FACES AND PLACES: It's just like the old days: Elian revisited (02/20/00)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

It's just like the old days: Elian revisited

Although many of my readers agreed that Elian Gonzalez should remain with his relatives in Miami, a few did not. One, a relatively recent immigrant from Ukraine, even suggested that life under Fidel Castro wasn't as bad as I portrayed it, and that Elian's mother's motives may really have been apolitical. As one Chicago columnist wrote, it may have been nothing more than a yearning for cable TV that impelled her to embark on a dangerous trip across shark-infested waters to Florida.

Joining the Chicago columnist and my Ukrainian correspondent are the usual gaggle of leftists - the National Council of Churches (still miffed that their beloved Sandinistas were voted out of power in Nicaragua), the Congressional Black Caucus, the ACLU and assorted other pink goslings who, while demonizing America, rarely utter a discouraging word about Communism. It's just like the old days, before the Soviet collapse, when the left marched obediently behind their Moscow Goose, trumpeting mendacious nonsense about the benefits of life on the Volga.

When Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, Janet Reno's hand-picked neutral person, changed her position and opposed Elian's return soon after his grandmothers met Elian in her home, Black Caucus stalwart Rep. Maxine Waters went ballistic: "Never in my wildest imagination would I think that a nun who was supposed to be a neutral party would undermine that neutrality." According to news commentator Cokie Roberts, Sister O'Laughlin reported that the grandmothers seemed terrified by Castro and were coerced into mouthing the party line. There are rumors that Elian's father had tipped off his relatives in Miami when the boy was departing and actually planned to join him later. Small wonder that Fidel won't let the dad out of Cuba.

How parent-friendly is Cuba? Article 3 of their education law reads: "The Communist formation of the young generation is a valued aspiration of the state, the family, the teachers, the political organizations and the mass organizations that act in order to foster in the youth the ideological values of Communism." Article 5 addresses the issue of the development of the child's "Communist personality." Article 8 delineates the importance of the "protection of youth against all influence contrary to their Communist formation." Article 23 emphasizes the need to have the correct "political attitude" to continue one's education. The importance of Marxism-Leninism "in the ideological formation and political culture of young students" is stressed in Article 33. The value of military service for the purpose of creating a "combative solidarity" with the "principles of proletarian internationalism" is outlined in Article 68.

News commentator Charley Reese wonders what the reaction would be if our educators merely substituted the word "Christianity" for "Communism" and "Marxism-Leninism" in developing America's school curriculum.

In a January 10 article in the Wall Street Journal, Deputy Editor Michael Gonzalez (no relation to Elian) reflects on his own childhood in Castro's Cuba. When he refused to join the Young Pioneers because of his father's opposition, his entire class suffered. The goal was 100 percent participation in Communist indoctrination and Michael's holding out meant the loss of class perks such as field trips and other forms of recognition for adherence to the party line. "I wasn't the most popular kid in school," he writes.

Over the years Chicago has witnessed two cases of defection from and forced repatriation to the USSR. The one we're most familiar with is that of Walter Polovchak who, at age 12, refused to return to Soviet Ukraine with his parents. The same gaggle of ACLU'ers and other pink goslings were up in arms, trumpeting the usual cant about parental rights, the "benefits of socialism," etc. Led by attorney Julian Kulas, the Ukrainian community rallied to Walter's side and he eventually won his five-and-a-half-year battle when he turned 18 and was eligible to become a citizen. Known then as "freedom's child," today he is a successful office manager with a home in the suburbs, a wife, and a 6-year old son - an all-American success story. He has visited his family in Ukraine and helps them any way he can; he has also traveled widely with his family, visiting 18 countries.

A less well-known case is that of the Georgy Kozmin and his Ukrainian wife, Nadezhda, who arrived in the United States in 1950 as displaced persons. The family had four sons, one of whom was born in the United States. Unfortunately, the family became dysfunctional and a judge removed the boys from the home. Two brothers, Rostislav and Yuri, were placed in an orphanage while Pyotr and Pavel found themselves in a foster home. In 1957, the Kozmins decided to return to the Soviet Union and wanted their sons back. A judge ruled that the boys must stay. The Soviet government, of course, was outraged by the decision, which soon became an international cause célèbre. In a 1957 letter to President Dwight Eisenhower, Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin complained that the ruling was "a cruel act incompatible with elementary principles of humanity."

Responding to pressure from the State Department, the case was reopened and in 1959, the four sons were sent to join their parents in the USSR. In rendering his decision, Judge Kluczynski argued that the boys' fate must never be influenced by the fact that their parents embraced political beliefs that are "not in keeping with our own." God forbid!

Recently, diligent Chicago Tribune reporters tracked down the Kozmin brothers and published their story in that newspaper on February 6. The boys, now adults, described how they were greeted as heroes upon their arrival in Moscow. Constantly monitored by the KGB, however, they were forbidden to say anything about the good life in America. Letters to and from friends in the United States were censored. They were constantly stigmatized because they were "from America." A university career was closed to them.

Today, Pyotr, the youngest, is an artist living in Moscow. He is philosophical about what happened, arguing that both America and Russia have their pluses and minuses. Rostislav, Yuri and Pavel now live in Ukraine. Rostislav resents the way he was exploited and stigmatized by the Soviets. He regrets being forced to leave America, but he refuses to dwell on the past: "You cannot look at life and wish to change it. Everything that happened, happened. I do not wish to question my fate."

What will Elian's fate be? Where will he spend his formative years? Will he end up a Polovchak or a Kozmin? We'll know soon enough.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: [email protected]

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