Dear Editor:
Leonid Plyushch once wrote: “…mine is an account of one more road to freedom, a description of how the Soviet Union appears in the eyes of a citizen whose fanatical faith in the system gave way to a struggle to free himself of its illusions, slavery and terror.”
Plyushch became a prominent Ukrainian dissident witnessing the draconian trials of dissenters during the mid-1960s. “Forgetting, shutting my eyes and ears, remaining silent was impossible. Above all, as an oppositionist I would not need to lie or to play the double role of ‘building the brilliant future’ while suppressing the dismal present.”
His spiritual awakening evolved with witnessing the continuous distortion of history, the suppression of independent thinking, the annihilation of intellectuals – a process whereby intelligent individuals were virtually forced into dissidence. With admirable courage, he challenged the authorities, was persecuted and suffered two and a half years of abuse and torturous treatments in the infamous special psychiatric institution in Dnipropetrovsk. The huge human rights movement in the West fought for his release and Plyushch became its avid supporter and participant for the rest of his life.
Leonid Plyushch possessed a unique intellectual integrity, he was a humanist and a philosopher, he was an eloquent storyteller and an intellectual, he possessed inexhaustible political wit, and he was a dear friend. May he rest in peace!
Toronto
The letter-writer is former director of the Human Rights Commission of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians (now called the Ukrainian World Congress). Her worked spanned some 25 years of lobbying in defense of dissidents and human rights activists of the former USSR.