NEWS AND VIEWS: Exhibition reveals brutality of Communist regime in Ukraine (06/01/03)

NEWS AND VIEWS

Exhibition reveals brutality of Communist regime in Ukraine

by Helena Lysyj Melnitchenko and Eugene Melnitchenko

WASHINGTON - Few in the diaspora doubt that the Soviet Union was an evil empire. Yet, documentation to support what everyone knew either from personal experience or oral history was not available to the public until the fall of communism. The museum exhibition "Not to be Forgotten," brought from Kyiv to Washington on April 10 provided a plethora of documentation.

Seventy large panels illustrated the hidden history of Ukraine under Soviet communism, from 1917 as the fledgling independence was crushed to 1991 when it became a reality. This independence was won by the martyrdom of millions of Ukrainians tortured, starved and executed. The exhibition was effectively documented with archival documents of orders of arrest and execution, photographs of excavated mass graves, and the lists of the executed in the executioners' own handwriting.

Many were responsible for bringing this exhibition to life. It required careful study and reflection to be fully comprehended, and the viewers in Washington studied it long and hard. It is difficult to do justice to this fascinating and important exhibit in a brief review.

While Ukraine was not the only country exploited and ruled with cruelty, its population was dealt with particular brutality because of its size, the centuries of repression by Imperial Russia and its historical quest for freedom. Three famines, (1921-1923, 1932-1933, 1946-1947), massive arrests and executions, and a high proportion of Ukrainians among the prisoners of the gulag attest to the severity of the persecution.

Fifteen additional panels illustrated the fortress on the White Sea, the Solovetsky Islands, or the dreaded Solovky as the Ukrainians called them. Ukrainians and Solovky have a long history dating back to the 18th century when Catherine II imprisoned the last Zaporozhian otaman. His name was Petro Kalnyshevsky and he died on the islands at the age of 112, after having served his 31-year sentence.

However, longevity was not an option for the Solovetsky prisoners in the 20th century. Writers, priests, teachers, peasants and workers were imprisoned and killed on these islands. In the fall of 1937 alone, over a thousand prisoners were executed there.

In all 233 concentration camps despoiled the map of the Soviet Union, shown in the first panel of the exhibition. Several visitors studied the map carefully, murmuring "Ah, yes, here it is! Uncle (or grandfather) died in this awful place," the names of the camps bringing a jolt of recognition. During some years, some 5 to 10 percent of all Ukrainians were interred in those camps.

The Yezhov era (1936-1938) was particularly brutal. Almost a million people were arrested. As the camps filled with prisoners, the Soviets thought it necessary to make room for more. In the summer of 1937, nearly 37,000 Ukrainian prisoners were shot.

After suffering the German occupation during the second world war, the Ukrainian populace continued to suffer at the hands of the Soviets. In Ukraine famine struck again as its grain was sent to Poland, Czechoslovakia and other Communist republics. The Soviets sent 17 divisions to destroy the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Prisons continued to be filled with returning forced labor civilians and POWs.

Stalin, on hearing of the capture of his son Yakov by the Germans, was reputed to have said, "I have no son!" While in the United States the returning POWs were welcomed as heroes, under the Soviets the POWs' crime was to be captured.

After Stalin's death, the persecution of Ukrainians continued under Khrushchev and Brezhnev.

Unlike the previous panels, which are in somber black and white, the very last panels have color in the form of blue-and-yellow flags as Independence is declared.

There is no doubt in our minds, that more "mohyly" (burial sites) will be excavated in Ukrainian cities and the countryside. This exhibition reminds us that independence was won by the blood and tears of many Ukrainians. We need to honor their memory.

To hear about the horrors of the Soviet regime has been hard enough; to see it so effectively documented made it difficult to walk away without being emotionally drained.

The non-profit, non-governmental exhibit is permanently housed at the Kyiv City All-Ukrainian Memorial Society of Vasyl Stus, vul. Mykhaylo Stelmakh St., 6a, Kyiv, Ukraine, 03040.

| Home Page |