Forty years ago, on November 26, 1978, more than 8,000 people gathered at 67th Street in New York near the U.N. Mission to the Soviet Union for a rally to support the decolonization of the Soviet Union and to condemn Soviet violations of human rights.
The demonstrators were joined by four victims of Soviet penal colonies – Nadia Svitlychna, Leonid Plyushch, Simas Kudirka (Lithuanian Soviet political prisoner) and Gen. Petro Grigorenko – who addressed the crowd, recounting their experiences behind the Iron Curtain.
“We came to this building of murderers to begin a new era in the fight for freedom for the captive nations of Moscow and for the destruction of the Communo-Muscovite empire,” said Mr. Kudirka, who was joined by Dr. Vitaut Kipel of the Belarusian community, Janis Riekstins of Latvia, and Paul Saar of Estonia.
Mr. Plyushch warned the crowd against the policy of appeasement, but expressed his hope that the Soviet empire would eventually vanish, just as other empires have vanished. There may be a small number of Soviet dissidents, but the Soviet government remains afraid of them, he said. “Their weapons are words, and the empire is afraid of words,” adding, “our truth will overcome their lies.”
Ms. Svitlychna reminded that the fight for human rights in the Soviet Union is a continuous struggle and would not be solved by one demonstration. Only then, she said, “will the strongest concentration camp in the world be destroyed.” Ms. Svitlychna added, “A smart person once said that there will be no more wars, only a struggle for peace, and not one stone will be left unturned.”
The protest was organized by the United Ukrainian American Organizations of Greater New York as the culmination of the four-day World Congress of Free Ukrainians (now known as the Ukrainian World Congress), which was held at the Americana Hotel on 52nd Street.
Officials from the WCFU and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America were joined by members of youth and women’s organizations – Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization, the Ukrainian American Youth Association, ODUM (Union of Ukrainian Democratic Youth), the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America and the Women’s Association for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine, as well as the Ukrainian Music Institute.
Stretching nearly 10 city blocks, the column of protesters was led by Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian, Estonian and Latvian color guards. Among the demonstrators was newly elected WCFU President Mykola Plawiuk.
At 67th Street, the street was cordoned off at Lexington Avenue by four rows of police barricades and an unusually large number of policemen, with horse-mounted detachments.
Protest organizers attempted to deliver to the Soviet U.N. Mission a memorandum on decolonization but were stopped 100 feet short of the mission by patrolman George Hardy, who informed the demonstrators that Soviet officials did not want to meet with them and would not receive the group’s memorandum. Minutes later, the police forcibly dispersed the protesters.
Three persons were arrested and at least four were hospitalized for head lacerations, bruises and concussions. Eyewitnesses said that several other injured demonstrators departed without seeking medical aid.
Police, without warning through loudspeakers, removed the barriers separating them from the protesters and charged into a group of youths who were singing the Ukrainian national anthem and symbolically holding their arms crossed over their heads. By the time the violence had erupted, nearly 2,000 protesters remained at the rally site, as the rest had departed.
Capt. Mat Coyle explained that the crowd had grown unruly with the throwing of eggs and firecrackers, which he said endangered the safety of the mounted officers.
Many demonstrators, who requested anonymity, felt that the police actions were reprisals for the September 1977 demonstration at the Soviet Mission during which four police officers were injured. At the protest in November 1978, one police officer suffered a contusion of the right index finger. A formal protest was filed on behalf of the protesters with the city government by Dr. Askold Lozynskyj, for what he called “excessive and undue police actions.”
Source: “8,000 attend decolonization rally in New York; Svitlychna, Plyushch, Kudirka speak, scuffle breaks out, 3 arrested, 4 hurt,” The Ukrainian Weekly, December 3, 1978.