www.ukrweekly.com Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc.. a fratcrnil non-profit association rainianWee Vol. LIV No. 15 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 13,1986 25 cents Soviets refuse Edmonton monument defaced second time to reunite toddler by Michael B. Bociurkiw JERSEY CITY, N.J. — For the second time in less than five months an with defector parents Edmonton monument dedicated to the victims of the Ukrainian famine of 1932-33 was defaced by vandals. Sources in the provincial capital say the words "Nazi lies" were painted across the face of the monument some- time on the evening of April 6. The three-year-old monument stands in front of City Hall in downtown Edmonton, also the site of a statue erected on the occasion of the 90th anniversary,of Ukrainian pioneer settle- rrient in Canada. The defacement of the monument has outraged members of Edmonton's Ukrainian community. Said Andrij Semotiuk, president of the provincial Ukrainian Canadian Committee: "It was a verv childish act for someone to do." The incident occurred just one day after the conclusion of a Ukrainian community conference on the participa- tion of Ukrainians in World War II. Myron Spolsky, a spokesperson for the provincial office of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee, said the incident is "very probably" a response to the conference by some unknown group. The three-day conference, organized to present the Ukrainian role during and after the second world war, drew a standing-room-only crowd to a down- town Edmonton hotel. It was modelled Kaisa Randpere: at 2, possibly the on conferences held over the past 12 world's youngest political prisoner. months in Winnipeg and Toronto. A release issued jointly by the UCC JERSEY CITY, N.J. — A two-year- and the Jewish Federation of Edmon- old Estonian girl, separated from her ton condemned the act as "an out- n SornbergerTThe Edmonton Journal parents for more than a year after they {Continued on page 11) The famine monument, as it appeared after vandals defaced it last week. defected to the West, may never see her mother and father again because Soviet authorities refuse to reunite the family. This heart-rending story of a family WCFU president to address broken apart by the intransigent Soviet political system began in August 1984 ^vhen Valdo Randpere, 26, a senior aide 31st UNA Convention banquet to the Estonian minister of justice, and Leila Miller, 23, a renowned Estonian JERSEY CITY, NJ. — Peter singer, defected from the Soviet Union Savaryn, president of the World while on a tour of Finland. Congress of Free Ukrainians, will be Having decided that they could no the Ukrainian-language keynote longer bear the injustices of the Soviet speaker at the upcoming convention occupation of their native Estonia, the of the Ukrainian National Associa- married couple secured passage aboard tion. The 31st UNA Convention will be UNA convention countdown and UNA a Swedish ship and requested asylum facts — page 5. from Swedish officials upon their held the week of May 26 in Dear- arrival in Stockholm. born, a suburb of Detroit. Some 370 Ш A Ukrainian party boss's demise — page 2. The decision to defect was a painful delegates and members of the UNA Ш TASS carries Myroslav Medvid's one because it meant that the Estonian Supreme Assembly are expected to couple would have to subject them- participate in the quadrennial con- response to Rep. Fred J. Eckert — page 3. selves to the arduous process of securing clave, at which new supreme execu- Ш Alvin Kapusta speaks on finding one's the release of their daughter, Kaisa, tive officers, supreme advisors and roots — page 4. from the Soviet Union. supreme auditors will be elected. The Ш Book review — page 6. Kaisa's parents were forced to leave convention will take place at the Ш Uke-eye on Demjanjuk case and Nazi- their daughter at home because the Hyatt Regency Hotel. hunting — page 7, Soviets do not allow family members to Mr. Savaryn will be the keynote Ш Ukrainians in the Yukon — page 8. travel abroad together. Thinking that speaker at the convention banquet, В The Avant-Garde Ukrainian Theatre—- (Continued on page 13) Peter Savaryn (Continued on page 13) page 9. THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 13, 1986 No. 15 A GLIMPSE OF SOVIET REALITY Soviet Ukrainian cultural activist says situation in Ukraine is "tragic" A Ukrainian party boss's JERSEY CITY, N.J. — A member of do not consider themselves a part of their the Soviet Ukrainian cultural establish- republics," the official said of the ment interviewed last year characte- situation in Ukraine and Byelorussia. career enters its final chapter rized the current situation in Ukraine as Despite the assiduous use of repres- by Roman Solchanyk ing patriotic and international up- "extremely tragic," since almost all sion against Ukrainians who exercise bringing." attempts at cultural expression are their cultural freedoms, there are pros- A recent issue of the Ukrainian The Ukrainian samizdat journal stymied by the state. pects for improvements in the situation Communist Party and government Ukrainsky Visnyk reported that Mr. These were just some of the obser- in Ukraine. daily Radianska Ukraina has an- Kutsevol was summoned to Moscow in vations of an unamed official in an Said the official: "If something were nounced the retirement of Vasyl Ste- November 1971 to report before a ple- interview that was printed in Soviet suddenly to happen the situation could panovych Kutsevol, the longtime chair- num of the Central Committee on the Nationality Survey, a British publica- change in a couple of months. The man of the People's Control Committee work of his party organization. The tion focusing on the problems of dissent people can begin to and will spe? in the republic. Mr. Kutsevol is 66, and Central Committee's chief ideologist, in the Soviet Union. The official re- Ukrainian... I don't think all the it is most likely that he has fallen victim Mikhail Suslov, is said to have de- quested anonymity. terrible television programs, news- to the current campaign aimed at manded Mr. Kutsevol's dismissal, a The official corroborates the findings papers, journals and school teachers enforcing stricter discipline on all levels move that was averted by the interven- of earlier reports out of the USSR that wilfbe able to smother Ukraine. That's of Soviet society. tion of the Ukrainian party chief, Petro indicate an increase of official repres- impossible." Shelest. The government apparatus known as sion of all expressions that can be (Continued on page 15) "people's control," which Mr. Kutsevol Two years later, Mr. Shelest had interpreted as "manifestations of na- had headed since November 1973, already been relegated to the status of a tionalism" — such as Ukrainian-lan- performs the functions of a watchdog non-person and Mr. Kutsevol was guage films, music and plays. agency. Its main tasks are to strengthen moved to Kiev as chairman of the Soviets officials detain People's Control Committee. There he Although people in Georgia, Ar- discipline and "socialist legality," and it menia, Estonia, Central Asia and in the is charged with overseeing the imple- languished for more than a decade until peace group members last week's announcement that he was Muslim republics face fewer restraints mentation of directives issued by party in expressing their national feelings, and government bodies. released from his obligations "in con- JERSEY.CITY, N.J. — On February nection with retirement on pension." Byelorussians and Ukrainians, the 4, 16 members of the Group to Esta- Given the emphasis that General official said, do not enjoy such freedom. Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev has Mr. Kutsevol's successor is Albert blish Trust, an unsanctioned Soviet Vasyliovych Merzlenko, 59, a mining "Everything imaginable is being done peace group, were detained on their way placed on rooting out corruption and so that these peoples speak Russian and improving economic performance, one engineer by training. A party member to an apartment where a meeting of the must assume that the People's Control since 1948, Mr. Merzlenko completed group was to take place. The group was Committee and its local organs will, of his studies in 1953 and went on to work going to discuss a letter concerning necessity, play a more active role than as a deputy chief engineer, chief engi- Andrei Sakharov disarmament which had been sent to the before in Mr. Gorbachev's campaign neer, and head of a mine. His party and 27th Communist Party Congress. for "renewal." Moreover, the party government work began in 1957 with USSR News Brief reported that at leadership has presumably also taken a assignments as a second and then first may be swapped least one member of the group was closer look at the machinery of "people's secretary of the raion party committee placed in a psychiatric hospital, al- HAMBURG, West Germany — A control" itself, with a view towards and as first secretary of a city party though it is not known who. Member German-language television station in ridding it of its own dead wood. committee. Mr. Merzlenko is a member Nina Kovalenko was severely beaten Luxembourg said on April 8 that This certainly seems to be the case in of the Ukrainian Central Committee after having been placed in detention. and a deputy of the Ukrainian Supreme dissident Soviet physicist and Nobel She was held in a police station until 1 a.m. Ukraine. Mr. Kutsevol was essentially Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov kicked upstairs at the end of 1973 when Soviet. Prior to assuming his new post, Three other members were also beaten. he served, since 1981, as chairman of the would be freed in an East-West ex- Three more members were driven 20 he was made chairman of the republican change by May 18.