Yevhen Hrytsiak from Ivano-Frankivsk oblast is known as one of those who masterminded the 1953 uprising in the Norilsk GULAG prison camp. He is now working, as fast as his health allows him, on a book of memoirs, although he is not sure he will be able to publish it. For where can you find a sponsor now, in the period of a crisis? His heroic wife once had to keep a four-person family on her modest salary of a teacher. The KGB told the uncompromising Yevhen in no uncertain terms: you will not find a job unless you cooperate with the secret police. And if you do, you will get an apartment in Ivano-Frankivsk and many other perks… He refused and thus inscribed a page of his own into the history of Ukrainian Resistance. He proved that a code of honor was not just an empty sound for a nationalist. But has the nation, so well informed now, after 20 years of independence, appreciated its compatriot’s sacrifice? Is the example of a GULAG rebel (and now a Carpathian healer, artist, and yogi) inspiring the youth of today? Does anybody need his memoirs and will the public help publish the book?
“When I read a Den interview with the Lviv-based historian Yaroslav Hrytsak, ‘A True Compromise Is When Both Sides Feel Pain’ [April 8, 2011. – Author], I was pleasantly surprised with his idea of a Ukrainian-Ukrainian compromise. This may at first seem to sound too original, but in reality it is all too logical. The idea of a compromise is extremely topical. For a split and divided society will never be able to build anything. Do you remember Liubomyr Huzar citing the Americans as an example, when he spoke on the May 9 events in Lviv? Their restrained and silent protest during the visit of Khrushchev was an optimal reaction in those conditions. The main thing is that the Americans showed unity. They somehow managed to achieve this, even though that nation was formed by diverse ethnic groups. But when we are not united (at least on a nationwide scale), radicalism will never compensate for this. Moreover, inability to reach compromises and attract friends and allies does a lot of harm. I can remember being together with a former Red Army captain named Bilokudrenko in the Ozerny prison camp near Taishet in 1954. A Kuban Cossack, he was overtly leaning towards the Ukrainians, for he considered them his fellow countrymen. But, for some reason, ours were giving him a wide berth – they could not forgive him speaking Russian. This young officer once came up to me and asked: ‘Do you think I am Ukrai-nian or not? You see, your side won’t accept me as one of theirs... But I do feel Ukrainian! I was just Russified – first in school and then in the army.’
“I comforted him as much as I could, but I am not sure I managed to persuade my prison mates. Do you think it would have benefited our Ukrainian cause if this Kuban-born former officer had joined our group?”
I think it would.
“So do I. But I was soon transferred to an Irkutsk prison and was thus unable to influence the destiny of that guy. I am afraid he never became ‘one of ours’ for us – much to the delight of the Bolsheviks who had done so much for Kuban not to be a little part of Ukraine. Still worse, the Ukrainians do not want to learn from their mistakes! In the newspaper Den of April 8, 2011, Valentyn Dubovy, a student at Zhytomyr State University’s Linguistics Department, who comes from Transnistria, in fact, repeated what Captain Bilokudrenko had said half a century before: ‘I often hear from radical party members that I am a moskal (derogatory name for a Russian. – Ed.), that I am trying to be a citizen of this country, although I have poor command of Ukrainian… So they, who, I would say, are sullying the reputation of Ukraine with this kind of behavior, are its citizens, whereas I, who am eager to learn its language, history and culture, cannot become one?’ The Transnistrian said this a bit differently from what the Kuban guy did in 1954, but the essence remains the same: we will rather push the man off us than draw him into our ranks. If no clear-cut policy is pursued towards the likes of Bilokudrenko from Kuban or Dubovy from Transnistria, how can the radicals help us? Or is it only they who should come to the fore?”
This is logical but not obvious for everybody. The vigorous actions of radicals always create an impression, while the calls of humanist philosophers are too lofty a matter for the Ukrainian grassroots.
“We still cannot understand that nonviolence is a great force. This method (in conjunction with high activity) would enable us to build Ukraine much faster. In his aspiration for an independent India, Mahatma Gandhi once said he was fighting not against Britain but for the soul of the British soldier. And it was also very important for us in the early 1990s to win over as many people as possible – not only in Ukraine but also in Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union. We should have resolutely defeated Stalinism instead of repainting it in other colors.”
This is logical but not obvious for everybody. The vigorous actions of radicals always create an impression, while the calls of humanist philosophers are too lofty a matter for the Ukrainian grassroots.
“We still cannot understand that nonviolence is a great force. This method (in conjunction with high activity) would enable us to build Ukraine much faster. In his aspiration for an independent India, Mahatma Gandhi once said he was fighting not against Britain but for the soul of the British soldier. And it was also very important for us in the early 1990s to win over as many people as possible – not only in Ukraine but also in Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union. We should have resolutely defeated Stalinism instead of repainting it in other colors.”
I know that the newspaper Izvestia published your address to former GULAG prisoners on August 28, 1993, in which you suggested to punish your erstwhile tormentors by… forgiveness. Obviously, you had been painfully reflecting on this matter: “Thanks to the democratic transformations now underway in our countries, they are free of a well-deserved punishment on the part of society as a whole as well as of their victims, i.e., us. So what are we to do? Absolve them? No! There can be no absolution for them. Punish? But this raises the question: how can they all be tracked down (for their number is infinite), in what way to punish them, and who should deal with this matter? We? Naturally, who else? In this case we and they must change roles. Until recently, we were their martyrs and they were our tormentors. Now we must turn into tormentors. It is a vicious circle of sorts…”
“You are right. Of course, the Yoga philosophy had an impact on my stand, and, as you know, I had become a yogi when I was still in prison. This is why I urged former prisoners to become aware of the role martyrdom plays in the spiritual development of humankind. It is martyrs, not tormentors, who set the world right. I used to emphasize that the butchers should face the only verdict – forgiveness. And one must not fear an unexpected decision like this because all major religions in the world rest on the principle of forgiveness. Mahatma Gandhi, a great humanist of the 20th century, always adhered to this principle. I spoke in Russian but the speech was being simultaneously translated into the English and German languages. One of those present, the British historian John Crawford, said he considered my speech the best. A US lady reporter also approached me to say that she had never expected to hear about Mahatma Gandhi in Moscow. But the opinions of the recent USSR citizens differed. One well-mannered Russian lady came up to me and thanked for my speech. But a Lithuanian lady objected to her: it is hard to forgive, when your closest relatives suffered, when your father was killed… The Russian replied that she was also the daughter of an executed ‘enemy of the people.’”
So there are some noble Russians with whom you can come to terms. If there are some of them in Moscow, there must be some in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, etc.
“Moreover, you can find a common language with the Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the east. Then we will have a lot of friends. And why not? Incidentally, a lot of Britons followed Gandhi then. The Yoga’s postulate of ‘turning an enemy into a friend’ is a universal principle, and here I fully agree with Yaroslav Hrytsak: if we reach a compromise, we will catch our second wind. And what will await us in the future if the East-West watershed still remains? Incidentally, a few years ago Volodymyr Vitkovsky wrote in Lvivska Hazeta that independent Ukraine was, in fact, a joint project of the descendants of both the executioners and the victims: ‘We must either build a state together or not build one at all.’ Vitovsky is a wise person, and he is right. He is clearly a good analyst. But what can get the Ukrainians moving is a simple and easy-to-grasp slogan. This is the way the OUN used to mobilize youth in the prewar years.”
Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Serhii Loznytsia once said that he could not imagine an Armenian who will silently watch his church being ruined, let alone an Armenian who will drag dynamite into his church. This would look like a national suicide. Sadly enough, our church does not guarantee such a high level of national awareness and such a close unity. Even the most patriotically “advanced” Galicia quickly split along religious lines.
“Fortunately, Ukrainian churches have largely overcome this split, but the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) is more and more harping on its favorite tune. It is a state-security unit that has nothing to do with Christianity. And speaking of the Pocheptsov’s idea of ‘using the whole range of possibilities,’ it would be good to recall the well known Grutas Park in Lithuania. A local millionaire, Viliumas Malinauskas, once privatized 20 hectares of marshy forest and tried to re-create the Soviet era there.”
“He brought in 75 monuments to Lenin, Stalin, Dzerzhinsky, and others from all over Lithuania. The Lithuanian actor Girdvainis, made up as Lenin, is also helping people to mentally travel to that epoch. And the paths are all made of wood – like in Mordovia prison camps. My Lithuanian friends, who took part in the Norilsk uprising, invited me to visit this park. I could not be there for a long time: when I saw a prisoner boxcar, I turned back. This place has a very negative aura. But still this park is the best propaganda piece against Soviet power. Something of the kind could be also done in Ukraine, which would bring down the number of the fanatical lovers of the red flag.”
Do you think the time of new martyrs has come?
“It would be difficult without them in our situation. The OUN was once bringing up people who were ready to make any sacrifices in the name of Ukraine. During the war I read Yurii Horlis-Horsky’s book Ave, Dictator. It made an extremely strong impression on me, as, after all, on many of my peers. So I was not the only one prepared to sacrifice myself in the name of victory – there were thousands of people like that. It so happened that my wife also joined the cohort of martyrs (before meeting me, she stood a good chance to enter the [Communist. – Ed.] Party and become a school deputy principal, but, instead, she went through a lot of things), but I never heard even a word of reproach from her throughout my lifetime. If God gives me just a little more health, I will surely paint her portrait in oils – my Maria really deserves it. I have several canvases, mostly on religious themes, but did not manage to make a portrait of my wife when she was still alive. By the way, her mother was equally noble and patient. She always backed me. My overachieving daughter failed to enter a medical institute in six attempts, since she was the daughter of an ‘enemy of the people.’”
Does this mean that one person may pull, willy-nilly, other, even the closest and dearest, people into the whirlwind of martyrdom?
“This was mostly the case in the Soviet era. But this what Ukraine and Ukrainian values rested on! Now everybody wants to live quietly, without risking anything. If a miracle occurred and the sacrificial spirit of the 1930s OUN cemented our society, we could easily solve a lot of national problems. Maybe, there will be no more sentiments of this kind on such a mass scale, but I will not be surprised if new martyrs emerge. It is important that these people should be wise and ready to sacrifice themselves; they should love Ukraine in themselves, not themselves in Ukraine. The example of self-sacrifice is bound to have an impact on the surrounding world. I can recall that in 1958 they wanted again to drive me into a blind alley. No other than the KGB boss Shelepin and Prosecutor General Rudenko solicited the Supreme Soviet that I be given another prison term. Once I was summoned to the ‘office’ and advised to collaborate with them on pain of losing my domicile registration. Being aware of all the likely consequence, I rejected this offer. The only ‘reward’ for me was a strong handshake by KGB
Senior Lieutenant Shepelev, chief of the internal passport office. He, a Russian, knew that I was offered collaboration. I do not rule out that he fancied himself in my place. But he was pleasantly surprised with the fortitude of a Ukrainian nationalist. He followed the instruction of his bosses and immediately deprived me of re-gistration, but he could not hide his liking for me.”
In other words, adherence to principles can also be a weapon – as good as radicalism at that.
“Naturally. A Crimean newspaper carried an article on the well-known Lviv events [the May 9 events, 2011. – Ed.] as early as May 12. The title was ‘Fascism, Ukrainian Style. Either We or They.’ So radicalism is a double-edged sword: it may do much more harm than good. We should go in a different way. We should know and love Ukraine, always learn, and raise our intellectual level. But we don’t like this: we neither learn on our own mistakes nor use the achievements of other nations. Too bad. For example, am I a worse Ukrainian now since I have mastered Yoga? And I recently read a book, Essays – Prospect – Reflections, by the Turkish philosopher Fethullah Gulen. I read it without a pause, even though now I get tired more quickly and, besides, I try to use every free minute to finish my memoirs. A little later I carefully reread the book A Dialogue of Civilizations by the American Jill Carroll, in which the authoress lovingly writes about the aforesaid Gulen. These books have so much interesting and instructive for us! Gulen is a Turkish Gandhi. This figure can be a role model for many other peoples. The ideas of Gulen not only promote the spirituality of Turks but also allow them to effectively advertise their country and capture the spiritual space. Gulen schools can be found now in many Turkic-speaking states of the former USSR – there are some even in Moldova. Incidentally, their teaching process is based on, among other things, principles of Yoga. The Turks are firmly standing on both feet; they have long been leaders in the Turkic world, and are gradually becoming leaders in the ‘dialogue of civilizations,’ whereas we still cannot establish a full-fledged dialogue between eastern and western Ukraine.”
This information sometimes seems to be an invention of the Soviet Union’s enemies. What sort of an army is this if it competed with the enemy in who will destroy more of their own soldiers?
“No, it is not an invention. There were ‘special advanced battalions’ which took on men aged 16 and over and threw them, unarmed, into a battle. These hapless guys were commonly called ‘black overcoats’ – 90 percent of them were usually killed in the first combat. This is the way Stalin punished people who had the misfortune of staying for some time on the occupied territory. And the notorious penal battalions? I personally tasted this woe and can say for sure that the new Russian films on this subject do not distort the truth at all.”
Did you fight in a penal battalion? What brought you there?
“My father and I served in the same company. Once, before a battle, I saw that my old ZIS-5 truck wouldn’t start. I was immediately warmed that I would be shot as a saboteur if I didn’t wind up the motor. But what could I do if the feed system broke down because of the cold? Was I to wait for an inevitable execution? I decided it would be better to run away than to die so ignominiously for ‘father’ Stalin. But in that case my dad, whose truck was, luckily, in order, would have surely suffered. So we decided to flee together. It was on the territory of Lemkivshchyna (Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia border intersection. – Ed.) We roamed for two days through the forests and fields, trying to make our way to Slovakia. But we were apprehended near the border by the Poles who handed us over, as deserters, to a Soviet unit. It is good that they took us for eastern Ukrainians, for if they had taken us for Volyn or Galicia residents, they would have summarily shot us down. And we were a bit lucky: a Vinnytsia-born Red Army senior lieutenant saved us. He was to shoot us dead by law, but, instead, he sent us to a penal battalion.”
Oh my, what a mercy…
“But I am grateful to him for giving me a chance to live until this day. So I had an opportunity to see the battle of ‘penal fighters’ in March, 1945. An attack was launched by 180 soldiers: at first we heard a powerful victorious ‘hurrah’ but then this ‘hurrah’ sounded more and more quietly and finally died out. Only seven people survived. Then it was our turn to attack, and those seven ‘lucky men’ were attached to us. Everybody was in the dumps: everybody knew he was up for slaughter. But I was lucky even here. I was wounded in the leg but survived. After a stint in the hospital, I was sent to a regular combat unit. That was also a piece of luck only because the war was almost over. Had this happened before, I would have been treated in a hospital and sent again to the front line as part of a penal company. But I safely lived to see the victory, continued to serve in my native places, resumed ties with the underground, and, finally, could take part in the Norilsk uprising. We won a real victory! Unfortunately, my father was killed in that first battle on March 27, 1945, – because of the failure in my truck and the inhuman Bolshevik regime. It is good that Den tells its readers the truth about World War II. The truth will ultimately help Ukrainians to unite.”
