Thirty years ago, on January 12, 1985, during the Day of Solidarity with Ukrainian Political Prisoners protests, six members of the Ukrainian Student Association of Mykola Michnowsky (know by its Ukrainian acronym TUSM) were arrested in New York after singing the Ukrainian national anthem outside of the Soviet Mission to the United Nations.
The six were charged with disorderly conduct and unnecessary noise after Soviet authorities filed an official complaint. The protest was one of many by Ukrainian youth organizations worldwide to call attention to the plight of the imprisoned dissidents in Ukraine and across the Soviet Union that was inaugurated by Vyacheslav Chornovil in 1972 as the Day of Solidarity with Ukrainian Political Prisoners.
In Cleveland, TUSM members conducted a 24-hour silent vigil and hunger strike, with Mayor George Voinovich proclaiming January 12, 1985, as Day of Solidarity with Ukrainian Political Prisoners.
President Ronald Reagan sent a telegram to Peter Shmigel, national president of TUSM, stating:
“I am pleased to join with members of the Ukrainian Student Association in commemorating this Day of Solidarity with Ukrainian Political Prisoners. This occasion is a reminder of the Ukrainian prisoners’ of conscience devotion to the noblest aspirations of the human spirit: the desire for freedom and the resistance to the imposition of inhumane political ideas and systems. The valor, dignity and dedication Ukrainian prisoners have displayed in the pursuit of freedom, prisoners such as Yuriy Shukhevych, reaffirm our confidence in the ultimate triumph of the free human spirit over tyranny. The brave political prisoners of Ukraine will remain a source of inspiration for generations to come.”
Source: “TUSM pickets Soviet Mission in New York on Solidarity Day,” The Ukrainian Weekly, January 20, 1985.