www.ukrweekly.com Ш 1 ^? Pub shed by the Ukrainian National Association Inc.. a fraternal non-profit association! ? ? rainian WeeFly I Vol. Llll No4 . THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 27, 1985 25 cents Ukrainian dissident blames Brezhnev Medical neglect contributed for arrest of Raoul Wallenberg to death of imprisoned priest by Bohdan Nahaylo nothing about Wallenberg in the camps, JERSEY CITY, N.J. - A 72-year- Despite the seriousness of his but one day, while I was in the central old Ukrainian Catholic priest who died condition, the Rev. Potochniak was MUNICH - An unofficial hospital in the Mordovia prison camp, in a Soviet labor camp last spring had tried and sentenced to one year in a Ukrainian publication which has they brought in a "zek" named Vorobey been refused proper medical care and strict-regimen labor camp. He was recently reached the West provides from the zone for foreign prisoners. He placed in a punishment cell even though transferred to labor camp VL-315/30 in information on the case of Swedish was a Pole who, during his time as a he had not fully recovered from major Lviv on November 18, 1983. diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Issue No. Bolshevik agent, brought Soviet agents stomach surgery, according to Though gravely ill, the Rev. 8 of the new Ukrainian samvydav into Poland. But after a number of underground sources in Ukraine. Potochniak was barred from the camp journal, A Chronicle of the Catholic failed missions, he was summoned to The Rev. Anton Potochniak,a leader hospital by a Capt. Talyzin, identified Church in Ukraine, published last the Soviet Union where, in 1934, he was of the little-known "Pokutnyky" by the Chronicle as the head of the summer, contains a letter, dated July 9, sentenced to 10 years in labor camps. (Repentants) sect, died in May shortly hospital division, who reportedly said 1984, to the Wallenberg Committee in Vorobey said he had met Wallenberg's after being moved from a labor camp in the priest would be a bad influence on Stockholm from the Ukrainian driver in 1947.1 do not remember where Lviv to a prison hospital. Details of the other prisoners. religious and national-rights now, since at the time I did not think the priest's incarceration were revealed in A On December 14. the Rev. campaigner Yosyp Terelia. The story would have any connection with Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Potochniak was summoned to camp dissident and former long-standing my future quest. In 1973, while in the Ukraine, an underground journal, headquarters, and told by camp political prisoner places the Sychevskaya Special Psychiatric copies of which recently reached the commander, Lt. Col. V. Povshenko. responsibility for Mr. Wallenberg's Hospital, where there were also political West. that, because of special instructions arrest and tragic fate on Leonid prisoners, I met a Lithuanian named Although the underground dealing with Ukrainian Catholics, he Brezhnev. Bogdanas who was a German citizen. publication says nothing about the would have work and fulfill his quota The Swedish diplomat, who during During the war Bogdanas had been an priest's death, sources in Washington regardless of his age and illness. the war saved the lives of tens of officer in the Wehwnacht. In 1945 he have reported his passing based on "We have the right to place all thousands of Hungarian Jews, was arrested by Soviet counterintelH- mformatip,nj'rom the Soviet Union. Catholics up to age 90 in a punishment disappeared 40 years ago, on January gence and imprisoned in a camp that According to the Chronicle, the Rev. cell," Lt. Col. Povshenko said, 17, 1945, after being taken into custody contained only foreigners. This was in Potochniak was arrested in the city of according to the Chroncile. by Soviet troops. His subsequent fate the Norilsk labor camp complex. There Stryi sometime in October 1983 shortly Shortly thereafter, the Rev. has remained a mystery ever since and Bogdanas met Wallenberg. For many after undergoing a major stomach Potochniak was put in a punishment has aroused international concern. In years after this their fates seemed to be operation. It was his fifth arrest. " cell to begin a 15-day term. Within three February 1957, Soviet Deputy Foreign inseparably intertwined. In 1951. after The priest was sent to Lviv prison days, however, the gravely ill priest Minister Andrei Gromyko announced the Norilsk uprising,1 all foreigners who with his stitches still in place, the began to hemorrhage and he was rushed that Mr. Wallenberg had died of "heart were still alive were transferred to a Chronicle said. Just two weeks later, a to the camp hospital. But he was moved failure" in the Lubianka prison on July small sixth zone. Of 8,000 people only second operation had to be performed, back to the cell on the second day after 17, 1947. There have, nonetheless, been 420 were still alive. In 1953, Wallenberg and he was moved to a prison hospital. (Continued on page 2) numerous reported sightings of Mr. and Bogdanas were sent to a special Wallenberg in Soviet penal institutions psychiatric hospital in Kazan. In the after this date, one even as late as 1980. hospital they began to cure Wallenberg Stus has kidney ai \ not TB If he were still alive today he would be of himself - he was diagnosed as 73 years old. suffering from "a mania of grandeur, he JERSEY CITY. N.J. - Ukrainian The Brezhnev connection was first thinks he is a Swedish diplomat." In political prisoner Vasyl Stus does not raised in 1981 by Yaakov Menaker, a 1962, Bogdanas was moved from have tuberculosis, as was reported former Soviet Army officer who later Kazan and no one heard anything earlier, but the 46-year-old poet is emigrated to Israel. Mr. Menaker more about Wallenberg. What has been suffering from nephritis, a painful claimed that Mr. Brezhnev had headed said about Wallenberg in recent years is inflammation of the kidneys, reported the political section of the 18th division probably untrue, since no-one (claiming USSR News Brief. of the Red Army which liberated to have seen himj has described him Friends of the human-rights activist .Budapest and had ordered the arrest of correctly. reported late last year that he was Mr. Wallenberg. A spokesman for the At this point I would conclude, if it running a constant temperature and Swedish Foreign Ministry, however, were not for the fact that in 1976, by the experiencing chronic pain in his arms announced that "no conclusion" could dictates of chance, I came to found the and legs. They said his condition was be drawn from Mr. Menaker's Ukrainian Committee for the Case of diagnosed as tuberculosis, a serious testimony whether or not Mr. Brezhnev Raoul Wallenberg. lung ailment, and that they feared he was involved. This began in 1975 when a cousin of might not survive the harsh winters near The following is a translation of the mine, Gobiya Siklo-Kalman, came Perm in the Ural Mountains, where he full text of Mr. Terelia's letter to the from Hungary to ask me whether I had is being held in labor camp No. 36-1. Wallenberg Committee. Radio Liberty, seen Wallenberg anywhere in the prison But the latest information received by which released the text of the letter, camp network. (I was still in a camp at USSR News Brief, published in cannot, however, verify the information that time and, therefore, the request did Munich, indicates that Mr. Stus is it contains. not reach me.) My cousin asked my suffering from acute kidney disease. Vasyl Stus in younger days aunt (her motherj Anna Maiorenko for Last October he reportedly wrote his photographs of Wallenberg. My aunt wife a farewell letter. Group, set up to monitor Soviet had married Jyulo Siklo, an employee In addition, it is believed that Mr. compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Dear Friends! and a shareholder of the Hungarian Stus spent one year from January 20, Accords on human rights and security By some foresight of God, fate National Bank in Budapest. Siklo came 1983, to January 20, 1984, in solitary in Europe. predetermined the path 1 followed for from an old aristocratic family who, like confinement and that his food rations He previously served a term from 20 long years through the huge Soviet the family of my uncle Ivan Fales, were were reduced. A collection of his poems, 1972 to 1979 for "anti-Soviet agitation concentration camp. legitimists. After the German "Bird of the Soul," was also confiscated. and propaganda." I was only released in 1976, and then (Continued on page It) Mr. Stus was arrested in 1980 and Mr. Stus was recently denied a visit heard for the first time that the case of sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp with his family, whom he had not seen in Raoul Wallenberg had been lifted from I. RL note: this is an error. The Norilsk and five years' internal exile for his four years, apparently for refusing to the darkness of oblivion. I heard uprising took place in the spring of 1953. membership in the Ukrainian Helsinki speak to his wife in Russian. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 27, 1985 - Na4 Dissident treated for heart problem MOSCOW - The mother of Soviet the first since Mr. Shcharansky was political prisoner Anatoly Shcharansky transferred back to the labor camp from Chronicle of said on January 21 that she had visited Chistopol Prison. her son at a labor camp in the Ural He was sentenced in 1978 to a 13-year Mountains and learned that he had term on a charge of treason.