www.ukrweekly.com ubHshed by the Ukrainian National Association Inc.. a fraternal non-profit associition rainian Weekly Vol. LVII No. 36 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 3,1989 50 cents Draft law on language is approved Russian Orthodox parish in Lviv by Ukrainian Supreme Soviet Presidium chooses Ukrainian autocephaly MUNICH - The Presidium ol ihe I he Ukrainian SSR guarantees the JERSEY CITY, N.J. - During a cribing the U AOC's years of struggle for Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR comprehensive development and func­ parish meeting on Saturday, August 19, survival since it was forcibly incor­ on August 29 approved the draft ol a tioning of the Ukrainian language in all the clergy, church committee and pa­ porated into the ROC in 1930. The Rev. law on languages in the repuhlie. spheres of social life. rishioners of Ss. Peter and Paul Russian Yarema also read aloud the text of the reported Radio liberty. Ihe Ukrainian SSR guarantees the Orthodox Church in Lviv, Ukraine, initiative group's appeal and said that a publicly rejected the authority of the Radio Liberty quoted a Radio Kiev free use of the Russian language as the number of UAOC communities had Moscow Patriarchate, reported the report that said the dratt will be made language of inter-nationality communi­ formed in cities and villages around press service of the Ukrainian Helsinki publie in early September and will then cation between peoples of the USSR. Ukraine. Union. be subject to discussion. In the work of government, party and This declaration of Ukrainian auto­ Earlier, on August 5, the Ukrainian public organs, businesses, institutions In support of the appeal of the cephaly would apparently make Ss. SSR press had published the draft law and organizations located in areas of Initiative Committee for the Revival of Peter and Paul in Lviv the first real on "Changes and Supplements to the compact settlement by citizens of other the Ukrainian Autocephalous Ortho­ functioning parish of the UAOC in Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the nationalities, other national languages dox Church, formed in Kiev on Fe­ Ukraine, reported the UHU's press Ukrainian SSk."Article73 of thatdraft may be used along with the state bruary 15, the priests and faithful service. provided for state language status for language. declared their membership as a parish in The parish's declaration also received Ukrainian and guaranteed "free use of The Ukrainian SSR expresses its the U AOC and requested the protection the support of the Ukrainian Catholic the Russian language as the language of governmental concern about the free of Demetrios I, ecumenical patriarch to Church, which was represented by Ivan inter-nationality communication of the development and use of all national the Greek Orthodox Church, in an Hrechko during the meeting. peoples of the USSR." The article also languages employed by the population appeal signed and sent to Istanbul on The Rev. Bohdan Mykhailechko, notes that procedures for use of the of the republic. August 19. head of the initiative committee for the Ukrainian and other languages are Procedures for use of the Ukrainian The Rev. Volodymyr Yarema, the revival of the UAOC, celebrated one of determined by law. and other languages in the Ukrainian pastor of Ss. Peter and Paul, reportedly three divine liturgies held that day. Article 73 of the draft law on changes SSR are determined by law. addressed the parish meeting, des­ (Continued on page 4) to the Ukrainian SSR Constitution follows in translation from the Ukrai­ nian text as published in Radianska Ukraina. Ukrainian Catholic Church: an issue authorities can no longer ignore JERSEY CITY, N.J. - In recent Street, which Moscow News published News issue No. 31, the exarch of The state language of the Ukrainian months, it has frequently been said that in its issue No. 24, dated June 11. (See Ukraine writes: Soviet Socialist Republic is the Ukrai­ the Soviet press holds hours of interest­ The Weekly, June 25). "What triggered this act? Certainly nian language. ing, revealing, even astonishing reading, The metropolitan wrote to Moscow not Stalin's repressions, which we all not only for fts own citizens, but also for News explaining his version of what condemn, but the fact that the Uniate Western followers of the changing happened in March 1946, when a synod Church, which had set itself up artifi­ atmosphere glasnost and perestroika in Lviv purportedly liquidated the cially on captured territory in Ukraine have provided. Ukrainian Catholic Church. In his and Byelorussia, had become out- And at times, this news is not only response, published in Moscow (Continued on page 4) published for the benefit of Soviet citizens, but for foreigners, as welL Moscow News, a weekly newspaper published in the English language, recently carried a most interesting selection of materials about the status of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Below, we offer excerpts from the views of three Soviet citizens about the status of that Church, which has been banned since 1946. Over a period of three weeks, Mos­ cow News published the viewpoints of Metropolitan Filaret Denysenko, exarch of Ukraine for the Russian Orthodox Church, Sergei Filatov, a research associate at the Institute of the U.S.A. Ф Canadian high school students and Canada, and Volodymyr Sterniuk, visit peers in Lviv — page 9. the metropolitan of Lviv of the Ukrai­ Ф Ukrainian writer comments on nian Catholic Church. "Little Russianism" — page 2. Although few stories about Ukrai­ Ф Ukrainians joins Baits in U.S. to nian Catholics in Moscow hunger protest Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact — striking in demand for the legalization page 3. of their banned Church have made Ф Ukrainian National Associa­ headlines in the Western press, they tion, Dumka Chorus plan jubilee have provoked attention in the Soviet concert at Lincoln Center — page 5. Union. Ф Narodna mudrist: a survey of In fact, they have caused such a stir folk sayings — page 7. that Metropolitan Filaret of Kiev and Ф Dnipro soccer team from Dni- Halych, the highest ranking hierarch of propetrovsks plays U.S.A. team in the Russian Orthodox Church in U- Philadelphic — page 8. kraine, responded to a photograph of ІЯІІІІІІІ Ukrainian Catholics striking on Gorky Metropolitans Volodymyr and Filaret: is there room for dialogue? THE.UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 3,1989 No. 36 A GLIMPSE Of SOVIET REALITY Lviv resident killed during gathering in Ivano-Frankivske INTERVIEW: Mykoia Ryabchuk IVANO-FRANKIVSKE, Ukraine- Local authorities attempted to pre­ One person was killed during a melee that vent the memorial meeting from taking occurred when the militia attempted to place by scheduling an ecological meet­ speaks on ''Little Russianism" control a crowd gathered here on ing for that day. by Dr. Roman Solchanyk jority of Ukrainians are far from aware Sunday, August 13, to mark the Millen­ Residents of Lviv and Ivano-Fran­ that it is they who are the direct heirs of nium of Christianity in Rus'-Ukraine, kivske, however, did not attend the PART I this ancient Rus'culture and civiliza­ reported the press service of the Ukrai­ ecological meeting, choosing instead to tion. This gives rise to a certain infe­ nian Helsinki Union. gather at the site of the August 13 Mykoia Ryabchuk, 36, is a well- riority complex, and for me "Little A liturgy was to have been held in moleben, where Ihor Derkach of the known critic, poet and translator. While Russianism" is, above all, precisely this observance of the religious anniversary, Ukrainian Helsinki Union addressed a student at Lviv Polytechnical Institute inferiority complex. On the one hand, but Soviet militia surrounded the site, the crowd. in 1971, he and a group of friends the inferiority complex of the nation creating a live barricade. The militia­ men were armed with rubber clubs. According to the UHU press service, worked on an unofficial literary alma­ itself and, on the other, the attitude Mr. Derkach spoke about the tragic nac. The Trunk, which resulted in their towards this nation by others as some­ Also on site was the sixth unit of the special militia forces. incident, called on the public not to be expulsion from the Institute, In 1983, thing that is inferior this is what "Little provoked into violence and announced Mr, Ryabchuk was admitted to the Russianism'' is about. When a large number of people had gathered, the crowd burst through the that the procuracy was investigating the Writers' Union. incident. He is the author of a collection of So, there is clearly a historical barricade and what the UHU described articles, ''The Need for the Word" background here. And this would as a "bloody fight" ensued, during Radianska Ukraina, writing about (1985), and an anthology of poetry, suggest that this is an exclusively which many in the crowd were beaten the August 13 incident in its August 17 "Winter in Lviv" (1980), and co-author Ukrainian-Russian problem. Is that by the militia. Among them was an issue did not report the death of Mr. of a short English-language book titled right? engineer from Ivano-Frankivske, Ro­ Levytsky. The newspaper reported that "Ukraine: Stepping Stones to Pere- man Levytsky, who was fatally beaten. no one was hurt among the people, but stroika" (1989), Well, I don't think we should place The funeral was held on August 15, that militiamen were hurt and had In various articles over the past this problem outside the framework of and on August 20 there was to be a sought medical assistance. The news­ several years, Mr, Ryabchuk has been general, universal phenomena and pro­ memorial public meeting and a demon­ paper also noted that the matter was exploring the problem of Ukrainian cesses.