Inside: l Yanukovych signs the language law – pages 2 and 6 l Medal-winning performances at the Olympics – page 5 l Red Hot Chili Peppers in concert in Kyiv – page 14

ThePublished U by thekrainian Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationeekly Vol. LXXX No. 33 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 $1/$2 in Ukraine Top candidates Ukraine’s parliamentary election campaign begins of Ukraine’s Regions, Batkivshchyna leading parties present their candidates by Zenon Zawada Following is information on the Special to The Ukrainian Weekly top five candidates on the party lists KYIV – Ukraine’s parliamentary election of the Party of Regions of Ukraine campaign kicked off officially on July 30 and the Batkivshchyna Party. when the country’s two leading political forces, the Party of Regions of Ukraine and Party of the Regions of Ukraine the Batkivshchyna party, held their con- 1. Mykola Azarov – 64, prime gresses to present their candidates. minister of Ukraine. Born in Russia, The styles of the congress demonstrated Mr. Azarov was a geologist before his their sharply contrasting political situations. meteoric rise in politics. On the Members of the Party of Regions gath- Melnychenko tapes, a voice similar to ered at the International Exhibition Center Mr. Azarov’s is recorded as planning across the street from the Resurrection of Aleksandr Sinitsa/UNIAN election fraud in the 1999 presidential Christ Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchal Arseniy Yatsenyuk (left) and Anatoliy Grytsenko led the Batkivshchyna party con- vote with former President Leonid Cathedral, overlooking the Dnipro River. gress on July 30 as it nominated its candidates for the parliamentary elections. Kuchma. The Azarov government is The party forbid reporters to enter the hall accused of rampant corruption by and hauled in 18 busloads of police and its party headquarters in the Podil District weeks, bearing photographs of high-rise independent economists and experts. special forces to stand guard. of Kyiv. National deputies and former min- apartment construction, cheering soccer 2. Tayisiya Povaliy – 46, pop “A participant had to get through three isters mingled with the crowd of a few fans and new tram cars. singer. A native of a Kyiv Oblast vil- levels of state security to enter the center thousand, being accessible to anyone will- Stability was the theme when President lage, Ms. Povaliy started out singing where a public event was taking place,” ing to arrive at 8 a.m., when it began. Viktor Yanukovych addressed the congress, Ukrainian before becoming an inter- reported Opora (Support), Ukraine’s lead- They had originally scheduled the con- specifically referring to the need to prevent national star in Moscow. The Russian ing independent election monitor. gress for 11 a.m., but had to move it up when the opposition from using the October 28 government awarded her the Order of “Security was provided by the State the parliamentary coalition announced three election “for the latest destabilization” of Friendship in December 2011 for Security Administration, Berkut special days earlier that an extra plenary session the country’s social and political situation. popularizing the Russian language forces and unknown persons dressed as would begin that day at 10 a.m. “We won’t allow any more political wars and culture in Ukraine. civilians. None of the pre-election congress- and confrontation,” he said. “Ukraine needs Party of Regions of Ukraine 3. Sergey Tigipko – 51, minister es visited by observers had such unprece- political stability and socio-economic of social policy, estimated 2011 wealth dented security measures, though national “Ruin is overcome, stability achieved!” is development. In this, I see the mission of of $535 million. Mr. Tigipko single- deputies and key officials were present at among the main themes of the Party of the Party of Regions and all progressive, handedly launched the Strong Ukraine them as well,” Opora noted. Regions during this year’s parliamentary democratic forces.” party only to fold it into the Party of Meanwhile, Batkivshchyna held its con- campaign. Billboards bearing this slogan Regions. He fled Ukraine during the sprung up throughout Ukraine in recent Orange Revolution of 2004, when he gress on a stage set up on the street outside (Continued on page 9) served as campaign manager for pres- idential candidate Viktor Yanukovych. 4. Andrii Kliuyev – 46, chair of the National Security and Defense Council, estimated 2011 wealth of Team Ukraine has 10 medals at Summer Olympics in London $140 million. Mr. Kliuyev was widely by Matthew Dubas reported to have served as the chief of the shadow campaign for presidential PARSIPPANY, N.J. – The second week of candidate Viktor Yanukovych in 2004, the Olympic Games in London boosted which would have made him directly Ukraine in the medals race, with two firsts involved in the falsifications. He for this summer’s Olympiad – the first gold- denied any shadow campaign and will medal win for Ukraine’s male athletes, a serve as campaign manager of the first silver medal for Ukraine – plus two 2012 parliamentary campaign. more bronze-medal wins. 5. Oleksander Yefremov – 57, Inna Osypenko-Radomska won Party of Regions parliamentary faction Ukraine’s first silver medal at the Olympic chair. Mr. Yefremov became a million- Games in London on August 9 in the wom- aire by allegedly driving Luhansk fac- en’s kayak single event (K1) 500-meter tories and mines into bankruptcy and race. She finished with a time of 1:52.685 then buying up their assets on the seconds, behind Danuta Kozak of Hungary cheap, according to media reports. (1:51.456) and ahead of Bridgitte Hartley Numerous criminal charges against of South Africa (1:52.923). In the qualifying him, including abuse of authority and heat, Osypenko-Radomska’s time was fraud, were eventually dropped by 1:52.268 seconds, and in the semifinals she prosecutors during the presidency of finished in 1:51.515 seconds. Viktor Yushchenko. Oleksiy Torokhtiy, the first male athlete (Continued on page 5) noc-ukr.org (Continued on page 5) Oleksiy Torokhtiy, Ukraine’s first male gold medalist in London, lifts 185 kg in the snatch. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 No. 33

COMMENTARY

President signs language law… ing group. “I will work with this group, and On brave faces and a sorry business the Cabinet of Ministers will work so that KYIV – President Viktor Yanukovych on in September we can have the opportunity that, partial achievements and minor suc- by Mykola Riabchuk August 8 signed Law No. 5029-VI on the to approve amendments to this law,” the cess stories notwithstanding, the Euro- principles of state language policy. He also presidential press service quoted Mr. Shortly after the European soccer cham- 2012 was a wasted opportunity for instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to form Yanukovych as saying. The president also pionship ended in Kyiv on July 1, a leading Ukraine in terms of both substantial mod- a working group involving the public, proposed that the working group include Ukrainian independent outlet, Ukrayinska ernization and positive image-making. prominent educators, scientists and art the co-authors of the language law, Party of Pravda, featured a bitter article by Borys While political instability and rampant cor- workers, as well as leading experts on lan- Regions National Deputies Vadym Bakhteyev that qualified the tournament as ruption discouraged foreign investors — guage issues, in order to draw up and pres- Kolesnichenko and Serhiy Kivalov, and that a great propaganda victory for the local 80 percent of related bills had to be paid by ent systemic proposals to improve legisla- the group form a supervisory board authoritarian regime. the Ukrainian government (with reported tion regarding the use of languages in regarding the legislative framework for the “Our authorities carried out a special 40 percent kickbacks from government- Ukraine, the presidential press service use of languages in Ukraine, as well as the operation aimed at a thorough elimination friendly contractors) — the political scan- reported on August 8. According to the comprehensive development and function- of Poland from the information context of dals, persecution of opposition and reports directive, the working group should ensure ing of the Ukrainian language in all spheres Euro 2012. They imposed upon us the only of racist excesses at Ukrainian stadiums the comprehensive development and func- of public life. Mr. Yanukovych added that possible answer to the question ‘Who host- fundamentally undermined any possibility tioning of the Ukrainian language in all some amendments had already been ed the championship?’ – Surely, Viktor for the country’s positive rebranding. spheres of social life throughout the coun- worked out: “I spent a lot of time working Yanukovych, Mykola Azarov, Borys Indeed, as Janek Lasocki and Lukasz try; guarantee the free development, use on this law, and the amendments have cur- Kolesnikov and no one else! They celebrate Jasina put it, international headlines were and protection of all native languages of rently been worked out. I’m practically now, and are not going to share their tri- “clearly not encouraging investment or Ukrainian citizens; fulfill the commitments offering a mechanism for the introduction umph with anyone. ‘Let Europeans not teach political cooperation, nor proving the coun- undertaken by Ukraine as part of its inter- of these amendments to the law.” He added, us how to handle our business,’ they say. ‘Let try’s European credentials” (http://www. national treaties on these issues; and “I think that we need to create such a work- them rather learn from us a little, from our opendemocracy.net/od-russia/janek- ensure the further introduction of ing group that will draw up, along with the excellent management of the tournament!’ lasocki-%C5%82ukasz-jasina/football-pol- European standards in this area. Prime Cabinet of Ministers, a program for the The trouble is not that they carried out this itics-legacy-of-euro-2012-in-ukraine). Minister Mykola Azarov was instructed to development of the Ukrainian language.” special operation. The trouble is they suc- The event that back in 2007 was envis- set up the working group by August 13 and (Ukrinform) ceeded,” he wrote. (http://www.pravda. aged to “help change Ukraine’s image from ensure the prompt drafting and approval of com.ua/articles/2012/07/4/6968065/). that of a gray, ‘semi-Russian’ backwater to a a state program for the comprehensive CEC won’t register Tymoshenko, Lutsenko Two days later, the same newspaper country that shared European values and development and functioning of the published an article by investigative jour- strove for democracy” (http://www.tol. Ukrainian language by August 27. On July 3, KYIV – The Central Election nalist Mustafa Nayem based on the secret org/client/article/23201-ukraines-euro- the Verkhovna Rada passed the law on Commission (CEC) has refused to register instructions sent by the ruling Party of pean-aspirations-meet-the-buzz-saw-of- state language policy, which was drawn up former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko Regions to its local headquarters on how to post-soviet-habits.html), and to “symbolize by Party of Regions National Deputies and former Internal Affairs Minister Yurii carry out the forthcoming election cam- common heritage and cooperation across Vadym Kolesnichenko and Serhiy Kivalov. Lutsenko as candidates for national depu- paign and which arguments to employ in the EU border, and a bright future for an On July 31, Parliament Chairman ties from the Batkivshchyna All-Ukrainian party propaganda. Three concepts are fea- ever-expanding Europe” (http://blogs.ft. Volodymyr Lytvyn signed the bill, permit- Union, CEC member Zhanna Usenko- tured in the document: first, the so called com/beyond-brics/2012/05/18/guest- ting it to go the president for his action. Chorna announced at a commission meet- “social initiatives” by the president, which post-ukraines-boycott-blues), turned out to (Ukrinform) ing on August 8. “In accordance with basically are no more than populist slogans be a “public relations disaster for the Article 58 of the Constitution of Ukraine, about various social benefits to be accrued Yanukovych regime,” the “farce of the cen- …and proposes amendments to it the CEC has no legal grounds to register from the empty state coffers; second, the persons whose convictions were not can- tury” and one the most expensive entries in KYIV – President Viktor Yanukovych has language policy aimed at mobilization of celed by the procedure established by law,” the “Regionnaires’ remarkable chronicle of proposed creating a working group under the Russophone and Sovietophile portion Ms. Usenko-Chorna said. Overall, the CEC failures” (http://www.worldaffairsjournal. the Cabinet of Ministers that will deal with of the electorate; and third, the alleged registered 210 out of the 225 candidates org/blog/alexander-j-motyl/looming-soc- the drafting of amendments to the law on “success story” of the Euro 2012 as proof of included in the Batkivshchyna list. cer-disaster-ukraine). the principles of the state language policy, the government’s efficiency and good inter- Thirteen candidates were not registered Although all this is true, one cannot deny and these amendments will be submitted national standing. (http://www.pravda. because they failed to submit on time that, on the other hand, the Ukrainian gov- for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada in com.ua/articles/2012/07/6/6968257/). statements about their consent to run for ernment tries to capitalize, at least domes- September. The head of state announced The first two may deserve a separate national deputies from this political party. tically, on the relatively smooth running of this at a meeting on August 7 with repre- analysis, but the third one seems to con- (Ukrinform) the championship, and that its propagan- sentatives of the scholarly and creative firm Mr. Bakhteyev’s gloomy observations. distic efforts are not entirely in vain. First, intelligentsia who will also join the work- (Continued on page 13) The Party of Regions instructs its activists the propaganda campaign is facilitated by to extensively praise the country’s leader- firm control over the domestic mass media, ship for “rescuing the tournament, which primarily television. (The only independent was practically lost for Ukraine by the Ukrainian channel, TVi, lost its airwaves to ‘Orange’ predecessors,” and for the excel- the government’s loyalists shortly after he krainian eekly FOUNDED 1933 lent management of the event despite the T U W Viktor Yanukovych became president in coordinated anti-government-cum-anti- 2010, and now has encountered even An English-language newspaper published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., Ukrainian campaign of domestic and inter- stronger pressure after the tax police raid- a non-profit association, at 2200 Route 10, P.O. Box 280, Parsippany, NJ 07054. national enemies. ed its office on July 12, seized financial doc- Yearly subscription rate: $65; for UNA members — $55. These slogans speak for themselves: uments and opened a criminal case against Periodicals postage paid at Caldwell, NJ 07006 and additional mailing offices. “Chaos is overcome. Stability is achieved!”; its director Mykola Kniazhytsky based on (ISSN — 0273-9348) “Euro 2012: a goal for Ukraine”; and scurrilous accusations.) “Tournaments pass, achievements remain.” The Weekly: UNA: Secondly, the Western mass media had Now, as these slogans are placed on bill- Tel: (973) 292-9800; Fax: (973) 644-9510 Tel: (973) 292-9800; Fax: (973) 292-0900 managed to create a favorable context for boards everywhere in Ukraine, with glam- the Ukrainian regime to dismiss their criti- orous pictures of stadiums, airports, high- Postmaster, send address changes to: cism and to mobilize part of the population The Ukrainian Weekly Editor-in-chief: Roma Hadzewycz speed trains and airplanes, one may won- to support the government on presumably 2200 Route 10 Editor: Matthew Dubas der whether the championship has actually patriotic grounds: against indiscriminate P.O. Box 280 been appropriated by the Party of Regions accusations against Ukrainian society at Parsippany, NJ 07054 e-mail: [email protected] as a real success story and is boosting its large of indulging in endemic racism and popularity on the eve of the October parlia- xenophobia. (See Uilleam Blacker’s article The Ukrainian Weekly Archive: www.ukrweekly.com mentary elections. on this site at http://ukraineanalysis.word- On the one hand, there is little doubt press.com/2012/06/05/eastern-europe- The Ukrainian Weekly, August 12, 2012, No. 33, Vol. LXXX an-xenophobia-under-western-eyes-euro- Copyright © 2012 The Ukrainian Weekly Mykola Riabchuk is an author and jour- 2012-in-poland-ukraine.) nalist from Ukraine, and a leading intellec- The campaign launched by the reputable tual who is affiliated with the journal BBC and supported by a number of British ADMINISTRATION OF THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY AND SVOBODA Krytyka. tabloids presented Poland and, especially, The article above is reprinted from the Ukraine as dangerous places where crypto- Walter Honcharyk, administrator (973) 292-9800, ext. 3041 e-mail: [email protected] blog “Current Politics in Ukraine” (http:// fascist violence and intolerance reigns ukraineanalysis.wordpress.com/) created supreme and where visitors with a non- Walter Honcharyk, advertising manager (973) 292-9800, ext. 3040 by the Stasiuk Program for the Study of fax: (973) 644-9510 white skin are very likely to “come back in e-mail: [email protected] Contemporary Ukraine, a program of the coffins” (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at Mariyka Pendzola, subscriptions (973) 292-9800, ext. 3042 e-mail: [email protected] the University of Alberta. (Continued on page 3) No. 33 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 3

Angela Merkel’s notorious comparison On brave faces... of Ukraine with Belarus played directly into the hands of President Yanukovych and his OSCE commissioner urges dialogue (Continued from page 2) acolytes since the bias was obvious here to news/article-2150542/Nazi-mob-lies- all, including the fiercest of Mr. on divisive language law in Ukraine Yanukovych’s opponents. The bias was wait-England-fans-Riot-police-march-bat- 2,000 amendments put forward. tle-thugs-Euro-2012-terraces–turn-blind- even more pronounced given Ms. Merkel’s OSCE (and that of other European bigwigs) “In the present pre-election climate, ten- eye-racist-chants-violence.html). KYIV – High Commissioner on National sions surrounding the language law could The accusations, however substantiated exchange of amiable hugs and smiles with much more authoritarian bosses in Minorities Knut Vollebaek of the Organization easily escalate,” said Mr. Vollebaek. “I there- (at least in the BBC Panorama film for Security and Cooperation in Europe fore call on all parties to engage in a sub- Moscow. “Stadiums of Hatred”), missed the point in (OSCE) described the situation surrounding a stantive dialogue on the issues raised by There is a sad truth in the words of an two important respects. First, racism is cer- new language law in Ukraine as “deeply the law with a view to finding a suitable unnamed German journalist quoted in tainly not the main problem that hounds divisive” at the conclusion of his visit to the compromise.” Open Democracy by a Ukrainian colleague: Ukraine; secondly, Ukraine is certainly not country on July 26. He urged the authori- While in Ukraine, Mr. Vollebaek also dis- “It’s quite easy for Merkel to attack Ukraine a European leader in terms of racism, fas- ties to engage in “substantive dialogue.” cussed the inter-ethnic situation in the and demand respect for human rights. cism and football hooliganism – it lags far Mr. Vollebaek visited the country on July Autonomous Republic of Crimea. In this Unlike Russia, you have no oil or gas, and behind Russia, where Asian immigrants are 24-26 to update himself on this and several context, he welcomed the recent adoption, beaten and killed on a regular basis. you’re not as strong and influential as other issues, including Ukraine’s chairman- in its first reading, of long-stalled legislation Regretfully, the moderate voices that China. It’s convenient to criticize Ukraine ship of the OSCE next year. to restore the rights of formerly deported tried to present a more balanced view and and it does great things for [her] popularity The language law recently adopted by people. He urged the authorities to contin- tame the “anti-Ukraine overdrive” (as rating” (http://www.opendemocracy.net/ the Ukrainian Parliament has proved con- ue working towards full adoption and Brendan O’Neill defined it), remained od-russia/valery-kalnysh/are-european- troversial and has provoked strong reac- implementation of this law. The high com- largely unheard. “Like every other country calls-for-euro-2012-boycott-meaningless). tions, he noted. Earlier this year the high missioner also visited Crimea. in the world, Ukraine no doubt has some This truism may not significantly strength- commissioner provided the authorities Mr. Vollebaek discussed the language nasty racists – but British hacks have con- en the position of Mr. Yanukovych but it with an assessment of the law and advised law and other issues with Foreign Affairs tinually depicted the entire nation as a definitely weakens those of his pro-West- against adopting it in its current form. Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, First cesspit of xenophobic attitudes… What ern opponents. “The disproportionate favoring of the Vice-Minister of Social Policy Vasyl we’re really witnessing in the hysteria Mr. Yanukovych, as Michael Willard sar- Russian language, while also removing Nadraga, First Vice-Minister of Culture Yurii about Ukrainian attitudes is the expression castically remarks, “doesn’t seem to be los- most incentives for learning or using Bohutskyi, leader of the united opposition of a prejudice against strange Easterners ing much sleep due to the downward spiral Ukrainian in large parts of the country, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, national deputies from disguised as an enlightened anti-racist sen- of his country’s reputation in the eyes of could potentially undermine Ukraine’s very the ruling coalition and the opposition, and timent. If it is stupid for small numbers of the West or, apparently, even Russia.” The cohesion,” Mr. Vollebaek said. He warned representatives of national minorities, civil Ukrainian football followers to sneer at Western boycott of authoritarian rulers that the law is likely to lead to further society and the diplomatic corps. blacks and Asians, it is also stupid for the resembles hitting them with the proverbial polarization of society. The successive high commissioners of British media to sneer at the whole of wet noodle: “One feels it, but it doesn’t In meetings with national deputies of the the OSCE have been engaged in Ukraine Ukraine,” he wrote. (http://blogs.telegraph. sting” (http://www.kyivpost.com/opin- Verkhovna Rada, the high commissioner since the early 1990s, with a particular co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100160992/ ion/op-ed/back-story-ukraine-proved-nay- also expressed concern at the manner in focus on legislation regulating minority the-fear-of-racist-ukraine-is-itself-xeno- sayers-wrong-in-euro-.html). which the law was adopted. He particularly rights and language use, the inter-ethnic phobic/). “Statements such as those made by referred to the parliamentary majority’s situation in Crimea and the education of The main problem, as Rory Finnin has Angela Merkel or Hillary Clinton are politi- refusal to consider any of the more than national minorities. correctly suggested, “was less media sensa- cal, but they are only words, unless they are tionalism than public knowledge about backed up by force, pressure, breaking con- Ukraine. Reports of racism in the country tracts, isolation, refusal of entry visas and were essentially made in a vacuum, with freezing officials’ bank accounts… The Lviv museum opens exhibition precious little beyond stories of made-man Ukrainian president does not understand famines, environmental catastrophes and hints. The language of diplomacy is com- feuding politicians to help frame them con- pletely alien to him… The EU and U.S.A. on rescue of Jews by UGCC clergy structively. Ukraine is the largest country appeals will remain just that, appeals, Religious Information Service of Ukraine Christian principle of love and on the ideol- within the European continent… Yet after heard only by those making them” (http:// ogy of universal unity. 20 years of independence, Ukraine remains www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/ LVIV – The history of Lviv is the history The focus of the exhibit is on the Holocaust badly known and poorly understood. It is valery-kalnysh/are-european-calls-for- of a mini-state which for centuries was and the Righteous. A few parts of the exhibit Europe’s perennial terra malecognita” euro-2012-boycott-meaningless). home to different peoples with their own show different aspects of Jewish life in pre- (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr- “The EU has more power than it thinks, histories and cultures, customs and reli- war Lviv. One section is dedicated to rory-finnin/ukraine-europes-terra and boycott is not the only weapon. A trav- gions. The exhibition “Those Who Saved the European politicians and philosophers who malecognita_b_1653469.html). el ban on officials linked to Tymoshenko’s World” on 36 Staroyevreyska St. is a story contributed to the emergence of the anti- As if such hyperbole was not enough, the jailing could rein in a few of Ukraine’s cor- about the people of the Jewish quarter. Semitic element in the ideology of the Nazis. Western mass media broadly discussed the rupt kleptocrats” (http://blogs.ft.com/ The exhibition, which opened on June 27, The exhibit includes documentary mate- idea to boycott not only the Ukrainian lead- beyond-brics/2012/05/18/guest-post- was created by the Lviv Museum of the rials, photographs of priests, nuns and ership marred with corruption scandals ukraines-boycott-blues). History of Religion and is dedicated to the monks, and rescued Jews – direct partici- and persecution of their political oppo- “Rather than staying way from Ukraine actions of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic pants in these events; certificates and med- nents, but Ukraine in general by removing to no point (except to mollify their own Church (UGCC) in saving Jews during World als of people declared by Yad Vashem to be the final stage of the tournament either domestic critics), Merkel, Barroso and the War II, the head of the information depart- Righteous Among the Nations and their fully to Poland or to some other country. rest should use the very real powers they ment of the Lviv Museum of the History of personal belongings. This irresponsible appeal (which came have to hit Kyiv where it really hurts” Religion, Iryna Tsebenko, explained. Parts of the exhibit are also devoted to too late to accomplish anyway) was effec- (http://eastofcenter.tol.org/2012/05/yel- The direct organizers of the actions to Blessed Omelyan Kovch and to Lviv resi- tively manipulated by the Ukrainian low-bellied-european-pols-deserve-yellow- save the Jews were the Sheptytsky brothers, dents who saved Jews. authorities in a similar way, as the whole- cards/). Metropolitan Andrey and Archimandrite As of January 1, a total of 2,363 citizens sale accusations of Ukraine as racist: first, it It may take some time before experts’ Klement. Hundreds of Jews, including of Ukraine have the title Righteous Among was used to distract popular attention from opinion gains sufficient credibility and many children, hid in male and female the Nations. Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust the real (political) reasons for the interna- influence to prompt policymakers to apply monasteries of the UGCC. Monks, priests memorial, awarded them diplomas and tional boycott of the Ukrainian leadership tougher sanctions against the rogue gov- and the faithful of the Church risked their medals with the engraved text: “Whoever and to switch it to the alleged anti-Ukraini- ernment. The rigged parliamentary elec- own lives to save Jews, revealing their atti- saves a life is considered as if he has saved an bias of Westerners; and secondly, it tions in October may catalyze the process. tudes toward them on the basis of the an entire world.” helped to channel popular resentment Yet, in the meantime, the president and his against the opposition, which had arguably team can boast of their great victory, both conspired with ugly Westerners and who against the sinister West and treacherous sacrificed the national interests (Euro opposition. “A goal for Ukraine,” they claim, Quotable notes 2012) for the sake of some particularistic and might well be right, unless they mean “…The [Obama] administration also seems to have misjudged how steadfastly gains (liberation of Yulia Tymoshenko). “Ukraine c’est moi.” Mr. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin would stand behind the Syrian regime. There were vague hopes that, sooner or later, the Kremlin would give up on Mr. [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad. But Mr. Putin refused to budge. For years, he has been disdainful and fearful of the ‘color’ revolutions – Orange in Ukraine, May we help you? Rose in Georgia – that swept autocrats from power. In recent months, he has To reach The Ukrainian Weekly call (973) 292-9800, heard the footsteps of protest outside his own Kremlin walls. He was not about and dial the appropriate extension (as listed below). to applaud the drumbeat of another revolution seeking to topple a dictator in Syria. It’s not comforting to see Mr. Putin express an outmoded, Cold War mind- Editorial – 3049, 3088 • Production – 3063, 3069 set that sees Russia’s interest in opposing the United States at every step – but it is something that should not have surprised the White House. …” Administration – 3041 • Advertising – 3040 • Subscriptions – 3042 – Editorial, “The lessons of failure in Syria,” in The Washington Post, August 3. 4 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 No. 33

OBITUARIES Iryna Stasiv-Kalynets, human rights activist, 71 Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group from Lviv who signed a letter of protest Sakharov, an appeal to the camp adminis- against the arrest of Valentyn Moroz, and tration for permission to send delegates to KHARKIV, Ukraine – Iryna Stasiv- was active in other efforts on his behalf. In the Congress of the International Women’s Kalynets, poet, artist and former political December 1971 she signed the statement Democratic Association. prisoner died on July 31 at the age of 71. announcing the creation of the Public She took part in a hunger strike Active in the Ukrainian national liberation Committee in defense of Nina Strokata. demanding that the imprisoned rights and human rights movements, she was a Both she and her husband were arrested activists be given political prisoner status, person of strong convictions and steadfast in 1972. Ms. Stasiv-Kalynets was sentenced refused to do hard physical labor in con- commitment. in early August under Article 62 – “anti- nection with International Women’s Year, Iryna Stasiv was born on December 6, Soviet agitation and propaganda” – to six wrote a letter to the U.N. Human Rights 1940, into a family of believers of the years of labor camp and three years of Commission Committee protesting camp Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. Many of exile. Six months later her husband conditions and asking for a representative her relatives were connected with the received the same sentence. Their young to be sent to the camp, and held hunger Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. daughter was separated from her parents strikes in protest against refusals to allow Seeing mass deportations of Ukrainians to for nine years. visits from relatives and friends. For such Iryna Stasiv-Kalynets Siberia after World War II, she became and Ms. Stasiv-Kalynets served her sentence actions, she was frequently subjected to remained passionately committed to in the Mordovian political labor camps vicious repressive measures by the camp zillya” in publishing an independent cultural Ukraine’s independence. together with Stefania Shabatura, Nadia authorities. journal, as well as in the creation of the She studied at the Language and Svitlychna and Dr. Strokata. She spent her term of exile together with Association of the Ukrainian Language, Literature Faculty of Lviv University, and She took part in all collective protest her husband in the Chytynsk region, work- “Memorial” and the Popular Movement of then worked in schools and youth clubs, but actions held in the women’s political pris- ing at milking cows and painting houses. Ukraine (Rukh). Stasiv-Kalynets was also was forced to leave after telling the students oners’ camp. She signed a letter to the Beginning in 1987, Ms. Stasiv-Kalynets involved in the movement for the revival of about the history of the national liberation Procurator’s Office accusing the camp took an ever more active role in the revival the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. movement. From then on she was able to authorities of preventing prisoners from of free cultural and civic life in Lviv. In She believed that the rights of the nation get only temporary jobs or manual labor. celebrating Easter; a letter to the Secretary November 1987 she and her husband are given priority over the rights of the She and her husband, Ihor Kalynets, were General of the United Nations asking that became founding members of the Ukrainian individual. actively involved in the Shystydesyatnyky he take measures to ensure fair trials in the Association for the independent creative She published several books of poetry, (Sixties) movement. presence of representatives of the U.N.; a intelligentsia. She was also active in creating prose, as well as works on literary and his- In July 1970 she was one of nine people collective letter in support of Andrei and working with the group “Yevshan- torical subjects.

Vasyl Lisovy, former Soviet political prisoner, 75

Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group prompted Mr. Lisovy to openly protest. He under which this letter is being submitted, and Yevhen Pronyuk released issued No. 6 it would be difficult for me to hope for a KHARKIV, Ukraine – Vasyl Lisovy, philos- of the journal Ukrainsky Visnyk (Ukrainian constructive reaction to it. Although I am opher and former Soviet-era dissident and Herald), which they revived in order to pro- not appearing here in the role of respon- political prisoner died on July 20. He was vide society with information about those dent, nor witness, nor even in any role as 75. arrested and to undermine the charge somebody involved in this case which is Mr. Lisovy was born on May 17, 1937, in against those arrested of having published now called ‘the Dobosh case,’ after passing a village in the Kyiv region. He studied and the previous issues. on this letter I will without any doubt later lectured in philosophy. He began dis- He also wrote an Open Letter to the become one of the ‘enemies.’ Perhaps this tributing samvydav literature in 1961, and Members of the Central Committee of the is correct since Dobosh has been released from 1966 actively prepared and circulated Soviet Communist Party and to the Central and the ‘Dobosh case’ is simply a case clandestine material among students. Committee of the Ukrainian Communist directed against the living Ukrainian peo- It was the second wave of arrests of Party. The letter ended with the following: ple and living Ukrainian culture. Such a members of the intelligentsia in 1972 that “Taking into consideration the conditions ‘case’ does indeed unite all those arrested.

Vasyl Lisovy However, I consider myself to also be impli- cated in this case, which is why I ask that I also be arrested and tried.” (Yaroslav Dobosh, a Belgian national, had had been arrested by the KGB, and after 2012 Labor Day Weekend Events “admitting guilt” on television and in the press, had been deported to Belgium, where Friday 6-8 PM: Odesa Seafood Night, clams, shrimp, ribs family-style followed by Surf & Turf dinner he immediately withdrew his statements.) (make reservations early, call by 8/30 to pre-order lobsters) Both Mr. Pronyuk and Mr. Lisovy were 8-10 PM: guest bartenders from Veselka Bowery arrested in July 1972. Mr. Lisovy was sen- Beach Party Volleyball under the lights tenced in December 1973 to seven years of hard labor and to three years of exile. The 10 PM: Music by Svitanok on the Tiki Deck charge was under Article 62 of the Criminal Code, “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.” Saturday USCAK Swim Races and Tennis Tournament As a result of his protest against Soviet Noon-5 PM: BBQ at the Gazebo troops occupying Afghanistan, on July 17, 2 PM: EMCK on the Tiki Deck 1980, Mr. Lisovy was sentenced for “para- 5-6 PM: Hot Tub Happy Hour sitism” to one year at a harsh-regimen labor camp. He spent the remainder of his exile 6-8 PM: Chef Snake’s Special in the Main House Dining Room period in Ilka in the same area. He worked 7:30 PM: Concert featuring Syzokryli as a lathe operator in a car repair factory. 10 PM: Zabava with Hrim Mr. Lisovy was joined in exile by his wife, Vera, and children, Myroslava and Oksen. Sunday 8:30 AM and 10 AM: Catholic Liturgy at Holy Trinity Church He was released in July 1983. Once he 10 AM: Orthodox Service at Soyuzivka Chapel returned to Kyiv he was unable for a long Noon-5 PM: BBQ at the Gazebo, Spartanky Volleyball Tournament time to find work, and it was only after he made a request to the KGB that he was 2 PM: Labor Day weekend tradition continues with Matthew Dubas on accordion on the Tiki Deck taken on as a research assistant in the Kyiv 4 PM: Super Speedo Sake Bomb Sunday Happy Hour on the Tiki Deck History Museum. 6-8 PM: Nestor’s Special Meal in the Main House Dining Room In 1989 he was rehabilitated and his 10 PM: Zabava with Klopit from Chicago Ph.D. was officially reinstated, as well as his position in the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences. No. 33 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 5

Team Ukraine... (Continued from page 1) to win a gold in London for Ukraine, secured the win in the men’s weightlifting event in the 105 kg division, with a snatch lift of 185 kg, and a clean-and-jerk lift of 227 kg, for a total of 412 kg in the final on August 6. Navab Nasireshelal of Iran won second place with a 411 kg total, and Bartolomej Wojciech Bonk of Poland won bronze with 410 kg. Sergiy Tagirov of Ukraine finished in 10th place with 374 kg total. Olha Saladuha won bronze in the wom- en’s triple jump on August 5, with a distance of 14.79 meters. Olga Rypakova won gold for Kazakhstan with a distance of 14.98 meters, and Caterine Ibarguen won silver noc-ukr.org for Columbia with a jump of 14.8 meters. Inna Osypenko-Radomska (foreground) takes the lead in the 500-meter single kayak race, winning the first silver medal in Hanna Knyazheva of Ukraine finished in London for Ukraine. fourth place, with a jump of 14.56 meters. Gymnast Ihor Radivilov won the bronze The lowest number of points is the winner. medal in the men’s vault, with a total score Synchronized swimmers Daria Iushko of 16.316 points on August 6. Hak Seon and Kseniya Sydorenko finished the free Medal-winning performances at the Olympics Yang of South Korea won gold (16.533 routine of their program in sixth place with points), and Russia’s Denis Ablyazin won 92.670 points. by Ihor N. Stelmach the silver medal (16.399 points). Irini Merleni made it to the semifinal Ukraine wins gold in women’s quadruple sculls Vitalii Nakonechnyi finished in sixth match in the women’s 48-kg division free- place in men’s gymnastics on the pommel style wrestling event. Merleni lost to Mariya Ukraine easily and dominantly captured a gold medal in rowing, blowing away horse apparatus on August 5, with a score Stadnyk of Azerbaijan 0-3 based on the judg- the competition in the final of the women’s quadruple sculls on August 1. Shortly of 14.766. He scored 6.3 on difficulty and es’ decision. Stadnyk won the silver medal in after Great Britain won its first gold medal at the Olympics, the hometown London 8.466 on execution, with no penalty deduc- the final match against Hitomi Obara of Japan, crowd was prepared to explode again for another British medal. Instead the British tions. Krisztian Berki of Hungary won first who defeated Stadnyk 3-1. Carol Huynh of quartet struggled, finishing far behind the field in sixth place. place with a score of 16.066 points. Canada and Clarissa Kyoko Mei Ling Chun of Kateryna Tarasenko, Nataliya Dovhodko, Anastasiia Kozhenkova and Yana Heptathletes Lyudmyla Yosypenko and the U.S.A. tied for bronze. Merleni lost to Chun Dementieva won by more than two seconds in a time of six minutes, 35.93 seconds. Hanna Melnychenko finished in fourth and in the bronze medal match 0-3. Germany took silver, the United States bronze, Australia was fourth and 2008 cham- 10th place, respectively, in the women’s At press time, Ukraine had won 10 med- pions China finished fifth. final on August 4. Yosypenko earned 6,618 als and was in 16th place in the medals The Ukrainian team took a very comfortable lead in the opening 500 meters of points, her personal best, and Melnychenko count, with three gold, one silver and six the race and had no problem hanging on to its huge lead until the very end. Ukraine earned 6,392 points. The heptathlon bronze. Ukraine was ahead of Brazil (17th had clear water at the 1,500-meter stage and its smooth technique propelled it to a includes the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, place) and behind New Zealand (15th place); 2.16 second win over the Germans. shot put, 200-meter races, long jump, jave- It was Ukraine’s first-ever Olympic rowing gold medal. lin throw and 800-meter races. Ukraine is in 19th place in the gold medal Olha Maslivets finished in fourth place in count, behind New Zealand (18th place) and Torokhtiy wins weightlifting gold the women’s RS-X division of the sailing ahead of South Africa (20th place). competition on August 7 that included 10 The Summer Olympic Games in London Oleksiy Torokhtiy was a surprise gold medal winner for Ukraine on August 6 after heats and a medal race. Maslivets scored conclude with the closing ceremonies on the top contenders in the 105-kg category were eliminated or dropped out. 62 total points and netted 48 points. After August 12. A listing of the accomplish- Torokhtiy lifted 185 kg in the snatch and 227 kg in the clean and jerk, for a total of the 10 races, the worst race score is dis- ments of Ukraine’s athletes will appear 412 kg. His total was 1 kg more than Iran’s silver medalist, Navab Nasirshelal. carded and the remaining points are added next week, along with preliminary cover- Poland’s Bartlomiej Bonk won bronze with 410 kg. All three medalists were with- together, the lowest 10 racers advance to age of the Paralympic Games in London to in two kilograms of each other in total weight lifted. Poland’s three-time world the medal race, where points are doubled. be held on August 29 through September 9. champion, Marcin Dolega, was eliminated from the competition after he failed 3 suc- cessive attempts in the snatch. Over all, the category’s results were underwhelming as weightlifting has seen world or Olympic records falling on a daily basis. Torokhtiy’s total was three kilo- grams lower than Kazakhstan’s Ilya Ilyin’s 94-kg division champion. Clearly, the Ukrainian took advantage of not having to compete against the top contenders in the 105-kg weight class. Andrei Aramnau of Belarus, the 2008 Olympic champion, opted out of the Olympic Games in London because of a leg inju- ry. Beijing Olympic silver medalist Dmitry Klokov of Russia and teammate Khadzhimurat Akkaev (2011 world champion), both withdrew at the last moment due to injuries. Torokhtiy acknowledged the results would have been different if the Russians had been in the competition. He said future competitions will resolve who is the stron- gest in this weight classification. There were rumors the late withdrawals by the Russians were because of doping suspicions. Akkaev announced he had emergency back surgery in London on August 2 for a herniated disk. He removed a brace and showed a bandage on his lower back under his shirt at a news conference called on August 2. Klokov’s situation was even more unclear, as official documents claimed he could not enter the competition due to a bad back. Russian head coach David Rigert said Klokov had issues with his right knee. The two waited until the last minute to bow

noc-ukr.org out of the Games. Triple-jumper Olha Saladuha celebrates her bronze medal jump of 14.79 meters.

Top candidates... Energy Systems of Ukraine in the 1990s. few honest politicians to have served in the been imprisoned with Ms. Tymoshenko 2. Arseniy Yatsenyuk – 38, former Cabinet of Ministers. He served as chair of seems suspicious to many as well. (Continued from page 1) parliamentary chair of Ukraine. Mr. the Razumkov Center for Economic and 5. Yurii Lutsenko – 47, former internal Yatsenyuk has diverse ties in Ukrainian Political Research for five years before join- affairs minister. Mr. Lutsenko was sen- Batkivshchyna Party politics, working in 2003-2004 alongside ing the campaign for presidential candidate tenced to four years’ imprisonment in Viktor Yushchenko in 2004. 1. Yulia Tymoshenko – 51, former Sergey Tigipko, who was then chair of the February for usurping state property and prime minister of Ukraine. Ms. National Bank of Ukraine. He enjoys close 4. Oleksander Turchynov – 48, former abuse of authority. In June, the European Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years ties with mega-millionaire Fedir Shpyg, chair of the Security Service of Ukraine. Mr. Court for Human Rights ruled that Mr. in August 2011 for abuse of authority. founder of Aval Bank. Yulia Tymoshenko Turchynov has been the right-hand man to Lutsenko was illegally convicted and his Western and Russian leaders condemned accused Mr. Yatsenyuk of accepting financ- Yulia Tymoshenko during her 16-year politi- rights were violated. Prosecutors have filed the prison sentence as political persecu- ing for his 2010 presidential campaign cal career. However, Mr. Turchynov has been new charges against Mr. Lutsenko, accusing tion. In June, Kharkiv prosecutors filed tax from billionaire Dmytro Firtash. accused by national deputies, such as him of “official negligence” for illegally evasion charges against Ms. Tymoshenko, 3. Anatoliy Grytsenko – 54, former Oleksander Bondar, of abandoning Ms. authorizing the surveillance of a suspect in alleging she deprived the state of $3.75 mil- defense minister of Ukraine. Mr. Grytsenko Tymoshenko since her imprisonment and the alleged poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko. lion while serving as chair of Unified enjoys the reputation of being among the allying with Mr. Yatsenyuk. That he hasn’t – compiled by Zenon Zawada 6 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 No. 33

The Ukrainian Weekly Yanukovych signs Only in Viktor Yanukovych’s and the Regionnaires’ Ukraine… …would Parliament pass a law that clearly violates the country’s Constitution; would a law be passed with the votes of MPs not present; would the chairman of Parliament, who threatened to resign over the law’s passage, sign a law that he himself said was deficient and passed with numerous procedural violations; would the presi- Libertarians who support authoritarians dent sign that deficient law and yet state that it should be amended by the Parliament. That, in a nutshell, is exactly what happened in Ukraine between July 3, when the It was uplifting to see Myron Kuropas of law and individual rights – have only law on state language policy was passed by the Verkhovna Rada, and August 8, when stand up for Ukrainian Americans in his God to thank (or the random fortune of the bill was signed by President Yanukovych. July 22 column and criticize the politics of history, in atheists’ view) that the U.S. Last month the high commissioner on national minorities of the Organization for the community’s former friend and exists to counterbalance Russian political Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Knut Vollebaek, described the situation defender, Patrick Buchanan. culture, which rejects rule of law and indi- surrounding the new language law in Ukraine as “deeply divisive.” Moreover, earlier He remains fondly remembered by vidual rights. this year the high commissioner had provided Ukraine’s authorities with an assess- many of us as one of the few who was bold Repeatedly throughout the last decade, ment of the law and advised against adopting the bill in its current form. Similarly, enough to defend John Demjanjuk at a Mr. Buchanan hasn’t portrayed Russia the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe had said the legislation does not time when it was unpopular and politically objectively and misled his readers. In a provide a proper balance between development and use of a state language as a uni- incorrect to do so. February 2005 column, he asserted that fying factor in society and the development and protection of minority languages. However, Mr. Buchanan has now aban- “Russia has an elected legislature with And still, Mr. Yanukovych signed the bill. He did so while the Verkhovna Rada was doned the Ukrainian cause to embrace the opposition parties.” In the same column, on recess and while he himself was vacationing in Crimea (probably thinking it was Russians. Nowadays, at least two or three Mr. Buchanan makes the even more auda- safer to do this during the August lull). times a year, Mr. Buchanan pens a column cious claim that, “The Russian people have The opposition may have been taken by surprise by the president’s move, but the criticizing NATO expansion into the former freedom of religion.” Party of Regions of Ukraine (PRU) clearly was prepared. Public demonstrations in Soviet states, arguing that the U.S. has no As a devout Roman Catholic and a keen support of the president’s action were held in PRU strongholds such as Donetsk, right to interfere in the Russian observer of world affairs, Mr. Buchanan is Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Odesa and Symferopol. (We are supposed to Federation’s backyard. well aware that the Russian Federation is believe these public gatherings arose spontaneously.) The Regionnaires’ website Defending authoritarian Russia – which among the world’s most hostile nations carried a story, in Russian and Ukrainian, headlined: “Party of Regions keeps its Prof. Alexander Motyl of Rutgers University towards Catholics and Protestants, both of word! We have defended the inalienable human right to [one’s] native language.” has appropriately described as a “quasi-fas- whom are smeared by the Russian The laws’ supporters carried placards such as “We want to speak our native lan- cist state” – has become among Mr. Orthodox Church as “sektanty” (cultists). guage,” claiming that they were forbidden from doing so – an outright lie. Buchanan’s top priorities. Believing that Catholics and Protestants At the conclusion of his fact-finding visit to Ukraine on July 26, Mr. Vollebaek had Mr. Buchanan’s Russophilia of the last won’t receive God’s salvation, the Russian urged Ukraine’s authorities to engage in “substantive dialogue” about the language decade can be explained by the splintering Orthodox Church, in close partnership law. Now President Yanukovych will claim this is exactly what he’s doing, first by of the conservative movement into several with the government, has fiercely meeting with “representatives of scholarly and creative intellectuals” in Crimea on factions following the Soviet Union’s col- repressed the emergence of Catholic and August 7 (those intellectuals, by the way, urged the president to veto the law), and lapse. Protestant Churches on its territory. Only then by directing on August 8 that a special working group – comprising experts, The neo-conservatives, led by President four Roman Catholic dioceses exist there. scholars, cultural activists and representatives of the public – be established to dis- George W. Bush and ideologues such as Forget about allowing Greek-Catholic cuss language policy in Ukraine and to propose amendments that the Verkhovna Francis Fukuyama, have pursued an churches to emerge. Rada should review when it returns in September. aggressive foreign policy of expanding A similar trend has emerged in Ukraine, In view of the latest developments regarding the law on language policy, two key Western values and institutions. where Church leaders and politicians in questions arise. 1. Why would the Rada now consider amendments when it previ- Paleo-conservatives, like Mr. Buchanan, Russified territories such as Poltava and ously declined to even look at any of the over 2,000 amendments proposed before resented being pushed to the fringes of the Odesa have forbid Ukrainian Catholics to the law was passed? 2. Why didn’t President Yanukovych veto the law on language Bush administration and began advocating acquire land to build their own churches. policy if he felt it needed to be amended? a non-interventionist foreign policy In essence, Mr. Buchanan has turned his On August 8, Mr. Yanukovych noted, “I spent a lot of time working on this law, and approach. back on his own Catholic faithful to shill for the amendments have currently been worked out. I’m practically offering a mecha- Another splinter, the libertarian move- the authoritarian, ethnocidal Russian gov- nism for the introduction of these amendments to the law.” He said that the working ment, is very tightly aligned with the ernment. group “will draw up, along with the Cabinet of Ministers, a program for the develop- paleo-conservatives on foreign policy and Is Russia the biggest foreign threat to the ment of the Ukrainian language.” also supports a significant reduction in U.S., as alleged this year by Republican Thus, the president of Ukraine and guarantor of the Constitution of Ukraine has America’s foreign intervention, particularly presidential candidate Mitt Romney? I’d spoken. Whom is he kidding? on the military front. have to agree with Mr. Buchanan and say Besides opposing the wars in Iraq and no. Is it in the interest of the U.S. govern- Afghanistan, paleo-conservatives and lib- ment, given its multi-billion-dollar foreign ertarians have argued that NATO had out- policy budget, to employ its non-military Turning the pages back... lived its purpose once the Soviet Union col- resources to ensure that rule of law and Aug. lapsed. In their view, the newly emerged democratic institutions emerge and remain Russian Federation no longer poses a intact in Ukraine and Georgia? I’d have to Twenty years ago, on August 18, 1992, The Ukrainian Weekly threat to the U.S. and, accordingly, the U.S. disagree with Mr. Buchanan and say yes. 18 asked Dr. Roman Szporluk, the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor has no obligation to help its neighbors Given that Mr. Buchanan is likely aware of Ukrainian History at Harvard University, to comment on the develop political institutions that secure of ethnic and religious nuances, it’s reason- 1992 momentous turn of events that culminated in the historic procla- their independence from Russia. able to believe that he’s made a strategic mation of August 24, 1991, and the decisive referendum victory While the neo-conservatives seek to aid decision in his career to work with Russian of December 1, 1991. in installing rule of law and democratic foreign policy agents. The way in which Ukraine achieved independence was surprising to observers, and “in institutions and support their proper func- It’s unclear whether there’s any money political terms, they resembled the change in humanity’s thinking following the tioning, their opponents don’t view safe- involved, yet there’s ample evidence that Copernican revolution,” Dr. Szporluk wrote. The real meaning and practical consequences guarding democracy and rule of law as an pro-Russian forces have been recruiting of Ukraine’s accomplishment were very difficult to absorb for most people. American foreign policy priority. Instead, American apologists for a decade now. Ukraine, Dr. Szporluk noted, would have to deal with its economic problems in a two- they believe the U.S. should allow these The best example is the American Institute prong approach, with privatization and marketization, and the other prong of macroeco- new states to figure things out on their in Ukraine, which has been promoting nomic structural reforms. Additionally, Ukraine would need to address political reform, own in the context of existing political tra- Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of democratization, freedom of the press and the rule of law. ditions and customs. Regions ever since its launch in 2009. But to ensure that these reforms are effective, Dr. Szporluk suggested that “the task of Yet, it’s one thing to argue that Russia Although the institute won’t disclose its creating a sense of common citizenship in Ukraine – a bond more fundamental than any should be left alone and that the U.S. has financing sources, the evidence of long- ethnic, linguistic, religious or regional ties within the Ukrainian state.” greater priorities around the world. It’s standing relations between its founders Dr. Szporluk noted that the December 1991 independence referendum and the August another thing to defend Russia’s politics and the Party of Regions leadership offers 1991 declaration of independence were linked together and created a “social contract” and ignore its repressions, both domesti- a good hint of where its cash comes from. between the government and the people that gave new meaning to the term Ukrainian cally and abroad, and neo-imperialist poli- The Institute’s Deputy Executive Director nation. The fact that an overwhelming majority of Russophones voted for Ukraine’s inde- cies regarding its neighbors. James George Jatras was hired by pendence was the fundamental premise for building Ukraine’s future. By Mr. Buchanan’s logic, Georgia and Yanukovych advisors as early as 2003 to Even then, the leaders of Ukraine, both President Leonid Kravchuk and the leadership Ukraine ought to be left alone by the U.S. to handle his public relations in the U.S. of Rukh, told those who voted “yes” that their linguistic, ethnic and cultural character resolve their internal problems. But reality Mr. Jatras is active in the libertarian would be respected in an independent Ukraine. “Russian-speaking inhabitants of Ukraine tells us that they can’t because the Russian movement, consistently writing for The were promised that they would be able to continue being what they are, and that the influence in their domestic affairs is too Independent Institute, a libertarian think Ukrainian state would not force them to become something else.” powerful. (Continued on page 13) Progressive Ukrainians – who favor rule (Continued on page 9) No. 33 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 7

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The things we do ... productive to this purpose. by Orysia Paszczak Tracz The changes happening in the New York Remembering state curriculum may be on the horizon in other states as well. Concerned parents Akcja Wisla should contact their school district person- Dear Editor: nel for clarification on the proposed changes Thank you for printing the statement and on the options available for their chil- issued by the Ukrainian Congress Committee dren to continue to receive the highest quali- Aaah, it reminds me of… of America regarding the 65th anniversary ty education. of Akcja Wisla in the April 22 issue of The A final decision on the “New Pathways to All it takes is that first slice into the skin remember first smelling “lypa” (linden or Ukrainian Weekly. It is more important than Graduation” has not yet been made. of a just-picked cucumber. The fresh aroma basswood blossoms), which Mama and ever, given these current times of Interested parties may join the conversation. takes me back to Ocean Avenue in Jersey Tato dried for tea. It was especially good Russification in Ukraine, that we remember City, N.J., when I was 5 years old. It’s true for respiratory problems. As I write this, Christine Hoshowsky, Ph.D. past events such as Akcja Wisla. what they say about a smell evoking a par- the lypa is blooming in Winnipeg. Rochester, N.Y. This discrimination is something that all ticular recollection. This concept even has My love for mushrooms and mushroom Ukrainians should be aware of, as everyone a name – olfactory memory. Every time I sauce, and the aroma of boletus-borovyk should know about the Holodomor. It is crit- The letter-writer is president of The cut into a cucumber, I remember Ocean mushrooms comes from this time, too, ical that we know our history so that we Rochester Ukrainian Group Inc. may teach others. Avenue. It helps if the “ohirok” is a garden- from “Sviat Vechir” (Christmas Eve). It Perhaps in a future article this year, inter- fresh one, not wrapped in plastic and from would not be the same without the hryby, views with people who lived through this thousands of miles away. so aromatically synonymous with mass deportation could be incorporated. This The Demjanjuk case My parents and I arrived in Jersey City Ukrainian Christmas. My parents would would make for an interesting article and as refugees, displaced persons, from the buy the strings of dried mushrooms from would further help put a face to this tragedy. and propaganda war DP camp in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, in Surma or Arka in New York. I still remem- early September of 1949. I turned 4 a few ber the article by Svoboda humorist Ivan Dear Editor: Orysia Duplak Buchan days after. I remember many things from Kernitsky (Iker) during the hippy era – he Liverpool, N.Y. Kudos to Andrij Semotiuk for bringing to about the time I was 2½-3 in the camp, wrote about hippies on the Lower East our attention Myron Kuropas’ latest contri- and about our early days in Jersey City. (I Side (before it became the East Village) in bution to an understanding of the saga of can’t remember something from yesterday, New York wearing very expensive and aro- John Demjanjuk, “The Demjanjuk Debacle: but that’s another story… once I remember matic “necklaces” of dried hryby. Proposed changes The Trials of a ‘Nazi’ Who Wasn’t” (May 20.) it…) Then, for any Ukrainian of any age, But the greater value of both the book and Upon arrival, we stayed with a most there is something so down-home about to Regents exams the review is in that they remind us that this hospitable Ukrainian American family, who frying onions. The promise of varenyky or Dear Editor: is not just the story of an individual took care of us for a week or so. From other comfort food is sure to follow. Ukrainian unjustly persecuted for 30 years, what I remember, we then moved to an I have no idea why, but every so often I attended a New York state Board of but of the newest attack in a propaganda enclosed porch at the back of a house when I catch a whiff of a particular exhaust Regents meeting held on May 21 at Monroe war being waged against Ukrainians. That Community College, where the discussion war began in Paris during the trial of Symon owned by a Ukrainian Baptist family. This from a larger vehicle, I remember the all- with members of the Board of Regents cen- Petliura’s assassin Sholom Schwartzbad, was temporary, until my parents could find red Montgomery Street buses. Back then, tered on the proposed changes to the which was used, so unjustly, to libel the sym- an apartment. The host family was very in the early 1950s, only that Jersey City bus Regents graduation requirements. The pro- bol of Ukraine’s fight for independence as an nice, but after my mother and I were invit- line had red buses, and only their exhaust posed framework, called “The New “anti-Semite” and ”pogromshchik.” Other ed to their prayer service in the living smelled a particular way. (Not that I went Pathways to Graduation,” is a significant attacks in this war come to mind: the room, and the small congregation started around smelling departing buses.) departure from existing policy and practice “Holocaust” television miniseries, in which singing and waving their arms as they One memory of an emanation from on high school graduation. Specifically, the Ukrainians were labeled as being “worse knelt, my Mama decided the time to move Jersey City is just that, because I have not proposal for Global History and Geography, than the Germans” (“They’re Ukrainians. was now. She got scared of something that smelled it since and do not wish it upon a 10th grade social studies course, will allow They like to watch” [Jews being executed by was strange to her. anyone. On Sundays, we took the bus to Ss. students to opt out of it in favor of a course the Nazis]); “Escape From Sobibor,” whose My parents found a store-front apart- Peter and Paul Church on Morris Street, in science, mathematics or career education. intent was to leave the impression that every ment in a five- or six-story apartment just a block away from the Hudson River, By eliminating the final Regents examina- Ukrainian was a Nazi death camp guard and building on Ocean Avenue. They would be with Manhattan on the other side. It was a tion in Global History and Geography, the every guard was Ukrainian; and, for the past the janitors for the building, while keeping few blocks from the bus stop to the church, Board of Regents will dismantle the aca- 30 years, the Demjanjuk travesty. demic standards it previously set and, thus, their day and night jobs. The people living with the Colgate-Palmolive factories in For sure there were other attacks in this in the building were Irish, Italian, German between. On a nice sunny day, it was a reg- make the New York state program of study war, but the only time Ukrainians even and a mix of others. At the back of the ular walk. But if the weather turned a cer- less comprehensive. appeared on the field of battle was after building was a yard that Mama quickly tain way, and it was muggy with no air In defense of Global History and CBS’s libelous ”The Ugly Face of Freedom” Geography, I want to say that it is a course of on “60 Minutes” in 1994 about “rampant transformed into a garden. That’s where movement of any kind, the foul stench of study that enriches the lives of high school anti-Semitism” in Ukraine after indepen- the cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and dill soap and detergent by-products surround- students. It helps young people to under- dence. The clear message there was: See came from that first summer. ed you. You didn’t need to say penance, stand their roots. It focuses their thinking on what happens when Ukrainians get inde- I remember that our apartment or floor because you had just walked it off. multiculturalism, supports their analytical pendence! That one was too much even for (it had been a store, so there were few I started working at Soyuzivka when I and problem-solving skills, builds their confi- the passive Ukrainian mentality, and a rela- walls) was very sunny from the windows was in high school, and have many won- dence through cultural identification, and tively effective, counterattack followed. facing the garden. The front of the apart- derful memories of the estate. A scent that constitutes their reality through historical But it is clear that this is an ongoing war; ment had store windows, which were still reminds me of the place and especially examples. It highlights human achievements new attacks are just a matter of time. Will blocked by a wall. I do remember once sit- the Kyiv building is “konvaliya” (lily-of-the- and teaches about crimes against humanity the passivity of Ukrainians continue, or will ting in the window, “modelling” the outfit valley), which surrounded the grounds in as in the Holodomor, the Holocaust, the they decide, finally, enough? Mama sewed for me. A vague memory is late spring. The lovely sweet smell was so Khmer Rouge Killing Fields, the Tutsi We know Ukraine is not going to take up eating different dishes foreign to us, wonderful that these flowers comprised Massacre and other genocides. It profiles this challenge. Evidence of that – if any addi- men and women of courage such as Yulia because the neighbors shared their special my wedding bouquet. I still regret not tional evidence were needed – is the foods. But I still remember tasting spa- buying Jacques Hnizdovsky’s woodcut of a Tymoshenko, Nelson Mandela, Mohandas Ukrainian government’s non-response to Gandhi. It strengthens the hand of diplomacy ghetti and meat balls with raisins! I found konvaliya bouquet before the piece was the Demjanjuk trial in Germany. (“Why was out much later that I did not make this up, sold out. and negotiation with a study of treaties, char- Ukraine so passive while its image was and it is a traditional Calabrian dish. Then there is the pungent, spicy, unusu- ters and multinational organizations. It rec- being racked through the coals?” asks Mr. ognizes the struggle for self-determination of Semotiuk.) We lived in many different apartments al scent of “polyn”— or – “yevshan zillia”, Muslim, Asian, African, Indian and European And so it is up to the organized Ukrainian in Jersey City before moving to Newark and the story of the power of memory. But peoples. It creates an accessible world diaspora – with the masses demanding of its and then Irvington. The place on Halladay that’s a tale for another time. through the introduction of commercial, leadership effective action. Mr. Semotiuk Street is where I smelled marigolds (chor- political and religious centers worldwide. makes a useful suggestion as to the next nobryvtsi) and tomato plant leaves for the Most importantly, it places a high value on immediate step: uncover the reasons why first time – both having a pungent, unusual Orysia Tracz may be contacted at orysia. human dignity, as in the study of the Universal Germany undertook the last Demjanjuk trial smell. From about the same time, I [email protected]. Declaration of Human Rights. In totality, glob- (besides, as suggested by Dr. Kuropas, “to al history captures the essence of human spread some of the war guilt to other existence as the history of civilizations. nations and to appease the Jews”). In order to prepare our youth to live in a Dr. Kuropas and Mr. Semotiuk have point- Opinions in The Ukrainian Weekly globally connected world, we must teach all ed out the general direction. Now it is up to of them about global history. This knowl- the rest of us to decide to do whatever it Opinions expressed by columnists, commentators and edge will enable them to deal more success- takes to convince those who would so letter-writers are their own and do not necessarily reflect fully with global issues in governance, actively promote Ukrainophobia that this finance, nation-building, terrorism and the war against Ukrainians must stop. the opinions of either The Weekly editorial staff or its arts. The present proposal to drop the Global History and Geography component George Sajewych publisher, the Ukrainian National Association. as a requirement for graduation is counter- Silver Spring, Md. 8 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 No. 33

have been taken as a contradiction in terms. tions after his visit, in 1839, to the “Empire REFLECTIONS A fabulously rich country with fertile lands, of the Czar” [the title also of his book]. vast natural resources, and a hard-working Among the observations: “Russian despo- people … and suddenly – famine! In time of tism not only pays little respect to ideas and peace, too!” The only thing Berezhkov got sentiments, it will also deny facts; it will wrong was that it was a time of war, not struggle against evidence, and triumph in peace. the struggle!”) Plus one Third: My father made the obvious point And finally, in the early 1950s, Harvard by Victor Rud can lose Ukraine.” that you’d sooner expect the cities to starve, University conducted in Munich and New Already in 1930, Stalin’s deputy not the countryside that produced that very York the first significant study of Soviet ref- CONCLUSION Stanislav Kossior addressed a meeting of food. Though there was starvation in the ugees. So repetitive and consistent (and Communist Party activists in Ukraine: “We cities, with its predominantly Russian and hair-raising) were the accounts of the will show him [the Ukrainian villager] what Jewish populations, it was the countryside Ukrainian remnants of the Holodomor that A deformed nation famine is.” Petro Grigorenko, a young that was overwhelmingly Ukrainian and the interviewer would periodically turn off Never in one sitting, but during the Ukrainian Communist Party activist at the that’s where the massive exterminations the recorder due to, simply, redundancy. course of many decades, my father would time, eventually became a world-renowned were directed. Food was not removed from What other nationality paralleled those ponder the questions: What happens when human rights activist in the Soviet Union the cities. It was removed from the country- accounts? None. Certainly the Russians for more than half a century you’re and emigrated to the U.S. He was one of the side. Ukrainian villagers were barred from have never pointed to anything remotely required to march in parades joyfully wor- plenipotentiaries of the Central Committee the cities, and any food aid for them was similar to the Holodomor in their experi- shipping the murderers of your family, of the Communist Party and was in the also outlawed. ence in 1932-1933. Nor have other nation- when you are required to believe that your audience addressed by Kossior in 1930. In Fourth: Many Holodomor deniers often alities of the Soviet Union commemorated family deserved to be killed, or that they his memoirs, Grigorenko wrote: “I saw the no longer deny a famine, but prefer to sim- such a tragedy in their communities, world- weren’t really killed but simply somehow awful danger that hovered over our peo- ply homogenize the Holodomor. They like to wide, during the many decades since those disappeared, when you cannot grieve ple,” reciting Kossior’s threat. point to hunger and malnourishment in events. because you shouldn’t grieve because My father recounted the ad nauseum other parts of the Soviet Union at the time. Given the detail and consistency of the there’s nothing to grieve for, when you fear denunciations in the press of “Petliurites,” But no one was rushing into Ukraine to accounts, Moscow may yet argue, with the to whisper a word to your children and “nationalists,” “bourgeois nationalists,” escape privation elsewhere in the Soviet most somber affectation of intellectual grandchildren, when you’re instead “nationalist deviationists.” Three years after Union. Ukrainians were fleeing Ukraine, or rigor, that the refugees had developed a required to mouth a miasma of lies and to threatening famine, and with the trying to, but were prohibited from doing so. uniquely Ukrainian precursor to Facebook. convince your children and grandchildren Holodomor raging, Kossior wrote to Stalin The border was sealed. Foodstuffs carried Fifth: Holodomor deniers often spin the of the truth in the executioner’s denials? on March 15, 1933, “that famine still hasn’t by persons travelling into Ukraine were con- story, contending that excessive grain pro- What happens when there is no acknowl- taught reason.” Later, however, with the fiscated before crossing. Tellingly, it was a curements, though perhaps “unfortunate,” edgement, no apology, no contrition, no countryside totally prostrated, Kossior prid- blockade also of the historic and heavily were necessary to finance industrialization. punishment? Of anyone? ed himself: “Acknowledging the great Ukrainian Kuban and North Caucasus (a) On that logic, Hitler would be excused You are deformed to represent the quint- amount of work put … into the fight against regions of present-day Russia. We have for his extermination of the Jews if he could essential Stockholm Syndrome, the victim Ukrainian nationalist and other counter- Stalin’s express order on that one. Nowhere make an economic connection to construc- identifying with his tormentor. You become revolutionary elements, work which has not else was there a blockade. Not surprisingly, tion of the autobahn. (b) Industrialization a nation that condemns those who con- ceased and which shall not cease, we must the line of demarcation was stark. Ukrainian for whose benefit? (c) Non-grain producing demn its own executioners, you deny your say that, of course, we gave the nationalists villages starved. A few kilometers across the regions of Ukraine, e.g. Vinnytsia, were own tragedy as a victim, you castigate those a beating, a good one, and as the saying border, Russian villages did not. cleansed of Ukrainians as thoroughly as who seek to identify your family’s goes, we had a smashing success. …” Kazakhstan is sometimes raised as grain-producing regions. (c) My father and gravesites, and instead you grieve, as being Another Stalin sycophant, Pavel Postyshev, another Soviet republic that suffered fam- others who lived through the Holodomor unjustly accused, for those who disembow- said in 1934: “We have annihilated the ine, in a specious parallel to Ukraine. But hardly ever mentioned “excessive grain eled your own being. nationalist counter-revolution during the neither Kazakhstan nor any other republic procurements,” but spoke in stark detail of Would in Israel today anyone even con- past year, we have exposed and destroyed or region, least of all Russia itself, was block- the focused, frenetic campaign by “party ceive of a statue of Hitler, a hospital named nationalist deviationism. …” Chervonyi aded. One-half million Kazakhs freely left for activists” to deprive the Ukrainian villages after Mengele, a children’s playground Shliakh (The Red Path) in Kharkiv wrote: other parts of Soviet Central Asia, and of anything even remotely edible. named after Eichmann, Goebbels or “1933 was the year of the overthrow of the another 1.5 million managed to make it to Party activists and GPU personnel were Goering? You get the idea. And the monu- Ukrainian nationalist counterrevolution” China. issued steel pikes with which to probe the mental difference between the Holodomor and in that year the party had conducted Furthermore, there is a world of differ- ground and rip open floor boards, search- and the Holocaust. the “Herculean labor of liquidating national- ence between hunger and starvation, and ing for a rotting cabbage leaf or a crust of My father would slowly rock his head in ist elements in Ukraine.” The second secre- between starving and being starved to bread. Farm buildings were demolished in disbelief, as almost to pity the Holodomor tary of the Communist Party of Ukraine [not death. If, for sake of argument, elsewhere in the search. Human excrement was minutely deniers. He would summarize one of their the “Ukrainian Communist Party”], Mendel the Soviet Union other nations had in fact examined to determine a possible food versions: “It was simply the unfortunate Khataevich wrote, “It took a famine to show been actively and intentionally “starved to source until even that stopped; there wasn’t but nevertheless unintended consequence them who is master here. … We have won death,” if any of the measures undertaken enough for the human body to process. of overly zealous true believers in an exu- the war.” against Ukrainians had in fact been under- Those not obviously starving were immedi- berant frolic toward a brave new world.” The degree of Stalin’s micromanagement taken against other specific nations, then it ately suspect, and interrogated mercilessly. The Holodomor was fundamentally a ques- of the homicide campaign was illustrated would make the genocide, if we wish to call My father recounted one party activist, a tion of intent. In any court, in any country, by a December 14, 1932, decree of the it that, all that more horrific. Simply put, it monster of a man, gleefully picking up an by any standard, at any time, the issue of Central Committee of the Communist Party would be ridiculous to argue that Nazi emaciated child by the ankle and holding it “intent” in the organization and implemen- of the Soviet Union and the USSR Council of extermination of millions of Ukrainians, upside down, shaking it like a rag doll until tation of the Holodomor is beyond any People’s Commissars, individually signed Poles and other peoples changes the fact of the child spat out a mouthful of watery question, beyond any doubt. Hardly a schol- by Stalin and Viacheslav Molotov, where Nazi extermination of Jews. “soup” made from crushed worms and ar himself, my father would recite events officials at the local, county (raion) level weeds. that would put any sputtering academic on Moscow’s “virtual reality” were singled out by name for arrest for In another scene, my father was, unbe- his heels. What are the proofs? “harboring anti-Soviet Ukrainian nationalist Since Potemkin’s day, Moscow has knownst to him, the subject of Stalin’s Proof of intent conspiracies” and the term of their sentenc- labored furiously, offering its own “virtual January 1, 1933, order to Kossior, then a es fixed. reality” for the uninitiated. On January 17, member of the Politburo and secretary of First: Lenin famously said, “without Second: Against the above background, 2007, V.P. Kozlov and V.V. Kondrashyn of the Ukraine we [Russia] will lose our head.” the Communist Party of Ukraine. The order the glaring anomaly snaps into focus. One Federal Archival Agency (RossArkhiv) at established a macabre protocol for denying With Russian rule of Ukraine perceived by of the richest food source countries in the the Russian Ministry of Culture and Mass Moscow as still dangerously tenuous, on Ukrainian villagers access to forage grain world abruptly loses millions of its farmers Communications issued the marching intended for horses (those that still sur- the eve of the Holodomor, August 11, 1932, (of all people) to starvation, with no reason orders to Russian academics. Stalin wrote to his satrap in Ukraine, Lazar vived) to be used in the spring sowing in attributable to weather, pestilence or other Firstly, the conceptual framework was 1933. The feeding was to be done in the Moiseyovich Kaganovich. (This was only natural calamity. Ukraine, after all, was not cast as conveniently generic, all-union four days after his decree, described below, presence of three witnesses, including at some barren, rocky atoll in the Pacific. “enforced collectivization and industrializa- least one party functionary, all to be written concerning the “theft” of socialist property.) Without an outside cause, millions of a tion.” Secondly, academics were ordered to Raising the alarm over Ukrainian resistance down and signed. “Merciless persecution” nation’s food growers, being at nutrition’s conform documents to the framework, with to Russia’s rule, Stalin wrote, “Things in was prescribed for the triumvirate that very point of origin, do not simply starve to the purpose of suppressing anything that Ukraine are terrible. … If we don’t make an would allow humans access to the grain. death overnight. Valentin Berezhkov was would demonstrate the unique situation in effort now to improve the situation in My father was one of the famished, chased Stalin’s personal interpreter at his talks Ukraine. Had I mentioned this to my father, Ukraine, we may lose Ukraine. …” He away at gunpoint. Where did the animal with Churchill and Roosevelt, and previous he would have simply nodded his head, as if ordered Kaganovich to “transform Ukraine forage come from if there wasn’t anything to that personal interpreter for Molotov, the to say, “So what else is new?” into truly a fortress of the USSR. …Without for humans to eat? “people’s commissar for foreign affairs” In true goosestep fashion, Viktor these and similar measures … I repeat – we Sixth: Farming implements were confis- during the negotiation with Hitler leading Yanukovych, the president of Ukraine [!], cated. Harnesses, millstones, plows, shov- to the infamous Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact dutifully intoned to the Parliamentary els, rakes. Cooking utensils, bowls, pots, Victor Rud, a lawyer, has been research- in 1939. Assembly of the Council of Europe, “We spoons and forks, were confiscated as well. ing the Holodomor for over 35 years. He is a Berezhkov spent many years in Ukraine, consider it incorrect and unjust to consider Why not simply broken? Because they founder of the Ukrainian American Bar and wrote about his experience during the the Holodomor a fact of genocide of a cer- could be repaired. Stoves, which also Association, and past chairman of its board Holodomor in his memoirs: “In the past, the tain people,” calling it “a common tragedy” served as the only heat source for village of governors. Mr. Rud is a graduate of word combination that is the title of this of everyone in the Soviet Union. (I’m Harvard College and Duke Law School. chapter [“Famine in the Ukraine”] would reminded of Marquis de Custine’s observa- (Continued on page 12) No. 33 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 9

districts who will compete in the election with its own offi- his political allies in the upper ranks of the list, which Ukraine’s parliamentary... cial party candidates, alleged Mykola Tomenko, the parlia- means they are ensured a seat in Parliament. mentary vice-chair and a member of the Batkivshchyna Meanwhile, longtime stalwarts of Ms. Tymoshenko, (Continued from page 1) party. such as nationalist activist Andrii Shkil of Lviv and labor The Party of Regions’ idea of stability, which includes “These individuals gained access to administrative offic- activist Mykhailo Volynets of Donbas (No. 87 and No. 85, jailing opposition leaders and restricting individual rights, es, the educational and health systems, and took on the respectively), got booted to the list’s lower ranks, casting hasn’t impressed the “progressive, democratic ” forces of obligation of joining the ‘correct’ faction,” he said on doubt on whether they’d get parliamentary seats despite Europe or Ukraine’s intellectual circles. August. their decade of loyalty. “If before Tymoshenko’s imprisonment people could A strong example is Volodymyr Klymenko, a Donbas oli- Oleksander Turchynov – Ms. Tymoshenko’s right-hand have comforted themselves with the false hope that this is garch who will be competing for the single-winner, single- man who hasn’t been prosecuted despite his intimate all for the sake of stability, just as the participants of the mandate district representing Kremenets district of the knowledge of her affairs – is adapting to the new political constitutional upheaval had convinced them, then after Ternopil Oblast, where he has renovated roads and build- reality and is searching for new allies, in the view of that it’s become clear that there won’t be any stability. ings at his own expense. Volodymyr Fesenko, board chairman of the Penta Center He’s competing as an independent candidate, but has There’ll be a collapse,” wrote Vitaly Portnikov, one of for Applied Political Research in Kyiv. immense support from the Pochayiv Monastery that is Ukraine’s leading social critics. As a result, he made significant concessions to Mr. controlled by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow The key election technology employed by the Party of Yatsenyuk, who is among the top contenders for the Patriarchate and will likely join a Party of Regions-led par- Regions is the fielding of seemingly independent candi- Ukrainian presidency in 2015, he said. Mr. Turchynov may liamentary coalition in the event that he’s elected. dates – who are actually party loyalists – to compete in the have gotten so comfortable with Mr. Yatsenyuk that he single-winner, single-mandate districts, observers said. Batkivshchyna Party didn’t clear the final closed list with Ms. Tymoshenko, Mr. Half of the seats in the October 28 parliamentary elec- Fesenko said. If stability is the incumbents’ theme, then persecution tion will be decided by closed party lists, and the other half A similar view was voiced by National Deputy and rights violations are the themes for the leading opposi- with be determined by single-winner, single-mandate dis- Oleksander Bondar, who was disappointed that he didn’t tion party, Batkivshchyna (Fatherland). tricts. make the Batkivshchyna closed party list at all. Given that The first candidate on its closed list ballot is former he has a close relationship with Ms. Tymoshenko personal- The biggest decoy project is the Ukraine–Forward party Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been jailed for ly, as do the other loyalists who were excluded, Mr. Bondar launched by Natalia Korolevska, a Luhansk Oblast oligarch, a year and was sentenced in October 2011 to a seven-year told the Ukrayinska Pravda news site that he suspects Mr. who promised at a June 1 press conference that her party prison sentence. Turchynov may have misled Ms. Tymoshenko about cer- will not form a coalition with the Party of Regions should it As a result, the law won’t allow her to run for office. Yet tain candidates to give political favor to Mr. Yatsenyuk. surpass the 5 percent barrier in closed party list voting. that hasn’t stopped the opposition from scoring political Another source of public disappointment with the Such a statement might not mean much, since the par- dividends off her misery, nor that of former Internal Affairs opposition’s election strategy is the widely held view that liamentary coalition could be formed by individual politi- Minister Yurii Lutsenko, who is serving a four-year prison cians from single-winner, single-mandate districts. sentence. He is fifth on Batkivshchyna’s closed party list. they’ve decided to surrender half of the election to the The Ukraine–Forward campaign has enjoyed magnifi- The party’s billboards posted nationally bear the photo- Party of Regions, referring to the single-winner, single- cent financing that has enabled it to buy thousands of bill- graph of Ms. Tymoshenko, and the video montage present- mandate districts (know in Ukraine as majoritarian vot- boards and frequent television ads that emerged weeks ed at its July 30 congress focused on her accomplishments ing). before the official July 30 start. as prime minister. She’s become a symbol for the opposi- In such districts, large financial resources are required Although Ms. Korolevska is a mega-millionaire, whose tion, observers said, despite not being able to communi- to compete with the Party of Regions oligarchs, who also wealth was estimated at $243 million in 2008 by Focus cate from prison. have the advantage of “adminresurs,” or the illegal use of magazine, veteran political observers such as Volodymyr The Central Election Commission announced on August government resources, with examples such as state-paid Fesenko confirmed she has financing from other oligarchs, 8 that it won’t accept Ms. Tymoshenko and Mr. Lutsenko as campaign trips and state television advertisements. particularly those in the Party of Regions. closed list candidates. The party’s acting leader, Arseniy Yet those Batkivshchyna candidates most capable of In particular, Party of Regions Parliamentary Faction Yatsenyuk, said the next day that Batkivshchyna would competing in single-winner, single-mandate districts – Chair Oleksander Yefremov, a fellow Luhansk oligarch, is appeal this ruling because the Constitution states that a with access to finances and strong public support – gained among the financers of Ukraine–Forward, said Oleksii convict can’t be elected to office, but it makes no mention high-ranking positions in the closed party list seats that Kliashtornyi, a member of the coordinating council of of a candidate’s ability to be registered to compete in an guarantee them election to Parliament. Chesno (Honestly), a non-government organization com- election. Such candidates include Verkhovna Rada Vice-Chair mitted to ridding Ukraine’s Parliament of unworthy Depicted alongside Ms. Tymoshenko on the billboards is Tomenko (No. 10 in the closed list), mega-millionaire natu- national deputies. Mr. Yatsenyuk, the former parliamentary chair who agreed ral gas trader Mykola Martynenko (No.17) and former tele- Sonia Koshkina, the editor of the influential Lb.ua politi- to merge his party, the Front for Change, with vision anchor Andriy Shevchenko (No. 33). cal news site, said her sources in the Party of Regions iden- Batkivshchyna. Mr. Yatsenyuk is second on the closed party “No one wants to spend extra money and effort,” Mr. tified billionaire Rinat Akhmetov as a financer of Ukraine – list. Bondar said in an interview published on August 7. “The Forward. Ukraine’s pro-Western electorate expressed dissatisfac- Party of Regions will win everywhere. What’s most regret- Besides political parties, the Party of Regions is fielding tion with the closed list that Batkivshchyna presented to table is it will win many districts in the west as well. And independent candidates for single-winner, single-mandate the public. Mr. Yatsenyuk secured up to a dozen spots for the opposition has surrendered the east altogether.”

criminal prosecution within Ukraine’s bor- actually saw what the inside of a post-Sovi- policy. They seem to think that individual Libertarian... ders. (Maybe that’s why libertarians like et hospital or a rural school looks like. rights and free trade will spread to him support governments that don’t do Yet Mr. Giraldi and his flock claim to be repressed populations with the aid of (Continued from page 6) anything for rule of law.) libertarians, an ideology that champions books and Internet podcasts. People will tank. Incredibly enough, the libertarians Among the most outrageous statements free markets and private property, which spend their free time debating different are even more misleading on Russia than I’ve read was made by Philip Giraldi, a col- barely exist in the post-Soviet world! political ideas on the weekends and form- paleo-conservatives like Mr. Buchanan. umnist for antiwar.com, who wrote in July It’s a mystery to me just how these liber- ing political parties based on those ideas. The American Institute in 2009 hosted 2011 that Belarus’ centralized economy tarians find anything worth defending in It doesn’t work that way. Authoritarians Doug Bandow of the Cato Institute to criti- and state industries “are both productive Russia, which ranks 144th out of 179 don’t particularly care for the free exchange cize the Bush administration’s foreign poli- and well-run.” nations on the Index of Economic Freedom of ideas. Nor are they interested in free cy towards Ukraine, including NATO Mind you, this is two months after that (Belarus ranks 153rd and Ukraine 163rd). elections and an equal playing field for enlargement. country’s currency collapsed by 50 per- They should also explain how they political parties. Mr. Bandow asserted that the U.S. should cent. And you’d have to be a Communist expect libertarian ideology to spread in Western powers such as the U.S. have the not have taken sides during the Orange Party propagandist to claim that the indus- places like Russia, Belarus and Ukraine if moral obligation to aid those countries in Revolution of 2004. By his logic, the world’s tries inherited from the Soviet Union are freedom of speech and freedom of assem- which a significant part of the citizenry leading republican democracy should not “well-run.” Yet the advocate of free markets bly are suppressed. How can they support makes clear, through elections, that it wants intervene if hundreds of thousands of peo- gets even more absurd. authoritarianism and dictatorship and then to establish Western political institutions ple, on Europe’s doorstep, revolt against “The Belarusian people have universal advocate free markets and individual such as a balance of powers and indepen- authoritarianism and election falsification decent medical care and free education rights? dent courts, Western political values such as with the hope of implementing rule of law through university level, which is more Perhaps the answer lies in the $100,000 rule of law and equality before the law, and and democratic institutions. That’s none of than one can say about the United States. fee that Mr. Jatras earned to handle Mr. Western economic institutions such as free our business and it’s not worth it for us to Its economy is one of the strongest among Yanukovych’s public relations in 2003. The markets and private property rights. intervene, in his view. the former Soviet states and the people American Institute, meanwhile, pays $3,000 It is in the interest of the U.S. to foster Another libertarian, Justin Raimondo, the generally support the status quo, including for a single speaking appearance, all expens- those allies that share our values. There editor of antiwar.com, has asserted that the [Alyaksandr] Lukashenka, but if the es paid. It seems that the libertarians are might not be enough of those people in Autonomous Republic of Crimea is histori- American Congress is to have its way, all of better capitalists in practice than in theory. Belarus and Russia, but there certainly are in cally Russian territory and that the previous that must be changed.” In making their heinous allies, these lib- Ukraine. Mr. Buchanan is well aware of that, Ukrainian government had no right to pur- I don’t know where Mr. Giraldi spends ertarians have made a farce of their foreign but for some reason he’s chosen to forget. sue plans to evict the Russian Black Sea Fleet most of his time, but it’s certainly not upon the expiration of its lease in 2017. Belarus. Indeed, I don’t think anyone mak- With such claims, he has cast doubt on ing such audacious claims could have ever the statehood of Ukraine, which would lived in a post-Soviet country. I’d expect To subscribe to The Ukrainian Weekly, call 973-292-9800, ext. 3042 rank him among the pro-Russian extrem- such statements from a naive Columbia ists of Ukraine and make him subject to University graduate student who never 10 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 No. 33 Soyuzivka Heritage Center hosts annual Tennis Camp

Katya Bis 2012 Soyuzivka Tennis Camp participants.

by Petrusia Sawchak (both for American and Ukrainian events) Ptashat. They continued practicing their winners and finalists. and senior director of Middle States. He strokes and made great improvement since In the Girls’ I Group Anastasiaya KERHONKSON, N.Y. – What is so won- was assisted this year by Tania Sawchak, their first day at Tennis camp. (Nastia) Dudaryk won first place; Molly Bis, derful about Soyuzivka, nestled in the United States Professional Tennis Registry The focus of the camp was always on second; and Ariadna (Ari) Louer, third. In beautiful Shawangunk mountains, is the (USPTR) and PTR tennis teaching profes- tennis, but the campers also enjoyed swim- Girls’ II Group, Iryna Malatsidze won first children’s summer camps that attract sional in Pennsylvania, and Don Kopach, an ming in Soyuzivka’s pool during the hot place; Alexandra Bula, second; and Mary youngsters from around the country in var- accomplished tennis player and past tennis afternoons and some nights, playing soccer Hankewycz, third. ious programs. The sounds and faces of champion at Soyuzivka. The counselors, all after tennis practice, as well as movies and In the Boys’ I Group, Chris Bula won first children from these camps invigorate the college students and former campers, were a bonfire, at which campers toasted marsh- place, Alex Dale took second, and Dennis grounds, making the rustic charms of Danylo Tylawsky, Larysa Boyko, Victoria mallows, sang and acted out skits they had Cherchenko placed third. In the Boys’ II Soyuzivka come alive. Kuritza and Danylo Hankewych. prepared. At the end of each day the camp- Group, Michael Moroch won first place, The first camp of the season, held from For 12 years, Olya Czerkas has been a ers formed a circle and sang “Nich Vzhe Stephen Kurras took second, and Will June 24 to July 5, was the popular tennis dorm supervisor at Camp Lviv, mak- Ide” (“Night Has Fallen”), reinforcing the Radan placed third. Soyuzivka Tennis Camp, celebrating 46 ing the campers feel at home and welcome. new friends they made at camp before In Group V, comprising boys and girls, years of teaching children the art of playing Completing the staff was this writer, going to sleep. Ksenia Lewyckyj won first place, Juliette tennis well and enjoying it too. Organizers Petrusia Sawchak, who acted as coordina- Soyuzivka’s General Manager Nestor (Yulia) Louer took second, and Markian of the camp attribute the success of the tor and administrator. Parents were confi- Paslawsky graciously invited the campers Nychka took third. program to a winning formula: years of dent that their children were in good hands to Hutsul Night, during which some of the The coveted Best Campers Awards, organizing and building confidence in knowing that both “Pani Olya” and “Pani children dressed in their Ukrainian embroi- selected by the entire staff and based on youngsters, experience and knowledge of Petrusia” are school teachers as well. dered shirts and ate Ukrainian-style foods behavior on and off the courts, were the sport, a great enthusiastic staff, and fun As in prior years, the camp nurse, on the lawn of the Vorokhta building. The awarded to Victoria (Via) Voronovich from on- and off-court activities. Natalia Swyrydenko Girardi, took care of camp was also invited to attend a dance Michigan, Anastasiaya (Nastia) Dudaryk Campers this year ranged in age from 10 the children’s nicks and bruises. held in the main hall with music provided from Florida, Dennis Cherchenko from to 16, with some beginners to advanced Soyuzivka’s Assistant Manager Stefko by the Oberehy Band on Saturday night. Massachusetts and Mykola Stone from levels. They came from 10 different states – Drabyk and Office Manager Sonia Since the campers had been given some Pennsylvania. Adding some levity to the Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Semanyszyn provided courteous and lessons in the polka by Ms. Czerkas, they occasion, the counselors presented their Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New prompt attention to the needs of the camp were ready to show off their new skills that own “funny awards” to the campers. Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania – and – and always with a smile. evening. The girls wore their pretty party After the presentations, the campers one girl visiting from Ukraine. Some had The campers’ daily regimen always dresses, and the boys donned long trousers continued their festivities with a dance at parents who attended this camp years ago, began with calisthenics and warm-up activ- instead of their usual shorts. the Trembita Lounge. They also got a and half were repeaters. This year there ities, followed by systematic instruction on A gala banquet was held at the end of chance to view a very entertaining CD with were also some younger campers whose developing proper forehand and backhand camp complete with hors d’oeuvres, photo slides set to music about their tennis siblings were attending the Tabir Ptashat (a strokes, overhead smashes, serving tech- Shirley Temples and Darth Vaders during experience especially prepared by Ms. Plast camp for pre-schoolers) in session at niques, correct form and game strategies. the “cocktail” hour held in the Gazebo, fol- Kuritza. the same time. Despite the sweltering heat Instruction was also given on proper lowed by a delicious dinner in the main The next day the campers met on the on some days, the campers were enthusias- equipment and etiquette on the court. The dining hall. Chef Andriy Sonevytsky is to be tennis courts for some more farewells and tic and focused on learning new skills while instructors rotated with all the individual congratulated for all his efforts to make the were given an address booklet and a CD, having fun. groups, which were divided according to camp a satisfying culinary experience. which contained photos taken at the camp. The director of the Tennis Camp was ability on a specific skill. Five groups were Certificates of attendance were distrib- After some tearful goodbyes, everyone George Sawchak, who has been a United ready to play matches the second week. uted by Mr. Sawchak, and awards were pre- promised to return next year. Mr. Sawchak States Tennis Association (USTA) instruc- The only group not ready for playing a sented. The tournament results were said, “Enjoy tennis – it is a sport for a life- tor, player, organizer of tennis tournaments match was the sibling group from the Tabir announced, and trophies were awarded to time.”

Katya Bis Soyuzivka Tennis Camp staff (from left): Olya Czerkas, Victoria Kuritza, Larysa Boyko, Danylo Tylawsky, Danylo Hankewych, George Sawchak, Tania Sawchak and Areta Kuritza Petrusia Sawchak. Best Campers with tennis staff. No. 33 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 11 Stroynick wins again at USCAK-East Tennis Tournament by George Sawchak KERHONKSON, NY. – The 56th annual Eastern Tennis Tournament of the Ukrainian Sports Federation of the U.S.A. and Canada (known by its Ukrainian acro- nym as USCAK) was held at the Soyuzivka Heritage Center during the weekend of June 30-July 1. The oppressive, almost record-breaking heat made playing on the hard courts extremely difficult. Nevertheless, 35 diehard participants, who competed in 11 different categories, played out 44 individual matches. Some of the players were also members and staff of the Soyuzivka Tennis Camp, which was in ses- sion at that time. They finished the USCAK-East Tennis Tournament late Sunday afternoon. At the awards ceremony, pre- senting the trophies to winners and finalists were the host club Carpathian Ski Club (known by its Ukrainian- based acronym as KLK) and members of the tourna- ment committee, Ivan Durbak, George Hrabec and George Sawchak (tournament director), as well as USCAK President Irenej Isajiw, who spoke briefly to the participants, congratulating the winners and urging all to support Ukrainian sports. The next Ukrainian tennis tournament will be the USCAK singles championships held at Soyuzivka Petrusia Sawchak during Labor Day weekend. Trophy winners, participants and presenters during the awards ceremony following the USCAK-East Tennis Tournament.

Tournament trophy winners Men Boys’ 16 Men’s 45 Men’s Doubles Mixed Doubles Mykola Stroynick, winner Marko Gural, winner Mykola Nalywayko, winner Mykola Nalywayko – Larysa Boyko/ Mykola Nalywayko, finalist Danylo Tylawsky, winners Alexander Dale, finalist George Walchuk, finalist Nalywayko, Jr., winner Isadore Stroynick – Victoria Kuritza/ Women Dmytro Mysak, feed-in winner Men’s 65 Mykola Stroynick, finalist George Hrabec, finalists Christine Toth, winner Girls Marta Cherpak, finalist Ivan Durbak, winner Senior Doubles Girl’s Doubles Anastasija Dudaryk, winner George Hrabec, Steve Sosiak – George Walchuk, Molly Bis/Anastasiaya Dudaryk, Boys’ 12 Molly Bis, finalist finalist winner winners Marko Gural, winner Irena Malatsidze, George Petrykevych, Ivan Durbak – George Hrabec, Tusia Kopach/Ariadna Louer, Danylo Sosiak, finalist feed-in winner feed-in winner finalist finalists 12 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 No. 33

this argument is irreconcilable with their Now there were no longer Ukrainians, but death certificate. I know that he was never Plus one simultaneous and opposite argument of virtually all Russians in the previously a Holodomor survivor. There never were excessive grain procurements for export. wholly decimated villages. And a pro-rata any. He never escaped Russia’s barbarity in (Continued from page 8) Windows on trains passing through the number in the other villages. To be sure, all Ukraine or its most fearsome tool, the homes in minus 30 degree weather, were Ukrainian countryside were sealed to pre- of Ukraine had been overrun by the Nazis, Holodomor. It had been methodically, dia- too massive to be removed, so they were vent passengers from throwing out food and cities and countryside alike were bolically, digesting “survivors” since 1933. systematically destroyed, the bricks pulver- scraps to starving villagers who lined the destroyed and depopulated. Nonetheless, It stalked him to his last day. the outlines of a massive Russian repopula- ized to prevent rebuilding. tracks as the trains sped by, starving villag- What do we do? tion of deserted Ukrainian villages were Seventh: My father recited the methodi- ers having earlier been barred from stark and screamingly obvious. It was the The question can be posed yet again, as cal removal under GPU guard and at night approaching the train stations. There’s no ultimate “ethnic cleansing.” it should have been raised following the of seed grain from his and neighboring vil- response to that by the deniers. If that is not to be believed, then we have passing of each of the tens of millions of lages. It was shipped to the cities and As to the “numbers game,” my father the diplomatic dispatches of the Italian souls murdered by Moscow over the centu- towns, and stored under guard in massive would say it’s driven by the same imbecility, vice-consul in Kharkiv at the time. Sergio ries: “What, now?” “What do we do?” silos built for that purpose. Why was the or worse, that argues that Stalin perhaps Gradenigo wrote in his report, No. 74/106 Ukrainians know, too well, the mournful seed grain removed? For fear that soon the didn’t know about what was going on and it of May 31, 1933, titled “The Famine and the “Vichnaya Pamiat’” sung at our funerals and very farmers who grew the grain would all sort of “just happened. “ (He would Ukrainian Question,” that the famine was panakhydy. My father would say that devour it, eliminating the possibility of next repeat, more than once, that Stalin knew instituted with the intention of “teaching “Eternal Memory” is not enough. It is an year’s crop. But why would those who are what was in your own mind even before the [Ukrainian] peasants a lesson.” Quoting absolute pre-condition to everything else, a pre-eminent in agriculture commit collec- you did.) a top officer of the GPU, it was for the pur- necessary first step. But standing alone, tive suicide devouring grain destined for During the Nazi occupation, my father pose of “changing the ethnographic materi- sterilized of action or behavior, now or later, future seeding? Furthermore, if avoiding was imprisoned by the German SS in als” of Ukraine. (Hitler’s notion of unter- mere memory is almost irrelevant. certain death now by eating the seed grain Kharkiv, but escaped and made his way menschen (subhumans) was the synonym My father’s experiences were not only was preferable to future death months later, back to Poltava, barefoot (the Germans had of “ethnographic materials.”) not unique, but rather measured by com- why would people risk certain death now removed his shoes in prison). In the course of meandering the 100 or so miles, he saw In other words, the Italian consul wrote, parison with so many of his countrymen. in the face of Stalin’s August 7, 1932, decree He, and they, would all say that each the Holodomor’s devastation of the coun- the government’s “goal was to liquidate the declaring all foodstuffs and other property Ukrainian, in his own, personal way, must tryside 10 years earlier. Between the two Ukrainian problem in the course of several as belonging to the state? The death penalty months by sacrificing 10 or 15 million overcome a virtual genetic predisposition cities was the richest stretch of agricultural was the sanction, with children shot as souls. … [T]he current disaster will accom- toward passivity, that damning Ukrainian bounty in one of the richest lands in the readily as adults. Because soon there would plish the colonization of Ukraine, mostly trait, “Nekhai bude spokii” (“Let us simply world, summarily depopulated of easily a be nothing else to eat. And how would any- Russian. And that [colonization] will change have peace, quietude”). Why, my father third of its native population during the one know that? You get the point. Ukraine’s ethnographic character. Perhaps, once asked me (or himself, perhaps), do we Holodomor. The entire population of every Eighth: My father spoke of vast fields of in the very near future, it will not be possi- so diplomatically speak of millions of fifth village had been exterminated. That’s grain, never harvested, and guarded day ble to speak about Ukraine, or about the Ukrainians as having been killed, as having 20 percent of the rural population. In the and night, smoldering until it rotted into Ukrainian nation, and particularly about a died, perished? They weren’t. They were the ground. Warning shots were rare. remaining four villages, rarely more than a Ukrainian question, because Ukraine will murdered. They were exterminated. They Endlessly squirming but always predictably half of its inhabitants somehow survived, become, in fact, a Russian colony.” Tolstoy were massacred. “Zbahny!” (“Get it relentless, Holodomor deniers argue that many with no more than 10 or 20 percent and Dostoyevsky would have considered straight!”), he would say. lack of machinery and an antiquated trans- remaining. their job descriptions fulfilled. He summed it up: The French had a rev- portation system prevented timely harvest- During his trek, my father made the cal- My father did not know that a December olution. The Americans fought a bitter war. ing and removal. They are not fazed that culus simply by meeting the occupants. 29, 1933, report by the All-Union The Russians murdered several score mil- Resettlement Committee of the Soviet of lion people. The Rumanians used a bullet to Peoples Commissars of the USSR to the the head. The Ukrainians? They sang songs. head of the gulag, Matvei Berman, detailed He would say that each of us must pon- the resettlement of Russians to the “sparse- der the question: How could Israel’s presi- ly populated” areas of Ukraine. Most were dent lecture Ukrainians to forget history? TO PLACE YOUR AD CALL Walter Honcharyk (973) 292-9800 x3040 retired Red Army officers, functionaries of How well-known, and how utterly distorted or e-mail [email protected] the secret police and others whose loyalty must be that specific twist – “nekhai bude was thus rewarded, and whose progeny are spokii” – in the Ukrainian DNA for such a a fifth column in Ukraine today. The “reset- pronouncement to be made? SERVICES PROFESSIONALS tlement” plans were put into place before My father would demand that we all be the induced starvation in Ukraine. As with assertive of our history, of our truth. How the removal of the seed grain, in advance, can it be that a mass murderer is more how did anyone know, in advance, that aggressive, more energetic, more commit- there were going to be “sparsely populated” ted to hijacking your home and murdering areas in Ukraine? In fact, all of Ukraine was your family than you, as the rightful home- “sparsely populated”. owner, are in defending yourself and your My father took a direct, no-nonsense family? It’s perverse. Don’t just mumble the approach to the numbers. Taking into truth. Scream it. Demand it. Categorical, account the only Soviet-based statistic that unsparing intolerance is not just necessary. he would consider to be even reasonably It’s obligatory. Intolerance of injustice, intol- close to reality – the 1937 census whose erance of evil, intolerance of falsehood – it’s statisticians were shot for “intentionally that very kind of intolerance that is neces- undercounting the population” – and given sary to help counter the growing defeatism, the overwhelming preponderance of in the diaspora and in Ukraine, over the Ukrainians in the rural areas of Ukraine, my slingshot into the past and to which Putin’s father viewed the 7 million as an absolute minions have seemingly condemned minimum. He damned the deniers who Ukraine. Make the accusation. Again and seamlessly became minimalists, “experts” again. And never, never give up. who a day before had sniffed contemptu- How, practically speaking, these obser- ously about the very existence of any vations are to be implemented – or not – is “Holodomor.” For him, numbers made a dif- a matter of the priorities, large and small, ference. Isn’t the killer of 100 children that each of us establishes and continuous- worse than the killer of one? ly reorders in our daily life. What and how OPPORTUNITIES We know from British diplomatic dis- do we instill in our children so that they patches that, starkly contradicting his deni- don’t simply “know,” but so they also have als in The New York Times, Walter Duranty within them the necessary inner catalyst to Earn extra income! had privately spoken of 10 million killed. pass on to their own children and succeed- Gradenigo wrote of 10 million to 15 million. ing generations not just that same knowl- The Ukrainian Weekly is looking And the late James Mace, the pioneer in edge and memory but also that very same for advertising sales agents. bringing the Holodomor to the attention of catalyst, from generation to generation? For additional information contact the English-speaking world, wrote that the At its core, my father would quietly say Walter Honcharyk, Advertising Manager, frequency and levels at which the 10 mil- that it is a matter of one’s own conscience, The Ukrainian Weekly, 973-292-9800, ext 3040. lion figure circulated among the and overcoming the trifling, ridiculous HELP WANTED Communist Party elite is reason enough to inconveniences that a real-world commit- believe that it was as accurate a death list as ment would introduce into our personal we will ever have. lives. A heinous history came close to oblit- We are seeking a babysitter WANT IMPACT? erating a nation of singers and poets. It has * * * for our 3 year old son in Bayside, NY. Run your advertisement here, churned through generation after genera- Must speak Ukrainian fluently. Preferably My father, Wasyl Sydorovych Rud, died tion. But it also created a legacy of human owns a car. Two days per week - Wednes- in The Ukrainian Weekly’s on May 2. Neither a mutilated life, nor a sav- opposition to the demonic that is noble and day and Thursday. No. of days to increase CLASSIFIEDS section. aged soul, nor a broken heart is a bureau- pristine. It created titans. Copy, print or in December. Tel. 646-763-0045. cratically recognized cause of death on his delete. It’s our call. No. 33 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 13

Public meeting condemns Syrian regime NEWSBRIEFS SYMFEROPOL, Ukraine – On August 5, in On Saturday, July 28, 2012, at the age of 92, (Continued from page 2) front of the Crimean Republican Center for Children’s and Youth Creative Activities in Yulia supporters mark first anniversary Symferopol, a meeting “in support of the DR. EUGENE GILL people of Syria” was held, reported religion. peacefully entered into eternal rest. KYIV – Supporters of Yulia Tymoshenko, in.ua with reference to islamsng.com. The Ukraine’s former prime minister turned event was organized by the public associa- Funeral services took place on August 2, 2012, opposition leader, on August 5 marked the tions Human Rights Movement of Crimea first anniversary of her imprisonment on and Davet, closely connected with the orga- at the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary August 5 with protests calling for her nization Hizb ut-Takhrir al-Islami, which has Ukrainian Catholic Church in Melrose Park, PA release. A 20-meter long banner with the been active in the Crimea for over 10 years. followed by burial at Lawnview Cemetery, Rockledge, PA. words “Yulia – Freedom” was unfurled The purpose of the meeting was to condemn from a bridge across the Dnipro River in the “regime of Bashar Assad.” According to Eugene leaves behind his beloved, grieving family: Kyiv. Protests are also expected to take eyewitnesses, the meeting was attended by – wife of 67 years, Anisja (née Pawluk); place in Kharkiv, the northeastern city over 400 persons. The picket participants where the reportedly ailing Ms. held banners condemning the Syrian – daughter, Christina Tershakovec with husband Andrew Tymoshenko is being held. Ms. regime. They read out passages from Quran. Tershakovec Tymoshenko, who served as prime minis- The participants of the action included – grandsons, Paul and Michael Tershakovec ter from January to September 2005 and Crimean Tatars, newly converted Muslims – nephew, Ihor Gill again in 2007-2010, was taken into custody and Syrians living in Ukraine. According to – sister-in-law, Anita Pawluk with daughter Monica on August 5, 2011, convicted on charges of the head of Davet, Ruslan Ramazanov, “the abuse of office, and sentenced in October participants of the meeting passed an appeal Hottenstein and family 2011 to a seven-year jail term. (RFE/RL, to all the Muslims of the world, calling them – as well as extended family Geleta, Maciurak and based on reporting by DPA and Interfax) to support the Syrian people.” The meeting Drahanchuk was surrounded by police, but they did not UOC-MP proclaims patron of military interfere with the gathering. (Religious In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in memory Information Service of Ukraine) KYIV – Within the framework of cele- of Eugene Gill be made to: brations of the Day of Baptism of Rus’- Yulia to be charged in murder Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church United Ukrainian American Relief Committee KYIV – Ukraine’s deputy procurator-gen- – Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) pro- 1206 Cottman Avenue claimed Prince Volodymyr the Great as eral has been quoted as saying prosecutors the patron saint of the armed forces of plan to indict jailed former Prime Minister Philadelphia, PA 19111 Ukraine. According to the website of UOC- Yulia Tymoshenko on charges of complicity (funds to be used for assistance to orphans in Lviv, Ukraine) MP, the Church was asked to proclaim the in the murder of a Parliament member 16 years ago. Renat Kuzmin told the newspa- patron saint of the armed forces by mili- Ukrainian Diabetes Project per Segodnya in an interview published on tary men who are believers and personal- August 9 that the charges would be formal- 2615 Rain Dance Way ly by the chief of staff of the armed forces Santa Rosa, CA 95407 ized once the ailing opposition leader was of Ukraine. Metropolitan Volodymyr con- deemed healthy enough to appear in court. secrated a large icon of Prince Volodymyr. In June, President Viktor Yanukovych sug- Annunciation of the BVM Ukrainian Catholic Church The events were attended by First Vice- gested that Ms. Tymoshenko had a hand in 1206 Valley Road Minister of Defense Oleksander Oliinyk the 1996 murder of businessman and poli- Melrose Park, PA 19027 and other ministry officials, representa- tician Yevhen Shcherban and his wife. Mr. tives of the General Staff of the Armed Kuzmin said Ms. Tymoshenko, who is Forces of Ukraine and members of the already serving a seven-year sentence for a military. In September-December of this separate abuse of power case, would be year, with the consent of Ukraine’s indicted on more charges, including “caus- Ministry of Defense, the UOC-MP plans to ing bodily injuries to a detention facility conduct a nationwide military Christian officer in the line of duty.” A second trial procession with the icon and relics of St. against the opposition leader for alleged tax Volodymyr to military garrisons and units evasion was scheduled to resume on of Ukraine. (Religious Information Service August 14. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by LTC (Retired) US Army Milas W. Lebedovych, MD of of Ukraine) DPA and Interfax) Savannah, GA died unexpectedly and peacefully at his beloved summer home in Accord, NY on July 19, 2012. the unity of Ukraine. Ukraine’s enemies Turning... abroad want to atomize the country, ethni- He was born on August 14, 1936 in Ukraine. He was predeceased by his par- cize its people, and then break it up accord- ents Ksenia Janowicz Lebedovych, MD and Omelan Lebedovych, MD. (Continued from page 6) ing to the Yugoslav model into warring eth- The family immigrated to the United States in 1949. In 1954, he graduated as nic groups.” salutatorian from Lapeer High School in Lapeer, Michigan. In 1958, he graduated “… In addition, the argument that Regarding confrontation with Russia’s from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where he earned a BS degree. In Russian should not be used in Ukraine’s leaders who believe that Moscow is enti- 1962, Dr. Lebedovych earned his MD degree from the Wayne State University official documents or in Parliament tled to protect all Russians and all other School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. because it is ‘the language of a foreign Russian-speaking people, regardless of the In 1972 he completed his psychiatric residency at Lafayette Clinic in Detroit, country’ implies that Russian speakers country in which they live and whose coun- Michigan. Dr. Lebedovych began his medical career as an emergency room physician within Ukraine are foreigners. If you tell try’s citizenship they hold, Dr. Szporluk them they are foreigners, then you are tell- later focusing on psychiatry. He was a board certified psychiatrist who during the said, Kyiv’s response must be: Russian course of his medical career, practiced as a psychiatrist in various correctional ing them to do one of two things: either speakers are not foreigners in Ukraine. they should go to Russia, or they have no facilities, psychiatric centers, maximum security prisons and the military. Ukraine is their country. They need Dr. Lebedovych served in the US Army. During the Vietnam War, CPT choice but ask that Russia should come to nobody’s protection. them,” Dr. Szporluk explained. Lebedovych was in the Medical Corps, serving with the 19th Engineering “By antagonizing the citizens of Ukraine Battalion, 18th Engineering Brigade. From May 1966 to June 1967 CPT He cited the example of Finland, with 90 who are Russian-speaking, but who voted percent Finns and 10 percent Swedes, Lebedovych was the battalion surgeon at Cam Ranh Bay. For his service in for Ukrainian independence, [proponents Vietnam CPT Lebedovych was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. In 1983 he which has bilingual signs in Finnish and of nationwide Ukrainianization] potentially Swedish. returned to the military. In 1989 he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal create enclaves of allies of the country’s for his medical service at Ft Benning, GA. His military accomplishments also “The future of Ukraine,” he wrote, “and external enemies... If an internal split were the success of political and economic include earning his Airborne Wings and an Expert Field Medical Badge. LTC to emerge in Ukraine that transformed a Lebedovych also served with distinction in support of Operation Desert Shield and reforms will be crucially influenced, if not significant part of its citizens into unwitting Desert Storm (1991). LTC Lebedovych retired from the US Army in 1996. determined, by the extent to which this allies of a foreign power, this face would Dr. Lebedovych was an avid chess player and was a member of many chess sense of common citizenship is retained endanger Ukraine’s integrity and, conceiv- clubs. He was also an accomplished long distance runner. He was an active and strengthened. It is very difficult for ably, its very existence as an independent member in PLAST, a Ukrainian Scouting Organization. many in Ukraine and many of us in the state. … In keeping with the promises made Milas W. Lebedovych leaves in sorrow his wife of 44 years, Zwenyslawa Salak diaspora to grasp the profound novelty and during the referendum campaign, each of NYC. Also in deep mourning are his son Orest of NY; daughter Andrea, with her importance of this fact.” individual must be given reason to hope husband Ivan W. Bilaniuk of Vienna, VA and grandsons Andrew and Peter Meanwhile, “the external enemies of that his/her life will be better, and assur- Bilaniuk. He is survived by his two sisters Lydia Kazewych and Switlana Korduba Ukrainian independence, particularly those ances the Ukrainian state’s rule will be as well as his two brothers Victor Lebedovych, MD and Alex Lebedovych, MD and in Moscow, would like nothing better than based on law.” their families. to have Ukrainians retain the old linguistic Funeral services were held on Tuesday July 24th, 2012 at Holy Trinity and ethnographic Ukrainian identity,” Dr. Source: “Ukraine’s independence and the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Kerhonkson, NY. Burial followed at Pine Bush Szproluk wrote. “In this way, the ‘ethno- new social covenant,” by Dr. Roman Cemetery in Kerhonkson, NY. LTC (Retired) US Army Milas Lebedovych was laid graphic’ Ukrainian nationalists and patriots Szporluk, The Ukrainian Weekly, August 23, to rest with military honors. would themselves help Moscow break up 1992. 14 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 No. 33

Red Hot Chili Peppers concert draws 30,000 to Kyiv’s Olympic Stadium

by Igor Tverdomed son with his bass lines and occasionally yelling bizarre, psychedelically inspired KYIV – The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ popu- phrases. larity in Ukraine was on display when they The four band members, which also arrived for their July 25 concert at the include guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and freshly renovated Olympic Stadium in Kyiv. drummer Chad Smith, arrived at Olympic That steamy evening, thousands of fans Stadium at about 9 p.m. in a black minibus bearing the band’s eight-pointed star logo and immediately took to the stage to per- buzzed through the capital’s central streets form. Flea surprised no one with his blue like bees to a hive. head, changing his hair color as frequently Some sported Mohawk haircuts in trib- as he changes clothes. ute to the Chili Peppers of the early 2000s. Hundreds of multi-colored lights sur- Few performers could draw such excite- rounded the stage from all sides, while a ment from the Ukrainian public, which 540-square-foot screen at the stage’s center offered up 30,000 admirers to dance, jam broadcast video images to complement the and sing lyrics alongside the Peppers’ lead songs with a stimulating visual experience. vocalist, Anthony Kiedis. A girl driving a convertible appeared By the concert’s end, bassist Flea told the during “Californication,” while images of Ukrainian fans they were “the best in the Superman accompanied another song. A world,” though that’s likely not the first time particularly striking montage featured faces he flattered a crowd. depicting different emotions, among them Indeed, Flea was the spiciest of the Chili the Chili Peppers themselves. RHCP official site Fans filled the two zones on the stadium Peppers, rocking his body violently in uni- Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea (left) and guitarist Josh Klinghoffer (right) per- form at Olympic Stadium in Kyiv. field, where they danced wildly, or the first cealed his receding hairline. tier of seats, from where many fled unno- Brazilian percussionist Mauro Refosco ticed to join the real party on the field. The was barely noticeable during the concert in first fan zone was a 50-meter radius around accompanying Smith in his drum work, evi- the stage, cordoned off by a meter-high dence that he smoothly blended into the metal fence. band’s overall sound. The second zone was the rest of the sta- “Meet Me at the Corner” and “Under the dium field, where just a few weeks ago the Bridge” prompted the audience to show Spanish national team won its second solidarity with the singer’s personal strug- straight European soccer championship. gles, as described in the songs. The Chili Peppers kicked off the show They lit the concert floor with thousands with “Monarchy of Roses,” off its latest of brightened mobile phone screens and album. From the start, Klinghoffer resem- flames from cigarette lighters, creating an bled his predecessor, John Frusciante, in his unforgettable atmosphere. movements, yet the general consensus was The Chili Peppers satisfied exuberant he lacks the same charisma as the Chili demands for an encore, delighting the Peppers legend, who is recognized among crowd further by throwing on Dynamo Kyiv More than 30,000 rock fans filled the field of the recently renovated Olympic Stadium rock’s greatest guitarists. football jerseys. on July 25 to watch the Red Hot Chili Peppers perform. The Chili Peppers indulged their fans After playing three jams, Flea concluded with their diverse discography, including by offering sincere thanks, as always, and “Higher Ground” from their formative years called on Ukrainians to embrace music in all in the 1980s, their 1992 hit “Under the of its forms. Smith tossed his drumsticks and Bridge,” as well as tracks from their new red armbands into the crowd as souvenirs. album, “I’m With You.” The reverberations “My emotions simply overwhelmed me,” of Flea’s bass and Smith’s drumming could said Yevhenia Lisovenko, 22. “Everything be felt within a 60-meter radius. was cool – the atmosphere, the energy, the “Californication” drew the biggest performance, the repertoire, from the response from the Ukrainian fans, who sound to the lights, the video accompani- wildly cheered all the songs. Kiedis and ment and freestyle solos.” Flea, each wearing a single knee-high soc- The show kicked off at 6:40 p.m. with a cer sock, pranced about the stage through- performance by British rock upstarts The out the show, both belying their 50 years of Vaccines, a band whose music resembles a age. toned-down, pop version of The Ramones “I liked that their live sound is as good as with polished British accents. Lead singer their sound on recordings – their voices Justin Young snapped a digital photo of the were identical,” said Illia Oleniov, 18, who audience at the end of his performance. saw the Chili Peppers perform also in The other warm-up band, Kasabian, has Moscow and St. Petersburg. built itself a bigger following among “They had the same energy and drive Ukrainian music fans, who were impressed that they showed at other concerts. What I by the skeleton costumes they wore. Only didn’t like was that Kiedis sometimes acted singer Tom Meagan distinguished himself, haughty and didn’t move about like he used dressing in red pants, a jeans jacket, and a to.” Indeed Kiedis was wearing a cap that white samurai band wrapped across his screamed in bold, black letters “OFF!” to the forehead. audience. Exuding exceptional charisma was gui- Flea performed his familiar stunt of tarist Sergio Pizzorno, whose long, feminine walking on his hands across the stage to the haircut and tall, lanky frame created a vibrant beat served up by drummer Smith, haunting combination with the skeleton cos- who wore his standard blue jump suit. He tume. They played their hits “Underdog” and wore a backwards cap that effectively con- “Fire,” to which Ukrainian fans sang along.

ATTORNEY ANDRE SHRAMENKO

32 Mercer Street Hackensack, NJ 07601 (201) 488-3200

205B No. 33 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 15

NOTES ON PEOPLE

Ophthalmologist helps needy in Ukraine Wins Fulbright Scholarship to Ukraine

by John Fedynsky CLEVELAND – On May 17 the University of Notre Dame announced that Michael Fedynsky is one of 14 graduating seniors in the class of 2012 to win a national fellow- ship. Mr. Fedynsky was awarded a Fulbright Research and Study Grant to Ukraine to pursue the topic “The Ukrainian Helsinki Group and its Effect as a Political and Social Movement.” In his proposal, he cited the critical role the Ukrainian Helsinki Group played in challenging the repressive Soviet police state and noted how little research has been conducted on this topic. Mr. Fedynsky’s project will include research into the documents of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, a review of relevant archives and interviews with surviving members of the group, as well as with those who worked with them and with those who opposed them. Michael Fedynsky Mr. Fedynsky majored in political sci- ence and French, with a minor in European Ukrainian Heritage School in Cleveland, Dr. Severin Palydowycz with patients and doctors in Lviv. studies. He spent his junior year at the and worked as a summer intern at the Catholic University of the West in Angers, Ukrainian Museum-Archives. He is now a Ihor Novytsky at the Lviv City Hospital for Ukrainian Congress Committee of America France, funded in part by a John J. and candidate member of the Ukrainian Plast his assistance. Therefore, at the invitation Patricia L. FitzGerald Scholarship. fraternity Vovkulaky and was head coun- LVIV – Upon learning of the volunteer of Drs. Novytsky and Chaikivsky, Dr. Mr. Fedynsky is the recipient of several selor (komandant) at the Pysany Kamin work of Severin B. Palydowycz, a renowned Palydowycz traveled to Ukraine in June to other scholarships, including those from he campground in Middlefield, Ohio, in July. In ophthalmologist of Ukrainian descent who provide free cataract eye surgery at the Ukrainian National Association and the August, he will participate in the 100th volunteered his services to perform free Lviv City Hospital. Charles C. Price Memorial Fund for Jubilee International Plast Jamboree in eye surgeries for the needy in Haiti, the Together with local Lviv doctors, Dr. Eastern-Central European Studies awarded Ukraine and will stay on for his Fulbright chairman of the UCCA’s Council on Aid to Palydowycz performed over 40 surgeries, by the Nanovic Institute on European project. He plans to travel throughout Ukrainians (CAU), Ivan Burtyk, met with Dr. mostly for the elderly. He also donated over Studies at Notre Dame. He applied the lat- Ukraine but his base will be at the National Palydowycz to discuss the possibility of $100,000 worth of equipment to the Lviv ter scholarship for six weeks of study at the University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy in conducting similar surgeries for those in City Hospital. Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv dur- Ukraine’s capital. need in Ukraine. Although exhausted from the numerous ing the summer of 2009. Mr. Fedynsky is a member of Ukrainian Dr. Palydowycz, who is recognized for surgeries performed, Dr. Palydowycz “Mykhas” Fedynsky is a graduate of the National Association Branch 472. his outstanding medical work within the expressed his extreme satisfaction at hav- United States, gladly agreed, but due to per- ing the opportunity to help so many people sonal time constraints, requested that the and said that he would be pleased to return CAU assist in finding a hospital where he to Ukraine in the future to assist more indi- could perform the surgeries. viduals. Educational program for youths Thus, at the request of CAU’s chairman, The CAU continues to receive e-mail President Tamara Olexy, president of the and telephone requests for Dr. to be held in Canada’s capital Ukrainian Congress Committee of America Palydowycz’s assistance. The UCCA TORONTO – The Paul Yuzyk Institute provides learning opportunities about (UCCA), turned to Dr. Dzvinka Chaikivsky Council on Aid to Ukrainians sincerely from the Sheptytsky Hospital in Lviv, for thanked Dr. Severen Palydowycz for his for Youth Leadership on July 25 how government functions in Canada’s guidance. Since the Sheptytsky Hospital generosity and kindness in helping those announced a new educational program – capital, including site visits in and does not have an optical department, Dr. less fortunate in Ukraine to once again be “Canada’s Parliament Education Forum” around Parliament Hill, the House of Chaikivsky recommended contacting Dr. able to see. – to be held in Ottawa on October 3-7. Commons and Senate, Parliamentary Established in 2009, the Paul Yuzyk Library, War Museum, National Museum Institute for Youth Leadership has suc- of Canadian Civilization, Parliamentary cessfully operated youth educational Precinct, Supreme Court, National programs such as Kalyna Country Archives and Library. As well, visits to WW II veteran awarded Bronze Star (Edmonton and environs in Alberta) and Ukrainian Canadian institutions and GALENA, Md. – Nick Swyka was recent- injures wrote a statement to the U.S. Army Pier 21 (Halifax and environs in Nova monuments/memorials will be included. ly awarded the Bronze Star for his heroism verifying what happened, however, the Scotia). High school and university students during World War II. Army claimed that there was insufficient The Ukrainian National Federation’s (age 13-22) can apply at unfcanada.ca A member of the 395th Infantry Regiment, evidence to prove that Mr. Swyka deserved The UNF Ottawa-Gatineau branch is before August 30 for participation in this he was serving in Belgium in December of a Purple Heart but that he did deserve a coordinating this new project. Branch unique young leader’s experience. The 1944 when the Germans attacked the American Bronze Star, a Combat Infantryman’s Badge President Paul Migus said, “In offering educational forum is limited to 12 candi- troops in the Ardennes Forest. Although he and other medals. this new educational experience in the dates who meet the selection criteria. was injured by shell fragments in his hands, This year – 58 years after the Battle of nation’s capital, the Paul Yuzyk Institute The cost of this leadership program is face and legs, Mr. Swyka understood that the the Bulge – Mr. Swyka’s family decided that (PYI) is seeking to deepen young leaders $950 (and does not include travel to and other soldiers needed as much help as possi- the best time to tell him of the award was experience and competencies in how from Ottawa). Bursaries have been made ble and, instead of being sent for treatment, to surprise him at an annual birthday din- government touches the lives of available through a grant from the he asked the medic to temporarily treat his ner for him and his wife, Mildred. Ukrainian Canadians, how Canadians of Shevchenko Foundation. wounds so he could continue fighting. The dinner began with the national Ukrainian heritage have helped build the For more information readers may After the battle, Mr. Swyka was recom- anthem sung by his daughter-in-law Marie, Canadian nation and develop Canada’s visit www.unfcanada.ca, call UNF mended for a Bronze Star for his heroic as members of the Delaware National multicultural policy, legislation and soci- Executive Director Olya Grod, 416-925- actions, however, he never actually received it. Guard arrived to present Mr. Swyka with ety.” 2770, or e-mail [email protected] or After talking to Mr. Swyka, his son-in- the Bronze Star for valor. The Canada’s Parliament Program [email protected]. law, Command Sgt. Maj. Guy Gravino began Mr. Swyka is a parishioner of St. Basil looking into why he never received a Ukrainian Catholic Church in Chesapeake Purple Heart. The medic who treated his City, Md. The Ukrainian Weekly in print and online: “Notes on people” is a feature geared toward reporting on the achievements of members of the Ukrainian community and the Ukrainian National Association. All submissions Twice as nice for one low price! should be concise due to space limitations and must include the person’s UNA branch number (if applicable). Items will be published as soon as possible after their receipt. $70 ($60 for members of the UNA) 16 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 No. 33 No. 33 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 17

Kazka Ukrainian Folk Ensemble celebrates 25 years of song and dance SUGARLOAF, Pa. – Twenty five years ago, four young friends with a love of all things Ukrainian banded together to form the Kazka Ukrainian Folk Ensemble. Incorporated in Schuylkill County in 1987, Kazka – which means folktale in Ukrainian – is dedicated to the preservation and per- formance of the songs and folk dances brought to the anthracite coal regions by the Ukrainian immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th century. The founding members include the vocal quartet of Joseph Zucofski, Michael Duda, Sandra Minarchik Duda and Paula Duda Holoviak. Kazka’s vocal and instrumental reper- toire encompasses traditional folk songs and works by modern Ukrainian compos- ers, as well as folk carols and liturgical Kathleen Park selections. Kazka has produced three The Kazka Ukrainian Folk Ensemble performs at Ukrainian Seminary Day 2012 in Minersville, Pa. recordings including “Kazka,” “Timeless Traditions” and “God Sees All,” featuring Boyko, and Poltava regions of Ukraine. David Woznak (Cleveland). The ensemble’s 100th anniversary of Ukrainian emigration Ukrainian Christmas music. Numerous talented individuals have con- current choreographer is Andrij to the United States. The ensemble also currently has over 20 tributed choreography to the group, includ- Dobriansky of New York City. Mr. Kazka will mark its 25th anniversary with young dancers who perform choreography ing Mykola Bojczuk and Helena Kozak Dobriansky has studied with the renowned a performance at the Ukrainian Festival at from the Hutsul, Zakarpattia, Lemko, (Philadelphia), Ken Rylance (Canada) and Roma Pryma-Bohachevsky and has been the Ukrainian Homestead in Lehighton, Pa., named a Master Traditional Artist by the on Saturday, August 18, and Sunday, August Pennsylvania Council for the Arts. 19. The group will perform at the festival Kazka has received numerous accolades shows and will host a zabava (dance) open and awards and has traveled the globe. The to the public at 8 p.m. on Saturday evening ensemble has received grants from the with music by Walter Syzonenko. Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, the All members past and present are invit- Schuylkill County Council for the Arts and ed to attend, to reminisce and to view pic- the Institute for Cultural Partnerships. tures from the past 25 years. For more Currently, Kazka is on the roster for the information on the festival reunion, visit Commonwealth Speakers program spon- www.kazkaensemble.org or www. sored by the Pennsylvania Humanities ukrhomestead.com. Council. Kazka looks forward to many more Kazka has performed throughout years of song and dance. Dance rehearsals Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland, as are held throughout the summer months well as at Disney World in Florida. In 1992 on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. at the Kazka performed in three Ukrainian cities Ukrainian Homestead. New dancers are Members of the Kazka Ukrainian Folk Ensemble (from left): Michael Duda, Sandra Duda, Paula Holoviak and Joseph Zucofski. as part of the commemorations of the always welcome.

180B 18 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 No. 33

August 16-19 40th annual St. Josaphat’s Ukrainian Festival, August 25 Ukrainian Village Parade and Independence Day Rochester, NY www.RochesterUkrainianFestival.com Parma, OH celebration, Ukrainian Village Committee, St. Josaphat or 585-467-6457 Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, [email protected] August 16-18 Saskatoon Folkfest, Ukraine Karpaty Pavilion, Exhibition Saskatoon, SK Grounds, 306-931-0100 or www.saskatoonfolkfest.ca August 25 “Flavors of Ukraine,” Ukrainian Independence Day Etobicoke, ON celebration, Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Toronto August 17-19 Art exhibit, featuring works by Edward, Yurij and Yarema Branch, Centennial Park, 416-323-4772 or Kerhonkson, NY Kozak, Soyuzivka – Main House Library, 586-360-7364 www.ucctoronto.ca August 18 Piano recital by Volodymyr Vynnytsky, Grazhda Music August 25 Ukraine Day in the Park, Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Jewett, NY and Art Center, www.grazhdamusicandart.org Saskatoon, SK Saskatoon Provincial Council, 306-653-1733 or August 18-19 Ukrainian Independence Day celebration, with stage [email protected] Lehighton, PA shows, dance and hierarchical divine liturgy, Ukrainian August 25 Concert with cellists Natalia Khoma and Marta Bagratuni, Homestead, 610-377-4621 or wwww.ukrhomestead.com Jewett, NY with pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky, Grazhda Music and August 19 Church picnic, Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church, Art Center, www.grazhdamusicandart.org Kerhonkson, NY 845-647-6911 or www.holytrinity.org August 25 Ukrainian Independence Day picnic, Ukrainian Association Raleigh, NC of North Carolina, Lake Montague, August 19 Blessing of fruit, St. Mary Protectress Ukrainian www.ncua.inform-decisions.com or 919-923-1316 Apopka, FL Catholic Church, 321-217-7787 or [email protected] August 25-26 Ukrainian Festival, Illinois Division of the Ukrainian Chicago Congress Committee of America, Smith Park, August 24 All-ages dance, with music by DJ Matej Liteplo, Wildwood 773-772-4500 Wildwood Crest, NJ Crest Pier Recreation Center, www.xmel.org or [email protected] August 26 Ukrainian Folk Festival, with stage show and dance, Horsham, PA Ukrainian American Sports Club - Tryzub, www.tryzub.org August 24 Volleyball tournament, hosted by Lys Sports Academy, or 267-664-3857 Wildwood, NJ Ukrainian Sports Federation of the U.S.A. and Canada, beach in front of Pan Am Hotel, [email protected] August 26 Blessing of flowers, St. Mary Protectress Ukrainian or www.socceragency.net/lys Apopka, FL Catholic Church, 321-217-7787 or [email protected] August 24 Ukrainian Independence Day concert, Ukrainian Cultural Somerset, NJ Center, 732-356-0090 August 26 Ukrainian Day, Golden Gate Park, Music Concourse San Francisco Bandshell, www.stmichaeuocsf.org or 415-330-0905 August 24-26 “Uketoberfest,” St. Joseph Ukrainian Catholic Church, Chicago 773-625-4805 or [email protected] Entries in “Out and About” are listed free of charge. Priority is given to events August 25 Ukrainian Fall Festival, Ukrainian Canadian Congress – advertised in The Ukrainian Weekly. However, we also welcome submissions Regina, MB Regina branch, Victoria Park, 306-757-8835 or from all our readers. Items will be published at the discretion of the editors www.uccruff.ca and as space allows. Please send e-mail to [email protected]. No. 33 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 19 UKELODEON F Nor The ext Generation Kupalo tradition continues in Hartford Toronto Plast members plant by Christina Jancew Iwanik for the boys to catch them, as well as 100 trees to mark centennial GLASTONBURY, Conn. – Members the story of the “tsvit paporoti,” the and parents of the Ukrainian American legendary fern flower that blooms only Youth Association’s Hartford branch on midsummer’s eve. gathered together on June 12 for the Also that evening, select members traditional celebration of “Sviato Ivana received promotions, acknowledgments Kupala” and their end-of-year closing and badges for attending the most ceremony here at J. B. Williams Park. recent Zlet (Memorial Day weekend For over 10 years, UAYA Hartford gathering) held at the UAYA camp- has been keeping alive the Kupalo ground in Ellenville, N.Y. A truly tradition – an ancient celebration of memorable evening was had by all. the end of the summer solstice and The UAYA members are now at- the beginning of the harvest – with the tending camps and will return to their making of wreaths and the “Marena,” branch on September 11 to share their the sending of the wreaths downstream summertime experiences.

Oksana Zakydalsky TORONTO – To mark the centennial of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organiza- tion, members of the organization’s Toronto branch recently planted 100 trees in a local city park, Eglinton Flats. This good deed for the entire Toronto area community was performed by Plast members of all ages on May 6, the feast day of St. George, the patron saint of Plast. It attracted the participation of local politicians and Member of Parliament Ted Opitz. Seen above are Plast members ready for the planting, shovels in hand. Mishanyna

In keeping with the Olympic theme begun in the previous Mishanyna Christina Jancew Iwanik (July 1-8), this month we challenge readers to find the names of some Members of the Hartford, Conn., branch of the Ukrainian American Youth Association of the Olympic sports in which athletes from Ukraine are competing. gathered for their annual celebration of Kupalo traditions. (An extra challenge as you solve Mishanyna: Can you name the sports in which sports Team Ukraine has won medals thus far?) ARCHERY HEPTATHLON TENNIS New York UAYA wraps up season BOXING JUDO TABLE TENNIS ROWING by Victor Kurylyk contributed extra points by earning a DIVING TRACK and FIELD SAILING NEW YORK – The New York medal or winning a competition either FENCING SHOOTING WEIGHTLIFTING branch of the Ukrainian American in knowledge, poetry, group or sports events, including running, jumping, Youth Association (UAYA) wrapped up GYMNASTICS SWIMMING WRESTLING discus, shot put, volleyball and soccer. its 2011-2012 educational year on June Over all, 12 New Yorkers (out of 25 on 3. The head of the branch Dania Lawro, the team) rose to the podium to pick up congratulated “vykhovnyky” (teach- 20 medals in individual events. With ers), “vporiadnyky” (counselors) and victories in relays, team sports (soccer “yunatstvo” (youth) on the successful and volleyball) and group competitions, year and expressed appreciation for the that number was even higher. outstanding individual achievements New York took seventh place out of New Yorkers at various Zlet 2012 of 17 teams in the overall ranking – a competitions. significant improvement from its 11th Almost every New York participant place last year.

Natalia Kaczurak The year-end ceremony of the New York branch of the Ukrainian American Youth Association. 20 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 No. 33

Saturday-Sunday, August 18-19 months in September. We emphasize respect LEHIGHTON, Pa.: Celebrate Ukraine’s inde- PREVIEW OF EVENTS for the child, individualized learning and pro- pendence at the Ukrainian Homestead’s 21st motion of the child’s independence. For more information, call Olenka Makarushka-Kolodiy, Festival. Enjoy Ukrainian dance, song and Greene County presents a Mostly Cello Recital Ukrainian Independence Folk Festival at music, with two stage shows on Saturday and a 973-763-1797 or visit the website at http// featuring cellists Natalia Khoma and Marta Tryzubivka, County Line and Lower State coe.kean.edu/zaxoronka/. “zabava” (dance) on Saturday evening. On Bagratuni with Volodymyr Vynnytsky at the roads, Horsham, PA 19044. Doors will open at Sunday, liturgy will be celebrated by piano. Works by George Frideric Handel, Franz noon. The festival stage show concert will Sunday, September 9: Metropolitan Stefan Soroka at St. Andrew’s Joseph Haydn, Jean-Baptiste Barriere, begin at 1:30 p.m. with headliners: the Zoriany Chapel, and there will be two stage shows dur- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robert Schuman, Ukrainian Dance, Music and Song Ensemble STAMFORD, Conn.: The 45th Connecticut ing the day. Meet old friends, make new Frederic Chopin, Giacomo Puccini and (Kirovohrad, Ukraine); Desna Ukrainian Dance Ukrainian Day Festival, sponsored by the friends, shop at the many vendors, enjoy deli- Guiseppe Verdi will be performed. The concert Company (Toronto); violinist Innesa Connecticut State Ukrainian Day Committee cious traditional Ukrainian food and enjoy begins at 8 p.m. and takes place in the Grazhda Tymochko Dekajlo (Lviv); and the Vox Ethnika will take place on the grounds of St. Basil’s fresh air. For more information call the Music Hall located on the grounds of St. John Band (New York City). A “zabava” – social Seminary. Beginning at 9 a.m., there be over Ukrainian Homestead, 610-377-4621, or visit 20 Ukrainian vendors, and coffee and donuts www.ukrhomestead.com. the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church. More dance – to the music of the Vox Ethnika information is available on the website www. orchestra will follow the concert, at 4:30 p.m. will be available. Confessions will be heard Thursday, August 23 GrazhdaMusicandArt.org or by calling 518- Delicious Ukrainian foods and baked goods, before liturgy, which will be celebrated at 11 989-6479. picnic fare and cool refreshments will be plen- a.m. by Bishop Paul Chomnycky. Ukrainian WILDWOOD CREST, N.J.: The board of trust- and picnic foods will be available after liturgy. ees of The Ukrainian Museum (New York) tiful. Vendors are welcome. An arts and crafts RALEIGH, N.C.: The Ukrainian Association of bazaar and a children’s fun area will be open At 2:30 p.m. enjoy a lively program at the out- invites all in Wildwood to come to the pent- door pavilion featuring the Zolotyi Promin house at the Pan American Hotel. Enjoy the North Carolina will host the 21st annual all day. Admission: $15; students, $10; chil- Dance Ensemble, Sisters Pavlishyn duo, wonderful view of the ocean from the pent- Ukrainian Independence Day picnic at Lake dren under 15, free. Parking is free. For fur- Ukrainian American Youth Association, house and find out more about The Ukrainian Montague, 10305 Penny Road in Raleigh, ther information call 267-664-3857 or log on Maksym Lozynskyj (singer-guitarist), Sisters Museum, while sipping wine, chitchatting and starting at 2 p.m. Barbecued meat and soft to www.tryzub.org. The sponsor is a 501 (c) Korenovsky, Kalynonka Dance Ensemble of having a good time at 7-9 p.m. The Pan Am drinks will be provided. Please bring a covered (3) tax-exempt nonprofit charitable organiza- Stamford, Valeriy Valwell (violin), and Hotel is located at 5901 Ocean Ave., Wildwood dish to share, as well as your favorite refresh- tion; proceeds benefit youth sports, and cul- Crest, NJ 08260; telephone, 609-522-6936. ments. Admission is by donations and/or an tural and community programs. Nataliya, Danyil, Igor Blyschak (musical item for a raffle. For further information ensemble and singer) and Stamford Ballroom Space at the penthouse is limited, so RSVP by Wednesday, September 5 Wednesday to Christine Melnyk, 203-887- please check the association’s website, http:// Dance. Dance music will be provided by 1789, or Oksana Trytjak, 908-377-7889. Cost: ncua.inform-decisions.com/, or call 919-923- NEWARK, N.J.: St. John’s Ukrainian Preschool Halychany at 5-8 p.m. Children’s activities also $25 per person, with proceeds to benefit The 1316. will re-open with Ukrainian-language are scheduled. Admission for those age 12 and Montessori sessions each weekday morning over: $5 per person when purchased in Ukrainian Museum. Sunday, August 26 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Extended hours advance, $10 at the gate; free parking. For tick- Saturday, August 25 HORSHAM, Pa.: The Ukrainian American from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. are available to serve ets call 203-324-4578; for more information JEWETT, N.Y.: The Music and Art Center of Sport Center Tryzub will host the 21st annual working parents. Minimum age is 2 years 6 or to volunteer call 203-269-5909.

216 Foordmore Road P.O. Box 529 Kerhonkson, NY 12446 1-845-626-5641 [email protected] 2012 Summer Events August 17 – Tiki Deck – Kagero

August 18 – Dance Camp Recital (3pm) – Zabava with Tempo August 19 – August 25 – Josephs School of Dance August 24 – Josephs School of Dance Camp Recital (evening) August 31 – September 3 Labor Day weekend – to be announced September 10 – September 13 – Gymnasium Reunions: Bayreuth, Berchtesgaden, Karlsfeld, Landshut, Regensburg September 17 – September 19 – Gymnasium Reunions: Mittenwald & Salzburg September 22 – September 23 – KLK Weekend