Turning the pages back... November 9, 1976 (11/05/06)

Turning the pages back...

November 9, 1976

This week we remember the founding of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group 30 years ago on November 9, 1976, as reported by The Weekly on November 21. The group was headed by Ukrainian poet Mykola Rudenko and had as its first members: Lev Lukianenko, Nina Strokata, Oles Berdnyk, Ivan Kandyba, Myroslav Marynovych, Mykola Matusevych, Oleksiy Tykhy, Oksana Meshko and Petro Grigorenko.

The purpose of the group included monitoring the implementation of human rights in Ukraine in accordance with the Final Act of the Helsinki Accords signed in 1975, to gather and disseminate information about their violation, and to secure an independent role for Ukraine in subsequent negotiations and in international affairs. The USSR, not Ukraine, had signed the accords, but the Soviet authorities were bound to the provisions of the act. Ukraine's Helsinki monitors saw that it could be used as a basis for demands regarding human and national rights in Ukraine.

Two weeks after the group was formed in Ukraine, an American counterpart committee was created based out of Washington. Many of the founding members of this counterpart group, among them Ihor Koszman, Ulana Mazurkevich, Andrew Fedynsky and Bohdan Yasen, were activists in the Valentin Moroz defense movement. The American committee monitored compliance with the Final Act of the Helsinki Accords in Ukraine and reported all violations to the signatories. Additionally, the Committee of Helsinki Guarantees for Ukraine was formed that same month. It organized many demonstrations demanding the inclusion of Ukraine in the Helsinki process and defending the persecuted members of the Helsinki Group. Other groups aided in attracting international attention to the group, among them the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, the World Congress of Free Ukrainians and Americans for Human Rights in Ukraine.

Within two years of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group's creation, all of the founding members were either imprisoned or exiled. But membership grew to include even political prisoners in labor camps. In retaliation, the Soviets began to charge members with criminal, not political, activity.

The External Representation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group was formed in 1979 under the direction of Gen. Grigorenko; beginning in 1987 Mr. Rudenko led the group. Former political prisoner Nadia Svitlychna joined the group in the U.S. in 1978 and edited the publication Visnyk Represii na Ukraini, which documented repression in Ukraine.

Toward the twilight of the Soviet regime, during the era of perestroika/perebudova and glasnost, all imprisoned members of the group were released. They reorganized the group and elected Mr. Lukianenko as their new leader. The focus of the organization shifted toward a broad civic association called the Ukrainian Helsinki Union that promoted democratic reform in Ukraine and economic and political sovereignty for the country.

The following year the group revised its program and activities, and joined in the political processes in the USSR and Ukrainian SSR Supreme Soviets (Councils). Large demonstrations were organized against repressive laws and the group helped to organize the Popular Movement of Ukraine, known as Rukh.

Source: "Form Citizens Committee in Ukraine to Monitor Helsinki Accords," The Ukrainian Weekly, November 21, 1976; "Ukrainian Helsinki Group," Encyclopedia of Ukraine.

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