“God creates such people very sparingly”

St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral in Kyiv has hosted a memorial service for General Petro Hryhorenko, a world-famous human rights champion. A group of Crimean Tatars – veterans of the Crimean Tatar movement – as well as Ukrainian dissidents and public figures gathered at this cathedral last Tuesday to honor the memory of Petro Hryhorenko (1907-87), a person who saw service in three wars and was promoted as Soviet Army general, only to become a staunch opponent of the Soviet regime. The article “A General Who Was Saving the Honor of Ukrainians” in last Tuesday’s Den describes a difficult but self-denying life of Hryhorenko. The Crimean Tatars are still taking a low bow to the memory of this courageous man who came out in the 1960s to defend the rights of the people banished from their own land. Orthodox priests called Hryhorenko a devout believer and a spiritually strong person whom God decreed to stand up for the Crimean Tatar people. Crimean Tatar representatives told The Day that they were telling their families about him and a Crimean Tatar schoolteacher had even composed a poem dedicated to the great Ukrainian. “He gave his life for our people,” the Crimean Tatars say. Petro Hryhorenko died on February 21, 1987, in the US and is buried at the Ukrainian cemetery in Bound Brook.

COMMENTARIES

Aider ZEITULAIEV, Crimean Tatar movement veteran:

“I am one of those who demonstrated in 1969 in defense of Petro Hryhorenko. He was a unique and wonderful person. God creates such people very sparingly. We cannot see another Petro Hryhorenko now. This must take some time. He saw action in three wars and was generously decorated. When he fathomed the true nature of the Soviet state’s policy, he rebelled against it, for which the Soviet system severely punished him. They could not put him on trial because there were no grounds – he was unique, highly-educated, and exalted. So the authorities chose to pronounce him mad. Unfortunately, he spent a very long time in a mental institution. And when the Western countries rose up against this injustice, the Soviet government was forced to free him. He got a very rough treatment even after this: all hospitals were warned to deny him medical assistance. Finally, Hryhorenko managed to leave for Vienna and then for the US, where the Tatar diaspora gave him a cordial welcome and buried him when he died. A splendid monument was built to him.”

Vasyl OVSIIENKO, former political prisoner, member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group established on the initiative of Petro Hryhorenko and Mykola Rudenko:

“I joined the Helsinki Group in 1978, and when I came back after serving my fist term, I sent information on what was going on in Soviet prison camps to the Moscow Helsinki Group. Petro Hryhorenko answered me from Moscow in a letter written, with some mistakes, in…Ukrainian. He thanked me for the information. I did not see him in person, but I know the value of this personality because he was the initiator of an organized human rights movement. Yury Orlov, head of the Moscow Helsinki group, said: ‘Petro Hryhorenko is the most important person for us.’ It is really so because this person thought in a strategic way. He saw that he was dealing with an evil empire. He became aware of the necessity to criticize and roll back communism and used to help people get rid of the communist chimera in their brains.”