He was born 24.11.1933. He graduated from the Engineering-radionics Department of Kharkiv Higher Avia-engineer Military School. In 1968, he was turned adrift for meeting with dissidents M.Yakir, P.Grigorenko, and distribution of letter of academic A. Saharov. Since 1969, a member of the Initiative Group, at the same time, he was convicted for 3 years for acts, which "affect the Soviet system". Again, he was arrested in December of 1980, for the protests against garrison by USSR in Afghanistan and preservation of the book by Soldzenitsin "Arhipelag GULAG". He was for "anti-Soviet propaganda and agitation" convicted for 7 years of camps and 5 years of exile. He went at large in 1987, by virtue of support of academic A. Saharov. He was member of the Central Department of National Movement of Ukraine (RUKH), head of the Kharkiv organization of RUKH. People's Deputy of Ukraine of the first conviction (1990-1994s). Among a great number of issues that are vital for the new Ukraine, that is slowly arising, is a fair solution of the restoration of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people. This includes a determination of the legal status of the Crimean peninsula within the composition of Ukraine. In many respects this will define the level of democracy and freedoms of our community. The Crimean Tatars not only have suffered much for the right to return to their historic lands, but also have demonstrated to the whole world their affection to the Motherland by their perpetual and high-minded struggle Even in the most difficult period for the Crimean Tatars, their implacability towards persecutors always kept a commendable tolerance toward representatives of different nationalities and religions. Today it is difficult to imagine that in the conditions of the former USSR they were in substance treated as an outlaw people. At the same time the Crimean Tatars struck a blow for the other enslaved peoples of the USSR, by opposing the suppression of democratic reforms in Czechoslovakia by Soviet regime, the military invasion in Afghanistan, and the suppression of human freedoms by Communist authorities in Bulgaria and China. Thank God that the return of the Crimean Tatars has coincided with the infancy of independent Ukraine. It is impossible for one to imagine how the Crimean Tatars would return under conditions in which Moscow maintained its power over Crimea, and Ukraine, over all of us. So much of the desolation and suffering for the Crimean Tatars is connected with Moscow that even an understanding that there have been changes during recent years can not assuage a pain that resulted from decades of lawlessness and exile. Much, including the future of Ukraine, turns on the fair and democratic solution of this problem. It necessary to recognize that there are still many forces, which, if they will have an opportunity, will use the same methods towards the Crimean Tatars, that they used recently towards those, who struggled against the Communist regime. For example, we can cite some speeches of representatives of the Communist Party of Ukraine, which can be heard in the Ukrainian Parliament. I don't purpose to touch here upon economics, geography or world politics. The notable Russian poet, Boris Alekseyevich CHICHIBABIN, whose words I used for the title of my article, said: "I have-no policy, I have-an ethnography". The reader should familiarize himself with the unique collection "Crimean Tatars" in "The Chronicle of Current Events". The uniqueness of this collection, first of all, is that the "Chronicle" itself is the single veracious source of information without censorship on life in the huge country. This publication has been negating the tenets of Empire, which consist of falsehood, fear and lies. The Soviet power regarded the authors, editors and distributors of "Chronicle" with intense hatred. "Chronicle" has been accumulating information from all regions, in which there was an outrage, and where a state machine persecuted people for their aspiration to be humans and for seeking to preserve human, national and religious traits, or to know the truth about the past and present. Many authors, being in prisons and camps themselves, took impossible risks, in order not only to keep a camp chronicle, but also to distribute it freely, where editors had to reassemble these tissue papers. There was great trust in "Chronicle". The whole world knew that these thinnest booklets, which were printed on scraps of cigarette-paper, contained more truth on Soviet reality than all the newspapers "Komsomolskaya pravda", "Pradva Vostoka", "Leninskaya pravda" and so on. The authorities' reaction was simple: to cut off and prevent. The regime in prisons and camps was toughened; the black holes and penalty infirmaries were never empty; as they sought to crush the will of the authors and particularly of the editors of "Chronicle". I recommend to the reader the interesting and extremely insightful work by Ludmila ALEKSEYEVA "The history on dissidents in USSR", which described in detail the "The Chronicle of Current Events". The "Chronicle" couldn't avoid including the Crimean Tatar National movement- the aspirations of the small, but proud and freedom-loving people to return to their patrimonial lands - Crimea. At the time when they were beginning to return, the "Chronicle" had only been started, and the Crimean Tatars already had elementary organizational structures, street, settlement, city, and initiative groups. Their representatives had been receiving mandates - letters of attorney - in order to be able to speak on behalf of the entire Crimean Tatar people in meetings. I will note here that on the basis of these groups of repatriates the local Mejlises, the Organization of Crimean Tatar National Movement (OCTNM), whose head was Mustafa Dzhemilev, were established in 1989, and in June 1991 in Simferopol, after a 74-year long break, the Crimean Tatar National Assembly, the Kurultay, elected the Mejlis of the Crimean people in spite of the concerted efforts of the Soviets. However, all that happened in the 90's, In the '60-'70's there was a peak of Soviet stalling tactics and subterfuge. Here I would like to stop on an issue, which researchers avoid or speak about little. Stalin and his team concocted a myth that most Crimean Tatars were traitors and it was necessary to deport them for that reason. Many peoples of the North Caucasus were named as traitors as well and all of them had the same destiny. One fully understands that there were traitors among these peoples as among most others. Hitlerites had been creating whole national units from national battalions to a Russian national army (RNA) headed by VLASOV. Crimean Tatars' support to Fascists couldn't have been really mass support, because the Fascists openly publicized their misanthropic slogans and opinions. At the same time, the total repressions by Communists in pre-war Crimea, during which all of the best representatives of peoples were executed, identified the Communist regime with a Fascist one in the understanding of people. However, according to the information of Peter Grigoryevich GRIGORENKO concerning the Crimean Tatars, before the war the Crimean Tatars constituted 25% of the population of Crimea, and 35% of them were in the partisan movement. But even if one presumes that a really significant part of the Crimean Tatars collaborated with the Fascists, why should the rest of them suffer, even a non-significant one? (I would like to note that in 1944 among deportees of Crimean Tatars mostly were women, the aged and children). Of course, they persecuted not only Crimean Tatars. In turn administrative punishment and sometimes prosecution was incurred by everybody, who signed letters of protest, or held a brief for the Crimean Tatars, or supported human rights activists, who were arrested, for example, for Peter GRIGORENKO, or Mr. GABAY. Many of them were fired from work or given lesser jobs and prevented from studying. They were forced to attend meetings of a collective, where there were always believers in Stalin's lawlessness. Nothing about these people appeared in publications, although their merit for receiving credit from the peoples a great country was not less than for those, who were in camps. Neither Stalin, nor Hitler, nor Brezhnev with Andropov could take away from them their spirit and conscience. Also one should comment about two Russian poets, Boris CHICHIBABIN and Victor NEKIPELOV, who are nice people, and great citizens of their country. Both of them were in camps and prisons in Stalin's time, and Victor was also in Brezhnev's era. Both of them felt deeply about Crimean Tatars. When I was at the Kurultay of the Crimean Tatar people, to which Mejlis and my friend Mustafa DZHEMILEV invited me, I read a poem by Boris CHICHIBABIN "Crimean Recollections"-all people stood up and many of them cried. There was the same situation relating to the poems by Victor NEKIPELOV. In my opinion, both these Russian poets are worthy of being cited in this collection. (these poets are in Ukrainian version). It has been 15 years since perestroika. The "Great Empire" has already collapsed under its own burden, and soon 15 new States will celebrate the first decade of their independence. What is the situation in Crimea and with the long-suffering Crimean Tatar people? Crimea is part of a free Ukraine and recently became an Autonomous republic of Crimea. But unfortunately, Crimea is not a national-cultural autonomous entity, as it was before the war, when a goal and content of autonomy itself was the preservation and development of the indigenous people of the peninsula. At present autonomy is as a territorial concept. The elementary rights of the Crimean Tatar people are entirely ignored in the Constitution of the ARC, which was recently approved. Today Crimean Tatars practically are not represented in the bodies of the autonomous government. Again, as in the Soviet regime, the local officials have a great desire to solve the Crimean Tatar problems without Crimean Tatars. And I would advise them closely read this collection, so they will have no illusions about the obedience of Crimean Tatars under conditions in which their rights are trampled. However, would be absolutely wrong to say that nothing has changed since "Chronicle" stopped being published. First and the main thing is that Crimean Tatars have returned en-mass and continue to return to Crimea. Currently this number constitutes already hundreds of thousands. The hard-working people again have breathed a new a life amid the stones and ruins. At the same time, towns and settlements are being built. The main sore point for all Crimeans (unfortunately not only for Crimeans) is that not merely former members of the Communist Party of USSR, but actually leaders of the Communist Party of Ukraine still occupy many key posts. And they act so self- assured and without any shame about their communist past. They have neither a hint of penitence, nor a hint of doubt in the righteousness of their bloody way. They have no qualms about their culpability or sympathy toward their own people. And of course it is no thanks to them but despite the efforts of the present authorities of Crimea that the Crimean Tatar people have fully organized, and have established democratically elected national institutions - Kurultay and Mejlis of Crimean Tatar people. The Council of the representatives of Crimean Tatar people attached to President of Ukraine has been created, and it includes all members of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. Already foreign delegations and representatives of many countries study in depth present issues of the Crimean Tatar people. In April 2000, a special session of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe was held, which was dedicated to the Crimean Tatar issue. At the same time, parliamentary hearings on the Crimean Tatar issue were held in the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine. For me, the monument of Petro Grigorenko in the center of Simferopol, which was established a year ago by Crimean Tatars, became as a special symbol of victory of good over evil, and of the irrevocable nature of the process of restoration of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people. Namely to him, a great son of Ukrainian people, Crimean Tatars established one of the first monuments, when they returned to their lands. Is that so little? No, of course not! Not for nothing, hundreds of Crimean Tatars passed through camps and prisons, suffered, and many of them died. Let us not ever forget them and may Allah save their souls. However there are a lot of works still for young people. Not yet have all Crimean Tatars returned to Crimea. At the same time, not yet all Crimean Tatars, who already have returned, have equal property and other rights. There is still a large percent of Crimean Tatars unemployed, and there is a minimal percentage of them in executive power. During the period of genocide, many other national groups of Crimea (Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Germans) suffered indignity and mockery not less than the Crimean Tatars. However, it is necessary to remember, in the process of restoring their inherent rights that the Crimean Tatars have a right to count on their government's action in meeting the Law on rehabilitation of victims of political repressions, and as well for their rehabilitation as a repressed people, as was done towards people of the North Caucasus in Russia. All citizens of Ukraine should understand that the Crimean Tatars are not simply one of the many separate ethnic groups or national minorities. Crimean Tatars are the Indigenous People of Ukraine. Their main difference from another national minorities is that Crimea, and Ukraine are their historical Motherland. These and many others issues will be solved by young people. But the new generation should begin by closely studying its own history and in this the Collection is a great help. |
