied opinions press center who took part in the protest. tions treatment to the products of on the tone that should be adopted in “I dodged several times and went off Zenon Zawada Ukraine. Currently, the bill is in the Ways removing the anachronistic restrictions, to the side, thinking that I had avoided and Means Committee, and has 44 co- the members of Congress and JVGC rep- any danger. But then I felt two blows to Ihor Popov, the administrative direc- sponsors. resentatives agreed that the amendment is the nape of my neck, from what felt like tor of the Committee of Voters of All of the congressmen concurred with irrelevant today, and that Ukraine has a metal object. And then a strong blow to Ukraine, said the biggest problem in Rep. Weldon’s statement that “the gradu- met all requirements for its graduation. my nose,” he recalled. this year’s elections is forming district ation of Ukraine from the Jackson-Vanik Mr. Bleyzer, president and CEO of election commissions and getting them Amendment has gone beyond rhetoric. It SigmaBleyzer, and a political emigrant (Continued on page 12) to function properly. is crucial to pass legislation in the House from Soviet-era Kharkiv, noted that he prior to the upcoming March 26 elec- had benefitted from the original Jackson- tions.” Vanik Amendment, but emphatically stat- Eugene Iwanciw, second vice-president Also present at the February 28 meet- ed that it is wholely inappropriate today ing were former Rep. Charles Dougherty and should be lifted. and a number of congressional staffers, of UNA, Washington activist, dies at 53 representing the offices of Reps. Robert (Continued on page 5) PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Eugene president of the UNA. In addition, since Iwanciw, second vice-president of the 2003 he was chairman of the Baltimore Ukrainian National Association and for- District Committee of the UNA. mer director of the UNA Washington He was the director of the UNA Ukraine’s take at Torino Games: Office, has died, it was learned on Washington Office during the entire Saturday, February 25. He was 53. period the office existed, 1988-1995. two bronzes, five top-10 finishes Mr. Iwanciw was a UNA supreme In 1996-2000 he was a member of the PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Ukraine’s ath- the Ukrainian House. The Ukrinform advisor in 1974-1978 and 1982-1998, board of directors of the UNA’s letes returned home from the Winter press service reported that well-known and in 2002 was elected second vice- Ukrainian National Foundation. Olympic Games in Torino, Italy, with athletes, including figure skater Viktor A lifelong member of UNA Branch two bronze medals – one in biathlon and Petrenko and hockey player Viacheslav 234, Mr. Iwanciw was born on May 16, the other in ice dancing. Fetisov, participated in the reception. 1952, in Elizabeth, N.J. After graduating The first medal was won on February The event was also attended by from St. Benedict’s Preparatory School 16 by Lilia Efremova in the women’s International Olympic Committee in Newark, N.J., he moved to 7.5-kilometer sprint of the biathlon; the President Jacques Rogge, who noted that, Washington to attend Georgetown second was earned four days later by ice since figure skater Oksana Baiul’s gold University. He graduated with a bache- dancers Elena Grushina and Ruslan medal in the 1994 Olympic Games, lor’s degree in Russian area studies. He Goncharov, a husband-and-wife duo. Ukraine has been contributing to the also attended summer courses in Otherwise, Team Ukraine’s results development of Olympic sports. Ukrainian studies at Harvard University. included five top-10 finishes – in According to Ukrinform, National In his youth, he was a member of women’s luge, biathlon and cross-coun- Olympic Committee of Ukraine President Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization try skiing, and men’s biathlon – and a Serhiy Bubka congratulated Team and the Mykola Michnowsky Student host of lesser achievements. (See com- Ukraine and offered his opinion that Society (TUSM). plete results on page 13.) Ukraine was Ukraine’s athletes will continue setting Mr. Iwanciw became active in the ranked 20th in terms of the medal count new records. Family, Youth and Sports among the 85 countries participating in Minister Yurii Pavlenko stated that Federation of Ukrainian Student the Torino Olympics. President Viktor Yushchenko supports the Organizations of America (known by During the Games’ closing ceremonies development of sports in Ukraine. its Ukrainian-based acronym as on February 26, short-track speed skater Deputy Mayor Ihor Lisov of Kyiv SUSTA), first as special assignments Volodymyr Grygoriev was given the announced that Mayor Oleksander director (1972), then as vice-president honor of carrying the Ukrainian flag. Omelchenko had stipulated that (1972-1973) and finally as president While in Torino, the National Olympic Ukraine’s medalists at the Games will be Eugene Iwanciw (Continued on page 6) Committee of Ukraine held a reception at awarded apartments in Kyiv. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 2006 No. 10 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS ‘The first nail in the coffin of communism’ Pynzenyk wants gas deal canceled Latvia hosts Lesia Ukrainka exhibit by Paul Goble devoted to demolishing Stalin’s efforts to KYIV – Finance Minister Viktor K YIV – Riga, the capital of Latvia, is RFE/RL Newsline promote himself as an equal of Lenin and Pynzenyk, who is on leave to campaign hosting an exhibition of outstanding as a brilliant wartime leader. Neither is Ukrainian poetess Lesia Ukrainka’s Fifty years ago Soviet leader Nikita for the March 26 parliamentary elections, accurate, Khrushchev said. He provided works at the Elias artistic-historical Khrushchev delivered to a closed session said on February 28 in an online news details about Lenin’s now famous testa- museum. The exhibition is dedicated to of the 20th Congress of the Communist conference that Kyiv should back out of a ment calling for the party to remove Stalin the 135th anniversary of Ukrainka’s Party of the Soviet Union remarks about deal increasing the price of imported gas as party secretary because of his “rude- birth. The exhibition was organized by his predecessor Joseph Stalin and the lat- in 2006 to $95 per 1,000 cubic meters and ness,” about Stalin’s editing of his own the cultural-enlightenment society ter’s “cult of personality” that have restart talks on the issue with Russia, biography and that of others concerning Source together with Ukraine’s Embassy passed into history as “the secret speech.” Reuters reported. “The country must go the revolution, and his failure to prepare in Latvia and a range of Ukrainian public On the basis of his later comments, back to the starting point. We have all the the Soviet Union for the war with Hitler organizations in the country within the Khrushchev appears to have decided to objective conditions to achieve a proper that so many people had warned him of – framework of the joint project “Let’s Be deliver that speech as both a tactical move balance of interests between Ukraine and and then his disastrous involvement in the Acquainted: We Are Ukrainians.” against his opponents within the Soviet lead- Russia,” Mr.