Ukrainians protest near Soviet Embassy (10/09/83)

Ukrainians protest near Soviet Embassy

by George B. Zarycky

WASHINGTON - An estimated 18,000 Ukrainians, marching in a phalanx that at one point stretched nearly a mile, assembled within 500 feet of the Soviet Embassy here on Sunday afternoon, October 2, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the artificial famine in Ukraine which killed 7 million people in 1932-33.

As the marchers moved down 16th Street toward the embassy, many carrying colorful banners castigating the Soviet regime, they were met by a large contingent of uniformed police, who had cordoned off the block between K and L streets near the embassy, which is between L and M streets. Over 15 blue Metro Police cruisers lined the street, while others were parked bumper to bumper sealing off both ends of the block.

Police had expected a group of some 5,000 people, but as row after row of demonstrators continued to stream down 16th Street, it soon became clear that at least three times as many were at the rally. The first to arrive at the police barricades were members of the Plast Ukrainian Youth Organization - 1,000 strong - who marched in uniformed formations behind a large banner. It took another 40 minutes for the rest of the huge crowd to make its way from the Washington Monument.

As the crowd continued to swell, many groups were forced to fan out on either side of K Street to keep the intersection clear.

At about 2 p.m., Orest Deychakiwsky, a 27-year-old staff member of the Congressional Helsinki Commission, read an open letter to the Kremlin. Surrounded by a sea of demonstrators and reporters, Mr. Deychakiwsky called the Soviet-engineered famine "a deliberate act of genocide" against the Ukrainian people, and warned the Kremlin that the Ukrainian community in the United States would continue to "tell our fellow Americans about the real Soviet Union." (For the full text of Mr. Deychakiwsky's remarks, see page 6.)

Chastising the Soviets for the invasion of Afghanistan, the shooting down of Korean Airlines Flight 007 and the continuing policies of Russification in the non-Russian republics, Mr. Deychakiwsky said that the world is finally becoming more aware of the nature of the Soviet system.

"We Americans of Ukrainian descent, together with all Americans and people of the world who respect human life - and value human liberty - will see to it that those who died in your man-made famine in Ukraine, that those who died aboard the Korean airliner, that those who continue to suffer under your dictatorship - we will see to it that they did not die, nor will they suffer, in vain," he said.

The march itself began at the Washington Monument following a special famine commemorative program. With parade marshals wearing blue-and-gold armbands issuing instructions, the demonstrators marched north up 15th Street, the southbound lanes of which were closed to traffic. As motorists looked on, marchers made their way past government buildings for several blocks before turning left onto Pennsylvania Avenue.

While the demonstrators filed past Presidential Park directly across the avenue from the White House, curious onlookers came forward to ask what the march was all about or to take famine literature being distributed by several parade marshals.

From the White House, the marchers snaked through tree-lined residential streets with elegant brownstones before turning north again on 16th Street.

Although the march was called to commemorate the Great Famine, many of the demonstrators carried placards denouncing Soviet aggression, calling for freedom of religion in Ukraine or protesting the downing of the Korean passenger plane. One sign read "Koreans and Ukrainians united against the USSR," while another said "Stop KGB infiltration in U.S. courts," a reference to the government's use of Soviet-supplied evidence in denaturalization proceedings against East Europeans suspected of collaborating with the Germans during World War II.

Most, however, dealt with the anniversary of the famine and its 7 million victims, with inscriptions such as "The West must not forget" and "Moscow before tribunal of justice." One group, from Rochester, N.Y., carried three makeshift black coffins inscribed with white lettering which read "7,000,000 Ukrainians murdered."

While the vast majority of the demonstrators were Ukrainian Americans, some from as far away as Chicago, Ohio and upstate New York, there was a large contingent from Canada. A few of the protesters were non-Ukrainians including a Lithuanian mother and daughter who carried a sign, complete with a hammer and sickle, that read "Wanted for murder."

Although the over-all tone of many of the signs was one of anger and outrage, the pervasive mood of the demonstration was one of seriousness and restraint in deference to the somber anniversary of what many demonstrators called the "unknown holocaust." Although there were intermittent chants of "Freedom for Ukraine," most of the demonstrators marched in silence or talked quietly among themselves in keeping with the wishes of rally organizers.

Once assembled at the intersection of K and 16th streets, about one and a half blocks from the Soviet Embassy, the demonstrators presented an impressive sight, with marchers massed against the police line and on K Street on both sides of the intersection. Several, including eyewitnesses who had survived the famine, clustered around reporters and photographers from the news media.

After Mr. Deychakiwsky read the open letter to the Kremlin, rally participants sang the Ukrainian national anthem, "Shche ne vmerla Ukraina," and scores released the black balloons they had been carrying as mournful symbols of the famine and its victims. As the ballons drifted gently into the clear Washington sky, the demonstrators began to disperse, many to get ready for a 3 p.m. memorial concert at the Kennedy Center. Most seemed to conclude that the rally had been orderly, dignified and an unequivocal success.

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