A special 95th anniversary tribute to the Ukrainian National Association appears on pages 5 through 9. ffl llshedJ)jMh^ Association Inc.. a fraternal non-profit association^ Vol. LVII No. 8 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19,1989 50 cents Chornobyl effects Ukrainian Language Society conference reveals defiance by Bohdan Nahaylo Among the speakers were the senior his "retirement." in Byelorussia rainianfigure of thWeekle Ukrainian literary com­ The speakerys rejecte d the principle of On February 11-12 the Taras Shev- munity, Oles Honchar, and the head of Russian-native language bilingualism revealed by Soviets chenko Ukrainian Language Society the Kiev branch of the Writers' Union of and demanded that Ukrainian be made held its inaugural conference in Kiev. Ukraine, Ivan Drach. the sole official language of the Ukrain­ JERSEY CITY, N.J — Almost one- The meeting of this important informal The Ukrainian authorities were re­ ian SSR, though on the understanding fifth of Byelorussia's agricultural land patriotic association, which is named presented by the republic's ideological that the rights of Russian and other was contaminated by radioactive fall­ after the national poet of Ukraine, secretary, Yuriy Yelchenko, and the minority languages in Ukraine be out from the April 1986 Chornobyl turned into an impressive manifestation deputy chairman of the Ukrainian SSR guaranteed legal protection. nuclear disaster, Pravda, the Soviet of Ukrainian national assertiveness and Council of Ministers, Maria Orlyk. In Ukraine, it was stressed', Ukrainian Communist daily newspaper reported of protest against the reactionary What they witnessed must have left should be recognized as the republic's on February 11. policies of the Ukrainian Party leader­ them with no doubt as to the defiant language of inter-nationality discourse. This figure, released almost three ship headed by Volodymyr Shcherbyt- mood of the nationally minded ele­ Jewish and Korean speakers represent­ years after the worst nuclear disaster in sky. ments in Ukrainian society. ing Ukraine's national minorities sup­ history, further confirms reports broad­ The society is concerned with im­ Most of the speeches are reported to ported this position. cast on the Soviet nightly news pro­ proving the situation of the Ukrainian have been very forthright. Strong The party authorities in Kiev came gram, "Vremya," in early February, language and culture and is led by criticism was voiced about the damage under strong attack for pulling in an which reveals that people in Byelorussia writers and other representatives of the done to the Ukrainian language and opposite direction to that of the forces were never told that they were living in Ukrainian cultural intelligentsia. In culture during the Stalin and Brezhnev for national renewal in Ukraine, and in radioactive "hot spots." Nor were they recent months, branches of the society periods and quite a few of the speakers particular for exacerbating strains in told of the potential danger to their have sprung up all over Ukraine. Thus, attacked the policies of the Shcherbyt- their relations with the Writers' Union health. The news report clearly indicat­ in a relatively short span of time, the sky regime. of Ukraine. ed that government authorities were society has developed into an important One of them, a woman teacher from The delegates also embarrassed the aware that 20 settlements were in patriotic pressure group. Berdyanske even reminded the confer­ Ukrainian ideological secretary by dis­ dangerous situations soon after the According to the first reports provid­ ence of the conditions in which Petro regarding his opposition to the idea of accident, but kept quiet, UPI reported ed by Radio Kiev and a Moscow repre­ Shelest had been removed as the repub­ creating a Ukrainian popular front in earlier this month. sentative of the Ukrainian Helsinki lic's party leader in 1972 for alleged support of restructuring based on the According to the "Vremya" broad­ Union, the inaugural conference was Ukrainian nationalism and replaced by Baltic model. In recent months this Mr. Shcherbytsky. cast on February 2, from Minsk, Byelo­ attended by 500 delegates and 200 issue has led to a confrontation between russia's capital city, local government observers from all over the republic. Up Mention of Mr. Shcherbytsky's name the Shcherbytsky leadership and the officials kept secret maps showing the to 2,000 more people for whom there is reported to have been met with boos, Writers' Union of Ukraine. Mr. Yel­ level of contamination throughout the was no room in the hall listened to the and at one point, the delegates spontan­ chenko was booed when he reiterated the warning that such a movement republic immediately following the proceedings over a loudspeaker system. eously rose to their feet and called for would amount to a political opposition Chornobyl disaster. party. "Up until now, all these maps since the accident were a half-secret if not National democratic movements Every mention of a Ukrainian popu­ fully top-secret. The public of the lar movement for restructuring is re­ Byelorussian republic did not know the issue "Charter of Freedom" ported to have drawn loud applause antf whole truth about the accident," the chants of "Popular Front," "Popular report stated. Front." When it came to voting on the JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Non-Rus­ appeal to the Russian intelligentsia, the matter, Mr. Yelchenko left the hall. The These newest reports have prompted sian representatives of national de­ Russian democratic movement and all conference's support for the creation of Soviet authorities to evacuate the mocratic movements in Armenia, Geor­ Russian patriots to "support the ac­ Baltic-type popular movementswas above-mentioned 20 villages in the gia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Byelo­ cepted international views regarding registered in the resolutions. Byelorussian republic because of con­ russia, Ukraine and the Crimean Tatars national independence" as expressed in tinuing high levels of fallout, Reuters met on January 28-29 in Vilnius, the final document of the Vienna review The head of the ideology department reported on February 3. Some of the Lithuania, for the fifth time since the meeting of the Conference on Security of the Central Committee of the Com­ villages, mostly farming communities formation last June in Ukraine of the and Cooperation in Europe, only 16 munist Party, Leonid Kravchuk, was are up to 200 miles north of the accident Coordinating Committee of the Non- signed the far more radical charter. strongly criticized by some of the site. Russian Patriotic Movements of the speakers for his recent attacks on The charter announced the formation Ukrainian television against the Writ­ This number is in addition to the 107 USSR, reported the press service of the of a committee, "which will unite its settlements in Byelorussia that were Ukrainian Helsinki Union. ers' Union of Ukraine in connection efforts towards the formation of na­ with the latter's efforts to form a evacuated immediately after the April Thirty-two individuals representing tionally liberated and independent popular movement in support of re­ 1986 disaster. 17 non-Russian groups participated in states." structuring. Mr. Drach is reported to Reuters also reported that most the meeting, which was also attended by have stated that Mr. Krawchuk's misre­ official attention in the last two years Sergei Grigoryants, editor of Glasnost What makes the document more presentation of the writers' actions and has focused on the aftermath in U- magazine. Mykola Horbal, Oles Shev- radical than any previous ones issued by motives left him no option but to take kraine, where the accident occurred. chenko, Ivan Makar and Bohdan Hryt- the representatives of non-Russian the official to court. At one stage, Even here the evacuation was delayed say represented the Ukrainian Helsinki national democratic movements is its delegates began shouting "Kravchuk 36 hours until Ukrainian authorities Union at the meeting. insistence on total independence for the Out" "Kravchuk Out." devised a plan. Two documents of particular signi­ respective nations. But over the last several weeks, the ficance were issued during the parley: an "Without wishing to impose our ideas The case of the Ukrainian poet Vasyl Soviet media has concentrated on appeal to the Russian intelligentsia and of a state system and sovereignty on Stus, who died in the Soviet labor camp effects in neighboring Byelorussia, a "Charter of Freedom of the Enslaved anybody, we however, consider it unac­ in September 1985, was raised by the which was in the direct path of a stream Peoples oi the Ubbk. ceptable that nations should exist not writer Stanislav Telniuk who demanded (Continued on page 16) While all the participants signed the (Continued on page 11) (Continued on page 16) The Ukrainian National Association, 1894-1989: I 95 years of service to the Ukrainian community A GLIMPSE OF SOVIET REALITY GLASNOST DIARY: Eyewitness accounts of Ukrainian famine recording changes in the USSR appear in Dnipropetrovske newspaper Ukraine's national, cultural and re­ Sohoydochny Street ligious rights. Andrei Aleksandrovch Zhdanov by Dr. David Marples spikes to make thrusts into the soil to If you're in Kiev this summer and (1896-1948), was a Soviet Communist ensure that no grain had been concealed want to find an address on Zhdanov leader and general, a loyal supporter of The famine of 1933 continues to beneath the surface. Street, you may be looking for a long Stalin. He took part in both the evoke unhappy memories in many parts Despite protests and even physical time. For, according to the capital city's Finnish-Russian War and World War II. of Ukraine. In a recently obtained copy resistance from farmers, all the grain executive committee, the name of the A full member of the Politburo, he was of Prapor Yunosti, the Dnipropetrov­ was taken from the village. Subsequent­ street is being changed in honor of instrumental in forming anti-Western ske Oblast Komsomol newspaper, from ly, the village church was pulled down Hetman Petro Konashevych Sahayda- policy.