UKRAINIAN HERALD Issue IV Herstellung Druckgenossensehaft „Cicero" eGmbH, 8 Miinchen 80, Zeppelinstr. 67 UKRAINIAN HERALD Undergronud Magazine from Ukraine Issue IV Published by ABN Press Bureau Munich, 1972 FROM THE PUBLISHERS The fourth issue of The Ukrainian Herald was published in Ukraine in January 1971. Several copies of it reached the West. Our edition is an English translation of the Ukrainian text which appeared in the periodical Liberation Path, Lon­ don, Nos. VI and VII-VIII, 1971. The illustra- tions-portraits of Alla Horska, Valentyn Moroz and Vasyl Symonenko, as well as the index were added by the publishers. The poetry was translated by Vera Rich, an English poetess. Footnotes were prepared by Dr. Nicholas G. Bohatiuk, Professor of Economics, Le Moyne College. THE TASK OF THE “UKRAINSKYI VISNYK”1 The necessity for such an uncensored publication arose long ago in Ukraine. There are many problems which evoke the general interest of and disturb wide circles of the Ukrai­ nian community, but these are never explained by the official press. When, on the rare occasions the press does mention these problems under the pressure of circumstances, it resorts to conscious falsification. The “Visnyk”2 includes without generalization information about the violations of the freedom of speech and other demo­ cratic freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, about the judicial and extra-judicial repressions in Ukraine, about the violation of national sovereignty (facts about chauvinism and Ukrainophobia), about the attempts to misinform the public, about the situation of Ukrainian political prisoners in prisons and camps, about various acts of protest and so on. The “Vis­ nyk” gives a review or fully quotes publicistic articles, docu­ ments, artistic works, and other materials which have already acquired wide circulation in “Samvydav”.3 The “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” at any rate is not an anti-Soviet or an anti-Communist publication. In its content and purpose, it is fully legal and constitutional. The criticism of individuals, organs, institutions, including the highest ones, for allowing errors in the decision-making of internal political problems, 1 UKRAINSKYI VISNYK — UKRAINIAN HERALD — patriotic, underground journal published in Ukraine; the first five issues available in the West: Issue I (January 1970), Issue II (May 1970), Issue III (October 1970), Issue IV (January 1971), Issue V (May 1971). 2 VISNYK — Ukrainian Herald. 2 SAMVYDAV — selfpublished, uncensored works in typed or mi­ meographed form currently circulating clandestinely in Ukraine. 5 particularly for violating the democratic rights of individuals and nations, is not rated by the “Visnyk” as anti-Soviet acti­ vity, but is considered as a guaranteed principle of socialist democracy and a constitutional right, and the honourary duty of each genuine citizen. The unusual conditions of the “Vis- nyk’s” publication can be explained by the fact that in this country the violation of constitutional guarantees and the ille­ gal persecution of people active in public life occur very often. The “Visnyk” is not an organ of any organization, or group with a united program or an organizational unity, and there­ fore will allow the printing of self-published materials, written from several viewpoints. The task of the “Visnyk” is merely to objectively inform about concealed cases and phenomena in Ukrainian public life. The “Visnyk” will therefore not include any materials which are written especially for it and are not in circulation. The “Visnyk” does not print any such documents (as a rule anonymous) which are anti-Soviet, that is those which object to the democratically elected Soviet as a form of public participation in the governing of the country, and anti-Communist, that is, those which totally discard the Com­ munist ideology as such. The “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” can only function with the active support of the public, which not only will disseminate it, but will not allow any anti-democratic or Ukrainophobic act, any case of an illegal persecution of people for their beliefs, to remain without publicity or appropriate reaction. The “Visnyk” guarantees an impartial approach to infor­ mational material. In the following editions, we will inform you of exposed errors or inaccuracies which are inevitable in view of the circumstances of its publishing. 6 THE TRAGIC DEATH OF ALLA HORSKA On Novem ber 28, 1970, the U krainian artist and community- leader, Alla Horska, was murdered under still dubious circum­ stances. Alla Oleksandrivna Horska was born on September 18, 1929 in a Russified Kyiv family. She graduated from the Kyiv Arts Institute. In the beginning of the 1960’s she became actively involved in the process of national revival, which gripped the younger generations of the creative Kyiv intelligentsia. She began to use the Ukrainian language. In 1962 she became one 7 of the organizers of the well-known Club of Creative Youth (disbanded in 1964). She participated in the organization of literary and art evenings, the circulation of underground works, the collection of mutual assistance funds, etc. In 1964, along with artists Lyudmyla Semykina, Panas Za- lyvakha and Halyna Sevruk, Alla Horska created the Shev­ chenko stained-glass window in the vestibule of Kyiv Uni­ versity. The window depicted an angry Shevchenko, who with one arm embraced a mistreated woman-Ukraine, and with the other, highly raised, held a book. The stained-glass window bore the inscription: “I shall glorify these small dumb slaves, I shall put the word on guard beside them” (the photo of the stained-glass window had been published in the “Ukrainian Calendar” for 1965, issued by the Ukrainian social and cultural society in Poland). The window was brutally destroyed, while Alla Horska and Lyudmyla Semykina were expelled from the Artists’ Union of Ukraine. During the investigation of their “case” they conducted themselves with dignity. Below we are reproducing an excerpt from the brief record of the “discussions” about the already destroyed stained-glass window which took place in the Artists’ Union of Ukraine. FROM THE REPORT ON THE “DISCUSSION” ABOUT SHEVCHENKO’S STAINED-GLASS WINDOW AT THE T. H. SHEVCHENKO UNIVERSITY OF KYIV April, 1964, a section of the decorative-m onum ental a rt of the Union of Artists in Ukraine. The meeting is chaired by the head of the executive bureau of the Artists’ Union in the Ukr. SSR for the province of Kyiv, the meritorious art worker, V. Shatalin.'1 V. Shatalin: There seem to be many spectators. This is a closed meeting. Only members of the Union have the right to be present. We ask the rest to leave the room. (Noise and 4 4 VIKTOR SHATALIN (1926-), Ukrainian writer. 8 disorder as those spectators fortunate enough to have gained entrance into the room are led outside the door.) V. Shatalin continues: The artists A. Horska, L. Semykina, and P. Zalyvakha made a stained-glass widow in the vestibule of the University of Kyiv in honour of the 150th anniversary of the birth of T. H. Shevchenko. The window provoked a ge­ neral protest and was destroyed at the directive of the party organization of the University and the Department of Higher Education. The secretary of the provincial party committee, comrade Boychenko5 *, proposed that the Organizational Bureau of the Union inspect the window. The decisions reached by the commission (whose members were Shatalin, Friedman, and Panfylov) are that the window is an ideologically harmful phe­ nomenon. Shevchenko is portrayed behind a grating. Their treatment of the subject is severly harsh. It does not resemble the Kobzar’s0 portrait. We must judge the attitudes of Union members, Horska and Semykina, harshly in this responsible act and proceed severely towards them. L. Sem ykina: I would like to inform you of the work of the artists upon the stained-glass window of Shevchenko. The term of work was short, the work itself tense. We had to work night and day and even slept on the scaffolding. We put our very souls into it. We wanted to show the grandeur, the indestruc­ tibility, the revolutionary rebelliousness that was Shevchenko, his filial ties with mother-Ukraine, whom he defended. We wanted to determine his image by contemporary means. The barbarian destruction of our stained-glass window, which you did not even want to show the community or the students, and the brutal forcing of the commission, made up of artists and writers, from the university — all this provokes a deep indig­ nation. We demand a censure of this vandalism and the pu­ nishment of those who allowed it. (During the appearance of 5 V. BOYCHENKO ( ), secretary of Kyiv Party Committee who attacked Ukrainian writers L. Kostenko, V. Stus and I. Dzyuba, deploring that they had “succumbed to nihilist moods, enthused about formalist trends and ideologically harmful assertions.” 0 KOBZAR — reference to T. Shevchenko, the Bard of Ukraine. 9 L. Semykina, the artist Synytsia7 supported her by remarks. V. Shatalin: “Comrade Synytsia! You’re drunk! Leave this meeting immediately!” — Synytsia is escorted from the room). M. Chepikh: The stained-glass window is sloppy work. There is no picture, no forethought; the colour scheme of market flowers on silver paper; a disfigured Shevchenko, a woman. This is a disgrace, not art. This work cannot adorn the Kyiv State University. Vaydekov: It is a terrible cage. Had you concentrated on the vertical, you could have avoided all this. You could have thought of various things. Instead, you followed the road of contemporary abstract generalization. You desired to make an effect, but the one you made was pitiful. It is necessary to con­ sider the outcome more closely. (S'. Ostoshchenko: The arms and several other minor details are not to my liking. But in general, I also do not like such un­ provoked attacks, this atmosphere. It appears to me that the subject matter is appropriate.