"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT - AUR"
An International Newsletter
The Latest, Up-To-Date
In-Depth Ukrainian News, Analysis, and Commentary
"Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT - AUR" - Number 563
Mr. E. Morgan Williams, Publisher and Editor
Washington, D.C., Kyiv, Ukraine, SUNDAY, September 18, 2005
--------INDEX OF ARTICLES--------
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. PHILADELPHIA LIBERTY MEDAL AWARDED TO VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO
COMMENTARY: By E. Morgan Williams, Publisher & Editor
The Action Ukraine Report (AUR), No. 563, Article 1
Washington, D.C., Sunday, September 18, 2005
2. ORANGE YA PROUD OF YUSHCHENKO?
By Alysha Brennan, Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Saturday, Sep 17, 2005
3. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO RECEIVES
2005 LIBERTY MEDAL
By Janice Podsada, The Associated Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Saturday, Sep 17, 2005
4. LIBERTY MEDAL GIVEN TO UKRAINIAN LEADER
By Christine Schiavo, Inquirer Staff Writer
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, Sat, Sep 17, 2005
5. PRESIDENT RECEIVES PHILADELPHIA LIBERTY MEDAL
Press office of the President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko
Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, 17 September 2005
6. HUED BE RIGHT TO SAY THE CITY'S MAKING A FUSS
OVER YUSHCHENKO
By Ronnie Polaneczky, Philly.com
Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Friday, September 16, 2005
7. A COSSACK CROSS IN SANDARMOKH
To the slaughtered sons and daughters of Ukraine
By Serhiy Shevchenko, Kyiv-Petrozavodsk-Sandarmokh
The Day Weekly Digest in English, #26
Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, September 6, 2005
=============================================================
1. PHILADELPHIA LIBERTY MEDAL AWARDED TO VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO
COMMENTARY: By E. Morgan Williams, Publisher & Editor
The Action Ukraine Report (AUR), No. 563, Article 1
Washington, D.C., Sunday, September 18, 2005
The city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, awarded its prestigious Liberty
Medal to the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko in an outstanding
awards ceremony marked by eloquence, passion, color, song, patriotism,
tears, cheers, fervor, professionalism, a sense of history and strong
support for the concept of liberty for all on Constitution Day in the United
States.
Philadelphia did itself up proud in the way the Philadelphia Liberty Medal
organization and the Philadelphia Ukrainian-American Welcoming
Committee handled the historic awards ceremony and the large, eloquent,
uplifting, well-organized banquet held in The National Constitution Center
in honor and celebration of Viktor Yushchenko and the citizens of Ukraine.
The people of the United States and the people of Ukraine both stood
tall and together as Philadelphia, one of the major cradles of liberty in
the history of the world, recognized the hero of liberty in Ukraine and the
Orange Revolution.
The several speakers at the awards ceremony ended up taking a rather
long time but the speeches were important in what was said and in the
sincerity in which they were given. The governor of Pennsylvania, Edward
G. Rendell, spoke about the fires of liberty that burn in his state and
John Street, the Mayor of Philadelphia spoke of his strong belief in liberty
and the values of those who met so many years ago in Philadelphia as
he gave the Liberty Medal to President Yushchenko with the First Lady,
Kateryna, standing next to the President with a few tears showing as
the Liberty Medal was presented. There were many tears of joy in
the crowd in Philadelphia on Saturday.
Pennsylvania Congressman Curt Weldon gave an impassioned talk
and outlined the long struggle for freedom undertaken by Ukrainians
around the world. He said he remembers when, before 1991, when
Ukrainians in the Philadelphia area gathered each January to express
their opposition to the Soviet Union, to communism and to the
oppressions which took place in Ukraine.
Congressman Weldon is known as 'Mr. Ukraine' in the halls of the
U.S. Congress and has co-chaired the Ukrainian- U.S.Congressional
Caucus for many years.
President Yushchenko also, in accepting the award, gave remarks
which outlined his beliefs and values and thanked the United States
for the support given to Ukraine in its struggle for independence and
true liberty.
The combined Ukraina Choir of Philadelphia, conducted by Nestor
Kyzymyshyn, sang at the awards ceremony and at the banquet. Their
music stirred the souls of those who were there with their special
patriotic Ukrainian music and God Bless America. The Valoshky Dance
Troupe gave the traditional bread and salt to the President of Ukraine
at the awards presentation.
The "Citation for Viktor Yushchenko" from The Philadelphia Foundation,
which sponsors the Philadelphia Liberty Medal said:
"Across the centuries we have learned, and often painfully re-learned,
a fundamental truth: the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
We have learned that this vigilance must be anchored in moral courage
and in strength of spirit. We have learned that it must proceed from
an unswerving commitment to recognize and root out abuse of power
and privilege, and to elevate and revere human rights and freedoms.
Viktor Yushchenko has demonstrated this courage, this spirit, and this
commitment in challenging corruption and election fraud, and winning
his nation's mandate to lead after the Orange Revolution.
Today, his continuing vigilance in the service of liberty is guiding
Ukraine's transformation to become a truly free and democratic society,
and a prosperous nation.
In recognition of his personal courage, his vision, and his vigilance
in leading Ukraine, The Philadelphia Foundation is proud to award the
2005 Philadelphia Liberty Medal to Viktor Yushchenko, President of
Ukraine."
The Philadelphia Liberty Medal honors an individual or organization from
anywhere in the world that has demonstrated "leadership and vision in the
pursuit of liberty and conscience or freedom from oppression, ignorance,
or deprivation."
The Liberty Medal was established in 1988 to heighten recognition of the
nation's founding principles, to commemorate the bicentennial of the
United States Constitution, and to salute champions of liberty across
the globe.
It is historic to know that two of the previous winners of this award, Lech
Walesa of Poland (1989) and Vaclav Havel (1994) of the Czech Republic
came to Kyiv, stood on the stage at the Maidan, and spoke in support
of what the people of Ukraine were doing during the Orange Revolution.
Another winner, Colin L. Powell (2002), as U.S. Secretary of State in the
fall of 2004, while at an international meeting in Bulgaria, spoke up
strongly and forcefully just at the right time, immediately after round two
of the election process, to say the United States believed the election
process was faded and would not accept the outcome as announced by
the government authorities in Ukraine. Powell's statement helped turn the
tide and soon most of the key nations of the world, except Russia, also
joined in to say the election was a fraud.
Those who participated in and those who attended the events in
Philadelphia on Saturday, September 17th, will long remember this most
historic moment with pride, with joy, and with celebration in their hearts
that the 'spirit' of those who signed the Constitution of the United States
and those who have supported and defended it ever since came together
with the 'spirit' of those who fought for liberty in Ukraine for hundreds of
years and those who finally brought about the Orange Revolution in
Ukraine.
May the 'spirit' of these two groups of people and these two nations
continue to support and spread 'liberty for all' around the world for all
the years to come. -30-
=============================================================
2. ORANGE YA PROUD OF YUSHCHENKO?
By Alysha Brennan, Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Saturday, Sep 17, 2005
A pillow of tears formed under the 10th-grade biology teacher's eyes when
he recalled watching a birth last winter in Independence Square in Kiev.
"[Viktor] Yushchenko said to us, 'It heartens me when I see so many of my
children, Ukraine's children out here standing,' " Lubromyr Konrad said. "It
was the birth of democracy."
Konrad worked with the Ukrainian Congressional Committee of America last
December to ensure the election was running smoothly. But even though there
was little voter fraud, the tumultuous campaign almost cost President Viktor
Yushchenko his life.
"His face shows the scars of the struggle," said Konrad, who is president of
the Ukrainian League of Philadelphia.
Yushchenko is partly responsible for sparking a political and social
revolution and eradicating corruption in Ukraine through peaceful protests.
During the campaign, Yushchenko had a run-in with poison-laced soup that
left his face marred with pockmarks.
But 10 months later, Ukraine's "George Washington" is in Philadelphia to
accept the Liberty Medal and a $100,000 award.
He is being honored today at the National Constitution Center for
demonstrating "leadership and vision in the pursuit of liberty of conscience
or freedom from oppression, ignorance or deprivation."
Mary Gregg, a Liberty Medal volunteer coordinator for the non-profit
Philadelphia Commission, said the Ukrainian community in Philadelphia is
embracing the arrival of Yushchenko.
"There is a very enthusiastic Ukrainian-American community here. There are
also a lot of admirers..." Gregg said. "There is a great deal of
nationalistic feeling."
Oxana Farion, who left Ukraine when she was 5 years old, is overjoyed to
attend the ceremony.
"He deserves it because he is the person who started without any bloodshed.
He created a democracy," said Farion, who is also vice president of the
Ukrainian National Women's League of America. "Just look at Iraq. Our
children are dying there. Our sons and daughters are dying there...
Yushchenko was able to achieve hope."
Although Yushchenko's Orange Revolution achieved international recognition,
recent rifts in the administration, including the firing of Prime Minister
Yulia Tymoshenko, have challenged the solidarity of the new government. But
still, some remain optimistic.
"It kind of speaks to the revolution. They've split up, but the country
hasn't fallen apart. There's no coup," Konrad said. "It's kind of like this
protest that turned into a revolution is still going... it's the spirit of
change."
Christina Stasiuk, a lead medical director for Intracorp, who lives in
Center City, said that just as the United States faced trials during its
infancy, there is still hope for Yushchenko driving the former Soviet nation
to democracy.
"It's not going to happen in a year, but this guy turned around the Titanic
of the century... Does he deserve support? Damn straight he does," Stasiuk
said. "Does he deserve it more than a year? Yes, it's a work in progress."
Stasiuk, a first-generation Ukrainian-American, remembered a 1983 Ukraine
where "people walked with their shoulders hunched, they covered their mouths
with their hand, they were afraid to talk on the phone for fear of it being
tapped."
But now, times have changed.
"Now they are cleaning their houses, painting their houses... they're pink,
they're curry-colored, there are flower-boxes. People have hope." -30-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail: brennaa@phillynews.com
============================================================
Send in names and e-mail addresses for the AUR distribution list.
=============================================================
3. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO RECEIVES
2005 LIBERTY MEDAL
By Janice Podsada, The Associated Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Saturday, Sep 17, 2005
PHILADELPHIA - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, awarded the
2005 Philadelphia Liberty Medal on Saturday, said he was accepting it on
behalf of millions of Ukrainians at home and abroad who fought for their
country's liberation and against corruption.
"It was their patience, courage and dignity that won this award." Yushchenko
said through a translator as he stood in front of the National Constitution
Center in Philadelphia. "I accept this medal as an oath of faith. I will
pass it on to my children."
Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street presented the gold medal to Yushchenko,
who was elected president in December after a contentious election. Also
present were Gov. Edward F. Rendell; Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., and
Yushchenko's wife, Katarina, and other dignitaries.
Yushchenko was at the center of a popular uprising during which his
supporters camped out in the Ukrainian capital, protesting that a
Moscow-backed candidate had stolen a disputed election. Dioxin poisoning
from what he has called an assassination attempt during the tumultuous
campaign last year has left his face pockmarked and disfigured.
Hundreds of spectators attended the ceremony, some wearing the country's
traditional embroidered cotton shirts while others sported orange T-shirts,
scarves and ties, in honor of Ukraine's "Orange Revolution." Orange, the
color of Yushchenko's campaign banners and signs, came to symbolize
freedom and liberty for the people of Ukraine, Street told the crowd.
Some spectators said they had waited hours to see Yushchenko take the
podium. Others said they had waited decades for a man like him to appear.
"It is a very big day," said Marta Ozarkiw, 72, who fled Ukraine with her
parents in 1950. Ozarkiw, a retired Drexel University librarian from
Philadelphia, said she has never returned to Ukraine, but still feels close
to her native country despite the distance and the years.
"He really wants to make Ukraine a better state with no corruption," she
said. "It was under the Russian yoke for many centuries. Now they are free.
It is unbelievable."
Yushchenko has pledged to fight corruption and bring the former Soviet
republic closer to the European Union and NATO while maintaining good
relations with Russia.
The Liberty Medal was established in 1988 by the nonprofit Philadelphia
Foundation, founded in 1918. The award, which is accompanied by a
$100,000 prize, honors an individual or organization that has "demonstrated
leadership and vision in the pursuit of liberty of conscience or freedom
from oppression, ignorance, or deprivation." Its first recipient, in 1989,
was Lech Walesa, Poland's former president.
Past recipients of the medal have included Czech President Vaclav Havel,
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, U.S. Supreme Court justices Sandra Day
O'Connor and Thurgood Marshall, and United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan.
Yushchenko's selection was announced in June. The medal is typically
awarded on July Fourth, but due to a scheduling conflict, Constitution Day,
celebrated this year on September 17, was chosen instead.
=============================================================
Send in names and e-mail addresses for the AUR distribution list.
=============================================================
4. LIBERTY MEDAL GIVEN TO UKRAINIAN LEADER
By Christine Schiavo, Inquirer Staff Writer
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, Sat, Sep 17, 2005
PHILADELPHIA - Amid the cheers and chants of his compatriots who filled
the seats and crowded the sidewalk outside the National Constitution Center
yesterday, Ukraine's President Viktor A. Yushchenko accepted the Liberty
Medal for his pursuit of freedom under a corrupt government.
Yushchenko, whose face bears the marks of his commitment, promptly
dedicated the medal to the "citizens of free and democratic Ukraine."
Standing in the shadow of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, Yushchenko
said the spirit of American democracy inspired him and Ukraine's Orange
Revolution to challenge an abusive government.
"The sound of the bell is still heard across the globe," he said through an
interpreter, with his Chicago-born Ukrainian American wife, Kateryna, by his
side. "Nations hear it and know its language."
Yushchenko, 51, had been criticized by some for making a trip to the United
States after firing his cabinet on Sept. 8. Making only a vague reference to
his splintered government during his speech, Yushchenko said: "Our
democracy is young. We still have to learn to live in its bright light."
Yushchenko said he was accepting the medal as "an oath of faith" and will
pass it on to his children along with the awards his father received as a
soldier in the Red Army in World War II, during which he was wounded and
sent to a concentration camp.
"These are signs of freedom," Yushchenko said. "They remind us of the
price that was paid for it."
Yushchenko's sacrifice is apparent. While running for president in a bitter
election last fall, he became gravely ill from dioxin poisoning, which left
his face disfigured. While the source hasn't been detected, many believe
he was poisoned by his opponents.
The incident fueled Yushchenko's campaign and united the Ukrainians, who
passionately protested his initial defeat and demanded new elections, which
the Supreme Court backed.
"A lesser man, a lesser people may simply have quit," Mayor Street said
before presenting Yushchenko with the medal and a $100,000 check.
The award, given by the nonprofit Philadelphia Foundation, was created in
1988 to honor a person or organization for a commitment to democratic
principles. Six recipients have gone on to win the Nobel Peace Prize,
including Lech Walesa, the first Liberty Medal recipient in 1989, and Nelson
Mandela, who received it in 1993.
Usually given on July 4, the medal was presented yesterday - the 218th
anniversary of the signing of the Constitution - because Yushchenko had a
scheduling conflict.
The award is significant for Ukraine, said those attending, many of whom
wore traditional costumes and orange ribbons.
"It's so important," said Igor Seredinskiy, 32, who came to Philadelphia
from Ukraine five years ago. "It may be the last chance for the people in
Ukraine to have a democracy and to have better lives."
At a news conference after the ceremony, Yushchenko acknowledged
problems in the new government, but said: "This is not a critical time
This is a great and very trying time."
He said the Ukrainians who stood in Kiev's Independence Square wearing
the orange ribbons of solidarity expected a government with "team spirit"
and a "respect for the ideals of others."
Earlier this month, the political arguments within Yushchenko's cabinet came
to a head when he fired popular Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other
top officials.
"I'm sure that no person standing with orange ribbons was wanting to see
this kind of government," he said.
Some said the Liberty Medal presents Yushchenko with a chance to reignite
the spark that lighted his presidency.
"I'm here in order that we will revive the same spirit that we had in the
Orange Revolution," said Sister Bohdonna Podney, 89, a Ukrainian
American nun from Jenkintown. "It was a spirit that faded in selfishness."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact staff writer Christine Schiavo at 215-348-0337 or
cschiavo@phillynews.com.
=============================================================
5. PRESIDENT RECEIVES PHILADELPHIA LIBERTY MEDAL
Press office of the President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko
Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, 17 September 2005
Today, Philadelphia Mayor John Street decorated Victor Yushchenko with
the Philadelphia Liberty Medal.
“I am dedicating this award to the Ukrainian nation, all citizens of the
free and democratic country,” said the President in his speech.
Then, he quoted George Washington: “When freedom takes root, its growth
can never be stopped.”
The President stressed that the peaceful and democratic Orange Revolution
demonstrated that “Ukrainians cordially respect democratic values of justice
and independence.”
Yushchenko thanked all Philadelphia Ukrainians for coming to congratulate
him: “It is very pleasant and cozy to see the people dressed in national
costumes and Ukrainian flags thousands of miles away from my Motherland.”
In his speech, Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell noted that “the fire
of freedom lit in Philadelphia in 1776 crossed borders and reached Ukraine.
“We were happy to see Ukrainians peacefully protest for the sake of
democracy and freedom,” he said.
Chairman of the Philadelphia Foundation Craig Lewis, Mayor John Street,
and Ukrainian boxer Vitaly Klytchko also addressed the audience.
The guests watched documentaries about the Philadelphia Liberty Medal
and the Orange Revolution.
Today, the Ben Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia will be lit orange in honor
of President Yushchenko. -30-
=============================================================
6. HUED BE RIGHT TO SAY THE CITY'S MAKING A FUSS
OVER YUSHCHENKO
By Ronnie Polaneczky, Philly.com
Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Friday, September 16, 2005
WE'RE PAINTING Some of the Town Orange!
Okay, so it's a step back from the full-blown, pumpkin-like glow I'd hoped
would suffuse Center City this weekend, when Ukrainian President Viktor
Yushchenko visits Philly to accept the Liberty Medal.
But orange, I've learned, isn't in the normal palette of colors available to
ornamentally light downtown structures for good causes.
That's why City Hall won't be lit orange. Nor will other Center City towers
go orange for Yushchenko the way they routinely go pink for breast-cancer
awareness, flag-like for July 4th madness and green for Eagles fever.
But not to worry!
The fountain in Love Park will gush as orange as a shaken can of Crush.
Barring unforseen glitches, the clock tower of this newspaper will throw a
campfire glow into the sky. The roadway lights on the Ben Franklin Bridge
will flutter from white to orange every 10 minutes. And Peco will trumpet a
welcome message to the Ukrainian president throughout the weekend.
Not in orange, alas, but a fuss is a fuss in any color, I say.
If anyone deserves a fuss, it's Yushchenko. At least, that's what I argued
in this column in August, when I recommended that we "Paint the Town
Orange!" in his honor this weekend.
This is a man who overcame poison-laced soup, political treachery and a
rigged election to become Ukraine's president last winter.
He so inspired supporters that hundreds of thousands of them kept vigil for
weeks, in Kiev's frozen Independence Square, until he triumphed over
Moscow puppet Viktor Yanukovych.
Orange, of course, was the color worn by Yushchenko's supporters during his
long, tense campaign. Their orange scarves, hats and flags defined what
came to be known around the world as the Orange Revolution - a movement
characterized by raw courage, peaceful protest and whatever-it-takes
determination that democracy triumph over corruption.
To me, this weekend's Liberty Medal is as much a recognition of their
passion as it is the principles of freedom upon which Yushchenko
campaigned and which the annual medal recognizes with a cash award
of $100,000.
Tomorrow, members of the vast East Coast Ukrainian Diaspora - many of
whom cast absentee ballots for him last winter - will crowd the 2 p.m.
Liberty Medal ceremony on the grounds of the National Constitution Center
at 6th and Arch.
All reserved seats and standing-room places have sold out, as have the
$250 tickets to the 8 p.m. gala that evening in Yushchenko's honor.
"The response has been huge," says Ulana Mazurkevich, head of the Liberty
Medal welcoming committee. "Yushchenko is so respected by our community."
So much so, it's doubtful anyone on her committee will ask the Ukrainian
president about his recent troubles. Last week, he dismissed his former
prime minister and her Cabinet, charging abuse of office. Which is just the
sort of thing he'd accused former president Viktor Yanukovych's
administration of doing.
So it's a tricky time back home for Yushchenko.
Or, as the Ukies would say, a "hordievyi vuzol rozviazat!"
But not here, and not this weekend.
After the Liberty Medal ceremony tomorrow (which will be broadcast live
on WPVI-TV), Yushchenko will attend a prayer service at the Immaculate
Conception Ukrainian Cathedral in Northern Liberties. Its Franklin Street
neighborhood will be fittingly adorned with orange ribbons, and local
Ukrainian violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv, who plays like a dream, will perform.
After the evening gala, Yushchenko will board a flight for home, $100,000
richer, which ought to ease the sting of his administration's embarrassing
growing pains.
Here's hoping, on his way to the airport, he sees a sky glowing orange in
his honor. Just so he knows he didn't drink that poison soup in vain.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail: polaner@phillynews.com
LINK: http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/12659475.htm
=============================================================
7. A COSSACK CROSS IN SANDARMOKH
To the slaughtered sons and daughters of Ukraine
By Serhiy Shevchenko, Kyiv-Petrozavodsk-Sandarmokh
The Day Weekly Digest in English, #26
Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, September 6, 2005
Not far from Belomorkanal, to the left of the highway from Medvezhegorsk to
Povenets, there is a tract of land known as Sandarmokh, formerly a "regular
execution site."
In the years of political terror, between 9 and 12 thousand people were
massacred there (according to the newspaper Kareliya, a total of 236 burial
sites have been discovered, each containing dozens of bodies bearing
gunshot wounds).
In 1997 this secret necropolis became a memorial. The inscription on the
boulder in the forest reads that a total of 1,111 inmates of Solovky, a
notorious Soviet special-regime prison (Russ. abbr. STON) were executed
there, and the pits where the victims fell after being shot in the back of
the head are marked.
A wooden chapel was built here and named after St. George; the site also
includes the Polyana Pamyati (Remembrance Forest Clearing) with Russian
Orthodox and Roman Catholic crosses. Researchers believe that a number of
Ukrainians connected to the "Executed Renaissance" found their final repose
here.
A documentary serial entitled My Address: Solovky (1991, directed by Leonid
Anichkin, Kyiv) depicting the White Sea Canal camps, recounts the tragic
fate of these prisoners. In the space of a year journalist Borys
Hryvachevsky published the book Letters from Solovky. At the time the
general public knew nothing about Sandarmokh.
It attracted public interest during the year when the massacres were
commemorated after researchers discovered the sites of mass executions.
These events coincided with the publication in Kyiv of the unique
three-volume collection Last Address (1997-99), which was eventually
reissued as a two-volume collection. Among the members of the editorial
board of the first edition were Ivan Drach, Volodymyr Prystaiko, Aleksandr
Pshennikov, Yury Shapoval, and this author. The work was compiled by
Petro Kulakovsky, Georgi Smirnov, and the historian Yury Shapoval.
Last Address was prepared by SBU officers working in collaboration with
research fellows from the Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source
Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Some information
concerning Sandarmokh was provided by Veniamin Iofe, head of the St.
Petersburg branch of the "Memorial" Association.
Materials from the SBU archives concerning members of the Vesna
"counterrevolutionary army officers' organization" (many of whom were
inmates of Solovky) were also made public in the early 2000s.
In the years of Ukraine's independence the historians Serhiy Bilokin, Mykola
Rozhenko, Yaroslav Tynchenko, the journalist Vasyl Ovsiyenko, and several
other researchers have repeatedly broached the subject of the "southern
Golgotha."
This article is based on publications and data collected by this author
during his trips to Archangel, Solovky, and Sandarmokh (1997-99; 2005). It
contains information dedicated to the memory of our fellow countrymen who
were executed in Karelia during the years of the Great Terror.
Data relating to the fate of certain people who were purged in the early
1930s in conjunction with the Vesna case and then shot in Karelia has been
updated.
Researchers estimate that every second victim murdered in Sandarmokh
came from Russia (45%), every fourth was a Finn or Karelian, and every
tenth prisoner was Ukrainian. Poles, Germans, and Jews formed 4%, 3.5%,
and 3.1% of all victims.
Yuriy Dmitriyev, who studied archival materials, says he would add some
Poles, Germans, Jews, and Russians to the Ukrainian death toll: "There were
scores of others for whom Ukraine was not a vicious stepmother but a truly
devoted and loving mother."
An oak cross decorated with an embroidered towel was erected in Sandarmokh
on October 27, 1997. It was carved practically overnight by Mykola Malyshko,
an artist from Kyiv, as the first modest gesture of homage to the innocent
Ukrainian victims of Soviet atrocities. Yevhen Sverstiuk, a former Soviet
prisoner of conscience, brought the cross from Kyiv and erected it in the
Remembrance Forest Clearing.
On that frosty morning he visited the memorial site together with Larysa
Krushelnytska, a resident of Lviv who is the granddaughter of Anton
Krushelnytsky, who was shot there together with his sons Bohdan and
Ostap.
Among those who paid homage were the poet Ivan Drach, the bandurist
Mykola Lytvyn, Rev. Pavlo Bokhniak, the journalist Borys Hryvachevsky,
and his colleagues representing television companies and newspapers.
In the course of the international action called "Repentance," staged on
August 22, 1998, near the entrance to the cemetery in Sandarmokh, a granite
bas-relief was unveiled, its Russian-language inscription reading, "People,
Do Not Kill Each Other" (designed by sculptor Grigoriy Saltup from
Petrozavodsk). Throughout subsequent years the tract in Karelia and the
Solovky Archipelago has been visited by residents of Ukraine.
This author traveled to Medvezhegorsk raion in July 1998, together with
Kyivans Ihor Hilbo and Tetiana Ivanko. I made another trip, this time alone,
when I was working in the archives of Russia's Federal Security Service in
the Republic of Karelia.
The Day of Remembrance was marked on August 3, 1999. This date is
observed every year by our fellow countrymen and believers led by Vasyl
Ovsiyenko, the indefatigable organizer and coordinator of pilgrimages to the
site.
In 2002, Sandarmokh and Solovky were visited by 46 Ukrainians (37 arrived
by bus from Rivne, with tents and food supplies). Large delegations visited
it in 2003 and 2005, traveling on buses provided by sponsors.
In various years the graves at the memorial site have been visited by
victims' relatives, among them Veniamin Trokhymenko, Valentyna Bovsunivska,
Stanislav Volkov, Rada Poloz and Eleonora Vangenheim (both from Moscow);
political prisoners of the 1970s-1980s Nadia Svitlychna, Mykhailo Horyn,
Mykola Matusevych, and Zorian Popadiuk; historians Mykola Rozhenko and
Yaroslav Tkachenko; writer Leonid Cherevatenko; artist Mykola Stratilat;
bandurist Taras Kompanichenko; architect Ivan Kushnir, Bishop Volodymyr
Cherpak, to mention just a few.
The former execution site has been featured in television, radio, and photo
coverages by Vakhtang Kipiani, Vitaliy Kovach, Bogdan Kutepov, Rostyslav
Martyniuk, Viktor Miniaylo, Oleksandr Riabokrys, Lesia Sakada, this author,
Serhiy Shevchenko, and Volodymyr Shcherbyna.
TO THE SLAUGHTERED SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF UKRAINE
Jewish and Muslim memorial signs were recently installed in the pine forest.
October 9, 2004, witnessed an event long awaited by Ukrainians in this
country and beyond its borders. On the sunny day of August 5, 2005, a
Cossack cross commemorating Ukrainian political prisoners was erected,
consecrated, and ceremonially unveiled.
The public had been trying to make this project a reality ever since July 2,
1997, when a joint Karelia-St. Petersburg expedition uncovered the NKVD
execution sites (the journalists went on an excursion to familiarize
themselves with the sites located in the local quarry on July 1).
To be precise, Medvezhegorsk was visited by representatives of "Memorial"
from St. Petersburg: Veniamin Iofe, Irina Reznikova, and Petrozavodsk
researcher Yuriy Dmitriyev, together with his 12-year-old daughter Katerina
and a search dog, a German shepherd by the name of Vedi (the dog's
prowess is not exaggerated, according to its owner).
Soldiers helped with the digging. Dmitriyev set off to examine the nearby
pine forest with Senior Lieutenant Andrei Zhdanov, commanding officer of the
detail ("Such expeditions must include two men; it's the law"). There he
spotted telltale rectangular depressions.
However, in 1997 the Karelian press voiced an alternative opinion concerning
the newly discovered burial sites and the idea for a memorial. Nikolai
Shalloyev and Vladimir Popov told a reporter that in Medvezhegorsk district
there were "a number of common graves of victims of the 1930s and 1940s
purges, which were well known to the populace; such graves can be found near
Zakhariyevskoe Cemetery on top of Mount Dymovaia, next to Perguba, as well
as in Vichka, a former pig farm across the canal.
The inauguration of the memorial was another opportunity to put a tick in
the box on an official list, as practiced in the good old nomenklatura
times. The event was made possible by the good will that was demonstrated by
the Finns and Poles, when it was no longer possible to keep the whole thing
secret."
Historians are certain that a number of inmates of Solovky, a major Soviet
special-regime prison, were executed in Medvezhegorsk district on November
1-4, 1937, by the personnel of the NKVD's Chief Security Directorate.
Victims' names were found in archival sources (e.g., Soviet secret police
records, a central directive dated October 16, 1937, and a report filed by
the officer in charge of the firing squad, signed by NKVD Captain Mikhail
Matveyev, stating that a total of 1,111 persons were executed).
Trainloads of doomed victims representing various Soviet ethnic groups were
transported to the railroad station of Medvezhaya Gora, from where they were
transferred to the execution site(s), among them the Ukrainian academicians
Stepan Rudnytsky and Matviy Yavorsky, the theater director Les Kurbas, the
playwright Mykola Kulish, the poet Mykola Zerov, and the writer Valerian
Pidmohylny.
Other victims included Ukrainian writers, political figures, schoolteachers
and college lecturers, physicians, priests, workers, and peasants, who on
the eve of the Great Terror were shipped off to the prison camp in the
Soviet Union's Far North.
Most of the victims executed at Sandarmokh were men, but there were also
some Ukrainian women. Yuriy Dmitriyev claims that 13 were shot in
September-November 1937, including Pelaheia Aldakimova, Hanna
Bondarchuk, Frosyna Vasianovych, Olha Danyliuk, Maria Liasheva, Neonila
Markelova, Tamara Nesterova, and Uliana Stasiuk. Fedora Markovska,
from the village of Sushkivka (currently in Uman district, Cherkasy oblast),
was shot there in January 1938.
NO FAVOR SHOWN BY PRESIDENTS
Prior to unveiling the Ukrainian cross in Sandarmokh, a monumental work
created by Ukrainian artists, 10 sculptural designs were submitted for a
competition. Meanwhile, bureaucrats from Ukraine's Ministry of Culture
wasted kilos of paper corresponding with various offices and agencies in
Ukraine and Russia, trying to arrange for the construction of a monument in
Karelia.
In October 2002, the jury selected designs by Viktor Samiylenko of
Kirovohrad, Mykola Lampeka and Kyi Danyleiko of Kyiv, and Yevhen
Leliuchenko of Odesa. The designs submitted by monumentalist Mykola
Malyshko and a young sculptor named Nazar Bilyk were selected as the
best.
That same year a group of scholars and cultural figures from Kyiv sent a
letter to President Vladimir Putin of Russia. "The scope (of the Sandarmokh
massacre - Auth.) is gradually being understood, along with details
attesting to the singular cynical ruthlessness on the part of the
murderers," reads the Ukrainian delegation's message.
"Ukraine's need to pay homage to the martyrs has become palpable. Directed
precisely to this end were a resolution passed by the Cabinet of Ministers
of Ukraine (1998) and an edict signed by the President of Ukraine (#307, May
14, 2001) concerning the commemoration of Ukrainian citizens as victims of
mass shootings on the territories of the Russian Federation and the Republic
of Kazakhstan.
Nevertheless, practically nothing has been done to carry out the project. We
are told that the monument in Sandarmokh cannot be designed and built by
the state without having a plot legally allocated by the Russian side,
concerning which fruitless correspondence via the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs has been conducted for a number of years.
We hereby request that you, Mr. President, help us settle this issue,
especially since the current year is being marked as the Year of Ukraine in
Russia." This letter, addressed to Russia's head of state, remains
unanswered.
Toward the end of 2003 we received a phone call from Kyiv, which was
"crucial to our cause," recalls Larysa Skrypnykova, administrative head of a
Karelian nonprofit organization, the Kalyna Ukrainian Cultural Society.
Viktor Yushchenko, who was then a Ukrainian MP, suggested that Ms.
Skrypnykova take charge of the Ukrainian chapel project in Sandarmokh
(designed by architect Ivan Kushnir).
Today we know that President Yushchenko's father was a victim of the purges
and was sent to work on the infamous Belomorkanal construction site in the
early 1930s.
The leadership of the Medvezhaya Gora municipal entity headed by Volodymyr
Karpenko, who heads the local "self-government," granted Kalyna's request
and allocated a plot for what would become the Chapel of Newly Ordained
Saints and Prophets. Shortly afterward, the initiators of the project backed
down, simply because an Orthodox chapel was found close to the
Remembrance Forest Clearing.
"In March 2004, I was granted an audience with Viktor Yushchenko," recalls
Ms. Skrypnykova. "During that meeting it was finally resolved that a
memorial would be set up in Sandarmokh to commemorate the Ukrainians
murdered there. After that we received the first tangible contribution from
the political bloc Our Ukraine and personally from Mr. Yushchenko.
Among the participants of the work were the Mykola Trokhymenko Scientific
Society, the All-Ukraine Association of Political Prisoners and Victims of
Purges, the Boichuk Institute of Decorative and Applied Art and Design, and
the editors of the journal Ant, who organized the memorial competition.
After examining the best proposals, the action group led by Yevhen Sverstiuk
selected the design for a granite cross. Vasyl Ovsiyenko, a former Soviet
prisoner of conscience, coordinated community efforts. Articles about
Sandarmokh and the need for charitable contributions were carried by
newspapers throughout Europe and abroad.
Finally, a three-meter cross made of boulders (as per Mykola Malyshko and
Nazar Bilyk's joint design) was erected with the help of donations from
local and diaspora Ukrainians, sent from the US, Canada, Karelia, and the
city of Vorkuta.
Veniamin Trokhymenko, the son of a Ukrainian scholar executed in
Sandarmokh, and now a retired US national residing in New York, did much
to make the project a reality, financing the contest and contributing $4,000
for the construction of the monument. Bohdan Fedorak sent $6,000 on behalf
of the Ukrainian World Congress; Ada Kulyk donated $1,000; Mykhailo
Skrypkin sent 17,700 Russian rubles; Nadia Svitlychna collected over
$2,000 in the US.
The OUN and Samopomich were also helpful. Karelski Granit, a business in
Kondopoga, Karelia, contributed to the project by offering cut rates. All
told, some 200 individuals and organizations spared no effort to help this
good cause.
THE SBU INITIATIVE
The sculptors needed light gray granite, the kind available in the
Mansurovsky Quarry in the Ural Mountains. The co-designers traveled to
Karelia to work on the granite slab - actually, two slabs, as it turned out.
Mykola Malyshko later said that they wanted the kind of granite that would
look bright and solid, in contrast to the dark woods, so it would be
"associated with eternity."
The designers made the arms of the cross wide and uneven, and roughly cut
and sawed, to be a reminder of the repressive Soviet regime and its
devastating effect on human lives. The saw cuts in the granite are a
reminder of barbed wire and bullet wounds and of the way the victims were
trussed up before execution.
On the day of the unveiling of the Cossack cross (August 5), Sandarmokh was
visited by pilgrims from Ukraine, led by Vasyl Ovsiyenko. The Kyiv municipal
administration had provided a comfortable bus seating 50. On the way to
Karelia the delegation visited the Consulate General of Ukraine in St.
Petersburg, where the guests were welcomed by Consul General Mykola
Rudko.
Unfortunately, a tragic event occurred the next morning. According to Rev.
Volodymyr, during the night bus ride to Petrozavodsk, Leonid Mylevsky, a
noted art photographer and businessman from Kyiv, suffered a fatal heart
attack. God rest his soul.
On August 4 they met with Kalyna activists at the Republican Center of
Ethnic Cultures in Petrozavodsk, as well as with representatives of the
local Karelian administration and ethnic communities of Moscow and Tula.
The next day a meeting was held to launch the book To the Slaughtered Sons
of Ukraine. Sandarmokh (comp. Larysa Skrypnykova). Afterwards, those
attending the meeting left for Medvezhaya Gora raion.
Diplomats from Poland and Finland, together with the pilgrims and
organizers, took part in a religious procession and mourning rallies. The
ceremony of unveiling the Cossack cross was conducted by Ms. Skrypnykova.
Among the speakers were Mykola Rudko, Vasyl Ovsiyenko, Tetiana
Krushelnytska, and Mykola Malyshko. Researcher Yuriy Dmitriyev presented
some items - a brick from the camp debris and part of a window grate - that
he had unearthed on the site of the former prison camp at Polga, near
Belomorkanal (where Les Kurbas once worked).
Rev. Volodymyr Shcherbak celebrated a commemorative liturgy for the dead.
Taking part in all these actions were the relatives of purged victims,
scholars, students, a team of journalists, including this author, the
co-author of the book Ukrainian Solovky and deputy head of the SBU's
department for scientific-practical publications.
The security service of independent Ukraine, the SBU, has nothing to do with
the atrocious Cheka-GPU-NKVD heritage and their role as the "avenging
sword of the revolution." However, SBU officers and personnel must make
every effort to fill in all the gaps on matters pertaining to the
rehabilitation and commemoration of the victims of that political terror.
This opinion was voiced during an SBU board meeting by SBU head
Oleksandr Turchynov. President Viktor Yushchenko approved his initiative
and said that it was a sure sign that the Ukrainian security service was
being rejuvenated, particularly because they were taking over the
maintenance of the memorial complex at Bykivnia with its common graves
of NKVD victims of the 1930s and 1940s purges.
In compliance with an edict signed by the president of Ukraine (July 11,
2005), entitled "On Additional Measures to Perpetuate the Memory of the
Victims of Political Repressions and the Holodomor in Ukraine," the SBU is
setting up a task force led by Serhiy Kokin, deputy head of the state
archives department (the team includes Petro Kulakovsky, Oleksandr
Loshytsky, Volodymyr Prystaiko, Oleksandr Pshennikov, Heorhiy Smirnov,
and Serhiy Shevchenko).
Its purpose is to help nonprofit organizations, state agencies, and
researchers obtain access to pertinent archival documents and to make this
information public knowledge. Its other tasks include scholarly processing
of such data and preparing a documented edition reflecting the Stalinist
purges of the 1930s and 1940s in Kyiv and Kyiv oblast, specifically in
Bykivnia.
THE KARELIAN "AUTUMN" OF KYIV'S "SPRING"
Over the past several years the SBU has issued scholarly publications
containing a number of files pertaining to the multi- volume Vesna case
engineered by the OGPU in 1930-31. A special issue of the journal From
the Archives of the VuChK-GPU-NKVD-KGB was devoted to several
systematized studies.
However, a number of questions concerning the fate of certain individuals
connected to this case remain unanswered, e.g., the date and cause of death
of Borys Syromiatnykov, former research fellow with the Land Institute and
Solovky inmate. Information is incomplete on several other inmates (e.g.,
Oleksandr Vedeniayev, Yevhen Drozdovsky, Veniamin Milles, Dmytro
Sakhnovsky, Oleksandr Solodianakin, and Ivan Chursin).
The archives in Karelia indicate that Borys Petrovych Syromiatnykov was
transferred from the GULAG Archipelago to the mainland and he later worked
on the Belomorkanal project as a forester.
He was arrested on September 1, 1937, condemned by an NKVD three-man
tribunal [troika] of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on
September 20, "in accordance with Directive #00447," and executed by firing
squad on September 28, 1937, at the Medvezhaya Gora railway station
(execution site: Sandarmokh). The public prosecutor of Karelia rehabilitated
Syromiatnykov in 1989, as did his Ukrainian counterpart.
Oleksandr Borysovych Vedeniayev, a nobleman who was born in Warsaw of
Ukrainian parentage and a schoolteacher by training, worked for Kharkiv's
National Economy Institute before his arrest and ten-year sentence in a
prison camp; he was rehabilitated in the Ukrainian SSR in 1989. He was
re-arrested on November 10, 1937.
A memorandum submitted to the NKVD troika on September 20, 1937, reads:
"While in the Belomorkanal penitentiary, the convict regularly conducted
counterrevolutionary propaganda against the Soviet government; he often
praised the tsarist army under the command of generals Krasnov, Kornilov, et
al.
At the same time he criticized, in a counterrevolutionary manner, measures
being taken by the party and government. He slandered the Cheka-OGPU-
NKVD organs.
He expressed profound regret about the trial of the fascist spies Zinovyev
and others. He insulted camp guards and befriended counterrevolutionary
elements, among them former officers. Negatively characterized by the camp
administration." The Karelian NKVD troika sentenced him to death on
September 20, according to Article 58/2/13 of the Criminal Code of the
Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR).
He was shot on December 2, 1937, at the Watershed (Locks VII-VIII of
Belomorkanal), and rehabilitated by the Karelian prosecutor on June 6, 1989.
The fate of Yevhen Drozdovsky, a native of Pinsk gubernia who was twice
officially rehabilitated, is well known. After serving a five-year term he
remained at the Belomorkanal, working as a deputy transportation
departmental head.
He was re-arrested on December 22, 1937, by a resolution of the Karelian
NKVD and sentenced to death by a troika on December 29 that same year,
in accordance with Article 58/10/11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR.
He was executed on January 8, 1938, at the Medvezhaya Gora railway station
(Sandarmokh) and rehabilitated by the Board of the Supreme Court of the
Karelian ASSR on March 2, 1957. Incidentally, this author was fortunate
enough to locate Drozdovsky's daughter, Iriada Yevhenivna Moskalenko, who
is retired and living in Kyiv at 25 Salyutna Street.
She responded to an article published in the newspaper Fakty i kommentariyi
[Facts and Comments] and requested documented evidence of the date and
circumstances of her father's death, which she duly received.
The Russian, Ivan Chursin, who was born in 1895, worked as a state farm
hand. He was sentenced to death by a Karelian troika in accordance with
Article 58/10 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR and shot on April 25, 1938,
in Sandarmokh. He was rehabilitated by the Board of the Supreme Court of
the Karelian ASSR on January 19, 1957 (rehabilitated in Kyiv in 1989).
There is additional information concerning Veniamin Hryhorovych Milles, a
Jew born in Odesa, who worked for Denikin's counterintelligence service,
then went over to the Reds and later worked as a professor at the Kamenev
Joint Military School in Kyiv. After serving a term in Solovky, Milles got a
part-time job at Belomorkanal's finance department.
He was re-arrested on February 24, 1938. A Karelian troika sentenced him to
death on March 24 that same year, in accordance with Article 58/10/11 of the
Criminal Code of the RSFSR. He was shot on April 2, 1938, in Sandarmokh.
He was rehabilitated by the Military Tribunal of the Northern Military
District on May 6, 1958. Karelian sources shed light on the fate of
Oleksandr Solodiankin, who was born in 1893, sentenced to death by the
Karelian NKVD troika on November 20, 1937, and shot on December 4 that
same year (site of execution unknown); he was rehabilitated by the Supreme
Court of the Karelian ASSR on January 12, 1957.
Dmytro Hryhorovych Sakhnovsky, of Chernihiv oblast, was a professor at the
Kamenev Joint Military School. After his release from a prison camp in 1934,
he worked as an accountant for the Belomorkanal Directorate. After his
arrest by the NKVD, a memo was submitted to the troika (March 21, 1938). It
reads: "Subject remained hostile to the Soviet government, joined a
counterrevolutionary group including V. H. Milles, M. V. Zlatovratsky, and
P. N. Matveyev.
Carried out acts of financial sabotage within the Belomorkanal network, as
instructed by the said organization. Brainwashed and recruited individuals
to act against the Soviet government within the said counterrevolutionary
group, scheduling their operations for the 1938 summer navigation period,
planning to sabotage and destroy larger Stalin Belomorkanal production
units. In addition, the subject regularly conducted counterrevolutionary
propaganda.
He has pleaded guilty." Sakhnovsky was shot on April 19, 1938, in
Sandarmokh and was rehabilitated by the Military Tribunal of the Northern
Military District on May 6, 1958.
This Ukrainian was rehabilitated a second time in 1989, in Kyiv. The above
quotation, based on archival documents, is taken from Yuriy Dmitriyev's book
Chest rasstrelom ne otnyat (The Firing Squad Cannot Take away Your Honor).
By tracing the destinies of some political prisoners that figured in the
Vesna case, it has become possible to fill in some information gaps. Yuriy
Alekseyevich Dmitriyev, president of the Academy of Social and Legal
Protection, offered his assistance, acting as compiler of the book Karelia's
Commemoration Lists: 1937-38.
This work, which contains data on some 14,000 people who were purged
during the Great Terror, was prepared under the auspices of the Karelian
administration.
The inscription carved on the stone monument reads "To the Slaughtered
Sons of Ukraine." Yuriy Dmitriyev says, "The Ukrainian cross will bless
Ukrainians and Karelians and Georgians and Swedes and Norwegians.
The Cossack cross is strong; its force and protection is powerful. It will
protect the eternal sleep of 60 nationalities and six creeds. By their
earthly sufferings they have earned His heavenly memory and the same
earthly protection." - 30 -
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINK: The Day, http://www.day.kiev.ua/147959
=============================================================
Send in a letter-to-the-editor today. Let us hear from you.
=============================================================
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT - AUR"
An Agent Of Change
A Free, Not-for-profit, Independent, Public Service Newsletter
ARTICLES ARE FOR PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC USE ONLY
Articles are Distributed For Information, Research, Education
Discussion and Personal Purposes Only
=============================================================
UKRAINE INFORMATION WEBSITE: http://www.ArtUkraine.com
=============================================================
SigmaBleyzer/Bleyzer Foundation Economic Reports
"SigmaBleyzer - Where Opportunities Emerge"
The SigmaBleyzer Private Equity Investment Group offers a comprehensive
collection of documents, reports and presentations presented by its business
units and organizations. All downloads are grouped by categories:
Marketing; Economic Country Reports; Presentations; Ukrainian Equity Guide;
Monthly Macroeconomic Situation Reports (Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine).
LINK: http://www.sigmableyzer.com/index.php?action=downloads
"UKRAINE - A COUNTY OF NEW OPPORTUNITIES"
=============================================================
"WELCOME TO UKRAINE" & "NARODNE MYSTETSTVO" MAGAZINES
UKRAINIAN MAGAZINES: For information on how to subscribe to the
"Welcome to Ukraine" magazine in English, published four times a year
and/or to the Ukrainian Folk Art magazine "Narodne Mystetstvo" in
Ukrainian, published two times a year, please send an e-mail to:
ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net.
=============================================================
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT- AUR" - SPONSORS
"Working to Secure & Enhance Ukraine's Democratic Future"
1. THE BLEYZER FOUNDATION, Dr. Edilberto Segura, Chairman;
Victor Gekker, Executive Director, Kyiv, Ukraine; Washington, D.C.,
http://www.bleyzerfoundation.com.
2. KIEV-ATLANTIC GROUP, David and Tamara Sweere, Daniel
Sweere, Kyiv and Myronivka, Ukraine, 380 44 298 7275 in Kyiv,
kau@ukrnet.net
3. ESTRON CORPORATION, Grain Export Terminal Facility &
Oilseed Crushing Plant, Ilvichevsk, Ukraine
4. Law firm UKRAINIAN LEGAL GROUP, Irina Paliashvili, President;
Kiev and Washington, general@rulg.com, www.rulg.com.
5. BAHRIANY FOUNDATION, INC., Dr. Anatol Lysyj, Chairman,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
6. VOLIA SOFTWARE, Software to Fit Your Business, Source your
IT work in Ukraine. Contact: Yuriy Sivitsky, Vice President, Marketing,
Kyiv, Ukraine, yuriy.sivitsky@softline.kiev.ua; Volia Software website:
http://www.volia-software.com/ or Bill Hunter, CEO Volia Software,
Houston, TX 77024; bill.hunter@volia-software.com.
7. ODUM- Association of American Youth of Ukrainian Descent,
Minnesota Chapter, Natalia Yarr, Chairperson
8. UKRAINIAN FEDERATION OF AMERICA (UFA), Zenia Chernyk,
Chairperson; Vera M. Andryczyk, President; Huntingdon Valley,
Pennsylvania
9. UKRAINE-U.S. BUSINESS COUNCIL, Washington, D.C.,
Dr. Susanne Lotarski, President/CEO; E. Morgan Williams,
SigmaBleyzer, Chairman, Executive Committee, Board of Directors;
John Stephens, Cape Point Capital, Secretary/Treasurer
10. UKRAINIAN AMERICAN COORDINATING COUNCIL (UACC),
Ihor Gawdiak, President, Washington, D.C., New York, New York
11. U.S.-UKRAINE FOUNDATION (USUF), Nadia Komarnyckyj
McConnell, President; John Kun, Vice President/COO; Vera
Andruskiw, CPP Wash Project Director, Washington, D.C.; Markian
Bilynskyj, VP/Director of Field Operations; Marta Kolomayets, CPP
Kyiv Project Director, Kyiv, Ukraine. Web: http://www.USUkraine.org
12. WJ Grain, Kyiv, Ukraine, David Holpert, Chief Financial Officer,
Chicago, Illinois.
==============================================================
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT - AUR" is an in-depth, private,
independent, not-for- profit news and analysis international newsletter,
produced as a free public service by the non-profit www.ArtUkraine.com
Information Service (ARTUIS) and The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring
Service The report is distributed in the public's interesting around the
world FREE of charge. Additional readers are always welcome.
If you would like to read "THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT- AUR"
please send your name, country of residence, and e-mail contact
information to morganw@patriot.net. Additional names are welcome. If
you do not wish to read "THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" around five
times per week, let us know by e-mail to morganw@patriot.net. If you
are receiving more than one copy please contact us and again please
contact us immediately if you do not wish to receive this Report.
==============================================================
PUBLISHER AND EDITOR - AUR
Mr. E. Morgan Williams, Director, Government Affairs
Washington Office, SigmaBleyzer Private Equity Investment Group
P.O. Box 2607, Washington, D.C. 20013, Tel: 202 437 4707
Mobile in Kyiv: 8 050 689 2874
mwilliams@SigmaBleyzer.com; www.SigmaBleyzer.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Director, Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA)
Coordinator, Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC)
Senior Advisor, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF)
Chairman, Executive Committee, Ukraine-U.S. Business Council
Publisher, Ukraine Information Website, www.ArtUkraine.com
==============================================================
Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.
==============================================================