1.  “BYKIVNIA ARCHIPELAGO”
Eighteen burial grounds of the victims of the 1937-40 mass-scale

political repressions have been found in Ukraine
By Ivan Kapsmun, The Day Weekly Digest in English #14

5. UKRAINE TO INVESTIGATE CRIMEAN TATAR DEPORTATION
By Peter Fedynsky, Voice of America, Moscow, Monday, 18 May 2009

 

political repressions have been found in Ukraine

By Ivan Kapsmun, The Day Weekly Digest in English #14

Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, 19 May 2009 

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has held a new public hearing to publicize declassified documents on the “Bykivnia Archipelago,” which the Soviet government had established to systematically and purposefully exterminate participants in the liberation movement and those whom the communist authorities considered security risks.

This Ukrainian analogue of the Gulag Archipelago comprised 18 places all over Ukraine, patterned on the mass grave in the Bykivnia woods near Kyiv. As a rule, the Kremlin government carefully hid and camouflaged all these places, kept secret the names of victims, and would often destroy the perpetrators “in the next batch” in order to conceal the true scale of the repressions.

 

As of today, the SBU has identified the names of 14,191 people sentenced in Kyiv and buried at Bykivnia. It is next to impossible now to say how many victims were buried in the Bykivnia woods.

 

THE TRAGEDY OF BYKIVNIA: THE WAY IT WAS
The first speaker at the public hearings “The Tragedy of Bykivnia: The Way It Was,” Prof. Vasyl Danylenko, a Doctor of History employed at the SBU State Departmental Archive, reported that executions of political prisoners began at Bykivnia back in 1936.

 

Yet what is considered the official opening date of this burial ground is March 20, 1937, when the Kyiv City Council presidium resolved to set aside and mark out four hectares of the Bykivnia woodland “for special needs of the Ukrainian SSR’s NKVD.”

 

All this territory was enclosed with a high fence and barbed wire; an access road and a guardhouse were built. “We are sure that Bykivnia was chosen as a mass burial place not just by chance — it was a deliberate and well-planned action,” Danylenko emphasized.

Some time later, the bodies of those executed by the decision of courts and out-of-court institutions (the so-called “threes” and “twos,” i.e., special mobile USSR and Ukrainian SSR NKVD committees) began to be delivered here under strict guard. Sentences were carried out in the basement of the Kyiv Oblast NKVD Directorate, now Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, at 16 Lypska St.

Interior Minister Yezhov’s telegram of July 4, 1937, sparked a mass-scale terror of 1937-38 throughout the USSR, including Ukraine, which claimed tens of thousands of human lives. Every night 100 to 150 people would be shot and taken to Bykivnia, their last resting place, where they were buried in the already dug-out pits — several dozens in each. On the eve of the Soviet-German war in early 1941, convicts were shot dead right near the pits in the woods: that year saw a new wave of mass-scale terror.

 

EIGHTEEN BURIAL GROUNDS DISCOVERED
As was mentioned above, the “Bykivnia Archipelago” spread out all over Ukraine. Eighteen burial grounds of the victims of the 1937-40 mass-scale political repressions, similar to the one at Bykivnia, have been discovered as of today. Among them is the place in Khmelnytsky, where a department store was built later, a recreation park in Vinnytsia, the 9th kilometer of the Zaporizhia Highway, the central cemetery in Sumy, and the 2nd Christian cemetery in Odesa.

“Those places were closely guarded. At different times they hosted top-security KGB facilities and construction sites. The 2.5-meter-deep graves were filled with concrete, the locality was leveled off by bulldozers, and trees were planted. In Kharkiv, this place was under guard and listed as a graveyard of German deserters and those who died of infectious diseases (typhoid, cholera, and syphilis) so that people kept clear of it,” Danylenko said.

The secret of the Bykivnia tragedy was revealed during the Nazi occupation of Kyiv, when the Germans carried out excavations in the presence of news reporters. Then the press published the first articles on the Bolshevik terror against their own populace.

 

When Kyiv was liberated, Bykivnia became a taboo subject again, and in 1944 the Soviet government set up a commission that concluded that the village of Bykivnia was a place near which inmates of the Darnytsia POW camp were buried.

The Bykivnia tragedy was again in the limelight during the Khrushchev thaw, when, owing to the efforts of Ukrainian intellectuals, a commission was established in 1962 to investigate the Bykivnia burial grounds, but the thaw was soon over, leaving the set goal unachieved. A second governmental investigative commission was set up in 1971, but it also concluded that those lying in the Bykivnia graveyard were victims of the Nazi German invaders.

The Bykivnia case saw changes during Gorbachev’s perestroika. Although the third governmental commission, set up in 1987, produced the same result as the second one did, the fourth commission, established in 1988, arrived at an altogether different conclusion: the 19th and 20th sectors of the Darnytsia forest hold the remains of the communist regime’s victims.

 

FIND OUT THE TRUE SCALE OF THE REPRESSIONS
However, the second speaker, Candidate of Sciences (History) Oleh Bazhan, a senior research associate at the Institute of History (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), is convinced that, “to find out the true scale of the repressions, it is necessary to declassify and make public not only documents of the SBU State Departmental Archive but also the results of the investigations conducted by several governmental commissions and an investigative group of the Ukrainian SSR’s procurator’s office, which inquired into the Bykivnia tragedy in the 1970s and the 1980s.”

As Ukraine proclaimed its independence, the Bykivnia tragedy began to draw much more attention, especially on the part of Kyiv’s public. A joint effort of the government and the public made it possible to erect the Monument to the Repressed Political Prisoner on Brovarsky Avenue in 1995.

On May 22, 2001, the Viktor Yushchenko-headed Cabinet of Ministers passed the resolution “On Establishing the Bykivnia Graves State Historical and Memorial Preserve,” and on May 17, 2006, President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine decreed to grant the facility the status of a national preserve.

 

It is also thanks to the Kyiv public’s efforts that victims of communist repressions are now honored every year, and on May 21, 2007, the president decreed to mark Day of Memory for Victims of Political Repressions on the third Sunday of May (May 17 this year) on the territory of the Bykivnia Graves preserve.

 

As Roman Krutsyk, head of the Kyiv oblast branch of the Memorial society, emphasized, “It is necessary to take the next important step — to ameliorate the Bykivnia Graves memorial preserve, which needs constant governmental support.”

Therefore, the decision of the SBU State Departmental Archive to declassify and make public the Bykivnia tragedy-related documents was another step in opening the unknown pages of Ukrainian history that testify to the courage of the Ukrainian people and the atrocities of the totalitarian regime.

 

LINK: http://www.day.kiev.ua/274132/

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Kyiv, Ukraine, Fri, May 15, 2009

KYIV -- Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) officials have announced that they have determined the identities of 14,191 people killed by order of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and buried in the Bykivnya forest outside of Kyiv.

Professor Vasyl Danylenko, of the SBU archives, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that there are 18 places in Ukraine that were used to execute thousands of people during the Stalin era.

He said Bykivnya was heavily guarded in Soviet times and, though many executions were carried out in Kyiv, the dead were buried in mass graves at Bykivnya during the night. Before World War II, most executions were carried out directly in the forest with the victims lined up before ready-dug graves.

Danylenko said of the other 18 mass burial sites in Ukraine that have been identified, some are being used as parks, some have department stores built on them, or are serving as city cemeteries.

Ukraine will officially commemorate victims of political repression on May 17 when thousands of people will visit Bykivnya to pay their respects. Many people have erected signs on trees with the names of relatives they believe are buried there.

 

LINK: http://www.rferl.org:80/content/Ukraine_Identifies_Thousands_Of_Stalin_Victims_Buried_Outside_Kyiv/1732495.html
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Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sun, May 17, 2009

KYIV - Sunday, May 17, 2009, as part of the events dedicated to the Day of the Memory of the Victims of Political repression, the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation presented the "Broken Fates: Communist Terror in Ukraine in 1920-1950" historical documents exhibition. The presentation was held at the Bykivnia Graves National History Memorial Preserve.

The exhibition was prepared by the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation as part of its History Lessons program jointly with the Branch Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine and Vasyl Stus Memorial Educational Human Rights Charitable Organization. Its objective is informing the global and Ukrainian community on the repression system by the Communist (Stalin) regime in the 1920s-1950s.

 

EXHIBITION SHOWS MANY SOVIET CRIMES AGAINST UKRAINIANS
The exhibition features 24 posters. Its first part presents to the viewer Ukraine’s situation on the moment of the collapse of the Russian Empire and in the following years of its fight for its statehood. The second part showcases the mechanism of repressions against all strata of the Ukrainian society: peasants, intelligentsia, the army, political elite, clergy, etc.

 

Several posters cover the history of Western Ukraine in the 1940s, after is annexation by Soviet Ukraine, in part, the forced NKVD repressions against the national liberation movement (OUN, UPA) and the civilians, as well as forcible people’s deportation to faraway USSR regions to destroy their national identity and diversity of the Ukrainian ethnos.

 

The exhibition narrates of the post-war repressions against Ostarbeiters and former POW, shows the places where the victims served their terms. It also contains information on the biggest labor camps mutinies. The final part of the exhibition shows the biggest places of mass burials of the repression victims, along with the consequences of the terror, and honoring the memory of the innocent victims in the Independent Ukraine.

 

EXHIBITION WILL TOUR ALL UKRAINE'S OBLASTS
The Broken Fates: Communist Terror in Ukraine in 1920-1950 exhibition is planned to tour all Ukraine’s oblasts. Additionally, its materials will be translated into several languages and distributed among Ukraine’s diplomatic missions in various countries.

This isn’t the first time that Ukraine 3000 Foundation turns to the theme of political repression and takes part in actions to commemorate its victims. Since 2007 the Foundation has been organizing actions to clean up the Bykivnia Graves National History Memorial Preserve grounds.

 

In 2007, the Foundation carried out the Memory Above Time patriotic action together with the PLAST National Scouting Organization, cleaning up mass burial places of Ukrainian intelligentsia from 1937 and the site where Soviet soldiers coming back from German war prisons were shoot in 1945. A memorial plaque was erected at the mass shooting site.

In 2008, the Ukraine 3000 Foundation members again took part in cleaning up the Bykivnia Graves grounds, putting in order a part of the mass burial places of Ukrainian intelligentsia from 1937. In 2009 the Foundation once again initiated a Bykivnia Graves cleanup, which took place May 16.

 

LINK WITH PHOTOGRAPHS OF POSTERS: http://www.ukraine3000.org.ua/eng/yesterday/yesnews/6746.html.
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By Peter Fedynsky, Voice of America (VOA), Moscow, Mon, 18 May 2009

MOSCOW - The State Security Service of Ukraine is establishing a special unit to investigate Stalin-era crimes against Crimean Tatars, who are commemorating the 65th anniversary of their mass deportation from Crimea. The investigation will also look into the forced deportation of other ethnic groups from the peninsula during World War II.

The head of the Ukrainian State Security Service, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, announced the creation of the special investigative unit in the Crimean capital, Simferopol. Nalyvaichenko said Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko ordered the creation of the unit to investigate crimes involving the repression and destruction of Crimean Tatars under the Soviet Union.

STALIN-ERA DEPORTATION KILLS TENS OF

THOUSANDS OF TATARS, SOVIETS DENY CHARGES 
Deportation of as many as 200,000 Crimean Tatar men, women and children began on May 18, 1944. They were accused of Nazi collaboration, placed in train cattle cars and sent to Central Asia. Tens of thousands perished along the way, and others died of malnutrition or disease soon after arriving. In 1967, the Soviet government said the charges were false.

The investigation will cover the deportation era and the years that preceded it. The Ukrainian State Security Service has also declassified Soviet documents related to the execution of Crimean Tatar intelligentsia members. Nalyvaichenko says the forced deportation of innocent Armenians, Bulgarians, Germans and others from Crimea will also be investigated.  

MUSTAFA DZHEMILEV, CRIMEAN TATAR LEADER 

Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev told VOA he welcomes the Ukrainian decision, but notes the purpose of the investigation is not to capture or punish anyone.

Dzhemilev says those directly responsible for the deportation are no longer alive. But he says it is important to see the full picture of the crime, and for society to know it was in fact a crime, because that will help in the overall recovery of society.

Crimean Tatars were allowed to return to their homeland in the late 1980s and about a quarter-million have done so. There are now about 300,000 Tatars in Crimea, about 12 percent of the peninsula's population.

But Mustafa Dzhemilev says no laws have been passed to reinstate the social and legal rights of Crimean Tatars. He also warns the culture and language of his people can disappear within decades if nothing is done to revive education in the native language.

Tens of thousands participated in a rally Monday in Simferopol marking the 65th anniversary of the Crimean Tatar deportation.  

LINK WITH PHOTOS: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-05-18-voa21.cfm
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DOCUMENTS ON REPRESSED CRIMEAN TATARS 

 

5 Kanal TV, Kiev, in Ukrainian, Monday, 18 May 09
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Monday, May 18, 2009 

 

KYIV - [Presenter] The Security Service of Ukraine [SBU] has declassified 63 criminal cases against repressed Crimean Tatars. The archive documents were transferred to the Crimean Tatar community on the 65th anniversary of the deportation [of Tatars from Crimea to Central Asia]. They were opened against members of the separatist organization Milly Firqa, which operated from 1918 to 1928.

 

The organization included representatives of the Crimean Tatar intelligentsia. The head of the SBU, Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, said that a special investigative unit would be set up in Crimea today to look for those responsible for the destruction of these people. The Crimean Tatar community wants the archive documents to be posted on the Internet and copies to be given to libraries.

 

[Nalyvaychenko] Through the criminal cases that we will investigate, through the research check, Ukrainian investigating bodies will ask the Russian side in each case to provide even classified materials concerning the fate of this or that person of whom we become aware. As soon as these materials are handed over, I promise that there will be a presidential decision to declassify them and hand them over to NGOs, and first of all to families.
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Mr. E. Morgan Williams, Director, Government Affairs, Washington Office,