їізНегі by the Ukrainian National Association Inc.. a fraternal non-profit association| ШrainianWeel;! V Vol. LVII No. 7 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12,1989 50 cents Back in the USSR Ukrainian-language school students Unrest in Moldavia underscores from Kiev participate in exchange smoldering nationalities issue by John Kun The youngsters from Ukraine arrived only a little over a year after Phineas JERSEY CITY, N.J. - The second vement for the Defense and Support of UNA Washington Office Anderson, headmaster of Green Fields smallest republic in the Soviet Union, Perestroika, told Andrew Wilson of the WASHINGTON - Seven students Country Day School, and George Moldavia, has become the latest re­ London Observer that "We are not Kostilyov, director of Kiev School No. public to confront Moscow in regard to separatists, but we want to preserve our and two teachers from School No. 155 in Kiev are participating in a unique 155, began titscussing the possibility .of the nationality question. culture. While the Moldavians look an exchange between their schools. Crowds of Moldavians marched culturally to Rumania, they claim exchange program with students from through the streets of Kishinev, the fraternity with the Baltic republics' the Green Fields Country Day School in In 1988, the United States Infor­ capital city on January 22, chanting Democratic Fronts. Tucson, Ariz. The students, age 13 to 16 mation Agency conducted a competi­ anti-government slogans. The protest, According to Mr. Rozhka, since 1970 and in grades 7 through 10, are part of tion for student exchange projects organized by the Mateyvich Club, a it has been impossible to buy a Ru­ an exchange underwritten by the U.S. between the United States and thei group formed in June 1988 which manian book in Moldavia. "They exist Information Agency's Samantha Smith Soviet Union and Eastern/Central demands to make Moldavian the of­ in Baku and Alma-Ata, but not here in Memorial Exchange Program, which Europe. The Green Fields Country Day ficial language of the republic and Kishinev," he said. was created through legislation spon­ School received a 520,400 grant. The combat Russification, was joined by "Of course, we're not forCeaucescu", sored by Rep. Morris K. Udall CD- school raised additional funding to many passers-by, paralyzing the city's he was quick to add, "but, Ceaucescu Ariz.). support a total of seven students and public transportation, reported Reu- won't last forever." At a luncheon for the students hosted two teachers in each direction during ter's correspondent Peter Conradi. Since last May when the Union of by Rep. Udall at tke Cannon House the first year of this exchange. The Communist Party daily in Mol­ Writers in Moldavia formed a group Office Building in Washington, on The Arizona school, the oldest in­ davia, Sovetskaya Moldavia, reported concerned with national and environ­ February 2, details about the edu­ dependent day school in the state, has in its January 27 edition that this was mental rights, the cultural democratic cational exchange were provided. (Continued on page 4) one of the most serious outbreaks of movement in Moldavia has been grow­ unrest in Moldavia in recent years. The ing, countered by strong opposition newspaper stated that the Moldavian from government officials. The party Communist Party leadership had con­ newspaper refused to publish the Member of famed Berezil Theater demned the group for trying to fan movement's program, which call for the ethnic animosity and "trying to divide re-Latinization of the alphabet in the Joseph Hirniak, leading actor, people according to their nationali­ party-controlled press. What were ties." hardly revolutionary demands then Moldavia, a republic of 4.2 million turned into a sharply nationalistic stage director, dead at 93 people, among them Ukrainians, Rus­ platform. NEW YORK - Joseph Hirniak, a Mr. Hirniak was arrested also that sians, Jews and Bulgarians, was ab­ In the early summer, the Mateyvich leading Ukrainian stage actor and year as a supporter of Mr. Kurbas and sorbed into the Soviet Union in 1940. Club modeled after the Estonian Po­ director who worked with theater .was exiled to Chibiu in the Soviet Moldavia is closely related both geo­ pular Front and named for Moldavian companies in Ukraine, Austria and the Arctic. There he and his wife performed graphically and ethnically to neigh­ writer Alexei Mateyvich first focused United States, died here on January 17. in the Kosolapkin Theater (1934-1940). boring Communist Rumania. Like on culture and music. It has now also He was 93. (Continued on page 4) Rumanians, the Moldavians consider pushed for the deportation of non- Mr. Hirniak was born on April 14, themselves a Latin, rather than Slavic Moldavian "undesirables," (only two- 1895, in Strusiv, Terebovlia county, people. The Moldavian language was thirds of the total 4.2 million are western Ukraine. He began his career in always written in Latin script, until the Moldavians) and continues to strive to 1914 in an amateur theater company of Soviet occupation, which forced the make Moldavian the official language. the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (Sichovi people to use the Cyrillic alphabet. Soon afterward, the Green move- Striltsi). Yuri Rozhka, a founder of the Mo- fContinued on page 16) He went on to work with professional companies, including the Ukrainska Besida Theater in Lviv, the New Lviv Theater and the Ivan Franko Ukrai­ Demjanjuk appeal postponed nian Drama Theater. While with the CLEVELAND - The Supreme tending when he was attacked. Mr. Franko Theater he married a young Court appeal of John Demjanjuk, who Sheftel told the court he has not been actress, Olimpia Dobrovolska. was convicted in April 1988 of Nazi war able to find anyone willing to take on In 1922 the couple joined the Berezil crimes by an Israeli court, has been the case. Theater, which was established that postponed again. The appeal will now year as an experimental theater under Speaking with The Weekly via tele­ the direction of Les Kurbas. In 1926 the begin on November 1. phone from Cleveland, Edward Nish- The Israeli Supreme Court agreed to Berezil Theater moved to Kharkiv. nic, president of the John Demjanjuk According to the Encyclopedia of reschedule the appeal after chief defense Defense Fund, said the cicumstances attorney Yoram Sheftel requested an Ukraine (1988), as an actor and di­ surrounding the case, including what he rector, Mr. Hirniak "developed Kur- extension. During a two-hour hearing referred to as the "alleged suicide" of on February 2, Mr. Sheftel sought the bas's system of 'transformation' and Mr. Eitan and the attack on Mr. Sheftel, attempted to combine the traditions of postponement due to his own ill health "have a great bearing" on the fact that it following an attack in December by a the Ukrainian intermede with the art of has been difficult to find another lawyer the modern theater." Holocaust survivor who hurled acid at for the defense. his face. Mr. Sheftel still is suffering The Berezil theater was constantly from blurred vision in his injured eye. The death of one lawyer and the attacked by Soviet critics for natio­ As well, Mr. Sheftel noted that he attack upon another "are something nalism and refusing to adhere to the has not been able to find a lawyer to any lawyer has to think about" before Communist Party line. In 1933 its replace Dov Eitan, the Israeli lawyer accepting the case, he said. director was arrested, and the theater who apparently committed suicide in The Demjanjuk appeal was to have was reorganized to conform to the Joseph Hirniak with his wife, Olimpia December, whose funeral he was at- been heard beginning on May 4. dictates of socialist realism. Dobrovolska, in the 1950s in New York. THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12,1989 No. 7 A GLIMPSE OF SOVIET REALITY Ukrainian Democratic Union attends congress in Riga Chornobyl area is declared LONDON -- A delegation repre­ because the Soviet authorities were still senting the Ukrainian Democratic violating human rights. Union, which sees itself as an opposi­ Resolutions passed, by the congress unfit for permanent habitation tion party, attended the second all- included a demand for the release of union congress of the Democratic arrested members of the Karabakh by Dr. David Marples the summer of 1988. Union held on January 26-29 in Riga, Committee, the unofficial Armenian Local conditions preclude any form Latvia, reported the Ukrainian Press nationalist group. The congress stressed Last October, an article in Pravda of conventional existence, according to Agency based here. that the Baltic republics are still occu­ disputed the contention of the Kom- Mr. Syedov. In the village of Opa- A total of 135 delegates from every pied, and that the Democratic Union binat production association, which is chychi, for example, which has 103 region of the USSR attended, as did 39 would continue to support the demo­ in charge of the decontamination effort residents, radioactive contamination on guests. cratic opposition in these republics who in the. area of fallout from the 1986 clothing and other objects is said to be The congress was scheduled to take are struggling against foreign occupa­ nuclear disaster at Chornobyl, that the two to three times higher than the place in a hall, but permission was tion. city of Chornobyl itself might have to be permissible norms for those zones in refused when the delegates arrived on Another resolution supported the razed. which people are working by shifts at January 26. They then went to a hotel in rights of the Crimean Tatars to regain Three months later, a new analysis by the nuclear plant. Mr. Syedov may be Jurmala, but after a short while the their autonomous republic.