Human rights activist Nadia Svitlychna remembered in Kyiv (12/03/06)

Human rights activist Nadia Svitlychna remembered in Kyiv

by Olena Labunka
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - First Lady of Ukraine Kateryna Yushchenko remembers becoming acquainted with Nadia Svitlychna at Ukrainian American community events during the 1980s.

While Ms. Yushchenko had heard descriptions of Ukraine from those who lived there in the 1920s, '30s and '40s, Ms. Svitlychna opened a new window into their ancestral land, she said.

"This modest, yet brave woman spoke of the aspirations of the next generation, about artists, writers, literary figures and journalists who hoped for this independent Ukraine," Ms. Yushchenko said. "Nadia gave us great hope, and we are very thankful to her for that."

Fellow Soviet dissidents, political prisoners, "Shestydesiatnyky," acquaintances and admirers alike gathered at the Teacher's Building in Kyiv on November 8 to honor Ms. Svitlychna, a human rights activist during her life in Ukraine, and a spokesperson for repressed Ukrainians during her life abroad.

Ms. Svitlychna died on August 8 and now rests in Kyiv's prestigious Baikove Cemetery in the Ukrainian land that she felt so much pain for, dreamed of and fought for.

What a difficult challenge it was for Ms. Svitlychna to make the choice to fight for Ukraine, its freedom and her own personal dignity, Ms. Yushchenko said.

Most of those honoring Ms. Svitlychna recalled the awe they had felt in her presence.

"In her name were the words 'hope' and 'light,' and from within, she truly brightened everything around her," said Mykhailyna Kotsiubynska, Ms. Svitlychna's close friend and fellow member of the "Shestydesiatnyky" - a circle of writers, artists and right activists who rebelled in the 1960s against Soviet strictures in all spheres of life.

"She led many to the Ukrainian world and to Ukrainian life. She was constantly working, and she was an optimist. Her morality was her dominant value," Ms Kotsiubynska noted.

Ms. Svitlychna's life is an example of how the human intellect can be an important factor in a nation's cultural life, said Bohdan Horyn, a fellow dissident during the Soviet era.

Ukrainians weren't merely an ethnic group, like some believed in the West, Mr. Horyn remembered Ms. Svitlychna firmly saying. Rather, Ukraine is a nation with a great culture and tradition.

Her creative legacy - editorials, commentaries and analytical articles - remains largely unknown and deserves wider notoriety, he added.

"The name Nadia Svitlychna wasn't just a nice name," he said. "She was the living spirit of our times. She was the embodiment of good, conscientiousness, honesty and humanness. She loved people more than herself, gave the wealth of her heart and the generosity of her soul."

Former Soviet political prisoner Mykola Horbal said Ms. Svitlychna was in Ukraine during the last presidential elections. Even though she lived in the United States for 28 years, she never took American citizenship. She was stripped of her Soviet citizenship eight years after she emigrated to the United States - even though she had renounced that citizenship in 1976 in protest against Soviet persecution.

Ms. Svitlychna obtained a Ukrainian passport and arrived in Ukraine to vote, but authorities denied her for technical reasons. "After spending two days in the courts, she obtained her right," Mr. Horbal recalled. "What's one vote more, or one vote less? But that was Nadia. This is her voice, this is her essence."

Philadelphia native Sofia Hewryk spoke of Ms. Svitlychna's arrival in America as the Soviet Union's first female dissident to be released after she endured five years of imprisonment for her active involvement with the human rights movement.

Ms. Svitlychna arrived in 1978 with two children and at first lived with Ms. Hewryk and her family. She immediately rolled up her sleeves, deciphering illegally transferred manuscripts from Soviet camps for political prisoners, organizing the archives of Ukrainian samvydav writers, and preparing the manuscripts of brother Ivan Svitlychny, Vasyl Stus and Mr. Horbal for publication.

She also represented the Ukrainian Helsinki Group abroad. Up until 1985 she regularly published the Herald of Repression in Ukraine and worked for Radio Liberty in New York between 1983 and 1994.

"Every person is the world, and Nadia is simply the universe to me," said Myroslav Marynovych, a former Soviet dissident and political prisoner who was active in the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, as was Mr. Horbal.

"With joy, I remember how she testified in court for me, not as a defense witness, but as a witness accusing a system. It was amazing how bravely she testified. I don't feel that she died. I feel that she lives and she is still with us," he added.

A Shestydesiatnyk museum should become reality if we honor history, Mr. Marynovych said. In response, Ukraine's first lady pledged to work toward building such a museum.

Nevertheless, "Ukraine still hasn't matured enough for such a museum," said Mr. Marynovych, who today is senior vice-rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. "Ukraine has to go through its period of cynical pragmatism and its constant manipulations to understand that it can't live this way, and that there needs to be a rebirth of an epicenter of the greater, an epicenter of the spiritual."

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