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Humanity is bound to collapse without values, Ukrainian dissident Marynovych

Jun 2, 2020 | Featured

Vilyen Pidgornyy for New Pathway – Ukrainian News.

In today’s age of populism, it is important that we continue to teach our children the universal and religious values, emphasized Myroslav Marynovych, co-founder of Amnesty International Ukraine and vice-rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and a former Ukrainian dissident. During his April 25th 2020 online presentation “Spirituality of Gulag Prisoners” hosted by the Ukrainian National Federation, Ottawa-Gatineau branch, he said, “The world today lacks universal and religious values that sustain human civilization… without them the world gives way to false ideologies that hurt humanity.”

Although the story of Ukrainian dissidents is not well-publicized, it remains an integral part of Ukrainian history of the 60s and 80s, according to Marynovych. After Ukraine became an independent state almost 30 years ago, Orest Subtelny’s “History of Ukraine” which mentioned the resistance movement has become a part of the school curriculum.

There is only a handful of dissidents still alive, stated Marynovych when talking about the leaders of the resistance movement – his mentors and friends during the dissident and Gulag periods of his life.

Marynovych, who was sentenced to seven years of high-security detention centers [camps] and five years in exile, suggested that prison can be a school of spirituality if you have a clean conscience.

Myroslav’s clashes with the KGB (Soviet State Security) started in 1970 when he declined the offer to spy on his friends when he was a 3rd year student at Lviv Polytechnic Institute. His career as a dissident started in May of 1973 when the KGB issued him an ultimatum stating, “if you are not with us than you are against us.” “Okay then, I will be against you,” answered Marynovych. In 1974 he became close friends with Mykola Matusevych who introduced him to the dissident movement in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. Being a part of the resistance, he met the proverbial patriarch and godfather of the Ukrainian dissidents Borys Antonenko-Davydovych, Mykhailyna Kotsiubynska – the niece of the famous Ukrainian classic Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, Vyacheslav Chornovil and his wife Atena Pashko, Ivan and liolia Svitlychny and others.

The mid-70s was the era of global fight for human rights, remembered Marynovych. At the time, the U.S. President Jimmy Carter even made it the pinnacle of his presidential campaign. On August 1, 1975, in conclusion to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, held in Helsinki, Finland, Brezhnev signed the Helsinki Final Act – an agreement between 35 nations. This was an attempt to improve relations between the Soviets and the West.” […] “The Soviets thought that after mass arrests in 1972-73, there would be zero civil response,” revealed Marynovych. That is when the idea to create the Helsinki groups was born. “The idea was as simple as borshch,” recalled Marynovych, “[we needed] to have some sort of a litmus test to reveal the lies of the Soviet Union.”

As a result, five groups were created between May 1976 and November 1978 – Moscow, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Georgian, and Armenian Helsinki groups.

This was the time when both Myroslav Marynovych and Mykola Matusevych had to make a decision about joining the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (UHG) because they knew that if they did, they would be arrested but if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to respect themselves. “You want to be respected when you are young,” said Marynovych.

Mykola Rudenko was the founder of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. His life path was very impressive, according to Marynovych. Being a member of the Communist party, Rudenko started as a writer, served in the Soviet Army and was a Second World War veteran. He then experienced religious revelations and realized that Ukraine was on the wrong path. The authorities sent him to a mental hospital and his family fell apart. Step by step he transformed into an activist against the Soviet regime. For Marynovych, Mykola Rudenko was an example of fortitude. “Rudenko was wounded during Second World War and, having a spine injury, he lived with a disability. He was later arrested and when his collection of anti-Soviet poems, that he wrote while in detention, were published in the West, the KGB got angry and canceled his disability status, forcing him to work to survive. That was a tremendous daily struggle, but he survived,” said Marynovych.

Some of the most prominent members of UHG were Petro Hryhorenko – former war general who defended the rights of Crimean Tatars, went to the U.S. for medical treatment, was stripped of his citizenship and remained there till he died; Levko Lukyanenko, who, together with his friends including Ivan Kandyba, developed the legal foundation of Ukraine’s withdrawal from the USSR in 1961, was sentenced to execution, but then the sentence was changed to 15 years of incarceration; Oles Berdnyk, who became an unofficial UHG leader after Rudenko’s arrest, lived through religious revelations, was broken by the KGB, signed a guilty plea and was released. Later he was seen on TV talking about UHG as an example of Western intrigue against the Soviet Union. Toward the end of his life he lost his ability to speak. “Ironically, he was given the gift of religious revelation but became mute,” said Marynovych.

Myroslav also talked about other UHG members: Nina Strokata-Karavanska, former village schoolteacher Oleksa Tyhyi, Zenoviy Krasivsky, Valeriy Marchenko [died in Gulag camps], Oles Shevchenko, and Viktor Niekipielov. Each of them impacted the life and political views of Marynovych.

All in all, there were 41 members of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. The government punished everyone: 38 were arrested (sending three members to mental facilities), two were expelled from the country and one [Mykhailo Melnyk] had committed a suicide before his arrest.

Myroslav remembered that when he was arrested on May 23, 1977, he was there alone, but during the times of pressure by the KGB he felt as if his friends had been there with him. “It is important to have such friends, as you are ashamed to do something unworthy,” he said.

When talking about the importance of international pressure upon the Soviet Union, Myroslav mentioned the 1977-78 conference of the OSCE in Belgrade. According to Marynovych, the Soviet Union was ready to release the members of Ukrainian Helsinki Group had the international community insisted. Unfortunately, it was only the U.S. delegation that insisted that the UHG members be released while other delegations followed realpolitik not really believing it would have any effect. When the conference was over, interrogations resumed.

During his presentation, Myroslav Marynovych compared the Soviet Union to Nazi Germany, reiterating that both totalitarian systems were criminal in nature. “They were like evil twins. […] The Yalta accords served as the veil that covered the criminal acts of Communism, depicting it as the winning force in Second World War.” He also called to pay attention to the situation in the present-day Putin’s secret-service-run-Russia which continues to carry out new crimes. “Acts of impunity and unrepentant become grains of new crimes,” emphasized the distinguished Ukrainian activist.

During the following Q&A session, Marynovych expressed hope that one day Ukrainians would be able to explain their personal experiences through the global context. This would enable them to enter the life of the world community. He regretted that Ukraine never recognized Chornovil as its Václav Havel. He also emphasized that Ukrainians have always associated diaspora with the hope of preservation of Ukrainian national and cultural values.

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