• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

www.ukrweekly.com Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association! rainian Weekly Vol. Llll No. 7 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY FEBRUARY 17, 1985 25 cents Ukrainian samvydav document Murzhenko is under surveillance MUNICH -Oleksiy Murzhenko, who served 14 years in a labor camp details Soviet Afghan casualties for his part in an attempted hijacking by Bohdan Nahaylo Ukraine seem remarkably high. While at Leningrad airport in 1970, has they cannot, of course, be verified, they been put under administrative Precise details of casualties suffered support other unconfirmed reports over surveillance in Kiev, reported USSR by Soviet troops in the war in the years that a disproportionately large News Brief here. Afghanistan have been presented, for number of young men from the Soviet Under the provision of the the first time, in an unofficial Soviet Union's western borderlands — the surveillance, he must register with journal. Issue No. 7 of the new Baltic republics and western Ukraine - the police once a week. Ukrainian samvydav journal Chronicle have been called up for service in Mr. Murzhenko, a 42-year-old of the Catholic Church in Ukraine, Afghanistan. All these areas were Ukrainian, was one of 10 persons, which appeared last summer but has forcibly incorporated into the USSR most of them Jews, who tried to only recently reached the West, after 1939 and have resisted commandeer an airplane at Leningrad provides a breakdown of casualties Sovietization and Russification. airport in June 1970. Eventually all sustained in Afghanistan by soldiers The Transcarpathian region was the defendants were allowed to from three raions of the Transcar- ruled by the Hungarians until the emigrate to Israel, with the exception pathian (Zakarpatska) Oblast in the disintegration of Austria-Hungary and of Mr. Murzhenko and Yuri southwestern part of Ukraine. then came under the control of Fedorov, an ethnic Russian. The relevant section in the journal Czechoslovakia. With the dismember­ Mr. Murzhenko served 14 years in reads: ment of Czechoslovakia, a part of labor camp No. 36-1 near Perm, part "Gains for Moscow - losses for Transcarpathia enjoyed a brief period of a huge penal complex in the Ural Ukraine, that is how the 'union' of these of autonomy before being overrun by Mountains. Mr. Fedorov, 41, is due two republics with equal rights appears the Hungarians. The region was to complete a 15-year sentence this in the Afghan war. Recently, there have incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR a; June. been more and more funerals of the end of World War II. As a result of his imprisonment, Transcarpathians who have fallen in Today, with a population of about Mr. Murzhenko suffers from a host Afghanistan. On June 3. for instance, 1.2 million, of whom 76.5 percent are of medical problems, including funerals took place in the villages of Ukrainians, it is still an area where tuberculosis, angina and gastritis. Oleksiy Murzhenko llnitsa and Bilka. Alongside the crosses, people feel a strong attachment to the authorities placed markers with red Ukrainian national and religious stars on them. That night, an officer traditions. Issue No. 2 of the Chronicle who had delivered the coffins let slip, of the Catholic Church in Ukraine, for Sources say Shcherbytsky will head while in a drunken state, that he did not example, describes the Transcarpathian know what was in which coffin...in Oblast as the reservoir of "the strongest Soviet delegation to the U.S. forces" of the Ukrainian Catholic some there was only a leg, or a bit of by George B. Zarycky charred body, and it was not always Church, the largest outlawed d denomination in the USSR. from the body of the dead person (in WASHINGTON - Volodymyr questionj. That is why, he said, the The information about Transcar­ pathian casualties contained in the Shcherbytsky. first secretary of the coffins cannot be opened. Communist Party of the Ukrainian The Chronicle also provided the Ukrainian Catholic Chronicle is reminiscent of a commentary titled SSR, is scheduled to head a high-level following statistics: Soviet delegation to the Unitec' Slates " Number of men from the Irshava "Our Boys Are Perishing in Afghanistan" that appeared in the issue sometime in the near future, ac­ Raion killed in Afghanistan - III. cording to a U.S. government source. ' Number of men from the Irshava of the Lithuanian samizdat journal Raion badly wounded and maimed — Ausra dated March 1982. Expressing The source, a well-placed official, 45. outrage over the fact that did not disclose in what official ' Number of men from the Irshava representatives of "oppressed" capacity the 67-year-old party leader Raion slightly wounded or frostbitten nationalities — Ukrainians, Estonians, would visit the United States, the -91. Latvians and Lithuanians - were being purpose of his trip or the date he " Number of men from the Svaliava forced to participate in Moscow's would arrive. He also would not Raion killed in Afghanistan - 52. subjugation of Afghanistan, Ausra provide details as to the size of the " Number of men from the reported: Soviet contingent or its itinerary. "More and more tragic news is Mukachevo Raion killed in As a full member of the Politburo, Afghanistan - 122. reaching us about Lithuanians who have fallen in Afghanistan. The dead the central policy-making and gov­ Volodymyr Shcherbytsky " Number of men from the erning body of the Communist Party Mukachevo Raion badly wounded — are brought in zinc-coated coffins and But Elizabeth Dow, who deals buried secretly. Mothers are not of the Soviet Union, Mr. Shcher­ 145. bytsky, a Ukrainian, would be the with protocol for the House Foreign "Only 10 of those from the allowed to see their fallen sons...The Affairs Committee, while refusing to coffins are bought to Vilnius, Klaipeda, highest ranking Soviet official to visit Mukachevo Raion who were badly the United States since Foriegn comment on the information, did say wounded receive pensions, of between Alytus, Panevezys, Siauliai, to telephone her in a week regarding Druskininkai, and other cities. They are Minister Andrei Gromyko was here 35 and 54 rubles; the rest have been left last year. the matter. in the care of their parents," reported brought to all raions and to the Since there has been no official villages." U.S. goverpment officials contacted the Chronicle. by The Weekly this week would not confirmation of the visit and details Ausra also reported an incident in Considering the size of the confirm or deny the visit. A State remain unavailable, it is difficult to Vilnius in which bereaved parents population of the three raions in Department spokesman said "we speculate about the nature of the trip. persuaded drunken soldiers to open the question — Irshava Raion: 94,200 in have nothing on that" when asked It is likely that Mr. Shcherbytsky, an sealed coffin supposedly containing the 1978; Svalyava Raion: 52,300 in 1983; about the Shcherbytsky trip, and industrial specialist, will head some body of their son only to find that there and Mukachevo Raion: 103,100 in 1981 Ken Meyers, a staff member of the type of delegation on trade and had been a mix-up and that, instead of - the casualty figures given by the Senate Subcommittee on European cultural matters, as did Mikhail (Continued on page 14) Chroncile of the Catholic Church in Affairs, said he had not heard any­ Gorbachev, the second-ranking thing about it. (Continued on page 14) THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY FEBRUARY 17, 1985 No. 7 Russification in Baltic republics is pervasive, yet opposition continues Chronicle of LONDON - Although the Communist ideology; Mr. Randpere onslaught of Russification and the said that most view the party as "a the Catholic Church rigorous vigilance of the KGB have vehicle for getting ahead in one's seriously damped widespread dissent in career," and that at the end of the in Ukraine the Soviet Union's Baltic republics, working day, even most Communists opposition to Soviet rule continues to "take off their party membership along run deep among the people, according with their jackets and become just to a former Estonian official who normal people." defected to the West last August. Mr. Randpere called the last years The following excerpts are from priests were killed, while others In an interview with Soviet under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev Issue No. 3 of the Chronicle of the received 25-year prison sentences Nationality Survey published here, the "trying and dull times." and he referred Catholic Church in Ukraine, an and the church itself was forced to go official, 26-year-old Valdo Randpere, to current Soviet leader Konstantin underground publication which underground. Officially the Chufth said that Russification — the officially Chernenko, a Brezhnev protege, as made its appearance in January 1984 is alleged to exist, but... "the majority sanctioned imposition of Russian nothing more than a propagandist. hut has only recently reached the of the populace has gone over to the culture on non-Russian nationalities — "It's hard to say how long hell stay in West. Titus far, eight issues have Russian Orthodox Church and there is pervasive in all three Baltic republics: power, but if anything does change, made their way out of Ukraine. The is no longer any need for the Ukrai­ Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. then certainly for the worse," he said. Chronicle is published in samvydav nian Catholic Church of the past." Speaking of his native Estonia, Mr. form by the Initiative Group for the But in actual fact this is hot so. The Randpere, who was a deputy justice Looking to the future of Estonia and Defense of Believers and the Church, strongest bases of the Ukrainian minister in the republic when he other non-Russian republics, Mr.

Load more

  16

Copy Link