.... the forcible Russification of Ukraine and The The central Soviet government in Moscow and its puppet government in Ukraine, which is obligated to carry out instructions from Moscow, have been issuing a series of decrees aimed at "improvement" of the teaching of the Russian language (there is no mention of improving the teaching of the Ukrainian or other non-Russian languages in the "union republics"). Ministry of Education of the Ukrainian SSR has outlined steps to implement the new law in the non-Russian schools in Ukraine (cf. Radyanska Osvita, November 11, 1978, Kiev). These measures, spelled out in an unpublished decree of October 13, 1978, called for new programs of study, new textbooks, visual aids, language laboratories and special rooms all to improve the teaching of Russian. - - From May 22 to 24, 1979, a major all-Union scientifictheoretical conference on "Russian the Language of the Friendship and Cooperation of the Peoples of the USSR" was held in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, dedicated to the teaching of Russian to non-Russians. The importance of the conference was underscored by a great number of high government officials, led by the Minister of Education of the USSR, M.A. Prokofiev (cf. "The Tashkent Conference and Its Draft Recommendations on the Teaching of Russian," FRE-RL Research, August 1, 1979, Munich). One of the most important provisions is that Russian is to be introduced in the first grade in the non-Russian schools in Ukraine (as in all other non-Russian republics), while at present it is taught from grade 2 on. Parallel with these steps of unbridled Russification in Ukraine, the teaching of Ukrainian is not only neglected, but discouraged. There is a perennial shortage of Ukrainian textbooks on various subjects designated to be taught in Ukrainian; hence these subjects are taught in Russian. The bookstores and kiosks in Ukraine are flooded with Russian books, journals and newspapers, while Ukrainian publications are severely curtailed in both number of titles and size of editions. All Ukrainians insisting on the use of Ukrainian are branded as "bourgeois nationalists" and persecuted and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. CONCLUSION Under BASKET THREE of the Final Act of the Helsinki Accords there are at least three general principles which are violated daily by the Soviet government in Ukraine. These involve human contacts (movement of people), exchange of oral, filmed, printed and broadcast information (movement of ideas), and cultural and educational exchanges. There is almost no emigration from Ukraine, despite the fact that the Advance Kiev Party of a U.S. Consulate General in Kiev, capital of Ukraine, had several thousand applications from Ukrainians for emigration to the United States. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. government suspended the opening of a Soviet Consulate General in New York, and recalled U.S. consular personnel from Kiev, at least for the time being. The Soviet government forbids any and all Ukrainianlanguage publications outside of Ukraine to be admitted into the country. As for various cultural exchanges between the U.S. and the USSR, most of the members on the Soviet teams are Russians, even though Ukrainians constitute 19% of the total population of the USSR. (It is true that a few Ukrainian dance emsembles are sent pro forma, but not for the presentation of genuine Ukrainian choral or dance art.) In summary, the situation in Ukraine is one of a colonial country, where the government is in the hands of an alien power, which rules the country with an iron hand and with the help of Communist quislings. For the benefit of the uninformed and unknowing, however, Ukraine is presented by its Soviet Russian overlords as a "sovereign and independent" republic, and as a member of the happy "family of peoples" in the Soviet Union under the benign and benevolent "older brother" the Russian Communist master. 11 It is the contention of this paper that, human rights can be fulfilled only within the framework of guaranteed national rights and therefore, the general situation in Ukraine should be viewed in light of Principle 8, Basket I of the Helsinki Accords. Ukraine has been denied the right of self-determination and is subjected to Moscow's policy of russification and ideological "re-education." Any manifestation of Ukrainian national consciousness is seen as a direct threat to Soviet Russian hegemony. The Ukrainian Helsinki Group protests Ukraine's deprivation of its independent statehood, and its non-participation in the Belgrade Helsinki Conference, requesting that the issue of Ukraine's colonial status be placed on the UN agenda. While Principle 7 of Basket I guarantees respect for freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief, thousands of Ukrainians are "prisoners of conscience" detained in Soviet prisons, labor camps and psychiatric hospitals because they have expressed their views on social, cultural and national questions. Membership in the Kiev Helsinki Group guarantees arrest. Although free exercise of religious belief is guaranteed by both the Ukrainian and Soviet constitutions, any open manifestation of Ukrainian Catholicism or Ukrainina Orthodoxy is severely punished and other religious minorities such as Jews or members of Protestant sects are barely tolerated. In connection with Basket II, it is noted that the technological and agricultural agreements between the US and the USSR do not directly benefit Ukraine or the other republics, which do not generally experience well-being under Soviet rule. The Sovietimposed collective farm system in Ukraine, for example, has engendered economic and spiritual hardship and has only served to destroy traditional Ukrainian culture. It is suggested that technology transfer and trade benefits offered by the West be made contingent on Soviet compliance with the Final Act human rights guarantees. Free As for progress in the reunification of families under Basket II, it is observed that families remain separated due to fear of reprisals upon application for exit visas. The Ukrainian Helsinki Group also points out (Memorandum no. 18) that the Soviet Union, while allowing many Jews and Russian dissidents to emigrate, discriminates against Ukrainians in this respect. movement of ideas is a reality only in the "samvydav." Mail and all foreign publications are censored. Even artistic productions are scrutinized for "nationalistic" content. Cultural and educational exchanges between the Soviet Union and Europe have, for the most part, excluded Ukrainians. Ukrainian publications, exhibits and performers from the West are not allowed entry into Ukraine and Ukrainian scientists visiting the West are closely guarded by KGB. The continuing violations by the Soviet government in Ukraine of the basic rights and freedoms of a 50-million nation in the heart of Europe must be of central concern to all free world governments and to any long term deliberation about the future political policies of the Western alliance. Especially in the wake of the Afghanistan invasion and the rethinking of detente and the whole complex of relations between the United States and the USSR, it is of the greatest importance that the internal dynamics of the USSR be clearly perceived and addressed by the United States in the framework of an international forum such as the CSCE Conference. The creation of a de facto 16th Soviet republic in Afghanistan is a warning to the United States to no longer ignore the nationality problems at the heart of Soviet aggression. Ukraine, a nation whose people have no voice in the internal and global policies of Moscow and whose subjection permits the Soviet government to engage in its policies of subversion and expansionism, must take its rightful place in any discussion and implementation of humanitarian principles and fundamental freedoms. National Rights and the Helsinki Accords Before giving a situation report on each separate "Basket" of the Accords in regard to Ukraine, we wish to urge the US delegation to the Madrid meeting to seriously consider raising the issue of national rights in accordance with Principle 8, Basket One of the Accords on "Equal Rights and Self-Determination of Peoples." In the past it has been customary to stress human rights only and to place undue emphasis on Basket Three. This exaggerated emphasis ignores the connection existing between various levels of human rights and the matrix in which they arise. For rights do not exist in a vacuum but find their expression in the social and institutional structure of a particular nation, that is, a supraclass community of historical, cultural, and geographical origin to which men give their allegiance and through which is ordered the behavior of men and their institutions. That is why the last article of the UN Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has duties to the community "in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible" (Art. 29). The same document also states that "Everyone has the right to a nationality" (Art. 15). Similarly the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in its fourth Information Bulletin asserts its opposition to any policy of great power chauvinism that attempts to crush the right of any nation to its own development, a right without which a nation cannot struggle for the social rights of its citizens. The group states that "The defense of human rights without the defense of national rights is without any foundation." National Headquarters: Ukrainian Congress Committeb uf America 203 Second Avenue New York, NY 10003 (212) 228-6840 Yet is is precisely this aspect of national rights that has been hitherto ignored in the context of the Helsinki Accords. The United States and the Western European nations, secure in their national identities and in their existence as nation-states, tend to take for granted the national component of the human rights problem and focus chiefly on personal civil rights rather than national ones. The situation is radically different in the case of such nations as Ukraine and the other non-Russian nations of the USSR. Here the dissidents and outspoken critics of the regime clearly and consistently speak out in defense of national rights, for the peoples of these nations are subject not only to the usual human rights violations such as censorship and travel restrictions but to the additional deprivation of not being allowed to participate in a national consciousness that extends into the many-valued spheres of human activity. Here the stress is on the right to preserve one's own language and culture, to have the right to determine the political system of one's country, its economy, development of natural and human resources, and its relations with the other members of the world community of nations. Such rights are inherent in the political progress of the West in its modern historical period. As other nations and peoples in the free world, Ukrainians seek not only their individual rights but their collective rights as well or, as the Ukrainian Helsinki Group puts it, their "place under the sun." It is with such a principle in mind, a principle substantiated by the first Basket of the Helsinki Accords, that the following situation report should be viewed and acted upon. The Situation in Ukraine: Violations of the Helsinki Accord Provisions BASKET I. Questions Relating to Security in Europe Principle 7: Respect for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Including the Freedom of Thought, Conscience, Religion or Belief. FREEDOM OF THOUGHT AND CONSCIENCE. The fate of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group serves as perhaps the most notorious example of the violations by the Soviet government of international norms of justice and political liberties. Formed in 1976 to promote the implementations of the Helsinki Accords, almost all of the original members have been arrested and sentenced to prison terms. Five of the nine members who joined the group in 1977 and 1978 have received minimum three year sentences. Last year the KGB organs initiated another crackdown against the Group's members; so far four members have received prison terms, including well-known poet, writer, and rights activist Oles Be.dnyk. The KGB has told Ukrainian human rights activists that membership in the Helsinki Group means automatic arrest. Using the organs of 66-221 0 - 80 - 11 |