Turning the pages back... November 9, 1976 (11/03/96)

Turning the pages back...

November 9, 1976

Twenty years ago, on November 9, 1976, a group of 10 courageous human and national rights activists in Kyiv got together and formed the Ukrainian Public Group to Promote the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords, or as it came to be known, the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. They knew from the start that by the very act of organizing into a group they were putting themselves squarely in the range of fire; they knew they would suffer for their convictions and their bravery.

The very day the group was formed Soviet authorities arranged for a group of "hooligans" to throw bricks at the home of the group's chairman, writer Mykola Rudenko. While Mr. Rudenko was away in Moscow, where a press conference for foreign journalists was held to announce the formation of the Kyiv group, another member, Oksana Meshko, a 71-year-old retired widow and a former political prisoner during the Stalin regime, was injured as a result of the incident.

The Weekly reported in one of the first news stories about the Ukrainian Helsinki Group that, in addition to Mr. Rudenko and Ms. Meshko, other founding members were: two lawyers, Ivan Kandyba and Lev Lukianenko; a former Soviet Army officer, Gen. Petro Grigorenko; a microbiologist, Nina Strokata-Karavanska; and a writer, Oles Berdnyk. Later it was learned that among the original members also were Oleksiy Tykhy, a teacher; Mykola Matusevych, a historian;and Myroslav Marynovych, an electrical engineer.

Gen. Grigorenko, it must be noted, was a member also of the Moscow Helsinki Group, formed just a few months earlier, on May 12. As such, he served as liaison between the two groups. The Moscow Group was helpful in relaying information from fellow rights activists in Kyiv to the news media and diplomatic representatives based in the USSR's capital.

Just days after the Ukrainian Helsinki Group was created, a counterpart group, called the Ukrainian American Committee to Monitor Compliance with the Helsinki Accords, was established in Washington by persons who had been involved in the movement to defend Soviet political prisoner Valentyn Moroz. The D.C. group pledged to help disseminate information on rights violations gathered by the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.

The Ukrainian Helsinki Group's first public document, Declaration No. 1, was released on the day of its founding. It noted: "experience has shown that the implementation of the Helsinki Accords (especially the humanitarian sections) cannot be guaranteed without the participation of the citizenry of the signatory nations. For this reason, on November 9, 1976, we formed the Ukranian Public Group to Promote the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords."

The group's goals, as delineated in the declaration, were to acquaint the Ukrainian public with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to promote implementation of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the Helsinki Accords), to seek Ukraine's representation at all international conferences dealing with the Helsinki Accords; and, in order to promote the free flow of information and ideas, to seek accreditation in Ukraine of foreign news media representatives and work toward formation of independent news agencies in Ukraine. Its primary objective was "informing the signatory nations and the world community about violations in Ukraine of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the humanitarian principles accepted by the Helsinki Conference."

The Soviet authorities' retribution for their activity was swift and sure. After a series of searches in December 1976 at the homes of group members, the first arrests came in early February 1977. However, as the original members of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group were arrested, new members joined. Ultimately the Ukrainian Helsinki Group grew to encompass 37 members - all of whom suffered at the hands of Soviet authorities. And yet they persevered for - as they made clear in Memorandum No. 1 - "The struggle for human rights will not cease until these rights become the everyday standard in social life."

Source: The Ukrainian Weekly, November 21, November 28, December 5, 1976; November 9, 1986.