Israeli President raised on Russian historiography

The head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, a well-known human rights activist and Soviet dissident, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels in an interview with “Gromadska radio” stated that he could not agree with the speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. He accused the Ukrainians in the complicity in the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Second World War, informs eizvestia.com .

“He’s an old man. He bears the stereotypes of the past, historiography, which today is not considered objective. He was brought up in the Russian historiography. Israel, at least the older generation still lives under its influence. It does not reflect the opinion of the young. After all, the young religious Israelis have stood on the Maidan. These views he expressed today – it’s yesterday, “- said Zissels.

He recalled the visit to Israel of the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko in 2007.

“The delegation came to Yad Vashem and asked to show documents that indicate the involvement of Roman Shukhevych (OUN leader during World War II) to such crimes. But no one was able to show. This stereotype does not provide evidence, if everyone knows it. No, not everyone knows that. For example, I do not trust that it is not necessary to confirm the archival authentic documents “- Zissels said.

He noted that the OUN and UPA fighters fought for Ukraine, and they can not wear the stereotypical labels.

September 27 during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada parliamentary hearings devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that the Ukrainians have been involved in the repression against the Jews during the Second World War. “Many of the accomplices of crimes were Ukrainians. And among them highlights the OUN, which mocked Jews, killed them, and in many cases, were given to the Germans. It is also true that there were more than 2.5 thousand Righteous among the Nations “-. Said Rivlin.

Commenting on the Israeli president’s speech, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Vladimir Vyatrovich said Rivlin repeated Soviet myth of the OUN involvement in the Holocaust. The head of the OUN Bogdan Chervak ​​Rivlin called the statement “a spit in the soul of the Ukrainians” and urged him not to watch Russian television, as it is “not just bad, but also indecent.”

During World War II, occupied Kiev Nazi troops used the tract Babi Yar, in the northwestern part of the city as a place of mass executions of civilians, most of whom were Jews. September 29, 1941 the entire Jewish population was obliged to come to the Babi Yar, where until September 30, was shot more than 33 thousand. Man on the orders of the occupation administration. According to various estimates, at Babi Yar were killed by 70 thousand. Up to 200 thousand. Man.

Sourse, 29/09/2016

The system rotted from within and dognila before disbanding

Soviet-era dissident Yosif Zisels told why refused amnesty in the Gorbachev era, what regrets today about whether modern Ukraine may repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime

Yosif Zisels – human rights activist, dissident, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. In 1978 he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He spent six years in prisons on charges of “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Every dissident own destiny. For example, a man wrote a poem. As my friend, the Ukrainian dissident, a former teacher in the Ternopil region kultprosvetuchilische Mikola Grobal, wrote a poem called “Dumi moї, Dumi”. For this was sent to prison. For the poem. Simply laid out thoughts on paper. Or Semyon Gluzman, which persecuted for their professional activities. He made the correspondence psychiatric examination for General Pyotr Grigorenko and mathematician Leonid Plyushch and promulgated it.

The dissent came for different reasons: national, democratic, moral, emotional. The reasons were not so important to us. Most importantly, we together fought criminal imperial communist system.

I actually grew up without parents. So I have virtually no such an important element of the psyche as a “social instinct of self-preservation,” usually brings up children in a normal Jewish family. Simply no one to create it. I started very early to read samizdat. I think it is no coincidence. The fact that we were surrounded by then, and what we have been taught do not match. Not everyone is dissonance when life does not match with the pictures, which are described in textbooks. Some quietly absorbed in itself is doublethink, I called it “social schizophrenia.” Some do it quietly. Some resisted.

The Soviet government constantly demanded confirmation of loyalty. A variety of ways. Those who have studied, passed the party’s history, scientific communism. Was political information was the Komsomol, and other institutions, which are constantly monitored by the people through an extensive network. Not only controlled the KGB people were the party, trade union, Komsomol and Pioneer organizations. And I went multilevel selection. Revealed disgruntled, obstinate. Once a person has manifested itself, it was a signal that we should look at it.

I went to the dissidence almost deliberately. I drew it. I wanted to know the truth about life, about history, about relationships. And find the right answers in samizdat, as permitted by the literature is almost impossible to find the truth. It was important that others know the truth. Not immediately, at first reading itself, and then you want to share with others. Then you become it a little.

An important stimulus was originally a private confrontation lies and violence. You try to realize his need for truth is not simply to distribute this literature. Then there is the need to sign any appeals, appeals to protest against human rights violations. I’m talking about the way. Some stop at reading the literature, some – at that distribute other books, some do not sign the appeal and appeal, and others pass this hurdle and continue to develop. Then there was a real help to political prisoners, in which I was involved.

The apogee of my dissident activity can be considered as 1978 , when I was actively engaged in case of using the power of Soviet psychiatry to persecute dissidents and investigated more than 80 such stories, in the summer became a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and in December he was arrested for the first time.

I do not consider myself a victim. I tried to do something as far as possible. I tried something to counter the Soviet regime and its powerful repressive apparatus. Authorities responded to me quite “adequately”. I knew I was not alone in this, but the dissidents are not many, only a few thousand to two hundred millionth Soviet people. Nevertheless, it was more personal fulfillment, not an illusory calculation somehow undermine Soviet power. It was clear that our efforts it was impossible to destroy. She was rotting from the inside and dognila before disbanding.

The fact that the dissidents were known all over the world, destroyed the Soviet myth. 220 million people live happily, moving towards communism, nothing else is willing, but there are several thousand people who by the very fact of its existence, argue that a false myth. Here I was among those people. It was my way. I chose him and he went through it. And, fortunately, I did not meet with an obstacle that would have made me turn back.

I was already an inveterate “recidivist”, when I was offered an amnesty, it was in January 1987, went a second three-year term of my imprisonment, I had to sit 9 months. As for all the forced dialogue with the authorities, with the KGB, with investigators from the prosecutors, I did not sign any paper, any evidence not given, I do not want to change his principles when I needed to sit 9 months. I calmly refused the amnesty. She was so very communist. We had to sign a document that You shall not engage in political activity. Some signed, and then continued to work.

I did not believe that engaging in political activities. It was a formality, but I took it very seriously. If I sign it, then break its principle “not to cooperate with the authorities.” I was not sorry, and now do not regret it.

I’m sorry about the other. Going your own way, you are doomed to suffering families. With time comes the understanding that your free choice causes suffering of others: family, friends. KGB worked very well. They covered not only the one who resists, but all its surroundings, creating an inconvenience to them in life, to put it mildly. This was done to set up against the man his environment. I lost a few people who thought their comrades in these years. Some stayed, we’ve been friends for 50 years. They passed the test with me.

In total I spent in prisons and zones 6 years and the year at home under the administrative supervision of the refusal to accept the “Gorbachev amnesty.” Both times I was accused under Article 187 (approx.) Of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, in the “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Any authoritarian regime, the more totalitarian, based on the fact that there is an external enemy, there is internal, and it is necessary to deal with them. And for people to explain who the external enemy – the imperialists, capitalists, the NATO military. And the internal – dissidents “fifth column”, which does not want to go to the general structure of communism. It was a massive propaganda against such people. We tried to turn public opinion against these people. Isolate, to make their lives uncomfortable, unbearable. Even when you see that article in the newspaper against you false from beginning to end, it is embarrassing to you, the residue remains. And there are articles about the dissidents, whom the authorities deemed “outcasts” were enough.

I lived in the city of Chernivtsi and did not face persecution for the use of the Ukrainian language. For too active promotion – possible. It is already considered nationalism. And only the KGB decided what distinguishes patriotism from nationalism. On the other hand, I grew up in a Jewish environment, and only a student came to understand many issues, including national.

Can modern Ukraine to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime? Ukrainians are already very difficult to build as they were built in the Soviet era. Once upon a time this would have killed millions, and intimidate others and build. Most of destroying a part buy, this was done in the 20s, 30s. Soviet authorities or killed or drove out, or bought. So to build “our elites.” Therefore there is nothing surprising that she is today. I think that the repetition of history is impossible. It is impossible to kill 5.7 million people, to build a line of others. But the fact of the formal independence of the country does not guarantee the economic prosperity of the people and democratic development, respect for the law, eradication of corruption and the development of a new system of values. As mathematicians say, a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Recorded Jan Goncharenko

See. Also Special Project “Dissidents” edition Fokus.ua and STB for the Suppression of dissidents in the USSR

Source: focus.ua , 25.08.2016

Sourse, 25/08/2016

Yanukovych must be condemned, but corruption is a derivative of general disrespect for the law

stigmatization campaign corruption, declared an international human rights organization Transparency International, is to focus on the figure of the Ukrainian society fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych that will distract from the system solution to the problem, said a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

Viktor Yanukovych was not born corrupt, and become so because of the mentality of Ukrainian society, says Iosif Zisels.

Yanukovych headed the world ranking corrupt officials on the results of voting on the website of the international human rights organization Transparency International, which announced that begins stigmatization campaign against corruption, taking the first nine places.

“I would not want to exaggerate the importance of this campaign. While any steps to eliminate in the Ukrainian society of corruption are good, and the worst of them will not. But I’m inclined to think that we need a systematic approach. Yanukovych is not born corrupt, it is a question of education, which is determined by All the circumstances of life in the Eurasian society is corruption -. it is part of our mentality and culture we are born, live and die in corruption. “- Zissels said.

“Condemn Yanukovych necessary, he was president of the country, but to focus on his figure could divert attention from the systemic problem In fact, corruption is dissolved in all, and the problem can not be solved without the long-term by re-society programs, building on the Western partners.” – he added he.

Zissels stressed that “over the last year in this regard has been made longer than in the previous 25 years.”

“Transparency International does a lot, forcing public institutions to deal with corruption, I know this organization, I support her contacts, her activity is doubtless useful, but how it can be assumed that it decides for 45,000,000th country of its problems..?” – said human rights activist .

According to him, “corruption – is a derivative of general disrespect for the law in general, including to the tax.”

“Who pays taxes in Ukraine Corruption – this including the theft of the budget, but we do not fill it I am sure that the majority of Ukrainians do not pay all the taxes that they are put there are plenty of other laws, which we treat as.. . well as to tax is the question of respect for the law if it appears, will result in the condemnation of anti-corruption Yanukovych -.. a good measure, but it does not give a general respect for the law “- he said.

The human rights activist believes that “in the fight against corruption the first place should take no condemnation, no anti-corruption bureau or anti-corruption prosecutor, namely re-society in the spirit of European values”.

“With our values ​​we will not become either economically developed, nor a truly democratic country, to tackle corruption. Only the union of all the forces of civil society and reform forces in the government, if they are there, in the long term can give some result for the whole Ukraine, if not for us, our children, or even grandchildren, “- he concluded.

Yanukovych was the President of Ukraine with the February 25, 2010. February 22, 2014, after three months of protests on the Maidan Verkhovna Rada recognized it withdrew from the post and do not fulfill their obligations, then new presidential elections were announced. In February last year, Yanukovych left Ukraine, is now with his family, he lives in Russia.

In Ukraine against Yanukovych opened several criminal proceedings. He is accused of the mass murder of citizens, misappropriation of state property, the seizure of power by unconstitutional means, actions aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order. Concerning it applies conviction in absentia procedure .

Yanukovych’s name was included in the investigation of the Interpol database, but at the end of July 2015 wanted to suspend consideration of the complaint of lawyers who insist on the political background of the case against the former president.

Sourse, 11/02/2016

Without the knowledge of history you like cod on the waves – swim, where will the current flow

With this well-known journalist Natalia Feshchuk man talking in his second home Chernivtsi – Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, co-founder of which he is. The conversation took place before he got into the list of moral authority among the Ukrainians, compiled a few days ago one of the Ukrainian media . By the way, an interview with Iosifom Samuilovichem Ziselsom just ended his reflections on what moral authority are always there in the community, if only listen to them …

Joseph Zisels many posts and distinctions, among them – the head of the Association of Jewish organizations and communities of Ukraine, executive vice-president of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. And in a nutshell: Ukrainian dissident Jewish descent, twice convicted for anti-Soviet activities. He never worked in government, says the most comfortable feeling when engaged in public affairs.

As in the Union, and now he has his own strong opinions on what principles should build a true nation and a strong country. And yet convinced that a free man – a responsible person.

Zissels has been living in Kiev. But here, in the heart of Chernivtsi, it remains a piece of his heart, because it is here, on the street Schiller once lived with his parents.

“I have a very warm attitude to the history and the people who are no longer”

– Mr. Joseph, when you decided to found the Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, it was a sense of duty to those Jews who had once been so much in Chernivtsi?

– My parents – not local Jews and Bessarabia. They arrived in Chernivtsi after the Second World War. In Chernivtsi I am, unfortunately, not born. But I have lived here and interacted with the people remaining from before the war. And it was German-speaking Jews, there were already a little while, in the 50-60s, – two or three hundred, maybe left from the huge community, which before the war amounted to almost 80 thousand people. In the city of 120 thousand people two-thirds – it was the Jewish population. And I was struck by the story of this community, which flourished at the end of the XVIII century, when the Austrian authorities to allow Jews to settle here. But almost half of the Jews was destroyed during the Holocaust, and the other half remained in the city, but has not been able to live under the Soviet regime. In 1940, the Jews were some illusions, many of them were left sentiment, but European, and they waited for the Red Army, because on the other hand – Hitler. And they were deported to Siberia, one third of them in 1941, 12 thousand Bukovinians – Jews. Those who have stayed here, came under Romanian occupation, who was shot, who died in concentration camps. Who stayed with the time left for Israel. Live in Chernivtsi remaining units …

And I wanted to recreate the story. I thought, this is our duty. Because once the Jewish community in the city was very strong. And those who came here after the war, there were already other people – Bessarabian East Ukrainian Jews were very Soviet. I want to say that everything was up to the First World War is well. And when it came, Romania, the Jewish community has undergone a lot of suffering. This, of course, does not compare with the Holocaust. But Romania was a strong anti-Semitism. Second, the Jews of Romania considers patriots Austria-Hungary and taking revenge for that. We have archival documents showing that the Bukovina Ukrainians and Poles in 1918 protested against the annexation of this region Romania. And among the Jews of Bukovina was a protest. And then the Romanians because it does not give citizenship to many Jews. But still it was not, as in the Soviet Union. 1940 showed who is who. And those who lamented that’s how bad it was when Romania saw what could be worse than under Soviet rule. Some of the Jews, unfortunately, did not have time to leave. We traveled already in 60-70 years, when there was again a possibility. I know these families, helping them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them.

– You always emphasized that you – Ukrainian Jew. Now in Ukraine, many of our citizens such as the re-born, they want to know more about their country and its history. Some, on the contrary, is still passive. But to be a true citizen of the country, it seems to be inside? As it has been in your family?

– In me many laid. Because in a city like Chernivtsi laid a lot – here is the crossroads of history, culture and languages. This tolerant spirit of Chernivtsi. What is the difference Bukovina Jews of Galician, for example? One of the features – tolerance of the province, it has passed and the Jews too. There was a lot of tolerance and among Jews, too: between the orthodox and reformist currents in Judaism. In other cities they are irreconcilable, here they are communicated. For example, the chief rabbi of Chernivtsi was the Reform rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court was Orthodox rabbi.

At home, I received a Soviet-Jewish upbringing, not a purely Jewish. But I never hid their Jewish identity. I’ve always known who I am. At the same time, it is Ukraine, and I felt a Ukrainian part too. When I was at university, he attended lectures in Ukrainian. My Ukrainian language more with the university, the house spoke Russian. Yiddish was too, but in my family it was less. Today, I understand that if the Ukrainian laid into you since childhood, and then it starts to work. We in the Union of Soviet Jews were in we had very little Jewish. We knew about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and all. Few knew their language, history, literature. And only at the end of the 80s we started to restore the Jewish life, and began to become Ukrainian Jews who consider Ukraine as their motherland.

“Without faith and stories you like cod on the waves – swim, which carries”

– You were convicted of anti-Soviet propaganda. And what was the essence of your “propaganda”?

– I’ve been doing many things that could not do then. In Chernivtsi distributed samizdat. Helping political prisoners and their families. Gathering information on human rights violations and passed it. Joining the Ukrainian Helsinki group. There were people who helped – Ukrainian, Russian, not only Jews. It was a more or less intelligent circle. But in prison then, in 1978, was just me. Sentenced to three years. In the 84 th year – three more. At six.

– But the same could give and more …

– Could … But you do what you have to do. I considered it my duty to you need to do something against that power. As part of our small capacity.

– Who are the Ukrainian dissidents influenced you?

– How did I know about Ukrainian history, the Holodomor? Of Ukrainian dissidents. I talked with a lot of Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mihailom Gorinem. I traveled a lot for Ukraine, provedyvat those freed. I was looking for traces of what was called the investigation of psychiatric persecution, looking for people who have suffered in this way. I communicated with Ivan Svetlichny, Zinoviem Krasovskim, Panas Zalivahi – famous artist of Frankivsk. From each of them gets something pro-Ukrainian. The fact that I became a Ukrainian Jew, credit Ukrainian dissidents.

– You once said that you can not achieve human rights, if not to talk about religion and ethnicity …

– There is an opinion with which I am, so to speak, discuss. It is often said that it is possible to raise human universal values. And religion and ethnic culture is not required. I do not agree with this. Because when talking about millions of people, we can not achieve universal values, if not pass, so to speak, religion and ethnic culture. The only way to achieve this and tolerance. But the current reality is hard to implement. Because many non-religious people, they think that it is not very necessary. Although religion is gradually won over the place in our lives in comparison with the Union, but its weight in society still is not great.

I remember in the 70-80-ies of the last century, we spoke to Chornovil and Gorin that first need to be done, when finally this power will be overthrown or she falls. By the way, we did not expect it would be so fast. First of all, this is the resumption of the role of religion. Because religion – it is a very powerful educational factor in the society, which provides a set of essential values. It does not matter, Jews or Christians that. Because the value of the universal. And if it is not brought in millions of people, it is very hard to build a normal society.

Similarly, the story. Still have the illusion that you can live without it. But survive unless … but I know exactly what is in a person who has the confidence and the religious, and ethnic back to childhood, there is already such a rod, and then the whole life revolves around it. When a person enters the test in trouble, it has support within himself. Otherwise, you’re like cod on the waves: where to throw, you go there and swim. You have nothing to oppose to that external force or element. You can not change a lot in life, but you can not miss in your life and lie, going outside, and violence. To do this, you need this spiritual core – the ethnic and religious.

– Look at the dissident social events is not like other people?

– You know, dissent – it is such a feature of your character. See, we’re dreaming of a time when Ukraine is an independent and non-Communist. It came. But it turned out that this is not enough. We need to work to make a decent human life. And it needs a lot of work. Because those who had hoped that independence would give Ukraine at once, and all – were wrong. That was only the zero level. It was necessary to build many more. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time. And every maidan that occurs, adjust the path to the future of Ukraine.

– But if the government does something wrong, then it turns out that people need to think about, because the power – it is a reflection of people … Or not?

– On the one hand – yes. But as the power – it is the same people, they have dominated their own, private, over the general. There are some studies that show that as long as society is dominated by values ​​of survival, until can not begin the path of modernization of society. All go in different directions, each competing with each to survive and provide for his family. There must be something in common between people. For example, now in volunteering involve up to 8 million people in Ukraine. This is 15 percent of the population of our country. These are new people who can be the future of Ukraine. A majority of just waiting and survives. Waiting for what will happen and what they will need to adapt to new circumstances. And the volunteers and soldiers sacrifice their lives. Because common cause always requires sacrifice – in the broadest sense of the word.

– And people want at least some of the victims of politicians …

– You know, if we wait for the victims of politicians, it will get nowhere. We should not pay attention to politicians and do their own thing. We have seen that the civil society can do their job better than politicians. I do not expect that the officials themselves to make reforms. Only civil society can do it and force officials to adapt to him. If officials do not want to adapt to new circumstances, to a new life, they have to leave.

“We need to be able to live decently, with dignity and without the transcendental material prosperity”

– How many years of independence, and we are only now beginning to open up in a new way, our language, culture …

– It’s done all the time. Decades. Just in Soviet times, a small part was discovering that, because it was forbidden. Since the beginning of the 90 it began to be freely distributed, but it should affect the children. It not casually says that Moses led the people of 40 years in the desert to die all who were enslaved. In the new land, he did not want to lead the slaves. Because those who have lived in slavery, always bear the mark of slavery. We still need to go through several generations, even 25 years must pass. Because who govern us? In the 90s it was the former communists, then the former Komsomol in the 2000s, is now the former pioneers. On October need to survive. And then all will be well.

– Somehow I happened to hear accusations of dissidents address that, say, in the early 90’s insufficient pressured the Communists …

– Do not push Davy – nothing will happen. We had very little. Now up to 8 million volunteers, is not enough to turn Ukraine into a European state? What to say: more than 20 years ago we were 2-3 thousand political prisoners. How was it possible to get the 50,000,000th country, all communists, to be different? This can only be slow – not otherwise.

– And for you to spread the language and culture, so to speak, coercive methods?

– No, you only need to encourage. You need to have flexible mechanisms to encourage ownership of the Ukrainian language, the study of culture and history. You should have an advantage in borrowing positions those who own Ukrainian language. How else? No country can afford to take the officials of people who do not speak the state language. Only we have this is possible, and even in other post-Soviet countries except. And we see that they are still backward. The world is moving forward, and we graze the rear. Because we can not get rid of the post-colonial mentality.

– Now a large percentage of people who felt themselves to be Ukrainians, but also a large part of the thinking in old categories. In your opinion, what makes people in the Soviet era to think as Europeans? On the contrary, right now think in terms of a country that no longer exists?

– It is not in the country. The point of the Eurasian identity. Because it is the identity matrix was formed hundreds of years, it works at all, all the people living on this continent. And it defines the behavior of these people for the future. Metamorphosis is very slow, very slow changes. You say people feel European. They want to be Europeans. This reflective level of consciousness. Consciously they want, but they can be them? Do they want to be responsible? Freedom without responsibility – it’s nothing. Responsible work, cooperation, respect for the law. What is the difference Eurasia from Europe? Because in Europe there is respect for the law, and in Eurasia it is not. In Eurasia, not the law operates, and the person: the president, the governor, or first secretary. And we are hooked, because we live in a 300 years old Eurasian empire.

Partly we are Europeans, because the influence of the West European identity on us. We want to be Europeans, but still can not, because people think: if someone makes reforms for us. However, it should be this: not one but yourself. Fight against corruption – not somewhere, but in themselves. When you start with yourself, then you have this sense of responsibility. If you do not remake himself a little, then the children will be dissolved. No need to have the illusion that the very desire to live in Europe enough. You must be able to live as Europeans live. Modest, worthy, respect the law and work. Modestly – it including without transcendental material wealth.

– In all periods of development of Ukraine there were groups of people who are called moral authorities. But it seems they do not always hear …

– People must have the need to listen, first and foremost. If people have no need to listen to them – this is a problem people. Recently passed into eternity Eugene Sverstyuk. For me – the moral authority. But how many people knew him? I listen to it? How many people have corrected the life according to the principles of which he spoke? We all know how to live. But the country does not work … So, something is wrong …

Sourse, 27/08/2015

About the trial of Nadia Savchenko

Member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels sees several options for the end of the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko – it can award a short time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation, and if Savchenko will provide a long term, it will mean that Russia ready for isolation.

If the international observers will be present at the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, it will complicate the process for Russia, as the case is fabricated, said Iosif Zisels. He said this in a comment edition of “Gordon” .

“In principle, the government may announce in the end the decision is already past the court, and said, Behold, I’m sorry, did not work to attract public and observers This one option Of course, the Kremlin is not beneficial to the presence of observers at the trial because he falsified, in my subjective.. . According to observers, especially European ones, may complicate the court, which is not the case for Russia is very easy “, – said Zissels.

According to him, the results of the trial Savchenko show what development strategy chosen Russia – the international isolation or compromise with the West.

“What is all over, I just can not say, because it does not possess all the volume of information. In addition, Russia is a country full of uncertainty. It may be a relatively short period of time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation. On the other hand, Putin can show . that he was at all do not care, give Savchenko long time, and go to the final separation from all over the world as a result of the court will be clear what kind of tactics Russia chooses – complete isolation or still relatively compromise “, – said Zissels.

He did not think that at the time he was taken from the Moscow Savchenko in danger, despite the fact that the exact location is not known nor the lawyers nor relatives.

“I would not say that it was hidden, it is not entirely correct. We can say that in Russia there is a very old and important principle that when it formulated Stalin: There are people – there is a problem, no man – no problem. If authorities stated that they did not know where Savchenko worthwhile to worry about, but they do not yet speak, “- Zissels said.

Why and where Russia hid Savchenko?

A preliminary hearing on the case of Ukrainian pilots Hope Savchenko in the Donetsk Court of the Rostov region of the Russian Federation is scheduled for July 30th. July 17 Savchenko was was transferred from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don. July 22 protection Savchenko said he did not know where the aviator. Until July 27 the Russian authorities, by law, can not report her whereabouts. July 23 the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Ella Pamfilova has sent a formal request to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and the Federal Service of Execution of Punishments to the requirement to quickly provide information on the whereabouts of Savchenko. Before his transfer Ukrainka write a will, because it assumes that in Rostov it might have something happen.

Savchenko was captured by militants in June 2014 in Luhansk region, and then illegally exported to Russia. Thus, in the Russian jail, she is more than a year.

July 13, the General Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation approved the indictment against Savchenko and sent the case to the court. Pilot accused of the murder of two Russian citizens in the Luhansk region, as well as attempted murder. Ukrainka his guilt did not recognize.

Protection Savchenko asked that her trial was held in Moscow, instead of the Rostov region, and then looked at the jury, but the lawyers denied all petitions.

Sourse, 24/07/2015

It all starts with the exceptions of the rule

The Jews of Ukraine or Ukrainian Jews? Former dissident and co-president of the Vaad of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels – a civilizational choice and formation of a political nation.

– Joseph, a lot of talk lately about a new phenomenon – the birth of Ukrainian Jewry as a special form of identity of unknown a few years ago …

– All the Jewish communities of Europe passed a similar transformation. Including our closest neighbors, enough to read the article of the Polish-Jewish intellectual Konstanty Gebert, stresses that, despite all the vicissitudes of the general history of Polish Jews say about themselves: “We – the Poles.” According to him, democracy as a basic value, appreciate and Jews. “I’m not surprised that the Ukrainian Jews are mostly supported Ukrainian independence – says Gebert This phenomenon is repeated in Europe regularly Every time when some nations are independent, the Jews, as a rule, are on their way…”

In western Europe, the reform of Jewish identity began in the era of the Haskalah, when the Count of Clermont-Tonnerre in the Constituent Assembly proposed to equalize the rights of the Jews, because they are part of the French nation. He spoke of a nation in the European sense of the term – a political nation. It was then born the concept of the French law of Moses, the Germans of the Mosaic law, that is, Jewish identity takes on a new form – civil. Most European countries one way or another have come to such an understanding of the identity of the middle of the XIX century, the Russian Empire, that did not happen – it was moving along a path. I’m not talking about the lag phase, it’s just another path – within the framework of the Eurasian identity could not appear Russian and Ukrainian law of Moses.

– However, in Ukraine for centuries his name in the Eurasian paradigm, the process began …

– Yes, and it’s painfully long process – the formation of a political nation in the Western European sense. We all – originally from the Soviet Union, we all Soviet Jews, the main feature of which was the identification state anti-Semitism. We could not know Jewish history, tradition, language – to know nothing other than a couple of Jewish jokes, and, nevertheless, remain different. Precisely because of the state of anti-Semitism. How many of the nearly half million Ukrainian Jews were parishioners of one of the 14 active synagogues under the Soviets? Several hundred elderly. Therefore, Soviet Jews, and even “anti-Soviet Jews” like me, for example, come from the same “cradle”.

Then Ukraine became a sovereign state, and we started to get the Jews of Ukraine, while maintaining all the Soviet, but rather, Eurasian features – related to basic values, the role of government, religion, private property, etc. This civilizational values ​​that are absorbed with their mother’s milk, and do not change overnight, as the overnight Jews of Ukraine can not become Ukrainian Jews.

– Ukrainian National Democrats have long criticized the fact that in terms of cultural identity of Jews in Ukraine pro-Russian. While half of the country, including ethnic Ukrainians, belong to the same – the Russian-speaking – camp.

– It’s true, in another’s eye speck see, we do not notice the log in your … Jews living in Ukraine and are guided by the surrounding society.

– The more that the majority of the country’s Jews live exactly in the south-eastern regions.

– I would not connect to the civilizational choice place to stay – we are all Europeans and all the little little Eurasians – Ukrainians, Russian, and Jews. Just Russian Jews, who stood on the Maidan, made its civilizational choice in favor of Europe, but today many of these choices are at war. We go through the same path as that of the whole country – become Ukrainians in the political sense of the word – regardless of language, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. I stress that we are Ukrainian Jews, not because they are beginning to speak Ukrainian. I was in 1978 named in the party press “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist.” Apparently, even then I was a Ukrainian Jew, though he spoke in Ukrainian is much worse than it is now. Not in the language, and not in the religion business, and in civilizational choice. feature

And those of us who supported the Ukrainian choice not because of fashion or pragmatic reasons, but because (and this says Gebert) that prefer democracy – they are the Ukrainian Jews. Of course, the well known authoritarian leaders who sympathized with the Jews, such as Pilsudski. But when he died, Pilsudski, the Jews remembered how well they lived under Marshal – say, your grandfather died.

Yes, Jews have traditionally focused on power, we treat it loyally, sometimes entering into conflict with the aspirations of the people among whom we live. What to do – it is our history, our mentality. However, other Jews at all times defended democratic values ​​and participated in the national liberation movements, becoming part of one or another political nations.

– In our case, this process has become possible only after the Ukrainians themselves have changed their model for understanding the nation, rejecting ethnic nationalism, tailored on the patterns of the 1930s …

– It did not begin on the Maidan. I joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in 1978, become acquainted with a new generation of Ukrainian Nationalists, did not cave, otherwise I would not have joined them. Moses Fishbein poet in the 1980s worked in the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, as a Ukrainian nationalist …

– You’re talking about exceptions …

– It all starts with exceptions, and I was not the first. In the Polish uprising in 1794 involved not many Jews in the November Uprising 1830 there were more, and in 1863 – even more. When you can talk about the birth of Polish Jewry? Not in 1863, and at the end of the XVIII century. With Ukrainian Jews the same story. It’s a question of quality, not quantity. There are such people, and they are becoming more – Jews of Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa – this is not the Soviet Jews. Some of them are fighting in the Donbass, and they will go to the guerrilla groups, if will be in occupation.

It all starts with the exceptions in the 1970 Ukrainian Jews had very little, how little and Ukrainian national democrats, but the phenomenon has existed. Another thing is that the heroes of Ukraine, that is, the people who died for the independence of his people today, really, other. After Heavenly hundreds of pieces of Bandera and Shukhevych began to leave in the past.

Hundreds of children are dying today at the front – they are the new heroes of Ukraine and the new symbols of Ukrainian nationalism, although many of them do not even think that it is – Ukrainian nationalism.

– There are other forms of nationalism …

– And then there was all black, and now – not all white. And now there is an anti-Semite Levko Lukyanenko and 13 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, which we identify as the right-wing radicals, among them two men with neo-Nazi backgrounds – Aleksandr Mosiychuk and Dmitry Linko. I am convinced that the coalition does not include these characters, and I will fight for it as well as fighting for something that the leader of the Social-National Assembly Andrey Biletsky did not go to the deputies of the People’s Front list.

– Do not you think that this new identity is largely built on the denial, on confrontation with Russia. But aggression, sooner or later will end, and what remains?

– How to start identity? No one knows. But we know, for example, what happened in the 2012 elections, and why 10% voted for the radicals of the VO “Svoboda”. Not because they are right-wing radicals, it was a protest vote against Yanukovych. In any identity combined various factors – both “for” and “against.” I became the “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist” (with all the conventions of this definition) in 1978, because it was sympathetic to the National Democrats and the Communists did not like – it brought me to the dissident movement. Religious Zionists in Israel – against the creation of a Palestinian state and the expansion of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria – the series goes on.

Of course, in the absence of an external threat could start natural fragmentation of society, but it has never been united. In the meantime, the process of formation of the Ukrainian political nation and Ukrainian Jewry, as one of its components. The process itself testifies to the fact that Ukraine still Europeanized, Eurasian identity is arranged differently. The activity of the country is in Europe, the greater the Ukrainian Jews. And it’s not in the formal membership in the EU, it is important that the feeling of the people, their mentality, their identities were European – this is a very long process, but it has already started …

Interviewed by Maxim Sukhanov

Sourse, 18/05/2015

Ukrainians are not ripe for reconciliation

This year Ukraine celebrates the Day of Reconciliation for the first time and memory in honor of all the victims of the Second World War. Are Ukrainians really come to terms,  “Gordon” asked the chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosifa Ziselsa.

The idea of ​​reconciliation is popular at any time, but it can not be used in any situation to any two people, because in the conflict, which stretches since World War II, in fact, there are several dimensions.

Besides the Soviet-German, on the other hand – the French-English-German, even on our side had several dimensions: the Polish-German, Polish-Ukrainian, Ukrainian-German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian, even participated in the Carpathians in the battles with the UPA. There are a number of measurements, and most importantly – the Ukrainian-Soviet.

For example, I know of a case in 1962, when two Ukrainian women who were connected in the UPA, were shot in the bunker in the Ternopil region of the soldiers. In 1962, the year!

If we talk about today’s reconciliation, it is, on the one hand, civilization, because the Ukrainians decided that enough they have to live in the empire with the Eurasian civilization, and want to try the life of the European and then compared in 300 years, in which one It was better. On the other hand, this reconciliation is artificially caused by Russian aggression.

I do not think that we are ripe for reconciliation because the still very many forces did not satisfy his ambitions. If we talk about the dimensions that were during the Second World War, for them, of course, it has come, because we see a lot of progress on the line of Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation.

But it is not yet complete, as some Poles, for example, reacted nervously to the laws that have been adopted for the rehabilitation of UPA and other Ukrainian national organizations. This is a complex mishmash in which you need to understand. Find out about what exactly we are talking reconciliation. Young did not have these conflicts.

In Spain, where the civil war was prolonged, the family is still remembered, who had fought on which side. And this is not some kind of soft and hard memories. This is despite the fact that Franco (Spanish dictator Francisco Franco) has long put a monument to reconciliation for victims of the war on both sides.

In the southern states of the USA, despite the fact that since the civil war took place 150 years, also kept ancestral memory as to who fought for the North, and who – for the south. Although they live like the well, and the states do not fight each other, except that there is some confrontation during the election – more than one vote for Republicans, others – for the Democrats.

The issue of reconciliation is not so simple. Perhaps reconciliation at the level of Heads of State. Yushchenko (the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko), for example, has done a lot for this. But at the level of ordinary people a reconciliation does not take place so quickly.

In sociology, we see that in the last year the attitude of Ukrainians to the Poles has improved significantly, because millions of Ukrainians saw that the Poles actually help Ukraine in this complicated conflict. And as the Russian government not only did not help – she was the aggressor.

Veterans reluctance to shake hands says that a new conflict was superimposed on the old and on the contrary, it has strengthened rather than weakened.

Two of civilization people can live in peace, and they are in general, they lived more or less peacefully, despite the tension between the state structures, as long as there was no interference in each other’s identity. As soon as the intervention in the identity of other people, there is a huge energy instantly resistance.

Yet another dimension – the dimension of the Maidan – was for me as a reaction to a very significant part of Ukrainian society to try Yanukovych (fugitive ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych) and all his clique to bring us back to a state of the Eurasian identity, which we already do not want to be at as most of us.

This applies to the Donbas. This region has a different identity, and perhaps he did not want to live in a European way. If we are forced to compel him to do so, we get back the same great resistance power.

Decentralization is relevant if load it humanitarian, economic, financial and other aspects. Groisman (Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman) said several times that it is necessary to take into account the humanitarian aspect in decentralization. Historically. If we do not consider this aspect, it means that we do not spend real decentralization, it would be somewhat artificial.

Donbass within Ukraine should develop as he understands it in his own way. And the overall rate of the State of Ukraine, if it still exists, together with the Crimea and Donbas on the road to Europe must be sufficiently slow so as not to lose the regions that do not want to move in this direction. We need to talk, to explain, to try to continue to implement the values ​​that have more in Ukrainian society.

Sourse, 08/05/2015

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia

Iosif Zisels, human rights activist and head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Vaad, recalls with a smile, as in Soviet times it was called both a Zionist and a Ukrainian nationalist. Now, 40 years later, it again can be called zhidobanderovtsem, and the term has acquired a new meaning and a positive connotation.

In the Soviet Union he was a dissident, trying to defend the rights of Jews, and then joined the Ukrainian Helsinki human rights group. In 1978, on charges of defamation and anti-state activities Zissels received six years in a penal colony. Nine months before the liberation he was offered amnesty in exchange for a renunciation of political principles, but he refused.

Now, Soviet dissident and political prisoner, became one of the most influential Jews of Ukraine – he heads the largest Jewish organization, which is able at any time to lend a helping hand to every Jew of the country, engaged in the revival and strengthening of Jewish communities, their culture and religion, as well as helping wishing to exit in Israel.

Zissels well – known people abroad, where he is a member of the European and the World Jewish Congress, took over the functions of the public lobbyist Ukraine’s national interests. In his own words Zisels, he lives according to the covenant of the Jewish patriarch Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? “

“New time” meets Zissels in the office of the Association of Jewish Organizations, which is located in one of the academic buildings of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. It is a small unit into several rooms, on the door of which hung an advertisement for the recruitment of students to the specialization of Judaica. Zissels cordially invites you into his office and, distracted for a few minutes to say hello to each of his employees, invited to interview.

Ukrainians are very sensible nation, and therefore changes have been slow. Maidan two months stood and demanded concessions from the government. When I talk about that in France, there wondering how, two months? We would all smashed in two weeks!

Just Ukrainians other political temperament. We are moving at their own pace, which is slower than that of Poland or the Baltic countries. It must be taken as fact. Another problem is that our identity is dual, and expectations are always high, so some of us and sways from side to side. We believe that, if there was a revolution and change of power, all at once will change, but it is not.

Ukraine will of fate was between a European democracy and Eurasian authoritarian culture. And it is important to understand that if 20% of the population do not want to in Europe, this must somehow be considered. This is not a whim, just for them, Europe stranger. And we are encroaching on their identity, though hardly have that right.

Recall, Viktor Yanukovych wanted to encroach on our right to be Europeans – and the Maidan happened. The same thing is happening now. When threatened identity, even among people who are accustomed to submission, there is a huge energy resistance. We need to negotiate rather than fight.

Today in the country there is a desire to fight corruption, but it’s part of our culture. Corruption – is a part of Ukrainian identity. The law is not absolute for us, and its violation – not a sin, as in the West. And this shows our Eastern culture – there is not a law adopted in order to execute it, and that they enjoyed the strongest.

We used to live like this, we have formed a lot of secret agreements between government and society. For example, that the severity of the law is compensated by its failure. At low levels of wages authorities turned a blind eye to the fact that we steal, and the people turned a blind eye to the fact that steals power. In space, where there is no law with a capital letter, a person perceives any obstacle as a challenge, to solve the problem – that such obstacles put me, but I still find it, how to get around them.

So, to say, well, let’s fight against corruption, which many of us continue to steal – is meaningless. It is necessary to recognize the existence of tacit agreements and revise them. The struggle of society against corruption must be a struggle with ourselves.

Right now Ukrainian Jews began to realize themselves as Jews in Ukraine. In Europe, it happened in the late XIX century. In France, that’s when the Jews received equal rights with the French and called themselves the French law of Moses. We have this process takes place only now.

The Jews of Ukraine took a very active part in the Maidan. Were actively, perhaps, only the Crimean Tatars. And the Ukrainians have rated it – according to the latest sociological research, for the year related to the Jews and Crimean Tatars in the country has improved significantly.

We do not believe, how many Jews were on the Maidan, but we know that many of them then went to the front. The most paradoxical – some of them fought in the battalion of Azov, near the radical nationalists. In addition, in the east of the country and fight guys with Israeli passports. It is the volunteers who teach our soldiers. Israel has almost 100 years of war, and experience – most importantly, that he can pass Ukraine.

Israel does not help Ukraine officially because so fixated on their own security. In 2008, during the war in Georgia, Israel helped equip the Georgian air defense system. Then Georgia was hit by three Russian aircraft, and Israel received a warning from Russia that if he will continue to help Georgia, Iran gets a nuclear bomb, and Syria will face Russia’s S-300 missiles.

But while Israel – a democratic country, and the pressure of society can not be ignored. Most of the Israelis – people with democratic values, and they sympathize with Ukraine.

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia – will be less frustrating. Now, in many EU countries pre-election period. To support Ukraine, impose additional sanctions on Russia for them is to reduce the level of welfare of their countries and to expose their chances of winning at serious risk. Can help unless indirect pressure on Europe from the United States and Canada.

This is very similar to what happened in the 1930s. Germany regularly paid for oil and metals, and all wanted her to trade. Nobody wanted to see it as a monster, preferring to think that Germany will not fight with them, and with their competitors. After eight years of these errors have to pay a huge price.

We are no longer a peaceful country, and it will not be long. We need to get used to fight with minimal losses, rely on their own forces to protect their people, to rebuild the economy on a war footing, and not bury our heads in the sand. In Russia, too, there is no other option but to fight with Ukraine. They understand that with this government and with this partnership agreement is impossible.

Something we can count only when the disintegration processes in Russia will be intense. However, nobody in the world is not interested in this. What does it mean crumbling Russia? Huge fragments of the country armed with nuclear weapons. Putin, in spite of our curses, still controls the country. If only we have not climbed, prices would not be him. But he can not climb, the logic of empire – its meaning in the expansion.

I do not believe in the possibility of democratization of Russia. I spent two years in the Ural camps, lived in Moscow for more than a year. Russia within its present borders will never be a European country. There is no critical mass of people who can change the destiny of Russia. Moreover, not all countries should be European. The world rests on the balance sheet. And who will be the European world to balance China? Any democratization of Russia will lead to its disintegration, and this terrible future, with unpredictable consequences.

5 questions Iosifu Ziselsu:

– What event of your life you feel in charge?

– Of course, my participation in the dissident movement. I think all the most important thing happened then.

– What is your favorite city?

– I do not have a favorite book or a favorite city. I love Chernivtsi, where I spent my childhood, Kiev, in which I live. I like to be in Jerusalem and Barcelona.

– What move around the city?

– I have a Subaru Outback. This reliable, sturdy machine. Not very comfortable, but I like it.

– What is your monthly cost of living?

– I get a pension. More than ordinary people, but not enough to live a normal life. It is also engaged in consulting, working in a private firm. My problem is not how to provide for themselves, but rather where to find the money for our activities. Well, I have four kids that even adults, but they still need help. Perhaps today I spend at least $ 1 thousand. Per month.

– What do you seek?

– As anyone – to self-realization, once satisfied all other requirements. And I think I am quite good to deal with it.

Sourse, 02/05/2015

I do not think that without the consent of the inhabitants the city will be renamed

Without the consent of the inhabitants of the city should not be renamed, he said in a comment  “GORDON”  chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

“I’m not sure that without the decision of the local community, you can rename the city. But you’ve seen over the last 23 years, at least one law, which is performed in its entirety, just as it was written? We live in a space where the laws are not in order to fulfill them. laws of the people do not obey the laws of the people do not respect the laws of the people do not follow. They use the laws to achieve some of their goals. I do not think there will be a city renamed without the consent of residents. This should be without hysterics, and in a peaceful discussion. I do not think that without a Announce the masses it can be done then we will get additional negative effects, which have enough “, -. Zissels said.

There is a clash of two civilizations, so think about what the consequences will ban communist symbols more correctly, he said.

“There’s a novel in which the hero is a young man seeking a countess, she was refused, he turns the whole world, conquering all of Europe, and when the Countess is ready him to give up, it turns out that it is – an elderly woman and he no longer needed so. . and with that we now live in a turbulent time, we have a war on, and not just between the separatists and the Ukrainians, but a war between two civilizations -. European and Eurasian It’s so powerful collision, what to think, what consequences will result in a ban of symbols, I it seems to be incorrect. I do not think th that it will lead to some serious consequences to the positive or to the negative “- Zissels said.

However, in his opinion, for many people, the victims of the regime, this decision will be important.

“I have not yet comprehended once the consequences of yesterday’s solutions. I dreamed about it many years ago, because he was a dissident and was imprisoned in Soviet times for political activities, but it’s been more than 20 years. Although many people for whom life was a struggle with the communist system, it is very important that finally at least the end of life to get satisfaction from the fact that these misanthropic ideology abolished and banned, “- said the expert.

The honey, he said, the current law many inaccuracies that should be corrected.

“East is bad knows what the UPA, and the West does not speak what the UPA. It was a long time ago. So many myths of positive and negative during the Soviet period was unwound. The very acronym UPA with a hyphen, which created the Soviet ideology, did not exist in nature . The law had a lot of confusion -. terminological, factual, grammatical Before this law was passed, I was just going to make corrections I have quite an old man, to know how to be called in reality there are mixed up the names of organizations…History is no such organization “OUN” Yes “OUN” one, is “OUN” Second, there is a “OUN” third -. There are three “OUN” – Zissels said.

“Live – see very little consequence were other laws, I think, will also be with these Someone uses them for next separatist sentiments, someone on the contrary uses the dominance of pro-European sentiment in the end still everything goes and vanishes… “- he concluded.

Recall, April 9, the Verkhovna Rada  adopted  a law recognizing the communist regime 1917-1991 criminally and banning communist symbols.

The adopted law about the condemnation of the communist regime  contained  rule to rename the settlements, which are named in honor of the communist-era figures.

Sourse, 10/04/2015

Today, it is a conflict between civilization and the negation of civilization

What is happening today – a revision of the entire set of rules established in the world after the Second World War.

Iosif Zisels, chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups, – performance at the channel marathon  UKRLIFE.TV  on “The international implications of the terrorist attacks in France”:

There are two important systemic factor that differentiates Western Europe from the East and, in particular, from the Ukraine.

The first factor – is the presence of entities associated with the radical Islamic movement, they are in Western Europe, they do not exist in Eastern Europe. Perhaps, as we move to Europe they will, but for now it is not.

The second factor – the movement, fashionable in the left intelligentsia, in which human rights, in particular, the protection of the rights of Palestinians leads to anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment.

Sourse, 12/01/2015

The level of anti-Semitism in Ukraine is not increased

Do you see now Ukraine growth of anti-Semitism and xenophobia – to this and other questions in an interview with DW said the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Iosif Zisels.

Iosif Zisels – Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups. In an interview with DW Zissels she told whether there is in Ukraine, the rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and also responded to a number of other issues.

DW: In Russia, many say that with the advent of the current Ukrainian politicians in the country have intensified anti-Semitic sentiments. Is it so?

Iosif Zisels: I was one of the leaders of the Jewish community can assure that there is no – not only sharp, but generally no increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Ukraine. We are very carefully and attentively fix every incident, every speech, every case of an attack, and every act of vandalism. And this level – as last year. Despite the tumultuous events that took place on the Maidan in Kiev, on the military operations in the south-east of Ukraine, the level of anti-Semitism in the country increases. It was and remains one of the lowest in Eastern Europe.

– And what is the level of anti-Semitism in Russia?

– As regards the level of anti-Semitism in Russia – it is too short. Just as in Ukraine, he measured a dozen or two dozen cases per year. But Russia – authoritarian country with underdeveloped democratic institutions. And in this authoritarian model of existence can be played “Jewish card”. In Ukraine, too, is to be feared that the state wants to use it, but fortunately, there is control belongs to the civil society.

– What can you say about the allegations in the city address that the current government allegedly tolerate manifestations of neo-Nazism?

– First of all, it is a question of terminology. I think really understand what Nazism, only to narrow specialists. They are our experts, with whom we have worked for many years. In Ukraine, as in any other country, there are right-wing movements, some of which resemble the neo-Nazi. But they are in Europe. Right-wing parties have almost all European countries, and they are much more dangerous than what we see today in Ukraine.

So, the party “Freedom” is not passed to the new Ukrainian parliament, which was in the previous Parliament when Yanukovych was there 37 mandates. This demonstrates the falling level of interest in the radical demagogy of this order. Lyashko passed Radical Party, which is very different: it is less than the national radical demagogy, but more general radical demagoguery. In majority districts it took a few people who can be considered right-wing radicals with aspects of neo-Nazism. Very few of them: 423 MP – about 10. That is less than it was in the last Parliament, where there were 37.

But I think that the concerns of the Parliament, there was a general shift of the entire spectrum a little to the right. Because such a national-democratic parties as Block Petro Poroshenko, “Popular Front” and “self-help” – are themselves center-right. That is, the parliament’s center of gravity has shifted slightly to the right, and is a tribute to wartime. Requirements radicals is not particularly noticeable.

– The fact that the Parliament did not pass the “Freedom” and “Right Sector”, can be considered a success of Ukrainian democracy?

– In fact, these parties were radical demagogic. Moreover, these were the projects financed and designed to split the opposition with Yanukovych’s government. That is, in part, they were man-made projects. They can not be considered as such natural, organic manifestations of the right of the spectrum, as can be seen in many countries.

In Ukraine, the main control of the right-wing radicals has not the government, as is the case in Russia, and civil society. It itself copes with this low level of pravoradikalizma in the country, making it much better than the state. And it is – a guarantee that this rate will not be great.

– Earlier you said that “right-wing and neo-Nazi forces” involved in the conflict in the Donbass, from both sides? You can name specific examples?

– On the Russian side, according to our experts, fights about 200 neo-Nazis. Among them are, first of all, “Russian National Unity”. This is a known neo-Nazi organization in Russia, which has its own recruitment offices, training camps for militants and separate connections on the front. Others – such as, for example, the former party Limonov, is “dyed” in other colors. It is important to note also that the present or volunteers or mercenaries from European right-wing neo-Nazi parties. They, too, are fighting on the Russian side.

On the Ukrainian side, too, there is a man 30-40 – skinheads from the right-wing group “Social-National Assembly”, “Patriots of Ukraine”, for which we are following closely. In this regard, first of all, we may note the battalion “Azov”, where there may be even a few dozen people from the “Social-National Assembly.” Andrey Beletsky – the commander of the battalion (now it is a regiment) – the head of “Social-National Assembly.” However, he argues that the war changed their ideology.

– From what sources do you get information?

– We have a number of experts of the European level. We use their data, and trust them, as for many years working with them. Moreover, our data are taken from the report of the State Department’s anti-Semitism in the world and the OSCE report on the monitoring and analysis of anti-Semitism in the world. I myself 25 years engaged in the construction of networks for monitoring and analysis of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

Sourse, 06/11/2014

Israeli President raised on Russian historiography

The head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, a well-known human rights activist and Soviet dissident, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels in an interview with “Gromadska radio” stated that he could not agree with the speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. He accused the Ukrainians in the complicity in the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Second World War, informs eizvestia.com .

“He’s an old man. He bears the stereotypes of the past, historiography, which today is not considered objective. He was brought up in the Russian historiography. Israel, at least the older generation still lives under its influence. It does not reflect the opinion of the young. After all, the young religious Israelis have stood on the Maidan. These views he expressed today – it’s yesterday, “- said Zissels.

He recalled the visit to Israel of the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko in 2007.

“The delegation came to Yad Vashem and asked to show documents that indicate the involvement of Roman Shukhevych (OUN leader during World War II) to such crimes. But no one was able to show. This stereotype does not provide evidence, if everyone knows it. No, not everyone knows that. For example, I do not trust that it is not necessary to confirm the archival authentic documents “- Zissels said.

He noted that the OUN and UPA fighters fought for Ukraine, and they can not wear the stereotypical labels.

September 27 during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada parliamentary hearings devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that the Ukrainians have been involved in the repression against the Jews during the Second World War. “Many of the accomplices of crimes were Ukrainians. And among them highlights the OUN, which mocked Jews, killed them, and in many cases, were given to the Germans. It is also true that there were more than 2.5 thousand Righteous among the Nations “-. Said Rivlin.

Commenting on the Israeli president’s speech, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Vladimir Vyatrovich said Rivlin repeated Soviet myth of the OUN involvement in the Holocaust. The head of the OUN Bogdan Chervak ​​Rivlin called the statement “a spit in the soul of the Ukrainians” and urged him not to watch Russian television, as it is “not just bad, but also indecent.”

During World War II, occupied Kiev Nazi troops used the tract Babi Yar, in the northwestern part of the city as a place of mass executions of civilians, most of whom were Jews. September 29, 1941 the entire Jewish population was obliged to come to the Babi Yar, where until September 30, was shot more than 33 thousand. Man on the orders of the occupation administration. According to various estimates, at Babi Yar were killed by 70 thousand. Up to 200 thousand. Man.

Sourse, 29/09/2016

The system rotted from within and dognila before disbanding

Soviet-era dissident Yosif Zisels told why refused amnesty in the Gorbachev era, what regrets today about whether modern Ukraine may repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime

Yosif Zisels – human rights activist, dissident, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. In 1978 he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He spent six years in prisons on charges of “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Every dissident own destiny. For example, a man wrote a poem. As my friend, the Ukrainian dissident, a former teacher in the Ternopil region kultprosvetuchilische Mikola Grobal, wrote a poem called “Dumi moї, Dumi”. For this was sent to prison. For the poem. Simply laid out thoughts on paper. Or Semyon Gluzman, which persecuted for their professional activities. He made the correspondence psychiatric examination for General Pyotr Grigorenko and mathematician Leonid Plyushch and promulgated it.

The dissent came for different reasons: national, democratic, moral, emotional. The reasons were not so important to us. Most importantly, we together fought criminal imperial communist system.

I actually grew up without parents. So I have virtually no such an important element of the psyche as a “social instinct of self-preservation,” usually brings up children in a normal Jewish family. Simply no one to create it. I started very early to read samizdat. I think it is no coincidence. The fact that we were surrounded by then, and what we have been taught do not match. Not everyone is dissonance when life does not match with the pictures, which are described in textbooks. Some quietly absorbed in itself is doublethink, I called it “social schizophrenia.” Some do it quietly. Some resisted.

The Soviet government constantly demanded confirmation of loyalty. A variety of ways. Those who have studied, passed the party’s history, scientific communism. Was political information was the Komsomol, and other institutions, which are constantly monitored by the people through an extensive network. Not only controlled the KGB people were the party, trade union, Komsomol and Pioneer organizations. And I went multilevel selection. Revealed disgruntled, obstinate. Once a person has manifested itself, it was a signal that we should look at it.

I went to the dissidence almost deliberately. I drew it. I wanted to know the truth about life, about history, about relationships. And find the right answers in samizdat, as permitted by the literature is almost impossible to find the truth. It was important that others know the truth. Not immediately, at first reading itself, and then you want to share with others. Then you become it a little.

An important stimulus was originally a private confrontation lies and violence. You try to realize his need for truth is not simply to distribute this literature. Then there is the need to sign any appeals, appeals to protest against human rights violations. I’m talking about the way. Some stop at reading the literature, some – at that distribute other books, some do not sign the appeal and appeal, and others pass this hurdle and continue to develop. Then there was a real help to political prisoners, in which I was involved.

The apogee of my dissident activity can be considered as 1978 , when I was actively engaged in case of using the power of Soviet psychiatry to persecute dissidents and investigated more than 80 such stories, in the summer became a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and in December he was arrested for the first time.

I do not consider myself a victim. I tried to do something as far as possible. I tried something to counter the Soviet regime and its powerful repressive apparatus. Authorities responded to me quite “adequately”. I knew I was not alone in this, but the dissidents are not many, only a few thousand to two hundred millionth Soviet people. Nevertheless, it was more personal fulfillment, not an illusory calculation somehow undermine Soviet power. It was clear that our efforts it was impossible to destroy. She was rotting from the inside and dognila before disbanding.

The fact that the dissidents were known all over the world, destroyed the Soviet myth. 220 million people live happily, moving towards communism, nothing else is willing, but there are several thousand people who by the very fact of its existence, argue that a false myth. Here I was among those people. It was my way. I chose him and he went through it. And, fortunately, I did not meet with an obstacle that would have made me turn back.

I was already an inveterate “recidivist”, when I was offered an amnesty, it was in January 1987, went a second three-year term of my imprisonment, I had to sit 9 months. As for all the forced dialogue with the authorities, with the KGB, with investigators from the prosecutors, I did not sign any paper, any evidence not given, I do not want to change his principles when I needed to sit 9 months. I calmly refused the amnesty. She was so very communist. We had to sign a document that You shall not engage in political activity. Some signed, and then continued to work.

I did not believe that engaging in political activities. It was a formality, but I took it very seriously. If I sign it, then break its principle “not to cooperate with the authorities.” I was not sorry, and now do not regret it.

I’m sorry about the other. Going your own way, you are doomed to suffering families. With time comes the understanding that your free choice causes suffering of others: family, friends. KGB worked very well. They covered not only the one who resists, but all its surroundings, creating an inconvenience to them in life, to put it mildly. This was done to set up against the man his environment. I lost a few people who thought their comrades in these years. Some stayed, we’ve been friends for 50 years. They passed the test with me.

In total I spent in prisons and zones 6 years and the year at home under the administrative supervision of the refusal to accept the “Gorbachev amnesty.” Both times I was accused under Article 187 (approx.) Of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, in the “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Any authoritarian regime, the more totalitarian, based on the fact that there is an external enemy, there is internal, and it is necessary to deal with them. And for people to explain who the external enemy – the imperialists, capitalists, the NATO military. And the internal – dissidents “fifth column”, which does not want to go to the general structure of communism. It was a massive propaganda against such people. We tried to turn public opinion against these people. Isolate, to make their lives uncomfortable, unbearable. Even when you see that article in the newspaper against you false from beginning to end, it is embarrassing to you, the residue remains. And there are articles about the dissidents, whom the authorities deemed “outcasts” were enough.

I lived in the city of Chernivtsi and did not face persecution for the use of the Ukrainian language. For too active promotion – possible. It is already considered nationalism. And only the KGB decided what distinguishes patriotism from nationalism. On the other hand, I grew up in a Jewish environment, and only a student came to understand many issues, including national.

Can modern Ukraine to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime? Ukrainians are already very difficult to build as they were built in the Soviet era. Once upon a time this would have killed millions, and intimidate others and build. Most of destroying a part buy, this was done in the 20s, 30s. Soviet authorities or killed or drove out, or bought. So to build “our elites.” Therefore there is nothing surprising that she is today. I think that the repetition of history is impossible. It is impossible to kill 5.7 million people, to build a line of others. But the fact of the formal independence of the country does not guarantee the economic prosperity of the people and democratic development, respect for the law, eradication of corruption and the development of a new system of values. As mathematicians say, a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Recorded Jan Goncharenko

See. Also Special Project “Dissidents” edition Fokus.ua and STB for the Suppression of dissidents in the USSR

Source: focus.ua , 25.08.2016

Sourse, 25/08/2016

Yanukovych must be condemned, but corruption is a derivative of general disrespect for the law

stigmatization campaign corruption, declared an international human rights organization Transparency International, is to focus on the figure of the Ukrainian society fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych that will distract from the system solution to the problem, said a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

Viktor Yanukovych was not born corrupt, and become so because of the mentality of Ukrainian society, says Iosif Zisels.

Yanukovych headed the world ranking corrupt officials on the results of voting on the website of the international human rights organization Transparency International, which announced that begins stigmatization campaign against corruption, taking the first nine places.

“I would not want to exaggerate the importance of this campaign. While any steps to eliminate in the Ukrainian society of corruption are good, and the worst of them will not. But I’m inclined to think that we need a systematic approach. Yanukovych is not born corrupt, it is a question of education, which is determined by All the circumstances of life in the Eurasian society is corruption -. it is part of our mentality and culture we are born, live and die in corruption. “- Zissels said.

“Condemn Yanukovych necessary, he was president of the country, but to focus on his figure could divert attention from the systemic problem In fact, corruption is dissolved in all, and the problem can not be solved without the long-term by re-society programs, building on the Western partners.” – he added he.

Zissels stressed that “over the last year in this regard has been made longer than in the previous 25 years.”

“Transparency International does a lot, forcing public institutions to deal with corruption, I know this organization, I support her contacts, her activity is doubtless useful, but how it can be assumed that it decides for 45,000,000th country of its problems..?” – said human rights activist .

According to him, “corruption – is a derivative of general disrespect for the law in general, including to the tax.”

“Who pays taxes in Ukraine Corruption – this including the theft of the budget, but we do not fill it I am sure that the majority of Ukrainians do not pay all the taxes that they are put there are plenty of other laws, which we treat as.. . well as to tax is the question of respect for the law if it appears, will result in the condemnation of anti-corruption Yanukovych -.. a good measure, but it does not give a general respect for the law “- he said.

The human rights activist believes that “in the fight against corruption the first place should take no condemnation, no anti-corruption bureau or anti-corruption prosecutor, namely re-society in the spirit of European values”.

“With our values ​​we will not become either economically developed, nor a truly democratic country, to tackle corruption. Only the union of all the forces of civil society and reform forces in the government, if they are there, in the long term can give some result for the whole Ukraine, if not for us, our children, or even grandchildren, “- he concluded.

Yanukovych was the President of Ukraine with the February 25, 2010. February 22, 2014, after three months of protests on the Maidan Verkhovna Rada recognized it withdrew from the post and do not fulfill their obligations, then new presidential elections were announced. In February last year, Yanukovych left Ukraine, is now with his family, he lives in Russia.

In Ukraine against Yanukovych opened several criminal proceedings. He is accused of the mass murder of citizens, misappropriation of state property, the seizure of power by unconstitutional means, actions aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order. Concerning it applies conviction in absentia procedure .

Yanukovych’s name was included in the investigation of the Interpol database, but at the end of July 2015 wanted to suspend consideration of the complaint of lawyers who insist on the political background of the case against the former president.

Sourse, 11/02/2016

Without the knowledge of history you like cod on the waves – swim, where will the current flow

With this well-known journalist Natalia Feshchuk man talking in his second home Chernivtsi – Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, co-founder of which he is. The conversation took place before he got into the list of moral authority among the Ukrainians, compiled a few days ago one of the Ukrainian media . By the way, an interview with Iosifom Samuilovichem Ziselsom just ended his reflections on what moral authority are always there in the community, if only listen to them …

Joseph Zisels many posts and distinctions, among them – the head of the Association of Jewish organizations and communities of Ukraine, executive vice-president of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. And in a nutshell: Ukrainian dissident Jewish descent, twice convicted for anti-Soviet activities. He never worked in government, says the most comfortable feeling when engaged in public affairs.

As in the Union, and now he has his own strong opinions on what principles should build a true nation and a strong country. And yet convinced that a free man – a responsible person.

Zissels has been living in Kiev. But here, in the heart of Chernivtsi, it remains a piece of his heart, because it is here, on the street Schiller once lived with his parents.

“I have a very warm attitude to the history and the people who are no longer”

– Mr. Joseph, when you decided to found the Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, it was a sense of duty to those Jews who had once been so much in Chernivtsi?

– My parents – not local Jews and Bessarabia. They arrived in Chernivtsi after the Second World War. In Chernivtsi I am, unfortunately, not born. But I have lived here and interacted with the people remaining from before the war. And it was German-speaking Jews, there were already a little while, in the 50-60s, – two or three hundred, maybe left from the huge community, which before the war amounted to almost 80 thousand people. In the city of 120 thousand people two-thirds – it was the Jewish population. And I was struck by the story of this community, which flourished at the end of the XVIII century, when the Austrian authorities to allow Jews to settle here. But almost half of the Jews was destroyed during the Holocaust, and the other half remained in the city, but has not been able to live under the Soviet regime. In 1940, the Jews were some illusions, many of them were left sentiment, but European, and they waited for the Red Army, because on the other hand – Hitler. And they were deported to Siberia, one third of them in 1941, 12 thousand Bukovinians – Jews. Those who have stayed here, came under Romanian occupation, who was shot, who died in concentration camps. Who stayed with the time left for Israel. Live in Chernivtsi remaining units …

And I wanted to recreate the story. I thought, this is our duty. Because once the Jewish community in the city was very strong. And those who came here after the war, there were already other people – Bessarabian East Ukrainian Jews were very Soviet. I want to say that everything was up to the First World War is well. And when it came, Romania, the Jewish community has undergone a lot of suffering. This, of course, does not compare with the Holocaust. But Romania was a strong anti-Semitism. Second, the Jews of Romania considers patriots Austria-Hungary and taking revenge for that. We have archival documents showing that the Bukovina Ukrainians and Poles in 1918 protested against the annexation of this region Romania. And among the Jews of Bukovina was a protest. And then the Romanians because it does not give citizenship to many Jews. But still it was not, as in the Soviet Union. 1940 showed who is who. And those who lamented that’s how bad it was when Romania saw what could be worse than under Soviet rule. Some of the Jews, unfortunately, did not have time to leave. We traveled already in 60-70 years, when there was again a possibility. I know these families, helping them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them.

– You always emphasized that you – Ukrainian Jew. Now in Ukraine, many of our citizens such as the re-born, they want to know more about their country and its history. Some, on the contrary, is still passive. But to be a true citizen of the country, it seems to be inside? As it has been in your family?

– In me many laid. Because in a city like Chernivtsi laid a lot – here is the crossroads of history, culture and languages. This tolerant spirit of Chernivtsi. What is the difference Bukovina Jews of Galician, for example? One of the features – tolerance of the province, it has passed and the Jews too. There was a lot of tolerance and among Jews, too: between the orthodox and reformist currents in Judaism. In other cities they are irreconcilable, here they are communicated. For example, the chief rabbi of Chernivtsi was the Reform rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court was Orthodox rabbi.

At home, I received a Soviet-Jewish upbringing, not a purely Jewish. But I never hid their Jewish identity. I’ve always known who I am. At the same time, it is Ukraine, and I felt a Ukrainian part too. When I was at university, he attended lectures in Ukrainian. My Ukrainian language more with the university, the house spoke Russian. Yiddish was too, but in my family it was less. Today, I understand that if the Ukrainian laid into you since childhood, and then it starts to work. We in the Union of Soviet Jews were in we had very little Jewish. We knew about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and all. Few knew their language, history, literature. And only at the end of the 80s we started to restore the Jewish life, and began to become Ukrainian Jews who consider Ukraine as their motherland.

“Without faith and stories you like cod on the waves – swim, which carries”

– You were convicted of anti-Soviet propaganda. And what was the essence of your “propaganda”?

– I’ve been doing many things that could not do then. In Chernivtsi distributed samizdat. Helping political prisoners and their families. Gathering information on human rights violations and passed it. Joining the Ukrainian Helsinki group. There were people who helped – Ukrainian, Russian, not only Jews. It was a more or less intelligent circle. But in prison then, in 1978, was just me. Sentenced to three years. In the 84 th year – three more. At six.

– But the same could give and more …

– Could … But you do what you have to do. I considered it my duty to you need to do something against that power. As part of our small capacity.

– Who are the Ukrainian dissidents influenced you?

– How did I know about Ukrainian history, the Holodomor? Of Ukrainian dissidents. I talked with a lot of Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mihailom Gorinem. I traveled a lot for Ukraine, provedyvat those freed. I was looking for traces of what was called the investigation of psychiatric persecution, looking for people who have suffered in this way. I communicated with Ivan Svetlichny, Zinoviem Krasovskim, Panas Zalivahi – famous artist of Frankivsk. From each of them gets something pro-Ukrainian. The fact that I became a Ukrainian Jew, credit Ukrainian dissidents.

– You once said that you can not achieve human rights, if not to talk about religion and ethnicity …

– There is an opinion with which I am, so to speak, discuss. It is often said that it is possible to raise human universal values. And religion and ethnic culture is not required. I do not agree with this. Because when talking about millions of people, we can not achieve universal values, if not pass, so to speak, religion and ethnic culture. The only way to achieve this and tolerance. But the current reality is hard to implement. Because many non-religious people, they think that it is not very necessary. Although religion is gradually won over the place in our lives in comparison with the Union, but its weight in society still is not great.

I remember in the 70-80-ies of the last century, we spoke to Chornovil and Gorin that first need to be done, when finally this power will be overthrown or she falls. By the way, we did not expect it would be so fast. First of all, this is the resumption of the role of religion. Because religion – it is a very powerful educational factor in the society, which provides a set of essential values. It does not matter, Jews or Christians that. Because the value of the universal. And if it is not brought in millions of people, it is very hard to build a normal society.

Similarly, the story. Still have the illusion that you can live without it. But survive unless … but I know exactly what is in a person who has the confidence and the religious, and ethnic back to childhood, there is already such a rod, and then the whole life revolves around it. When a person enters the test in trouble, it has support within himself. Otherwise, you’re like cod on the waves: where to throw, you go there and swim. You have nothing to oppose to that external force or element. You can not change a lot in life, but you can not miss in your life and lie, going outside, and violence. To do this, you need this spiritual core – the ethnic and religious.

– Look at the dissident social events is not like other people?

– You know, dissent – it is such a feature of your character. See, we’re dreaming of a time when Ukraine is an independent and non-Communist. It came. But it turned out that this is not enough. We need to work to make a decent human life. And it needs a lot of work. Because those who had hoped that independence would give Ukraine at once, and all – were wrong. That was only the zero level. It was necessary to build many more. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time. And every maidan that occurs, adjust the path to the future of Ukraine.

– But if the government does something wrong, then it turns out that people need to think about, because the power – it is a reflection of people … Or not?

– On the one hand – yes. But as the power – it is the same people, they have dominated their own, private, over the general. There are some studies that show that as long as society is dominated by values ​​of survival, until can not begin the path of modernization of society. All go in different directions, each competing with each to survive and provide for his family. There must be something in common between people. For example, now in volunteering involve up to 8 million people in Ukraine. This is 15 percent of the population of our country. These are new people who can be the future of Ukraine. A majority of just waiting and survives. Waiting for what will happen and what they will need to adapt to new circumstances. And the volunteers and soldiers sacrifice their lives. Because common cause always requires sacrifice – in the broadest sense of the word.

– And people want at least some of the victims of politicians …

– You know, if we wait for the victims of politicians, it will get nowhere. We should not pay attention to politicians and do their own thing. We have seen that the civil society can do their job better than politicians. I do not expect that the officials themselves to make reforms. Only civil society can do it and force officials to adapt to him. If officials do not want to adapt to new circumstances, to a new life, they have to leave.

“We need to be able to live decently, with dignity and without the transcendental material prosperity”

– How many years of independence, and we are only now beginning to open up in a new way, our language, culture …

– It’s done all the time. Decades. Just in Soviet times, a small part was discovering that, because it was forbidden. Since the beginning of the 90 it began to be freely distributed, but it should affect the children. It not casually says that Moses led the people of 40 years in the desert to die all who were enslaved. In the new land, he did not want to lead the slaves. Because those who have lived in slavery, always bear the mark of slavery. We still need to go through several generations, even 25 years must pass. Because who govern us? In the 90s it was the former communists, then the former Komsomol in the 2000s, is now the former pioneers. On October need to survive. And then all will be well.

– Somehow I happened to hear accusations of dissidents address that, say, in the early 90’s insufficient pressured the Communists …

– Do not push Davy – nothing will happen. We had very little. Now up to 8 million volunteers, is not enough to turn Ukraine into a European state? What to say: more than 20 years ago we were 2-3 thousand political prisoners. How was it possible to get the 50,000,000th country, all communists, to be different? This can only be slow – not otherwise.

– And for you to spread the language and culture, so to speak, coercive methods?

– No, you only need to encourage. You need to have flexible mechanisms to encourage ownership of the Ukrainian language, the study of culture and history. You should have an advantage in borrowing positions those who own Ukrainian language. How else? No country can afford to take the officials of people who do not speak the state language. Only we have this is possible, and even in other post-Soviet countries except. And we see that they are still backward. The world is moving forward, and we graze the rear. Because we can not get rid of the post-colonial mentality.

– Now a large percentage of people who felt themselves to be Ukrainians, but also a large part of the thinking in old categories. In your opinion, what makes people in the Soviet era to think as Europeans? On the contrary, right now think in terms of a country that no longer exists?

– It is not in the country. The point of the Eurasian identity. Because it is the identity matrix was formed hundreds of years, it works at all, all the people living on this continent. And it defines the behavior of these people for the future. Metamorphosis is very slow, very slow changes. You say people feel European. They want to be Europeans. This reflective level of consciousness. Consciously they want, but they can be them? Do they want to be responsible? Freedom without responsibility – it’s nothing. Responsible work, cooperation, respect for the law. What is the difference Eurasia from Europe? Because in Europe there is respect for the law, and in Eurasia it is not. In Eurasia, not the law operates, and the person: the president, the governor, or first secretary. And we are hooked, because we live in a 300 years old Eurasian empire.

Partly we are Europeans, because the influence of the West European identity on us. We want to be Europeans, but still can not, because people think: if someone makes reforms for us. However, it should be this: not one but yourself. Fight against corruption – not somewhere, but in themselves. When you start with yourself, then you have this sense of responsibility. If you do not remake himself a little, then the children will be dissolved. No need to have the illusion that the very desire to live in Europe enough. You must be able to live as Europeans live. Modest, worthy, respect the law and work. Modestly – it including without transcendental material wealth.

– In all periods of development of Ukraine there were groups of people who are called moral authorities. But it seems they do not always hear …

– People must have the need to listen, first and foremost. If people have no need to listen to them – this is a problem people. Recently passed into eternity Eugene Sverstyuk. For me – the moral authority. But how many people knew him? I listen to it? How many people have corrected the life according to the principles of which he spoke? We all know how to live. But the country does not work … So, something is wrong …

Sourse, 27/08/2015

About the trial of Nadia Savchenko

Member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels sees several options for the end of the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko – it can award a short time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation, and if Savchenko will provide a long term, it will mean that Russia ready for isolation.

If the international observers will be present at the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, it will complicate the process for Russia, as the case is fabricated, said Iosif Zisels. He said this in a comment edition of “Gordon” .

“In principle, the government may announce in the end the decision is already past the court, and said, Behold, I’m sorry, did not work to attract public and observers This one option Of course, the Kremlin is not beneficial to the presence of observers at the trial because he falsified, in my subjective.. . According to observers, especially European ones, may complicate the court, which is not the case for Russia is very easy “, – said Zissels.

According to him, the results of the trial Savchenko show what development strategy chosen Russia – the international isolation or compromise with the West.

“What is all over, I just can not say, because it does not possess all the volume of information. In addition, Russia is a country full of uncertainty. It may be a relatively short period of time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation. On the other hand, Putin can show . that he was at all do not care, give Savchenko long time, and go to the final separation from all over the world as a result of the court will be clear what kind of tactics Russia chooses – complete isolation or still relatively compromise “, – said Zissels.

He did not think that at the time he was taken from the Moscow Savchenko in danger, despite the fact that the exact location is not known nor the lawyers nor relatives.

“I would not say that it was hidden, it is not entirely correct. We can say that in Russia there is a very old and important principle that when it formulated Stalin: There are people – there is a problem, no man – no problem. If authorities stated that they did not know where Savchenko worthwhile to worry about, but they do not yet speak, “- Zissels said.

Why and where Russia hid Savchenko?

A preliminary hearing on the case of Ukrainian pilots Hope Savchenko in the Donetsk Court of the Rostov region of the Russian Federation is scheduled for July 30th. July 17 Savchenko was was transferred from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don. July 22 protection Savchenko said he did not know where the aviator. Until July 27 the Russian authorities, by law, can not report her whereabouts. July 23 the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Ella Pamfilova has sent a formal request to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and the Federal Service of Execution of Punishments to the requirement to quickly provide information on the whereabouts of Savchenko. Before his transfer Ukrainka write a will, because it assumes that in Rostov it might have something happen.

Savchenko was captured by militants in June 2014 in Luhansk region, and then illegally exported to Russia. Thus, in the Russian jail, she is more than a year.

July 13, the General Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation approved the indictment against Savchenko and sent the case to the court. Pilot accused of the murder of two Russian citizens in the Luhansk region, as well as attempted murder. Ukrainka his guilt did not recognize.

Protection Savchenko asked that her trial was held in Moscow, instead of the Rostov region, and then looked at the jury, but the lawyers denied all petitions.

Sourse, 24/07/2015

It all starts with the exceptions of the rule

The Jews of Ukraine or Ukrainian Jews? Former dissident and co-president of the Vaad of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels – a civilizational choice and formation of a political nation.

– Joseph, a lot of talk lately about a new phenomenon – the birth of Ukrainian Jewry as a special form of identity of unknown a few years ago …

– All the Jewish communities of Europe passed a similar transformation. Including our closest neighbors, enough to read the article of the Polish-Jewish intellectual Konstanty Gebert, stresses that, despite all the vicissitudes of the general history of Polish Jews say about themselves: “We – the Poles.” According to him, democracy as a basic value, appreciate and Jews. “I’m not surprised that the Ukrainian Jews are mostly supported Ukrainian independence – says Gebert This phenomenon is repeated in Europe regularly Every time when some nations are independent, the Jews, as a rule, are on their way…”

In western Europe, the reform of Jewish identity began in the era of the Haskalah, when the Count of Clermont-Tonnerre in the Constituent Assembly proposed to equalize the rights of the Jews, because they are part of the French nation. He spoke of a nation in the European sense of the term – a political nation. It was then born the concept of the French law of Moses, the Germans of the Mosaic law, that is, Jewish identity takes on a new form – civil. Most European countries one way or another have come to such an understanding of the identity of the middle of the XIX century, the Russian Empire, that did not happen – it was moving along a path. I’m not talking about the lag phase, it’s just another path – within the framework of the Eurasian identity could not appear Russian and Ukrainian law of Moses.

– However, in Ukraine for centuries his name in the Eurasian paradigm, the process began …

– Yes, and it’s painfully long process – the formation of a political nation in the Western European sense. We all – originally from the Soviet Union, we all Soviet Jews, the main feature of which was the identification state anti-Semitism. We could not know Jewish history, tradition, language – to know nothing other than a couple of Jewish jokes, and, nevertheless, remain different. Precisely because of the state of anti-Semitism. How many of the nearly half million Ukrainian Jews were parishioners of one of the 14 active synagogues under the Soviets? Several hundred elderly. Therefore, Soviet Jews, and even “anti-Soviet Jews” like me, for example, come from the same “cradle”.

Then Ukraine became a sovereign state, and we started to get the Jews of Ukraine, while maintaining all the Soviet, but rather, Eurasian features – related to basic values, the role of government, religion, private property, etc. This civilizational values ​​that are absorbed with their mother’s milk, and do not change overnight, as the overnight Jews of Ukraine can not become Ukrainian Jews.

– Ukrainian National Democrats have long criticized the fact that in terms of cultural identity of Jews in Ukraine pro-Russian. While half of the country, including ethnic Ukrainians, belong to the same – the Russian-speaking – camp.

– It’s true, in another’s eye speck see, we do not notice the log in your … Jews living in Ukraine and are guided by the surrounding society.

– The more that the majority of the country’s Jews live exactly in the south-eastern regions.

– I would not connect to the civilizational choice place to stay – we are all Europeans and all the little little Eurasians – Ukrainians, Russian, and Jews. Just Russian Jews, who stood on the Maidan, made its civilizational choice in favor of Europe, but today many of these choices are at war. We go through the same path as that of the whole country – become Ukrainians in the political sense of the word – regardless of language, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. I stress that we are Ukrainian Jews, not because they are beginning to speak Ukrainian. I was in 1978 named in the party press “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist.” Apparently, even then I was a Ukrainian Jew, though he spoke in Ukrainian is much worse than it is now. Not in the language, and not in the religion business, and in civilizational choice. feature

And those of us who supported the Ukrainian choice not because of fashion or pragmatic reasons, but because (and this says Gebert) that prefer democracy – they are the Ukrainian Jews. Of course, the well known authoritarian leaders who sympathized with the Jews, such as Pilsudski. But when he died, Pilsudski, the Jews remembered how well they lived under Marshal – say, your grandfather died.

Yes, Jews have traditionally focused on power, we treat it loyally, sometimes entering into conflict with the aspirations of the people among whom we live. What to do – it is our history, our mentality. However, other Jews at all times defended democratic values ​​and participated in the national liberation movements, becoming part of one or another political nations.

– In our case, this process has become possible only after the Ukrainians themselves have changed their model for understanding the nation, rejecting ethnic nationalism, tailored on the patterns of the 1930s …

– It did not begin on the Maidan. I joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in 1978, become acquainted with a new generation of Ukrainian Nationalists, did not cave, otherwise I would not have joined them. Moses Fishbein poet in the 1980s worked in the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, as a Ukrainian nationalist …

– You’re talking about exceptions …

– It all starts with exceptions, and I was not the first. In the Polish uprising in 1794 involved not many Jews in the November Uprising 1830 there were more, and in 1863 – even more. When you can talk about the birth of Polish Jewry? Not in 1863, and at the end of the XVIII century. With Ukrainian Jews the same story. It’s a question of quality, not quantity. There are such people, and they are becoming more – Jews of Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa – this is not the Soviet Jews. Some of them are fighting in the Donbass, and they will go to the guerrilla groups, if will be in occupation.

It all starts with the exceptions in the 1970 Ukrainian Jews had very little, how little and Ukrainian national democrats, but the phenomenon has existed. Another thing is that the heroes of Ukraine, that is, the people who died for the independence of his people today, really, other. After Heavenly hundreds of pieces of Bandera and Shukhevych began to leave in the past.

Hundreds of children are dying today at the front – they are the new heroes of Ukraine and the new symbols of Ukrainian nationalism, although many of them do not even think that it is – Ukrainian nationalism.

– There are other forms of nationalism …

– And then there was all black, and now – not all white. And now there is an anti-Semite Levko Lukyanenko and 13 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, which we identify as the right-wing radicals, among them two men with neo-Nazi backgrounds – Aleksandr Mosiychuk and Dmitry Linko. I am convinced that the coalition does not include these characters, and I will fight for it as well as fighting for something that the leader of the Social-National Assembly Andrey Biletsky did not go to the deputies of the People’s Front list.

– Do not you think that this new identity is largely built on the denial, on confrontation with Russia. But aggression, sooner or later will end, and what remains?

– How to start identity? No one knows. But we know, for example, what happened in the 2012 elections, and why 10% voted for the radicals of the VO “Svoboda”. Not because they are right-wing radicals, it was a protest vote against Yanukovych. In any identity combined various factors – both “for” and “against.” I became the “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist” (with all the conventions of this definition) in 1978, because it was sympathetic to the National Democrats and the Communists did not like – it brought me to the dissident movement. Religious Zionists in Israel – against the creation of a Palestinian state and the expansion of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria – the series goes on.

Of course, in the absence of an external threat could start natural fragmentation of society, but it has never been united. In the meantime, the process of formation of the Ukrainian political nation and Ukrainian Jewry, as one of its components. The process itself testifies to the fact that Ukraine still Europeanized, Eurasian identity is arranged differently. The activity of the country is in Europe, the greater the Ukrainian Jews. And it’s not in the formal membership in the EU, it is important that the feeling of the people, their mentality, their identities were European – this is a very long process, but it has already started …

Interviewed by Maxim Sukhanov

Sourse, 18/05/2015

Ukrainians are not ripe for reconciliation

This year Ukraine celebrates the Day of Reconciliation for the first time and memory in honor of all the victims of the Second World War. Are Ukrainians really come to terms,  “Gordon” asked the chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosifa Ziselsa.

The idea of ​​reconciliation is popular at any time, but it can not be used in any situation to any two people, because in the conflict, which stretches since World War II, in fact, there are several dimensions.

Besides the Soviet-German, on the other hand – the French-English-German, even on our side had several dimensions: the Polish-German, Polish-Ukrainian, Ukrainian-German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian, even participated in the Carpathians in the battles with the UPA. There are a number of measurements, and most importantly – the Ukrainian-Soviet.

For example, I know of a case in 1962, when two Ukrainian women who were connected in the UPA, were shot in the bunker in the Ternopil region of the soldiers. In 1962, the year!

If we talk about today’s reconciliation, it is, on the one hand, civilization, because the Ukrainians decided that enough they have to live in the empire with the Eurasian civilization, and want to try the life of the European and then compared in 300 years, in which one It was better. On the other hand, this reconciliation is artificially caused by Russian aggression.

I do not think that we are ripe for reconciliation because the still very many forces did not satisfy his ambitions. If we talk about the dimensions that were during the Second World War, for them, of course, it has come, because we see a lot of progress on the line of Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation.

But it is not yet complete, as some Poles, for example, reacted nervously to the laws that have been adopted for the rehabilitation of UPA and other Ukrainian national organizations. This is a complex mishmash in which you need to understand. Find out about what exactly we are talking reconciliation. Young did not have these conflicts.

In Spain, where the civil war was prolonged, the family is still remembered, who had fought on which side. And this is not some kind of soft and hard memories. This is despite the fact that Franco (Spanish dictator Francisco Franco) has long put a monument to reconciliation for victims of the war on both sides.

In the southern states of the USA, despite the fact that since the civil war took place 150 years, also kept ancestral memory as to who fought for the North, and who – for the south. Although they live like the well, and the states do not fight each other, except that there is some confrontation during the election – more than one vote for Republicans, others – for the Democrats.

The issue of reconciliation is not so simple. Perhaps reconciliation at the level of Heads of State. Yushchenko (the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko), for example, has done a lot for this. But at the level of ordinary people a reconciliation does not take place so quickly.

In sociology, we see that in the last year the attitude of Ukrainians to the Poles has improved significantly, because millions of Ukrainians saw that the Poles actually help Ukraine in this complicated conflict. And as the Russian government not only did not help – she was the aggressor.

Veterans reluctance to shake hands says that a new conflict was superimposed on the old and on the contrary, it has strengthened rather than weakened.

Two of civilization people can live in peace, and they are in general, they lived more or less peacefully, despite the tension between the state structures, as long as there was no interference in each other’s identity. As soon as the intervention in the identity of other people, there is a huge energy instantly resistance.

Yet another dimension – the dimension of the Maidan – was for me as a reaction to a very significant part of Ukrainian society to try Yanukovych (fugitive ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych) and all his clique to bring us back to a state of the Eurasian identity, which we already do not want to be at as most of us.

This applies to the Donbas. This region has a different identity, and perhaps he did not want to live in a European way. If we are forced to compel him to do so, we get back the same great resistance power.

Decentralization is relevant if load it humanitarian, economic, financial and other aspects. Groisman (Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman) said several times that it is necessary to take into account the humanitarian aspect in decentralization. Historically. If we do not consider this aspect, it means that we do not spend real decentralization, it would be somewhat artificial.

Donbass within Ukraine should develop as he understands it in his own way. And the overall rate of the State of Ukraine, if it still exists, together with the Crimea and Donbas on the road to Europe must be sufficiently slow so as not to lose the regions that do not want to move in this direction. We need to talk, to explain, to try to continue to implement the values ​​that have more in Ukrainian society.

Sourse, 08/05/2015

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia

Iosif Zisels, human rights activist and head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Vaad, recalls with a smile, as in Soviet times it was called both a Zionist and a Ukrainian nationalist. Now, 40 years later, it again can be called zhidobanderovtsem, and the term has acquired a new meaning and a positive connotation.

In the Soviet Union he was a dissident, trying to defend the rights of Jews, and then joined the Ukrainian Helsinki human rights group. In 1978, on charges of defamation and anti-state activities Zissels received six years in a penal colony. Nine months before the liberation he was offered amnesty in exchange for a renunciation of political principles, but he refused.

Now, Soviet dissident and political prisoner, became one of the most influential Jews of Ukraine – he heads the largest Jewish organization, which is able at any time to lend a helping hand to every Jew of the country, engaged in the revival and strengthening of Jewish communities, their culture and religion, as well as helping wishing to exit in Israel.

Zissels well – known people abroad, where he is a member of the European and the World Jewish Congress, took over the functions of the public lobbyist Ukraine’s national interests. In his own words Zisels, he lives according to the covenant of the Jewish patriarch Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? “

“New time” meets Zissels in the office of the Association of Jewish Organizations, which is located in one of the academic buildings of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. It is a small unit into several rooms, on the door of which hung an advertisement for the recruitment of students to the specialization of Judaica. Zissels cordially invites you into his office and, distracted for a few minutes to say hello to each of his employees, invited to interview.

Ukrainians are very sensible nation, and therefore changes have been slow. Maidan two months stood and demanded concessions from the government. When I talk about that in France, there wondering how, two months? We would all smashed in two weeks!

Just Ukrainians other political temperament. We are moving at their own pace, which is slower than that of Poland or the Baltic countries. It must be taken as fact. Another problem is that our identity is dual, and expectations are always high, so some of us and sways from side to side. We believe that, if there was a revolution and change of power, all at once will change, but it is not.

Ukraine will of fate was between a European democracy and Eurasian authoritarian culture. And it is important to understand that if 20% of the population do not want to in Europe, this must somehow be considered. This is not a whim, just for them, Europe stranger. And we are encroaching on their identity, though hardly have that right.

Recall, Viktor Yanukovych wanted to encroach on our right to be Europeans – and the Maidan happened. The same thing is happening now. When threatened identity, even among people who are accustomed to submission, there is a huge energy resistance. We need to negotiate rather than fight.

Today in the country there is a desire to fight corruption, but it’s part of our culture. Corruption – is a part of Ukrainian identity. The law is not absolute for us, and its violation – not a sin, as in the West. And this shows our Eastern culture – there is not a law adopted in order to execute it, and that they enjoyed the strongest.

We used to live like this, we have formed a lot of secret agreements between government and society. For example, that the severity of the law is compensated by its failure. At low levels of wages authorities turned a blind eye to the fact that we steal, and the people turned a blind eye to the fact that steals power. In space, where there is no law with a capital letter, a person perceives any obstacle as a challenge, to solve the problem – that such obstacles put me, but I still find it, how to get around them.

So, to say, well, let’s fight against corruption, which many of us continue to steal – is meaningless. It is necessary to recognize the existence of tacit agreements and revise them. The struggle of society against corruption must be a struggle with ourselves.

Right now Ukrainian Jews began to realize themselves as Jews in Ukraine. In Europe, it happened in the late XIX century. In France, that’s when the Jews received equal rights with the French and called themselves the French law of Moses. We have this process takes place only now.

The Jews of Ukraine took a very active part in the Maidan. Were actively, perhaps, only the Crimean Tatars. And the Ukrainians have rated it – according to the latest sociological research, for the year related to the Jews and Crimean Tatars in the country has improved significantly.

We do not believe, how many Jews were on the Maidan, but we know that many of them then went to the front. The most paradoxical – some of them fought in the battalion of Azov, near the radical nationalists. In addition, in the east of the country and fight guys with Israeli passports. It is the volunteers who teach our soldiers. Israel has almost 100 years of war, and experience – most importantly, that he can pass Ukraine.

Israel does not help Ukraine officially because so fixated on their own security. In 2008, during the war in Georgia, Israel helped equip the Georgian air defense system. Then Georgia was hit by three Russian aircraft, and Israel received a warning from Russia that if he will continue to help Georgia, Iran gets a nuclear bomb, and Syria will face Russia’s S-300 missiles.

But while Israel – a democratic country, and the pressure of society can not be ignored. Most of the Israelis – people with democratic values, and they sympathize with Ukraine.

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia – will be less frustrating. Now, in many EU countries pre-election period. To support Ukraine, impose additional sanctions on Russia for them is to reduce the level of welfare of their countries and to expose their chances of winning at serious risk. Can help unless indirect pressure on Europe from the United States and Canada.

This is very similar to what happened in the 1930s. Germany regularly paid for oil and metals, and all wanted her to trade. Nobody wanted to see it as a monster, preferring to think that Germany will not fight with them, and with their competitors. After eight years of these errors have to pay a huge price.

We are no longer a peaceful country, and it will not be long. We need to get used to fight with minimal losses, rely on their own forces to protect their people, to rebuild the economy on a war footing, and not bury our heads in the sand. In Russia, too, there is no other option but to fight with Ukraine. They understand that with this government and with this partnership agreement is impossible.

Something we can count only when the disintegration processes in Russia will be intense. However, nobody in the world is not interested in this. What does it mean crumbling Russia? Huge fragments of the country armed with nuclear weapons. Putin, in spite of our curses, still controls the country. If only we have not climbed, prices would not be him. But he can not climb, the logic of empire – its meaning in the expansion.

I do not believe in the possibility of democratization of Russia. I spent two years in the Ural camps, lived in Moscow for more than a year. Russia within its present borders will never be a European country. There is no critical mass of people who can change the destiny of Russia. Moreover, not all countries should be European. The world rests on the balance sheet. And who will be the European world to balance China? Any democratization of Russia will lead to its disintegration, and this terrible future, with unpredictable consequences.

5 questions Iosifu Ziselsu:

– What event of your life you feel in charge?

– Of course, my participation in the dissident movement. I think all the most important thing happened then.

– What is your favorite city?

– I do not have a favorite book or a favorite city. I love Chernivtsi, where I spent my childhood, Kiev, in which I live. I like to be in Jerusalem and Barcelona.

– What move around the city?

– I have a Subaru Outback. This reliable, sturdy machine. Not very comfortable, but I like it.

– What is your monthly cost of living?

– I get a pension. More than ordinary people, but not enough to live a normal life. It is also engaged in consulting, working in a private firm. My problem is not how to provide for themselves, but rather where to find the money for our activities. Well, I have four kids that even adults, but they still need help. Perhaps today I spend at least $ 1 thousand. Per month.

– What do you seek?

– As anyone – to self-realization, once satisfied all other requirements. And I think I am quite good to deal with it.

Sourse, 02/05/2015

I do not think that without the consent of the inhabitants the city will be renamed

Without the consent of the inhabitants of the city should not be renamed, he said in a comment  “GORDON”  chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

“I’m not sure that without the decision of the local community, you can rename the city. But you’ve seen over the last 23 years, at least one law, which is performed in its entirety, just as it was written? We live in a space where the laws are not in order to fulfill them. laws of the people do not obey the laws of the people do not respect the laws of the people do not follow. They use the laws to achieve some of their goals. I do not think there will be a city renamed without the consent of residents. This should be without hysterics, and in a peaceful discussion. I do not think that without a Announce the masses it can be done then we will get additional negative effects, which have enough “, -. Zissels said.

There is a clash of two civilizations, so think about what the consequences will ban communist symbols more correctly, he said.

“There’s a novel in which the hero is a young man seeking a countess, she was refused, he turns the whole world, conquering all of Europe, and when the Countess is ready him to give up, it turns out that it is – an elderly woman and he no longer needed so. . and with that we now live in a turbulent time, we have a war on, and not just between the separatists and the Ukrainians, but a war between two civilizations -. European and Eurasian It’s so powerful collision, what to think, what consequences will result in a ban of symbols, I it seems to be incorrect. I do not think th that it will lead to some serious consequences to the positive or to the negative “- Zissels said.

However, in his opinion, for many people, the victims of the regime, this decision will be important.

“I have not yet comprehended once the consequences of yesterday’s solutions. I dreamed about it many years ago, because he was a dissident and was imprisoned in Soviet times for political activities, but it’s been more than 20 years. Although many people for whom life was a struggle with the communist system, it is very important that finally at least the end of life to get satisfaction from the fact that these misanthropic ideology abolished and banned, “- said the expert.

The honey, he said, the current law many inaccuracies that should be corrected.

“East is bad knows what the UPA, and the West does not speak what the UPA. It was a long time ago. So many myths of positive and negative during the Soviet period was unwound. The very acronym UPA with a hyphen, which created the Soviet ideology, did not exist in nature . The law had a lot of confusion -. terminological, factual, grammatical Before this law was passed, I was just going to make corrections I have quite an old man, to know how to be called in reality there are mixed up the names of organizations…History is no such organization “OUN” Yes “OUN” one, is “OUN” Second, there is a “OUN” third -. There are three “OUN” – Zissels said.

“Live – see very little consequence were other laws, I think, will also be with these Someone uses them for next separatist sentiments, someone on the contrary uses the dominance of pro-European sentiment in the end still everything goes and vanishes… “- he concluded.

Recall, April 9, the Verkhovna Rada  adopted  a law recognizing the communist regime 1917-1991 criminally and banning communist symbols.

The adopted law about the condemnation of the communist regime  contained  rule to rename the settlements, which are named in honor of the communist-era figures.

Sourse, 10/04/2015

Today, it is a conflict between civilization and the negation of civilization

What is happening today – a revision of the entire set of rules established in the world after the Second World War.

Iosif Zisels, chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups, – performance at the channel marathon  UKRLIFE.TV  on “The international implications of the terrorist attacks in France”:

There are two important systemic factor that differentiates Western Europe from the East and, in particular, from the Ukraine.

The first factor – is the presence of entities associated with the radical Islamic movement, they are in Western Europe, they do not exist in Eastern Europe. Perhaps, as we move to Europe they will, but for now it is not.

The second factor – the movement, fashionable in the left intelligentsia, in which human rights, in particular, the protection of the rights of Palestinians leads to anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment.

Sourse, 12/01/2015

The level of anti-Semitism in Ukraine is not increased

Do you see now Ukraine growth of anti-Semitism and xenophobia – to this and other questions in an interview with DW said the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Iosif Zisels.

Iosif Zisels – Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups. In an interview with DW Zissels she told whether there is in Ukraine, the rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and also responded to a number of other issues.

DW: In Russia, many say that with the advent of the current Ukrainian politicians in the country have intensified anti-Semitic sentiments. Is it so?

Iosif Zisels: I was one of the leaders of the Jewish community can assure that there is no – not only sharp, but generally no increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Ukraine. We are very carefully and attentively fix every incident, every speech, every case of an attack, and every act of vandalism. And this level – as last year. Despite the tumultuous events that took place on the Maidan in Kiev, on the military operations in the south-east of Ukraine, the level of anti-Semitism in the country increases. It was and remains one of the lowest in Eastern Europe.

– And what is the level of anti-Semitism in Russia?

– As regards the level of anti-Semitism in Russia – it is too short. Just as in Ukraine, he measured a dozen or two dozen cases per year. But Russia – authoritarian country with underdeveloped democratic institutions. And in this authoritarian model of existence can be played “Jewish card”. In Ukraine, too, is to be feared that the state wants to use it, but fortunately, there is control belongs to the civil society.

– What can you say about the allegations in the city address that the current government allegedly tolerate manifestations of neo-Nazism?

– First of all, it is a question of terminology. I think really understand what Nazism, only to narrow specialists. They are our experts, with whom we have worked for many years. In Ukraine, as in any other country, there are right-wing movements, some of which resemble the neo-Nazi. But they are in Europe. Right-wing parties have almost all European countries, and they are much more dangerous than what we see today in Ukraine.

So, the party “Freedom” is not passed to the new Ukrainian parliament, which was in the previous Parliament when Yanukovych was there 37 mandates. This demonstrates the falling level of interest in the radical demagogy of this order. Lyashko passed Radical Party, which is very different: it is less than the national radical demagogy, but more general radical demagoguery. In majority districts it took a few people who can be considered right-wing radicals with aspects of neo-Nazism. Very few of them: 423 MP – about 10. That is less than it was in the last Parliament, where there were 37.

But I think that the concerns of the Parliament, there was a general shift of the entire spectrum a little to the right. Because such a national-democratic parties as Block Petro Poroshenko, “Popular Front” and “self-help” – are themselves center-right. That is, the parliament’s center of gravity has shifted slightly to the right, and is a tribute to wartime. Requirements radicals is not particularly noticeable.

– The fact that the Parliament did not pass the “Freedom” and “Right Sector”, can be considered a success of Ukrainian democracy?

– In fact, these parties were radical demagogic. Moreover, these were the projects financed and designed to split the opposition with Yanukovych’s government. That is, in part, they were man-made projects. They can not be considered as such natural, organic manifestations of the right of the spectrum, as can be seen in many countries.

In Ukraine, the main control of the right-wing radicals has not the government, as is the case in Russia, and civil society. It itself copes with this low level of pravoradikalizma in the country, making it much better than the state. And it is – a guarantee that this rate will not be great.

– Earlier you said that “right-wing and neo-Nazi forces” involved in the conflict in the Donbass, from both sides? You can name specific examples?

– On the Russian side, according to our experts, fights about 200 neo-Nazis. Among them are, first of all, “Russian National Unity”. This is a known neo-Nazi organization in Russia, which has its own recruitment offices, training camps for militants and separate connections on the front. Others – such as, for example, the former party Limonov, is “dyed” in other colors. It is important to note also that the present or volunteers or mercenaries from European right-wing neo-Nazi parties. They, too, are fighting on the Russian side.

On the Ukrainian side, too, there is a man 30-40 – skinheads from the right-wing group “Social-National Assembly”, “Patriots of Ukraine”, for which we are following closely. In this regard, first of all, we may note the battalion “Azov”, where there may be even a few dozen people from the “Social-National Assembly.” Andrey Beletsky – the commander of the battalion (now it is a regiment) – the head of “Social-National Assembly.” However, he argues that the war changed their ideology.

– From what sources do you get information?

– We have a number of experts of the European level. We use their data, and trust them, as for many years working with them. Moreover, our data are taken from the report of the State Department’s anti-Semitism in the world and the OSCE report on the monitoring and analysis of anti-Semitism in the world. I myself 25 years engaged in the construction of networks for monitoring and analysis of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

Sourse, 06/11/2014

Israeli President raised on Russian historiography

The head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, a well-known human rights activist and Soviet dissident, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels in an interview with “Gromadska radio” stated that he could not agree with the speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. He accused the Ukrainians in the complicity in the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Second World War, informs eizvestia.com .

“He’s an old man. He bears the stereotypes of the past, historiography, which today is not considered objective. He was brought up in the Russian historiography. Israel, at least the older generation still lives under its influence. It does not reflect the opinion of the young. After all, the young religious Israelis have stood on the Maidan. These views he expressed today – it’s yesterday, “- said Zissels.

He recalled the visit to Israel of the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko in 2007.

“The delegation came to Yad Vashem and asked to show documents that indicate the involvement of Roman Shukhevych (OUN leader during World War II) to such crimes. But no one was able to show. This stereotype does not provide evidence, if everyone knows it. No, not everyone knows that. For example, I do not trust that it is not necessary to confirm the archival authentic documents “- Zissels said.

He noted that the OUN and UPA fighters fought for Ukraine, and they can not wear the stereotypical labels.

September 27 during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada parliamentary hearings devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that the Ukrainians have been involved in the repression against the Jews during the Second World War. “Many of the accomplices of crimes were Ukrainians. And among them highlights the OUN, which mocked Jews, killed them, and in many cases, were given to the Germans. It is also true that there were more than 2.5 thousand Righteous among the Nations “-. Said Rivlin.

Commenting on the Israeli president’s speech, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Vladimir Vyatrovich said Rivlin repeated Soviet myth of the OUN involvement in the Holocaust. The head of the OUN Bogdan Chervak ​​Rivlin called the statement “a spit in the soul of the Ukrainians” and urged him not to watch Russian television, as it is “not just bad, but also indecent.”

During World War II, occupied Kiev Nazi troops used the tract Babi Yar, in the northwestern part of the city as a place of mass executions of civilians, most of whom were Jews. September 29, 1941 the entire Jewish population was obliged to come to the Babi Yar, where until September 30, was shot more than 33 thousand. Man on the orders of the occupation administration. According to various estimates, at Babi Yar were killed by 70 thousand. Up to 200 thousand. Man.

Sourse, 29/09/2016

The system rotted from within and dognila before disbanding

Soviet-era dissident Yosif Zisels told why refused amnesty in the Gorbachev era, what regrets today about whether modern Ukraine may repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime

Yosif Zisels – human rights activist, dissident, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. In 1978 he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He spent six years in prisons on charges of “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Every dissident own destiny. For example, a man wrote a poem. As my friend, the Ukrainian dissident, a former teacher in the Ternopil region kultprosvetuchilische Mikola Grobal, wrote a poem called “Dumi moї, Dumi”. For this was sent to prison. For the poem. Simply laid out thoughts on paper. Or Semyon Gluzman, which persecuted for their professional activities. He made the correspondence psychiatric examination for General Pyotr Grigorenko and mathematician Leonid Plyushch and promulgated it.

The dissent came for different reasons: national, democratic, moral, emotional. The reasons were not so important to us. Most importantly, we together fought criminal imperial communist system.

I actually grew up without parents. So I have virtually no such an important element of the psyche as a “social instinct of self-preservation,” usually brings up children in a normal Jewish family. Simply no one to create it. I started very early to read samizdat. I think it is no coincidence. The fact that we were surrounded by then, and what we have been taught do not match. Not everyone is dissonance when life does not match with the pictures, which are described in textbooks. Some quietly absorbed in itself is doublethink, I called it “social schizophrenia.” Some do it quietly. Some resisted.

The Soviet government constantly demanded confirmation of loyalty. A variety of ways. Those who have studied, passed the party’s history, scientific communism. Was political information was the Komsomol, and other institutions, which are constantly monitored by the people through an extensive network. Not only controlled the KGB people were the party, trade union, Komsomol and Pioneer organizations. And I went multilevel selection. Revealed disgruntled, obstinate. Once a person has manifested itself, it was a signal that we should look at it.

I went to the dissidence almost deliberately. I drew it. I wanted to know the truth about life, about history, about relationships. And find the right answers in samizdat, as permitted by the literature is almost impossible to find the truth. It was important that others know the truth. Not immediately, at first reading itself, and then you want to share with others. Then you become it a little.

An important stimulus was originally a private confrontation lies and violence. You try to realize his need for truth is not simply to distribute this literature. Then there is the need to sign any appeals, appeals to protest against human rights violations. I’m talking about the way. Some stop at reading the literature, some – at that distribute other books, some do not sign the appeal and appeal, and others pass this hurdle and continue to develop. Then there was a real help to political prisoners, in which I was involved.

The apogee of my dissident activity can be considered as 1978 , when I was actively engaged in case of using the power of Soviet psychiatry to persecute dissidents and investigated more than 80 such stories, in the summer became a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and in December he was arrested for the first time.

I do not consider myself a victim. I tried to do something as far as possible. I tried something to counter the Soviet regime and its powerful repressive apparatus. Authorities responded to me quite “adequately”. I knew I was not alone in this, but the dissidents are not many, only a few thousand to two hundred millionth Soviet people. Nevertheless, it was more personal fulfillment, not an illusory calculation somehow undermine Soviet power. It was clear that our efforts it was impossible to destroy. She was rotting from the inside and dognila before disbanding.

The fact that the dissidents were known all over the world, destroyed the Soviet myth. 220 million people live happily, moving towards communism, nothing else is willing, but there are several thousand people who by the very fact of its existence, argue that a false myth. Here I was among those people. It was my way. I chose him and he went through it. And, fortunately, I did not meet with an obstacle that would have made me turn back.

I was already an inveterate “recidivist”, when I was offered an amnesty, it was in January 1987, went a second three-year term of my imprisonment, I had to sit 9 months. As for all the forced dialogue with the authorities, with the KGB, with investigators from the prosecutors, I did not sign any paper, any evidence not given, I do not want to change his principles when I needed to sit 9 months. I calmly refused the amnesty. She was so very communist. We had to sign a document that You shall not engage in political activity. Some signed, and then continued to work.

I did not believe that engaging in political activities. It was a formality, but I took it very seriously. If I sign it, then break its principle “not to cooperate with the authorities.” I was not sorry, and now do not regret it.

I’m sorry about the other. Going your own way, you are doomed to suffering families. With time comes the understanding that your free choice causes suffering of others: family, friends. KGB worked very well. They covered not only the one who resists, but all its surroundings, creating an inconvenience to them in life, to put it mildly. This was done to set up against the man his environment. I lost a few people who thought their comrades in these years. Some stayed, we’ve been friends for 50 years. They passed the test with me.

In total I spent in prisons and zones 6 years and the year at home under the administrative supervision of the refusal to accept the “Gorbachev amnesty.” Both times I was accused under Article 187 (approx.) Of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, in the “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Any authoritarian regime, the more totalitarian, based on the fact that there is an external enemy, there is internal, and it is necessary to deal with them. And for people to explain who the external enemy – the imperialists, capitalists, the NATO military. And the internal – dissidents “fifth column”, which does not want to go to the general structure of communism. It was a massive propaganda against such people. We tried to turn public opinion against these people. Isolate, to make their lives uncomfortable, unbearable. Even when you see that article in the newspaper against you false from beginning to end, it is embarrassing to you, the residue remains. And there are articles about the dissidents, whom the authorities deemed “outcasts” were enough.

I lived in the city of Chernivtsi and did not face persecution for the use of the Ukrainian language. For too active promotion – possible. It is already considered nationalism. And only the KGB decided what distinguishes patriotism from nationalism. On the other hand, I grew up in a Jewish environment, and only a student came to understand many issues, including national.

Can modern Ukraine to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime? Ukrainians are already very difficult to build as they were built in the Soviet era. Once upon a time this would have killed millions, and intimidate others and build. Most of destroying a part buy, this was done in the 20s, 30s. Soviet authorities or killed or drove out, or bought. So to build “our elites.” Therefore there is nothing surprising that she is today. I think that the repetition of history is impossible. It is impossible to kill 5.7 million people, to build a line of others. But the fact of the formal independence of the country does not guarantee the economic prosperity of the people and democratic development, respect for the law, eradication of corruption and the development of a new system of values. As mathematicians say, a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Recorded Jan Goncharenko

See. Also Special Project “Dissidents” edition Fokus.ua and STB for the Suppression of dissidents in the USSR

Source: focus.ua , 25.08.2016

Sourse, 25/08/2016

Yanukovych must be condemned, but corruption is a derivative of general disrespect for the law

stigmatization campaign corruption, declared an international human rights organization Transparency International, is to focus on the figure of the Ukrainian society fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych that will distract from the system solution to the problem, said a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

Viktor Yanukovych was not born corrupt, and become so because of the mentality of Ukrainian society, says Iosif Zisels.

Yanukovych headed the world ranking corrupt officials on the results of voting on the website of the international human rights organization Transparency International, which announced that begins stigmatization campaign against corruption, taking the first nine places.

“I would not want to exaggerate the importance of this campaign. While any steps to eliminate in the Ukrainian society of corruption are good, and the worst of them will not. But I’m inclined to think that we need a systematic approach. Yanukovych is not born corrupt, it is a question of education, which is determined by All the circumstances of life in the Eurasian society is corruption -. it is part of our mentality and culture we are born, live and die in corruption. “- Zissels said.

“Condemn Yanukovych necessary, he was president of the country, but to focus on his figure could divert attention from the systemic problem In fact, corruption is dissolved in all, and the problem can not be solved without the long-term by re-society programs, building on the Western partners.” – he added he.

Zissels stressed that “over the last year in this regard has been made longer than in the previous 25 years.”

“Transparency International does a lot, forcing public institutions to deal with corruption, I know this organization, I support her contacts, her activity is doubtless useful, but how it can be assumed that it decides for 45,000,000th country of its problems..?” – said human rights activist .

According to him, “corruption – is a derivative of general disrespect for the law in general, including to the tax.”

“Who pays taxes in Ukraine Corruption – this including the theft of the budget, but we do not fill it I am sure that the majority of Ukrainians do not pay all the taxes that they are put there are plenty of other laws, which we treat as.. . well as to tax is the question of respect for the law if it appears, will result in the condemnation of anti-corruption Yanukovych -.. a good measure, but it does not give a general respect for the law “- he said.

The human rights activist believes that “in the fight against corruption the first place should take no condemnation, no anti-corruption bureau or anti-corruption prosecutor, namely re-society in the spirit of European values”.

“With our values ​​we will not become either economically developed, nor a truly democratic country, to tackle corruption. Only the union of all the forces of civil society and reform forces in the government, if they are there, in the long term can give some result for the whole Ukraine, if not for us, our children, or even grandchildren, “- he concluded.

Yanukovych was the President of Ukraine with the February 25, 2010. February 22, 2014, after three months of protests on the Maidan Verkhovna Rada recognized it withdrew from the post and do not fulfill their obligations, then new presidential elections were announced. In February last year, Yanukovych left Ukraine, is now with his family, he lives in Russia.

In Ukraine against Yanukovych opened several criminal proceedings. He is accused of the mass murder of citizens, misappropriation of state property, the seizure of power by unconstitutional means, actions aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order. Concerning it applies conviction in absentia procedure .

Yanukovych’s name was included in the investigation of the Interpol database, but at the end of July 2015 wanted to suspend consideration of the complaint of lawyers who insist on the political background of the case against the former president.

Sourse, 11/02/2016

Without the knowledge of history you like cod on the waves – swim, where will the current flow

With this well-known journalist Natalia Feshchuk man talking in his second home Chernivtsi – Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, co-founder of which he is. The conversation took place before he got into the list of moral authority among the Ukrainians, compiled a few days ago one of the Ukrainian media . By the way, an interview with Iosifom Samuilovichem Ziselsom just ended his reflections on what moral authority are always there in the community, if only listen to them …

Joseph Zisels many posts and distinctions, among them – the head of the Association of Jewish organizations and communities of Ukraine, executive vice-president of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. And in a nutshell: Ukrainian dissident Jewish descent, twice convicted for anti-Soviet activities. He never worked in government, says the most comfortable feeling when engaged in public affairs.

As in the Union, and now he has his own strong opinions on what principles should build a true nation and a strong country. And yet convinced that a free man – a responsible person.

Zissels has been living in Kiev. But here, in the heart of Chernivtsi, it remains a piece of his heart, because it is here, on the street Schiller once lived with his parents.

“I have a very warm attitude to the history and the people who are no longer”

– Mr. Joseph, when you decided to found the Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, it was a sense of duty to those Jews who had once been so much in Chernivtsi?

– My parents – not local Jews and Bessarabia. They arrived in Chernivtsi after the Second World War. In Chernivtsi I am, unfortunately, not born. But I have lived here and interacted with the people remaining from before the war. And it was German-speaking Jews, there were already a little while, in the 50-60s, – two or three hundred, maybe left from the huge community, which before the war amounted to almost 80 thousand people. In the city of 120 thousand people two-thirds – it was the Jewish population. And I was struck by the story of this community, which flourished at the end of the XVIII century, when the Austrian authorities to allow Jews to settle here. But almost half of the Jews was destroyed during the Holocaust, and the other half remained in the city, but has not been able to live under the Soviet regime. In 1940, the Jews were some illusions, many of them were left sentiment, but European, and they waited for the Red Army, because on the other hand – Hitler. And they were deported to Siberia, one third of them in 1941, 12 thousand Bukovinians – Jews. Those who have stayed here, came under Romanian occupation, who was shot, who died in concentration camps. Who stayed with the time left for Israel. Live in Chernivtsi remaining units …

And I wanted to recreate the story. I thought, this is our duty. Because once the Jewish community in the city was very strong. And those who came here after the war, there were already other people – Bessarabian East Ukrainian Jews were very Soviet. I want to say that everything was up to the First World War is well. And when it came, Romania, the Jewish community has undergone a lot of suffering. This, of course, does not compare with the Holocaust. But Romania was a strong anti-Semitism. Second, the Jews of Romania considers patriots Austria-Hungary and taking revenge for that. We have archival documents showing that the Bukovina Ukrainians and Poles in 1918 protested against the annexation of this region Romania. And among the Jews of Bukovina was a protest. And then the Romanians because it does not give citizenship to many Jews. But still it was not, as in the Soviet Union. 1940 showed who is who. And those who lamented that’s how bad it was when Romania saw what could be worse than under Soviet rule. Some of the Jews, unfortunately, did not have time to leave. We traveled already in 60-70 years, when there was again a possibility. I know these families, helping them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them.

– You always emphasized that you – Ukrainian Jew. Now in Ukraine, many of our citizens such as the re-born, they want to know more about their country and its history. Some, on the contrary, is still passive. But to be a true citizen of the country, it seems to be inside? As it has been in your family?

– In me many laid. Because in a city like Chernivtsi laid a lot – here is the crossroads of history, culture and languages. This tolerant spirit of Chernivtsi. What is the difference Bukovina Jews of Galician, for example? One of the features – tolerance of the province, it has passed and the Jews too. There was a lot of tolerance and among Jews, too: between the orthodox and reformist currents in Judaism. In other cities they are irreconcilable, here they are communicated. For example, the chief rabbi of Chernivtsi was the Reform rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court was Orthodox rabbi.

At home, I received a Soviet-Jewish upbringing, not a purely Jewish. But I never hid their Jewish identity. I’ve always known who I am. At the same time, it is Ukraine, and I felt a Ukrainian part too. When I was at university, he attended lectures in Ukrainian. My Ukrainian language more with the university, the house spoke Russian. Yiddish was too, but in my family it was less. Today, I understand that if the Ukrainian laid into you since childhood, and then it starts to work. We in the Union of Soviet Jews were in we had very little Jewish. We knew about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and all. Few knew their language, history, literature. And only at the end of the 80s we started to restore the Jewish life, and began to become Ukrainian Jews who consider Ukraine as their motherland.

“Without faith and stories you like cod on the waves – swim, which carries”

– You were convicted of anti-Soviet propaganda. And what was the essence of your “propaganda”?

– I’ve been doing many things that could not do then. In Chernivtsi distributed samizdat. Helping political prisoners and their families. Gathering information on human rights violations and passed it. Joining the Ukrainian Helsinki group. There were people who helped – Ukrainian, Russian, not only Jews. It was a more or less intelligent circle. But in prison then, in 1978, was just me. Sentenced to three years. In the 84 th year – three more. At six.

– But the same could give and more …

– Could … But you do what you have to do. I considered it my duty to you need to do something against that power. As part of our small capacity.

– Who are the Ukrainian dissidents influenced you?

– How did I know about Ukrainian history, the Holodomor? Of Ukrainian dissidents. I talked with a lot of Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mihailom Gorinem. I traveled a lot for Ukraine, provedyvat those freed. I was looking for traces of what was called the investigation of psychiatric persecution, looking for people who have suffered in this way. I communicated with Ivan Svetlichny, Zinoviem Krasovskim, Panas Zalivahi – famous artist of Frankivsk. From each of them gets something pro-Ukrainian. The fact that I became a Ukrainian Jew, credit Ukrainian dissidents.

– You once said that you can not achieve human rights, if not to talk about religion and ethnicity …

– There is an opinion with which I am, so to speak, discuss. It is often said that it is possible to raise human universal values. And religion and ethnic culture is not required. I do not agree with this. Because when talking about millions of people, we can not achieve universal values, if not pass, so to speak, religion and ethnic culture. The only way to achieve this and tolerance. But the current reality is hard to implement. Because many non-religious people, they think that it is not very necessary. Although religion is gradually won over the place in our lives in comparison with the Union, but its weight in society still is not great.

I remember in the 70-80-ies of the last century, we spoke to Chornovil and Gorin that first need to be done, when finally this power will be overthrown or she falls. By the way, we did not expect it would be so fast. First of all, this is the resumption of the role of religion. Because religion – it is a very powerful educational factor in the society, which provides a set of essential values. It does not matter, Jews or Christians that. Because the value of the universal. And if it is not brought in millions of people, it is very hard to build a normal society.

Similarly, the story. Still have the illusion that you can live without it. But survive unless … but I know exactly what is in a person who has the confidence and the religious, and ethnic back to childhood, there is already such a rod, and then the whole life revolves around it. When a person enters the test in trouble, it has support within himself. Otherwise, you’re like cod on the waves: where to throw, you go there and swim. You have nothing to oppose to that external force or element. You can not change a lot in life, but you can not miss in your life and lie, going outside, and violence. To do this, you need this spiritual core – the ethnic and religious.

– Look at the dissident social events is not like other people?

– You know, dissent – it is such a feature of your character. See, we’re dreaming of a time when Ukraine is an independent and non-Communist. It came. But it turned out that this is not enough. We need to work to make a decent human life. And it needs a lot of work. Because those who had hoped that independence would give Ukraine at once, and all – were wrong. That was only the zero level. It was necessary to build many more. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time. And every maidan that occurs, adjust the path to the future of Ukraine.

– But if the government does something wrong, then it turns out that people need to think about, because the power – it is a reflection of people … Or not?

– On the one hand – yes. But as the power – it is the same people, they have dominated their own, private, over the general. There are some studies that show that as long as society is dominated by values ​​of survival, until can not begin the path of modernization of society. All go in different directions, each competing with each to survive and provide for his family. There must be something in common between people. For example, now in volunteering involve up to 8 million people in Ukraine. This is 15 percent of the population of our country. These are new people who can be the future of Ukraine. A majority of just waiting and survives. Waiting for what will happen and what they will need to adapt to new circumstances. And the volunteers and soldiers sacrifice their lives. Because common cause always requires sacrifice – in the broadest sense of the word.

– And people want at least some of the victims of politicians …

– You know, if we wait for the victims of politicians, it will get nowhere. We should not pay attention to politicians and do their own thing. We have seen that the civil society can do their job better than politicians. I do not expect that the officials themselves to make reforms. Only civil society can do it and force officials to adapt to him. If officials do not want to adapt to new circumstances, to a new life, they have to leave.

“We need to be able to live decently, with dignity and without the transcendental material prosperity”

– How many years of independence, and we are only now beginning to open up in a new way, our language, culture …

– It’s done all the time. Decades. Just in Soviet times, a small part was discovering that, because it was forbidden. Since the beginning of the 90 it began to be freely distributed, but it should affect the children. It not casually says that Moses led the people of 40 years in the desert to die all who were enslaved. In the new land, he did not want to lead the slaves. Because those who have lived in slavery, always bear the mark of slavery. We still need to go through several generations, even 25 years must pass. Because who govern us? In the 90s it was the former communists, then the former Komsomol in the 2000s, is now the former pioneers. On October need to survive. And then all will be well.

– Somehow I happened to hear accusations of dissidents address that, say, in the early 90’s insufficient pressured the Communists …

– Do not push Davy – nothing will happen. We had very little. Now up to 8 million volunteers, is not enough to turn Ukraine into a European state? What to say: more than 20 years ago we were 2-3 thousand political prisoners. How was it possible to get the 50,000,000th country, all communists, to be different? This can only be slow – not otherwise.

– And for you to spread the language and culture, so to speak, coercive methods?

– No, you only need to encourage. You need to have flexible mechanisms to encourage ownership of the Ukrainian language, the study of culture and history. You should have an advantage in borrowing positions those who own Ukrainian language. How else? No country can afford to take the officials of people who do not speak the state language. Only we have this is possible, and even in other post-Soviet countries except. And we see that they are still backward. The world is moving forward, and we graze the rear. Because we can not get rid of the post-colonial mentality.

– Now a large percentage of people who felt themselves to be Ukrainians, but also a large part of the thinking in old categories. In your opinion, what makes people in the Soviet era to think as Europeans? On the contrary, right now think in terms of a country that no longer exists?

– It is not in the country. The point of the Eurasian identity. Because it is the identity matrix was formed hundreds of years, it works at all, all the people living on this continent. And it defines the behavior of these people for the future. Metamorphosis is very slow, very slow changes. You say people feel European. They want to be Europeans. This reflective level of consciousness. Consciously they want, but they can be them? Do they want to be responsible? Freedom without responsibility – it’s nothing. Responsible work, cooperation, respect for the law. What is the difference Eurasia from Europe? Because in Europe there is respect for the law, and in Eurasia it is not. In Eurasia, not the law operates, and the person: the president, the governor, or first secretary. And we are hooked, because we live in a 300 years old Eurasian empire.

Partly we are Europeans, because the influence of the West European identity on us. We want to be Europeans, but still can not, because people think: if someone makes reforms for us. However, it should be this: not one but yourself. Fight against corruption – not somewhere, but in themselves. When you start with yourself, then you have this sense of responsibility. If you do not remake himself a little, then the children will be dissolved. No need to have the illusion that the very desire to live in Europe enough. You must be able to live as Europeans live. Modest, worthy, respect the law and work. Modestly – it including without transcendental material wealth.

– In all periods of development of Ukraine there were groups of people who are called moral authorities. But it seems they do not always hear …

– People must have the need to listen, first and foremost. If people have no need to listen to them – this is a problem people. Recently passed into eternity Eugene Sverstyuk. For me – the moral authority. But how many people knew him? I listen to it? How many people have corrected the life according to the principles of which he spoke? We all know how to live. But the country does not work … So, something is wrong …

Sourse, 27/08/2015

About the trial of Nadia Savchenko

Member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels sees several options for the end of the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko – it can award a short time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation, and if Savchenko will provide a long term, it will mean that Russia ready for isolation.

If the international observers will be present at the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, it will complicate the process for Russia, as the case is fabricated, said Iosif Zisels. He said this in a comment edition of “Gordon” .

“In principle, the government may announce in the end the decision is already past the court, and said, Behold, I’m sorry, did not work to attract public and observers This one option Of course, the Kremlin is not beneficial to the presence of observers at the trial because he falsified, in my subjective.. . According to observers, especially European ones, may complicate the court, which is not the case for Russia is very easy “, – said Zissels.

According to him, the results of the trial Savchenko show what development strategy chosen Russia – the international isolation or compromise with the West.

“What is all over, I just can not say, because it does not possess all the volume of information. In addition, Russia is a country full of uncertainty. It may be a relatively short period of time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation. On the other hand, Putin can show . that he was at all do not care, give Savchenko long time, and go to the final separation from all over the world as a result of the court will be clear what kind of tactics Russia chooses – complete isolation or still relatively compromise “, – said Zissels.

He did not think that at the time he was taken from the Moscow Savchenko in danger, despite the fact that the exact location is not known nor the lawyers nor relatives.

“I would not say that it was hidden, it is not entirely correct. We can say that in Russia there is a very old and important principle that when it formulated Stalin: There are people – there is a problem, no man – no problem. If authorities stated that they did not know where Savchenko worthwhile to worry about, but they do not yet speak, “- Zissels said.

Why and where Russia hid Savchenko?

A preliminary hearing on the case of Ukrainian pilots Hope Savchenko in the Donetsk Court of the Rostov region of the Russian Federation is scheduled for July 30th. July 17 Savchenko was was transferred from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don. July 22 protection Savchenko said he did not know where the aviator. Until July 27 the Russian authorities, by law, can not report her whereabouts. July 23 the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Ella Pamfilova has sent a formal request to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and the Federal Service of Execution of Punishments to the requirement to quickly provide information on the whereabouts of Savchenko. Before his transfer Ukrainka write a will, because it assumes that in Rostov it might have something happen.

Savchenko was captured by militants in June 2014 in Luhansk region, and then illegally exported to Russia. Thus, in the Russian jail, she is more than a year.

July 13, the General Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation approved the indictment against Savchenko and sent the case to the court. Pilot accused of the murder of two Russian citizens in the Luhansk region, as well as attempted murder. Ukrainka his guilt did not recognize.

Protection Savchenko asked that her trial was held in Moscow, instead of the Rostov region, and then looked at the jury, but the lawyers denied all petitions.

Sourse, 24/07/2015

It all starts with the exceptions of the rule

The Jews of Ukraine or Ukrainian Jews? Former dissident and co-president of the Vaad of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels – a civilizational choice and formation of a political nation.

– Joseph, a lot of talk lately about a new phenomenon – the birth of Ukrainian Jewry as a special form of identity of unknown a few years ago …

– All the Jewish communities of Europe passed a similar transformation. Including our closest neighbors, enough to read the article of the Polish-Jewish intellectual Konstanty Gebert, stresses that, despite all the vicissitudes of the general history of Polish Jews say about themselves: “We – the Poles.” According to him, democracy as a basic value, appreciate and Jews. “I’m not surprised that the Ukrainian Jews are mostly supported Ukrainian independence – says Gebert This phenomenon is repeated in Europe regularly Every time when some nations are independent, the Jews, as a rule, are on their way…”

In western Europe, the reform of Jewish identity began in the era of the Haskalah, when the Count of Clermont-Tonnerre in the Constituent Assembly proposed to equalize the rights of the Jews, because they are part of the French nation. He spoke of a nation in the European sense of the term – a political nation. It was then born the concept of the French law of Moses, the Germans of the Mosaic law, that is, Jewish identity takes on a new form – civil. Most European countries one way or another have come to such an understanding of the identity of the middle of the XIX century, the Russian Empire, that did not happen – it was moving along a path. I’m not talking about the lag phase, it’s just another path – within the framework of the Eurasian identity could not appear Russian and Ukrainian law of Moses.

– However, in Ukraine for centuries his name in the Eurasian paradigm, the process began …

– Yes, and it’s painfully long process – the formation of a political nation in the Western European sense. We all – originally from the Soviet Union, we all Soviet Jews, the main feature of which was the identification state anti-Semitism. We could not know Jewish history, tradition, language – to know nothing other than a couple of Jewish jokes, and, nevertheless, remain different. Precisely because of the state of anti-Semitism. How many of the nearly half million Ukrainian Jews were parishioners of one of the 14 active synagogues under the Soviets? Several hundred elderly. Therefore, Soviet Jews, and even “anti-Soviet Jews” like me, for example, come from the same “cradle”.

Then Ukraine became a sovereign state, and we started to get the Jews of Ukraine, while maintaining all the Soviet, but rather, Eurasian features – related to basic values, the role of government, religion, private property, etc. This civilizational values ​​that are absorbed with their mother’s milk, and do not change overnight, as the overnight Jews of Ukraine can not become Ukrainian Jews.

– Ukrainian National Democrats have long criticized the fact that in terms of cultural identity of Jews in Ukraine pro-Russian. While half of the country, including ethnic Ukrainians, belong to the same – the Russian-speaking – camp.

– It’s true, in another’s eye speck see, we do not notice the log in your … Jews living in Ukraine and are guided by the surrounding society.

– The more that the majority of the country’s Jews live exactly in the south-eastern regions.

– I would not connect to the civilizational choice place to stay – we are all Europeans and all the little little Eurasians – Ukrainians, Russian, and Jews. Just Russian Jews, who stood on the Maidan, made its civilizational choice in favor of Europe, but today many of these choices are at war. We go through the same path as that of the whole country – become Ukrainians in the political sense of the word – regardless of language, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. I stress that we are Ukrainian Jews, not because they are beginning to speak Ukrainian. I was in 1978 named in the party press “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist.” Apparently, even then I was a Ukrainian Jew, though he spoke in Ukrainian is much worse than it is now. Not in the language, and not in the religion business, and in civilizational choice. feature

And those of us who supported the Ukrainian choice not because of fashion or pragmatic reasons, but because (and this says Gebert) that prefer democracy – they are the Ukrainian Jews. Of course, the well known authoritarian leaders who sympathized with the Jews, such as Pilsudski. But when he died, Pilsudski, the Jews remembered how well they lived under Marshal – say, your grandfather died.

Yes, Jews have traditionally focused on power, we treat it loyally, sometimes entering into conflict with the aspirations of the people among whom we live. What to do – it is our history, our mentality. However, other Jews at all times defended democratic values ​​and participated in the national liberation movements, becoming part of one or another political nations.

– In our case, this process has become possible only after the Ukrainians themselves have changed their model for understanding the nation, rejecting ethnic nationalism, tailored on the patterns of the 1930s …

– It did not begin on the Maidan. I joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in 1978, become acquainted with a new generation of Ukrainian Nationalists, did not cave, otherwise I would not have joined them. Moses Fishbein poet in the 1980s worked in the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, as a Ukrainian nationalist …

– You’re talking about exceptions …

– It all starts with exceptions, and I was not the first. In the Polish uprising in 1794 involved not many Jews in the November Uprising 1830 there were more, and in 1863 – even more. When you can talk about the birth of Polish Jewry? Not in 1863, and at the end of the XVIII century. With Ukrainian Jews the same story. It’s a question of quality, not quantity. There are such people, and they are becoming more – Jews of Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa – this is not the Soviet Jews. Some of them are fighting in the Donbass, and they will go to the guerrilla groups, if will be in occupation.

It all starts with the exceptions in the 1970 Ukrainian Jews had very little, how little and Ukrainian national democrats, but the phenomenon has existed. Another thing is that the heroes of Ukraine, that is, the people who died for the independence of his people today, really, other. After Heavenly hundreds of pieces of Bandera and Shukhevych began to leave in the past.

Hundreds of children are dying today at the front – they are the new heroes of Ukraine and the new symbols of Ukrainian nationalism, although many of them do not even think that it is – Ukrainian nationalism.

– There are other forms of nationalism …

– And then there was all black, and now – not all white. And now there is an anti-Semite Levko Lukyanenko and 13 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, which we identify as the right-wing radicals, among them two men with neo-Nazi backgrounds – Aleksandr Mosiychuk and Dmitry Linko. I am convinced that the coalition does not include these characters, and I will fight for it as well as fighting for something that the leader of the Social-National Assembly Andrey Biletsky did not go to the deputies of the People’s Front list.

– Do not you think that this new identity is largely built on the denial, on confrontation with Russia. But aggression, sooner or later will end, and what remains?

– How to start identity? No one knows. But we know, for example, what happened in the 2012 elections, and why 10% voted for the radicals of the VO “Svoboda”. Not because they are right-wing radicals, it was a protest vote against Yanukovych. In any identity combined various factors – both “for” and “against.” I became the “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist” (with all the conventions of this definition) in 1978, because it was sympathetic to the National Democrats and the Communists did not like – it brought me to the dissident movement. Religious Zionists in Israel – against the creation of a Palestinian state and the expansion of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria – the series goes on.

Of course, in the absence of an external threat could start natural fragmentation of society, but it has never been united. In the meantime, the process of formation of the Ukrainian political nation and Ukrainian Jewry, as one of its components. The process itself testifies to the fact that Ukraine still Europeanized, Eurasian identity is arranged differently. The activity of the country is in Europe, the greater the Ukrainian Jews. And it’s not in the formal membership in the EU, it is important that the feeling of the people, their mentality, their identities were European – this is a very long process, but it has already started …

Interviewed by Maxim Sukhanov

Sourse, 18/05/2015

Ukrainians are not ripe for reconciliation

This year Ukraine celebrates the Day of Reconciliation for the first time and memory in honor of all the victims of the Second World War. Are Ukrainians really come to terms,  “Gordon” asked the chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosifa Ziselsa.

The idea of ​​reconciliation is popular at any time, but it can not be used in any situation to any two people, because in the conflict, which stretches since World War II, in fact, there are several dimensions.

Besides the Soviet-German, on the other hand – the French-English-German, even on our side had several dimensions: the Polish-German, Polish-Ukrainian, Ukrainian-German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian, even participated in the Carpathians in the battles with the UPA. There are a number of measurements, and most importantly – the Ukrainian-Soviet.

For example, I know of a case in 1962, when two Ukrainian women who were connected in the UPA, were shot in the bunker in the Ternopil region of the soldiers. In 1962, the year!

If we talk about today’s reconciliation, it is, on the one hand, civilization, because the Ukrainians decided that enough they have to live in the empire with the Eurasian civilization, and want to try the life of the European and then compared in 300 years, in which one It was better. On the other hand, this reconciliation is artificially caused by Russian aggression.

I do not think that we are ripe for reconciliation because the still very many forces did not satisfy his ambitions. If we talk about the dimensions that were during the Second World War, for them, of course, it has come, because we see a lot of progress on the line of Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation.

But it is not yet complete, as some Poles, for example, reacted nervously to the laws that have been adopted for the rehabilitation of UPA and other Ukrainian national organizations. This is a complex mishmash in which you need to understand. Find out about what exactly we are talking reconciliation. Young did not have these conflicts.

In Spain, where the civil war was prolonged, the family is still remembered, who had fought on which side. And this is not some kind of soft and hard memories. This is despite the fact that Franco (Spanish dictator Francisco Franco) has long put a monument to reconciliation for victims of the war on both sides.

In the southern states of the USA, despite the fact that since the civil war took place 150 years, also kept ancestral memory as to who fought for the North, and who – for the south. Although they live like the well, and the states do not fight each other, except that there is some confrontation during the election – more than one vote for Republicans, others – for the Democrats.

The issue of reconciliation is not so simple. Perhaps reconciliation at the level of Heads of State. Yushchenko (the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko), for example, has done a lot for this. But at the level of ordinary people a reconciliation does not take place so quickly.

In sociology, we see that in the last year the attitude of Ukrainians to the Poles has improved significantly, because millions of Ukrainians saw that the Poles actually help Ukraine in this complicated conflict. And as the Russian government not only did not help – she was the aggressor.

Veterans reluctance to shake hands says that a new conflict was superimposed on the old and on the contrary, it has strengthened rather than weakened.

Two of civilization people can live in peace, and they are in general, they lived more or less peacefully, despite the tension between the state structures, as long as there was no interference in each other’s identity. As soon as the intervention in the identity of other people, there is a huge energy instantly resistance.

Yet another dimension – the dimension of the Maidan – was for me as a reaction to a very significant part of Ukrainian society to try Yanukovych (fugitive ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych) and all his clique to bring us back to a state of the Eurasian identity, which we already do not want to be at as most of us.

This applies to the Donbas. This region has a different identity, and perhaps he did not want to live in a European way. If we are forced to compel him to do so, we get back the same great resistance power.

Decentralization is relevant if load it humanitarian, economic, financial and other aspects. Groisman (Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman) said several times that it is necessary to take into account the humanitarian aspect in decentralization. Historically. If we do not consider this aspect, it means that we do not spend real decentralization, it would be somewhat artificial.

Donbass within Ukraine should develop as he understands it in his own way. And the overall rate of the State of Ukraine, if it still exists, together with the Crimea and Donbas on the road to Europe must be sufficiently slow so as not to lose the regions that do not want to move in this direction. We need to talk, to explain, to try to continue to implement the values ​​that have more in Ukrainian society.

Sourse, 08/05/2015

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia

Iosif Zisels, human rights activist and head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Vaad, recalls with a smile, as in Soviet times it was called both a Zionist and a Ukrainian nationalist. Now, 40 years later, it again can be called zhidobanderovtsem, and the term has acquired a new meaning and a positive connotation.

In the Soviet Union he was a dissident, trying to defend the rights of Jews, and then joined the Ukrainian Helsinki human rights group. In 1978, on charges of defamation and anti-state activities Zissels received six years in a penal colony. Nine months before the liberation he was offered amnesty in exchange for a renunciation of political principles, but he refused.

Now, Soviet dissident and political prisoner, became one of the most influential Jews of Ukraine – he heads the largest Jewish organization, which is able at any time to lend a helping hand to every Jew of the country, engaged in the revival and strengthening of Jewish communities, their culture and religion, as well as helping wishing to exit in Israel.

Zissels well – known people abroad, where he is a member of the European and the World Jewish Congress, took over the functions of the public lobbyist Ukraine’s national interests. In his own words Zisels, he lives according to the covenant of the Jewish patriarch Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? “

“New time” meets Zissels in the office of the Association of Jewish Organizations, which is located in one of the academic buildings of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. It is a small unit into several rooms, on the door of which hung an advertisement for the recruitment of students to the specialization of Judaica. Zissels cordially invites you into his office and, distracted for a few minutes to say hello to each of his employees, invited to interview.

Ukrainians are very sensible nation, and therefore changes have been slow. Maidan two months stood and demanded concessions from the government. When I talk about that in France, there wondering how, two months? We would all smashed in two weeks!

Just Ukrainians other political temperament. We are moving at their own pace, which is slower than that of Poland or the Baltic countries. It must be taken as fact. Another problem is that our identity is dual, and expectations are always high, so some of us and sways from side to side. We believe that, if there was a revolution and change of power, all at once will change, but it is not.

Ukraine will of fate was between a European democracy and Eurasian authoritarian culture. And it is important to understand that if 20% of the population do not want to in Europe, this must somehow be considered. This is not a whim, just for them, Europe stranger. And we are encroaching on their identity, though hardly have that right.

Recall, Viktor Yanukovych wanted to encroach on our right to be Europeans – and the Maidan happened. The same thing is happening now. When threatened identity, even among people who are accustomed to submission, there is a huge energy resistance. We need to negotiate rather than fight.

Today in the country there is a desire to fight corruption, but it’s part of our culture. Corruption – is a part of Ukrainian identity. The law is not absolute for us, and its violation – not a sin, as in the West. And this shows our Eastern culture – there is not a law adopted in order to execute it, and that they enjoyed the strongest.

We used to live like this, we have formed a lot of secret agreements between government and society. For example, that the severity of the law is compensated by its failure. At low levels of wages authorities turned a blind eye to the fact that we steal, and the people turned a blind eye to the fact that steals power. In space, where there is no law with a capital letter, a person perceives any obstacle as a challenge, to solve the problem – that such obstacles put me, but I still find it, how to get around them.

So, to say, well, let’s fight against corruption, which many of us continue to steal – is meaningless. It is necessary to recognize the existence of tacit agreements and revise them. The struggle of society against corruption must be a struggle with ourselves.

Right now Ukrainian Jews began to realize themselves as Jews in Ukraine. In Europe, it happened in the late XIX century. In France, that’s when the Jews received equal rights with the French and called themselves the French law of Moses. We have this process takes place only now.

The Jews of Ukraine took a very active part in the Maidan. Were actively, perhaps, only the Crimean Tatars. And the Ukrainians have rated it – according to the latest sociological research, for the year related to the Jews and Crimean Tatars in the country has improved significantly.

We do not believe, how many Jews were on the Maidan, but we know that many of them then went to the front. The most paradoxical – some of them fought in the battalion of Azov, near the radical nationalists. In addition, in the east of the country and fight guys with Israeli passports. It is the volunteers who teach our soldiers. Israel has almost 100 years of war, and experience – most importantly, that he can pass Ukraine.

Israel does not help Ukraine officially because so fixated on their own security. In 2008, during the war in Georgia, Israel helped equip the Georgian air defense system. Then Georgia was hit by three Russian aircraft, and Israel received a warning from Russia that if he will continue to help Georgia, Iran gets a nuclear bomb, and Syria will face Russia’s S-300 missiles.

But while Israel – a democratic country, and the pressure of society can not be ignored. Most of the Israelis – people with democratic values, and they sympathize with Ukraine.

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia – will be less frustrating. Now, in many EU countries pre-election period. To support Ukraine, impose additional sanctions on Russia for them is to reduce the level of welfare of their countries and to expose their chances of winning at serious risk. Can help unless indirect pressure on Europe from the United States and Canada.

This is very similar to what happened in the 1930s. Germany regularly paid for oil and metals, and all wanted her to trade. Nobody wanted to see it as a monster, preferring to think that Germany will not fight with them, and with their competitors. After eight years of these errors have to pay a huge price.

We are no longer a peaceful country, and it will not be long. We need to get used to fight with minimal losses, rely on their own forces to protect their people, to rebuild the economy on a war footing, and not bury our heads in the sand. In Russia, too, there is no other option but to fight with Ukraine. They understand that with this government and with this partnership agreement is impossible.

Something we can count only when the disintegration processes in Russia will be intense. However, nobody in the world is not interested in this. What does it mean crumbling Russia? Huge fragments of the country armed with nuclear weapons. Putin, in spite of our curses, still controls the country. If only we have not climbed, prices would not be him. But he can not climb, the logic of empire – its meaning in the expansion.

I do not believe in the possibility of democratization of Russia. I spent two years in the Ural camps, lived in Moscow for more than a year. Russia within its present borders will never be a European country. There is no critical mass of people who can change the destiny of Russia. Moreover, not all countries should be European. The world rests on the balance sheet. And who will be the European world to balance China? Any democratization of Russia will lead to its disintegration, and this terrible future, with unpredictable consequences.

5 questions Iosifu Ziselsu:

– What event of your life you feel in charge?

– Of course, my participation in the dissident movement. I think all the most important thing happened then.

– What is your favorite city?

– I do not have a favorite book or a favorite city. I love Chernivtsi, where I spent my childhood, Kiev, in which I live. I like to be in Jerusalem and Barcelona.

– What move around the city?

– I have a Subaru Outback. This reliable, sturdy machine. Not very comfortable, but I like it.

– What is your monthly cost of living?

– I get a pension. More than ordinary people, but not enough to live a normal life. It is also engaged in consulting, working in a private firm. My problem is not how to provide for themselves, but rather where to find the money for our activities. Well, I have four kids that even adults, but they still need help. Perhaps today I spend at least $ 1 thousand. Per month.

– What do you seek?

– As anyone – to self-realization, once satisfied all other requirements. And I think I am quite good to deal with it.

Sourse, 02/05/2015

I do not think that without the consent of the inhabitants the city will be renamed

Without the consent of the inhabitants of the city should not be renamed, he said in a comment  “GORDON”  chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

“I’m not sure that without the decision of the local community, you can rename the city. But you’ve seen over the last 23 years, at least one law, which is performed in its entirety, just as it was written? We live in a space where the laws are not in order to fulfill them. laws of the people do not obey the laws of the people do not respect the laws of the people do not follow. They use the laws to achieve some of their goals. I do not think there will be a city renamed without the consent of residents. This should be without hysterics, and in a peaceful discussion. I do not think that without a Announce the masses it can be done then we will get additional negative effects, which have enough “, -. Zissels said.

There is a clash of two civilizations, so think about what the consequences will ban communist symbols more correctly, he said.

“There’s a novel in which the hero is a young man seeking a countess, she was refused, he turns the whole world, conquering all of Europe, and when the Countess is ready him to give up, it turns out that it is – an elderly woman and he no longer needed so. . and with that we now live in a turbulent time, we have a war on, and not just between the separatists and the Ukrainians, but a war between two civilizations -. European and Eurasian It’s so powerful collision, what to think, what consequences will result in a ban of symbols, I it seems to be incorrect. I do not think th that it will lead to some serious consequences to the positive or to the negative “- Zissels said.

However, in his opinion, for many people, the victims of the regime, this decision will be important.

“I have not yet comprehended once the consequences of yesterday’s solutions. I dreamed about it many years ago, because he was a dissident and was imprisoned in Soviet times for political activities, but it’s been more than 20 years. Although many people for whom life was a struggle with the communist system, it is very important that finally at least the end of life to get satisfaction from the fact that these misanthropic ideology abolished and banned, “- said the expert.

The honey, he said, the current law many inaccuracies that should be corrected.

“East is bad knows what the UPA, and the West does not speak what the UPA. It was a long time ago. So many myths of positive and negative during the Soviet period was unwound. The very acronym UPA with a hyphen, which created the Soviet ideology, did not exist in nature . The law had a lot of confusion -. terminological, factual, grammatical Before this law was passed, I was just going to make corrections I have quite an old man, to know how to be called in reality there are mixed up the names of organizations…History is no such organization “OUN” Yes “OUN” one, is “OUN” Second, there is a “OUN” third -. There are three “OUN” – Zissels said.

“Live – see very little consequence were other laws, I think, will also be with these Someone uses them for next separatist sentiments, someone on the contrary uses the dominance of pro-European sentiment in the end still everything goes and vanishes… “- he concluded.

Recall, April 9, the Verkhovna Rada  adopted  a law recognizing the communist regime 1917-1991 criminally and banning communist symbols.

The adopted law about the condemnation of the communist regime  contained  rule to rename the settlements, which are named in honor of the communist-era figures.

Sourse, 10/04/2015

Today, it is a conflict between civilization and the negation of civilization

What is happening today – a revision of the entire set of rules established in the world after the Second World War.

Iosif Zisels, chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups, – performance at the channel marathon  UKRLIFE.TV  on “The international implications of the terrorist attacks in France”:

There are two important systemic factor that differentiates Western Europe from the East and, in particular, from the Ukraine.

The first factor – is the presence of entities associated with the radical Islamic movement, they are in Western Europe, they do not exist in Eastern Europe. Perhaps, as we move to Europe they will, but for now it is not.

The second factor – the movement, fashionable in the left intelligentsia, in which human rights, in particular, the protection of the rights of Palestinians leads to anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment.

Sourse, 12/01/2015

The level of anti-Semitism in Ukraine is not increased

Do you see now Ukraine growth of anti-Semitism and xenophobia – to this and other questions in an interview with DW said the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Iosif Zisels.

Iosif Zisels – Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups. In an interview with DW Zissels she told whether there is in Ukraine, the rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and also responded to a number of other issues.

DW: In Russia, many say that with the advent of the current Ukrainian politicians in the country have intensified anti-Semitic sentiments. Is it so?

Iosif Zisels: I was one of the leaders of the Jewish community can assure that there is no – not only sharp, but generally no increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Ukraine. We are very carefully and attentively fix every incident, every speech, every case of an attack, and every act of vandalism. And this level – as last year. Despite the tumultuous events that took place on the Maidan in Kiev, on the military operations in the south-east of Ukraine, the level of anti-Semitism in the country increases. It was and remains one of the lowest in Eastern Europe.

– And what is the level of anti-Semitism in Russia?

– As regards the level of anti-Semitism in Russia – it is too short. Just as in Ukraine, he measured a dozen or two dozen cases per year. But Russia – authoritarian country with underdeveloped democratic institutions. And in this authoritarian model of existence can be played “Jewish card”. In Ukraine, too, is to be feared that the state wants to use it, but fortunately, there is control belongs to the civil society.

– What can you say about the allegations in the city address that the current government allegedly tolerate manifestations of neo-Nazism?

– First of all, it is a question of terminology. I think really understand what Nazism, only to narrow specialists. They are our experts, with whom we have worked for many years. In Ukraine, as in any other country, there are right-wing movements, some of which resemble the neo-Nazi. But they are in Europe. Right-wing parties have almost all European countries, and they are much more dangerous than what we see today in Ukraine.

So, the party “Freedom” is not passed to the new Ukrainian parliament, which was in the previous Parliament when Yanukovych was there 37 mandates. This demonstrates the falling level of interest in the radical demagogy of this order. Lyashko passed Radical Party, which is very different: it is less than the national radical demagogy, but more general radical demagoguery. In majority districts it took a few people who can be considered right-wing radicals with aspects of neo-Nazism. Very few of them: 423 MP – about 10. That is less than it was in the last Parliament, where there were 37.

But I think that the concerns of the Parliament, there was a general shift of the entire spectrum a little to the right. Because such a national-democratic parties as Block Petro Poroshenko, “Popular Front” and “self-help” – are themselves center-right. That is, the parliament’s center of gravity has shifted slightly to the right, and is a tribute to wartime. Requirements radicals is not particularly noticeable.

– The fact that the Parliament did not pass the “Freedom” and “Right Sector”, can be considered a success of Ukrainian democracy?

– In fact, these parties were radical demagogic. Moreover, these were the projects financed and designed to split the opposition with Yanukovych’s government. That is, in part, they were man-made projects. They can not be considered as such natural, organic manifestations of the right of the spectrum, as can be seen in many countries.

In Ukraine, the main control of the right-wing radicals has not the government, as is the case in Russia, and civil society. It itself copes with this low level of pravoradikalizma in the country, making it much better than the state. And it is – a guarantee that this rate will not be great.

– Earlier you said that “right-wing and neo-Nazi forces” involved in the conflict in the Donbass, from both sides? You can name specific examples?

– On the Russian side, according to our experts, fights about 200 neo-Nazis. Among them are, first of all, “Russian National Unity”. This is a known neo-Nazi organization in Russia, which has its own recruitment offices, training camps for militants and separate connections on the front. Others – such as, for example, the former party Limonov, is “dyed” in other colors. It is important to note also that the present or volunteers or mercenaries from European right-wing neo-Nazi parties. They, too, are fighting on the Russian side.

On the Ukrainian side, too, there is a man 30-40 – skinheads from the right-wing group “Social-National Assembly”, “Patriots of Ukraine”, for which we are following closely. In this regard, first of all, we may note the battalion “Azov”, where there may be even a few dozen people from the “Social-National Assembly.” Andrey Beletsky – the commander of the battalion (now it is a regiment) – the head of “Social-National Assembly.” However, he argues that the war changed their ideology.

– From what sources do you get information?

– We have a number of experts of the European level. We use their data, and trust them, as for many years working with them. Moreover, our data are taken from the report of the State Department’s anti-Semitism in the world and the OSCE report on the monitoring and analysis of anti-Semitism in the world. I myself 25 years engaged in the construction of networks for monitoring and analysis of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

Sourse, 06/11/2014

Israeli President raised on Russian historiography

The head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, a well-known human rights activist and Soviet dissident, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels in an interview with “Gromadska radio” stated that he could not agree with the speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. He accused the Ukrainians in the complicity in the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Second World War, informs eizvestia.com .

“He’s an old man. He bears the stereotypes of the past, historiography, which today is not considered objective. He was brought up in the Russian historiography. Israel, at least the older generation still lives under its influence. It does not reflect the opinion of the young. After all, the young religious Israelis have stood on the Maidan. These views he expressed today – it’s yesterday, “- said Zissels.

He recalled the visit to Israel of the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko in 2007.

“The delegation came to Yad Vashem and asked to show documents that indicate the involvement of Roman Shukhevych (OUN leader during World War II) to such crimes. But no one was able to show. This stereotype does not provide evidence, if everyone knows it. No, not everyone knows that. For example, I do not trust that it is not necessary to confirm the archival authentic documents “- Zissels said.

He noted that the OUN and UPA fighters fought for Ukraine, and they can not wear the stereotypical labels.

September 27 during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada parliamentary hearings devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that the Ukrainians have been involved in the repression against the Jews during the Second World War. “Many of the accomplices of crimes were Ukrainians. And among them highlights the OUN, which mocked Jews, killed them, and in many cases, were given to the Germans. It is also true that there were more than 2.5 thousand Righteous among the Nations “-. Said Rivlin.

Commenting on the Israeli president’s speech, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Vladimir Vyatrovich said Rivlin repeated Soviet myth of the OUN involvement in the Holocaust. The head of the OUN Bogdan Chervak ​​Rivlin called the statement “a spit in the soul of the Ukrainians” and urged him not to watch Russian television, as it is “not just bad, but also indecent.”

During World War II, occupied Kiev Nazi troops used the tract Babi Yar, in the northwestern part of the city as a place of mass executions of civilians, most of whom were Jews. September 29, 1941 the entire Jewish population was obliged to come to the Babi Yar, where until September 30, was shot more than 33 thousand. Man on the orders of the occupation administration. According to various estimates, at Babi Yar were killed by 70 thousand. Up to 200 thousand. Man.

Sourse, 29/09/2016

The system rotted from within and dognila before disbanding

Soviet-era dissident Yosif Zisels told why refused amnesty in the Gorbachev era, what regrets today about whether modern Ukraine may repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime

Yosif Zisels – human rights activist, dissident, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. In 1978 he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He spent six years in prisons on charges of “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Every dissident own destiny. For example, a man wrote a poem. As my friend, the Ukrainian dissident, a former teacher in the Ternopil region kultprosvetuchilische Mikola Grobal, wrote a poem called “Dumi moї, Dumi”. For this was sent to prison. For the poem. Simply laid out thoughts on paper. Or Semyon Gluzman, which persecuted for their professional activities. He made the correspondence psychiatric examination for General Pyotr Grigorenko and mathematician Leonid Plyushch and promulgated it.

The dissent came for different reasons: national, democratic, moral, emotional. The reasons were not so important to us. Most importantly, we together fought criminal imperial communist system.

I actually grew up without parents. So I have virtually no such an important element of the psyche as a “social instinct of self-preservation,” usually brings up children in a normal Jewish family. Simply no one to create it. I started very early to read samizdat. I think it is no coincidence. The fact that we were surrounded by then, and what we have been taught do not match. Not everyone is dissonance when life does not match with the pictures, which are described in textbooks. Some quietly absorbed in itself is doublethink, I called it “social schizophrenia.” Some do it quietly. Some resisted.

The Soviet government constantly demanded confirmation of loyalty. A variety of ways. Those who have studied, passed the party’s history, scientific communism. Was political information was the Komsomol, and other institutions, which are constantly monitored by the people through an extensive network. Not only controlled the KGB people were the party, trade union, Komsomol and Pioneer organizations. And I went multilevel selection. Revealed disgruntled, obstinate. Once a person has manifested itself, it was a signal that we should look at it.

I went to the dissidence almost deliberately. I drew it. I wanted to know the truth about life, about history, about relationships. And find the right answers in samizdat, as permitted by the literature is almost impossible to find the truth. It was important that others know the truth. Not immediately, at first reading itself, and then you want to share with others. Then you become it a little.

An important stimulus was originally a private confrontation lies and violence. You try to realize his need for truth is not simply to distribute this literature. Then there is the need to sign any appeals, appeals to protest against human rights violations. I’m talking about the way. Some stop at reading the literature, some – at that distribute other books, some do not sign the appeal and appeal, and others pass this hurdle and continue to develop. Then there was a real help to political prisoners, in which I was involved.

The apogee of my dissident activity can be considered as 1978 , when I was actively engaged in case of using the power of Soviet psychiatry to persecute dissidents and investigated more than 80 such stories, in the summer became a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and in December he was arrested for the first time.

I do not consider myself a victim. I tried to do something as far as possible. I tried something to counter the Soviet regime and its powerful repressive apparatus. Authorities responded to me quite “adequately”. I knew I was not alone in this, but the dissidents are not many, only a few thousand to two hundred millionth Soviet people. Nevertheless, it was more personal fulfillment, not an illusory calculation somehow undermine Soviet power. It was clear that our efforts it was impossible to destroy. She was rotting from the inside and dognila before disbanding.

The fact that the dissidents were known all over the world, destroyed the Soviet myth. 220 million people live happily, moving towards communism, nothing else is willing, but there are several thousand people who by the very fact of its existence, argue that a false myth. Here I was among those people. It was my way. I chose him and he went through it. And, fortunately, I did not meet with an obstacle that would have made me turn back.

I was already an inveterate “recidivist”, when I was offered an amnesty, it was in January 1987, went a second three-year term of my imprisonment, I had to sit 9 months. As for all the forced dialogue with the authorities, with the KGB, with investigators from the prosecutors, I did not sign any paper, any evidence not given, I do not want to change his principles when I needed to sit 9 months. I calmly refused the amnesty. She was so very communist. We had to sign a document that You shall not engage in political activity. Some signed, and then continued to work.

I did not believe that engaging in political activities. It was a formality, but I took it very seriously. If I sign it, then break its principle “not to cooperate with the authorities.” I was not sorry, and now do not regret it.

I’m sorry about the other. Going your own way, you are doomed to suffering families. With time comes the understanding that your free choice causes suffering of others: family, friends. KGB worked very well. They covered not only the one who resists, but all its surroundings, creating an inconvenience to them in life, to put it mildly. This was done to set up against the man his environment. I lost a few people who thought their comrades in these years. Some stayed, we’ve been friends for 50 years. They passed the test with me.

In total I spent in prisons and zones 6 years and the year at home under the administrative supervision of the refusal to accept the “Gorbachev amnesty.” Both times I was accused under Article 187 (approx.) Of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, in the “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Any authoritarian regime, the more totalitarian, based on the fact that there is an external enemy, there is internal, and it is necessary to deal with them. And for people to explain who the external enemy – the imperialists, capitalists, the NATO military. And the internal – dissidents “fifth column”, which does not want to go to the general structure of communism. It was a massive propaganda against such people. We tried to turn public opinion against these people. Isolate, to make their lives uncomfortable, unbearable. Even when you see that article in the newspaper against you false from beginning to end, it is embarrassing to you, the residue remains. And there are articles about the dissidents, whom the authorities deemed “outcasts” were enough.

I lived in the city of Chernivtsi and did not face persecution for the use of the Ukrainian language. For too active promotion – possible. It is already considered nationalism. And only the KGB decided what distinguishes patriotism from nationalism. On the other hand, I grew up in a Jewish environment, and only a student came to understand many issues, including national.

Can modern Ukraine to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime? Ukrainians are already very difficult to build as they were built in the Soviet era. Once upon a time this would have killed millions, and intimidate others and build. Most of destroying a part buy, this was done in the 20s, 30s. Soviet authorities or killed or drove out, or bought. So to build “our elites.” Therefore there is nothing surprising that she is today. I think that the repetition of history is impossible. It is impossible to kill 5.7 million people, to build a line of others. But the fact of the formal independence of the country does not guarantee the economic prosperity of the people and democratic development, respect for the law, eradication of corruption and the development of a new system of values. As mathematicians say, a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Recorded Jan Goncharenko

See. Also Special Project “Dissidents” edition Fokus.ua and STB for the Suppression of dissidents in the USSR

Source: focus.ua , 25.08.2016

Sourse, 25/08/2016

Yanukovych must be condemned, but corruption is a derivative of general disrespect for the law

stigmatization campaign corruption, declared an international human rights organization Transparency International, is to focus on the figure of the Ukrainian society fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych that will distract from the system solution to the problem, said a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

Viktor Yanukovych was not born corrupt, and become so because of the mentality of Ukrainian society, says Iosif Zisels.

Yanukovych headed the world ranking corrupt officials on the results of voting on the website of the international human rights organization Transparency International, which announced that begins stigmatization campaign against corruption, taking the first nine places.

“I would not want to exaggerate the importance of this campaign. While any steps to eliminate in the Ukrainian society of corruption are good, and the worst of them will not. But I’m inclined to think that we need a systematic approach. Yanukovych is not born corrupt, it is a question of education, which is determined by All the circumstances of life in the Eurasian society is corruption -. it is part of our mentality and culture we are born, live and die in corruption. “- Zissels said.

“Condemn Yanukovych necessary, he was president of the country, but to focus on his figure could divert attention from the systemic problem In fact, corruption is dissolved in all, and the problem can not be solved without the long-term by re-society programs, building on the Western partners.” – he added he.

Zissels stressed that “over the last year in this regard has been made longer than in the previous 25 years.”

“Transparency International does a lot, forcing public institutions to deal with corruption, I know this organization, I support her contacts, her activity is doubtless useful, but how it can be assumed that it decides for 45,000,000th country of its problems..?” – said human rights activist .

According to him, “corruption – is a derivative of general disrespect for the law in general, including to the tax.”

“Who pays taxes in Ukraine Corruption – this including the theft of the budget, but we do not fill it I am sure that the majority of Ukrainians do not pay all the taxes that they are put there are plenty of other laws, which we treat as.. . well as to tax is the question of respect for the law if it appears, will result in the condemnation of anti-corruption Yanukovych -.. a good measure, but it does not give a general respect for the law “- he said.

The human rights activist believes that “in the fight against corruption the first place should take no condemnation, no anti-corruption bureau or anti-corruption prosecutor, namely re-society in the spirit of European values”.

“With our values ​​we will not become either economically developed, nor a truly democratic country, to tackle corruption. Only the union of all the forces of civil society and reform forces in the government, if they are there, in the long term can give some result for the whole Ukraine, if not for us, our children, or even grandchildren, “- he concluded.

Yanukovych was the President of Ukraine with the February 25, 2010. February 22, 2014, after three months of protests on the Maidan Verkhovna Rada recognized it withdrew from the post and do not fulfill their obligations, then new presidential elections were announced. In February last year, Yanukovych left Ukraine, is now with his family, he lives in Russia.

In Ukraine against Yanukovych opened several criminal proceedings. He is accused of the mass murder of citizens, misappropriation of state property, the seizure of power by unconstitutional means, actions aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order. Concerning it applies conviction in absentia procedure .

Yanukovych’s name was included in the investigation of the Interpol database, but at the end of July 2015 wanted to suspend consideration of the complaint of lawyers who insist on the political background of the case against the former president.

Sourse, 11/02/2016

Without the knowledge of history you like cod on the waves – swim, where will the current flow

With this well-known journalist Natalia Feshchuk man talking in his second home Chernivtsi – Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, co-founder of which he is. The conversation took place before he got into the list of moral authority among the Ukrainians, compiled a few days ago one of the Ukrainian media . By the way, an interview with Iosifom Samuilovichem Ziselsom just ended his reflections on what moral authority are always there in the community, if only listen to them …

Joseph Zisels many posts and distinctions, among them – the head of the Association of Jewish organizations and communities of Ukraine, executive vice-president of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. And in a nutshell: Ukrainian dissident Jewish descent, twice convicted for anti-Soviet activities. He never worked in government, says the most comfortable feeling when engaged in public affairs.

As in the Union, and now he has his own strong opinions on what principles should build a true nation and a strong country. And yet convinced that a free man – a responsible person.

Zissels has been living in Kiev. But here, in the heart of Chernivtsi, it remains a piece of his heart, because it is here, on the street Schiller once lived with his parents.

“I have a very warm attitude to the history and the people who are no longer”

– Mr. Joseph, when you decided to found the Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, it was a sense of duty to those Jews who had once been so much in Chernivtsi?

– My parents – not local Jews and Bessarabia. They arrived in Chernivtsi after the Second World War. In Chernivtsi I am, unfortunately, not born. But I have lived here and interacted with the people remaining from before the war. And it was German-speaking Jews, there were already a little while, in the 50-60s, – two or three hundred, maybe left from the huge community, which before the war amounted to almost 80 thousand people. In the city of 120 thousand people two-thirds – it was the Jewish population. And I was struck by the story of this community, which flourished at the end of the XVIII century, when the Austrian authorities to allow Jews to settle here. But almost half of the Jews was destroyed during the Holocaust, and the other half remained in the city, but has not been able to live under the Soviet regime. In 1940, the Jews were some illusions, many of them were left sentiment, but European, and they waited for the Red Army, because on the other hand – Hitler. And they were deported to Siberia, one third of them in 1941, 12 thousand Bukovinians – Jews. Those who have stayed here, came under Romanian occupation, who was shot, who died in concentration camps. Who stayed with the time left for Israel. Live in Chernivtsi remaining units …

And I wanted to recreate the story. I thought, this is our duty. Because once the Jewish community in the city was very strong. And those who came here after the war, there were already other people – Bessarabian East Ukrainian Jews were very Soviet. I want to say that everything was up to the First World War is well. And when it came, Romania, the Jewish community has undergone a lot of suffering. This, of course, does not compare with the Holocaust. But Romania was a strong anti-Semitism. Second, the Jews of Romania considers patriots Austria-Hungary and taking revenge for that. We have archival documents showing that the Bukovina Ukrainians and Poles in 1918 protested against the annexation of this region Romania. And among the Jews of Bukovina was a protest. And then the Romanians because it does not give citizenship to many Jews. But still it was not, as in the Soviet Union. 1940 showed who is who. And those who lamented that’s how bad it was when Romania saw what could be worse than under Soviet rule. Some of the Jews, unfortunately, did not have time to leave. We traveled already in 60-70 years, when there was again a possibility. I know these families, helping them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them.

– You always emphasized that you – Ukrainian Jew. Now in Ukraine, many of our citizens such as the re-born, they want to know more about their country and its history. Some, on the contrary, is still passive. But to be a true citizen of the country, it seems to be inside? As it has been in your family?

– In me many laid. Because in a city like Chernivtsi laid a lot – here is the crossroads of history, culture and languages. This tolerant spirit of Chernivtsi. What is the difference Bukovina Jews of Galician, for example? One of the features – tolerance of the province, it has passed and the Jews too. There was a lot of tolerance and among Jews, too: between the orthodox and reformist currents in Judaism. In other cities they are irreconcilable, here they are communicated. For example, the chief rabbi of Chernivtsi was the Reform rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court was Orthodox rabbi.

At home, I received a Soviet-Jewish upbringing, not a purely Jewish. But I never hid their Jewish identity. I’ve always known who I am. At the same time, it is Ukraine, and I felt a Ukrainian part too. When I was at university, he attended lectures in Ukrainian. My Ukrainian language more with the university, the house spoke Russian. Yiddish was too, but in my family it was less. Today, I understand that if the Ukrainian laid into you since childhood, and then it starts to work. We in the Union of Soviet Jews were in we had very little Jewish. We knew about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and all. Few knew their language, history, literature. And only at the end of the 80s we started to restore the Jewish life, and began to become Ukrainian Jews who consider Ukraine as their motherland.

“Without faith and stories you like cod on the waves – swim, which carries”

– You were convicted of anti-Soviet propaganda. And what was the essence of your “propaganda”?

– I’ve been doing many things that could not do then. In Chernivtsi distributed samizdat. Helping political prisoners and their families. Gathering information on human rights violations and passed it. Joining the Ukrainian Helsinki group. There were people who helped – Ukrainian, Russian, not only Jews. It was a more or less intelligent circle. But in prison then, in 1978, was just me. Sentenced to three years. In the 84 th year – three more. At six.

– But the same could give and more …

– Could … But you do what you have to do. I considered it my duty to you need to do something against that power. As part of our small capacity.

– Who are the Ukrainian dissidents influenced you?

– How did I know about Ukrainian history, the Holodomor? Of Ukrainian dissidents. I talked with a lot of Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mihailom Gorinem. I traveled a lot for Ukraine, provedyvat those freed. I was looking for traces of what was called the investigation of psychiatric persecution, looking for people who have suffered in this way. I communicated with Ivan Svetlichny, Zinoviem Krasovskim, Panas Zalivahi – famous artist of Frankivsk. From each of them gets something pro-Ukrainian. The fact that I became a Ukrainian Jew, credit Ukrainian dissidents.

– You once said that you can not achieve human rights, if not to talk about religion and ethnicity …

– There is an opinion with which I am, so to speak, discuss. It is often said that it is possible to raise human universal values. And religion and ethnic culture is not required. I do not agree with this. Because when talking about millions of people, we can not achieve universal values, if not pass, so to speak, religion and ethnic culture. The only way to achieve this and tolerance. But the current reality is hard to implement. Because many non-religious people, they think that it is not very necessary. Although religion is gradually won over the place in our lives in comparison with the Union, but its weight in society still is not great.

I remember in the 70-80-ies of the last century, we spoke to Chornovil and Gorin that first need to be done, when finally this power will be overthrown or she falls. By the way, we did not expect it would be so fast. First of all, this is the resumption of the role of religion. Because religion – it is a very powerful educational factor in the society, which provides a set of essential values. It does not matter, Jews or Christians that. Because the value of the universal. And if it is not brought in millions of people, it is very hard to build a normal society.

Similarly, the story. Still have the illusion that you can live without it. But survive unless … but I know exactly what is in a person who has the confidence and the religious, and ethnic back to childhood, there is already such a rod, and then the whole life revolves around it. When a person enters the test in trouble, it has support within himself. Otherwise, you’re like cod on the waves: where to throw, you go there and swim. You have nothing to oppose to that external force or element. You can not change a lot in life, but you can not miss in your life and lie, going outside, and violence. To do this, you need this spiritual core – the ethnic and religious.

– Look at the dissident social events is not like other people?

– You know, dissent – it is such a feature of your character. See, we’re dreaming of a time when Ukraine is an independent and non-Communist. It came. But it turned out that this is not enough. We need to work to make a decent human life. And it needs a lot of work. Because those who had hoped that independence would give Ukraine at once, and all – were wrong. That was only the zero level. It was necessary to build many more. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time. And every maidan that occurs, adjust the path to the future of Ukraine.

– But if the government does something wrong, then it turns out that people need to think about, because the power – it is a reflection of people … Or not?

– On the one hand – yes. But as the power – it is the same people, they have dominated their own, private, over the general. There are some studies that show that as long as society is dominated by values ​​of survival, until can not begin the path of modernization of society. All go in different directions, each competing with each to survive and provide for his family. There must be something in common between people. For example, now in volunteering involve up to 8 million people in Ukraine. This is 15 percent of the population of our country. These are new people who can be the future of Ukraine. A majority of just waiting and survives. Waiting for what will happen and what they will need to adapt to new circumstances. And the volunteers and soldiers sacrifice their lives. Because common cause always requires sacrifice – in the broadest sense of the word.

– And people want at least some of the victims of politicians …

– You know, if we wait for the victims of politicians, it will get nowhere. We should not pay attention to politicians and do their own thing. We have seen that the civil society can do their job better than politicians. I do not expect that the officials themselves to make reforms. Only civil society can do it and force officials to adapt to him. If officials do not want to adapt to new circumstances, to a new life, they have to leave.

“We need to be able to live decently, with dignity and without the transcendental material prosperity”

– How many years of independence, and we are only now beginning to open up in a new way, our language, culture …

– It’s done all the time. Decades. Just in Soviet times, a small part was discovering that, because it was forbidden. Since the beginning of the 90 it began to be freely distributed, but it should affect the children. It not casually says that Moses led the people of 40 years in the desert to die all who were enslaved. In the new land, he did not want to lead the slaves. Because those who have lived in slavery, always bear the mark of slavery. We still need to go through several generations, even 25 years must pass. Because who govern us? In the 90s it was the former communists, then the former Komsomol in the 2000s, is now the former pioneers. On October need to survive. And then all will be well.

– Somehow I happened to hear accusations of dissidents address that, say, in the early 90’s insufficient pressured the Communists …

– Do not push Davy – nothing will happen. We had very little. Now up to 8 million volunteers, is not enough to turn Ukraine into a European state? What to say: more than 20 years ago we were 2-3 thousand political prisoners. How was it possible to get the 50,000,000th country, all communists, to be different? This can only be slow – not otherwise.

– And for you to spread the language and culture, so to speak, coercive methods?

– No, you only need to encourage. You need to have flexible mechanisms to encourage ownership of the Ukrainian language, the study of culture and history. You should have an advantage in borrowing positions those who own Ukrainian language. How else? No country can afford to take the officials of people who do not speak the state language. Only we have this is possible, and even in other post-Soviet countries except. And we see that they are still backward. The world is moving forward, and we graze the rear. Because we can not get rid of the post-colonial mentality.

– Now a large percentage of people who felt themselves to be Ukrainians, but also a large part of the thinking in old categories. In your opinion, what makes people in the Soviet era to think as Europeans? On the contrary, right now think in terms of a country that no longer exists?

– It is not in the country. The point of the Eurasian identity. Because it is the identity matrix was formed hundreds of years, it works at all, all the people living on this continent. And it defines the behavior of these people for the future. Metamorphosis is very slow, very slow changes. You say people feel European. They want to be Europeans. This reflective level of consciousness. Consciously they want, but they can be them? Do they want to be responsible? Freedom without responsibility – it’s nothing. Responsible work, cooperation, respect for the law. What is the difference Eurasia from Europe? Because in Europe there is respect for the law, and in Eurasia it is not. In Eurasia, not the law operates, and the person: the president, the governor, or first secretary. And we are hooked, because we live in a 300 years old Eurasian empire.

Partly we are Europeans, because the influence of the West European identity on us. We want to be Europeans, but still can not, because people think: if someone makes reforms for us. However, it should be this: not one but yourself. Fight against corruption – not somewhere, but in themselves. When you start with yourself, then you have this sense of responsibility. If you do not remake himself a little, then the children will be dissolved. No need to have the illusion that the very desire to live in Europe enough. You must be able to live as Europeans live. Modest, worthy, respect the law and work. Modestly – it including without transcendental material wealth.

– In all periods of development of Ukraine there were groups of people who are called moral authorities. But it seems they do not always hear …

– People must have the need to listen, first and foremost. If people have no need to listen to them – this is a problem people. Recently passed into eternity Eugene Sverstyuk. For me – the moral authority. But how many people knew him? I listen to it? How many people have corrected the life according to the principles of which he spoke? We all know how to live. But the country does not work … So, something is wrong …

Sourse, 27/08/2015

About the trial of Nadia Savchenko

Member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels sees several options for the end of the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko – it can award a short time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation, and if Savchenko will provide a long term, it will mean that Russia ready for isolation.

If the international observers will be present at the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, it will complicate the process for Russia, as the case is fabricated, said Iosif Zisels. He said this in a comment edition of “Gordon” .

“In principle, the government may announce in the end the decision is already past the court, and said, Behold, I’m sorry, did not work to attract public and observers This one option Of course, the Kremlin is not beneficial to the presence of observers at the trial because he falsified, in my subjective.. . According to observers, especially European ones, may complicate the court, which is not the case for Russia is very easy “, – said Zissels.

According to him, the results of the trial Savchenko show what development strategy chosen Russia – the international isolation or compromise with the West.

“What is all over, I just can not say, because it does not possess all the volume of information. In addition, Russia is a country full of uncertainty. It may be a relatively short period of time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation. On the other hand, Putin can show . that he was at all do not care, give Savchenko long time, and go to the final separation from all over the world as a result of the court will be clear what kind of tactics Russia chooses – complete isolation or still relatively compromise “, – said Zissels.

He did not think that at the time he was taken from the Moscow Savchenko in danger, despite the fact that the exact location is not known nor the lawyers nor relatives.

“I would not say that it was hidden, it is not entirely correct. We can say that in Russia there is a very old and important principle that when it formulated Stalin: There are people – there is a problem, no man – no problem. If authorities stated that they did not know where Savchenko worthwhile to worry about, but they do not yet speak, “- Zissels said.

Why and where Russia hid Savchenko?

A preliminary hearing on the case of Ukrainian pilots Hope Savchenko in the Donetsk Court of the Rostov region of the Russian Federation is scheduled for July 30th. July 17 Savchenko was was transferred from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don. July 22 protection Savchenko said he did not know where the aviator. Until July 27 the Russian authorities, by law, can not report her whereabouts. July 23 the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Ella Pamfilova has sent a formal request to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and the Federal Service of Execution of Punishments to the requirement to quickly provide information on the whereabouts of Savchenko. Before his transfer Ukrainka write a will, because it assumes that in Rostov it might have something happen.

Savchenko was captured by militants in June 2014 in Luhansk region, and then illegally exported to Russia. Thus, in the Russian jail, she is more than a year.

July 13, the General Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation approved the indictment against Savchenko and sent the case to the court. Pilot accused of the murder of two Russian citizens in the Luhansk region, as well as attempted murder. Ukrainka his guilt did not recognize.

Protection Savchenko asked that her trial was held in Moscow, instead of the Rostov region, and then looked at the jury, but the lawyers denied all petitions.

Sourse, 24/07/2015

It all starts with the exceptions of the rule

The Jews of Ukraine or Ukrainian Jews? Former dissident and co-president of the Vaad of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels – a civilizational choice and formation of a political nation.

– Joseph, a lot of talk lately about a new phenomenon – the birth of Ukrainian Jewry as a special form of identity of unknown a few years ago …

– All the Jewish communities of Europe passed a similar transformation. Including our closest neighbors, enough to read the article of the Polish-Jewish intellectual Konstanty Gebert, stresses that, despite all the vicissitudes of the general history of Polish Jews say about themselves: “We – the Poles.” According to him, democracy as a basic value, appreciate and Jews. “I’m not surprised that the Ukrainian Jews are mostly supported Ukrainian independence – says Gebert This phenomenon is repeated in Europe regularly Every time when some nations are independent, the Jews, as a rule, are on their way…”

In western Europe, the reform of Jewish identity began in the era of the Haskalah, when the Count of Clermont-Tonnerre in the Constituent Assembly proposed to equalize the rights of the Jews, because they are part of the French nation. He spoke of a nation in the European sense of the term – a political nation. It was then born the concept of the French law of Moses, the Germans of the Mosaic law, that is, Jewish identity takes on a new form – civil. Most European countries one way or another have come to such an understanding of the identity of the middle of the XIX century, the Russian Empire, that did not happen – it was moving along a path. I’m not talking about the lag phase, it’s just another path – within the framework of the Eurasian identity could not appear Russian and Ukrainian law of Moses.

– However, in Ukraine for centuries his name in the Eurasian paradigm, the process began …

– Yes, and it’s painfully long process – the formation of a political nation in the Western European sense. We all – originally from the Soviet Union, we all Soviet Jews, the main feature of which was the identification state anti-Semitism. We could not know Jewish history, tradition, language – to know nothing other than a couple of Jewish jokes, and, nevertheless, remain different. Precisely because of the state of anti-Semitism. How many of the nearly half million Ukrainian Jews were parishioners of one of the 14 active synagogues under the Soviets? Several hundred elderly. Therefore, Soviet Jews, and even “anti-Soviet Jews” like me, for example, come from the same “cradle”.

Then Ukraine became a sovereign state, and we started to get the Jews of Ukraine, while maintaining all the Soviet, but rather, Eurasian features – related to basic values, the role of government, religion, private property, etc. This civilizational values ​​that are absorbed with their mother’s milk, and do not change overnight, as the overnight Jews of Ukraine can not become Ukrainian Jews.

– Ukrainian National Democrats have long criticized the fact that in terms of cultural identity of Jews in Ukraine pro-Russian. While half of the country, including ethnic Ukrainians, belong to the same – the Russian-speaking – camp.

– It’s true, in another’s eye speck see, we do not notice the log in your … Jews living in Ukraine and are guided by the surrounding society.

– The more that the majority of the country’s Jews live exactly in the south-eastern regions.

– I would not connect to the civilizational choice place to stay – we are all Europeans and all the little little Eurasians – Ukrainians, Russian, and Jews. Just Russian Jews, who stood on the Maidan, made its civilizational choice in favor of Europe, but today many of these choices are at war. We go through the same path as that of the whole country – become Ukrainians in the political sense of the word – regardless of language, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. I stress that we are Ukrainian Jews, not because they are beginning to speak Ukrainian. I was in 1978 named in the party press “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist.” Apparently, even then I was a Ukrainian Jew, though he spoke in Ukrainian is much worse than it is now. Not in the language, and not in the religion business, and in civilizational choice. feature

And those of us who supported the Ukrainian choice not because of fashion or pragmatic reasons, but because (and this says Gebert) that prefer democracy – they are the Ukrainian Jews. Of course, the well known authoritarian leaders who sympathized with the Jews, such as Pilsudski. But when he died, Pilsudski, the Jews remembered how well they lived under Marshal – say, your grandfather died.

Yes, Jews have traditionally focused on power, we treat it loyally, sometimes entering into conflict with the aspirations of the people among whom we live. What to do – it is our history, our mentality. However, other Jews at all times defended democratic values ​​and participated in the national liberation movements, becoming part of one or another political nations.

– In our case, this process has become possible only after the Ukrainians themselves have changed their model for understanding the nation, rejecting ethnic nationalism, tailored on the patterns of the 1930s …

– It did not begin on the Maidan. I joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in 1978, become acquainted with a new generation of Ukrainian Nationalists, did not cave, otherwise I would not have joined them. Moses Fishbein poet in the 1980s worked in the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, as a Ukrainian nationalist …

– You’re talking about exceptions …

– It all starts with exceptions, and I was not the first. In the Polish uprising in 1794 involved not many Jews in the November Uprising 1830 there were more, and in 1863 – even more. When you can talk about the birth of Polish Jewry? Not in 1863, and at the end of the XVIII century. With Ukrainian Jews the same story. It’s a question of quality, not quantity. There are such people, and they are becoming more – Jews of Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa – this is not the Soviet Jews. Some of them are fighting in the Donbass, and they will go to the guerrilla groups, if will be in occupation.

It all starts with the exceptions in the 1970 Ukrainian Jews had very little, how little and Ukrainian national democrats, but the phenomenon has existed. Another thing is that the heroes of Ukraine, that is, the people who died for the independence of his people today, really, other. After Heavenly hundreds of pieces of Bandera and Shukhevych began to leave in the past.

Hundreds of children are dying today at the front – they are the new heroes of Ukraine and the new symbols of Ukrainian nationalism, although many of them do not even think that it is – Ukrainian nationalism.

– There are other forms of nationalism …

– And then there was all black, and now – not all white. And now there is an anti-Semite Levko Lukyanenko and 13 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, which we identify as the right-wing radicals, among them two men with neo-Nazi backgrounds – Aleksandr Mosiychuk and Dmitry Linko. I am convinced that the coalition does not include these characters, and I will fight for it as well as fighting for something that the leader of the Social-National Assembly Andrey Biletsky did not go to the deputies of the People’s Front list.

– Do not you think that this new identity is largely built on the denial, on confrontation with Russia. But aggression, sooner or later will end, and what remains?

– How to start identity? No one knows. But we know, for example, what happened in the 2012 elections, and why 10% voted for the radicals of the VO “Svoboda”. Not because they are right-wing radicals, it was a protest vote against Yanukovych. In any identity combined various factors – both “for” and “against.” I became the “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist” (with all the conventions of this definition) in 1978, because it was sympathetic to the National Democrats and the Communists did not like – it brought me to the dissident movement. Religious Zionists in Israel – against the creation of a Palestinian state and the expansion of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria – the series goes on.

Of course, in the absence of an external threat could start natural fragmentation of society, but it has never been united. In the meantime, the process of formation of the Ukrainian political nation and Ukrainian Jewry, as one of its components. The process itself testifies to the fact that Ukraine still Europeanized, Eurasian identity is arranged differently. The activity of the country is in Europe, the greater the Ukrainian Jews. And it’s not in the formal membership in the EU, it is important that the feeling of the people, their mentality, their identities were European – this is a very long process, but it has already started …

Interviewed by Maxim Sukhanov

Sourse, 18/05/2015

Ukrainians are not ripe for reconciliation

This year Ukraine celebrates the Day of Reconciliation for the first time and memory in honor of all the victims of the Second World War. Are Ukrainians really come to terms,  “Gordon” asked the chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosifa Ziselsa.

The idea of ​​reconciliation is popular at any time, but it can not be used in any situation to any two people, because in the conflict, which stretches since World War II, in fact, there are several dimensions.

Besides the Soviet-German, on the other hand – the French-English-German, even on our side had several dimensions: the Polish-German, Polish-Ukrainian, Ukrainian-German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian, even participated in the Carpathians in the battles with the UPA. There are a number of measurements, and most importantly – the Ukrainian-Soviet.

For example, I know of a case in 1962, when two Ukrainian women who were connected in the UPA, were shot in the bunker in the Ternopil region of the soldiers. In 1962, the year!

If we talk about today’s reconciliation, it is, on the one hand, civilization, because the Ukrainians decided that enough they have to live in the empire with the Eurasian civilization, and want to try the life of the European and then compared in 300 years, in which one It was better. On the other hand, this reconciliation is artificially caused by Russian aggression.

I do not think that we are ripe for reconciliation because the still very many forces did not satisfy his ambitions. If we talk about the dimensions that were during the Second World War, for them, of course, it has come, because we see a lot of progress on the line of Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation.

But it is not yet complete, as some Poles, for example, reacted nervously to the laws that have been adopted for the rehabilitation of UPA and other Ukrainian national organizations. This is a complex mishmash in which you need to understand. Find out about what exactly we are talking reconciliation. Young did not have these conflicts.

In Spain, where the civil war was prolonged, the family is still remembered, who had fought on which side. And this is not some kind of soft and hard memories. This is despite the fact that Franco (Spanish dictator Francisco Franco) has long put a monument to reconciliation for victims of the war on both sides.

In the southern states of the USA, despite the fact that since the civil war took place 150 years, also kept ancestral memory as to who fought for the North, and who – for the south. Although they live like the well, and the states do not fight each other, except that there is some confrontation during the election – more than one vote for Republicans, others – for the Democrats.

The issue of reconciliation is not so simple. Perhaps reconciliation at the level of Heads of State. Yushchenko (the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko), for example, has done a lot for this. But at the level of ordinary people a reconciliation does not take place so quickly.

In sociology, we see that in the last year the attitude of Ukrainians to the Poles has improved significantly, because millions of Ukrainians saw that the Poles actually help Ukraine in this complicated conflict. And as the Russian government not only did not help – she was the aggressor.

Veterans reluctance to shake hands says that a new conflict was superimposed on the old and on the contrary, it has strengthened rather than weakened.

Two of civilization people can live in peace, and they are in general, they lived more or less peacefully, despite the tension between the state structures, as long as there was no interference in each other’s identity. As soon as the intervention in the identity of other people, there is a huge energy instantly resistance.

Yet another dimension – the dimension of the Maidan – was for me as a reaction to a very significant part of Ukrainian society to try Yanukovych (fugitive ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych) and all his clique to bring us back to a state of the Eurasian identity, which we already do not want to be at as most of us.

This applies to the Donbas. This region has a different identity, and perhaps he did not want to live in a European way. If we are forced to compel him to do so, we get back the same great resistance power.

Decentralization is relevant if load it humanitarian, economic, financial and other aspects. Groisman (Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman) said several times that it is necessary to take into account the humanitarian aspect in decentralization. Historically. If we do not consider this aspect, it means that we do not spend real decentralization, it would be somewhat artificial.

Donbass within Ukraine should develop as he understands it in his own way. And the overall rate of the State of Ukraine, if it still exists, together with the Crimea and Donbas on the road to Europe must be sufficiently slow so as not to lose the regions that do not want to move in this direction. We need to talk, to explain, to try to continue to implement the values ​​that have more in Ukrainian society.

Sourse, 08/05/2015

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia

Iosif Zisels, human rights activist and head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Vaad, recalls with a smile, as in Soviet times it was called both a Zionist and a Ukrainian nationalist. Now, 40 years later, it again can be called zhidobanderovtsem, and the term has acquired a new meaning and a positive connotation.

In the Soviet Union he was a dissident, trying to defend the rights of Jews, and then joined the Ukrainian Helsinki human rights group. In 1978, on charges of defamation and anti-state activities Zissels received six years in a penal colony. Nine months before the liberation he was offered amnesty in exchange for a renunciation of political principles, but he refused.

Now, Soviet dissident and political prisoner, became one of the most influential Jews of Ukraine – he heads the largest Jewish organization, which is able at any time to lend a helping hand to every Jew of the country, engaged in the revival and strengthening of Jewish communities, their culture and religion, as well as helping wishing to exit in Israel.

Zissels well – known people abroad, where he is a member of the European and the World Jewish Congress, took over the functions of the public lobbyist Ukraine’s national interests. In his own words Zisels, he lives according to the covenant of the Jewish patriarch Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? “

“New time” meets Zissels in the office of the Association of Jewish Organizations, which is located in one of the academic buildings of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. It is a small unit into several rooms, on the door of which hung an advertisement for the recruitment of students to the specialization of Judaica. Zissels cordially invites you into his office and, distracted for a few minutes to say hello to each of his employees, invited to interview.

Ukrainians are very sensible nation, and therefore changes have been slow. Maidan two months stood and demanded concessions from the government. When I talk about that in France, there wondering how, two months? We would all smashed in two weeks!

Just Ukrainians other political temperament. We are moving at their own pace, which is slower than that of Poland or the Baltic countries. It must be taken as fact. Another problem is that our identity is dual, and expectations are always high, so some of us and sways from side to side. We believe that, if there was a revolution and change of power, all at once will change, but it is not.

Ukraine will of fate was between a European democracy and Eurasian authoritarian culture. And it is important to understand that if 20% of the population do not want to in Europe, this must somehow be considered. This is not a whim, just for them, Europe stranger. And we are encroaching on their identity, though hardly have that right.

Recall, Viktor Yanukovych wanted to encroach on our right to be Europeans – and the Maidan happened. The same thing is happening now. When threatened identity, even among people who are accustomed to submission, there is a huge energy resistance. We need to negotiate rather than fight.

Today in the country there is a desire to fight corruption, but it’s part of our culture. Corruption – is a part of Ukrainian identity. The law is not absolute for us, and its violation – not a sin, as in the West. And this shows our Eastern culture – there is not a law adopted in order to execute it, and that they enjoyed the strongest.

We used to live like this, we have formed a lot of secret agreements between government and society. For example, that the severity of the law is compensated by its failure. At low levels of wages authorities turned a blind eye to the fact that we steal, and the people turned a blind eye to the fact that steals power. In space, where there is no law with a capital letter, a person perceives any obstacle as a challenge, to solve the problem – that such obstacles put me, but I still find it, how to get around them.

So, to say, well, let’s fight against corruption, which many of us continue to steal – is meaningless. It is necessary to recognize the existence of tacit agreements and revise them. The struggle of society against corruption must be a struggle with ourselves.

Right now Ukrainian Jews began to realize themselves as Jews in Ukraine. In Europe, it happened in the late XIX century. In France, that’s when the Jews received equal rights with the French and called themselves the French law of Moses. We have this process takes place only now.

The Jews of Ukraine took a very active part in the Maidan. Were actively, perhaps, only the Crimean Tatars. And the Ukrainians have rated it – according to the latest sociological research, for the year related to the Jews and Crimean Tatars in the country has improved significantly.

We do not believe, how many Jews were on the Maidan, but we know that many of them then went to the front. The most paradoxical – some of them fought in the battalion of Azov, near the radical nationalists. In addition, in the east of the country and fight guys with Israeli passports. It is the volunteers who teach our soldiers. Israel has almost 100 years of war, and experience – most importantly, that he can pass Ukraine.

Israel does not help Ukraine officially because so fixated on their own security. In 2008, during the war in Georgia, Israel helped equip the Georgian air defense system. Then Georgia was hit by three Russian aircraft, and Israel received a warning from Russia that if he will continue to help Georgia, Iran gets a nuclear bomb, and Syria will face Russia’s S-300 missiles.

But while Israel – a democratic country, and the pressure of society can not be ignored. Most of the Israelis – people with democratic values, and they sympathize with Ukraine.

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia – will be less frustrating. Now, in many EU countries pre-election period. To support Ukraine, impose additional sanctions on Russia for them is to reduce the level of welfare of their countries and to expose their chances of winning at serious risk. Can help unless indirect pressure on Europe from the United States and Canada.

This is very similar to what happened in the 1930s. Germany regularly paid for oil and metals, and all wanted her to trade. Nobody wanted to see it as a monster, preferring to think that Germany will not fight with them, and with their competitors. After eight years of these errors have to pay a huge price.

We are no longer a peaceful country, and it will not be long. We need to get used to fight with minimal losses, rely on their own forces to protect their people, to rebuild the economy on a war footing, and not bury our heads in the sand. In Russia, too, there is no other option but to fight with Ukraine. They understand that with this government and with this partnership agreement is impossible.

Something we can count only when the disintegration processes in Russia will be intense. However, nobody in the world is not interested in this. What does it mean crumbling Russia? Huge fragments of the country armed with nuclear weapons. Putin, in spite of our curses, still controls the country. If only we have not climbed, prices would not be him. But he can not climb, the logic of empire – its meaning in the expansion.

I do not believe in the possibility of democratization of Russia. I spent two years in the Ural camps, lived in Moscow for more than a year. Russia within its present borders will never be a European country. There is no critical mass of people who can change the destiny of Russia. Moreover, not all countries should be European. The world rests on the balance sheet. And who will be the European world to balance China? Any democratization of Russia will lead to its disintegration, and this terrible future, with unpredictable consequences.

5 questions Iosifu Ziselsu:

– What event of your life you feel in charge?

– Of course, my participation in the dissident movement. I think all the most important thing happened then.

– What is your favorite city?

– I do not have a favorite book or a favorite city. I love Chernivtsi, where I spent my childhood, Kiev, in which I live. I like to be in Jerusalem and Barcelona.

– What move around the city?

– I have a Subaru Outback. This reliable, sturdy machine. Not very comfortable, but I like it.

– What is your monthly cost of living?

– I get a pension. More than ordinary people, but not enough to live a normal life. It is also engaged in consulting, working in a private firm. My problem is not how to provide for themselves, but rather where to find the money for our activities. Well, I have four kids that even adults, but they still need help. Perhaps today I spend at least $ 1 thousand. Per month.

– What do you seek?

– As anyone – to self-realization, once satisfied all other requirements. And I think I am quite good to deal with it.

Sourse, 02/05/2015

I do not think that without the consent of the inhabitants the city will be renamed

Without the consent of the inhabitants of the city should not be renamed, he said in a comment  “GORDON”  chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

“I’m not sure that without the decision of the local community, you can rename the city. But you’ve seen over the last 23 years, at least one law, which is performed in its entirety, just as it was written? We live in a space where the laws are not in order to fulfill them. laws of the people do not obey the laws of the people do not respect the laws of the people do not follow. They use the laws to achieve some of their goals. I do not think there will be a city renamed without the consent of residents. This should be without hysterics, and in a peaceful discussion. I do not think that without a Announce the masses it can be done then we will get additional negative effects, which have enough “, -. Zissels said.

There is a clash of two civilizations, so think about what the consequences will ban communist symbols more correctly, he said.

“There’s a novel in which the hero is a young man seeking a countess, she was refused, he turns the whole world, conquering all of Europe, and when the Countess is ready him to give up, it turns out that it is – an elderly woman and he no longer needed so. . and with that we now live in a turbulent time, we have a war on, and not just between the separatists and the Ukrainians, but a war between two civilizations -. European and Eurasian It’s so powerful collision, what to think, what consequences will result in a ban of symbols, I it seems to be incorrect. I do not think th that it will lead to some serious consequences to the positive or to the negative “- Zissels said.

However, in his opinion, for many people, the victims of the regime, this decision will be important.

“I have not yet comprehended once the consequences of yesterday’s solutions. I dreamed about it many years ago, because he was a dissident and was imprisoned in Soviet times for political activities, but it’s been more than 20 years. Although many people for whom life was a struggle with the communist system, it is very important that finally at least the end of life to get satisfaction from the fact that these misanthropic ideology abolished and banned, “- said the expert.

The honey, he said, the current law many inaccuracies that should be corrected.

“East is bad knows what the UPA, and the West does not speak what the UPA. It was a long time ago. So many myths of positive and negative during the Soviet period was unwound. The very acronym UPA with a hyphen, which created the Soviet ideology, did not exist in nature . The law had a lot of confusion -. terminological, factual, grammatical Before this law was passed, I was just going to make corrections I have quite an old man, to know how to be called in reality there are mixed up the names of organizations…History is no such organization “OUN” Yes “OUN” one, is “OUN” Second, there is a “OUN” third -. There are three “OUN” – Zissels said.

“Live – see very little consequence were other laws, I think, will also be with these Someone uses them for next separatist sentiments, someone on the contrary uses the dominance of pro-European sentiment in the end still everything goes and vanishes… “- he concluded.

Recall, April 9, the Verkhovna Rada  adopted  a law recognizing the communist regime 1917-1991 criminally and banning communist symbols.

The adopted law about the condemnation of the communist regime  contained  rule to rename the settlements, which are named in honor of the communist-era figures.

Sourse, 10/04/2015

Today, it is a conflict between civilization and the negation of civilization

What is happening today – a revision of the entire set of rules established in the world after the Second World War.

Iosif Zisels, chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups, – performance at the channel marathon  UKRLIFE.TV  on “The international implications of the terrorist attacks in France”:

There are two important systemic factor that differentiates Western Europe from the East and, in particular, from the Ukraine.

The first factor – is the presence of entities associated with the radical Islamic movement, they are in Western Europe, they do not exist in Eastern Europe. Perhaps, as we move to Europe they will, but for now it is not.

The second factor – the movement, fashionable in the left intelligentsia, in which human rights, in particular, the protection of the rights of Palestinians leads to anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment.

Sourse, 12/01/2015

The level of anti-Semitism in Ukraine is not increased

Do you see now Ukraine growth of anti-Semitism and xenophobia – to this and other questions in an interview with DW said the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Iosif Zisels.

Iosif Zisels – Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups. In an interview with DW Zissels she told whether there is in Ukraine, the rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and also responded to a number of other issues.

DW: In Russia, many say that with the advent of the current Ukrainian politicians in the country have intensified anti-Semitic sentiments. Is it so?

Iosif Zisels: I was one of the leaders of the Jewish community can assure that there is no – not only sharp, but generally no increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Ukraine. We are very carefully and attentively fix every incident, every speech, every case of an attack, and every act of vandalism. And this level – as last year. Despite the tumultuous events that took place on the Maidan in Kiev, on the military operations in the south-east of Ukraine, the level of anti-Semitism in the country increases. It was and remains one of the lowest in Eastern Europe.

– And what is the level of anti-Semitism in Russia?

– As regards the level of anti-Semitism in Russia – it is too short. Just as in Ukraine, he measured a dozen or two dozen cases per year. But Russia – authoritarian country with underdeveloped democratic institutions. And in this authoritarian model of existence can be played “Jewish card”. In Ukraine, too, is to be feared that the state wants to use it, but fortunately, there is control belongs to the civil society.

– What can you say about the allegations in the city address that the current government allegedly tolerate manifestations of neo-Nazism?

– First of all, it is a question of terminology. I think really understand what Nazism, only to narrow specialists. They are our experts, with whom we have worked for many years. In Ukraine, as in any other country, there are right-wing movements, some of which resemble the neo-Nazi. But they are in Europe. Right-wing parties have almost all European countries, and they are much more dangerous than what we see today in Ukraine.

So, the party “Freedom” is not passed to the new Ukrainian parliament, which was in the previous Parliament when Yanukovych was there 37 mandates. This demonstrates the falling level of interest in the radical demagogy of this order. Lyashko passed Radical Party, which is very different: it is less than the national radical demagogy, but more general radical demagoguery. In majority districts it took a few people who can be considered right-wing radicals with aspects of neo-Nazism. Very few of them: 423 MP – about 10. That is less than it was in the last Parliament, where there were 37.

But I think that the concerns of the Parliament, there was a general shift of the entire spectrum a little to the right. Because such a national-democratic parties as Block Petro Poroshenko, “Popular Front” and “self-help” – are themselves center-right. That is, the parliament’s center of gravity has shifted slightly to the right, and is a tribute to wartime. Requirements radicals is not particularly noticeable.

– The fact that the Parliament did not pass the “Freedom” and “Right Sector”, can be considered a success of Ukrainian democracy?

– In fact, these parties were radical demagogic. Moreover, these were the projects financed and designed to split the opposition with Yanukovych’s government. That is, in part, they were man-made projects. They can not be considered as such natural, organic manifestations of the right of the spectrum, as can be seen in many countries.

In Ukraine, the main control of the right-wing radicals has not the government, as is the case in Russia, and civil society. It itself copes with this low level of pravoradikalizma in the country, making it much better than the state. And it is – a guarantee that this rate will not be great.

– Earlier you said that “right-wing and neo-Nazi forces” involved in the conflict in the Donbass, from both sides? You can name specific examples?

– On the Russian side, according to our experts, fights about 200 neo-Nazis. Among them are, first of all, “Russian National Unity”. This is a known neo-Nazi organization in Russia, which has its own recruitment offices, training camps for militants and separate connections on the front. Others – such as, for example, the former party Limonov, is “dyed” in other colors. It is important to note also that the present or volunteers or mercenaries from European right-wing neo-Nazi parties. They, too, are fighting on the Russian side.

On the Ukrainian side, too, there is a man 30-40 – skinheads from the right-wing group “Social-National Assembly”, “Patriots of Ukraine”, for which we are following closely. In this regard, first of all, we may note the battalion “Azov”, where there may be even a few dozen people from the “Social-National Assembly.” Andrey Beletsky – the commander of the battalion (now it is a regiment) – the head of “Social-National Assembly.” However, he argues that the war changed their ideology.

– From what sources do you get information?

– We have a number of experts of the European level. We use their data, and trust them, as for many years working with them. Moreover, our data are taken from the report of the State Department’s anti-Semitism in the world and the OSCE report on the monitoring and analysis of anti-Semitism in the world. I myself 25 years engaged in the construction of networks for monitoring and analysis of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

Sourse, 06/11/2014

Israeli President raised on Russian historiography

The head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, a well-known human rights activist and Soviet dissident, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels in an interview with “Gromadska radio” stated that he could not agree with the speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. He accused the Ukrainians in the complicity in the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Second World War, informs eizvestia.com .

“He’s an old man. He bears the stereotypes of the past, historiography, which today is not considered objective. He was brought up in the Russian historiography. Israel, at least the older generation still lives under its influence. It does not reflect the opinion of the young. After all, the young religious Israelis have stood on the Maidan. These views he expressed today – it’s yesterday, “- said Zissels.

He recalled the visit to Israel of the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko in 2007.

“The delegation came to Yad Vashem and asked to show documents that indicate the involvement of Roman Shukhevych (OUN leader during World War II) to such crimes. But no one was able to show. This stereotype does not provide evidence, if everyone knows it. No, not everyone knows that. For example, I do not trust that it is not necessary to confirm the archival authentic documents “- Zissels said.

He noted that the OUN and UPA fighters fought for Ukraine, and they can not wear the stereotypical labels.

September 27 during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada parliamentary hearings devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that the Ukrainians have been involved in the repression against the Jews during the Second World War. “Many of the accomplices of crimes were Ukrainians. And among them highlights the OUN, which mocked Jews, killed them, and in many cases, were given to the Germans. It is also true that there were more than 2.5 thousand Righteous among the Nations “-. Said Rivlin.

Commenting on the Israeli president’s speech, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Vladimir Vyatrovich said Rivlin repeated Soviet myth of the OUN involvement in the Holocaust. The head of the OUN Bogdan Chervak ​​Rivlin called the statement “a spit in the soul of the Ukrainians” and urged him not to watch Russian television, as it is “not just bad, but also indecent.”

During World War II, occupied Kiev Nazi troops used the tract Babi Yar, in the northwestern part of the city as a place of mass executions of civilians, most of whom were Jews. September 29, 1941 the entire Jewish population was obliged to come to the Babi Yar, where until September 30, was shot more than 33 thousand. Man on the orders of the occupation administration. According to various estimates, at Babi Yar were killed by 70 thousand. Up to 200 thousand. Man.

Sourse, 29/09/2016

The system rotted from within and dognila before disbanding

Soviet-era dissident Yosif Zisels told why refused amnesty in the Gorbachev era, what regrets today about whether modern Ukraine may repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime

Yosif Zisels – human rights activist, dissident, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. In 1978 he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He spent six years in prisons on charges of “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Every dissident own destiny. For example, a man wrote a poem. As my friend, the Ukrainian dissident, a former teacher in the Ternopil region kultprosvetuchilische Mikola Grobal, wrote a poem called “Dumi moї, Dumi”. For this was sent to prison. For the poem. Simply laid out thoughts on paper. Or Semyon Gluzman, which persecuted for their professional activities. He made the correspondence psychiatric examination for General Pyotr Grigorenko and mathematician Leonid Plyushch and promulgated it.

The dissent came for different reasons: national, democratic, moral, emotional. The reasons were not so important to us. Most importantly, we together fought criminal imperial communist system.

I actually grew up without parents. So I have virtually no such an important element of the psyche as a “social instinct of self-preservation,” usually brings up children in a normal Jewish family. Simply no one to create it. I started very early to read samizdat. I think it is no coincidence. The fact that we were surrounded by then, and what we have been taught do not match. Not everyone is dissonance when life does not match with the pictures, which are described in textbooks. Some quietly absorbed in itself is doublethink, I called it “social schizophrenia.” Some do it quietly. Some resisted.

The Soviet government constantly demanded confirmation of loyalty. A variety of ways. Those who have studied, passed the party’s history, scientific communism. Was political information was the Komsomol, and other institutions, which are constantly monitored by the people through an extensive network. Not only controlled the KGB people were the party, trade union, Komsomol and Pioneer organizations. And I went multilevel selection. Revealed disgruntled, obstinate. Once a person has manifested itself, it was a signal that we should look at it.

I went to the dissidence almost deliberately. I drew it. I wanted to know the truth about life, about history, about relationships. And find the right answers in samizdat, as permitted by the literature is almost impossible to find the truth. It was important that others know the truth. Not immediately, at first reading itself, and then you want to share with others. Then you become it a little.

An important stimulus was originally a private confrontation lies and violence. You try to realize his need for truth is not simply to distribute this literature. Then there is the need to sign any appeals, appeals to protest against human rights violations. I’m talking about the way. Some stop at reading the literature, some – at that distribute other books, some do not sign the appeal and appeal, and others pass this hurdle and continue to develop. Then there was a real help to political prisoners, in which I was involved.

The apogee of my dissident activity can be considered as 1978 , when I was actively engaged in case of using the power of Soviet psychiatry to persecute dissidents and investigated more than 80 such stories, in the summer became a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and in December he was arrested for the first time.

I do not consider myself a victim. I tried to do something as far as possible. I tried something to counter the Soviet regime and its powerful repressive apparatus. Authorities responded to me quite “adequately”. I knew I was not alone in this, but the dissidents are not many, only a few thousand to two hundred millionth Soviet people. Nevertheless, it was more personal fulfillment, not an illusory calculation somehow undermine Soviet power. It was clear that our efforts it was impossible to destroy. She was rotting from the inside and dognila before disbanding.

The fact that the dissidents were known all over the world, destroyed the Soviet myth. 220 million people live happily, moving towards communism, nothing else is willing, but there are several thousand people who by the very fact of its existence, argue that a false myth. Here I was among those people. It was my way. I chose him and he went through it. And, fortunately, I did not meet with an obstacle that would have made me turn back.

I was already an inveterate “recidivist”, when I was offered an amnesty, it was in January 1987, went a second three-year term of my imprisonment, I had to sit 9 months. As for all the forced dialogue with the authorities, with the KGB, with investigators from the prosecutors, I did not sign any paper, any evidence not given, I do not want to change his principles when I needed to sit 9 months. I calmly refused the amnesty. She was so very communist. We had to sign a document that You shall not engage in political activity. Some signed, and then continued to work.

I did not believe that engaging in political activities. It was a formality, but I took it very seriously. If I sign it, then break its principle “not to cooperate with the authorities.” I was not sorry, and now do not regret it.

I’m sorry about the other. Going your own way, you are doomed to suffering families. With time comes the understanding that your free choice causes suffering of others: family, friends. KGB worked very well. They covered not only the one who resists, but all its surroundings, creating an inconvenience to them in life, to put it mildly. This was done to set up against the man his environment. I lost a few people who thought their comrades in these years. Some stayed, we’ve been friends for 50 years. They passed the test with me.

In total I spent in prisons and zones 6 years and the year at home under the administrative supervision of the refusal to accept the “Gorbachev amnesty.” Both times I was accused under Article 187 (approx.) Of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, in the “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Any authoritarian regime, the more totalitarian, based on the fact that there is an external enemy, there is internal, and it is necessary to deal with them. And for people to explain who the external enemy – the imperialists, capitalists, the NATO military. And the internal – dissidents “fifth column”, which does not want to go to the general structure of communism. It was a massive propaganda against such people. We tried to turn public opinion against these people. Isolate, to make their lives uncomfortable, unbearable. Even when you see that article in the newspaper against you false from beginning to end, it is embarrassing to you, the residue remains. And there are articles about the dissidents, whom the authorities deemed “outcasts” were enough.

I lived in the city of Chernivtsi and did not face persecution for the use of the Ukrainian language. For too active promotion – possible. It is already considered nationalism. And only the KGB decided what distinguishes patriotism from nationalism. On the other hand, I grew up in a Jewish environment, and only a student came to understand many issues, including national.

Can modern Ukraine to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime? Ukrainians are already very difficult to build as they were built in the Soviet era. Once upon a time this would have killed millions, and intimidate others and build. Most of destroying a part buy, this was done in the 20s, 30s. Soviet authorities or killed or drove out, or bought. So to build “our elites.” Therefore there is nothing surprising that she is today. I think that the repetition of history is impossible. It is impossible to kill 5.7 million people, to build a line of others. But the fact of the formal independence of the country does not guarantee the economic prosperity of the people and democratic development, respect for the law, eradication of corruption and the development of a new system of values. As mathematicians say, a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Recorded Jan Goncharenko

See. Also Special Project “Dissidents” edition Fokus.ua and STB for the Suppression of dissidents in the USSR

Source: focus.ua , 25.08.2016

Sourse, 25/08/2016

Yanukovych must be condemned, but corruption is a derivative of general disrespect for the law

stigmatization campaign corruption, declared an international human rights organization Transparency International, is to focus on the figure of the Ukrainian society fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych that will distract from the system solution to the problem, said a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

Viktor Yanukovych was not born corrupt, and become so because of the mentality of Ukrainian society, says Iosif Zisels.

Yanukovych headed the world ranking corrupt officials on the results of voting on the website of the international human rights organization Transparency International, which announced that begins stigmatization campaign against corruption, taking the first nine places.

“I would not want to exaggerate the importance of this campaign. While any steps to eliminate in the Ukrainian society of corruption are good, and the worst of them will not. But I’m inclined to think that we need a systematic approach. Yanukovych is not born corrupt, it is a question of education, which is determined by All the circumstances of life in the Eurasian society is corruption -. it is part of our mentality and culture we are born, live and die in corruption. “- Zissels said.

“Condemn Yanukovych necessary, he was president of the country, but to focus on his figure could divert attention from the systemic problem In fact, corruption is dissolved in all, and the problem can not be solved without the long-term by re-society programs, building on the Western partners.” – he added he.

Zissels stressed that “over the last year in this regard has been made longer than in the previous 25 years.”

“Transparency International does a lot, forcing public institutions to deal with corruption, I know this organization, I support her contacts, her activity is doubtless useful, but how it can be assumed that it decides for 45,000,000th country of its problems..?” – said human rights activist .

According to him, “corruption – is a derivative of general disrespect for the law in general, including to the tax.”

“Who pays taxes in Ukraine Corruption – this including the theft of the budget, but we do not fill it I am sure that the majority of Ukrainians do not pay all the taxes that they are put there are plenty of other laws, which we treat as.. . well as to tax is the question of respect for the law if it appears, will result in the condemnation of anti-corruption Yanukovych -.. a good measure, but it does not give a general respect for the law “- he said.

The human rights activist believes that “in the fight against corruption the first place should take no condemnation, no anti-corruption bureau or anti-corruption prosecutor, namely re-society in the spirit of European values”.

“With our values ​​we will not become either economically developed, nor a truly democratic country, to tackle corruption. Only the union of all the forces of civil society and reform forces in the government, if they are there, in the long term can give some result for the whole Ukraine, if not for us, our children, or even grandchildren, “- he concluded.

Yanukovych was the President of Ukraine with the February 25, 2010. February 22, 2014, after three months of protests on the Maidan Verkhovna Rada recognized it withdrew from the post and do not fulfill their obligations, then new presidential elections were announced. In February last year, Yanukovych left Ukraine, is now with his family, he lives in Russia.

In Ukraine against Yanukovych opened several criminal proceedings. He is accused of the mass murder of citizens, misappropriation of state property, the seizure of power by unconstitutional means, actions aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order. Concerning it applies conviction in absentia procedure .

Yanukovych’s name was included in the investigation of the Interpol database, but at the end of July 2015 wanted to suspend consideration of the complaint of lawyers who insist on the political background of the case against the former president.

Sourse, 11/02/2016

Without the knowledge of history you like cod on the waves – swim, where will the current flow

With this well-known journalist Natalia Feshchuk man talking in his second home Chernivtsi – Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, co-founder of which he is. The conversation took place before he got into the list of moral authority among the Ukrainians, compiled a few days ago one of the Ukrainian media . By the way, an interview with Iosifom Samuilovichem Ziselsom just ended his reflections on what moral authority are always there in the community, if only listen to them …

Joseph Zisels many posts and distinctions, among them – the head of the Association of Jewish organizations and communities of Ukraine, executive vice-president of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. And in a nutshell: Ukrainian dissident Jewish descent, twice convicted for anti-Soviet activities. He never worked in government, says the most comfortable feeling when engaged in public affairs.

As in the Union, and now he has his own strong opinions on what principles should build a true nation and a strong country. And yet convinced that a free man – a responsible person.

Zissels has been living in Kiev. But here, in the heart of Chernivtsi, it remains a piece of his heart, because it is here, on the street Schiller once lived with his parents.

“I have a very warm attitude to the history and the people who are no longer”

– Mr. Joseph, when you decided to found the Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, it was a sense of duty to those Jews who had once been so much in Chernivtsi?

– My parents – not local Jews and Bessarabia. They arrived in Chernivtsi after the Second World War. In Chernivtsi I am, unfortunately, not born. But I have lived here and interacted with the people remaining from before the war. And it was German-speaking Jews, there were already a little while, in the 50-60s, – two or three hundred, maybe left from the huge community, which before the war amounted to almost 80 thousand people. In the city of 120 thousand people two-thirds – it was the Jewish population. And I was struck by the story of this community, which flourished at the end of the XVIII century, when the Austrian authorities to allow Jews to settle here. But almost half of the Jews was destroyed during the Holocaust, and the other half remained in the city, but has not been able to live under the Soviet regime. In 1940, the Jews were some illusions, many of them were left sentiment, but European, and they waited for the Red Army, because on the other hand – Hitler. And they were deported to Siberia, one third of them in 1941, 12 thousand Bukovinians – Jews. Those who have stayed here, came under Romanian occupation, who was shot, who died in concentration camps. Who stayed with the time left for Israel. Live in Chernivtsi remaining units …

And I wanted to recreate the story. I thought, this is our duty. Because once the Jewish community in the city was very strong. And those who came here after the war, there were already other people – Bessarabian East Ukrainian Jews were very Soviet. I want to say that everything was up to the First World War is well. And when it came, Romania, the Jewish community has undergone a lot of suffering. This, of course, does not compare with the Holocaust. But Romania was a strong anti-Semitism. Second, the Jews of Romania considers patriots Austria-Hungary and taking revenge for that. We have archival documents showing that the Bukovina Ukrainians and Poles in 1918 protested against the annexation of this region Romania. And among the Jews of Bukovina was a protest. And then the Romanians because it does not give citizenship to many Jews. But still it was not, as in the Soviet Union. 1940 showed who is who. And those who lamented that’s how bad it was when Romania saw what could be worse than under Soviet rule. Some of the Jews, unfortunately, did not have time to leave. We traveled already in 60-70 years, when there was again a possibility. I know these families, helping them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them.

– You always emphasized that you – Ukrainian Jew. Now in Ukraine, many of our citizens such as the re-born, they want to know more about their country and its history. Some, on the contrary, is still passive. But to be a true citizen of the country, it seems to be inside? As it has been in your family?

– In me many laid. Because in a city like Chernivtsi laid a lot – here is the crossroads of history, culture and languages. This tolerant spirit of Chernivtsi. What is the difference Bukovina Jews of Galician, for example? One of the features – tolerance of the province, it has passed and the Jews too. There was a lot of tolerance and among Jews, too: between the orthodox and reformist currents in Judaism. In other cities they are irreconcilable, here they are communicated. For example, the chief rabbi of Chernivtsi was the Reform rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court was Orthodox rabbi.

At home, I received a Soviet-Jewish upbringing, not a purely Jewish. But I never hid their Jewish identity. I’ve always known who I am. At the same time, it is Ukraine, and I felt a Ukrainian part too. When I was at university, he attended lectures in Ukrainian. My Ukrainian language more with the university, the house spoke Russian. Yiddish was too, but in my family it was less. Today, I understand that if the Ukrainian laid into you since childhood, and then it starts to work. We in the Union of Soviet Jews were in we had very little Jewish. We knew about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and all. Few knew their language, history, literature. And only at the end of the 80s we started to restore the Jewish life, and began to become Ukrainian Jews who consider Ukraine as their motherland.

“Without faith and stories you like cod on the waves – swim, which carries”

– You were convicted of anti-Soviet propaganda. And what was the essence of your “propaganda”?

– I’ve been doing many things that could not do then. In Chernivtsi distributed samizdat. Helping political prisoners and their families. Gathering information on human rights violations and passed it. Joining the Ukrainian Helsinki group. There were people who helped – Ukrainian, Russian, not only Jews. It was a more or less intelligent circle. But in prison then, in 1978, was just me. Sentenced to three years. In the 84 th year – three more. At six.

– But the same could give and more …

– Could … But you do what you have to do. I considered it my duty to you need to do something against that power. As part of our small capacity.

– Who are the Ukrainian dissidents influenced you?

– How did I know about Ukrainian history, the Holodomor? Of Ukrainian dissidents. I talked with a lot of Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mihailom Gorinem. I traveled a lot for Ukraine, provedyvat those freed. I was looking for traces of what was called the investigation of psychiatric persecution, looking for people who have suffered in this way. I communicated with Ivan Svetlichny, Zinoviem Krasovskim, Panas Zalivahi – famous artist of Frankivsk. From each of them gets something pro-Ukrainian. The fact that I became a Ukrainian Jew, credit Ukrainian dissidents.

– You once said that you can not achieve human rights, if not to talk about religion and ethnicity …

– There is an opinion with which I am, so to speak, discuss. It is often said that it is possible to raise human universal values. And religion and ethnic culture is not required. I do not agree with this. Because when talking about millions of people, we can not achieve universal values, if not pass, so to speak, religion and ethnic culture. The only way to achieve this and tolerance. But the current reality is hard to implement. Because many non-religious people, they think that it is not very necessary. Although religion is gradually won over the place in our lives in comparison with the Union, but its weight in society still is not great.

I remember in the 70-80-ies of the last century, we spoke to Chornovil and Gorin that first need to be done, when finally this power will be overthrown or she falls. By the way, we did not expect it would be so fast. First of all, this is the resumption of the role of religion. Because religion – it is a very powerful educational factor in the society, which provides a set of essential values. It does not matter, Jews or Christians that. Because the value of the universal. And if it is not brought in millions of people, it is very hard to build a normal society.

Similarly, the story. Still have the illusion that you can live without it. But survive unless … but I know exactly what is in a person who has the confidence and the religious, and ethnic back to childhood, there is already such a rod, and then the whole life revolves around it. When a person enters the test in trouble, it has support within himself. Otherwise, you’re like cod on the waves: where to throw, you go there and swim. You have nothing to oppose to that external force or element. You can not change a lot in life, but you can not miss in your life and lie, going outside, and violence. To do this, you need this spiritual core – the ethnic and religious.

– Look at the dissident social events is not like other people?

– You know, dissent – it is such a feature of your character. See, we’re dreaming of a time when Ukraine is an independent and non-Communist. It came. But it turned out that this is not enough. We need to work to make a decent human life. And it needs a lot of work. Because those who had hoped that independence would give Ukraine at once, and all – were wrong. That was only the zero level. It was necessary to build many more. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time. And every maidan that occurs, adjust the path to the future of Ukraine.

– But if the government does something wrong, then it turns out that people need to think about, because the power – it is a reflection of people … Or not?

– On the one hand – yes. But as the power – it is the same people, they have dominated their own, private, over the general. There are some studies that show that as long as society is dominated by values ​​of survival, until can not begin the path of modernization of society. All go in different directions, each competing with each to survive and provide for his family. There must be something in common between people. For example, now in volunteering involve up to 8 million people in Ukraine. This is 15 percent of the population of our country. These are new people who can be the future of Ukraine. A majority of just waiting and survives. Waiting for what will happen and what they will need to adapt to new circumstances. And the volunteers and soldiers sacrifice their lives. Because common cause always requires sacrifice – in the broadest sense of the word.

– And people want at least some of the victims of politicians …

– You know, if we wait for the victims of politicians, it will get nowhere. We should not pay attention to politicians and do their own thing. We have seen that the civil society can do their job better than politicians. I do not expect that the officials themselves to make reforms. Only civil society can do it and force officials to adapt to him. If officials do not want to adapt to new circumstances, to a new life, they have to leave.

“We need to be able to live decently, with dignity and without the transcendental material prosperity”

– How many years of independence, and we are only now beginning to open up in a new way, our language, culture …

– It’s done all the time. Decades. Just in Soviet times, a small part was discovering that, because it was forbidden. Since the beginning of the 90 it began to be freely distributed, but it should affect the children. It not casually says that Moses led the people of 40 years in the desert to die all who were enslaved. In the new land, he did not want to lead the slaves. Because those who have lived in slavery, always bear the mark of slavery. We still need to go through several generations, even 25 years must pass. Because who govern us? In the 90s it was the former communists, then the former Komsomol in the 2000s, is now the former pioneers. On October need to survive. And then all will be well.

– Somehow I happened to hear accusations of dissidents address that, say, in the early 90’s insufficient pressured the Communists …

– Do not push Davy – nothing will happen. We had very little. Now up to 8 million volunteers, is not enough to turn Ukraine into a European state? What to say: more than 20 years ago we were 2-3 thousand political prisoners. How was it possible to get the 50,000,000th country, all communists, to be different? This can only be slow – not otherwise.

– And for you to spread the language and culture, so to speak, coercive methods?

– No, you only need to encourage. You need to have flexible mechanisms to encourage ownership of the Ukrainian language, the study of culture and history. You should have an advantage in borrowing positions those who own Ukrainian language. How else? No country can afford to take the officials of people who do not speak the state language. Only we have this is possible, and even in other post-Soviet countries except. And we see that they are still backward. The world is moving forward, and we graze the rear. Because we can not get rid of the post-colonial mentality.

– Now a large percentage of people who felt themselves to be Ukrainians, but also a large part of the thinking in old categories. In your opinion, what makes people in the Soviet era to think as Europeans? On the contrary, right now think in terms of a country that no longer exists?

– It is not in the country. The point of the Eurasian identity. Because it is the identity matrix was formed hundreds of years, it works at all, all the people living on this continent. And it defines the behavior of these people for the future. Metamorphosis is very slow, very slow changes. You say people feel European. They want to be Europeans. This reflective level of consciousness. Consciously they want, but they can be them? Do they want to be responsible? Freedom without responsibility – it’s nothing. Responsible work, cooperation, respect for the law. What is the difference Eurasia from Europe? Because in Europe there is respect for the law, and in Eurasia it is not. In Eurasia, not the law operates, and the person: the president, the governor, or first secretary. And we are hooked, because we live in a 300 years old Eurasian empire.

Partly we are Europeans, because the influence of the West European identity on us. We want to be Europeans, but still can not, because people think: if someone makes reforms for us. However, it should be this: not one but yourself. Fight against corruption – not somewhere, but in themselves. When you start with yourself, then you have this sense of responsibility. If you do not remake himself a little, then the children will be dissolved. No need to have the illusion that the very desire to live in Europe enough. You must be able to live as Europeans live. Modest, worthy, respect the law and work. Modestly – it including without transcendental material wealth.

– In all periods of development of Ukraine there were groups of people who are called moral authorities. But it seems they do not always hear …

– People must have the need to listen, first and foremost. If people have no need to listen to them – this is a problem people. Recently passed into eternity Eugene Sverstyuk. For me – the moral authority. But how many people knew him? I listen to it? How many people have corrected the life according to the principles of which he spoke? We all know how to live. But the country does not work … So, something is wrong …

Sourse, 27/08/2015

About the trial of Nadia Savchenko

Member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels sees several options for the end of the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko – it can award a short time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation, and if Savchenko will provide a long term, it will mean that Russia ready for isolation.

If the international observers will be present at the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, it will complicate the process for Russia, as the case is fabricated, said Iosif Zisels. He said this in a comment edition of “Gordon” .

“In principle, the government may announce in the end the decision is already past the court, and said, Behold, I’m sorry, did not work to attract public and observers This one option Of course, the Kremlin is not beneficial to the presence of observers at the trial because he falsified, in my subjective.. . According to observers, especially European ones, may complicate the court, which is not the case for Russia is very easy “, – said Zissels.

According to him, the results of the trial Savchenko show what development strategy chosen Russia – the international isolation or compromise with the West.

“What is all over, I just can not say, because it does not possess all the volume of information. In addition, Russia is a country full of uncertainty. It may be a relatively short period of time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation. On the other hand, Putin can show . that he was at all do not care, give Savchenko long time, and go to the final separation from all over the world as a result of the court will be clear what kind of tactics Russia chooses – complete isolation or still relatively compromise “, – said Zissels.

He did not think that at the time he was taken from the Moscow Savchenko in danger, despite the fact that the exact location is not known nor the lawyers nor relatives.

“I would not say that it was hidden, it is not entirely correct. We can say that in Russia there is a very old and important principle that when it formulated Stalin: There are people – there is a problem, no man – no problem. If authorities stated that they did not know where Savchenko worthwhile to worry about, but they do not yet speak, “- Zissels said.

Why and where Russia hid Savchenko?

A preliminary hearing on the case of Ukrainian pilots Hope Savchenko in the Donetsk Court of the Rostov region of the Russian Federation is scheduled for July 30th. July 17 Savchenko was was transferred from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don. July 22 protection Savchenko said he did not know where the aviator. Until July 27 the Russian authorities, by law, can not report her whereabouts. July 23 the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Ella Pamfilova has sent a formal request to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and the Federal Service of Execution of Punishments to the requirement to quickly provide information on the whereabouts of Savchenko. Before his transfer Ukrainka write a will, because it assumes that in Rostov it might have something happen.

Savchenko was captured by militants in June 2014 in Luhansk region, and then illegally exported to Russia. Thus, in the Russian jail, she is more than a year.

July 13, the General Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation approved the indictment against Savchenko and sent the case to the court. Pilot accused of the murder of two Russian citizens in the Luhansk region, as well as attempted murder. Ukrainka his guilt did not recognize.

Protection Savchenko asked that her trial was held in Moscow, instead of the Rostov region, and then looked at the jury, but the lawyers denied all petitions.

Sourse, 24/07/2015

It all starts with the exceptions of the rule

The Jews of Ukraine or Ukrainian Jews? Former dissident and co-president of the Vaad of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels – a civilizational choice and formation of a political nation.

– Joseph, a lot of talk lately about a new phenomenon – the birth of Ukrainian Jewry as a special form of identity of unknown a few years ago …

– All the Jewish communities of Europe passed a similar transformation. Including our closest neighbors, enough to read the article of the Polish-Jewish intellectual Konstanty Gebert, stresses that, despite all the vicissitudes of the general history of Polish Jews say about themselves: “We – the Poles.” According to him, democracy as a basic value, appreciate and Jews. “I’m not surprised that the Ukrainian Jews are mostly supported Ukrainian independence – says Gebert This phenomenon is repeated in Europe regularly Every time when some nations are independent, the Jews, as a rule, are on their way…”

In western Europe, the reform of Jewish identity began in the era of the Haskalah, when the Count of Clermont-Tonnerre in the Constituent Assembly proposed to equalize the rights of the Jews, because they are part of the French nation. He spoke of a nation in the European sense of the term – a political nation. It was then born the concept of the French law of Moses, the Germans of the Mosaic law, that is, Jewish identity takes on a new form – civil. Most European countries one way or another have come to such an understanding of the identity of the middle of the XIX century, the Russian Empire, that did not happen – it was moving along a path. I’m not talking about the lag phase, it’s just another path – within the framework of the Eurasian identity could not appear Russian and Ukrainian law of Moses.

– However, in Ukraine for centuries his name in the Eurasian paradigm, the process began …

– Yes, and it’s painfully long process – the formation of a political nation in the Western European sense. We all – originally from the Soviet Union, we all Soviet Jews, the main feature of which was the identification state anti-Semitism. We could not know Jewish history, tradition, language – to know nothing other than a couple of Jewish jokes, and, nevertheless, remain different. Precisely because of the state of anti-Semitism. How many of the nearly half million Ukrainian Jews were parishioners of one of the 14 active synagogues under the Soviets? Several hundred elderly. Therefore, Soviet Jews, and even “anti-Soviet Jews” like me, for example, come from the same “cradle”.

Then Ukraine became a sovereign state, and we started to get the Jews of Ukraine, while maintaining all the Soviet, but rather, Eurasian features – related to basic values, the role of government, religion, private property, etc. This civilizational values ​​that are absorbed with their mother’s milk, and do not change overnight, as the overnight Jews of Ukraine can not become Ukrainian Jews.

– Ukrainian National Democrats have long criticized the fact that in terms of cultural identity of Jews in Ukraine pro-Russian. While half of the country, including ethnic Ukrainians, belong to the same – the Russian-speaking – camp.

– It’s true, in another’s eye speck see, we do not notice the log in your … Jews living in Ukraine and are guided by the surrounding society.

– The more that the majority of the country’s Jews live exactly in the south-eastern regions.

– I would not connect to the civilizational choice place to stay – we are all Europeans and all the little little Eurasians – Ukrainians, Russian, and Jews. Just Russian Jews, who stood on the Maidan, made its civilizational choice in favor of Europe, but today many of these choices are at war. We go through the same path as that of the whole country – become Ukrainians in the political sense of the word – regardless of language, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. I stress that we are Ukrainian Jews, not because they are beginning to speak Ukrainian. I was in 1978 named in the party press “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist.” Apparently, even then I was a Ukrainian Jew, though he spoke in Ukrainian is much worse than it is now. Not in the language, and not in the religion business, and in civilizational choice. feature

And those of us who supported the Ukrainian choice not because of fashion or pragmatic reasons, but because (and this says Gebert) that prefer democracy – they are the Ukrainian Jews. Of course, the well known authoritarian leaders who sympathized with the Jews, such as Pilsudski. But when he died, Pilsudski, the Jews remembered how well they lived under Marshal – say, your grandfather died.

Yes, Jews have traditionally focused on power, we treat it loyally, sometimes entering into conflict with the aspirations of the people among whom we live. What to do – it is our history, our mentality. However, other Jews at all times defended democratic values ​​and participated in the national liberation movements, becoming part of one or another political nations.

– In our case, this process has become possible only after the Ukrainians themselves have changed their model for understanding the nation, rejecting ethnic nationalism, tailored on the patterns of the 1930s …

– It did not begin on the Maidan. I joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in 1978, become acquainted with a new generation of Ukrainian Nationalists, did not cave, otherwise I would not have joined them. Moses Fishbein poet in the 1980s worked in the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, as a Ukrainian nationalist …

– You’re talking about exceptions …

– It all starts with exceptions, and I was not the first. In the Polish uprising in 1794 involved not many Jews in the November Uprising 1830 there were more, and in 1863 – even more. When you can talk about the birth of Polish Jewry? Not in 1863, and at the end of the XVIII century. With Ukrainian Jews the same story. It’s a question of quality, not quantity. There are such people, and they are becoming more – Jews of Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa – this is not the Soviet Jews. Some of them are fighting in the Donbass, and they will go to the guerrilla groups, if will be in occupation.

It all starts with the exceptions in the 1970 Ukrainian Jews had very little, how little and Ukrainian national democrats, but the phenomenon has existed. Another thing is that the heroes of Ukraine, that is, the people who died for the independence of his people today, really, other. After Heavenly hundreds of pieces of Bandera and Shukhevych began to leave in the past.

Hundreds of children are dying today at the front – they are the new heroes of Ukraine and the new symbols of Ukrainian nationalism, although many of them do not even think that it is – Ukrainian nationalism.

– There are other forms of nationalism …

– And then there was all black, and now – not all white. And now there is an anti-Semite Levko Lukyanenko and 13 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, which we identify as the right-wing radicals, among them two men with neo-Nazi backgrounds – Aleksandr Mosiychuk and Dmitry Linko. I am convinced that the coalition does not include these characters, and I will fight for it as well as fighting for something that the leader of the Social-National Assembly Andrey Biletsky did not go to the deputies of the People’s Front list.

– Do not you think that this new identity is largely built on the denial, on confrontation with Russia. But aggression, sooner or later will end, and what remains?

– How to start identity? No one knows. But we know, for example, what happened in the 2012 elections, and why 10% voted for the radicals of the VO “Svoboda”. Not because they are right-wing radicals, it was a protest vote against Yanukovych. In any identity combined various factors – both “for” and “against.” I became the “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist” (with all the conventions of this definition) in 1978, because it was sympathetic to the National Democrats and the Communists did not like – it brought me to the dissident movement. Religious Zionists in Israel – against the creation of a Palestinian state and the expansion of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria – the series goes on.

Of course, in the absence of an external threat could start natural fragmentation of society, but it has never been united. In the meantime, the process of formation of the Ukrainian political nation and Ukrainian Jewry, as one of its components. The process itself testifies to the fact that Ukraine still Europeanized, Eurasian identity is arranged differently. The activity of the country is in Europe, the greater the Ukrainian Jews. And it’s not in the formal membership in the EU, it is important that the feeling of the people, their mentality, their identities were European – this is a very long process, but it has already started …

Interviewed by Maxim Sukhanov

Sourse, 18/05/2015

Ukrainians are not ripe for reconciliation

This year Ukraine celebrates the Day of Reconciliation for the first time and memory in honor of all the victims of the Second World War. Are Ukrainians really come to terms,  “Gordon” asked the chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosifa Ziselsa.

The idea of ​​reconciliation is popular at any time, but it can not be used in any situation to any two people, because in the conflict, which stretches since World War II, in fact, there are several dimensions.

Besides the Soviet-German, on the other hand – the French-English-German, even on our side had several dimensions: the Polish-German, Polish-Ukrainian, Ukrainian-German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian, even participated in the Carpathians in the battles with the UPA. There are a number of measurements, and most importantly – the Ukrainian-Soviet.

For example, I know of a case in 1962, when two Ukrainian women who were connected in the UPA, were shot in the bunker in the Ternopil region of the soldiers. In 1962, the year!

If we talk about today’s reconciliation, it is, on the one hand, civilization, because the Ukrainians decided that enough they have to live in the empire with the Eurasian civilization, and want to try the life of the European and then compared in 300 years, in which one It was better. On the other hand, this reconciliation is artificially caused by Russian aggression.

I do not think that we are ripe for reconciliation because the still very many forces did not satisfy his ambitions. If we talk about the dimensions that were during the Second World War, for them, of course, it has come, because we see a lot of progress on the line of Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation.

But it is not yet complete, as some Poles, for example, reacted nervously to the laws that have been adopted for the rehabilitation of UPA and other Ukrainian national organizations. This is a complex mishmash in which you need to understand. Find out about what exactly we are talking reconciliation. Young did not have these conflicts.

In Spain, where the civil war was prolonged, the family is still remembered, who had fought on which side. And this is not some kind of soft and hard memories. This is despite the fact that Franco (Spanish dictator Francisco Franco) has long put a monument to reconciliation for victims of the war on both sides.

In the southern states of the USA, despite the fact that since the civil war took place 150 years, also kept ancestral memory as to who fought for the North, and who – for the south. Although they live like the well, and the states do not fight each other, except that there is some confrontation during the election – more than one vote for Republicans, others – for the Democrats.

The issue of reconciliation is not so simple. Perhaps reconciliation at the level of Heads of State. Yushchenko (the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko), for example, has done a lot for this. But at the level of ordinary people a reconciliation does not take place so quickly.

In sociology, we see that in the last year the attitude of Ukrainians to the Poles has improved significantly, because millions of Ukrainians saw that the Poles actually help Ukraine in this complicated conflict. And as the Russian government not only did not help – she was the aggressor.

Veterans reluctance to shake hands says that a new conflict was superimposed on the old and on the contrary, it has strengthened rather than weakened.

Two of civilization people can live in peace, and they are in general, they lived more or less peacefully, despite the tension between the state structures, as long as there was no interference in each other’s identity. As soon as the intervention in the identity of other people, there is a huge energy instantly resistance.

Yet another dimension – the dimension of the Maidan – was for me as a reaction to a very significant part of Ukrainian society to try Yanukovych (fugitive ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych) and all his clique to bring us back to a state of the Eurasian identity, which we already do not want to be at as most of us.

This applies to the Donbas. This region has a different identity, and perhaps he did not want to live in a European way. If we are forced to compel him to do so, we get back the same great resistance power.

Decentralization is relevant if load it humanitarian, economic, financial and other aspects. Groisman (Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman) said several times that it is necessary to take into account the humanitarian aspect in decentralization. Historically. If we do not consider this aspect, it means that we do not spend real decentralization, it would be somewhat artificial.

Donbass within Ukraine should develop as he understands it in his own way. And the overall rate of the State of Ukraine, if it still exists, together with the Crimea and Donbas on the road to Europe must be sufficiently slow so as not to lose the regions that do not want to move in this direction. We need to talk, to explain, to try to continue to implement the values ​​that have more in Ukrainian society.

Sourse, 08/05/2015

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia

Iosif Zisels, human rights activist and head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Vaad, recalls with a smile, as in Soviet times it was called both a Zionist and a Ukrainian nationalist. Now, 40 years later, it again can be called zhidobanderovtsem, and the term has acquired a new meaning and a positive connotation.

In the Soviet Union he was a dissident, trying to defend the rights of Jews, and then joined the Ukrainian Helsinki human rights group. In 1978, on charges of defamation and anti-state activities Zissels received six years in a penal colony. Nine months before the liberation he was offered amnesty in exchange for a renunciation of political principles, but he refused.

Now, Soviet dissident and political prisoner, became one of the most influential Jews of Ukraine – he heads the largest Jewish organization, which is able at any time to lend a helping hand to every Jew of the country, engaged in the revival and strengthening of Jewish communities, their culture and religion, as well as helping wishing to exit in Israel.

Zissels well – known people abroad, where he is a member of the European and the World Jewish Congress, took over the functions of the public lobbyist Ukraine’s national interests. In his own words Zisels, he lives according to the covenant of the Jewish patriarch Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? “

“New time” meets Zissels in the office of the Association of Jewish Organizations, which is located in one of the academic buildings of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. It is a small unit into several rooms, on the door of which hung an advertisement for the recruitment of students to the specialization of Judaica. Zissels cordially invites you into his office and, distracted for a few minutes to say hello to each of his employees, invited to interview.

Ukrainians are very sensible nation, and therefore changes have been slow. Maidan two months stood and demanded concessions from the government. When I talk about that in France, there wondering how, two months? We would all smashed in two weeks!

Just Ukrainians other political temperament. We are moving at their own pace, which is slower than that of Poland or the Baltic countries. It must be taken as fact. Another problem is that our identity is dual, and expectations are always high, so some of us and sways from side to side. We believe that, if there was a revolution and change of power, all at once will change, but it is not.

Ukraine will of fate was between a European democracy and Eurasian authoritarian culture. And it is important to understand that if 20% of the population do not want to in Europe, this must somehow be considered. This is not a whim, just for them, Europe stranger. And we are encroaching on their identity, though hardly have that right.

Recall, Viktor Yanukovych wanted to encroach on our right to be Europeans – and the Maidan happened. The same thing is happening now. When threatened identity, even among people who are accustomed to submission, there is a huge energy resistance. We need to negotiate rather than fight.

Today in the country there is a desire to fight corruption, but it’s part of our culture. Corruption – is a part of Ukrainian identity. The law is not absolute for us, and its violation – not a sin, as in the West. And this shows our Eastern culture – there is not a law adopted in order to execute it, and that they enjoyed the strongest.

We used to live like this, we have formed a lot of secret agreements between government and society. For example, that the severity of the law is compensated by its failure. At low levels of wages authorities turned a blind eye to the fact that we steal, and the people turned a blind eye to the fact that steals power. In space, where there is no law with a capital letter, a person perceives any obstacle as a challenge, to solve the problem – that such obstacles put me, but I still find it, how to get around them.

So, to say, well, let’s fight against corruption, which many of us continue to steal – is meaningless. It is necessary to recognize the existence of tacit agreements and revise them. The struggle of society against corruption must be a struggle with ourselves.

Right now Ukrainian Jews began to realize themselves as Jews in Ukraine. In Europe, it happened in the late XIX century. In France, that’s when the Jews received equal rights with the French and called themselves the French law of Moses. We have this process takes place only now.

The Jews of Ukraine took a very active part in the Maidan. Were actively, perhaps, only the Crimean Tatars. And the Ukrainians have rated it – according to the latest sociological research, for the year related to the Jews and Crimean Tatars in the country has improved significantly.

We do not believe, how many Jews were on the Maidan, but we know that many of them then went to the front. The most paradoxical – some of them fought in the battalion of Azov, near the radical nationalists. In addition, in the east of the country and fight guys with Israeli passports. It is the volunteers who teach our soldiers. Israel has almost 100 years of war, and experience – most importantly, that he can pass Ukraine.

Israel does not help Ukraine officially because so fixated on their own security. In 2008, during the war in Georgia, Israel helped equip the Georgian air defense system. Then Georgia was hit by three Russian aircraft, and Israel received a warning from Russia that if he will continue to help Georgia, Iran gets a nuclear bomb, and Syria will face Russia’s S-300 missiles.

But while Israel – a democratic country, and the pressure of society can not be ignored. Most of the Israelis – people with democratic values, and they sympathize with Ukraine.

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia – will be less frustrating. Now, in many EU countries pre-election period. To support Ukraine, impose additional sanctions on Russia for them is to reduce the level of welfare of their countries and to expose their chances of winning at serious risk. Can help unless indirect pressure on Europe from the United States and Canada.

This is very similar to what happened in the 1930s. Germany regularly paid for oil and metals, and all wanted her to trade. Nobody wanted to see it as a monster, preferring to think that Germany will not fight with them, and with their competitors. After eight years of these errors have to pay a huge price.

We are no longer a peaceful country, and it will not be long. We need to get used to fight with minimal losses, rely on their own forces to protect their people, to rebuild the economy on a war footing, and not bury our heads in the sand. In Russia, too, there is no other option but to fight with Ukraine. They understand that with this government and with this partnership agreement is impossible.

Something we can count only when the disintegration processes in Russia will be intense. However, nobody in the world is not interested in this. What does it mean crumbling Russia? Huge fragments of the country armed with nuclear weapons. Putin, in spite of our curses, still controls the country. If only we have not climbed, prices would not be him. But he can not climb, the logic of empire – its meaning in the expansion.

I do not believe in the possibility of democratization of Russia. I spent two years in the Ural camps, lived in Moscow for more than a year. Russia within its present borders will never be a European country. There is no critical mass of people who can change the destiny of Russia. Moreover, not all countries should be European. The world rests on the balance sheet. And who will be the European world to balance China? Any democratization of Russia will lead to its disintegration, and this terrible future, with unpredictable consequences.

5 questions Iosifu Ziselsu:

– What event of your life you feel in charge?

– Of course, my participation in the dissident movement. I think all the most important thing happened then.

– What is your favorite city?

– I do not have a favorite book or a favorite city. I love Chernivtsi, where I spent my childhood, Kiev, in which I live. I like to be in Jerusalem and Barcelona.

– What move around the city?

– I have a Subaru Outback. This reliable, sturdy machine. Not very comfortable, but I like it.

– What is your monthly cost of living?

– I get a pension. More than ordinary people, but not enough to live a normal life. It is also engaged in consulting, working in a private firm. My problem is not how to provide for themselves, but rather where to find the money for our activities. Well, I have four kids that even adults, but they still need help. Perhaps today I spend at least $ 1 thousand. Per month.

– What do you seek?

– As anyone – to self-realization, once satisfied all other requirements. And I think I am quite good to deal with it.

Sourse, 02/05/2015

I do not think that without the consent of the inhabitants the city will be renamed

Without the consent of the inhabitants of the city should not be renamed, he said in a comment  “GORDON”  chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

“I’m not sure that without the decision of the local community, you can rename the city. But you’ve seen over the last 23 years, at least one law, which is performed in its entirety, just as it was written? We live in a space where the laws are not in order to fulfill them. laws of the people do not obey the laws of the people do not respect the laws of the people do not follow. They use the laws to achieve some of their goals. I do not think there will be a city renamed without the consent of residents. This should be without hysterics, and in a peaceful discussion. I do not think that without a Announce the masses it can be done then we will get additional negative effects, which have enough “, -. Zissels said.

There is a clash of two civilizations, so think about what the consequences will ban communist symbols more correctly, he said.

“There’s a novel in which the hero is a young man seeking a countess, she was refused, he turns the whole world, conquering all of Europe, and when the Countess is ready him to give up, it turns out that it is – an elderly woman and he no longer needed so. . and with that we now live in a turbulent time, we have a war on, and not just between the separatists and the Ukrainians, but a war between two civilizations -. European and Eurasian It’s so powerful collision, what to think, what consequences will result in a ban of symbols, I it seems to be incorrect. I do not think th that it will lead to some serious consequences to the positive or to the negative “- Zissels said.

However, in his opinion, for many people, the victims of the regime, this decision will be important.

“I have not yet comprehended once the consequences of yesterday’s solutions. I dreamed about it many years ago, because he was a dissident and was imprisoned in Soviet times for political activities, but it’s been more than 20 years. Although many people for whom life was a struggle with the communist system, it is very important that finally at least the end of life to get satisfaction from the fact that these misanthropic ideology abolished and banned, “- said the expert.

The honey, he said, the current law many inaccuracies that should be corrected.

“East is bad knows what the UPA, and the West does not speak what the UPA. It was a long time ago. So many myths of positive and negative during the Soviet period was unwound. The very acronym UPA with a hyphen, which created the Soviet ideology, did not exist in nature . The law had a lot of confusion -. terminological, factual, grammatical Before this law was passed, I was just going to make corrections I have quite an old man, to know how to be called in reality there are mixed up the names of organizations…History is no such organization “OUN” Yes “OUN” one, is “OUN” Second, there is a “OUN” third -. There are three “OUN” – Zissels said.

“Live – see very little consequence were other laws, I think, will also be with these Someone uses them for next separatist sentiments, someone on the contrary uses the dominance of pro-European sentiment in the end still everything goes and vanishes… “- he concluded.

Recall, April 9, the Verkhovna Rada  adopted  a law recognizing the communist regime 1917-1991 criminally and banning communist symbols.

The adopted law about the condemnation of the communist regime  contained  rule to rename the settlements, which are named in honor of the communist-era figures.

Sourse, 10/04/2015

Today, it is a conflict between civilization and the negation of civilization

What is happening today – a revision of the entire set of rules established in the world after the Second World War.

Iosif Zisels, chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups, – performance at the channel marathon  UKRLIFE.TV  on “The international implications of the terrorist attacks in France”:

There are two important systemic factor that differentiates Western Europe from the East and, in particular, from the Ukraine.

The first factor – is the presence of entities associated with the radical Islamic movement, they are in Western Europe, they do not exist in Eastern Europe. Perhaps, as we move to Europe they will, but for now it is not.

The second factor – the movement, fashionable in the left intelligentsia, in which human rights, in particular, the protection of the rights of Palestinians leads to anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment.

Sourse, 12/01/2015

The level of anti-Semitism in Ukraine is not increased

Do you see now Ukraine growth of anti-Semitism and xenophobia – to this and other questions in an interview with DW said the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Iosif Zisels.

Iosif Zisels – Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups. In an interview with DW Zissels she told whether there is in Ukraine, the rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and also responded to a number of other issues.

DW: In Russia, many say that with the advent of the current Ukrainian politicians in the country have intensified anti-Semitic sentiments. Is it so?

Iosif Zisels: I was one of the leaders of the Jewish community can assure that there is no – not only sharp, but generally no increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Ukraine. We are very carefully and attentively fix every incident, every speech, every case of an attack, and every act of vandalism. And this level – as last year. Despite the tumultuous events that took place on the Maidan in Kiev, on the military operations in the south-east of Ukraine, the level of anti-Semitism in the country increases. It was and remains one of the lowest in Eastern Europe.

– And what is the level of anti-Semitism in Russia?

– As regards the level of anti-Semitism in Russia – it is too short. Just as in Ukraine, he measured a dozen or two dozen cases per year. But Russia – authoritarian country with underdeveloped democratic institutions. And in this authoritarian model of existence can be played “Jewish card”. In Ukraine, too, is to be feared that the state wants to use it, but fortunately, there is control belongs to the civil society.

– What can you say about the allegations in the city address that the current government allegedly tolerate manifestations of neo-Nazism?

– First of all, it is a question of terminology. I think really understand what Nazism, only to narrow specialists. They are our experts, with whom we have worked for many years. In Ukraine, as in any other country, there are right-wing movements, some of which resemble the neo-Nazi. But they are in Europe. Right-wing parties have almost all European countries, and they are much more dangerous than what we see today in Ukraine.

So, the party “Freedom” is not passed to the new Ukrainian parliament, which was in the previous Parliament when Yanukovych was there 37 mandates. This demonstrates the falling level of interest in the radical demagogy of this order. Lyashko passed Radical Party, which is very different: it is less than the national radical demagogy, but more general radical demagoguery. In majority districts it took a few people who can be considered right-wing radicals with aspects of neo-Nazism. Very few of them: 423 MP – about 10. That is less than it was in the last Parliament, where there were 37.

But I think that the concerns of the Parliament, there was a general shift of the entire spectrum a little to the right. Because such a national-democratic parties as Block Petro Poroshenko, “Popular Front” and “self-help” – are themselves center-right. That is, the parliament’s center of gravity has shifted slightly to the right, and is a tribute to wartime. Requirements radicals is not particularly noticeable.

– The fact that the Parliament did not pass the “Freedom” and “Right Sector”, can be considered a success of Ukrainian democracy?

– In fact, these parties were radical demagogic. Moreover, these were the projects financed and designed to split the opposition with Yanukovych’s government. That is, in part, they were man-made projects. They can not be considered as such natural, organic manifestations of the right of the spectrum, as can be seen in many countries.

In Ukraine, the main control of the right-wing radicals has not the government, as is the case in Russia, and civil society. It itself copes with this low level of pravoradikalizma in the country, making it much better than the state. And it is – a guarantee that this rate will not be great.

– Earlier you said that “right-wing and neo-Nazi forces” involved in the conflict in the Donbass, from both sides? You can name specific examples?

– On the Russian side, according to our experts, fights about 200 neo-Nazis. Among them are, first of all, “Russian National Unity”. This is a known neo-Nazi organization in Russia, which has its own recruitment offices, training camps for militants and separate connections on the front. Others – such as, for example, the former party Limonov, is “dyed” in other colors. It is important to note also that the present or volunteers or mercenaries from European right-wing neo-Nazi parties. They, too, are fighting on the Russian side.

On the Ukrainian side, too, there is a man 30-40 – skinheads from the right-wing group “Social-National Assembly”, “Patriots of Ukraine”, for which we are following closely. In this regard, first of all, we may note the battalion “Azov”, where there may be even a few dozen people from the “Social-National Assembly.” Andrey Beletsky – the commander of the battalion (now it is a regiment) – the head of “Social-National Assembly.” However, he argues that the war changed their ideology.

– From what sources do you get information?

– We have a number of experts of the European level. We use their data, and trust them, as for many years working with them. Moreover, our data are taken from the report of the State Department’s anti-Semitism in the world and the OSCE report on the monitoring and analysis of anti-Semitism in the world. I myself 25 years engaged in the construction of networks for monitoring and analysis of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

Sourse, 06/11/2014

Israeli President raised on Russian historiography

The head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, a well-known human rights activist and Soviet dissident, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels in an interview with “Gromadska radio” stated that he could not agree with the speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. He accused the Ukrainians in the complicity in the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Second World War, informs eizvestia.com .

“He’s an old man. He bears the stereotypes of the past, historiography, which today is not considered objective. He was brought up in the Russian historiography. Israel, at least the older generation still lives under its influence. It does not reflect the opinion of the young. After all, the young religious Israelis have stood on the Maidan. These views he expressed today – it’s yesterday, “- said Zissels.

He recalled the visit to Israel of the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko in 2007.

“The delegation came to Yad Vashem and asked to show documents that indicate the involvement of Roman Shukhevych (OUN leader during World War II) to such crimes. But no one was able to show. This stereotype does not provide evidence, if everyone knows it. No, not everyone knows that. For example, I do not trust that it is not necessary to confirm the archival authentic documents “- Zissels said.

He noted that the OUN and UPA fighters fought for Ukraine, and they can not wear the stereotypical labels.

September 27 during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada parliamentary hearings devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that the Ukrainians have been involved in the repression against the Jews during the Second World War. “Many of the accomplices of crimes were Ukrainians. And among them highlights the OUN, which mocked Jews, killed them, and in many cases, were given to the Germans. It is also true that there were more than 2.5 thousand Righteous among the Nations “-. Said Rivlin.

Commenting on the Israeli president’s speech, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Vladimir Vyatrovich said Rivlin repeated Soviet myth of the OUN involvement in the Holocaust. The head of the OUN Bogdan Chervak ​​Rivlin called the statement “a spit in the soul of the Ukrainians” and urged him not to watch Russian television, as it is “not just bad, but also indecent.”

During World War II, occupied Kiev Nazi troops used the tract Babi Yar, in the northwestern part of the city as a place of mass executions of civilians, most of whom were Jews. September 29, 1941 the entire Jewish population was obliged to come to the Babi Yar, where until September 30, was shot more than 33 thousand. Man on the orders of the occupation administration. According to various estimates, at Babi Yar were killed by 70 thousand. Up to 200 thousand. Man.

Sourse, 29/09/2016

The system rotted from within and dognila before disbanding

Soviet-era dissident Yosif Zisels told why refused amnesty in the Gorbachev era, what regrets today about whether modern Ukraine may repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime

Yosif Zisels – human rights activist, dissident, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. In 1978 he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He spent six years in prisons on charges of “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Every dissident own destiny. For example, a man wrote a poem. As my friend, the Ukrainian dissident, a former teacher in the Ternopil region kultprosvetuchilische Mikola Grobal, wrote a poem called “Dumi moї, Dumi”. For this was sent to prison. For the poem. Simply laid out thoughts on paper. Or Semyon Gluzman, which persecuted for their professional activities. He made the correspondence psychiatric examination for General Pyotr Grigorenko and mathematician Leonid Plyushch and promulgated it.

The dissent came for different reasons: national, democratic, moral, emotional. The reasons were not so important to us. Most importantly, we together fought criminal imperial communist system.

I actually grew up without parents. So I have virtually no such an important element of the psyche as a “social instinct of self-preservation,” usually brings up children in a normal Jewish family. Simply no one to create it. I started very early to read samizdat. I think it is no coincidence. The fact that we were surrounded by then, and what we have been taught do not match. Not everyone is dissonance when life does not match with the pictures, which are described in textbooks. Some quietly absorbed in itself is doublethink, I called it “social schizophrenia.” Some do it quietly. Some resisted.

The Soviet government constantly demanded confirmation of loyalty. A variety of ways. Those who have studied, passed the party’s history, scientific communism. Was political information was the Komsomol, and other institutions, which are constantly monitored by the people through an extensive network. Not only controlled the KGB people were the party, trade union, Komsomol and Pioneer organizations. And I went multilevel selection. Revealed disgruntled, obstinate. Once a person has manifested itself, it was a signal that we should look at it.

I went to the dissidence almost deliberately. I drew it. I wanted to know the truth about life, about history, about relationships. And find the right answers in samizdat, as permitted by the literature is almost impossible to find the truth. It was important that others know the truth. Not immediately, at first reading itself, and then you want to share with others. Then you become it a little.

An important stimulus was originally a private confrontation lies and violence. You try to realize his need for truth is not simply to distribute this literature. Then there is the need to sign any appeals, appeals to protest against human rights violations. I’m talking about the way. Some stop at reading the literature, some – at that distribute other books, some do not sign the appeal and appeal, and others pass this hurdle and continue to develop. Then there was a real help to political prisoners, in which I was involved.

The apogee of my dissident activity can be considered as 1978 , when I was actively engaged in case of using the power of Soviet psychiatry to persecute dissidents and investigated more than 80 such stories, in the summer became a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and in December he was arrested for the first time.

I do not consider myself a victim. I tried to do something as far as possible. I tried something to counter the Soviet regime and its powerful repressive apparatus. Authorities responded to me quite “adequately”. I knew I was not alone in this, but the dissidents are not many, only a few thousand to two hundred millionth Soviet people. Nevertheless, it was more personal fulfillment, not an illusory calculation somehow undermine Soviet power. It was clear that our efforts it was impossible to destroy. She was rotting from the inside and dognila before disbanding.

The fact that the dissidents were known all over the world, destroyed the Soviet myth. 220 million people live happily, moving towards communism, nothing else is willing, but there are several thousand people who by the very fact of its existence, argue that a false myth. Here I was among those people. It was my way. I chose him and he went through it. And, fortunately, I did not meet with an obstacle that would have made me turn back.

I was already an inveterate “recidivist”, when I was offered an amnesty, it was in January 1987, went a second three-year term of my imprisonment, I had to sit 9 months. As for all the forced dialogue with the authorities, with the KGB, with investigators from the prosecutors, I did not sign any paper, any evidence not given, I do not want to change his principles when I needed to sit 9 months. I calmly refused the amnesty. She was so very communist. We had to sign a document that You shall not engage in political activity. Some signed, and then continued to work.

I did not believe that engaging in political activities. It was a formality, but I took it very seriously. If I sign it, then break its principle “not to cooperate with the authorities.” I was not sorry, and now do not regret it.

I’m sorry about the other. Going your own way, you are doomed to suffering families. With time comes the understanding that your free choice causes suffering of others: family, friends. KGB worked very well. They covered not only the one who resists, but all its surroundings, creating an inconvenience to them in life, to put it mildly. This was done to set up against the man his environment. I lost a few people who thought their comrades in these years. Some stayed, we’ve been friends for 50 years. They passed the test with me.

In total I spent in prisons and zones 6 years and the year at home under the administrative supervision of the refusal to accept the “Gorbachev amnesty.” Both times I was accused under Article 187 (approx.) Of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, in the “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Any authoritarian regime, the more totalitarian, based on the fact that there is an external enemy, there is internal, and it is necessary to deal with them. And for people to explain who the external enemy – the imperialists, capitalists, the NATO military. And the internal – dissidents “fifth column”, which does not want to go to the general structure of communism. It was a massive propaganda against such people. We tried to turn public opinion against these people. Isolate, to make their lives uncomfortable, unbearable. Even when you see that article in the newspaper against you false from beginning to end, it is embarrassing to you, the residue remains. And there are articles about the dissidents, whom the authorities deemed “outcasts” were enough.

I lived in the city of Chernivtsi and did not face persecution for the use of the Ukrainian language. For too active promotion – possible. It is already considered nationalism. And only the KGB decided what distinguishes patriotism from nationalism. On the other hand, I grew up in a Jewish environment, and only a student came to understand many issues, including national.

Can modern Ukraine to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime? Ukrainians are already very difficult to build as they were built in the Soviet era. Once upon a time this would have killed millions, and intimidate others and build. Most of destroying a part buy, this was done in the 20s, 30s. Soviet authorities or killed or drove out, or bought. So to build “our elites.” Therefore there is nothing surprising that she is today. I think that the repetition of history is impossible. It is impossible to kill 5.7 million people, to build a line of others. But the fact of the formal independence of the country does not guarantee the economic prosperity of the people and democratic development, respect for the law, eradication of corruption and the development of a new system of values. As mathematicians say, a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Recorded Jan Goncharenko

See. Also Special Project “Dissidents” edition Fokus.ua and STB for the Suppression of dissidents in the USSR

Source: focus.ua , 25.08.2016

Sourse, 25/08/2016

Yanukovych must be condemned, but corruption is a derivative of general disrespect for the law

stigmatization campaign corruption, declared an international human rights organization Transparency International, is to focus on the figure of the Ukrainian society fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych that will distract from the system solution to the problem, said a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

Viktor Yanukovych was not born corrupt, and become so because of the mentality of Ukrainian society, says Iosif Zisels.

Yanukovych headed the world ranking corrupt officials on the results of voting on the website of the international human rights organization Transparency International, which announced that begins stigmatization campaign against corruption, taking the first nine places.

“I would not want to exaggerate the importance of this campaign. While any steps to eliminate in the Ukrainian society of corruption are good, and the worst of them will not. But I’m inclined to think that we need a systematic approach. Yanukovych is not born corrupt, it is a question of education, which is determined by All the circumstances of life in the Eurasian society is corruption -. it is part of our mentality and culture we are born, live and die in corruption. “- Zissels said.

“Condemn Yanukovych necessary, he was president of the country, but to focus on his figure could divert attention from the systemic problem In fact, corruption is dissolved in all, and the problem can not be solved without the long-term by re-society programs, building on the Western partners.” – he added he.

Zissels stressed that “over the last year in this regard has been made longer than in the previous 25 years.”

“Transparency International does a lot, forcing public institutions to deal with corruption, I know this organization, I support her contacts, her activity is doubtless useful, but how it can be assumed that it decides for 45,000,000th country of its problems..?” – said human rights activist .

According to him, “corruption – is a derivative of general disrespect for the law in general, including to the tax.”

“Who pays taxes in Ukraine Corruption – this including the theft of the budget, but we do not fill it I am sure that the majority of Ukrainians do not pay all the taxes that they are put there are plenty of other laws, which we treat as.. . well as to tax is the question of respect for the law if it appears, will result in the condemnation of anti-corruption Yanukovych -.. a good measure, but it does not give a general respect for the law “- he said.

The human rights activist believes that “in the fight against corruption the first place should take no condemnation, no anti-corruption bureau or anti-corruption prosecutor, namely re-society in the spirit of European values”.

“With our values ​​we will not become either economically developed, nor a truly democratic country, to tackle corruption. Only the union of all the forces of civil society and reform forces in the government, if they are there, in the long term can give some result for the whole Ukraine, if not for us, our children, or even grandchildren, “- he concluded.

Yanukovych was the President of Ukraine with the February 25, 2010. February 22, 2014, after three months of protests on the Maidan Verkhovna Rada recognized it withdrew from the post and do not fulfill their obligations, then new presidential elections were announced. In February last year, Yanukovych left Ukraine, is now with his family, he lives in Russia.

In Ukraine against Yanukovych opened several criminal proceedings. He is accused of the mass murder of citizens, misappropriation of state property, the seizure of power by unconstitutional means, actions aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order. Concerning it applies conviction in absentia procedure .

Yanukovych’s name was included in the investigation of the Interpol database, but at the end of July 2015 wanted to suspend consideration of the complaint of lawyers who insist on the political background of the case against the former president.

Sourse, 11/02/2016

Without the knowledge of history you like cod on the waves – swim, where will the current flow

With this well-known journalist Natalia Feshchuk man talking in his second home Chernivtsi – Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, co-founder of which he is. The conversation took place before he got into the list of moral authority among the Ukrainians, compiled a few days ago one of the Ukrainian media . By the way, an interview with Iosifom Samuilovichem Ziselsom just ended his reflections on what moral authority are always there in the community, if only listen to them …

Joseph Zisels many posts and distinctions, among them – the head of the Association of Jewish organizations and communities of Ukraine, executive vice-president of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. And in a nutshell: Ukrainian dissident Jewish descent, twice convicted for anti-Soviet activities. He never worked in government, says the most comfortable feeling when engaged in public affairs.

As in the Union, and now he has his own strong opinions on what principles should build a true nation and a strong country. And yet convinced that a free man – a responsible person.

Zissels has been living in Kiev. But here, in the heart of Chernivtsi, it remains a piece of his heart, because it is here, on the street Schiller once lived with his parents.

“I have a very warm attitude to the history and the people who are no longer”

– Mr. Joseph, when you decided to found the Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, it was a sense of duty to those Jews who had once been so much in Chernivtsi?

– My parents – not local Jews and Bessarabia. They arrived in Chernivtsi after the Second World War. In Chernivtsi I am, unfortunately, not born. But I have lived here and interacted with the people remaining from before the war. And it was German-speaking Jews, there were already a little while, in the 50-60s, – two or three hundred, maybe left from the huge community, which before the war amounted to almost 80 thousand people. In the city of 120 thousand people two-thirds – it was the Jewish population. And I was struck by the story of this community, which flourished at the end of the XVIII century, when the Austrian authorities to allow Jews to settle here. But almost half of the Jews was destroyed during the Holocaust, and the other half remained in the city, but has not been able to live under the Soviet regime. In 1940, the Jews were some illusions, many of them were left sentiment, but European, and they waited for the Red Army, because on the other hand – Hitler. And they were deported to Siberia, one third of them in 1941, 12 thousand Bukovinians – Jews. Those who have stayed here, came under Romanian occupation, who was shot, who died in concentration camps. Who stayed with the time left for Israel. Live in Chernivtsi remaining units …

And I wanted to recreate the story. I thought, this is our duty. Because once the Jewish community in the city was very strong. And those who came here after the war, there were already other people – Bessarabian East Ukrainian Jews were very Soviet. I want to say that everything was up to the First World War is well. And when it came, Romania, the Jewish community has undergone a lot of suffering. This, of course, does not compare with the Holocaust. But Romania was a strong anti-Semitism. Second, the Jews of Romania considers patriots Austria-Hungary and taking revenge for that. We have archival documents showing that the Bukovina Ukrainians and Poles in 1918 protested against the annexation of this region Romania. And among the Jews of Bukovina was a protest. And then the Romanians because it does not give citizenship to many Jews. But still it was not, as in the Soviet Union. 1940 showed who is who. And those who lamented that’s how bad it was when Romania saw what could be worse than under Soviet rule. Some of the Jews, unfortunately, did not have time to leave. We traveled already in 60-70 years, when there was again a possibility. I know these families, helping them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them.

– You always emphasized that you – Ukrainian Jew. Now in Ukraine, many of our citizens such as the re-born, they want to know more about their country and its history. Some, on the contrary, is still passive. But to be a true citizen of the country, it seems to be inside? As it has been in your family?

– In me many laid. Because in a city like Chernivtsi laid a lot – here is the crossroads of history, culture and languages. This tolerant spirit of Chernivtsi. What is the difference Bukovina Jews of Galician, for example? One of the features – tolerance of the province, it has passed and the Jews too. There was a lot of tolerance and among Jews, too: between the orthodox and reformist currents in Judaism. In other cities they are irreconcilable, here they are communicated. For example, the chief rabbi of Chernivtsi was the Reform rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court was Orthodox rabbi.

At home, I received a Soviet-Jewish upbringing, not a purely Jewish. But I never hid their Jewish identity. I’ve always known who I am. At the same time, it is Ukraine, and I felt a Ukrainian part too. When I was at university, he attended lectures in Ukrainian. My Ukrainian language more with the university, the house spoke Russian. Yiddish was too, but in my family it was less. Today, I understand that if the Ukrainian laid into you since childhood, and then it starts to work. We in the Union of Soviet Jews were in we had very little Jewish. We knew about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and all. Few knew their language, history, literature. And only at the end of the 80s we started to restore the Jewish life, and began to become Ukrainian Jews who consider Ukraine as their motherland.

“Without faith and stories you like cod on the waves – swim, which carries”

– You were convicted of anti-Soviet propaganda. And what was the essence of your “propaganda”?

– I’ve been doing many things that could not do then. In Chernivtsi distributed samizdat. Helping political prisoners and their families. Gathering information on human rights violations and passed it. Joining the Ukrainian Helsinki group. There were people who helped – Ukrainian, Russian, not only Jews. It was a more or less intelligent circle. But in prison then, in 1978, was just me. Sentenced to three years. In the 84 th year – three more. At six.

– But the same could give and more …

– Could … But you do what you have to do. I considered it my duty to you need to do something against that power. As part of our small capacity.

– Who are the Ukrainian dissidents influenced you?

– How did I know about Ukrainian history, the Holodomor? Of Ukrainian dissidents. I talked with a lot of Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mihailom Gorinem. I traveled a lot for Ukraine, provedyvat those freed. I was looking for traces of what was called the investigation of psychiatric persecution, looking for people who have suffered in this way. I communicated with Ivan Svetlichny, Zinoviem Krasovskim, Panas Zalivahi – famous artist of Frankivsk. From each of them gets something pro-Ukrainian. The fact that I became a Ukrainian Jew, credit Ukrainian dissidents.

– You once said that you can not achieve human rights, if not to talk about religion and ethnicity …

– There is an opinion with which I am, so to speak, discuss. It is often said that it is possible to raise human universal values. And religion and ethnic culture is not required. I do not agree with this. Because when talking about millions of people, we can not achieve universal values, if not pass, so to speak, religion and ethnic culture. The only way to achieve this and tolerance. But the current reality is hard to implement. Because many non-religious people, they think that it is not very necessary. Although religion is gradually won over the place in our lives in comparison with the Union, but its weight in society still is not great.

I remember in the 70-80-ies of the last century, we spoke to Chornovil and Gorin that first need to be done, when finally this power will be overthrown or she falls. By the way, we did not expect it would be so fast. First of all, this is the resumption of the role of religion. Because religion – it is a very powerful educational factor in the society, which provides a set of essential values. It does not matter, Jews or Christians that. Because the value of the universal. And if it is not brought in millions of people, it is very hard to build a normal society.

Similarly, the story. Still have the illusion that you can live without it. But survive unless … but I know exactly what is in a person who has the confidence and the religious, and ethnic back to childhood, there is already such a rod, and then the whole life revolves around it. When a person enters the test in trouble, it has support within himself. Otherwise, you’re like cod on the waves: where to throw, you go there and swim. You have nothing to oppose to that external force or element. You can not change a lot in life, but you can not miss in your life and lie, going outside, and violence. To do this, you need this spiritual core – the ethnic and religious.

– Look at the dissident social events is not like other people?

– You know, dissent – it is such a feature of your character. See, we’re dreaming of a time when Ukraine is an independent and non-Communist. It came. But it turned out that this is not enough. We need to work to make a decent human life. And it needs a lot of work. Because those who had hoped that independence would give Ukraine at once, and all – were wrong. That was only the zero level. It was necessary to build many more. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time. And every maidan that occurs, adjust the path to the future of Ukraine.

– But if the government does something wrong, then it turns out that people need to think about, because the power – it is a reflection of people … Or not?

– On the one hand – yes. But as the power – it is the same people, they have dominated their own, private, over the general. There are some studies that show that as long as society is dominated by values ​​of survival, until can not begin the path of modernization of society. All go in different directions, each competing with each to survive and provide for his family. There must be something in common between people. For example, now in volunteering involve up to 8 million people in Ukraine. This is 15 percent of the population of our country. These are new people who can be the future of Ukraine. A majority of just waiting and survives. Waiting for what will happen and what they will need to adapt to new circumstances. And the volunteers and soldiers sacrifice their lives. Because common cause always requires sacrifice – in the broadest sense of the word.

– And people want at least some of the victims of politicians …

– You know, if we wait for the victims of politicians, it will get nowhere. We should not pay attention to politicians and do their own thing. We have seen that the civil society can do their job better than politicians. I do not expect that the officials themselves to make reforms. Only civil society can do it and force officials to adapt to him. If officials do not want to adapt to new circumstances, to a new life, they have to leave.

“We need to be able to live decently, with dignity and without the transcendental material prosperity”

– How many years of independence, and we are only now beginning to open up in a new way, our language, culture …

– It’s done all the time. Decades. Just in Soviet times, a small part was discovering that, because it was forbidden. Since the beginning of the 90 it began to be freely distributed, but it should affect the children. It not casually says that Moses led the people of 40 years in the desert to die all who were enslaved. In the new land, he did not want to lead the slaves. Because those who have lived in slavery, always bear the mark of slavery. We still need to go through several generations, even 25 years must pass. Because who govern us? In the 90s it was the former communists, then the former Komsomol in the 2000s, is now the former pioneers. On October need to survive. And then all will be well.

– Somehow I happened to hear accusations of dissidents address that, say, in the early 90’s insufficient pressured the Communists …

– Do not push Davy – nothing will happen. We had very little. Now up to 8 million volunteers, is not enough to turn Ukraine into a European state? What to say: more than 20 years ago we were 2-3 thousand political prisoners. How was it possible to get the 50,000,000th country, all communists, to be different? This can only be slow – not otherwise.

– And for you to spread the language and culture, so to speak, coercive methods?

– No, you only need to encourage. You need to have flexible mechanisms to encourage ownership of the Ukrainian language, the study of culture and history. You should have an advantage in borrowing positions those who own Ukrainian language. How else? No country can afford to take the officials of people who do not speak the state language. Only we have this is possible, and even in other post-Soviet countries except. And we see that they are still backward. The world is moving forward, and we graze the rear. Because we can not get rid of the post-colonial mentality.

– Now a large percentage of people who felt themselves to be Ukrainians, but also a large part of the thinking in old categories. In your opinion, what makes people in the Soviet era to think as Europeans? On the contrary, right now think in terms of a country that no longer exists?

– It is not in the country. The point of the Eurasian identity. Because it is the identity matrix was formed hundreds of years, it works at all, all the people living on this continent. And it defines the behavior of these people for the future. Metamorphosis is very slow, very slow changes. You say people feel European. They want to be Europeans. This reflective level of consciousness. Consciously they want, but they can be them? Do they want to be responsible? Freedom without responsibility – it’s nothing. Responsible work, cooperation, respect for the law. What is the difference Eurasia from Europe? Because in Europe there is respect for the law, and in Eurasia it is not. In Eurasia, not the law operates, and the person: the president, the governor, or first secretary. And we are hooked, because we live in a 300 years old Eurasian empire.

Partly we are Europeans, because the influence of the West European identity on us. We want to be Europeans, but still can not, because people think: if someone makes reforms for us. However, it should be this: not one but yourself. Fight against corruption – not somewhere, but in themselves. When you start with yourself, then you have this sense of responsibility. If you do not remake himself a little, then the children will be dissolved. No need to have the illusion that the very desire to live in Europe enough. You must be able to live as Europeans live. Modest, worthy, respect the law and work. Modestly – it including without transcendental material wealth.

– In all periods of development of Ukraine there were groups of people who are called moral authorities. But it seems they do not always hear …

– People must have the need to listen, first and foremost. If people have no need to listen to them – this is a problem people. Recently passed into eternity Eugene Sverstyuk. For me – the moral authority. But how many people knew him? I listen to it? How many people have corrected the life according to the principles of which he spoke? We all know how to live. But the country does not work … So, something is wrong …

Sourse, 27/08/2015

About the trial of Nadia Savchenko

Member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels sees several options for the end of the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko – it can award a short time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation, and if Savchenko will provide a long term, it will mean that Russia ready for isolation.

If the international observers will be present at the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, it will complicate the process for Russia, as the case is fabricated, said Iosif Zisels. He said this in a comment edition of “Gordon” .

“In principle, the government may announce in the end the decision is already past the court, and said, Behold, I’m sorry, did not work to attract public and observers This one option Of course, the Kremlin is not beneficial to the presence of observers at the trial because he falsified, in my subjective.. . According to observers, especially European ones, may complicate the court, which is not the case for Russia is very easy “, – said Zissels.

According to him, the results of the trial Savchenko show what development strategy chosen Russia – the international isolation or compromise with the West.

“What is all over, I just can not say, because it does not possess all the volume of information. In addition, Russia is a country full of uncertainty. It may be a relatively short period of time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation. On the other hand, Putin can show . that he was at all do not care, give Savchenko long time, and go to the final separation from all over the world as a result of the court will be clear what kind of tactics Russia chooses – complete isolation or still relatively compromise “, – said Zissels.

He did not think that at the time he was taken from the Moscow Savchenko in danger, despite the fact that the exact location is not known nor the lawyers nor relatives.

“I would not say that it was hidden, it is not entirely correct. We can say that in Russia there is a very old and important principle that when it formulated Stalin: There are people – there is a problem, no man – no problem. If authorities stated that they did not know where Savchenko worthwhile to worry about, but they do not yet speak, “- Zissels said.

Why and where Russia hid Savchenko?

A preliminary hearing on the case of Ukrainian pilots Hope Savchenko in the Donetsk Court of the Rostov region of the Russian Federation is scheduled for July 30th. July 17 Savchenko was was transferred from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don. July 22 protection Savchenko said he did not know where the aviator. Until July 27 the Russian authorities, by law, can not report her whereabouts. July 23 the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Ella Pamfilova has sent a formal request to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and the Federal Service of Execution of Punishments to the requirement to quickly provide information on the whereabouts of Savchenko. Before his transfer Ukrainka write a will, because it assumes that in Rostov it might have something happen.

Savchenko was captured by militants in June 2014 in Luhansk region, and then illegally exported to Russia. Thus, in the Russian jail, she is more than a year.

July 13, the General Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation approved the indictment against Savchenko and sent the case to the court. Pilot accused of the murder of two Russian citizens in the Luhansk region, as well as attempted murder. Ukrainka his guilt did not recognize.

Protection Savchenko asked that her trial was held in Moscow, instead of the Rostov region, and then looked at the jury, but the lawyers denied all petitions.

Sourse, 24/07/2015

It all starts with the exceptions of the rule

The Jews of Ukraine or Ukrainian Jews? Former dissident and co-president of the Vaad of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels – a civilizational choice and formation of a political nation.

– Joseph, a lot of talk lately about a new phenomenon – the birth of Ukrainian Jewry as a special form of identity of unknown a few years ago …

– All the Jewish communities of Europe passed a similar transformation. Including our closest neighbors, enough to read the article of the Polish-Jewish intellectual Konstanty Gebert, stresses that, despite all the vicissitudes of the general history of Polish Jews say about themselves: “We – the Poles.” According to him, democracy as a basic value, appreciate and Jews. “I’m not surprised that the Ukrainian Jews are mostly supported Ukrainian independence – says Gebert This phenomenon is repeated in Europe regularly Every time when some nations are independent, the Jews, as a rule, are on their way…”

In western Europe, the reform of Jewish identity began in the era of the Haskalah, when the Count of Clermont-Tonnerre in the Constituent Assembly proposed to equalize the rights of the Jews, because they are part of the French nation. He spoke of a nation in the European sense of the term – a political nation. It was then born the concept of the French law of Moses, the Germans of the Mosaic law, that is, Jewish identity takes on a new form – civil. Most European countries one way or another have come to such an understanding of the identity of the middle of the XIX century, the Russian Empire, that did not happen – it was moving along a path. I’m not talking about the lag phase, it’s just another path – within the framework of the Eurasian identity could not appear Russian and Ukrainian law of Moses.

– However, in Ukraine for centuries his name in the Eurasian paradigm, the process began …

– Yes, and it’s painfully long process – the formation of a political nation in the Western European sense. We all – originally from the Soviet Union, we all Soviet Jews, the main feature of which was the identification state anti-Semitism. We could not know Jewish history, tradition, language – to know nothing other than a couple of Jewish jokes, and, nevertheless, remain different. Precisely because of the state of anti-Semitism. How many of the nearly half million Ukrainian Jews were parishioners of one of the 14 active synagogues under the Soviets? Several hundred elderly. Therefore, Soviet Jews, and even “anti-Soviet Jews” like me, for example, come from the same “cradle”.

Then Ukraine became a sovereign state, and we started to get the Jews of Ukraine, while maintaining all the Soviet, but rather, Eurasian features – related to basic values, the role of government, religion, private property, etc. This civilizational values ​​that are absorbed with their mother’s milk, and do not change overnight, as the overnight Jews of Ukraine can not become Ukrainian Jews.

– Ukrainian National Democrats have long criticized the fact that in terms of cultural identity of Jews in Ukraine pro-Russian. While half of the country, including ethnic Ukrainians, belong to the same – the Russian-speaking – camp.

– It’s true, in another’s eye speck see, we do not notice the log in your … Jews living in Ukraine and are guided by the surrounding society.

– The more that the majority of the country’s Jews live exactly in the south-eastern regions.

– I would not connect to the civilizational choice place to stay – we are all Europeans and all the little little Eurasians – Ukrainians, Russian, and Jews. Just Russian Jews, who stood on the Maidan, made its civilizational choice in favor of Europe, but today many of these choices are at war. We go through the same path as that of the whole country – become Ukrainians in the political sense of the word – regardless of language, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. I stress that we are Ukrainian Jews, not because they are beginning to speak Ukrainian. I was in 1978 named in the party press “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist.” Apparently, even then I was a Ukrainian Jew, though he spoke in Ukrainian is much worse than it is now. Not in the language, and not in the religion business, and in civilizational choice. feature

And those of us who supported the Ukrainian choice not because of fashion or pragmatic reasons, but because (and this says Gebert) that prefer democracy – they are the Ukrainian Jews. Of course, the well known authoritarian leaders who sympathized with the Jews, such as Pilsudski. But when he died, Pilsudski, the Jews remembered how well they lived under Marshal – say, your grandfather died.

Yes, Jews have traditionally focused on power, we treat it loyally, sometimes entering into conflict with the aspirations of the people among whom we live. What to do – it is our history, our mentality. However, other Jews at all times defended democratic values ​​and participated in the national liberation movements, becoming part of one or another political nations.

– In our case, this process has become possible only after the Ukrainians themselves have changed their model for understanding the nation, rejecting ethnic nationalism, tailored on the patterns of the 1930s …

– It did not begin on the Maidan. I joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in 1978, become acquainted with a new generation of Ukrainian Nationalists, did not cave, otherwise I would not have joined them. Moses Fishbein poet in the 1980s worked in the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, as a Ukrainian nationalist …

– You’re talking about exceptions …

– It all starts with exceptions, and I was not the first. In the Polish uprising in 1794 involved not many Jews in the November Uprising 1830 there were more, and in 1863 – even more. When you can talk about the birth of Polish Jewry? Not in 1863, and at the end of the XVIII century. With Ukrainian Jews the same story. It’s a question of quality, not quantity. There are such people, and they are becoming more – Jews of Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa – this is not the Soviet Jews. Some of them are fighting in the Donbass, and they will go to the guerrilla groups, if will be in occupation.

It all starts with the exceptions in the 1970 Ukrainian Jews had very little, how little and Ukrainian national democrats, but the phenomenon has existed. Another thing is that the heroes of Ukraine, that is, the people who died for the independence of his people today, really, other. After Heavenly hundreds of pieces of Bandera and Shukhevych began to leave in the past.

Hundreds of children are dying today at the front – they are the new heroes of Ukraine and the new symbols of Ukrainian nationalism, although many of them do not even think that it is – Ukrainian nationalism.

– There are other forms of nationalism …

– And then there was all black, and now – not all white. And now there is an anti-Semite Levko Lukyanenko and 13 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, which we identify as the right-wing radicals, among them two men with neo-Nazi backgrounds – Aleksandr Mosiychuk and Dmitry Linko. I am convinced that the coalition does not include these characters, and I will fight for it as well as fighting for something that the leader of the Social-National Assembly Andrey Biletsky did not go to the deputies of the People’s Front list.

– Do not you think that this new identity is largely built on the denial, on confrontation with Russia. But aggression, sooner or later will end, and what remains?

– How to start identity? No one knows. But we know, for example, what happened in the 2012 elections, and why 10% voted for the radicals of the VO “Svoboda”. Not because they are right-wing radicals, it was a protest vote against Yanukovych. In any identity combined various factors – both “for” and “against.” I became the “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist” (with all the conventions of this definition) in 1978, because it was sympathetic to the National Democrats and the Communists did not like – it brought me to the dissident movement. Religious Zionists in Israel – against the creation of a Palestinian state and the expansion of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria – the series goes on.

Of course, in the absence of an external threat could start natural fragmentation of society, but it has never been united. In the meantime, the process of formation of the Ukrainian political nation and Ukrainian Jewry, as one of its components. The process itself testifies to the fact that Ukraine still Europeanized, Eurasian identity is arranged differently. The activity of the country is in Europe, the greater the Ukrainian Jews. And it’s not in the formal membership in the EU, it is important that the feeling of the people, their mentality, their identities were European – this is a very long process, but it has already started …

Interviewed by Maxim Sukhanov

Sourse, 18/05/2015

Ukrainians are not ripe for reconciliation

This year Ukraine celebrates the Day of Reconciliation for the first time and memory in honor of all the victims of the Second World War. Are Ukrainians really come to terms,  “Gordon” asked the chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosifa Ziselsa.

The idea of ​​reconciliation is popular at any time, but it can not be used in any situation to any two people, because in the conflict, which stretches since World War II, in fact, there are several dimensions.

Besides the Soviet-German, on the other hand – the French-English-German, even on our side had several dimensions: the Polish-German, Polish-Ukrainian, Ukrainian-German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian, even participated in the Carpathians in the battles with the UPA. There are a number of measurements, and most importantly – the Ukrainian-Soviet.

For example, I know of a case in 1962, when two Ukrainian women who were connected in the UPA, were shot in the bunker in the Ternopil region of the soldiers. In 1962, the year!

If we talk about today’s reconciliation, it is, on the one hand, civilization, because the Ukrainians decided that enough they have to live in the empire with the Eurasian civilization, and want to try the life of the European and then compared in 300 years, in which one It was better. On the other hand, this reconciliation is artificially caused by Russian aggression.

I do not think that we are ripe for reconciliation because the still very many forces did not satisfy his ambitions. If we talk about the dimensions that were during the Second World War, for them, of course, it has come, because we see a lot of progress on the line of Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation.

But it is not yet complete, as some Poles, for example, reacted nervously to the laws that have been adopted for the rehabilitation of UPA and other Ukrainian national organizations. This is a complex mishmash in which you need to understand. Find out about what exactly we are talking reconciliation. Young did not have these conflicts.

In Spain, where the civil war was prolonged, the family is still remembered, who had fought on which side. And this is not some kind of soft and hard memories. This is despite the fact that Franco (Spanish dictator Francisco Franco) has long put a monument to reconciliation for victims of the war on both sides.

In the southern states of the USA, despite the fact that since the civil war took place 150 years, also kept ancestral memory as to who fought for the North, and who – for the south. Although they live like the well, and the states do not fight each other, except that there is some confrontation during the election – more than one vote for Republicans, others – for the Democrats.

The issue of reconciliation is not so simple. Perhaps reconciliation at the level of Heads of State. Yushchenko (the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko), for example, has done a lot for this. But at the level of ordinary people a reconciliation does not take place so quickly.

In sociology, we see that in the last year the attitude of Ukrainians to the Poles has improved significantly, because millions of Ukrainians saw that the Poles actually help Ukraine in this complicated conflict. And as the Russian government not only did not help – she was the aggressor.

Veterans reluctance to shake hands says that a new conflict was superimposed on the old and on the contrary, it has strengthened rather than weakened.

Two of civilization people can live in peace, and they are in general, they lived more or less peacefully, despite the tension between the state structures, as long as there was no interference in each other’s identity. As soon as the intervention in the identity of other people, there is a huge energy instantly resistance.

Yet another dimension – the dimension of the Maidan – was for me as a reaction to a very significant part of Ukrainian society to try Yanukovych (fugitive ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych) and all his clique to bring us back to a state of the Eurasian identity, which we already do not want to be at as most of us.

This applies to the Donbas. This region has a different identity, and perhaps he did not want to live in a European way. If we are forced to compel him to do so, we get back the same great resistance power.

Decentralization is relevant if load it humanitarian, economic, financial and other aspects. Groisman (Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman) said several times that it is necessary to take into account the humanitarian aspect in decentralization. Historically. If we do not consider this aspect, it means that we do not spend real decentralization, it would be somewhat artificial.

Donbass within Ukraine should develop as he understands it in his own way. And the overall rate of the State of Ukraine, if it still exists, together with the Crimea and Donbas on the road to Europe must be sufficiently slow so as not to lose the regions that do not want to move in this direction. We need to talk, to explain, to try to continue to implement the values ​​that have more in Ukrainian society.

Sourse, 08/05/2015

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia

Iosif Zisels, human rights activist and head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Vaad, recalls with a smile, as in Soviet times it was called both a Zionist and a Ukrainian nationalist. Now, 40 years later, it again can be called zhidobanderovtsem, and the term has acquired a new meaning and a positive connotation.

In the Soviet Union he was a dissident, trying to defend the rights of Jews, and then joined the Ukrainian Helsinki human rights group. In 1978, on charges of defamation and anti-state activities Zissels received six years in a penal colony. Nine months before the liberation he was offered amnesty in exchange for a renunciation of political principles, but he refused.

Now, Soviet dissident and political prisoner, became one of the most influential Jews of Ukraine – he heads the largest Jewish organization, which is able at any time to lend a helping hand to every Jew of the country, engaged in the revival and strengthening of Jewish communities, their culture and religion, as well as helping wishing to exit in Israel.

Zissels well – known people abroad, where he is a member of the European and the World Jewish Congress, took over the functions of the public lobbyist Ukraine’s national interests. In his own words Zisels, he lives according to the covenant of the Jewish patriarch Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? “

“New time” meets Zissels in the office of the Association of Jewish Organizations, which is located in one of the academic buildings of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. It is a small unit into several rooms, on the door of which hung an advertisement for the recruitment of students to the specialization of Judaica. Zissels cordially invites you into his office and, distracted for a few minutes to say hello to each of his employees, invited to interview.

Ukrainians are very sensible nation, and therefore changes have been slow. Maidan two months stood and demanded concessions from the government. When I talk about that in France, there wondering how, two months? We would all smashed in two weeks!

Just Ukrainians other political temperament. We are moving at their own pace, which is slower than that of Poland or the Baltic countries. It must be taken as fact. Another problem is that our identity is dual, and expectations are always high, so some of us and sways from side to side. We believe that, if there was a revolution and change of power, all at once will change, but it is not.

Ukraine will of fate was between a European democracy and Eurasian authoritarian culture. And it is important to understand that if 20% of the population do not want to in Europe, this must somehow be considered. This is not a whim, just for them, Europe stranger. And we are encroaching on their identity, though hardly have that right.

Recall, Viktor Yanukovych wanted to encroach on our right to be Europeans – and the Maidan happened. The same thing is happening now. When threatened identity, even among people who are accustomed to submission, there is a huge energy resistance. We need to negotiate rather than fight.

Today in the country there is a desire to fight corruption, but it’s part of our culture. Corruption – is a part of Ukrainian identity. The law is not absolute for us, and its violation – not a sin, as in the West. And this shows our Eastern culture – there is not a law adopted in order to execute it, and that they enjoyed the strongest.

We used to live like this, we have formed a lot of secret agreements between government and society. For example, that the severity of the law is compensated by its failure. At low levels of wages authorities turned a blind eye to the fact that we steal, and the people turned a blind eye to the fact that steals power. In space, where there is no law with a capital letter, a person perceives any obstacle as a challenge, to solve the problem – that such obstacles put me, but I still find it, how to get around them.

So, to say, well, let’s fight against corruption, which many of us continue to steal – is meaningless. It is necessary to recognize the existence of tacit agreements and revise them. The struggle of society against corruption must be a struggle with ourselves.

Right now Ukrainian Jews began to realize themselves as Jews in Ukraine. In Europe, it happened in the late XIX century. In France, that’s when the Jews received equal rights with the French and called themselves the French law of Moses. We have this process takes place only now.

The Jews of Ukraine took a very active part in the Maidan. Were actively, perhaps, only the Crimean Tatars. And the Ukrainians have rated it – according to the latest sociological research, for the year related to the Jews and Crimean Tatars in the country has improved significantly.

We do not believe, how many Jews were on the Maidan, but we know that many of them then went to the front. The most paradoxical – some of them fought in the battalion of Azov, near the radical nationalists. In addition, in the east of the country and fight guys with Israeli passports. It is the volunteers who teach our soldiers. Israel has almost 100 years of war, and experience – most importantly, that he can pass Ukraine.

Israel does not help Ukraine officially because so fixated on their own security. In 2008, during the war in Georgia, Israel helped equip the Georgian air defense system. Then Georgia was hit by three Russian aircraft, and Israel received a warning from Russia that if he will continue to help Georgia, Iran gets a nuclear bomb, and Syria will face Russia’s S-300 missiles.

But while Israel – a democratic country, and the pressure of society can not be ignored. Most of the Israelis – people with democratic values, and they sympathize with Ukraine.

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia – will be less frustrating. Now, in many EU countries pre-election period. To support Ukraine, impose additional sanctions on Russia for them is to reduce the level of welfare of their countries and to expose their chances of winning at serious risk. Can help unless indirect pressure on Europe from the United States and Canada.

This is very similar to what happened in the 1930s. Germany regularly paid for oil and metals, and all wanted her to trade. Nobody wanted to see it as a monster, preferring to think that Germany will not fight with them, and with their competitors. After eight years of these errors have to pay a huge price.

We are no longer a peaceful country, and it will not be long. We need to get used to fight with minimal losses, rely on their own forces to protect their people, to rebuild the economy on a war footing, and not bury our heads in the sand. In Russia, too, there is no other option but to fight with Ukraine. They understand that with this government and with this partnership agreement is impossible.

Something we can count only when the disintegration processes in Russia will be intense. However, nobody in the world is not interested in this. What does it mean crumbling Russia? Huge fragments of the country armed with nuclear weapons. Putin, in spite of our curses, still controls the country. If only we have not climbed, prices would not be him. But he can not climb, the logic of empire – its meaning in the expansion.

I do not believe in the possibility of democratization of Russia. I spent two years in the Ural camps, lived in Moscow for more than a year. Russia within its present borders will never be a European country. There is no critical mass of people who can change the destiny of Russia. Moreover, not all countries should be European. The world rests on the balance sheet. And who will be the European world to balance China? Any democratization of Russia will lead to its disintegration, and this terrible future, with unpredictable consequences.

5 questions Iosifu Ziselsu:

– What event of your life you feel in charge?

– Of course, my participation in the dissident movement. I think all the most important thing happened then.

– What is your favorite city?

– I do not have a favorite book or a favorite city. I love Chernivtsi, where I spent my childhood, Kiev, in which I live. I like to be in Jerusalem and Barcelona.

– What move around the city?

– I have a Subaru Outback. This reliable, sturdy machine. Not very comfortable, but I like it.

– What is your monthly cost of living?

– I get a pension. More than ordinary people, but not enough to live a normal life. It is also engaged in consulting, working in a private firm. My problem is not how to provide for themselves, but rather where to find the money for our activities. Well, I have four kids that even adults, but they still need help. Perhaps today I spend at least $ 1 thousand. Per month.

– What do you seek?

– As anyone – to self-realization, once satisfied all other requirements. And I think I am quite good to deal with it.

Sourse, 02/05/2015

I do not think that without the consent of the inhabitants the city will be renamed

Without the consent of the inhabitants of the city should not be renamed, he said in a comment  “GORDON”  chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

“I’m not sure that without the decision of the local community, you can rename the city. But you’ve seen over the last 23 years, at least one law, which is performed in its entirety, just as it was written? We live in a space where the laws are not in order to fulfill them. laws of the people do not obey the laws of the people do not respect the laws of the people do not follow. They use the laws to achieve some of their goals. I do not think there will be a city renamed without the consent of residents. This should be without hysterics, and in a peaceful discussion. I do not think that without a Announce the masses it can be done then we will get additional negative effects, which have enough “, -. Zissels said.

There is a clash of two civilizations, so think about what the consequences will ban communist symbols more correctly, he said.

“There’s a novel in which the hero is a young man seeking a countess, she was refused, he turns the whole world, conquering all of Europe, and when the Countess is ready him to give up, it turns out that it is – an elderly woman and he no longer needed so. . and with that we now live in a turbulent time, we have a war on, and not just between the separatists and the Ukrainians, but a war between two civilizations -. European and Eurasian It’s so powerful collision, what to think, what consequences will result in a ban of symbols, I it seems to be incorrect. I do not think th that it will lead to some serious consequences to the positive or to the negative “- Zissels said.

However, in his opinion, for many people, the victims of the regime, this decision will be important.

“I have not yet comprehended once the consequences of yesterday’s solutions. I dreamed about it many years ago, because he was a dissident and was imprisoned in Soviet times for political activities, but it’s been more than 20 years. Although many people for whom life was a struggle with the communist system, it is very important that finally at least the end of life to get satisfaction from the fact that these misanthropic ideology abolished and banned, “- said the expert.

The honey, he said, the current law many inaccuracies that should be corrected.

“East is bad knows what the UPA, and the West does not speak what the UPA. It was a long time ago. So many myths of positive and negative during the Soviet period was unwound. The very acronym UPA with a hyphen, which created the Soviet ideology, did not exist in nature . The law had a lot of confusion -. terminological, factual, grammatical Before this law was passed, I was just going to make corrections I have quite an old man, to know how to be called in reality there are mixed up the names of organizations…History is no such organization “OUN” Yes “OUN” one, is “OUN” Second, there is a “OUN” third -. There are three “OUN” – Zissels said.

“Live – see very little consequence were other laws, I think, will also be with these Someone uses them for next separatist sentiments, someone on the contrary uses the dominance of pro-European sentiment in the end still everything goes and vanishes… “- he concluded.

Recall, April 9, the Verkhovna Rada  adopted  a law recognizing the communist regime 1917-1991 criminally and banning communist symbols.

The adopted law about the condemnation of the communist regime  contained  rule to rename the settlements, which are named in honor of the communist-era figures.

Sourse, 10/04/2015

Today, it is a conflict between civilization and the negation of civilization

What is happening today – a revision of the entire set of rules established in the world after the Second World War.

Iosif Zisels, chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups, – performance at the channel marathon  UKRLIFE.TV  on “The international implications of the terrorist attacks in France”:

There are two important systemic factor that differentiates Western Europe from the East and, in particular, from the Ukraine.

The first factor – is the presence of entities associated with the radical Islamic movement, they are in Western Europe, they do not exist in Eastern Europe. Perhaps, as we move to Europe they will, but for now it is not.

The second factor – the movement, fashionable in the left intelligentsia, in which human rights, in particular, the protection of the rights of Palestinians leads to anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment.

Sourse, 12/01/2015

The level of anti-Semitism in Ukraine is not increased

Do you see now Ukraine growth of anti-Semitism and xenophobia – to this and other questions in an interview with DW said the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Iosif Zisels.

Iosif Zisels – Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups. In an interview with DW Zissels she told whether there is in Ukraine, the rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and also responded to a number of other issues.

DW: In Russia, many say that with the advent of the current Ukrainian politicians in the country have intensified anti-Semitic sentiments. Is it so?

Iosif Zisels: I was one of the leaders of the Jewish community can assure that there is no – not only sharp, but generally no increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Ukraine. We are very carefully and attentively fix every incident, every speech, every case of an attack, and every act of vandalism. And this level – as last year. Despite the tumultuous events that took place on the Maidan in Kiev, on the military operations in the south-east of Ukraine, the level of anti-Semitism in the country increases. It was and remains one of the lowest in Eastern Europe.

– And what is the level of anti-Semitism in Russia?

– As regards the level of anti-Semitism in Russia – it is too short. Just as in Ukraine, he measured a dozen or two dozen cases per year. But Russia – authoritarian country with underdeveloped democratic institutions. And in this authoritarian model of existence can be played “Jewish card”. In Ukraine, too, is to be feared that the state wants to use it, but fortunately, there is control belongs to the civil society.

– What can you say about the allegations in the city address that the current government allegedly tolerate manifestations of neo-Nazism?

– First of all, it is a question of terminology. I think really understand what Nazism, only to narrow specialists. They are our experts, with whom we have worked for many years. In Ukraine, as in any other country, there are right-wing movements, some of which resemble the neo-Nazi. But they are in Europe. Right-wing parties have almost all European countries, and they are much more dangerous than what we see today in Ukraine.

So, the party “Freedom” is not passed to the new Ukrainian parliament, which was in the previous Parliament when Yanukovych was there 37 mandates. This demonstrates the falling level of interest in the radical demagogy of this order. Lyashko passed Radical Party, which is very different: it is less than the national radical demagogy, but more general radical demagoguery. In majority districts it took a few people who can be considered right-wing radicals with aspects of neo-Nazism. Very few of them: 423 MP – about 10. That is less than it was in the last Parliament, where there were 37.

But I think that the concerns of the Parliament, there was a general shift of the entire spectrum a little to the right. Because such a national-democratic parties as Block Petro Poroshenko, “Popular Front” and “self-help” – are themselves center-right. That is, the parliament’s center of gravity has shifted slightly to the right, and is a tribute to wartime. Requirements radicals is not particularly noticeable.

– The fact that the Parliament did not pass the “Freedom” and “Right Sector”, can be considered a success of Ukrainian democracy?

– In fact, these parties were radical demagogic. Moreover, these were the projects financed and designed to split the opposition with Yanukovych’s government. That is, in part, they were man-made projects. They can not be considered as such natural, organic manifestations of the right of the spectrum, as can be seen in many countries.

In Ukraine, the main control of the right-wing radicals has not the government, as is the case in Russia, and civil society. It itself copes with this low level of pravoradikalizma in the country, making it much better than the state. And it is – a guarantee that this rate will not be great.

– Earlier you said that “right-wing and neo-Nazi forces” involved in the conflict in the Donbass, from both sides? You can name specific examples?

– On the Russian side, according to our experts, fights about 200 neo-Nazis. Among them are, first of all, “Russian National Unity”. This is a known neo-Nazi organization in Russia, which has its own recruitment offices, training camps for militants and separate connections on the front. Others – such as, for example, the former party Limonov, is “dyed” in other colors. It is important to note also that the present or volunteers or mercenaries from European right-wing neo-Nazi parties. They, too, are fighting on the Russian side.

On the Ukrainian side, too, there is a man 30-40 – skinheads from the right-wing group “Social-National Assembly”, “Patriots of Ukraine”, for which we are following closely. In this regard, first of all, we may note the battalion “Azov”, where there may be even a few dozen people from the “Social-National Assembly.” Andrey Beletsky – the commander of the battalion (now it is a regiment) – the head of “Social-National Assembly.” However, he argues that the war changed their ideology.

– From what sources do you get information?

– We have a number of experts of the European level. We use their data, and trust them, as for many years working with them. Moreover, our data are taken from the report of the State Department’s anti-Semitism in the world and the OSCE report on the monitoring and analysis of anti-Semitism in the world. I myself 25 years engaged in the construction of networks for monitoring and analysis of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

Sourse, 06/11/2014

Israeli President raised on Russian historiography

The head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, a well-known human rights activist and Soviet dissident, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels in an interview with “Gromadska radio” stated that he could not agree with the speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. He accused the Ukrainians in the complicity in the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Second World War, informs eizvestia.com .

“He’s an old man. He bears the stereotypes of the past, historiography, which today is not considered objective. He was brought up in the Russian historiography. Israel, at least the older generation still lives under its influence. It does not reflect the opinion of the young. After all, the young religious Israelis have stood on the Maidan. These views he expressed today – it’s yesterday, “- said Zissels.

He recalled the visit to Israel of the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko in 2007.

“The delegation came to Yad Vashem and asked to show documents that indicate the involvement of Roman Shukhevych (OUN leader during World War II) to such crimes. But no one was able to show. This stereotype does not provide evidence, if everyone knows it. No, not everyone knows that. For example, I do not trust that it is not necessary to confirm the archival authentic documents “- Zissels said.

He noted that the OUN and UPA fighters fought for Ukraine, and they can not wear the stereotypical labels.

September 27 during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada parliamentary hearings devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that the Ukrainians have been involved in the repression against the Jews during the Second World War. “Many of the accomplices of crimes were Ukrainians. And among them highlights the OUN, which mocked Jews, killed them, and in many cases, were given to the Germans. It is also true that there were more than 2.5 thousand Righteous among the Nations “-. Said Rivlin.

Commenting on the Israeli president’s speech, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Vladimir Vyatrovich said Rivlin repeated Soviet myth of the OUN involvement in the Holocaust. The head of the OUN Bogdan Chervak ​​Rivlin called the statement “a spit in the soul of the Ukrainians” and urged him not to watch Russian television, as it is “not just bad, but also indecent.”

During World War II, occupied Kiev Nazi troops used the tract Babi Yar, in the northwestern part of the city as a place of mass executions of civilians, most of whom were Jews. September 29, 1941 the entire Jewish population was obliged to come to the Babi Yar, where until September 30, was shot more than 33 thousand. Man on the orders of the occupation administration. According to various estimates, at Babi Yar were killed by 70 thousand. Up to 200 thousand. Man.

Sourse, 29/09/2016

The system rotted from within and dognila before disbanding

Soviet-era dissident Yosif Zisels told why refused amnesty in the Gorbachev era, what regrets today about whether modern Ukraine may repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime

Yosif Zisels – human rights activist, dissident, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. In 1978 he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He spent six years in prisons on charges of “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Every dissident own destiny. For example, a man wrote a poem. As my friend, the Ukrainian dissident, a former teacher in the Ternopil region kultprosvetuchilische Mikola Grobal, wrote a poem called “Dumi moї, Dumi”. For this was sent to prison. For the poem. Simply laid out thoughts on paper. Or Semyon Gluzman, which persecuted for their professional activities. He made the correspondence psychiatric examination for General Pyotr Grigorenko and mathematician Leonid Plyushch and promulgated it.

The dissent came for different reasons: national, democratic, moral, emotional. The reasons were not so important to us. Most importantly, we together fought criminal imperial communist system.

I actually grew up without parents. So I have virtually no such an important element of the psyche as a “social instinct of self-preservation,” usually brings up children in a normal Jewish family. Simply no one to create it. I started very early to read samizdat. I think it is no coincidence. The fact that we were surrounded by then, and what we have been taught do not match. Not everyone is dissonance when life does not match with the pictures, which are described in textbooks. Some quietly absorbed in itself is doublethink, I called it “social schizophrenia.” Some do it quietly. Some resisted.

The Soviet government constantly demanded confirmation of loyalty. A variety of ways. Those who have studied, passed the party’s history, scientific communism. Was political information was the Komsomol, and other institutions, which are constantly monitored by the people through an extensive network. Not only controlled the KGB people were the party, trade union, Komsomol and Pioneer organizations. And I went multilevel selection. Revealed disgruntled, obstinate. Once a person has manifested itself, it was a signal that we should look at it.

I went to the dissidence almost deliberately. I drew it. I wanted to know the truth about life, about history, about relationships. And find the right answers in samizdat, as permitted by the literature is almost impossible to find the truth. It was important that others know the truth. Not immediately, at first reading itself, and then you want to share with others. Then you become it a little.

An important stimulus was originally a private confrontation lies and violence. You try to realize his need for truth is not simply to distribute this literature. Then there is the need to sign any appeals, appeals to protest against human rights violations. I’m talking about the way. Some stop at reading the literature, some – at that distribute other books, some do not sign the appeal and appeal, and others pass this hurdle and continue to develop. Then there was a real help to political prisoners, in which I was involved.

The apogee of my dissident activity can be considered as 1978 , when I was actively engaged in case of using the power of Soviet psychiatry to persecute dissidents and investigated more than 80 such stories, in the summer became a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and in December he was arrested for the first time.

I do not consider myself a victim. I tried to do something as far as possible. I tried something to counter the Soviet regime and its powerful repressive apparatus. Authorities responded to me quite “adequately”. I knew I was not alone in this, but the dissidents are not many, only a few thousand to two hundred millionth Soviet people. Nevertheless, it was more personal fulfillment, not an illusory calculation somehow undermine Soviet power. It was clear that our efforts it was impossible to destroy. She was rotting from the inside and dognila before disbanding.

The fact that the dissidents were known all over the world, destroyed the Soviet myth. 220 million people live happily, moving towards communism, nothing else is willing, but there are several thousand people who by the very fact of its existence, argue that a false myth. Here I was among those people. It was my way. I chose him and he went through it. And, fortunately, I did not meet with an obstacle that would have made me turn back.

I was already an inveterate “recidivist”, when I was offered an amnesty, it was in January 1987, went a second three-year term of my imprisonment, I had to sit 9 months. As for all the forced dialogue with the authorities, with the KGB, with investigators from the prosecutors, I did not sign any paper, any evidence not given, I do not want to change his principles when I needed to sit 9 months. I calmly refused the amnesty. She was so very communist. We had to sign a document that You shall not engage in political activity. Some signed, and then continued to work.

I did not believe that engaging in political activities. It was a formality, but I took it very seriously. If I sign it, then break its principle “not to cooperate with the authorities.” I was not sorry, and now do not regret it.

I’m sorry about the other. Going your own way, you are doomed to suffering families. With time comes the understanding that your free choice causes suffering of others: family, friends. KGB worked very well. They covered not only the one who resists, but all its surroundings, creating an inconvenience to them in life, to put it mildly. This was done to set up against the man his environment. I lost a few people who thought their comrades in these years. Some stayed, we’ve been friends for 50 years. They passed the test with me.

In total I spent in prisons and zones 6 years and the year at home under the administrative supervision of the refusal to accept the “Gorbachev amnesty.” Both times I was accused under Article 187 (approx.) Of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, in the “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Any authoritarian regime, the more totalitarian, based on the fact that there is an external enemy, there is internal, and it is necessary to deal with them. And for people to explain who the external enemy – the imperialists, capitalists, the NATO military. And the internal – dissidents “fifth column”, which does not want to go to the general structure of communism. It was a massive propaganda against such people. We tried to turn public opinion against these people. Isolate, to make their lives uncomfortable, unbearable. Even when you see that article in the newspaper against you false from beginning to end, it is embarrassing to you, the residue remains. And there are articles about the dissidents, whom the authorities deemed “outcasts” were enough.

I lived in the city of Chernivtsi and did not face persecution for the use of the Ukrainian language. For too active promotion – possible. It is already considered nationalism. And only the KGB decided what distinguishes patriotism from nationalism. On the other hand, I grew up in a Jewish environment, and only a student came to understand many issues, including national.

Can modern Ukraine to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime? Ukrainians are already very difficult to build as they were built in the Soviet era. Once upon a time this would have killed millions, and intimidate others and build. Most of destroying a part buy, this was done in the 20s, 30s. Soviet authorities or killed or drove out, or bought. So to build “our elites.” Therefore there is nothing surprising that she is today. I think that the repetition of history is impossible. It is impossible to kill 5.7 million people, to build a line of others. But the fact of the formal independence of the country does not guarantee the economic prosperity of the people and democratic development, respect for the law, eradication of corruption and the development of a new system of values. As mathematicians say, a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Recorded Jan Goncharenko

See. Also Special Project “Dissidents” edition Fokus.ua and STB for the Suppression of dissidents in the USSR

Source: focus.ua , 25.08.2016

Sourse, 25/08/2016

Yanukovych must be condemned, but corruption is a derivative of general disrespect for the law

stigmatization campaign corruption, declared an international human rights organization Transparency International, is to focus on the figure of the Ukrainian society fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych that will distract from the system solution to the problem, said a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

Viktor Yanukovych was not born corrupt, and become so because of the mentality of Ukrainian society, says Iosif Zisels.

Yanukovych headed the world ranking corrupt officials on the results of voting on the website of the international human rights organization Transparency International, which announced that begins stigmatization campaign against corruption, taking the first nine places.

“I would not want to exaggerate the importance of this campaign. While any steps to eliminate in the Ukrainian society of corruption are good, and the worst of them will not. But I’m inclined to think that we need a systematic approach. Yanukovych is not born corrupt, it is a question of education, which is determined by All the circumstances of life in the Eurasian society is corruption -. it is part of our mentality and culture we are born, live and die in corruption. “- Zissels said.

“Condemn Yanukovych necessary, he was president of the country, but to focus on his figure could divert attention from the systemic problem In fact, corruption is dissolved in all, and the problem can not be solved without the long-term by re-society programs, building on the Western partners.” – he added he.

Zissels stressed that “over the last year in this regard has been made longer than in the previous 25 years.”

“Transparency International does a lot, forcing public institutions to deal with corruption, I know this organization, I support her contacts, her activity is doubtless useful, but how it can be assumed that it decides for 45,000,000th country of its problems..?” – said human rights activist .

According to him, “corruption – is a derivative of general disrespect for the law in general, including to the tax.”

“Who pays taxes in Ukraine Corruption – this including the theft of the budget, but we do not fill it I am sure that the majority of Ukrainians do not pay all the taxes that they are put there are plenty of other laws, which we treat as.. . well as to tax is the question of respect for the law if it appears, will result in the condemnation of anti-corruption Yanukovych -.. a good measure, but it does not give a general respect for the law “- he said.

The human rights activist believes that “in the fight against corruption the first place should take no condemnation, no anti-corruption bureau or anti-corruption prosecutor, namely re-society in the spirit of European values”.

“With our values ​​we will not become either economically developed, nor a truly democratic country, to tackle corruption. Only the union of all the forces of civil society and reform forces in the government, if they are there, in the long term can give some result for the whole Ukraine, if not for us, our children, or even grandchildren, “- he concluded.

Yanukovych was the President of Ukraine with the February 25, 2010. February 22, 2014, after three months of protests on the Maidan Verkhovna Rada recognized it withdrew from the post and do not fulfill their obligations, then new presidential elections were announced. In February last year, Yanukovych left Ukraine, is now with his family, he lives in Russia.

In Ukraine against Yanukovych opened several criminal proceedings. He is accused of the mass murder of citizens, misappropriation of state property, the seizure of power by unconstitutional means, actions aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order. Concerning it applies conviction in absentia procedure .

Yanukovych’s name was included in the investigation of the Interpol database, but at the end of July 2015 wanted to suspend consideration of the complaint of lawyers who insist on the political background of the case against the former president.

Sourse, 11/02/2016

Without the knowledge of history you like cod on the waves – swim, where will the current flow

With this well-known journalist Natalia Feshchuk man talking in his second home Chernivtsi – Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, co-founder of which he is. The conversation took place before he got into the list of moral authority among the Ukrainians, compiled a few days ago one of the Ukrainian media . By the way, an interview with Iosifom Samuilovichem Ziselsom just ended his reflections on what moral authority are always there in the community, if only listen to them …

Joseph Zisels many posts and distinctions, among them – the head of the Association of Jewish organizations and communities of Ukraine, executive vice-president of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. And in a nutshell: Ukrainian dissident Jewish descent, twice convicted for anti-Soviet activities. He never worked in government, says the most comfortable feeling when engaged in public affairs.

As in the Union, and now he has his own strong opinions on what principles should build a true nation and a strong country. And yet convinced that a free man – a responsible person.

Zissels has been living in Kiev. But here, in the heart of Chernivtsi, it remains a piece of his heart, because it is here, on the street Schiller once lived with his parents.

“I have a very warm attitude to the history and the people who are no longer”

– Mr. Joseph, when you decided to found the Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, it was a sense of duty to those Jews who had once been so much in Chernivtsi?

– My parents – not local Jews and Bessarabia. They arrived in Chernivtsi after the Second World War. In Chernivtsi I am, unfortunately, not born. But I have lived here and interacted with the people remaining from before the war. And it was German-speaking Jews, there were already a little while, in the 50-60s, – two or three hundred, maybe left from the huge community, which before the war amounted to almost 80 thousand people. In the city of 120 thousand people two-thirds – it was the Jewish population. And I was struck by the story of this community, which flourished at the end of the XVIII century, when the Austrian authorities to allow Jews to settle here. But almost half of the Jews was destroyed during the Holocaust, and the other half remained in the city, but has not been able to live under the Soviet regime. In 1940, the Jews were some illusions, many of them were left sentiment, but European, and they waited for the Red Army, because on the other hand – Hitler. And they were deported to Siberia, one third of them in 1941, 12 thousand Bukovinians – Jews. Those who have stayed here, came under Romanian occupation, who was shot, who died in concentration camps. Who stayed with the time left for Israel. Live in Chernivtsi remaining units …

And I wanted to recreate the story. I thought, this is our duty. Because once the Jewish community in the city was very strong. And those who came here after the war, there were already other people – Bessarabian East Ukrainian Jews were very Soviet. I want to say that everything was up to the First World War is well. And when it came, Romania, the Jewish community has undergone a lot of suffering. This, of course, does not compare with the Holocaust. But Romania was a strong anti-Semitism. Second, the Jews of Romania considers patriots Austria-Hungary and taking revenge for that. We have archival documents showing that the Bukovina Ukrainians and Poles in 1918 protested against the annexation of this region Romania. And among the Jews of Bukovina was a protest. And then the Romanians because it does not give citizenship to many Jews. But still it was not, as in the Soviet Union. 1940 showed who is who. And those who lamented that’s how bad it was when Romania saw what could be worse than under Soviet rule. Some of the Jews, unfortunately, did not have time to leave. We traveled already in 60-70 years, when there was again a possibility. I know these families, helping them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them.

– You always emphasized that you – Ukrainian Jew. Now in Ukraine, many of our citizens such as the re-born, they want to know more about their country and its history. Some, on the contrary, is still passive. But to be a true citizen of the country, it seems to be inside? As it has been in your family?

– In me many laid. Because in a city like Chernivtsi laid a lot – here is the crossroads of history, culture and languages. This tolerant spirit of Chernivtsi. What is the difference Bukovina Jews of Galician, for example? One of the features – tolerance of the province, it has passed and the Jews too. There was a lot of tolerance and among Jews, too: between the orthodox and reformist currents in Judaism. In other cities they are irreconcilable, here they are communicated. For example, the chief rabbi of Chernivtsi was the Reform rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court was Orthodox rabbi.

At home, I received a Soviet-Jewish upbringing, not a purely Jewish. But I never hid their Jewish identity. I’ve always known who I am. At the same time, it is Ukraine, and I felt a Ukrainian part too. When I was at university, he attended lectures in Ukrainian. My Ukrainian language more with the university, the house spoke Russian. Yiddish was too, but in my family it was less. Today, I understand that if the Ukrainian laid into you since childhood, and then it starts to work. We in the Union of Soviet Jews were in we had very little Jewish. We knew about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and all. Few knew their language, history, literature. And only at the end of the 80s we started to restore the Jewish life, and began to become Ukrainian Jews who consider Ukraine as their motherland.

“Without faith and stories you like cod on the waves – swim, which carries”

– You were convicted of anti-Soviet propaganda. And what was the essence of your “propaganda”?

– I’ve been doing many things that could not do then. In Chernivtsi distributed samizdat. Helping political prisoners and their families. Gathering information on human rights violations and passed it. Joining the Ukrainian Helsinki group. There were people who helped – Ukrainian, Russian, not only Jews. It was a more or less intelligent circle. But in prison then, in 1978, was just me. Sentenced to three years. In the 84 th year – three more. At six.

– But the same could give and more …

– Could … But you do what you have to do. I considered it my duty to you need to do something against that power. As part of our small capacity.

– Who are the Ukrainian dissidents influenced you?

– How did I know about Ukrainian history, the Holodomor? Of Ukrainian dissidents. I talked with a lot of Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mihailom Gorinem. I traveled a lot for Ukraine, provedyvat those freed. I was looking for traces of what was called the investigation of psychiatric persecution, looking for people who have suffered in this way. I communicated with Ivan Svetlichny, Zinoviem Krasovskim, Panas Zalivahi – famous artist of Frankivsk. From each of them gets something pro-Ukrainian. The fact that I became a Ukrainian Jew, credit Ukrainian dissidents.

– You once said that you can not achieve human rights, if not to talk about religion and ethnicity …

– There is an opinion with which I am, so to speak, discuss. It is often said that it is possible to raise human universal values. And religion and ethnic culture is not required. I do not agree with this. Because when talking about millions of people, we can not achieve universal values, if not pass, so to speak, religion and ethnic culture. The only way to achieve this and tolerance. But the current reality is hard to implement. Because many non-religious people, they think that it is not very necessary. Although religion is gradually won over the place in our lives in comparison with the Union, but its weight in society still is not great.

I remember in the 70-80-ies of the last century, we spoke to Chornovil and Gorin that first need to be done, when finally this power will be overthrown or she falls. By the way, we did not expect it would be so fast. First of all, this is the resumption of the role of religion. Because religion – it is a very powerful educational factor in the society, which provides a set of essential values. It does not matter, Jews or Christians that. Because the value of the universal. And if it is not brought in millions of people, it is very hard to build a normal society.

Similarly, the story. Still have the illusion that you can live without it. But survive unless … but I know exactly what is in a person who has the confidence and the religious, and ethnic back to childhood, there is already such a rod, and then the whole life revolves around it. When a person enters the test in trouble, it has support within himself. Otherwise, you’re like cod on the waves: where to throw, you go there and swim. You have nothing to oppose to that external force or element. You can not change a lot in life, but you can not miss in your life and lie, going outside, and violence. To do this, you need this spiritual core – the ethnic and religious.

– Look at the dissident social events is not like other people?

– You know, dissent – it is such a feature of your character. See, we’re dreaming of a time when Ukraine is an independent and non-Communist. It came. But it turned out that this is not enough. We need to work to make a decent human life. And it needs a lot of work. Because those who had hoped that independence would give Ukraine at once, and all – were wrong. That was only the zero level. It was necessary to build many more. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time. And every maidan that occurs, adjust the path to the future of Ukraine.

– But if the government does something wrong, then it turns out that people need to think about, because the power – it is a reflection of people … Or not?

– On the one hand – yes. But as the power – it is the same people, they have dominated their own, private, over the general. There are some studies that show that as long as society is dominated by values ​​of survival, until can not begin the path of modernization of society. All go in different directions, each competing with each to survive and provide for his family. There must be something in common between people. For example, now in volunteering involve up to 8 million people in Ukraine. This is 15 percent of the population of our country. These are new people who can be the future of Ukraine. A majority of just waiting and survives. Waiting for what will happen and what they will need to adapt to new circumstances. And the volunteers and soldiers sacrifice their lives. Because common cause always requires sacrifice – in the broadest sense of the word.

– And people want at least some of the victims of politicians …

– You know, if we wait for the victims of politicians, it will get nowhere. We should not pay attention to politicians and do their own thing. We have seen that the civil society can do their job better than politicians. I do not expect that the officials themselves to make reforms. Only civil society can do it and force officials to adapt to him. If officials do not want to adapt to new circumstances, to a new life, they have to leave.

“We need to be able to live decently, with dignity and without the transcendental material prosperity”

– How many years of independence, and we are only now beginning to open up in a new way, our language, culture …

– It’s done all the time. Decades. Just in Soviet times, a small part was discovering that, because it was forbidden. Since the beginning of the 90 it began to be freely distributed, but it should affect the children. It not casually says that Moses led the people of 40 years in the desert to die all who were enslaved. In the new land, he did not want to lead the slaves. Because those who have lived in slavery, always bear the mark of slavery. We still need to go through several generations, even 25 years must pass. Because who govern us? In the 90s it was the former communists, then the former Komsomol in the 2000s, is now the former pioneers. On October need to survive. And then all will be well.

– Somehow I happened to hear accusations of dissidents address that, say, in the early 90’s insufficient pressured the Communists …

– Do not push Davy – nothing will happen. We had very little. Now up to 8 million volunteers, is not enough to turn Ukraine into a European state? What to say: more than 20 years ago we were 2-3 thousand political prisoners. How was it possible to get the 50,000,000th country, all communists, to be different? This can only be slow – not otherwise.

– And for you to spread the language and culture, so to speak, coercive methods?

– No, you only need to encourage. You need to have flexible mechanisms to encourage ownership of the Ukrainian language, the study of culture and history. You should have an advantage in borrowing positions those who own Ukrainian language. How else? No country can afford to take the officials of people who do not speak the state language. Only we have this is possible, and even in other post-Soviet countries except. And we see that they are still backward. The world is moving forward, and we graze the rear. Because we can not get rid of the post-colonial mentality.

– Now a large percentage of people who felt themselves to be Ukrainians, but also a large part of the thinking in old categories. In your opinion, what makes people in the Soviet era to think as Europeans? On the contrary, right now think in terms of a country that no longer exists?

– It is not in the country. The point of the Eurasian identity. Because it is the identity matrix was formed hundreds of years, it works at all, all the people living on this continent. And it defines the behavior of these people for the future. Metamorphosis is very slow, very slow changes. You say people feel European. They want to be Europeans. This reflective level of consciousness. Consciously they want, but they can be them? Do they want to be responsible? Freedom without responsibility – it’s nothing. Responsible work, cooperation, respect for the law. What is the difference Eurasia from Europe? Because in Europe there is respect for the law, and in Eurasia it is not. In Eurasia, not the law operates, and the person: the president, the governor, or first secretary. And we are hooked, because we live in a 300 years old Eurasian empire.

Partly we are Europeans, because the influence of the West European identity on us. We want to be Europeans, but still can not, because people think: if someone makes reforms for us. However, it should be this: not one but yourself. Fight against corruption – not somewhere, but in themselves. When you start with yourself, then you have this sense of responsibility. If you do not remake himself a little, then the children will be dissolved. No need to have the illusion that the very desire to live in Europe enough. You must be able to live as Europeans live. Modest, worthy, respect the law and work. Modestly – it including without transcendental material wealth.

– In all periods of development of Ukraine there were groups of people who are called moral authorities. But it seems they do not always hear …

– People must have the need to listen, first and foremost. If people have no need to listen to them – this is a problem people. Recently passed into eternity Eugene Sverstyuk. For me – the moral authority. But how many people knew him? I listen to it? How many people have corrected the life according to the principles of which he spoke? We all know how to live. But the country does not work … So, something is wrong …

Sourse, 27/08/2015

About the trial of Nadia Savchenko

Member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels sees several options for the end of the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko – it can award a short time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation, and if Savchenko will provide a long term, it will mean that Russia ready for isolation.

If the international observers will be present at the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, it will complicate the process for Russia, as the case is fabricated, said Iosif Zisels. He said this in a comment edition of “Gordon” .

“In principle, the government may announce in the end the decision is already past the court, and said, Behold, I’m sorry, did not work to attract public and observers This one option Of course, the Kremlin is not beneficial to the presence of observers at the trial because he falsified, in my subjective.. . According to observers, especially European ones, may complicate the court, which is not the case for Russia is very easy “, – said Zissels.

According to him, the results of the trial Savchenko show what development strategy chosen Russia – the international isolation or compromise with the West.

“What is all over, I just can not say, because it does not possess all the volume of information. In addition, Russia is a country full of uncertainty. It may be a relatively short period of time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation. On the other hand, Putin can show . that he was at all do not care, give Savchenko long time, and go to the final separation from all over the world as a result of the court will be clear what kind of tactics Russia chooses – complete isolation or still relatively compromise “, – said Zissels.

He did not think that at the time he was taken from the Moscow Savchenko in danger, despite the fact that the exact location is not known nor the lawyers nor relatives.

“I would not say that it was hidden, it is not entirely correct. We can say that in Russia there is a very old and important principle that when it formulated Stalin: There are people – there is a problem, no man – no problem. If authorities stated that they did not know where Savchenko worthwhile to worry about, but they do not yet speak, “- Zissels said.

Why and where Russia hid Savchenko?

A preliminary hearing on the case of Ukrainian pilots Hope Savchenko in the Donetsk Court of the Rostov region of the Russian Federation is scheduled for July 30th. July 17 Savchenko was was transferred from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don. July 22 protection Savchenko said he did not know where the aviator. Until July 27 the Russian authorities, by law, can not report her whereabouts. July 23 the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Ella Pamfilova has sent a formal request to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and the Federal Service of Execution of Punishments to the requirement to quickly provide information on the whereabouts of Savchenko. Before his transfer Ukrainka write a will, because it assumes that in Rostov it might have something happen.

Savchenko was captured by militants in June 2014 in Luhansk region, and then illegally exported to Russia. Thus, in the Russian jail, she is more than a year.

July 13, the General Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation approved the indictment against Savchenko and sent the case to the court. Pilot accused of the murder of two Russian citizens in the Luhansk region, as well as attempted murder. Ukrainka his guilt did not recognize.

Protection Savchenko asked that her trial was held in Moscow, instead of the Rostov region, and then looked at the jury, but the lawyers denied all petitions.

Sourse, 24/07/2015

It all starts with the exceptions of the rule

The Jews of Ukraine or Ukrainian Jews? Former dissident and co-president of the Vaad of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels – a civilizational choice and formation of a political nation.

– Joseph, a lot of talk lately about a new phenomenon – the birth of Ukrainian Jewry as a special form of identity of unknown a few years ago …

– All the Jewish communities of Europe passed a similar transformation. Including our closest neighbors, enough to read the article of the Polish-Jewish intellectual Konstanty Gebert, stresses that, despite all the vicissitudes of the general history of Polish Jews say about themselves: “We – the Poles.” According to him, democracy as a basic value, appreciate and Jews. “I’m not surprised that the Ukrainian Jews are mostly supported Ukrainian independence – says Gebert This phenomenon is repeated in Europe regularly Every time when some nations are independent, the Jews, as a rule, are on their way…”

In western Europe, the reform of Jewish identity began in the era of the Haskalah, when the Count of Clermont-Tonnerre in the Constituent Assembly proposed to equalize the rights of the Jews, because they are part of the French nation. He spoke of a nation in the European sense of the term – a political nation. It was then born the concept of the French law of Moses, the Germans of the Mosaic law, that is, Jewish identity takes on a new form – civil. Most European countries one way or another have come to such an understanding of the identity of the middle of the XIX century, the Russian Empire, that did not happen – it was moving along a path. I’m not talking about the lag phase, it’s just another path – within the framework of the Eurasian identity could not appear Russian and Ukrainian law of Moses.

– However, in Ukraine for centuries his name in the Eurasian paradigm, the process began …

– Yes, and it’s painfully long process – the formation of a political nation in the Western European sense. We all – originally from the Soviet Union, we all Soviet Jews, the main feature of which was the identification state anti-Semitism. We could not know Jewish history, tradition, language – to know nothing other than a couple of Jewish jokes, and, nevertheless, remain different. Precisely because of the state of anti-Semitism. How many of the nearly half million Ukrainian Jews were parishioners of one of the 14 active synagogues under the Soviets? Several hundred elderly. Therefore, Soviet Jews, and even “anti-Soviet Jews” like me, for example, come from the same “cradle”.

Then Ukraine became a sovereign state, and we started to get the Jews of Ukraine, while maintaining all the Soviet, but rather, Eurasian features – related to basic values, the role of government, religion, private property, etc. This civilizational values ​​that are absorbed with their mother’s milk, and do not change overnight, as the overnight Jews of Ukraine can not become Ukrainian Jews.

– Ukrainian National Democrats have long criticized the fact that in terms of cultural identity of Jews in Ukraine pro-Russian. While half of the country, including ethnic Ukrainians, belong to the same – the Russian-speaking – camp.

– It’s true, in another’s eye speck see, we do not notice the log in your … Jews living in Ukraine and are guided by the surrounding society.

– The more that the majority of the country’s Jews live exactly in the south-eastern regions.

– I would not connect to the civilizational choice place to stay – we are all Europeans and all the little little Eurasians – Ukrainians, Russian, and Jews. Just Russian Jews, who stood on the Maidan, made its civilizational choice in favor of Europe, but today many of these choices are at war. We go through the same path as that of the whole country – become Ukrainians in the political sense of the word – regardless of language, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. I stress that we are Ukrainian Jews, not because they are beginning to speak Ukrainian. I was in 1978 named in the party press “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist.” Apparently, even then I was a Ukrainian Jew, though he spoke in Ukrainian is much worse than it is now. Not in the language, and not in the religion business, and in civilizational choice. feature

And those of us who supported the Ukrainian choice not because of fashion or pragmatic reasons, but because (and this says Gebert) that prefer democracy – they are the Ukrainian Jews. Of course, the well known authoritarian leaders who sympathized with the Jews, such as Pilsudski. But when he died, Pilsudski, the Jews remembered how well they lived under Marshal – say, your grandfather died.

Yes, Jews have traditionally focused on power, we treat it loyally, sometimes entering into conflict with the aspirations of the people among whom we live. What to do – it is our history, our mentality. However, other Jews at all times defended democratic values ​​and participated in the national liberation movements, becoming part of one or another political nations.

– In our case, this process has become possible only after the Ukrainians themselves have changed their model for understanding the nation, rejecting ethnic nationalism, tailored on the patterns of the 1930s …

– It did not begin on the Maidan. I joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in 1978, become acquainted with a new generation of Ukrainian Nationalists, did not cave, otherwise I would not have joined them. Moses Fishbein poet in the 1980s worked in the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, as a Ukrainian nationalist …

– You’re talking about exceptions …

– It all starts with exceptions, and I was not the first. In the Polish uprising in 1794 involved not many Jews in the November Uprising 1830 there were more, and in 1863 – even more. When you can talk about the birth of Polish Jewry? Not in 1863, and at the end of the XVIII century. With Ukrainian Jews the same story. It’s a question of quality, not quantity. There are such people, and they are becoming more – Jews of Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa – this is not the Soviet Jews. Some of them are fighting in the Donbass, and they will go to the guerrilla groups, if will be in occupation.

It all starts with the exceptions in the 1970 Ukrainian Jews had very little, how little and Ukrainian national democrats, but the phenomenon has existed. Another thing is that the heroes of Ukraine, that is, the people who died for the independence of his people today, really, other. After Heavenly hundreds of pieces of Bandera and Shukhevych began to leave in the past.

Hundreds of children are dying today at the front – they are the new heroes of Ukraine and the new symbols of Ukrainian nationalism, although many of them do not even think that it is – Ukrainian nationalism.

– There are other forms of nationalism …

– And then there was all black, and now – not all white. And now there is an anti-Semite Levko Lukyanenko and 13 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, which we identify as the right-wing radicals, among them two men with neo-Nazi backgrounds – Aleksandr Mosiychuk and Dmitry Linko. I am convinced that the coalition does not include these characters, and I will fight for it as well as fighting for something that the leader of the Social-National Assembly Andrey Biletsky did not go to the deputies of the People’s Front list.

– Do not you think that this new identity is largely built on the denial, on confrontation with Russia. But aggression, sooner or later will end, and what remains?

– How to start identity? No one knows. But we know, for example, what happened in the 2012 elections, and why 10% voted for the radicals of the VO “Svoboda”. Not because they are right-wing radicals, it was a protest vote against Yanukovych. In any identity combined various factors – both “for” and “against.” I became the “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist” (with all the conventions of this definition) in 1978, because it was sympathetic to the National Democrats and the Communists did not like – it brought me to the dissident movement. Religious Zionists in Israel – against the creation of a Palestinian state and the expansion of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria – the series goes on.

Of course, in the absence of an external threat could start natural fragmentation of society, but it has never been united. In the meantime, the process of formation of the Ukrainian political nation and Ukrainian Jewry, as one of its components. The process itself testifies to the fact that Ukraine still Europeanized, Eurasian identity is arranged differently. The activity of the country is in Europe, the greater the Ukrainian Jews. And it’s not in the formal membership in the EU, it is important that the feeling of the people, their mentality, their identities were European – this is a very long process, but it has already started …

Interviewed by Maxim Sukhanov

Sourse, 18/05/2015

Ukrainians are not ripe for reconciliation

This year Ukraine celebrates the Day of Reconciliation for the first time and memory in honor of all the victims of the Second World War. Are Ukrainians really come to terms,  “Gordon” asked the chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosifa Ziselsa.

The idea of ​​reconciliation is popular at any time, but it can not be used in any situation to any two people, because in the conflict, which stretches since World War II, in fact, there are several dimensions.

Besides the Soviet-German, on the other hand – the French-English-German, even on our side had several dimensions: the Polish-German, Polish-Ukrainian, Ukrainian-German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian, even participated in the Carpathians in the battles with the UPA. There are a number of measurements, and most importantly – the Ukrainian-Soviet.

For example, I know of a case in 1962, when two Ukrainian women who were connected in the UPA, were shot in the bunker in the Ternopil region of the soldiers. In 1962, the year!

If we talk about today’s reconciliation, it is, on the one hand, civilization, because the Ukrainians decided that enough they have to live in the empire with the Eurasian civilization, and want to try the life of the European and then compared in 300 years, in which one It was better. On the other hand, this reconciliation is artificially caused by Russian aggression.

I do not think that we are ripe for reconciliation because the still very many forces did not satisfy his ambitions. If we talk about the dimensions that were during the Second World War, for them, of course, it has come, because we see a lot of progress on the line of Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation.

But it is not yet complete, as some Poles, for example, reacted nervously to the laws that have been adopted for the rehabilitation of UPA and other Ukrainian national organizations. This is a complex mishmash in which you need to understand. Find out about what exactly we are talking reconciliation. Young did not have these conflicts.

In Spain, where the civil war was prolonged, the family is still remembered, who had fought on which side. And this is not some kind of soft and hard memories. This is despite the fact that Franco (Spanish dictator Francisco Franco) has long put a monument to reconciliation for victims of the war on both sides.

In the southern states of the USA, despite the fact that since the civil war took place 150 years, also kept ancestral memory as to who fought for the North, and who – for the south. Although they live like the well, and the states do not fight each other, except that there is some confrontation during the election – more than one vote for Republicans, others – for the Democrats.

The issue of reconciliation is not so simple. Perhaps reconciliation at the level of Heads of State. Yushchenko (the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko), for example, has done a lot for this. But at the level of ordinary people a reconciliation does not take place so quickly.

In sociology, we see that in the last year the attitude of Ukrainians to the Poles has improved significantly, because millions of Ukrainians saw that the Poles actually help Ukraine in this complicated conflict. And as the Russian government not only did not help – she was the aggressor.

Veterans reluctance to shake hands says that a new conflict was superimposed on the old and on the contrary, it has strengthened rather than weakened.

Two of civilization people can live in peace, and they are in general, they lived more or less peacefully, despite the tension between the state structures, as long as there was no interference in each other’s identity. As soon as the intervention in the identity of other people, there is a huge energy instantly resistance.

Yet another dimension – the dimension of the Maidan – was for me as a reaction to a very significant part of Ukrainian society to try Yanukovych (fugitive ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych) and all his clique to bring us back to a state of the Eurasian identity, which we already do not want to be at as most of us.

This applies to the Donbas. This region has a different identity, and perhaps he did not want to live in a European way. If we are forced to compel him to do so, we get back the same great resistance power.

Decentralization is relevant if load it humanitarian, economic, financial and other aspects. Groisman (Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman) said several times that it is necessary to take into account the humanitarian aspect in decentralization. Historically. If we do not consider this aspect, it means that we do not spend real decentralization, it would be somewhat artificial.

Donbass within Ukraine should develop as he understands it in his own way. And the overall rate of the State of Ukraine, if it still exists, together with the Crimea and Donbas on the road to Europe must be sufficiently slow so as not to lose the regions that do not want to move in this direction. We need to talk, to explain, to try to continue to implement the values ​​that have more in Ukrainian society.

Sourse, 08/05/2015

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia

Iosif Zisels, human rights activist and head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Vaad, recalls with a smile, as in Soviet times it was called both a Zionist and a Ukrainian nationalist. Now, 40 years later, it again can be called zhidobanderovtsem, and the term has acquired a new meaning and a positive connotation.

In the Soviet Union he was a dissident, trying to defend the rights of Jews, and then joined the Ukrainian Helsinki human rights group. In 1978, on charges of defamation and anti-state activities Zissels received six years in a penal colony. Nine months before the liberation he was offered amnesty in exchange for a renunciation of political principles, but he refused.

Now, Soviet dissident and political prisoner, became one of the most influential Jews of Ukraine – he heads the largest Jewish organization, which is able at any time to lend a helping hand to every Jew of the country, engaged in the revival and strengthening of Jewish communities, their culture and religion, as well as helping wishing to exit in Israel.

Zissels well – known people abroad, where he is a member of the European and the World Jewish Congress, took over the functions of the public lobbyist Ukraine’s national interests. In his own words Zisels, he lives according to the covenant of the Jewish patriarch Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? “

“New time” meets Zissels in the office of the Association of Jewish Organizations, which is located in one of the academic buildings of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. It is a small unit into several rooms, on the door of which hung an advertisement for the recruitment of students to the specialization of Judaica. Zissels cordially invites you into his office and, distracted for a few minutes to say hello to each of his employees, invited to interview.

Ukrainians are very sensible nation, and therefore changes have been slow. Maidan two months stood and demanded concessions from the government. When I talk about that in France, there wondering how, two months? We would all smashed in two weeks!

Just Ukrainians other political temperament. We are moving at their own pace, which is slower than that of Poland or the Baltic countries. It must be taken as fact. Another problem is that our identity is dual, and expectations are always high, so some of us and sways from side to side. We believe that, if there was a revolution and change of power, all at once will change, but it is not.

Ukraine will of fate was between a European democracy and Eurasian authoritarian culture. And it is important to understand that if 20% of the population do not want to in Europe, this must somehow be considered. This is not a whim, just for them, Europe stranger. And we are encroaching on their identity, though hardly have that right.

Recall, Viktor Yanukovych wanted to encroach on our right to be Europeans – and the Maidan happened. The same thing is happening now. When threatened identity, even among people who are accustomed to submission, there is a huge energy resistance. We need to negotiate rather than fight.

Today in the country there is a desire to fight corruption, but it’s part of our culture. Corruption – is a part of Ukrainian identity. The law is not absolute for us, and its violation – not a sin, as in the West. And this shows our Eastern culture – there is not a law adopted in order to execute it, and that they enjoyed the strongest.

We used to live like this, we have formed a lot of secret agreements between government and society. For example, that the severity of the law is compensated by its failure. At low levels of wages authorities turned a blind eye to the fact that we steal, and the people turned a blind eye to the fact that steals power. In space, where there is no law with a capital letter, a person perceives any obstacle as a challenge, to solve the problem – that such obstacles put me, but I still find it, how to get around them.

So, to say, well, let’s fight against corruption, which many of us continue to steal – is meaningless. It is necessary to recognize the existence of tacit agreements and revise them. The struggle of society against corruption must be a struggle with ourselves.

Right now Ukrainian Jews began to realize themselves as Jews in Ukraine. In Europe, it happened in the late XIX century. In France, that’s when the Jews received equal rights with the French and called themselves the French law of Moses. We have this process takes place only now.

The Jews of Ukraine took a very active part in the Maidan. Were actively, perhaps, only the Crimean Tatars. And the Ukrainians have rated it – according to the latest sociological research, for the year related to the Jews and Crimean Tatars in the country has improved significantly.

We do not believe, how many Jews were on the Maidan, but we know that many of them then went to the front. The most paradoxical – some of them fought in the battalion of Azov, near the radical nationalists. In addition, in the east of the country and fight guys with Israeli passports. It is the volunteers who teach our soldiers. Israel has almost 100 years of war, and experience – most importantly, that he can pass Ukraine.

Israel does not help Ukraine officially because so fixated on their own security. In 2008, during the war in Georgia, Israel helped equip the Georgian air defense system. Then Georgia was hit by three Russian aircraft, and Israel received a warning from Russia that if he will continue to help Georgia, Iran gets a nuclear bomb, and Syria will face Russia’s S-300 missiles.

But while Israel – a democratic country, and the pressure of society can not be ignored. Most of the Israelis – people with democratic values, and they sympathize with Ukraine.

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia – will be less frustrating. Now, in many EU countries pre-election period. To support Ukraine, impose additional sanctions on Russia for them is to reduce the level of welfare of their countries and to expose their chances of winning at serious risk. Can help unless indirect pressure on Europe from the United States and Canada.

This is very similar to what happened in the 1930s. Germany regularly paid for oil and metals, and all wanted her to trade. Nobody wanted to see it as a monster, preferring to think that Germany will not fight with them, and with their competitors. After eight years of these errors have to pay a huge price.

We are no longer a peaceful country, and it will not be long. We need to get used to fight with minimal losses, rely on their own forces to protect their people, to rebuild the economy on a war footing, and not bury our heads in the sand. In Russia, too, there is no other option but to fight with Ukraine. They understand that with this government and with this partnership agreement is impossible.

Something we can count only when the disintegration processes in Russia will be intense. However, nobody in the world is not interested in this. What does it mean crumbling Russia? Huge fragments of the country armed with nuclear weapons. Putin, in spite of our curses, still controls the country. If only we have not climbed, prices would not be him. But he can not climb, the logic of empire – its meaning in the expansion.

I do not believe in the possibility of democratization of Russia. I spent two years in the Ural camps, lived in Moscow for more than a year. Russia within its present borders will never be a European country. There is no critical mass of people who can change the destiny of Russia. Moreover, not all countries should be European. The world rests on the balance sheet. And who will be the European world to balance China? Any democratization of Russia will lead to its disintegration, and this terrible future, with unpredictable consequences.

5 questions Iosifu Ziselsu:

– What event of your life you feel in charge?

– Of course, my participation in the dissident movement. I think all the most important thing happened then.

– What is your favorite city?

– I do not have a favorite book or a favorite city. I love Chernivtsi, where I spent my childhood, Kiev, in which I live. I like to be in Jerusalem and Barcelona.

– What move around the city?

– I have a Subaru Outback. This reliable, sturdy machine. Not very comfortable, but I like it.

– What is your monthly cost of living?

– I get a pension. More than ordinary people, but not enough to live a normal life. It is also engaged in consulting, working in a private firm. My problem is not how to provide for themselves, but rather where to find the money for our activities. Well, I have four kids that even adults, but they still need help. Perhaps today I spend at least $ 1 thousand. Per month.

– What do you seek?

– As anyone – to self-realization, once satisfied all other requirements. And I think I am quite good to deal with it.

Sourse, 02/05/2015

I do not think that without the consent of the inhabitants the city will be renamed

Without the consent of the inhabitants of the city should not be renamed, he said in a comment  “GORDON”  chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

“I’m not sure that without the decision of the local community, you can rename the city. But you’ve seen over the last 23 years, at least one law, which is performed in its entirety, just as it was written? We live in a space where the laws are not in order to fulfill them. laws of the people do not obey the laws of the people do not respect the laws of the people do not follow. They use the laws to achieve some of their goals. I do not think there will be a city renamed without the consent of residents. This should be without hysterics, and in a peaceful discussion. I do not think that without a Announce the masses it can be done then we will get additional negative effects, which have enough “, -. Zissels said.

There is a clash of two civilizations, so think about what the consequences will ban communist symbols more correctly, he said.

“There’s a novel in which the hero is a young man seeking a countess, she was refused, he turns the whole world, conquering all of Europe, and when the Countess is ready him to give up, it turns out that it is – an elderly woman and he no longer needed so. . and with that we now live in a turbulent time, we have a war on, and not just between the separatists and the Ukrainians, but a war between two civilizations -. European and Eurasian It’s so powerful collision, what to think, what consequences will result in a ban of symbols, I it seems to be incorrect. I do not think th that it will lead to some serious consequences to the positive or to the negative “- Zissels said.

However, in his opinion, for many people, the victims of the regime, this decision will be important.

“I have not yet comprehended once the consequences of yesterday’s solutions. I dreamed about it many years ago, because he was a dissident and was imprisoned in Soviet times for political activities, but it’s been more than 20 years. Although many people for whom life was a struggle with the communist system, it is very important that finally at least the end of life to get satisfaction from the fact that these misanthropic ideology abolished and banned, “- said the expert.

The honey, he said, the current law many inaccuracies that should be corrected.

“East is bad knows what the UPA, and the West does not speak what the UPA. It was a long time ago. So many myths of positive and negative during the Soviet period was unwound. The very acronym UPA with a hyphen, which created the Soviet ideology, did not exist in nature . The law had a lot of confusion -. terminological, factual, grammatical Before this law was passed, I was just going to make corrections I have quite an old man, to know how to be called in reality there are mixed up the names of organizations…History is no such organization “OUN” Yes “OUN” one, is “OUN” Second, there is a “OUN” third -. There are three “OUN” – Zissels said.

“Live – see very little consequence were other laws, I think, will also be with these Someone uses them for next separatist sentiments, someone on the contrary uses the dominance of pro-European sentiment in the end still everything goes and vanishes… “- he concluded.

Recall, April 9, the Verkhovna Rada  adopted  a law recognizing the communist regime 1917-1991 criminally and banning communist symbols.

The adopted law about the condemnation of the communist regime  contained  rule to rename the settlements, which are named in honor of the communist-era figures.

Sourse, 10/04/2015

Today, it is a conflict between civilization and the negation of civilization

What is happening today – a revision of the entire set of rules established in the world after the Second World War.

Iosif Zisels, chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups, – performance at the channel marathon  UKRLIFE.TV  on “The international implications of the terrorist attacks in France”:

There are two important systemic factor that differentiates Western Europe from the East and, in particular, from the Ukraine.

The first factor – is the presence of entities associated with the radical Islamic movement, they are in Western Europe, they do not exist in Eastern Europe. Perhaps, as we move to Europe they will, but for now it is not.

The second factor – the movement, fashionable in the left intelligentsia, in which human rights, in particular, the protection of the rights of Palestinians leads to anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment.

Sourse, 12/01/2015

The level of anti-Semitism in Ukraine is not increased

Do you see now Ukraine growth of anti-Semitism and xenophobia – to this and other questions in an interview with DW said the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Iosif Zisels.

Iosif Zisels – Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups. In an interview with DW Zissels she told whether there is in Ukraine, the rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and also responded to a number of other issues.

DW: In Russia, many say that with the advent of the current Ukrainian politicians in the country have intensified anti-Semitic sentiments. Is it so?

Iosif Zisels: I was one of the leaders of the Jewish community can assure that there is no – not only sharp, but generally no increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Ukraine. We are very carefully and attentively fix every incident, every speech, every case of an attack, and every act of vandalism. And this level – as last year. Despite the tumultuous events that took place on the Maidan in Kiev, on the military operations in the south-east of Ukraine, the level of anti-Semitism in the country increases. It was and remains one of the lowest in Eastern Europe.

– And what is the level of anti-Semitism in Russia?

– As regards the level of anti-Semitism in Russia – it is too short. Just as in Ukraine, he measured a dozen or two dozen cases per year. But Russia – authoritarian country with underdeveloped democratic institutions. And in this authoritarian model of existence can be played “Jewish card”. In Ukraine, too, is to be feared that the state wants to use it, but fortunately, there is control belongs to the civil society.

– What can you say about the allegations in the city address that the current government allegedly tolerate manifestations of neo-Nazism?

– First of all, it is a question of terminology. I think really understand what Nazism, only to narrow specialists. They are our experts, with whom we have worked for many years. In Ukraine, as in any other country, there are right-wing movements, some of which resemble the neo-Nazi. But they are in Europe. Right-wing parties have almost all European countries, and they are much more dangerous than what we see today in Ukraine.

So, the party “Freedom” is not passed to the new Ukrainian parliament, which was in the previous Parliament when Yanukovych was there 37 mandates. This demonstrates the falling level of interest in the radical demagogy of this order. Lyashko passed Radical Party, which is very different: it is less than the national radical demagogy, but more general radical demagoguery. In majority districts it took a few people who can be considered right-wing radicals with aspects of neo-Nazism. Very few of them: 423 MP – about 10. That is less than it was in the last Parliament, where there were 37.

But I think that the concerns of the Parliament, there was a general shift of the entire spectrum a little to the right. Because such a national-democratic parties as Block Petro Poroshenko, “Popular Front” and “self-help” – are themselves center-right. That is, the parliament’s center of gravity has shifted slightly to the right, and is a tribute to wartime. Requirements radicals is not particularly noticeable.

– The fact that the Parliament did not pass the “Freedom” and “Right Sector”, can be considered a success of Ukrainian democracy?

– In fact, these parties were radical demagogic. Moreover, these were the projects financed and designed to split the opposition with Yanukovych’s government. That is, in part, they were man-made projects. They can not be considered as such natural, organic manifestations of the right of the spectrum, as can be seen in many countries.

In Ukraine, the main control of the right-wing radicals has not the government, as is the case in Russia, and civil society. It itself copes with this low level of pravoradikalizma in the country, making it much better than the state. And it is – a guarantee that this rate will not be great.

– Earlier you said that “right-wing and neo-Nazi forces” involved in the conflict in the Donbass, from both sides? You can name specific examples?

– On the Russian side, according to our experts, fights about 200 neo-Nazis. Among them are, first of all, “Russian National Unity”. This is a known neo-Nazi organization in Russia, which has its own recruitment offices, training camps for militants and separate connections on the front. Others – such as, for example, the former party Limonov, is “dyed” in other colors. It is important to note also that the present or volunteers or mercenaries from European right-wing neo-Nazi parties. They, too, are fighting on the Russian side.

On the Ukrainian side, too, there is a man 30-40 – skinheads from the right-wing group “Social-National Assembly”, “Patriots of Ukraine”, for which we are following closely. In this regard, first of all, we may note the battalion “Azov”, where there may be even a few dozen people from the “Social-National Assembly.” Andrey Beletsky – the commander of the battalion (now it is a regiment) – the head of “Social-National Assembly.” However, he argues that the war changed their ideology.

– From what sources do you get information?

– We have a number of experts of the European level. We use their data, and trust them, as for many years working with them. Moreover, our data are taken from the report of the State Department’s anti-Semitism in the world and the OSCE report on the monitoring and analysis of anti-Semitism in the world. I myself 25 years engaged in the construction of networks for monitoring and analysis of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

Sourse, 06/11/2014

Israeli President raised on Russian historiography

The head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, a well-known human rights activist and Soviet dissident, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels in an interview with “Gromadska radio” stated that he could not agree with the speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. He accused the Ukrainians in the complicity in the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Second World War, informs eizvestia.com .

“He’s an old man. He bears the stereotypes of the past, historiography, which today is not considered objective. He was brought up in the Russian historiography. Israel, at least the older generation still lives under its influence. It does not reflect the opinion of the young. After all, the young religious Israelis have stood on the Maidan. These views he expressed today – it’s yesterday, “- said Zissels.

He recalled the visit to Israel of the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko in 2007.

“The delegation came to Yad Vashem and asked to show documents that indicate the involvement of Roman Shukhevych (OUN leader during World War II) to such crimes. But no one was able to show. This stereotype does not provide evidence, if everyone knows it. No, not everyone knows that. For example, I do not trust that it is not necessary to confirm the archival authentic documents “- Zissels said.

He noted that the OUN and UPA fighters fought for Ukraine, and they can not wear the stereotypical labels.

September 27 during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada parliamentary hearings devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that the Ukrainians have been involved in the repression against the Jews during the Second World War. “Many of the accomplices of crimes were Ukrainians. And among them highlights the OUN, which mocked Jews, killed them, and in many cases, were given to the Germans. It is also true that there were more than 2.5 thousand Righteous among the Nations “-. Said Rivlin.

Commenting on the Israeli president’s speech, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Vladimir Vyatrovich said Rivlin repeated Soviet myth of the OUN involvement in the Holocaust. The head of the OUN Bogdan Chervak ​​Rivlin called the statement “a spit in the soul of the Ukrainians” and urged him not to watch Russian television, as it is “not just bad, but also indecent.”

During World War II, occupied Kiev Nazi troops used the tract Babi Yar, in the northwestern part of the city as a place of mass executions of civilians, most of whom were Jews. September 29, 1941 the entire Jewish population was obliged to come to the Babi Yar, where until September 30, was shot more than 33 thousand. Man on the orders of the occupation administration. According to various estimates, at Babi Yar were killed by 70 thousand. Up to 200 thousand. Man.

Sourse, 29/09/2016

The system rotted from within and dognila before disbanding

Soviet-era dissident Yosif Zisels told why refused amnesty in the Gorbachev era, what regrets today about whether modern Ukraine may repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime

Yosif Zisels – human rights activist, dissident, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. In 1978 he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He spent six years in prisons on charges of “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Every dissident own destiny. For example, a man wrote a poem. As my friend, the Ukrainian dissident, a former teacher in the Ternopil region kultprosvetuchilische Mikola Grobal, wrote a poem called “Dumi moї, Dumi”. For this was sent to prison. For the poem. Simply laid out thoughts on paper. Or Semyon Gluzman, which persecuted for their professional activities. He made the correspondence psychiatric examination for General Pyotr Grigorenko and mathematician Leonid Plyushch and promulgated it.

The dissent came for different reasons: national, democratic, moral, emotional. The reasons were not so important to us. Most importantly, we together fought criminal imperial communist system.

I actually grew up without parents. So I have virtually no such an important element of the psyche as a “social instinct of self-preservation,” usually brings up children in a normal Jewish family. Simply no one to create it. I started very early to read samizdat. I think it is no coincidence. The fact that we were surrounded by then, and what we have been taught do not match. Not everyone is dissonance when life does not match with the pictures, which are described in textbooks. Some quietly absorbed in itself is doublethink, I called it “social schizophrenia.” Some do it quietly. Some resisted.

The Soviet government constantly demanded confirmation of loyalty. A variety of ways. Those who have studied, passed the party’s history, scientific communism. Was political information was the Komsomol, and other institutions, which are constantly monitored by the people through an extensive network. Not only controlled the KGB people were the party, trade union, Komsomol and Pioneer organizations. And I went multilevel selection. Revealed disgruntled, obstinate. Once a person has manifested itself, it was a signal that we should look at it.

I went to the dissidence almost deliberately. I drew it. I wanted to know the truth about life, about history, about relationships. And find the right answers in samizdat, as permitted by the literature is almost impossible to find the truth. It was important that others know the truth. Not immediately, at first reading itself, and then you want to share with others. Then you become it a little.

An important stimulus was originally a private confrontation lies and violence. You try to realize his need for truth is not simply to distribute this literature. Then there is the need to sign any appeals, appeals to protest against human rights violations. I’m talking about the way. Some stop at reading the literature, some – at that distribute other books, some do not sign the appeal and appeal, and others pass this hurdle and continue to develop. Then there was a real help to political prisoners, in which I was involved.

The apogee of my dissident activity can be considered as 1978 , when I was actively engaged in case of using the power of Soviet psychiatry to persecute dissidents and investigated more than 80 such stories, in the summer became a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and in December he was arrested for the first time.

I do not consider myself a victim. I tried to do something as far as possible. I tried something to counter the Soviet regime and its powerful repressive apparatus. Authorities responded to me quite “adequately”. I knew I was not alone in this, but the dissidents are not many, only a few thousand to two hundred millionth Soviet people. Nevertheless, it was more personal fulfillment, not an illusory calculation somehow undermine Soviet power. It was clear that our efforts it was impossible to destroy. She was rotting from the inside and dognila before disbanding.

The fact that the dissidents were known all over the world, destroyed the Soviet myth. 220 million people live happily, moving towards communism, nothing else is willing, but there are several thousand people who by the very fact of its existence, argue that a false myth. Here I was among those people. It was my way. I chose him and he went through it. And, fortunately, I did not meet with an obstacle that would have made me turn back.

I was already an inveterate “recidivist”, when I was offered an amnesty, it was in January 1987, went a second three-year term of my imprisonment, I had to sit 9 months. As for all the forced dialogue with the authorities, with the KGB, with investigators from the prosecutors, I did not sign any paper, any evidence not given, I do not want to change his principles when I needed to sit 9 months. I calmly refused the amnesty. She was so very communist. We had to sign a document that You shall not engage in political activity. Some signed, and then continued to work.

I did not believe that engaging in political activities. It was a formality, but I took it very seriously. If I sign it, then break its principle “not to cooperate with the authorities.” I was not sorry, and now do not regret it.

I’m sorry about the other. Going your own way, you are doomed to suffering families. With time comes the understanding that your free choice causes suffering of others: family, friends. KGB worked very well. They covered not only the one who resists, but all its surroundings, creating an inconvenience to them in life, to put it mildly. This was done to set up against the man his environment. I lost a few people who thought their comrades in these years. Some stayed, we’ve been friends for 50 years. They passed the test with me.

In total I spent in prisons and zones 6 years and the year at home under the administrative supervision of the refusal to accept the “Gorbachev amnesty.” Both times I was accused under Article 187 (approx.) Of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, in the “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Any authoritarian regime, the more totalitarian, based on the fact that there is an external enemy, there is internal, and it is necessary to deal with them. And for people to explain who the external enemy – the imperialists, capitalists, the NATO military. And the internal – dissidents “fifth column”, which does not want to go to the general structure of communism. It was a massive propaganda against such people. We tried to turn public opinion against these people. Isolate, to make their lives uncomfortable, unbearable. Even when you see that article in the newspaper against you false from beginning to end, it is embarrassing to you, the residue remains. And there are articles about the dissidents, whom the authorities deemed “outcasts” were enough.

I lived in the city of Chernivtsi and did not face persecution for the use of the Ukrainian language. For too active promotion – possible. It is already considered nationalism. And only the KGB decided what distinguishes patriotism from nationalism. On the other hand, I grew up in a Jewish environment, and only a student came to understand many issues, including national.

Can modern Ukraine to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime? Ukrainians are already very difficult to build as they were built in the Soviet era. Once upon a time this would have killed millions, and intimidate others and build. Most of destroying a part buy, this was done in the 20s, 30s. Soviet authorities or killed or drove out, or bought. So to build “our elites.” Therefore there is nothing surprising that she is today. I think that the repetition of history is impossible. It is impossible to kill 5.7 million people, to build a line of others. But the fact of the formal independence of the country does not guarantee the economic prosperity of the people and democratic development, respect for the law, eradication of corruption and the development of a new system of values. As mathematicians say, a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Recorded Jan Goncharenko

See. Also Special Project “Dissidents” edition Fokus.ua and STB for the Suppression of dissidents in the USSR

Source: focus.ua , 25.08.2016

Sourse, 25/08/2016

Yanukovych must be condemned, but corruption is a derivative of general disrespect for the law

stigmatization campaign corruption, declared an international human rights organization Transparency International, is to focus on the figure of the Ukrainian society fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych that will distract from the system solution to the problem, said a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

Viktor Yanukovych was not born corrupt, and become so because of the mentality of Ukrainian society, says Iosif Zisels.

Yanukovych headed the world ranking corrupt officials on the results of voting on the website of the international human rights organization Transparency International, which announced that begins stigmatization campaign against corruption, taking the first nine places.

“I would not want to exaggerate the importance of this campaign. While any steps to eliminate in the Ukrainian society of corruption are good, and the worst of them will not. But I’m inclined to think that we need a systematic approach. Yanukovych is not born corrupt, it is a question of education, which is determined by All the circumstances of life in the Eurasian society is corruption -. it is part of our mentality and culture we are born, live and die in corruption. “- Zissels said.

“Condemn Yanukovych necessary, he was president of the country, but to focus on his figure could divert attention from the systemic problem In fact, corruption is dissolved in all, and the problem can not be solved without the long-term by re-society programs, building on the Western partners.” – he added he.

Zissels stressed that “over the last year in this regard has been made longer than in the previous 25 years.”

“Transparency International does a lot, forcing public institutions to deal with corruption, I know this organization, I support her contacts, her activity is doubtless useful, but how it can be assumed that it decides for 45,000,000th country of its problems..?” – said human rights activist .

According to him, “corruption – is a derivative of general disrespect for the law in general, including to the tax.”

“Who pays taxes in Ukraine Corruption – this including the theft of the budget, but we do not fill it I am sure that the majority of Ukrainians do not pay all the taxes that they are put there are plenty of other laws, which we treat as.. . well as to tax is the question of respect for the law if it appears, will result in the condemnation of anti-corruption Yanukovych -.. a good measure, but it does not give a general respect for the law “- he said.

The human rights activist believes that “in the fight against corruption the first place should take no condemnation, no anti-corruption bureau or anti-corruption prosecutor, namely re-society in the spirit of European values”.

“With our values ​​we will not become either economically developed, nor a truly democratic country, to tackle corruption. Only the union of all the forces of civil society and reform forces in the government, if they are there, in the long term can give some result for the whole Ukraine, if not for us, our children, or even grandchildren, “- he concluded.

Yanukovych was the President of Ukraine with the February 25, 2010. February 22, 2014, after three months of protests on the Maidan Verkhovna Rada recognized it withdrew from the post and do not fulfill their obligations, then new presidential elections were announced. In February last year, Yanukovych left Ukraine, is now with his family, he lives in Russia.

In Ukraine against Yanukovych opened several criminal proceedings. He is accused of the mass murder of citizens, misappropriation of state property, the seizure of power by unconstitutional means, actions aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order. Concerning it applies conviction in absentia procedure .

Yanukovych’s name was included in the investigation of the Interpol database, but at the end of July 2015 wanted to suspend consideration of the complaint of lawyers who insist on the political background of the case against the former president.

Sourse, 11/02/2016

Without the knowledge of history you like cod on the waves – swim, where will the current flow

With this well-known journalist Natalia Feshchuk man talking in his second home Chernivtsi – Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, co-founder of which he is. The conversation took place before he got into the list of moral authority among the Ukrainians, compiled a few days ago one of the Ukrainian media . By the way, an interview with Iosifom Samuilovichem Ziselsom just ended his reflections on what moral authority are always there in the community, if only listen to them …

Joseph Zisels many posts and distinctions, among them – the head of the Association of Jewish organizations and communities of Ukraine, executive vice-president of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. And in a nutshell: Ukrainian dissident Jewish descent, twice convicted for anti-Soviet activities. He never worked in government, says the most comfortable feeling when engaged in public affairs.

As in the Union, and now he has his own strong opinions on what principles should build a true nation and a strong country. And yet convinced that a free man – a responsible person.

Zissels has been living in Kiev. But here, in the heart of Chernivtsi, it remains a piece of his heart, because it is here, on the street Schiller once lived with his parents.

“I have a very warm attitude to the history and the people who are no longer”

– Mr. Joseph, when you decided to found the Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, it was a sense of duty to those Jews who had once been so much in Chernivtsi?

– My parents – not local Jews and Bessarabia. They arrived in Chernivtsi after the Second World War. In Chernivtsi I am, unfortunately, not born. But I have lived here and interacted with the people remaining from before the war. And it was German-speaking Jews, there were already a little while, in the 50-60s, – two or three hundred, maybe left from the huge community, which before the war amounted to almost 80 thousand people. In the city of 120 thousand people two-thirds – it was the Jewish population. And I was struck by the story of this community, which flourished at the end of the XVIII century, when the Austrian authorities to allow Jews to settle here. But almost half of the Jews was destroyed during the Holocaust, and the other half remained in the city, but has not been able to live under the Soviet regime. In 1940, the Jews were some illusions, many of them were left sentiment, but European, and they waited for the Red Army, because on the other hand – Hitler. And they were deported to Siberia, one third of them in 1941, 12 thousand Bukovinians – Jews. Those who have stayed here, came under Romanian occupation, who was shot, who died in concentration camps. Who stayed with the time left for Israel. Live in Chernivtsi remaining units …

And I wanted to recreate the story. I thought, this is our duty. Because once the Jewish community in the city was very strong. And those who came here after the war, there were already other people – Bessarabian East Ukrainian Jews were very Soviet. I want to say that everything was up to the First World War is well. And when it came, Romania, the Jewish community has undergone a lot of suffering. This, of course, does not compare with the Holocaust. But Romania was a strong anti-Semitism. Second, the Jews of Romania considers patriots Austria-Hungary and taking revenge for that. We have archival documents showing that the Bukovina Ukrainians and Poles in 1918 protested against the annexation of this region Romania. And among the Jews of Bukovina was a protest. And then the Romanians because it does not give citizenship to many Jews. But still it was not, as in the Soviet Union. 1940 showed who is who. And those who lamented that’s how bad it was when Romania saw what could be worse than under Soviet rule. Some of the Jews, unfortunately, did not have time to leave. We traveled already in 60-70 years, when there was again a possibility. I know these families, helping them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them.

– You always emphasized that you – Ukrainian Jew. Now in Ukraine, many of our citizens such as the re-born, they want to know more about their country and its history. Some, on the contrary, is still passive. But to be a true citizen of the country, it seems to be inside? As it has been in your family?

– In me many laid. Because in a city like Chernivtsi laid a lot – here is the crossroads of history, culture and languages. This tolerant spirit of Chernivtsi. What is the difference Bukovina Jews of Galician, for example? One of the features – tolerance of the province, it has passed and the Jews too. There was a lot of tolerance and among Jews, too: between the orthodox and reformist currents in Judaism. In other cities they are irreconcilable, here they are communicated. For example, the chief rabbi of Chernivtsi was the Reform rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court was Orthodox rabbi.

At home, I received a Soviet-Jewish upbringing, not a purely Jewish. But I never hid their Jewish identity. I’ve always known who I am. At the same time, it is Ukraine, and I felt a Ukrainian part too. When I was at university, he attended lectures in Ukrainian. My Ukrainian language more with the university, the house spoke Russian. Yiddish was too, but in my family it was less. Today, I understand that if the Ukrainian laid into you since childhood, and then it starts to work. We in the Union of Soviet Jews were in we had very little Jewish. We knew about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and all. Few knew their language, history, literature. And only at the end of the 80s we started to restore the Jewish life, and began to become Ukrainian Jews who consider Ukraine as their motherland.

“Without faith and stories you like cod on the waves – swim, which carries”

– You were convicted of anti-Soviet propaganda. And what was the essence of your “propaganda”?

– I’ve been doing many things that could not do then. In Chernivtsi distributed samizdat. Helping political prisoners and their families. Gathering information on human rights violations and passed it. Joining the Ukrainian Helsinki group. There were people who helped – Ukrainian, Russian, not only Jews. It was a more or less intelligent circle. But in prison then, in 1978, was just me. Sentenced to three years. In the 84 th year – three more. At six.

– But the same could give and more …

– Could … But you do what you have to do. I considered it my duty to you need to do something against that power. As part of our small capacity.

– Who are the Ukrainian dissidents influenced you?

– How did I know about Ukrainian history, the Holodomor? Of Ukrainian dissidents. I talked with a lot of Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mihailom Gorinem. I traveled a lot for Ukraine, provedyvat those freed. I was looking for traces of what was called the investigation of psychiatric persecution, looking for people who have suffered in this way. I communicated with Ivan Svetlichny, Zinoviem Krasovskim, Panas Zalivahi – famous artist of Frankivsk. From each of them gets something pro-Ukrainian. The fact that I became a Ukrainian Jew, credit Ukrainian dissidents.

– You once said that you can not achieve human rights, if not to talk about religion and ethnicity …

– There is an opinion with which I am, so to speak, discuss. It is often said that it is possible to raise human universal values. And religion and ethnic culture is not required. I do not agree with this. Because when talking about millions of people, we can not achieve universal values, if not pass, so to speak, religion and ethnic culture. The only way to achieve this and tolerance. But the current reality is hard to implement. Because many non-religious people, they think that it is not very necessary. Although religion is gradually won over the place in our lives in comparison with the Union, but its weight in society still is not great.

I remember in the 70-80-ies of the last century, we spoke to Chornovil and Gorin that first need to be done, when finally this power will be overthrown or she falls. By the way, we did not expect it would be so fast. First of all, this is the resumption of the role of religion. Because religion – it is a very powerful educational factor in the society, which provides a set of essential values. It does not matter, Jews or Christians that. Because the value of the universal. And if it is not brought in millions of people, it is very hard to build a normal society.

Similarly, the story. Still have the illusion that you can live without it. But survive unless … but I know exactly what is in a person who has the confidence and the religious, and ethnic back to childhood, there is already such a rod, and then the whole life revolves around it. When a person enters the test in trouble, it has support within himself. Otherwise, you’re like cod on the waves: where to throw, you go there and swim. You have nothing to oppose to that external force or element. You can not change a lot in life, but you can not miss in your life and lie, going outside, and violence. To do this, you need this spiritual core – the ethnic and religious.

– Look at the dissident social events is not like other people?

– You know, dissent – it is such a feature of your character. See, we’re dreaming of a time when Ukraine is an independent and non-Communist. It came. But it turned out that this is not enough. We need to work to make a decent human life. And it needs a lot of work. Because those who had hoped that independence would give Ukraine at once, and all – were wrong. That was only the zero level. It was necessary to build many more. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time. And every maidan that occurs, adjust the path to the future of Ukraine.

– But if the government does something wrong, then it turns out that people need to think about, because the power – it is a reflection of people … Or not?

– On the one hand – yes. But as the power – it is the same people, they have dominated their own, private, over the general. There are some studies that show that as long as society is dominated by values ​​of survival, until can not begin the path of modernization of society. All go in different directions, each competing with each to survive and provide for his family. There must be something in common between people. For example, now in volunteering involve up to 8 million people in Ukraine. This is 15 percent of the population of our country. These are new people who can be the future of Ukraine. A majority of just waiting and survives. Waiting for what will happen and what they will need to adapt to new circumstances. And the volunteers and soldiers sacrifice their lives. Because common cause always requires sacrifice – in the broadest sense of the word.

– And people want at least some of the victims of politicians …

– You know, if we wait for the victims of politicians, it will get nowhere. We should not pay attention to politicians and do their own thing. We have seen that the civil society can do their job better than politicians. I do not expect that the officials themselves to make reforms. Only civil society can do it and force officials to adapt to him. If officials do not want to adapt to new circumstances, to a new life, they have to leave.

“We need to be able to live decently, with dignity and without the transcendental material prosperity”

– How many years of independence, and we are only now beginning to open up in a new way, our language, culture …

– It’s done all the time. Decades. Just in Soviet times, a small part was discovering that, because it was forbidden. Since the beginning of the 90 it began to be freely distributed, but it should affect the children. It not casually says that Moses led the people of 40 years in the desert to die all who were enslaved. In the new land, he did not want to lead the slaves. Because those who have lived in slavery, always bear the mark of slavery. We still need to go through several generations, even 25 years must pass. Because who govern us? In the 90s it was the former communists, then the former Komsomol in the 2000s, is now the former pioneers. On October need to survive. And then all will be well.

– Somehow I happened to hear accusations of dissidents address that, say, in the early 90’s insufficient pressured the Communists …

– Do not push Davy – nothing will happen. We had very little. Now up to 8 million volunteers, is not enough to turn Ukraine into a European state? What to say: more than 20 years ago we were 2-3 thousand political prisoners. How was it possible to get the 50,000,000th country, all communists, to be different? This can only be slow – not otherwise.

– And for you to spread the language and culture, so to speak, coercive methods?

– No, you only need to encourage. You need to have flexible mechanisms to encourage ownership of the Ukrainian language, the study of culture and history. You should have an advantage in borrowing positions those who own Ukrainian language. How else? No country can afford to take the officials of people who do not speak the state language. Only we have this is possible, and even in other post-Soviet countries except. And we see that they are still backward. The world is moving forward, and we graze the rear. Because we can not get rid of the post-colonial mentality.

– Now a large percentage of people who felt themselves to be Ukrainians, but also a large part of the thinking in old categories. In your opinion, what makes people in the Soviet era to think as Europeans? On the contrary, right now think in terms of a country that no longer exists?

– It is not in the country. The point of the Eurasian identity. Because it is the identity matrix was formed hundreds of years, it works at all, all the people living on this continent. And it defines the behavior of these people for the future. Metamorphosis is very slow, very slow changes. You say people feel European. They want to be Europeans. This reflective level of consciousness. Consciously they want, but they can be them? Do they want to be responsible? Freedom without responsibility – it’s nothing. Responsible work, cooperation, respect for the law. What is the difference Eurasia from Europe? Because in Europe there is respect for the law, and in Eurasia it is not. In Eurasia, not the law operates, and the person: the president, the governor, or first secretary. And we are hooked, because we live in a 300 years old Eurasian empire.

Partly we are Europeans, because the influence of the West European identity on us. We want to be Europeans, but still can not, because people think: if someone makes reforms for us. However, it should be this: not one but yourself. Fight against corruption – not somewhere, but in themselves. When you start with yourself, then you have this sense of responsibility. If you do not remake himself a little, then the children will be dissolved. No need to have the illusion that the very desire to live in Europe enough. You must be able to live as Europeans live. Modest, worthy, respect the law and work. Modestly – it including without transcendental material wealth.

– In all periods of development of Ukraine there were groups of people who are called moral authorities. But it seems they do not always hear …

– People must have the need to listen, first and foremost. If people have no need to listen to them – this is a problem people. Recently passed into eternity Eugene Sverstyuk. For me – the moral authority. But how many people knew him? I listen to it? How many people have corrected the life according to the principles of which he spoke? We all know how to live. But the country does not work … So, something is wrong …

Sourse, 27/08/2015

About the trial of Nadia Savchenko

Member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels sees several options for the end of the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko – it can award a short time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation, and if Savchenko will provide a long term, it will mean that Russia ready for isolation.

If the international observers will be present at the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, it will complicate the process for Russia, as the case is fabricated, said Iosif Zisels. He said this in a comment edition of “Gordon” .

“In principle, the government may announce in the end the decision is already past the court, and said, Behold, I’m sorry, did not work to attract public and observers This one option Of course, the Kremlin is not beneficial to the presence of observers at the trial because he falsified, in my subjective.. . According to observers, especially European ones, may complicate the court, which is not the case for Russia is very easy “, – said Zissels.

According to him, the results of the trial Savchenko show what development strategy chosen Russia – the international isolation or compromise with the West.

“What is all over, I just can not say, because it does not possess all the volume of information. In addition, Russia is a country full of uncertainty. It may be a relatively short period of time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation. On the other hand, Putin can show . that he was at all do not care, give Savchenko long time, and go to the final separation from all over the world as a result of the court will be clear what kind of tactics Russia chooses – complete isolation or still relatively compromise “, – said Zissels.

He did not think that at the time he was taken from the Moscow Savchenko in danger, despite the fact that the exact location is not known nor the lawyers nor relatives.

“I would not say that it was hidden, it is not entirely correct. We can say that in Russia there is a very old and important principle that when it formulated Stalin: There are people – there is a problem, no man – no problem. If authorities stated that they did not know where Savchenko worthwhile to worry about, but they do not yet speak, “- Zissels said.

Why and where Russia hid Savchenko?

A preliminary hearing on the case of Ukrainian pilots Hope Savchenko in the Donetsk Court of the Rostov region of the Russian Federation is scheduled for July 30th. July 17 Savchenko was was transferred from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don. July 22 protection Savchenko said he did not know where the aviator. Until July 27 the Russian authorities, by law, can not report her whereabouts. July 23 the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Ella Pamfilova has sent a formal request to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and the Federal Service of Execution of Punishments to the requirement to quickly provide information on the whereabouts of Savchenko. Before his transfer Ukrainka write a will, because it assumes that in Rostov it might have something happen.

Savchenko was captured by militants in June 2014 in Luhansk region, and then illegally exported to Russia. Thus, in the Russian jail, she is more than a year.

July 13, the General Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation approved the indictment against Savchenko and sent the case to the court. Pilot accused of the murder of two Russian citizens in the Luhansk region, as well as attempted murder. Ukrainka his guilt did not recognize.

Protection Savchenko asked that her trial was held in Moscow, instead of the Rostov region, and then looked at the jury, but the lawyers denied all petitions.

Sourse, 24/07/2015

It all starts with the exceptions of the rule

The Jews of Ukraine or Ukrainian Jews? Former dissident and co-president of the Vaad of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels – a civilizational choice and formation of a political nation.

– Joseph, a lot of talk lately about a new phenomenon – the birth of Ukrainian Jewry as a special form of identity of unknown a few years ago …

– All the Jewish communities of Europe passed a similar transformation. Including our closest neighbors, enough to read the article of the Polish-Jewish intellectual Konstanty Gebert, stresses that, despite all the vicissitudes of the general history of Polish Jews say about themselves: “We – the Poles.” According to him, democracy as a basic value, appreciate and Jews. “I’m not surprised that the Ukrainian Jews are mostly supported Ukrainian independence – says Gebert This phenomenon is repeated in Europe regularly Every time when some nations are independent, the Jews, as a rule, are on their way…”

In western Europe, the reform of Jewish identity began in the era of the Haskalah, when the Count of Clermont-Tonnerre in the Constituent Assembly proposed to equalize the rights of the Jews, because they are part of the French nation. He spoke of a nation in the European sense of the term – a political nation. It was then born the concept of the French law of Moses, the Germans of the Mosaic law, that is, Jewish identity takes on a new form – civil. Most European countries one way or another have come to such an understanding of the identity of the middle of the XIX century, the Russian Empire, that did not happen – it was moving along a path. I’m not talking about the lag phase, it’s just another path – within the framework of the Eurasian identity could not appear Russian and Ukrainian law of Moses.

– However, in Ukraine for centuries his name in the Eurasian paradigm, the process began …

– Yes, and it’s painfully long process – the formation of a political nation in the Western European sense. We all – originally from the Soviet Union, we all Soviet Jews, the main feature of which was the identification state anti-Semitism. We could not know Jewish history, tradition, language – to know nothing other than a couple of Jewish jokes, and, nevertheless, remain different. Precisely because of the state of anti-Semitism. How many of the nearly half million Ukrainian Jews were parishioners of one of the 14 active synagogues under the Soviets? Several hundred elderly. Therefore, Soviet Jews, and even “anti-Soviet Jews” like me, for example, come from the same “cradle”.

Then Ukraine became a sovereign state, and we started to get the Jews of Ukraine, while maintaining all the Soviet, but rather, Eurasian features – related to basic values, the role of government, religion, private property, etc. This civilizational values ​​that are absorbed with their mother’s milk, and do not change overnight, as the overnight Jews of Ukraine can not become Ukrainian Jews.

– Ukrainian National Democrats have long criticized the fact that in terms of cultural identity of Jews in Ukraine pro-Russian. While half of the country, including ethnic Ukrainians, belong to the same – the Russian-speaking – camp.

– It’s true, in another’s eye speck see, we do not notice the log in your … Jews living in Ukraine and are guided by the surrounding society.

– The more that the majority of the country’s Jews live exactly in the south-eastern regions.

– I would not connect to the civilizational choice place to stay – we are all Europeans and all the little little Eurasians – Ukrainians, Russian, and Jews. Just Russian Jews, who stood on the Maidan, made its civilizational choice in favor of Europe, but today many of these choices are at war. We go through the same path as that of the whole country – become Ukrainians in the political sense of the word – regardless of language, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. I stress that we are Ukrainian Jews, not because they are beginning to speak Ukrainian. I was in 1978 named in the party press “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist.” Apparently, even then I was a Ukrainian Jew, though he spoke in Ukrainian is much worse than it is now. Not in the language, and not in the religion business, and in civilizational choice. feature

And those of us who supported the Ukrainian choice not because of fashion or pragmatic reasons, but because (and this says Gebert) that prefer democracy – they are the Ukrainian Jews. Of course, the well known authoritarian leaders who sympathized with the Jews, such as Pilsudski. But when he died, Pilsudski, the Jews remembered how well they lived under Marshal – say, your grandfather died.

Yes, Jews have traditionally focused on power, we treat it loyally, sometimes entering into conflict with the aspirations of the people among whom we live. What to do – it is our history, our mentality. However, other Jews at all times defended democratic values ​​and participated in the national liberation movements, becoming part of one or another political nations.

– In our case, this process has become possible only after the Ukrainians themselves have changed their model for understanding the nation, rejecting ethnic nationalism, tailored on the patterns of the 1930s …

– It did not begin on the Maidan. I joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in 1978, become acquainted with a new generation of Ukrainian Nationalists, did not cave, otherwise I would not have joined them. Moses Fishbein poet in the 1980s worked in the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, as a Ukrainian nationalist …

– You’re talking about exceptions …

– It all starts with exceptions, and I was not the first. In the Polish uprising in 1794 involved not many Jews in the November Uprising 1830 there were more, and in 1863 – even more. When you can talk about the birth of Polish Jewry? Not in 1863, and at the end of the XVIII century. With Ukrainian Jews the same story. It’s a question of quality, not quantity. There are such people, and they are becoming more – Jews of Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa – this is not the Soviet Jews. Some of them are fighting in the Donbass, and they will go to the guerrilla groups, if will be in occupation.

It all starts with the exceptions in the 1970 Ukrainian Jews had very little, how little and Ukrainian national democrats, but the phenomenon has existed. Another thing is that the heroes of Ukraine, that is, the people who died for the independence of his people today, really, other. After Heavenly hundreds of pieces of Bandera and Shukhevych began to leave in the past.

Hundreds of children are dying today at the front – they are the new heroes of Ukraine and the new symbols of Ukrainian nationalism, although many of them do not even think that it is – Ukrainian nationalism.

– There are other forms of nationalism …

– And then there was all black, and now – not all white. And now there is an anti-Semite Levko Lukyanenko and 13 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, which we identify as the right-wing radicals, among them two men with neo-Nazi backgrounds – Aleksandr Mosiychuk and Dmitry Linko. I am convinced that the coalition does not include these characters, and I will fight for it as well as fighting for something that the leader of the Social-National Assembly Andrey Biletsky did not go to the deputies of the People’s Front list.

– Do not you think that this new identity is largely built on the denial, on confrontation with Russia. But aggression, sooner or later will end, and what remains?

– How to start identity? No one knows. But we know, for example, what happened in the 2012 elections, and why 10% voted for the radicals of the VO “Svoboda”. Not because they are right-wing radicals, it was a protest vote against Yanukovych. In any identity combined various factors – both “for” and “against.” I became the “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist” (with all the conventions of this definition) in 1978, because it was sympathetic to the National Democrats and the Communists did not like – it brought me to the dissident movement. Religious Zionists in Israel – against the creation of a Palestinian state and the expansion of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria – the series goes on.

Of course, in the absence of an external threat could start natural fragmentation of society, but it has never been united. In the meantime, the process of formation of the Ukrainian political nation and Ukrainian Jewry, as one of its components. The process itself testifies to the fact that Ukraine still Europeanized, Eurasian identity is arranged differently. The activity of the country is in Europe, the greater the Ukrainian Jews. And it’s not in the formal membership in the EU, it is important that the feeling of the people, their mentality, their identities were European – this is a very long process, but it has already started …

Interviewed by Maxim Sukhanov

Sourse, 18/05/2015

Ukrainians are not ripe for reconciliation

This year Ukraine celebrates the Day of Reconciliation for the first time and memory in honor of all the victims of the Second World War. Are Ukrainians really come to terms,  “Gordon” asked the chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosifa Ziselsa.

The idea of ​​reconciliation is popular at any time, but it can not be used in any situation to any two people, because in the conflict, which stretches since World War II, in fact, there are several dimensions.

Besides the Soviet-German, on the other hand – the French-English-German, even on our side had several dimensions: the Polish-German, Polish-Ukrainian, Ukrainian-German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian, even participated in the Carpathians in the battles with the UPA. There are a number of measurements, and most importantly – the Ukrainian-Soviet.

For example, I know of a case in 1962, when two Ukrainian women who were connected in the UPA, were shot in the bunker in the Ternopil region of the soldiers. In 1962, the year!

If we talk about today’s reconciliation, it is, on the one hand, civilization, because the Ukrainians decided that enough they have to live in the empire with the Eurasian civilization, and want to try the life of the European and then compared in 300 years, in which one It was better. On the other hand, this reconciliation is artificially caused by Russian aggression.

I do not think that we are ripe for reconciliation because the still very many forces did not satisfy his ambitions. If we talk about the dimensions that were during the Second World War, for them, of course, it has come, because we see a lot of progress on the line of Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation.

But it is not yet complete, as some Poles, for example, reacted nervously to the laws that have been adopted for the rehabilitation of UPA and other Ukrainian national organizations. This is a complex mishmash in which you need to understand. Find out about what exactly we are talking reconciliation. Young did not have these conflicts.

In Spain, where the civil war was prolonged, the family is still remembered, who had fought on which side. And this is not some kind of soft and hard memories. This is despite the fact that Franco (Spanish dictator Francisco Franco) has long put a monument to reconciliation for victims of the war on both sides.

In the southern states of the USA, despite the fact that since the civil war took place 150 years, also kept ancestral memory as to who fought for the North, and who – for the south. Although they live like the well, and the states do not fight each other, except that there is some confrontation during the election – more than one vote for Republicans, others – for the Democrats.

The issue of reconciliation is not so simple. Perhaps reconciliation at the level of Heads of State. Yushchenko (the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko), for example, has done a lot for this. But at the level of ordinary people a reconciliation does not take place so quickly.

In sociology, we see that in the last year the attitude of Ukrainians to the Poles has improved significantly, because millions of Ukrainians saw that the Poles actually help Ukraine in this complicated conflict. And as the Russian government not only did not help – she was the aggressor.

Veterans reluctance to shake hands says that a new conflict was superimposed on the old and on the contrary, it has strengthened rather than weakened.

Two of civilization people can live in peace, and they are in general, they lived more or less peacefully, despite the tension between the state structures, as long as there was no interference in each other’s identity. As soon as the intervention in the identity of other people, there is a huge energy instantly resistance.

Yet another dimension – the dimension of the Maidan – was for me as a reaction to a very significant part of Ukrainian society to try Yanukovych (fugitive ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych) and all his clique to bring us back to a state of the Eurasian identity, which we already do not want to be at as most of us.

This applies to the Donbas. This region has a different identity, and perhaps he did not want to live in a European way. If we are forced to compel him to do so, we get back the same great resistance power.

Decentralization is relevant if load it humanitarian, economic, financial and other aspects. Groisman (Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman) said several times that it is necessary to take into account the humanitarian aspect in decentralization. Historically. If we do not consider this aspect, it means that we do not spend real decentralization, it would be somewhat artificial.

Donbass within Ukraine should develop as he understands it in his own way. And the overall rate of the State of Ukraine, if it still exists, together with the Crimea and Donbas on the road to Europe must be sufficiently slow so as not to lose the regions that do not want to move in this direction. We need to talk, to explain, to try to continue to implement the values ​​that have more in Ukrainian society.

Sourse, 08/05/2015

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia

Iosif Zisels, human rights activist and head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Vaad, recalls with a smile, as in Soviet times it was called both a Zionist and a Ukrainian nationalist. Now, 40 years later, it again can be called zhidobanderovtsem, and the term has acquired a new meaning and a positive connotation.

In the Soviet Union he was a dissident, trying to defend the rights of Jews, and then joined the Ukrainian Helsinki human rights group. In 1978, on charges of defamation and anti-state activities Zissels received six years in a penal colony. Nine months before the liberation he was offered amnesty in exchange for a renunciation of political principles, but he refused.

Now, Soviet dissident and political prisoner, became one of the most influential Jews of Ukraine – he heads the largest Jewish organization, which is able at any time to lend a helping hand to every Jew of the country, engaged in the revival and strengthening of Jewish communities, their culture and religion, as well as helping wishing to exit in Israel.

Zissels well – known people abroad, where he is a member of the European and the World Jewish Congress, took over the functions of the public lobbyist Ukraine’s national interests. In his own words Zisels, he lives according to the covenant of the Jewish patriarch Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? “

“New time” meets Zissels in the office of the Association of Jewish Organizations, which is located in one of the academic buildings of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. It is a small unit into several rooms, on the door of which hung an advertisement for the recruitment of students to the specialization of Judaica. Zissels cordially invites you into his office and, distracted for a few minutes to say hello to each of his employees, invited to interview.

Ukrainians are very sensible nation, and therefore changes have been slow. Maidan two months stood and demanded concessions from the government. When I talk about that in France, there wondering how, two months? We would all smashed in two weeks!

Just Ukrainians other political temperament. We are moving at their own pace, which is slower than that of Poland or the Baltic countries. It must be taken as fact. Another problem is that our identity is dual, and expectations are always high, so some of us and sways from side to side. We believe that, if there was a revolution and change of power, all at once will change, but it is not.

Ukraine will of fate was between a European democracy and Eurasian authoritarian culture. And it is important to understand that if 20% of the population do not want to in Europe, this must somehow be considered. This is not a whim, just for them, Europe stranger. And we are encroaching on their identity, though hardly have that right.

Recall, Viktor Yanukovych wanted to encroach on our right to be Europeans – and the Maidan happened. The same thing is happening now. When threatened identity, even among people who are accustomed to submission, there is a huge energy resistance. We need to negotiate rather than fight.

Today in the country there is a desire to fight corruption, but it’s part of our culture. Corruption – is a part of Ukrainian identity. The law is not absolute for us, and its violation – not a sin, as in the West. And this shows our Eastern culture – there is not a law adopted in order to execute it, and that they enjoyed the strongest.

We used to live like this, we have formed a lot of secret agreements between government and society. For example, that the severity of the law is compensated by its failure. At low levels of wages authorities turned a blind eye to the fact that we steal, and the people turned a blind eye to the fact that steals power. In space, where there is no law with a capital letter, a person perceives any obstacle as a challenge, to solve the problem – that such obstacles put me, but I still find it, how to get around them.

So, to say, well, let’s fight against corruption, which many of us continue to steal – is meaningless. It is necessary to recognize the existence of tacit agreements and revise them. The struggle of society against corruption must be a struggle with ourselves.

Right now Ukrainian Jews began to realize themselves as Jews in Ukraine. In Europe, it happened in the late XIX century. In France, that’s when the Jews received equal rights with the French and called themselves the French law of Moses. We have this process takes place only now.

The Jews of Ukraine took a very active part in the Maidan. Were actively, perhaps, only the Crimean Tatars. And the Ukrainians have rated it – according to the latest sociological research, for the year related to the Jews and Crimean Tatars in the country has improved significantly.

We do not believe, how many Jews were on the Maidan, but we know that many of them then went to the front. The most paradoxical – some of them fought in the battalion of Azov, near the radical nationalists. In addition, in the east of the country and fight guys with Israeli passports. It is the volunteers who teach our soldiers. Israel has almost 100 years of war, and experience – most importantly, that he can pass Ukraine.

Israel does not help Ukraine officially because so fixated on their own security. In 2008, during the war in Georgia, Israel helped equip the Georgian air defense system. Then Georgia was hit by three Russian aircraft, and Israel received a warning from Russia that if he will continue to help Georgia, Iran gets a nuclear bomb, and Syria will face Russia’s S-300 missiles.

But while Israel – a democratic country, and the pressure of society can not be ignored. Most of the Israelis – people with democratic values, and they sympathize with Ukraine.

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia – will be less frustrating. Now, in many EU countries pre-election period. To support Ukraine, impose additional sanctions on Russia for them is to reduce the level of welfare of their countries and to expose their chances of winning at serious risk. Can help unless indirect pressure on Europe from the United States and Canada.

This is very similar to what happened in the 1930s. Germany regularly paid for oil and metals, and all wanted her to trade. Nobody wanted to see it as a monster, preferring to think that Germany will not fight with them, and with their competitors. After eight years of these errors have to pay a huge price.

We are no longer a peaceful country, and it will not be long. We need to get used to fight with minimal losses, rely on their own forces to protect their people, to rebuild the economy on a war footing, and not bury our heads in the sand. In Russia, too, there is no other option but to fight with Ukraine. They understand that with this government and with this partnership agreement is impossible.

Something we can count only when the disintegration processes in Russia will be intense. However, nobody in the world is not interested in this. What does it mean crumbling Russia? Huge fragments of the country armed with nuclear weapons. Putin, in spite of our curses, still controls the country. If only we have not climbed, prices would not be him. But he can not climb, the logic of empire – its meaning in the expansion.

I do not believe in the possibility of democratization of Russia. I spent two years in the Ural camps, lived in Moscow for more than a year. Russia within its present borders will never be a European country. There is no critical mass of people who can change the destiny of Russia. Moreover, not all countries should be European. The world rests on the balance sheet. And who will be the European world to balance China? Any democratization of Russia will lead to its disintegration, and this terrible future, with unpredictable consequences.

5 questions Iosifu Ziselsu:

– What event of your life you feel in charge?

– Of course, my participation in the dissident movement. I think all the most important thing happened then.

– What is your favorite city?

– I do not have a favorite book or a favorite city. I love Chernivtsi, where I spent my childhood, Kiev, in which I live. I like to be in Jerusalem and Barcelona.

– What move around the city?

– I have a Subaru Outback. This reliable, sturdy machine. Not very comfortable, but I like it.

– What is your monthly cost of living?

– I get a pension. More than ordinary people, but not enough to live a normal life. It is also engaged in consulting, working in a private firm. My problem is not how to provide for themselves, but rather where to find the money for our activities. Well, I have four kids that even adults, but they still need help. Perhaps today I spend at least $ 1 thousand. Per month.

– What do you seek?

– As anyone – to self-realization, once satisfied all other requirements. And I think I am quite good to deal with it.

Sourse, 02/05/2015

I do not think that without the consent of the inhabitants the city will be renamed

Without the consent of the inhabitants of the city should not be renamed, he said in a comment  “GORDON”  chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

“I’m not sure that without the decision of the local community, you can rename the city. But you’ve seen over the last 23 years, at least one law, which is performed in its entirety, just as it was written? We live in a space where the laws are not in order to fulfill them. laws of the people do not obey the laws of the people do not respect the laws of the people do not follow. They use the laws to achieve some of their goals. I do not think there will be a city renamed without the consent of residents. This should be without hysterics, and in a peaceful discussion. I do not think that without a Announce the masses it can be done then we will get additional negative effects, which have enough “, -. Zissels said.

There is a clash of two civilizations, so think about what the consequences will ban communist symbols more correctly, he said.

“There’s a novel in which the hero is a young man seeking a countess, she was refused, he turns the whole world, conquering all of Europe, and when the Countess is ready him to give up, it turns out that it is – an elderly woman and he no longer needed so. . and with that we now live in a turbulent time, we have a war on, and not just between the separatists and the Ukrainians, but a war between two civilizations -. European and Eurasian It’s so powerful collision, what to think, what consequences will result in a ban of symbols, I it seems to be incorrect. I do not think th that it will lead to some serious consequences to the positive or to the negative “- Zissels said.

However, in his opinion, for many people, the victims of the regime, this decision will be important.

“I have not yet comprehended once the consequences of yesterday’s solutions. I dreamed about it many years ago, because he was a dissident and was imprisoned in Soviet times for political activities, but it’s been more than 20 years. Although many people for whom life was a struggle with the communist system, it is very important that finally at least the end of life to get satisfaction from the fact that these misanthropic ideology abolished and banned, “- said the expert.

The honey, he said, the current law many inaccuracies that should be corrected.

“East is bad knows what the UPA, and the West does not speak what the UPA. It was a long time ago. So many myths of positive and negative during the Soviet period was unwound. The very acronym UPA with a hyphen, which created the Soviet ideology, did not exist in nature . The law had a lot of confusion -. terminological, factual, grammatical Before this law was passed, I was just going to make corrections I have quite an old man, to know how to be called in reality there are mixed up the names of organizations…History is no such organization “OUN” Yes “OUN” one, is “OUN” Second, there is a “OUN” third -. There are three “OUN” – Zissels said.

“Live – see very little consequence were other laws, I think, will also be with these Someone uses them for next separatist sentiments, someone on the contrary uses the dominance of pro-European sentiment in the end still everything goes and vanishes… “- he concluded.

Recall, April 9, the Verkhovna Rada  adopted  a law recognizing the communist regime 1917-1991 criminally and banning communist symbols.

The adopted law about the condemnation of the communist regime  contained  rule to rename the settlements, which are named in honor of the communist-era figures.

Sourse, 10/04/2015

Today, it is a conflict between civilization and the negation of civilization

What is happening today – a revision of the entire set of rules established in the world after the Second World War.

Iosif Zisels, chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups, – performance at the channel marathon  UKRLIFE.TV  on “The international implications of the terrorist attacks in France”:

There are two important systemic factor that differentiates Western Europe from the East and, in particular, from the Ukraine.

The first factor – is the presence of entities associated with the radical Islamic movement, they are in Western Europe, they do not exist in Eastern Europe. Perhaps, as we move to Europe they will, but for now it is not.

The second factor – the movement, fashionable in the left intelligentsia, in which human rights, in particular, the protection of the rights of Palestinians leads to anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment.

Sourse, 12/01/2015

The level of anti-Semitism in Ukraine is not increased

Do you see now Ukraine growth of anti-Semitism and xenophobia – to this and other questions in an interview with DW said the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Iosif Zisels.

Iosif Zisels – Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups. In an interview with DW Zissels she told whether there is in Ukraine, the rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and also responded to a number of other issues.

DW: In Russia, many say that with the advent of the current Ukrainian politicians in the country have intensified anti-Semitic sentiments. Is it so?

Iosif Zisels: I was one of the leaders of the Jewish community can assure that there is no – not only sharp, but generally no increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Ukraine. We are very carefully and attentively fix every incident, every speech, every case of an attack, and every act of vandalism. And this level – as last year. Despite the tumultuous events that took place on the Maidan in Kiev, on the military operations in the south-east of Ukraine, the level of anti-Semitism in the country increases. It was and remains one of the lowest in Eastern Europe.

– And what is the level of anti-Semitism in Russia?

– As regards the level of anti-Semitism in Russia – it is too short. Just as in Ukraine, he measured a dozen or two dozen cases per year. But Russia – authoritarian country with underdeveloped democratic institutions. And in this authoritarian model of existence can be played “Jewish card”. In Ukraine, too, is to be feared that the state wants to use it, but fortunately, there is control belongs to the civil society.

– What can you say about the allegations in the city address that the current government allegedly tolerate manifestations of neo-Nazism?

– First of all, it is a question of terminology. I think really understand what Nazism, only to narrow specialists. They are our experts, with whom we have worked for many years. In Ukraine, as in any other country, there are right-wing movements, some of which resemble the neo-Nazi. But they are in Europe. Right-wing parties have almost all European countries, and they are much more dangerous than what we see today in Ukraine.

So, the party “Freedom” is not passed to the new Ukrainian parliament, which was in the previous Parliament when Yanukovych was there 37 mandates. This demonstrates the falling level of interest in the radical demagogy of this order. Lyashko passed Radical Party, which is very different: it is less than the national radical demagogy, but more general radical demagoguery. In majority districts it took a few people who can be considered right-wing radicals with aspects of neo-Nazism. Very few of them: 423 MP – about 10. That is less than it was in the last Parliament, where there were 37.

But I think that the concerns of the Parliament, there was a general shift of the entire spectrum a little to the right. Because such a national-democratic parties as Block Petro Poroshenko, “Popular Front” and “self-help” – are themselves center-right. That is, the parliament’s center of gravity has shifted slightly to the right, and is a tribute to wartime. Requirements radicals is not particularly noticeable.

– The fact that the Parliament did not pass the “Freedom” and “Right Sector”, can be considered a success of Ukrainian democracy?

– In fact, these parties were radical demagogic. Moreover, these were the projects financed and designed to split the opposition with Yanukovych’s government. That is, in part, they were man-made projects. They can not be considered as such natural, organic manifestations of the right of the spectrum, as can be seen in many countries.

In Ukraine, the main control of the right-wing radicals has not the government, as is the case in Russia, and civil society. It itself copes with this low level of pravoradikalizma in the country, making it much better than the state. And it is – a guarantee that this rate will not be great.

– Earlier you said that “right-wing and neo-Nazi forces” involved in the conflict in the Donbass, from both sides? You can name specific examples?

– On the Russian side, according to our experts, fights about 200 neo-Nazis. Among them are, first of all, “Russian National Unity”. This is a known neo-Nazi organization in Russia, which has its own recruitment offices, training camps for militants and separate connections on the front. Others – such as, for example, the former party Limonov, is “dyed” in other colors. It is important to note also that the present or volunteers or mercenaries from European right-wing neo-Nazi parties. They, too, are fighting on the Russian side.

On the Ukrainian side, too, there is a man 30-40 – skinheads from the right-wing group “Social-National Assembly”, “Patriots of Ukraine”, for which we are following closely. In this regard, first of all, we may note the battalion “Azov”, where there may be even a few dozen people from the “Social-National Assembly.” Andrey Beletsky – the commander of the battalion (now it is a regiment) – the head of “Social-National Assembly.” However, he argues that the war changed their ideology.

– From what sources do you get information?

– We have a number of experts of the European level. We use their data, and trust them, as for many years working with them. Moreover, our data are taken from the report of the State Department’s anti-Semitism in the world and the OSCE report on the monitoring and analysis of anti-Semitism in the world. I myself 25 years engaged in the construction of networks for monitoring and analysis of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

Sourse, 06/11/2014

Israeli President raised on Russian historiography

The head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, a well-known human rights activist and Soviet dissident, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels in an interview with “Gromadska radio” stated that he could not agree with the speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. He accused the Ukrainians in the complicity in the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Second World War, informs eizvestia.com .

“He’s an old man. He bears the stereotypes of the past, historiography, which today is not considered objective. He was brought up in the Russian historiography. Israel, at least the older generation still lives under its influence. It does not reflect the opinion of the young. After all, the young religious Israelis have stood on the Maidan. These views he expressed today – it’s yesterday, “- said Zissels.

He recalled the visit to Israel of the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko in 2007.

“The delegation came to Yad Vashem and asked to show documents that indicate the involvement of Roman Shukhevych (OUN leader during World War II) to such crimes. But no one was able to show. This stereotype does not provide evidence, if everyone knows it. No, not everyone knows that. For example, I do not trust that it is not necessary to confirm the archival authentic documents “- Zissels said.

He noted that the OUN and UPA fighters fought for Ukraine, and they can not wear the stereotypical labels.

September 27 during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada parliamentary hearings devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that the Ukrainians have been involved in the repression against the Jews during the Second World War. “Many of the accomplices of crimes were Ukrainians. And among them highlights the OUN, which mocked Jews, killed them, and in many cases, were given to the Germans. It is also true that there were more than 2.5 thousand Righteous among the Nations “-. Said Rivlin.

Commenting on the Israeli president’s speech, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Vladimir Vyatrovich said Rivlin repeated Soviet myth of the OUN involvement in the Holocaust. The head of the OUN Bogdan Chervak ​​Rivlin called the statement “a spit in the soul of the Ukrainians” and urged him not to watch Russian television, as it is “not just bad, but also indecent.”

During World War II, occupied Kiev Nazi troops used the tract Babi Yar, in the northwestern part of the city as a place of mass executions of civilians, most of whom were Jews. September 29, 1941 the entire Jewish population was obliged to come to the Babi Yar, where until September 30, was shot more than 33 thousand. Man on the orders of the occupation administration. According to various estimates, at Babi Yar were killed by 70 thousand. Up to 200 thousand. Man.

Sourse, 29/09/2016

The system rotted from within and dognila before disbanding

Soviet-era dissident Yosif Zisels told why refused amnesty in the Gorbachev era, what regrets today about whether modern Ukraine may repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime

Yosif Zisels – human rights activist, dissident, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. In 1978 he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He spent six years in prisons on charges of “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Every dissident own destiny. For example, a man wrote a poem. As my friend, the Ukrainian dissident, a former teacher in the Ternopil region kultprosvetuchilische Mikola Grobal, wrote a poem called “Dumi moї, Dumi”. For this was sent to prison. For the poem. Simply laid out thoughts on paper. Or Semyon Gluzman, which persecuted for their professional activities. He made the correspondence psychiatric examination for General Pyotr Grigorenko and mathematician Leonid Plyushch and promulgated it.

The dissent came for different reasons: national, democratic, moral, emotional. The reasons were not so important to us. Most importantly, we together fought criminal imperial communist system.

I actually grew up without parents. So I have virtually no such an important element of the psyche as a “social instinct of self-preservation,” usually brings up children in a normal Jewish family. Simply no one to create it. I started very early to read samizdat. I think it is no coincidence. The fact that we were surrounded by then, and what we have been taught do not match. Not everyone is dissonance when life does not match with the pictures, which are described in textbooks. Some quietly absorbed in itself is doublethink, I called it “social schizophrenia.” Some do it quietly. Some resisted.

The Soviet government constantly demanded confirmation of loyalty. A variety of ways. Those who have studied, passed the party’s history, scientific communism. Was political information was the Komsomol, and other institutions, which are constantly monitored by the people through an extensive network. Not only controlled the KGB people were the party, trade union, Komsomol and Pioneer organizations. And I went multilevel selection. Revealed disgruntled, obstinate. Once a person has manifested itself, it was a signal that we should look at it.

I went to the dissidence almost deliberately. I drew it. I wanted to know the truth about life, about history, about relationships. And find the right answers in samizdat, as permitted by the literature is almost impossible to find the truth. It was important that others know the truth. Not immediately, at first reading itself, and then you want to share with others. Then you become it a little.

An important stimulus was originally a private confrontation lies and violence. You try to realize his need for truth is not simply to distribute this literature. Then there is the need to sign any appeals, appeals to protest against human rights violations. I’m talking about the way. Some stop at reading the literature, some – at that distribute other books, some do not sign the appeal and appeal, and others pass this hurdle and continue to develop. Then there was a real help to political prisoners, in which I was involved.

The apogee of my dissident activity can be considered as 1978 , when I was actively engaged in case of using the power of Soviet psychiatry to persecute dissidents and investigated more than 80 such stories, in the summer became a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and in December he was arrested for the first time.

I do not consider myself a victim. I tried to do something as far as possible. I tried something to counter the Soviet regime and its powerful repressive apparatus. Authorities responded to me quite “adequately”. I knew I was not alone in this, but the dissidents are not many, only a few thousand to two hundred millionth Soviet people. Nevertheless, it was more personal fulfillment, not an illusory calculation somehow undermine Soviet power. It was clear that our efforts it was impossible to destroy. She was rotting from the inside and dognila before disbanding.

The fact that the dissidents were known all over the world, destroyed the Soviet myth. 220 million people live happily, moving towards communism, nothing else is willing, but there are several thousand people who by the very fact of its existence, argue that a false myth. Here I was among those people. It was my way. I chose him and he went through it. And, fortunately, I did not meet with an obstacle that would have made me turn back.

I was already an inveterate “recidivist”, when I was offered an amnesty, it was in January 1987, went a second three-year term of my imprisonment, I had to sit 9 months. As for all the forced dialogue with the authorities, with the KGB, with investigators from the prosecutors, I did not sign any paper, any evidence not given, I do not want to change his principles when I needed to sit 9 months. I calmly refused the amnesty. She was so very communist. We had to sign a document that You shall not engage in political activity. Some signed, and then continued to work.

I did not believe that engaging in political activities. It was a formality, but I took it very seriously. If I sign it, then break its principle “not to cooperate with the authorities.” I was not sorry, and now do not regret it.

I’m sorry about the other. Going your own way, you are doomed to suffering families. With time comes the understanding that your free choice causes suffering of others: family, friends. KGB worked very well. They covered not only the one who resists, but all its surroundings, creating an inconvenience to them in life, to put it mildly. This was done to set up against the man his environment. I lost a few people who thought their comrades in these years. Some stayed, we’ve been friends for 50 years. They passed the test with me.

In total I spent in prisons and zones 6 years and the year at home under the administrative supervision of the refusal to accept the “Gorbachev amnesty.” Both times I was accused under Article 187 (approx.) Of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, in the “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Any authoritarian regime, the more totalitarian, based on the fact that there is an external enemy, there is internal, and it is necessary to deal with them. And for people to explain who the external enemy – the imperialists, capitalists, the NATO military. And the internal – dissidents “fifth column”, which does not want to go to the general structure of communism. It was a massive propaganda against such people. We tried to turn public opinion against these people. Isolate, to make their lives uncomfortable, unbearable. Even when you see that article in the newspaper against you false from beginning to end, it is embarrassing to you, the residue remains. And there are articles about the dissidents, whom the authorities deemed “outcasts” were enough.

I lived in the city of Chernivtsi and did not face persecution for the use of the Ukrainian language. For too active promotion – possible. It is already considered nationalism. And only the KGB decided what distinguishes patriotism from nationalism. On the other hand, I grew up in a Jewish environment, and only a student came to understand many issues, including national.

Can modern Ukraine to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime? Ukrainians are already very difficult to build as they were built in the Soviet era. Once upon a time this would have killed millions, and intimidate others and build. Most of destroying a part buy, this was done in the 20s, 30s. Soviet authorities or killed or drove out, or bought. So to build “our elites.” Therefore there is nothing surprising that she is today. I think that the repetition of history is impossible. It is impossible to kill 5.7 million people, to build a line of others. But the fact of the formal independence of the country does not guarantee the economic prosperity of the people and democratic development, respect for the law, eradication of corruption and the development of a new system of values. As mathematicians say, a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Recorded Jan Goncharenko

See. Also Special Project “Dissidents” edition Fokus.ua and STB for the Suppression of dissidents in the USSR

Source: focus.ua , 25.08.2016

Sourse, 25/08/2016

Yanukovych must be condemned, but corruption is a derivative of general disrespect for the law

stigmatization campaign corruption, declared an international human rights organization Transparency International, is to focus on the figure of the Ukrainian society fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych that will distract from the system solution to the problem, said a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

Viktor Yanukovych was not born corrupt, and become so because of the mentality of Ukrainian society, says Iosif Zisels.

Yanukovych headed the world ranking corrupt officials on the results of voting on the website of the international human rights organization Transparency International, which announced that begins stigmatization campaign against corruption, taking the first nine places.

“I would not want to exaggerate the importance of this campaign. While any steps to eliminate in the Ukrainian society of corruption are good, and the worst of them will not. But I’m inclined to think that we need a systematic approach. Yanukovych is not born corrupt, it is a question of education, which is determined by All the circumstances of life in the Eurasian society is corruption -. it is part of our mentality and culture we are born, live and die in corruption. “- Zissels said.

“Condemn Yanukovych necessary, he was president of the country, but to focus on his figure could divert attention from the systemic problem In fact, corruption is dissolved in all, and the problem can not be solved without the long-term by re-society programs, building on the Western partners.” – he added he.

Zissels stressed that “over the last year in this regard has been made longer than in the previous 25 years.”

“Transparency International does a lot, forcing public institutions to deal with corruption, I know this organization, I support her contacts, her activity is doubtless useful, but how it can be assumed that it decides for 45,000,000th country of its problems..?” – said human rights activist .

According to him, “corruption – is a derivative of general disrespect for the law in general, including to the tax.”

“Who pays taxes in Ukraine Corruption – this including the theft of the budget, but we do not fill it I am sure that the majority of Ukrainians do not pay all the taxes that they are put there are plenty of other laws, which we treat as.. . well as to tax is the question of respect for the law if it appears, will result in the condemnation of anti-corruption Yanukovych -.. a good measure, but it does not give a general respect for the law “- he said.

The human rights activist believes that “in the fight against corruption the first place should take no condemnation, no anti-corruption bureau or anti-corruption prosecutor, namely re-society in the spirit of European values”.

“With our values ​​we will not become either economically developed, nor a truly democratic country, to tackle corruption. Only the union of all the forces of civil society and reform forces in the government, if they are there, in the long term can give some result for the whole Ukraine, if not for us, our children, or even grandchildren, “- he concluded.

Yanukovych was the President of Ukraine with the February 25, 2010. February 22, 2014, after three months of protests on the Maidan Verkhovna Rada recognized it withdrew from the post and do not fulfill their obligations, then new presidential elections were announced. In February last year, Yanukovych left Ukraine, is now with his family, he lives in Russia.

In Ukraine against Yanukovych opened several criminal proceedings. He is accused of the mass murder of citizens, misappropriation of state property, the seizure of power by unconstitutional means, actions aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order. Concerning it applies conviction in absentia procedure .

Yanukovych’s name was included in the investigation of the Interpol database, but at the end of July 2015 wanted to suspend consideration of the complaint of lawyers who insist on the political background of the case against the former president.

Sourse, 11/02/2016

Without the knowledge of history you like cod on the waves – swim, where will the current flow

With this well-known journalist Natalia Feshchuk man talking in his second home Chernivtsi – Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, co-founder of which he is. The conversation took place before he got into the list of moral authority among the Ukrainians, compiled a few days ago one of the Ukrainian media . By the way, an interview with Iosifom Samuilovichem Ziselsom just ended his reflections on what moral authority are always there in the community, if only listen to them …

Joseph Zisels many posts and distinctions, among them – the head of the Association of Jewish organizations and communities of Ukraine, executive vice-president of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. And in a nutshell: Ukrainian dissident Jewish descent, twice convicted for anti-Soviet activities. He never worked in government, says the most comfortable feeling when engaged in public affairs.

As in the Union, and now he has his own strong opinions on what principles should build a true nation and a strong country. And yet convinced that a free man – a responsible person.

Zissels has been living in Kiev. But here, in the heart of Chernivtsi, it remains a piece of his heart, because it is here, on the street Schiller once lived with his parents.

“I have a very warm attitude to the history and the people who are no longer”

– Mr. Joseph, when you decided to found the Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, it was a sense of duty to those Jews who had once been so much in Chernivtsi?

– My parents – not local Jews and Bessarabia. They arrived in Chernivtsi after the Second World War. In Chernivtsi I am, unfortunately, not born. But I have lived here and interacted with the people remaining from before the war. And it was German-speaking Jews, there were already a little while, in the 50-60s, – two or three hundred, maybe left from the huge community, which before the war amounted to almost 80 thousand people. In the city of 120 thousand people two-thirds – it was the Jewish population. And I was struck by the story of this community, which flourished at the end of the XVIII century, when the Austrian authorities to allow Jews to settle here. But almost half of the Jews was destroyed during the Holocaust, and the other half remained in the city, but has not been able to live under the Soviet regime. In 1940, the Jews were some illusions, many of them were left sentiment, but European, and they waited for the Red Army, because on the other hand – Hitler. And they were deported to Siberia, one third of them in 1941, 12 thousand Bukovinians – Jews. Those who have stayed here, came under Romanian occupation, who was shot, who died in concentration camps. Who stayed with the time left for Israel. Live in Chernivtsi remaining units …

And I wanted to recreate the story. I thought, this is our duty. Because once the Jewish community in the city was very strong. And those who came here after the war, there were already other people – Bessarabian East Ukrainian Jews were very Soviet. I want to say that everything was up to the First World War is well. And when it came, Romania, the Jewish community has undergone a lot of suffering. This, of course, does not compare with the Holocaust. But Romania was a strong anti-Semitism. Second, the Jews of Romania considers patriots Austria-Hungary and taking revenge for that. We have archival documents showing that the Bukovina Ukrainians and Poles in 1918 protested against the annexation of this region Romania. And among the Jews of Bukovina was a protest. And then the Romanians because it does not give citizenship to many Jews. But still it was not, as in the Soviet Union. 1940 showed who is who. And those who lamented that’s how bad it was when Romania saw what could be worse than under Soviet rule. Some of the Jews, unfortunately, did not have time to leave. We traveled already in 60-70 years, when there was again a possibility. I know these families, helping them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them.

– You always emphasized that you – Ukrainian Jew. Now in Ukraine, many of our citizens such as the re-born, they want to know more about their country and its history. Some, on the contrary, is still passive. But to be a true citizen of the country, it seems to be inside? As it has been in your family?

– In me many laid. Because in a city like Chernivtsi laid a lot – here is the crossroads of history, culture and languages. This tolerant spirit of Chernivtsi. What is the difference Bukovina Jews of Galician, for example? One of the features – tolerance of the province, it has passed and the Jews too. There was a lot of tolerance and among Jews, too: between the orthodox and reformist currents in Judaism. In other cities they are irreconcilable, here they are communicated. For example, the chief rabbi of Chernivtsi was the Reform rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court was Orthodox rabbi.

At home, I received a Soviet-Jewish upbringing, not a purely Jewish. But I never hid their Jewish identity. I’ve always known who I am. At the same time, it is Ukraine, and I felt a Ukrainian part too. When I was at university, he attended lectures in Ukrainian. My Ukrainian language more with the university, the house spoke Russian. Yiddish was too, but in my family it was less. Today, I understand that if the Ukrainian laid into you since childhood, and then it starts to work. We in the Union of Soviet Jews were in we had very little Jewish. We knew about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and all. Few knew their language, history, literature. And only at the end of the 80s we started to restore the Jewish life, and began to become Ukrainian Jews who consider Ukraine as their motherland.

“Without faith and stories you like cod on the waves – swim, which carries”

– You were convicted of anti-Soviet propaganda. And what was the essence of your “propaganda”?

– I’ve been doing many things that could not do then. In Chernivtsi distributed samizdat. Helping political prisoners and their families. Gathering information on human rights violations and passed it. Joining the Ukrainian Helsinki group. There were people who helped – Ukrainian, Russian, not only Jews. It was a more or less intelligent circle. But in prison then, in 1978, was just me. Sentenced to three years. In the 84 th year – three more. At six.

– But the same could give and more …

– Could … But you do what you have to do. I considered it my duty to you need to do something against that power. As part of our small capacity.

– Who are the Ukrainian dissidents influenced you?

– How did I know about Ukrainian history, the Holodomor? Of Ukrainian dissidents. I talked with a lot of Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mihailom Gorinem. I traveled a lot for Ukraine, provedyvat those freed. I was looking for traces of what was called the investigation of psychiatric persecution, looking for people who have suffered in this way. I communicated with Ivan Svetlichny, Zinoviem Krasovskim, Panas Zalivahi – famous artist of Frankivsk. From each of them gets something pro-Ukrainian. The fact that I became a Ukrainian Jew, credit Ukrainian dissidents.

– You once said that you can not achieve human rights, if not to talk about religion and ethnicity …

– There is an opinion with which I am, so to speak, discuss. It is often said that it is possible to raise human universal values. And religion and ethnic culture is not required. I do not agree with this. Because when talking about millions of people, we can not achieve universal values, if not pass, so to speak, religion and ethnic culture. The only way to achieve this and tolerance. But the current reality is hard to implement. Because many non-religious people, they think that it is not very necessary. Although religion is gradually won over the place in our lives in comparison with the Union, but its weight in society still is not great.

I remember in the 70-80-ies of the last century, we spoke to Chornovil and Gorin that first need to be done, when finally this power will be overthrown or she falls. By the way, we did not expect it would be so fast. First of all, this is the resumption of the role of religion. Because religion – it is a very powerful educational factor in the society, which provides a set of essential values. It does not matter, Jews or Christians that. Because the value of the universal. And if it is not brought in millions of people, it is very hard to build a normal society.

Similarly, the story. Still have the illusion that you can live without it. But survive unless … but I know exactly what is in a person who has the confidence and the religious, and ethnic back to childhood, there is already such a rod, and then the whole life revolves around it. When a person enters the test in trouble, it has support within himself. Otherwise, you’re like cod on the waves: where to throw, you go there and swim. You have nothing to oppose to that external force or element. You can not change a lot in life, but you can not miss in your life and lie, going outside, and violence. To do this, you need this spiritual core – the ethnic and religious.

– Look at the dissident social events is not like other people?

– You know, dissent – it is such a feature of your character. See, we’re dreaming of a time when Ukraine is an independent and non-Communist. It came. But it turned out that this is not enough. We need to work to make a decent human life. And it needs a lot of work. Because those who had hoped that independence would give Ukraine at once, and all – were wrong. That was only the zero level. It was necessary to build many more. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time. And every maidan that occurs, adjust the path to the future of Ukraine.

– But if the government does something wrong, then it turns out that people need to think about, because the power – it is a reflection of people … Or not?

– On the one hand – yes. But as the power – it is the same people, they have dominated their own, private, over the general. There are some studies that show that as long as society is dominated by values ​​of survival, until can not begin the path of modernization of society. All go in different directions, each competing with each to survive and provide for his family. There must be something in common between people. For example, now in volunteering involve up to 8 million people in Ukraine. This is 15 percent of the population of our country. These are new people who can be the future of Ukraine. A majority of just waiting and survives. Waiting for what will happen and what they will need to adapt to new circumstances. And the volunteers and soldiers sacrifice their lives. Because common cause always requires sacrifice – in the broadest sense of the word.

– And people want at least some of the victims of politicians …

– You know, if we wait for the victims of politicians, it will get nowhere. We should not pay attention to politicians and do their own thing. We have seen that the civil society can do their job better than politicians. I do not expect that the officials themselves to make reforms. Only civil society can do it and force officials to adapt to him. If officials do not want to adapt to new circumstances, to a new life, they have to leave.

“We need to be able to live decently, with dignity and without the transcendental material prosperity”

– How many years of independence, and we are only now beginning to open up in a new way, our language, culture …

– It’s done all the time. Decades. Just in Soviet times, a small part was discovering that, because it was forbidden. Since the beginning of the 90 it began to be freely distributed, but it should affect the children. It not casually says that Moses led the people of 40 years in the desert to die all who were enslaved. In the new land, he did not want to lead the slaves. Because those who have lived in slavery, always bear the mark of slavery. We still need to go through several generations, even 25 years must pass. Because who govern us? In the 90s it was the former communists, then the former Komsomol in the 2000s, is now the former pioneers. On October need to survive. And then all will be well.

– Somehow I happened to hear accusations of dissidents address that, say, in the early 90’s insufficient pressured the Communists …

– Do not push Davy – nothing will happen. We had very little. Now up to 8 million volunteers, is not enough to turn Ukraine into a European state? What to say: more than 20 years ago we were 2-3 thousand political prisoners. How was it possible to get the 50,000,000th country, all communists, to be different? This can only be slow – not otherwise.

– And for you to spread the language and culture, so to speak, coercive methods?

– No, you only need to encourage. You need to have flexible mechanisms to encourage ownership of the Ukrainian language, the study of culture and history. You should have an advantage in borrowing positions those who own Ukrainian language. How else? No country can afford to take the officials of people who do not speak the state language. Only we have this is possible, and even in other post-Soviet countries except. And we see that they are still backward. The world is moving forward, and we graze the rear. Because we can not get rid of the post-colonial mentality.

– Now a large percentage of people who felt themselves to be Ukrainians, but also a large part of the thinking in old categories. In your opinion, what makes people in the Soviet era to think as Europeans? On the contrary, right now think in terms of a country that no longer exists?

– It is not in the country. The point of the Eurasian identity. Because it is the identity matrix was formed hundreds of years, it works at all, all the people living on this continent. And it defines the behavior of these people for the future. Metamorphosis is very slow, very slow changes. You say people feel European. They want to be Europeans. This reflective level of consciousness. Consciously they want, but they can be them? Do they want to be responsible? Freedom without responsibility – it’s nothing. Responsible work, cooperation, respect for the law. What is the difference Eurasia from Europe? Because in Europe there is respect for the law, and in Eurasia it is not. In Eurasia, not the law operates, and the person: the president, the governor, or first secretary. And we are hooked, because we live in a 300 years old Eurasian empire.

Partly we are Europeans, because the influence of the West European identity on us. We want to be Europeans, but still can not, because people think: if someone makes reforms for us. However, it should be this: not one but yourself. Fight against corruption – not somewhere, but in themselves. When you start with yourself, then you have this sense of responsibility. If you do not remake himself a little, then the children will be dissolved. No need to have the illusion that the very desire to live in Europe enough. You must be able to live as Europeans live. Modest, worthy, respect the law and work. Modestly – it including without transcendental material wealth.

– In all periods of development of Ukraine there were groups of people who are called moral authorities. But it seems they do not always hear …

– People must have the need to listen, first and foremost. If people have no need to listen to them – this is a problem people. Recently passed into eternity Eugene Sverstyuk. For me – the moral authority. But how many people knew him? I listen to it? How many people have corrected the life according to the principles of which he spoke? We all know how to live. But the country does not work … So, something is wrong …

Sourse, 27/08/2015

About the trial of Nadia Savchenko

Member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels sees several options for the end of the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko – it can award a short time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation, and if Savchenko will provide a long term, it will mean that Russia ready for isolation.

If the international observers will be present at the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, it will complicate the process for Russia, as the case is fabricated, said Iosif Zisels. He said this in a comment edition of “Gordon” .

“In principle, the government may announce in the end the decision is already past the court, and said, Behold, I’m sorry, did not work to attract public and observers This one option Of course, the Kremlin is not beneficial to the presence of observers at the trial because he falsified, in my subjective.. . According to observers, especially European ones, may complicate the court, which is not the case for Russia is very easy “, – said Zissels.

According to him, the results of the trial Savchenko show what development strategy chosen Russia – the international isolation or compromise with the West.

“What is all over, I just can not say, because it does not possess all the volume of information. In addition, Russia is a country full of uncertainty. It may be a relatively short period of time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation. On the other hand, Putin can show . that he was at all do not care, give Savchenko long time, and go to the final separation from all over the world as a result of the court will be clear what kind of tactics Russia chooses – complete isolation or still relatively compromise “, – said Zissels.

He did not think that at the time he was taken from the Moscow Savchenko in danger, despite the fact that the exact location is not known nor the lawyers nor relatives.

“I would not say that it was hidden, it is not entirely correct. We can say that in Russia there is a very old and important principle that when it formulated Stalin: There are people – there is a problem, no man – no problem. If authorities stated that they did not know where Savchenko worthwhile to worry about, but they do not yet speak, “- Zissels said.

Why and where Russia hid Savchenko?

A preliminary hearing on the case of Ukrainian pilots Hope Savchenko in the Donetsk Court of the Rostov region of the Russian Federation is scheduled for July 30th. July 17 Savchenko was was transferred from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don. July 22 protection Savchenko said he did not know where the aviator. Until July 27 the Russian authorities, by law, can not report her whereabouts. July 23 the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Ella Pamfilova has sent a formal request to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and the Federal Service of Execution of Punishments to the requirement to quickly provide information on the whereabouts of Savchenko. Before his transfer Ukrainka write a will, because it assumes that in Rostov it might have something happen.

Savchenko was captured by militants in June 2014 in Luhansk region, and then illegally exported to Russia. Thus, in the Russian jail, she is more than a year.

July 13, the General Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation approved the indictment against Savchenko and sent the case to the court. Pilot accused of the murder of two Russian citizens in the Luhansk region, as well as attempted murder. Ukrainka his guilt did not recognize.

Protection Savchenko asked that her trial was held in Moscow, instead of the Rostov region, and then looked at the jury, but the lawyers denied all petitions.

Sourse, 24/07/2015

It all starts with the exceptions of the rule

The Jews of Ukraine or Ukrainian Jews? Former dissident and co-president of the Vaad of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels – a civilizational choice and formation of a political nation.

– Joseph, a lot of talk lately about a new phenomenon – the birth of Ukrainian Jewry as a special form of identity of unknown a few years ago …

– All the Jewish communities of Europe passed a similar transformation. Including our closest neighbors, enough to read the article of the Polish-Jewish intellectual Konstanty Gebert, stresses that, despite all the vicissitudes of the general history of Polish Jews say about themselves: “We – the Poles.” According to him, democracy as a basic value, appreciate and Jews. “I’m not surprised that the Ukrainian Jews are mostly supported Ukrainian independence – says Gebert This phenomenon is repeated in Europe regularly Every time when some nations are independent, the Jews, as a rule, are on their way…”

In western Europe, the reform of Jewish identity began in the era of the Haskalah, when the Count of Clermont-Tonnerre in the Constituent Assembly proposed to equalize the rights of the Jews, because they are part of the French nation. He spoke of a nation in the European sense of the term – a political nation. It was then born the concept of the French law of Moses, the Germans of the Mosaic law, that is, Jewish identity takes on a new form – civil. Most European countries one way or another have come to such an understanding of the identity of the middle of the XIX century, the Russian Empire, that did not happen – it was moving along a path. I’m not talking about the lag phase, it’s just another path – within the framework of the Eurasian identity could not appear Russian and Ukrainian law of Moses.

– However, in Ukraine for centuries his name in the Eurasian paradigm, the process began …

– Yes, and it’s painfully long process – the formation of a political nation in the Western European sense. We all – originally from the Soviet Union, we all Soviet Jews, the main feature of which was the identification state anti-Semitism. We could not know Jewish history, tradition, language – to know nothing other than a couple of Jewish jokes, and, nevertheless, remain different. Precisely because of the state of anti-Semitism. How many of the nearly half million Ukrainian Jews were parishioners of one of the 14 active synagogues under the Soviets? Several hundred elderly. Therefore, Soviet Jews, and even “anti-Soviet Jews” like me, for example, come from the same “cradle”.

Then Ukraine became a sovereign state, and we started to get the Jews of Ukraine, while maintaining all the Soviet, but rather, Eurasian features – related to basic values, the role of government, religion, private property, etc. This civilizational values ​​that are absorbed with their mother’s milk, and do not change overnight, as the overnight Jews of Ukraine can not become Ukrainian Jews.

– Ukrainian National Democrats have long criticized the fact that in terms of cultural identity of Jews in Ukraine pro-Russian. While half of the country, including ethnic Ukrainians, belong to the same – the Russian-speaking – camp.

– It’s true, in another’s eye speck see, we do not notice the log in your … Jews living in Ukraine and are guided by the surrounding society.

– The more that the majority of the country’s Jews live exactly in the south-eastern regions.

– I would not connect to the civilizational choice place to stay – we are all Europeans and all the little little Eurasians – Ukrainians, Russian, and Jews. Just Russian Jews, who stood on the Maidan, made its civilizational choice in favor of Europe, but today many of these choices are at war. We go through the same path as that of the whole country – become Ukrainians in the political sense of the word – regardless of language, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. I stress that we are Ukrainian Jews, not because they are beginning to speak Ukrainian. I was in 1978 named in the party press “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist.” Apparently, even then I was a Ukrainian Jew, though he spoke in Ukrainian is much worse than it is now. Not in the language, and not in the religion business, and in civilizational choice. feature

And those of us who supported the Ukrainian choice not because of fashion or pragmatic reasons, but because (and this says Gebert) that prefer democracy – they are the Ukrainian Jews. Of course, the well known authoritarian leaders who sympathized with the Jews, such as Pilsudski. But when he died, Pilsudski, the Jews remembered how well they lived under Marshal – say, your grandfather died.

Yes, Jews have traditionally focused on power, we treat it loyally, sometimes entering into conflict with the aspirations of the people among whom we live. What to do – it is our history, our mentality. However, other Jews at all times defended democratic values ​​and participated in the national liberation movements, becoming part of one or another political nations.

– In our case, this process has become possible only after the Ukrainians themselves have changed their model for understanding the nation, rejecting ethnic nationalism, tailored on the patterns of the 1930s …

– It did not begin on the Maidan. I joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in 1978, become acquainted with a new generation of Ukrainian Nationalists, did not cave, otherwise I would not have joined them. Moses Fishbein poet in the 1980s worked in the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, as a Ukrainian nationalist …

– You’re talking about exceptions …

– It all starts with exceptions, and I was not the first. In the Polish uprising in 1794 involved not many Jews in the November Uprising 1830 there were more, and in 1863 – even more. When you can talk about the birth of Polish Jewry? Not in 1863, and at the end of the XVIII century. With Ukrainian Jews the same story. It’s a question of quality, not quantity. There are such people, and they are becoming more – Jews of Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa – this is not the Soviet Jews. Some of them are fighting in the Donbass, and they will go to the guerrilla groups, if will be in occupation.

It all starts with the exceptions in the 1970 Ukrainian Jews had very little, how little and Ukrainian national democrats, but the phenomenon has existed. Another thing is that the heroes of Ukraine, that is, the people who died for the independence of his people today, really, other. After Heavenly hundreds of pieces of Bandera and Shukhevych began to leave in the past.

Hundreds of children are dying today at the front – they are the new heroes of Ukraine and the new symbols of Ukrainian nationalism, although many of them do not even think that it is – Ukrainian nationalism.

– There are other forms of nationalism …

– And then there was all black, and now – not all white. And now there is an anti-Semite Levko Lukyanenko and 13 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, which we identify as the right-wing radicals, among them two men with neo-Nazi backgrounds – Aleksandr Mosiychuk and Dmitry Linko. I am convinced that the coalition does not include these characters, and I will fight for it as well as fighting for something that the leader of the Social-National Assembly Andrey Biletsky did not go to the deputies of the People’s Front list.

– Do not you think that this new identity is largely built on the denial, on confrontation with Russia. But aggression, sooner or later will end, and what remains?

– How to start identity? No one knows. But we know, for example, what happened in the 2012 elections, and why 10% voted for the radicals of the VO “Svoboda”. Not because they are right-wing radicals, it was a protest vote against Yanukovych. In any identity combined various factors – both “for” and “against.” I became the “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist” (with all the conventions of this definition) in 1978, because it was sympathetic to the National Democrats and the Communists did not like – it brought me to the dissident movement. Religious Zionists in Israel – against the creation of a Palestinian state and the expansion of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria – the series goes on.

Of course, in the absence of an external threat could start natural fragmentation of society, but it has never been united. In the meantime, the process of formation of the Ukrainian political nation and Ukrainian Jewry, as one of its components. The process itself testifies to the fact that Ukraine still Europeanized, Eurasian identity is arranged differently. The activity of the country is in Europe, the greater the Ukrainian Jews. And it’s not in the formal membership in the EU, it is important that the feeling of the people, their mentality, their identities were European – this is a very long process, but it has already started …

Interviewed by Maxim Sukhanov

Sourse, 18/05/2015

Ukrainians are not ripe for reconciliation

This year Ukraine celebrates the Day of Reconciliation for the first time and memory in honor of all the victims of the Second World War. Are Ukrainians really come to terms,  “Gordon” asked the chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosifa Ziselsa.

The idea of ​​reconciliation is popular at any time, but it can not be used in any situation to any two people, because in the conflict, which stretches since World War II, in fact, there are several dimensions.

Besides the Soviet-German, on the other hand – the French-English-German, even on our side had several dimensions: the Polish-German, Polish-Ukrainian, Ukrainian-German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian, even participated in the Carpathians in the battles with the UPA. There are a number of measurements, and most importantly – the Ukrainian-Soviet.

For example, I know of a case in 1962, when two Ukrainian women who were connected in the UPA, were shot in the bunker in the Ternopil region of the soldiers. In 1962, the year!

If we talk about today’s reconciliation, it is, on the one hand, civilization, because the Ukrainians decided that enough they have to live in the empire with the Eurasian civilization, and want to try the life of the European and then compared in 300 years, in which one It was better. On the other hand, this reconciliation is artificially caused by Russian aggression.

I do not think that we are ripe for reconciliation because the still very many forces did not satisfy his ambitions. If we talk about the dimensions that were during the Second World War, for them, of course, it has come, because we see a lot of progress on the line of Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation.

But it is not yet complete, as some Poles, for example, reacted nervously to the laws that have been adopted for the rehabilitation of UPA and other Ukrainian national organizations. This is a complex mishmash in which you need to understand. Find out about what exactly we are talking reconciliation. Young did not have these conflicts.

In Spain, where the civil war was prolonged, the family is still remembered, who had fought on which side. And this is not some kind of soft and hard memories. This is despite the fact that Franco (Spanish dictator Francisco Franco) has long put a monument to reconciliation for victims of the war on both sides.

In the southern states of the USA, despite the fact that since the civil war took place 150 years, also kept ancestral memory as to who fought for the North, and who – for the south. Although they live like the well, and the states do not fight each other, except that there is some confrontation during the election – more than one vote for Republicans, others – for the Democrats.

The issue of reconciliation is not so simple. Perhaps reconciliation at the level of Heads of State. Yushchenko (the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko), for example, has done a lot for this. But at the level of ordinary people a reconciliation does not take place so quickly.

In sociology, we see that in the last year the attitude of Ukrainians to the Poles has improved significantly, because millions of Ukrainians saw that the Poles actually help Ukraine in this complicated conflict. And as the Russian government not only did not help – she was the aggressor.

Veterans reluctance to shake hands says that a new conflict was superimposed on the old and on the contrary, it has strengthened rather than weakened.

Two of civilization people can live in peace, and they are in general, they lived more or less peacefully, despite the tension between the state structures, as long as there was no interference in each other’s identity. As soon as the intervention in the identity of other people, there is a huge energy instantly resistance.

Yet another dimension – the dimension of the Maidan – was for me as a reaction to a very significant part of Ukrainian society to try Yanukovych (fugitive ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych) and all his clique to bring us back to a state of the Eurasian identity, which we already do not want to be at as most of us.

This applies to the Donbas. This region has a different identity, and perhaps he did not want to live in a European way. If we are forced to compel him to do so, we get back the same great resistance power.

Decentralization is relevant if load it humanitarian, economic, financial and other aspects. Groisman (Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman) said several times that it is necessary to take into account the humanitarian aspect in decentralization. Historically. If we do not consider this aspect, it means that we do not spend real decentralization, it would be somewhat artificial.

Donbass within Ukraine should develop as he understands it in his own way. And the overall rate of the State of Ukraine, if it still exists, together with the Crimea and Donbas on the road to Europe must be sufficiently slow so as not to lose the regions that do not want to move in this direction. We need to talk, to explain, to try to continue to implement the values ​​that have more in Ukrainian society.

Sourse, 08/05/2015

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia

Iosif Zisels, human rights activist and head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Vaad, recalls with a smile, as in Soviet times it was called both a Zionist and a Ukrainian nationalist. Now, 40 years later, it again can be called zhidobanderovtsem, and the term has acquired a new meaning and a positive connotation.

In the Soviet Union he was a dissident, trying to defend the rights of Jews, and then joined the Ukrainian Helsinki human rights group. In 1978, on charges of defamation and anti-state activities Zissels received six years in a penal colony. Nine months before the liberation he was offered amnesty in exchange for a renunciation of political principles, but he refused.

Now, Soviet dissident and political prisoner, became one of the most influential Jews of Ukraine – he heads the largest Jewish organization, which is able at any time to lend a helping hand to every Jew of the country, engaged in the revival and strengthening of Jewish communities, their culture and religion, as well as helping wishing to exit in Israel.

Zissels well – known people abroad, where he is a member of the European and the World Jewish Congress, took over the functions of the public lobbyist Ukraine’s national interests. In his own words Zisels, he lives according to the covenant of the Jewish patriarch Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? “

“New time” meets Zissels in the office of the Association of Jewish Organizations, which is located in one of the academic buildings of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. It is a small unit into several rooms, on the door of which hung an advertisement for the recruitment of students to the specialization of Judaica. Zissels cordially invites you into his office and, distracted for a few minutes to say hello to each of his employees, invited to interview.

Ukrainians are very sensible nation, and therefore changes have been slow. Maidan two months stood and demanded concessions from the government. When I talk about that in France, there wondering how, two months? We would all smashed in two weeks!

Just Ukrainians other political temperament. We are moving at their own pace, which is slower than that of Poland or the Baltic countries. It must be taken as fact. Another problem is that our identity is dual, and expectations are always high, so some of us and sways from side to side. We believe that, if there was a revolution and change of power, all at once will change, but it is not.

Ukraine will of fate was between a European democracy and Eurasian authoritarian culture. And it is important to understand that if 20% of the population do not want to in Europe, this must somehow be considered. This is not a whim, just for them, Europe stranger. And we are encroaching on their identity, though hardly have that right.

Recall, Viktor Yanukovych wanted to encroach on our right to be Europeans – and the Maidan happened. The same thing is happening now. When threatened identity, even among people who are accustomed to submission, there is a huge energy resistance. We need to negotiate rather than fight.

Today in the country there is a desire to fight corruption, but it’s part of our culture. Corruption – is a part of Ukrainian identity. The law is not absolute for us, and its violation – not a sin, as in the West. And this shows our Eastern culture – there is not a law adopted in order to execute it, and that they enjoyed the strongest.

We used to live like this, we have formed a lot of secret agreements between government and society. For example, that the severity of the law is compensated by its failure. At low levels of wages authorities turned a blind eye to the fact that we steal, and the people turned a blind eye to the fact that steals power. In space, where there is no law with a capital letter, a person perceives any obstacle as a challenge, to solve the problem – that such obstacles put me, but I still find it, how to get around them.

So, to say, well, let’s fight against corruption, which many of us continue to steal – is meaningless. It is necessary to recognize the existence of tacit agreements and revise them. The struggle of society against corruption must be a struggle with ourselves.

Right now Ukrainian Jews began to realize themselves as Jews in Ukraine. In Europe, it happened in the late XIX century. In France, that’s when the Jews received equal rights with the French and called themselves the French law of Moses. We have this process takes place only now.

The Jews of Ukraine took a very active part in the Maidan. Were actively, perhaps, only the Crimean Tatars. And the Ukrainians have rated it – according to the latest sociological research, for the year related to the Jews and Crimean Tatars in the country has improved significantly.

We do not believe, how many Jews were on the Maidan, but we know that many of them then went to the front. The most paradoxical – some of them fought in the battalion of Azov, near the radical nationalists. In addition, in the east of the country and fight guys with Israeli passports. It is the volunteers who teach our soldiers. Israel has almost 100 years of war, and experience – most importantly, that he can pass Ukraine.

Israel does not help Ukraine officially because so fixated on their own security. In 2008, during the war in Georgia, Israel helped equip the Georgian air defense system. Then Georgia was hit by three Russian aircraft, and Israel received a warning from Russia that if he will continue to help Georgia, Iran gets a nuclear bomb, and Syria will face Russia’s S-300 missiles.

But while Israel – a democratic country, and the pressure of society can not be ignored. Most of the Israelis – people with democratic values, and they sympathize with Ukraine.

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia – will be less frustrating. Now, in many EU countries pre-election period. To support Ukraine, impose additional sanctions on Russia for them is to reduce the level of welfare of their countries and to expose their chances of winning at serious risk. Can help unless indirect pressure on Europe from the United States and Canada.

This is very similar to what happened in the 1930s. Germany regularly paid for oil and metals, and all wanted her to trade. Nobody wanted to see it as a monster, preferring to think that Germany will not fight with them, and with their competitors. After eight years of these errors have to pay a huge price.

We are no longer a peaceful country, and it will not be long. We need to get used to fight with minimal losses, rely on their own forces to protect their people, to rebuild the economy on a war footing, and not bury our heads in the sand. In Russia, too, there is no other option but to fight with Ukraine. They understand that with this government and with this partnership agreement is impossible.

Something we can count only when the disintegration processes in Russia will be intense. However, nobody in the world is not interested in this. What does it mean crumbling Russia? Huge fragments of the country armed with nuclear weapons. Putin, in spite of our curses, still controls the country. If only we have not climbed, prices would not be him. But he can not climb, the logic of empire – its meaning in the expansion.

I do not believe in the possibility of democratization of Russia. I spent two years in the Ural camps, lived in Moscow for more than a year. Russia within its present borders will never be a European country. There is no critical mass of people who can change the destiny of Russia. Moreover, not all countries should be European. The world rests on the balance sheet. And who will be the European world to balance China? Any democratization of Russia will lead to its disintegration, and this terrible future, with unpredictable consequences.

5 questions Iosifu Ziselsu:

– What event of your life you feel in charge?

– Of course, my participation in the dissident movement. I think all the most important thing happened then.

– What is your favorite city?

– I do not have a favorite book or a favorite city. I love Chernivtsi, where I spent my childhood, Kiev, in which I live. I like to be in Jerusalem and Barcelona.

– What move around the city?

– I have a Subaru Outback. This reliable, sturdy machine. Not very comfortable, but I like it.

– What is your monthly cost of living?

– I get a pension. More than ordinary people, but not enough to live a normal life. It is also engaged in consulting, working in a private firm. My problem is not how to provide for themselves, but rather where to find the money for our activities. Well, I have four kids that even adults, but they still need help. Perhaps today I spend at least $ 1 thousand. Per month.

– What do you seek?

– As anyone – to self-realization, once satisfied all other requirements. And I think I am quite good to deal with it.

Sourse, 02/05/2015

I do not think that without the consent of the inhabitants the city will be renamed

Without the consent of the inhabitants of the city should not be renamed, he said in a comment  “GORDON”  chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

“I’m not sure that without the decision of the local community, you can rename the city. But you’ve seen over the last 23 years, at least one law, which is performed in its entirety, just as it was written? We live in a space where the laws are not in order to fulfill them. laws of the people do not obey the laws of the people do not respect the laws of the people do not follow. They use the laws to achieve some of their goals. I do not think there will be a city renamed without the consent of residents. This should be without hysterics, and in a peaceful discussion. I do not think that without a Announce the masses it can be done then we will get additional negative effects, which have enough “, -. Zissels said.

There is a clash of two civilizations, so think about what the consequences will ban communist symbols more correctly, he said.

“There’s a novel in which the hero is a young man seeking a countess, she was refused, he turns the whole world, conquering all of Europe, and when the Countess is ready him to give up, it turns out that it is – an elderly woman and he no longer needed so. . and with that we now live in a turbulent time, we have a war on, and not just between the separatists and the Ukrainians, but a war between two civilizations -. European and Eurasian It’s so powerful collision, what to think, what consequences will result in a ban of symbols, I it seems to be incorrect. I do not think th that it will lead to some serious consequences to the positive or to the negative “- Zissels said.

However, in his opinion, for many people, the victims of the regime, this decision will be important.

“I have not yet comprehended once the consequences of yesterday’s solutions. I dreamed about it many years ago, because he was a dissident and was imprisoned in Soviet times for political activities, but it’s been more than 20 years. Although many people for whom life was a struggle with the communist system, it is very important that finally at least the end of life to get satisfaction from the fact that these misanthropic ideology abolished and banned, “- said the expert.

The honey, he said, the current law many inaccuracies that should be corrected.

“East is bad knows what the UPA, and the West does not speak what the UPA. It was a long time ago. So many myths of positive and negative during the Soviet period was unwound. The very acronym UPA with a hyphen, which created the Soviet ideology, did not exist in nature . The law had a lot of confusion -. terminological, factual, grammatical Before this law was passed, I was just going to make corrections I have quite an old man, to know how to be called in reality there are mixed up the names of organizations…History is no such organization “OUN” Yes “OUN” one, is “OUN” Second, there is a “OUN” third -. There are three “OUN” – Zissels said.

“Live – see very little consequence were other laws, I think, will also be with these Someone uses them for next separatist sentiments, someone on the contrary uses the dominance of pro-European sentiment in the end still everything goes and vanishes… “- he concluded.

Recall, April 9, the Verkhovna Rada  adopted  a law recognizing the communist regime 1917-1991 criminally and banning communist symbols.

The adopted law about the condemnation of the communist regime  contained  rule to rename the settlements, which are named in honor of the communist-era figures.

Sourse, 10/04/2015

Today, it is a conflict between civilization and the negation of civilization

What is happening today – a revision of the entire set of rules established in the world after the Second World War.

Iosif Zisels, chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups, – performance at the channel marathon  UKRLIFE.TV  on “The international implications of the terrorist attacks in France”:

There are two important systemic factor that differentiates Western Europe from the East and, in particular, from the Ukraine.

The first factor – is the presence of entities associated with the radical Islamic movement, they are in Western Europe, they do not exist in Eastern Europe. Perhaps, as we move to Europe they will, but for now it is not.

The second factor – the movement, fashionable in the left intelligentsia, in which human rights, in particular, the protection of the rights of Palestinians leads to anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment.

Sourse, 12/01/2015

The level of anti-Semitism in Ukraine is not increased

Do you see now Ukraine growth of anti-Semitism and xenophobia – to this and other questions in an interview with DW said the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Iosif Zisels.

Iosif Zisels – Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups. In an interview with DW Zissels she told whether there is in Ukraine, the rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and also responded to a number of other issues.

DW: In Russia, many say that with the advent of the current Ukrainian politicians in the country have intensified anti-Semitic sentiments. Is it so?

Iosif Zisels: I was one of the leaders of the Jewish community can assure that there is no – not only sharp, but generally no increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Ukraine. We are very carefully and attentively fix every incident, every speech, every case of an attack, and every act of vandalism. And this level – as last year. Despite the tumultuous events that took place on the Maidan in Kiev, on the military operations in the south-east of Ukraine, the level of anti-Semitism in the country increases. It was and remains one of the lowest in Eastern Europe.

– And what is the level of anti-Semitism in Russia?

– As regards the level of anti-Semitism in Russia – it is too short. Just as in Ukraine, he measured a dozen or two dozen cases per year. But Russia – authoritarian country with underdeveloped democratic institutions. And in this authoritarian model of existence can be played “Jewish card”. In Ukraine, too, is to be feared that the state wants to use it, but fortunately, there is control belongs to the civil society.

– What can you say about the allegations in the city address that the current government allegedly tolerate manifestations of neo-Nazism?

– First of all, it is a question of terminology. I think really understand what Nazism, only to narrow specialists. They are our experts, with whom we have worked for many years. In Ukraine, as in any other country, there are right-wing movements, some of which resemble the neo-Nazi. But they are in Europe. Right-wing parties have almost all European countries, and they are much more dangerous than what we see today in Ukraine.

So, the party “Freedom” is not passed to the new Ukrainian parliament, which was in the previous Parliament when Yanukovych was there 37 mandates. This demonstrates the falling level of interest in the radical demagogy of this order. Lyashko passed Radical Party, which is very different: it is less than the national radical demagogy, but more general radical demagoguery. In majority districts it took a few people who can be considered right-wing radicals with aspects of neo-Nazism. Very few of them: 423 MP – about 10. That is less than it was in the last Parliament, where there were 37.

But I think that the concerns of the Parliament, there was a general shift of the entire spectrum a little to the right. Because such a national-democratic parties as Block Petro Poroshenko, “Popular Front” and “self-help” – are themselves center-right. That is, the parliament’s center of gravity has shifted slightly to the right, and is a tribute to wartime. Requirements radicals is not particularly noticeable.

– The fact that the Parliament did not pass the “Freedom” and “Right Sector”, can be considered a success of Ukrainian democracy?

– In fact, these parties were radical demagogic. Moreover, these were the projects financed and designed to split the opposition with Yanukovych’s government. That is, in part, they were man-made projects. They can not be considered as such natural, organic manifestations of the right of the spectrum, as can be seen in many countries.

In Ukraine, the main control of the right-wing radicals has not the government, as is the case in Russia, and civil society. It itself copes with this low level of pravoradikalizma in the country, making it much better than the state. And it is – a guarantee that this rate will not be great.

– Earlier you said that “right-wing and neo-Nazi forces” involved in the conflict in the Donbass, from both sides? You can name specific examples?

– On the Russian side, according to our experts, fights about 200 neo-Nazis. Among them are, first of all, “Russian National Unity”. This is a known neo-Nazi organization in Russia, which has its own recruitment offices, training camps for militants and separate connections on the front. Others – such as, for example, the former party Limonov, is “dyed” in other colors. It is important to note also that the present or volunteers or mercenaries from European right-wing neo-Nazi parties. They, too, are fighting on the Russian side.

On the Ukrainian side, too, there is a man 30-40 – skinheads from the right-wing group “Social-National Assembly”, “Patriots of Ukraine”, for which we are following closely. In this regard, first of all, we may note the battalion “Azov”, where there may be even a few dozen people from the “Social-National Assembly.” Andrey Beletsky – the commander of the battalion (now it is a regiment) – the head of “Social-National Assembly.” However, he argues that the war changed their ideology.

– From what sources do you get information?

– We have a number of experts of the European level. We use their data, and trust them, as for many years working with them. Moreover, our data are taken from the report of the State Department’s anti-Semitism in the world and the OSCE report on the monitoring and analysis of anti-Semitism in the world. I myself 25 years engaged in the construction of networks for monitoring and analysis of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

Sourse, 06/11/2014

Israeli President raised on Russian historiography

The head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, a well-known human rights activist and Soviet dissident, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels in an interview with “Gromadska radio” stated that he could not agree with the speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. He accused the Ukrainians in the complicity in the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Second World War, informs eizvestia.com .

“He’s an old man. He bears the stereotypes of the past, historiography, which today is not considered objective. He was brought up in the Russian historiography. Israel, at least the older generation still lives under its influence. It does not reflect the opinion of the young. After all, the young religious Israelis have stood on the Maidan. These views he expressed today – it’s yesterday, “- said Zissels.

He recalled the visit to Israel of the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko in 2007.

“The delegation came to Yad Vashem and asked to show documents that indicate the involvement of Roman Shukhevych (OUN leader during World War II) to such crimes. But no one was able to show. This stereotype does not provide evidence, if everyone knows it. No, not everyone knows that. For example, I do not trust that it is not necessary to confirm the archival authentic documents “- Zissels said.

He noted that the OUN and UPA fighters fought for Ukraine, and they can not wear the stereotypical labels.

September 27 during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada parliamentary hearings devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that the Ukrainians have been involved in the repression against the Jews during the Second World War. “Many of the accomplices of crimes were Ukrainians. And among them highlights the OUN, which mocked Jews, killed them, and in many cases, were given to the Germans. It is also true that there were more than 2.5 thousand Righteous among the Nations “-. Said Rivlin.

Commenting on the Israeli president’s speech, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Vladimir Vyatrovich said Rivlin repeated Soviet myth of the OUN involvement in the Holocaust. The head of the OUN Bogdan Chervak ​​Rivlin called the statement “a spit in the soul of the Ukrainians” and urged him not to watch Russian television, as it is “not just bad, but also indecent.”

During World War II, occupied Kiev Nazi troops used the tract Babi Yar, in the northwestern part of the city as a place of mass executions of civilians, most of whom were Jews. September 29, 1941 the entire Jewish population was obliged to come to the Babi Yar, where until September 30, was shot more than 33 thousand. Man on the orders of the occupation administration. According to various estimates, at Babi Yar were killed by 70 thousand. Up to 200 thousand. Man.

Sourse, 29/09/2016

The system rotted from within and dognila before disbanding

Soviet-era dissident Yosif Zisels told why refused amnesty in the Gorbachev era, what regrets today about whether modern Ukraine may repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime

Yosif Zisels – human rights activist, dissident, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. In 1978 he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He spent six years in prisons on charges of “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Every dissident own destiny. For example, a man wrote a poem. As my friend, the Ukrainian dissident, a former teacher in the Ternopil region kultprosvetuchilische Mikola Grobal, wrote a poem called “Dumi moї, Dumi”. For this was sent to prison. For the poem. Simply laid out thoughts on paper. Or Semyon Gluzman, which persecuted for their professional activities. He made the correspondence psychiatric examination for General Pyotr Grigorenko and mathematician Leonid Plyushch and promulgated it.

The dissent came for different reasons: national, democratic, moral, emotional. The reasons were not so important to us. Most importantly, we together fought criminal imperial communist system.

I actually grew up without parents. So I have virtually no such an important element of the psyche as a “social instinct of self-preservation,” usually brings up children in a normal Jewish family. Simply no one to create it. I started very early to read samizdat. I think it is no coincidence. The fact that we were surrounded by then, and what we have been taught do not match. Not everyone is dissonance when life does not match with the pictures, which are described in textbooks. Some quietly absorbed in itself is doublethink, I called it “social schizophrenia.” Some do it quietly. Some resisted.

The Soviet government constantly demanded confirmation of loyalty. A variety of ways. Those who have studied, passed the party’s history, scientific communism. Was political information was the Komsomol, and other institutions, which are constantly monitored by the people through an extensive network. Not only controlled the KGB people were the party, trade union, Komsomol and Pioneer organizations. And I went multilevel selection. Revealed disgruntled, obstinate. Once a person has manifested itself, it was a signal that we should look at it.

I went to the dissidence almost deliberately. I drew it. I wanted to know the truth about life, about history, about relationships. And find the right answers in samizdat, as permitted by the literature is almost impossible to find the truth. It was important that others know the truth. Not immediately, at first reading itself, and then you want to share with others. Then you become it a little.

An important stimulus was originally a private confrontation lies and violence. You try to realize his need for truth is not simply to distribute this literature. Then there is the need to sign any appeals, appeals to protest against human rights violations. I’m talking about the way. Some stop at reading the literature, some – at that distribute other books, some do not sign the appeal and appeal, and others pass this hurdle and continue to develop. Then there was a real help to political prisoners, in which I was involved.

The apogee of my dissident activity can be considered as 1978 , when I was actively engaged in case of using the power of Soviet psychiatry to persecute dissidents and investigated more than 80 such stories, in the summer became a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and in December he was arrested for the first time.

I do not consider myself a victim. I tried to do something as far as possible. I tried something to counter the Soviet regime and its powerful repressive apparatus. Authorities responded to me quite “adequately”. I knew I was not alone in this, but the dissidents are not many, only a few thousand to two hundred millionth Soviet people. Nevertheless, it was more personal fulfillment, not an illusory calculation somehow undermine Soviet power. It was clear that our efforts it was impossible to destroy. She was rotting from the inside and dognila before disbanding.

The fact that the dissidents were known all over the world, destroyed the Soviet myth. 220 million people live happily, moving towards communism, nothing else is willing, but there are several thousand people who by the very fact of its existence, argue that a false myth. Here I was among those people. It was my way. I chose him and he went through it. And, fortunately, I did not meet with an obstacle that would have made me turn back.

I was already an inveterate “recidivist”, when I was offered an amnesty, it was in January 1987, went a second three-year term of my imprisonment, I had to sit 9 months. As for all the forced dialogue with the authorities, with the KGB, with investigators from the prosecutors, I did not sign any paper, any evidence not given, I do not want to change his principles when I needed to sit 9 months. I calmly refused the amnesty. She was so very communist. We had to sign a document that You shall not engage in political activity. Some signed, and then continued to work.

I did not believe that engaging in political activities. It was a formality, but I took it very seriously. If I sign it, then break its principle “not to cooperate with the authorities.” I was not sorry, and now do not regret it.

I’m sorry about the other. Going your own way, you are doomed to suffering families. With time comes the understanding that your free choice causes suffering of others: family, friends. KGB worked very well. They covered not only the one who resists, but all its surroundings, creating an inconvenience to them in life, to put it mildly. This was done to set up against the man his environment. I lost a few people who thought their comrades in these years. Some stayed, we’ve been friends for 50 years. They passed the test with me.

In total I spent in prisons and zones 6 years and the year at home under the administrative supervision of the refusal to accept the “Gorbachev amnesty.” Both times I was accused under Article 187 (approx.) Of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, in the “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Any authoritarian regime, the more totalitarian, based on the fact that there is an external enemy, there is internal, and it is necessary to deal with them. And for people to explain who the external enemy – the imperialists, capitalists, the NATO military. And the internal – dissidents “fifth column”, which does not want to go to the general structure of communism. It was a massive propaganda against such people. We tried to turn public opinion against these people. Isolate, to make their lives uncomfortable, unbearable. Even when you see that article in the newspaper against you false from beginning to end, it is embarrassing to you, the residue remains. And there are articles about the dissidents, whom the authorities deemed “outcasts” were enough.

I lived in the city of Chernivtsi and did not face persecution for the use of the Ukrainian language. For too active promotion – possible. It is already considered nationalism. And only the KGB decided what distinguishes patriotism from nationalism. On the other hand, I grew up in a Jewish environment, and only a student came to understand many issues, including national.

Can modern Ukraine to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime? Ukrainians are already very difficult to build as they were built in the Soviet era. Once upon a time this would have killed millions, and intimidate others and build. Most of destroying a part buy, this was done in the 20s, 30s. Soviet authorities or killed or drove out, or bought. So to build “our elites.” Therefore there is nothing surprising that she is today. I think that the repetition of history is impossible. It is impossible to kill 5.7 million people, to build a line of others. But the fact of the formal independence of the country does not guarantee the economic prosperity of the people and democratic development, respect for the law, eradication of corruption and the development of a new system of values. As mathematicians say, a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Recorded Jan Goncharenko

See. Also Special Project “Dissidents” edition Fokus.ua and STB for the Suppression of dissidents in the USSR

Source: focus.ua , 25.08.2016

Sourse, 25/08/2016

Yanukovych must be condemned, but corruption is a derivative of general disrespect for the law

stigmatization campaign corruption, declared an international human rights organization Transparency International, is to focus on the figure of the Ukrainian society fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych that will distract from the system solution to the problem, said a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

Viktor Yanukovych was not born corrupt, and become so because of the mentality of Ukrainian society, says Iosif Zisels.

Yanukovych headed the world ranking corrupt officials on the results of voting on the website of the international human rights organization Transparency International, which announced that begins stigmatization campaign against corruption, taking the first nine places.

“I would not want to exaggerate the importance of this campaign. While any steps to eliminate in the Ukrainian society of corruption are good, and the worst of them will not. But I’m inclined to think that we need a systematic approach. Yanukovych is not born corrupt, it is a question of education, which is determined by All the circumstances of life in the Eurasian society is corruption -. it is part of our mentality and culture we are born, live and die in corruption. “- Zissels said.

“Condemn Yanukovych necessary, he was president of the country, but to focus on his figure could divert attention from the systemic problem In fact, corruption is dissolved in all, and the problem can not be solved without the long-term by re-society programs, building on the Western partners.” – he added he.

Zissels stressed that “over the last year in this regard has been made longer than in the previous 25 years.”

“Transparency International does a lot, forcing public institutions to deal with corruption, I know this organization, I support her contacts, her activity is doubtless useful, but how it can be assumed that it decides for 45,000,000th country of its problems..?” – said human rights activist .

According to him, “corruption – is a derivative of general disrespect for the law in general, including to the tax.”

“Who pays taxes in Ukraine Corruption – this including the theft of the budget, but we do not fill it I am sure that the majority of Ukrainians do not pay all the taxes that they are put there are plenty of other laws, which we treat as.. . well as to tax is the question of respect for the law if it appears, will result in the condemnation of anti-corruption Yanukovych -.. a good measure, but it does not give a general respect for the law “- he said.

The human rights activist believes that “in the fight against corruption the first place should take no condemnation, no anti-corruption bureau or anti-corruption prosecutor, namely re-society in the spirit of European values”.

“With our values ​​we will not become either economically developed, nor a truly democratic country, to tackle corruption. Only the union of all the forces of civil society and reform forces in the government, if they are there, in the long term can give some result for the whole Ukraine, if not for us, our children, or even grandchildren, “- he concluded.

Yanukovych was the President of Ukraine with the February 25, 2010. February 22, 2014, after three months of protests on the Maidan Verkhovna Rada recognized it withdrew from the post and do not fulfill their obligations, then new presidential elections were announced. In February last year, Yanukovych left Ukraine, is now with his family, he lives in Russia.

In Ukraine against Yanukovych opened several criminal proceedings. He is accused of the mass murder of citizens, misappropriation of state property, the seizure of power by unconstitutional means, actions aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order. Concerning it applies conviction in absentia procedure .

Yanukovych’s name was included in the investigation of the Interpol database, but at the end of July 2015 wanted to suspend consideration of the complaint of lawyers who insist on the political background of the case against the former president.

Sourse, 11/02/2016

Without the knowledge of history you like cod on the waves – swim, where will the current flow

With this well-known journalist Natalia Feshchuk man talking in his second home Chernivtsi – Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, co-founder of which he is. The conversation took place before he got into the list of moral authority among the Ukrainians, compiled a few days ago one of the Ukrainian media . By the way, an interview with Iosifom Samuilovichem Ziselsom just ended his reflections on what moral authority are always there in the community, if only listen to them …

Joseph Zisels many posts and distinctions, among them – the head of the Association of Jewish organizations and communities of Ukraine, executive vice-president of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. And in a nutshell: Ukrainian dissident Jewish descent, twice convicted for anti-Soviet activities. He never worked in government, says the most comfortable feeling when engaged in public affairs.

As in the Union, and now he has his own strong opinions on what principles should build a true nation and a strong country. And yet convinced that a free man – a responsible person.

Zissels has been living in Kiev. But here, in the heart of Chernivtsi, it remains a piece of his heart, because it is here, on the street Schiller once lived with his parents.

“I have a very warm attitude to the history and the people who are no longer”

– Mr. Joseph, when you decided to found the Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, it was a sense of duty to those Jews who had once been so much in Chernivtsi?

– My parents – not local Jews and Bessarabia. They arrived in Chernivtsi after the Second World War. In Chernivtsi I am, unfortunately, not born. But I have lived here and interacted with the people remaining from before the war. And it was German-speaking Jews, there were already a little while, in the 50-60s, – two or three hundred, maybe left from the huge community, which before the war amounted to almost 80 thousand people. In the city of 120 thousand people two-thirds – it was the Jewish population. And I was struck by the story of this community, which flourished at the end of the XVIII century, when the Austrian authorities to allow Jews to settle here. But almost half of the Jews was destroyed during the Holocaust, and the other half remained in the city, but has not been able to live under the Soviet regime. In 1940, the Jews were some illusions, many of them were left sentiment, but European, and they waited for the Red Army, because on the other hand – Hitler. And they were deported to Siberia, one third of them in 1941, 12 thousand Bukovinians – Jews. Those who have stayed here, came under Romanian occupation, who was shot, who died in concentration camps. Who stayed with the time left for Israel. Live in Chernivtsi remaining units …

And I wanted to recreate the story. I thought, this is our duty. Because once the Jewish community in the city was very strong. And those who came here after the war, there were already other people – Bessarabian East Ukrainian Jews were very Soviet. I want to say that everything was up to the First World War is well. And when it came, Romania, the Jewish community has undergone a lot of suffering. This, of course, does not compare with the Holocaust. But Romania was a strong anti-Semitism. Second, the Jews of Romania considers patriots Austria-Hungary and taking revenge for that. We have archival documents showing that the Bukovina Ukrainians and Poles in 1918 protested against the annexation of this region Romania. And among the Jews of Bukovina was a protest. And then the Romanians because it does not give citizenship to many Jews. But still it was not, as in the Soviet Union. 1940 showed who is who. And those who lamented that’s how bad it was when Romania saw what could be worse than under Soviet rule. Some of the Jews, unfortunately, did not have time to leave. We traveled already in 60-70 years, when there was again a possibility. I know these families, helping them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them.

– You always emphasized that you – Ukrainian Jew. Now in Ukraine, many of our citizens such as the re-born, they want to know more about their country and its history. Some, on the contrary, is still passive. But to be a true citizen of the country, it seems to be inside? As it has been in your family?

– In me many laid. Because in a city like Chernivtsi laid a lot – here is the crossroads of history, culture and languages. This tolerant spirit of Chernivtsi. What is the difference Bukovina Jews of Galician, for example? One of the features – tolerance of the province, it has passed and the Jews too. There was a lot of tolerance and among Jews, too: between the orthodox and reformist currents in Judaism. In other cities they are irreconcilable, here they are communicated. For example, the chief rabbi of Chernivtsi was the Reform rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court was Orthodox rabbi.

At home, I received a Soviet-Jewish upbringing, not a purely Jewish. But I never hid their Jewish identity. I’ve always known who I am. At the same time, it is Ukraine, and I felt a Ukrainian part too. When I was at university, he attended lectures in Ukrainian. My Ukrainian language more with the university, the house spoke Russian. Yiddish was too, but in my family it was less. Today, I understand that if the Ukrainian laid into you since childhood, and then it starts to work. We in the Union of Soviet Jews were in we had very little Jewish. We knew about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and all. Few knew their language, history, literature. And only at the end of the 80s we started to restore the Jewish life, and began to become Ukrainian Jews who consider Ukraine as their motherland.

“Without faith and stories you like cod on the waves – swim, which carries”

– You were convicted of anti-Soviet propaganda. And what was the essence of your “propaganda”?

– I’ve been doing many things that could not do then. In Chernivtsi distributed samizdat. Helping political prisoners and their families. Gathering information on human rights violations and passed it. Joining the Ukrainian Helsinki group. There were people who helped – Ukrainian, Russian, not only Jews. It was a more or less intelligent circle. But in prison then, in 1978, was just me. Sentenced to three years. In the 84 th year – three more. At six.

– But the same could give and more …

– Could … But you do what you have to do. I considered it my duty to you need to do something against that power. As part of our small capacity.

– Who are the Ukrainian dissidents influenced you?

– How did I know about Ukrainian history, the Holodomor? Of Ukrainian dissidents. I talked with a lot of Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mihailom Gorinem. I traveled a lot for Ukraine, provedyvat those freed. I was looking for traces of what was called the investigation of psychiatric persecution, looking for people who have suffered in this way. I communicated with Ivan Svetlichny, Zinoviem Krasovskim, Panas Zalivahi – famous artist of Frankivsk. From each of them gets something pro-Ukrainian. The fact that I became a Ukrainian Jew, credit Ukrainian dissidents.

– You once said that you can not achieve human rights, if not to talk about religion and ethnicity …

– There is an opinion with which I am, so to speak, discuss. It is often said that it is possible to raise human universal values. And religion and ethnic culture is not required. I do not agree with this. Because when talking about millions of people, we can not achieve universal values, if not pass, so to speak, religion and ethnic culture. The only way to achieve this and tolerance. But the current reality is hard to implement. Because many non-religious people, they think that it is not very necessary. Although religion is gradually won over the place in our lives in comparison with the Union, but its weight in society still is not great.

I remember in the 70-80-ies of the last century, we spoke to Chornovil and Gorin that first need to be done, when finally this power will be overthrown or she falls. By the way, we did not expect it would be so fast. First of all, this is the resumption of the role of religion. Because religion – it is a very powerful educational factor in the society, which provides a set of essential values. It does not matter, Jews or Christians that. Because the value of the universal. And if it is not brought in millions of people, it is very hard to build a normal society.

Similarly, the story. Still have the illusion that you can live without it. But survive unless … but I know exactly what is in a person who has the confidence and the religious, and ethnic back to childhood, there is already such a rod, and then the whole life revolves around it. When a person enters the test in trouble, it has support within himself. Otherwise, you’re like cod on the waves: where to throw, you go there and swim. You have nothing to oppose to that external force or element. You can not change a lot in life, but you can not miss in your life and lie, going outside, and violence. To do this, you need this spiritual core – the ethnic and religious.

– Look at the dissident social events is not like other people?

– You know, dissent – it is such a feature of your character. See, we’re dreaming of a time when Ukraine is an independent and non-Communist. It came. But it turned out that this is not enough. We need to work to make a decent human life. And it needs a lot of work. Because those who had hoped that independence would give Ukraine at once, and all – were wrong. That was only the zero level. It was necessary to build many more. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time. And every maidan that occurs, adjust the path to the future of Ukraine.

– But if the government does something wrong, then it turns out that people need to think about, because the power – it is a reflection of people … Or not?

– On the one hand – yes. But as the power – it is the same people, they have dominated their own, private, over the general. There are some studies that show that as long as society is dominated by values ​​of survival, until can not begin the path of modernization of society. All go in different directions, each competing with each to survive and provide for his family. There must be something in common between people. For example, now in volunteering involve up to 8 million people in Ukraine. This is 15 percent of the population of our country. These are new people who can be the future of Ukraine. A majority of just waiting and survives. Waiting for what will happen and what they will need to adapt to new circumstances. And the volunteers and soldiers sacrifice their lives. Because common cause always requires sacrifice – in the broadest sense of the word.

– And people want at least some of the victims of politicians …

– You know, if we wait for the victims of politicians, it will get nowhere. We should not pay attention to politicians and do their own thing. We have seen that the civil society can do their job better than politicians. I do not expect that the officials themselves to make reforms. Only civil society can do it and force officials to adapt to him. If officials do not want to adapt to new circumstances, to a new life, they have to leave.

“We need to be able to live decently, with dignity and without the transcendental material prosperity”

– How many years of independence, and we are only now beginning to open up in a new way, our language, culture …

– It’s done all the time. Decades. Just in Soviet times, a small part was discovering that, because it was forbidden. Since the beginning of the 90 it began to be freely distributed, but it should affect the children. It not casually says that Moses led the people of 40 years in the desert to die all who were enslaved. In the new land, he did not want to lead the slaves. Because those who have lived in slavery, always bear the mark of slavery. We still need to go through several generations, even 25 years must pass. Because who govern us? In the 90s it was the former communists, then the former Komsomol in the 2000s, is now the former pioneers. On October need to survive. And then all will be well.

– Somehow I happened to hear accusations of dissidents address that, say, in the early 90’s insufficient pressured the Communists …

– Do not push Davy – nothing will happen. We had very little. Now up to 8 million volunteers, is not enough to turn Ukraine into a European state? What to say: more than 20 years ago we were 2-3 thousand political prisoners. How was it possible to get the 50,000,000th country, all communists, to be different? This can only be slow – not otherwise.

– And for you to spread the language and culture, so to speak, coercive methods?

– No, you only need to encourage. You need to have flexible mechanisms to encourage ownership of the Ukrainian language, the study of culture and history. You should have an advantage in borrowing positions those who own Ukrainian language. How else? No country can afford to take the officials of people who do not speak the state language. Only we have this is possible, and even in other post-Soviet countries except. And we see that they are still backward. The world is moving forward, and we graze the rear. Because we can not get rid of the post-colonial mentality.

– Now a large percentage of people who felt themselves to be Ukrainians, but also a large part of the thinking in old categories. In your opinion, what makes people in the Soviet era to think as Europeans? On the contrary, right now think in terms of a country that no longer exists?

– It is not in the country. The point of the Eurasian identity. Because it is the identity matrix was formed hundreds of years, it works at all, all the people living on this continent. And it defines the behavior of these people for the future. Metamorphosis is very slow, very slow changes. You say people feel European. They want to be Europeans. This reflective level of consciousness. Consciously they want, but they can be them? Do they want to be responsible? Freedom without responsibility – it’s nothing. Responsible work, cooperation, respect for the law. What is the difference Eurasia from Europe? Because in Europe there is respect for the law, and in Eurasia it is not. In Eurasia, not the law operates, and the person: the president, the governor, or first secretary. And we are hooked, because we live in a 300 years old Eurasian empire.

Partly we are Europeans, because the influence of the West European identity on us. We want to be Europeans, but still can not, because people think: if someone makes reforms for us. However, it should be this: not one but yourself. Fight against corruption – not somewhere, but in themselves. When you start with yourself, then you have this sense of responsibility. If you do not remake himself a little, then the children will be dissolved. No need to have the illusion that the very desire to live in Europe enough. You must be able to live as Europeans live. Modest, worthy, respect the law and work. Modestly – it including without transcendental material wealth.

– In all periods of development of Ukraine there were groups of people who are called moral authorities. But it seems they do not always hear …

– People must have the need to listen, first and foremost. If people have no need to listen to them – this is a problem people. Recently passed into eternity Eugene Sverstyuk. For me – the moral authority. But how many people knew him? I listen to it? How many people have corrected the life according to the principles of which he spoke? We all know how to live. But the country does not work … So, something is wrong …

Sourse, 27/08/2015

About the trial of Nadia Savchenko

Member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels sees several options for the end of the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko – it can award a short time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation, and if Savchenko will provide a long term, it will mean that Russia ready for isolation.

If the international observers will be present at the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, it will complicate the process for Russia, as the case is fabricated, said Iosif Zisels. He said this in a comment edition of “Gordon” .

“In principle, the government may announce in the end the decision is already past the court, and said, Behold, I’m sorry, did not work to attract public and observers This one option Of course, the Kremlin is not beneficial to the presence of observers at the trial because he falsified, in my subjective.. . According to observers, especially European ones, may complicate the court, which is not the case for Russia is very easy “, – said Zissels.

According to him, the results of the trial Savchenko show what development strategy chosen Russia – the international isolation or compromise with the West.

“What is all over, I just can not say, because it does not possess all the volume of information. In addition, Russia is a country full of uncertainty. It may be a relatively short period of time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation. On the other hand, Putin can show . that he was at all do not care, give Savchenko long time, and go to the final separation from all over the world as a result of the court will be clear what kind of tactics Russia chooses – complete isolation or still relatively compromise “, – said Zissels.

He did not think that at the time he was taken from the Moscow Savchenko in danger, despite the fact that the exact location is not known nor the lawyers nor relatives.

“I would not say that it was hidden, it is not entirely correct. We can say that in Russia there is a very old and important principle that when it formulated Stalin: There are people – there is a problem, no man – no problem. If authorities stated that they did not know where Savchenko worthwhile to worry about, but they do not yet speak, “- Zissels said.

Why and where Russia hid Savchenko?

A preliminary hearing on the case of Ukrainian pilots Hope Savchenko in the Donetsk Court of the Rostov region of the Russian Federation is scheduled for July 30th. July 17 Savchenko was was transferred from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don. July 22 protection Savchenko said he did not know where the aviator. Until July 27 the Russian authorities, by law, can not report her whereabouts. July 23 the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Ella Pamfilova has sent a formal request to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and the Federal Service of Execution of Punishments to the requirement to quickly provide information on the whereabouts of Savchenko. Before his transfer Ukrainka write a will, because it assumes that in Rostov it might have something happen.

Savchenko was captured by militants in June 2014 in Luhansk region, and then illegally exported to Russia. Thus, in the Russian jail, she is more than a year.

July 13, the General Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation approved the indictment against Savchenko and sent the case to the court. Pilot accused of the murder of two Russian citizens in the Luhansk region, as well as attempted murder. Ukrainka his guilt did not recognize.

Protection Savchenko asked that her trial was held in Moscow, instead of the Rostov region, and then looked at the jury, but the lawyers denied all petitions.

Sourse, 24/07/2015

It all starts with the exceptions of the rule

The Jews of Ukraine or Ukrainian Jews? Former dissident and co-president of the Vaad of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels – a civilizational choice and formation of a political nation.

– Joseph, a lot of talk lately about a new phenomenon – the birth of Ukrainian Jewry as a special form of identity of unknown a few years ago …

– All the Jewish communities of Europe passed a similar transformation. Including our closest neighbors, enough to read the article of the Polish-Jewish intellectual Konstanty Gebert, stresses that, despite all the vicissitudes of the general history of Polish Jews say about themselves: “We – the Poles.” According to him, democracy as a basic value, appreciate and Jews. “I’m not surprised that the Ukrainian Jews are mostly supported Ukrainian independence – says Gebert This phenomenon is repeated in Europe regularly Every time when some nations are independent, the Jews, as a rule, are on their way…”

In western Europe, the reform of Jewish identity began in the era of the Haskalah, when the Count of Clermont-Tonnerre in the Constituent Assembly proposed to equalize the rights of the Jews, because they are part of the French nation. He spoke of a nation in the European sense of the term – a political nation. It was then born the concept of the French law of Moses, the Germans of the Mosaic law, that is, Jewish identity takes on a new form – civil. Most European countries one way or another have come to such an understanding of the identity of the middle of the XIX century, the Russian Empire, that did not happen – it was moving along a path. I’m not talking about the lag phase, it’s just another path – within the framework of the Eurasian identity could not appear Russian and Ukrainian law of Moses.

– However, in Ukraine for centuries his name in the Eurasian paradigm, the process began …

– Yes, and it’s painfully long process – the formation of a political nation in the Western European sense. We all – originally from the Soviet Union, we all Soviet Jews, the main feature of which was the identification state anti-Semitism. We could not know Jewish history, tradition, language – to know nothing other than a couple of Jewish jokes, and, nevertheless, remain different. Precisely because of the state of anti-Semitism. How many of the nearly half million Ukrainian Jews were parishioners of one of the 14 active synagogues under the Soviets? Several hundred elderly. Therefore, Soviet Jews, and even “anti-Soviet Jews” like me, for example, come from the same “cradle”.

Then Ukraine became a sovereign state, and we started to get the Jews of Ukraine, while maintaining all the Soviet, but rather, Eurasian features – related to basic values, the role of government, religion, private property, etc. This civilizational values ​​that are absorbed with their mother’s milk, and do not change overnight, as the overnight Jews of Ukraine can not become Ukrainian Jews.

– Ukrainian National Democrats have long criticized the fact that in terms of cultural identity of Jews in Ukraine pro-Russian. While half of the country, including ethnic Ukrainians, belong to the same – the Russian-speaking – camp.

– It’s true, in another’s eye speck see, we do not notice the log in your … Jews living in Ukraine and are guided by the surrounding society.

– The more that the majority of the country’s Jews live exactly in the south-eastern regions.

– I would not connect to the civilizational choice place to stay – we are all Europeans and all the little little Eurasians – Ukrainians, Russian, and Jews. Just Russian Jews, who stood on the Maidan, made its civilizational choice in favor of Europe, but today many of these choices are at war. We go through the same path as that of the whole country – become Ukrainians in the political sense of the word – regardless of language, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. I stress that we are Ukrainian Jews, not because they are beginning to speak Ukrainian. I was in 1978 named in the party press “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist.” Apparently, even then I was a Ukrainian Jew, though he spoke in Ukrainian is much worse than it is now. Not in the language, and not in the religion business, and in civilizational choice. feature

And those of us who supported the Ukrainian choice not because of fashion or pragmatic reasons, but because (and this says Gebert) that prefer democracy – they are the Ukrainian Jews. Of course, the well known authoritarian leaders who sympathized with the Jews, such as Pilsudski. But when he died, Pilsudski, the Jews remembered how well they lived under Marshal – say, your grandfather died.

Yes, Jews have traditionally focused on power, we treat it loyally, sometimes entering into conflict with the aspirations of the people among whom we live. What to do – it is our history, our mentality. However, other Jews at all times defended democratic values ​​and participated in the national liberation movements, becoming part of one or another political nations.

– In our case, this process has become possible only after the Ukrainians themselves have changed their model for understanding the nation, rejecting ethnic nationalism, tailored on the patterns of the 1930s …

– It did not begin on the Maidan. I joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in 1978, become acquainted with a new generation of Ukrainian Nationalists, did not cave, otherwise I would not have joined them. Moses Fishbein poet in the 1980s worked in the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, as a Ukrainian nationalist …

– You’re talking about exceptions …

– It all starts with exceptions, and I was not the first. In the Polish uprising in 1794 involved not many Jews in the November Uprising 1830 there were more, and in 1863 – even more. When you can talk about the birth of Polish Jewry? Not in 1863, and at the end of the XVIII century. With Ukrainian Jews the same story. It’s a question of quality, not quantity. There are such people, and they are becoming more – Jews of Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa – this is not the Soviet Jews. Some of them are fighting in the Donbass, and they will go to the guerrilla groups, if will be in occupation.

It all starts with the exceptions in the 1970 Ukrainian Jews had very little, how little and Ukrainian national democrats, but the phenomenon has existed. Another thing is that the heroes of Ukraine, that is, the people who died for the independence of his people today, really, other. After Heavenly hundreds of pieces of Bandera and Shukhevych began to leave in the past.

Hundreds of children are dying today at the front – they are the new heroes of Ukraine and the new symbols of Ukrainian nationalism, although many of them do not even think that it is – Ukrainian nationalism.

– There are other forms of nationalism …

– And then there was all black, and now – not all white. And now there is an anti-Semite Levko Lukyanenko and 13 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, which we identify as the right-wing radicals, among them two men with neo-Nazi backgrounds – Aleksandr Mosiychuk and Dmitry Linko. I am convinced that the coalition does not include these characters, and I will fight for it as well as fighting for something that the leader of the Social-National Assembly Andrey Biletsky did not go to the deputies of the People’s Front list.

– Do not you think that this new identity is largely built on the denial, on confrontation with Russia. But aggression, sooner or later will end, and what remains?

– How to start identity? No one knows. But we know, for example, what happened in the 2012 elections, and why 10% voted for the radicals of the VO “Svoboda”. Not because they are right-wing radicals, it was a protest vote against Yanukovych. In any identity combined various factors – both “for” and “against.” I became the “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist” (with all the conventions of this definition) in 1978, because it was sympathetic to the National Democrats and the Communists did not like – it brought me to the dissident movement. Religious Zionists in Israel – against the creation of a Palestinian state and the expansion of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria – the series goes on.

Of course, in the absence of an external threat could start natural fragmentation of society, but it has never been united. In the meantime, the process of formation of the Ukrainian political nation and Ukrainian Jewry, as one of its components. The process itself testifies to the fact that Ukraine still Europeanized, Eurasian identity is arranged differently. The activity of the country is in Europe, the greater the Ukrainian Jews. And it’s not in the formal membership in the EU, it is important that the feeling of the people, their mentality, their identities were European – this is a very long process, but it has already started …

Interviewed by Maxim Sukhanov

Sourse, 18/05/2015

Ukrainians are not ripe for reconciliation

This year Ukraine celebrates the Day of Reconciliation for the first time and memory in honor of all the victims of the Second World War. Are Ukrainians really come to terms,  “Gordon” asked the chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosifa Ziselsa.

The idea of ​​reconciliation is popular at any time, but it can not be used in any situation to any two people, because in the conflict, which stretches since World War II, in fact, there are several dimensions.

Besides the Soviet-German, on the other hand – the French-English-German, even on our side had several dimensions: the Polish-German, Polish-Ukrainian, Ukrainian-German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian, even participated in the Carpathians in the battles with the UPA. There are a number of measurements, and most importantly – the Ukrainian-Soviet.

For example, I know of a case in 1962, when two Ukrainian women who were connected in the UPA, were shot in the bunker in the Ternopil region of the soldiers. In 1962, the year!

If we talk about today’s reconciliation, it is, on the one hand, civilization, because the Ukrainians decided that enough they have to live in the empire with the Eurasian civilization, and want to try the life of the European and then compared in 300 years, in which one It was better. On the other hand, this reconciliation is artificially caused by Russian aggression.

I do not think that we are ripe for reconciliation because the still very many forces did not satisfy his ambitions. If we talk about the dimensions that were during the Second World War, for them, of course, it has come, because we see a lot of progress on the line of Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation.

But it is not yet complete, as some Poles, for example, reacted nervously to the laws that have been adopted for the rehabilitation of UPA and other Ukrainian national organizations. This is a complex mishmash in which you need to understand. Find out about what exactly we are talking reconciliation. Young did not have these conflicts.

In Spain, where the civil war was prolonged, the family is still remembered, who had fought on which side. And this is not some kind of soft and hard memories. This is despite the fact that Franco (Spanish dictator Francisco Franco) has long put a monument to reconciliation for victims of the war on both sides.

In the southern states of the USA, despite the fact that since the civil war took place 150 years, also kept ancestral memory as to who fought for the North, and who – for the south. Although they live like the well, and the states do not fight each other, except that there is some confrontation during the election – more than one vote for Republicans, others – for the Democrats.

The issue of reconciliation is not so simple. Perhaps reconciliation at the level of Heads of State. Yushchenko (the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko), for example, has done a lot for this. But at the level of ordinary people a reconciliation does not take place so quickly.

In sociology, we see that in the last year the attitude of Ukrainians to the Poles has improved significantly, because millions of Ukrainians saw that the Poles actually help Ukraine in this complicated conflict. And as the Russian government not only did not help – she was the aggressor.

Veterans reluctance to shake hands says that a new conflict was superimposed on the old and on the contrary, it has strengthened rather than weakened.

Two of civilization people can live in peace, and they are in general, they lived more or less peacefully, despite the tension between the state structures, as long as there was no interference in each other’s identity. As soon as the intervention in the identity of other people, there is a huge energy instantly resistance.

Yet another dimension – the dimension of the Maidan – was for me as a reaction to a very significant part of Ukrainian society to try Yanukovych (fugitive ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych) and all his clique to bring us back to a state of the Eurasian identity, which we already do not want to be at as most of us.

This applies to the Donbas. This region has a different identity, and perhaps he did not want to live in a European way. If we are forced to compel him to do so, we get back the same great resistance power.

Decentralization is relevant if load it humanitarian, economic, financial and other aspects. Groisman (Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman) said several times that it is necessary to take into account the humanitarian aspect in decentralization. Historically. If we do not consider this aspect, it means that we do not spend real decentralization, it would be somewhat artificial.

Donbass within Ukraine should develop as he understands it in his own way. And the overall rate of the State of Ukraine, if it still exists, together with the Crimea and Donbas on the road to Europe must be sufficiently slow so as not to lose the regions that do not want to move in this direction. We need to talk, to explain, to try to continue to implement the values ​​that have more in Ukrainian society.

Sourse, 08/05/2015

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia

Iosif Zisels, human rights activist and head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Vaad, recalls with a smile, as in Soviet times it was called both a Zionist and a Ukrainian nationalist. Now, 40 years later, it again can be called zhidobanderovtsem, and the term has acquired a new meaning and a positive connotation.

In the Soviet Union he was a dissident, trying to defend the rights of Jews, and then joined the Ukrainian Helsinki human rights group. In 1978, on charges of defamation and anti-state activities Zissels received six years in a penal colony. Nine months before the liberation he was offered amnesty in exchange for a renunciation of political principles, but he refused.

Now, Soviet dissident and political prisoner, became one of the most influential Jews of Ukraine – he heads the largest Jewish organization, which is able at any time to lend a helping hand to every Jew of the country, engaged in the revival and strengthening of Jewish communities, their culture and religion, as well as helping wishing to exit in Israel.

Zissels well – known people abroad, where he is a member of the European and the World Jewish Congress, took over the functions of the public lobbyist Ukraine’s national interests. In his own words Zisels, he lives according to the covenant of the Jewish patriarch Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? “

“New time” meets Zissels in the office of the Association of Jewish Organizations, which is located in one of the academic buildings of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. It is a small unit into several rooms, on the door of which hung an advertisement for the recruitment of students to the specialization of Judaica. Zissels cordially invites you into his office and, distracted for a few minutes to say hello to each of his employees, invited to interview.

Ukrainians are very sensible nation, and therefore changes have been slow. Maidan two months stood and demanded concessions from the government. When I talk about that in France, there wondering how, two months? We would all smashed in two weeks!

Just Ukrainians other political temperament. We are moving at their own pace, which is slower than that of Poland or the Baltic countries. It must be taken as fact. Another problem is that our identity is dual, and expectations are always high, so some of us and sways from side to side. We believe that, if there was a revolution and change of power, all at once will change, but it is not.

Ukraine will of fate was between a European democracy and Eurasian authoritarian culture. And it is important to understand that if 20% of the population do not want to in Europe, this must somehow be considered. This is not a whim, just for them, Europe stranger. And we are encroaching on their identity, though hardly have that right.

Recall, Viktor Yanukovych wanted to encroach on our right to be Europeans – and the Maidan happened. The same thing is happening now. When threatened identity, even among people who are accustomed to submission, there is a huge energy resistance. We need to negotiate rather than fight.

Today in the country there is a desire to fight corruption, but it’s part of our culture. Corruption – is a part of Ukrainian identity. The law is not absolute for us, and its violation – not a sin, as in the West. And this shows our Eastern culture – there is not a law adopted in order to execute it, and that they enjoyed the strongest.

We used to live like this, we have formed a lot of secret agreements between government and society. For example, that the severity of the law is compensated by its failure. At low levels of wages authorities turned a blind eye to the fact that we steal, and the people turned a blind eye to the fact that steals power. In space, where there is no law with a capital letter, a person perceives any obstacle as a challenge, to solve the problem – that such obstacles put me, but I still find it, how to get around them.

So, to say, well, let’s fight against corruption, which many of us continue to steal – is meaningless. It is necessary to recognize the existence of tacit agreements and revise them. The struggle of society against corruption must be a struggle with ourselves.

Right now Ukrainian Jews began to realize themselves as Jews in Ukraine. In Europe, it happened in the late XIX century. In France, that’s when the Jews received equal rights with the French and called themselves the French law of Moses. We have this process takes place only now.

The Jews of Ukraine took a very active part in the Maidan. Were actively, perhaps, only the Crimean Tatars. And the Ukrainians have rated it – according to the latest sociological research, for the year related to the Jews and Crimean Tatars in the country has improved significantly.

We do not believe, how many Jews were on the Maidan, but we know that many of them then went to the front. The most paradoxical – some of them fought in the battalion of Azov, near the radical nationalists. In addition, in the east of the country and fight guys with Israeli passports. It is the volunteers who teach our soldiers. Israel has almost 100 years of war, and experience – most importantly, that he can pass Ukraine.

Israel does not help Ukraine officially because so fixated on their own security. In 2008, during the war in Georgia, Israel helped equip the Georgian air defense system. Then Georgia was hit by three Russian aircraft, and Israel received a warning from Russia that if he will continue to help Georgia, Iran gets a nuclear bomb, and Syria will face Russia’s S-300 missiles.

But while Israel – a democratic country, and the pressure of society can not be ignored. Most of the Israelis – people with democratic values, and they sympathize with Ukraine.

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia – will be less frustrating. Now, in many EU countries pre-election period. To support Ukraine, impose additional sanctions on Russia for them is to reduce the level of welfare of their countries and to expose their chances of winning at serious risk. Can help unless indirect pressure on Europe from the United States and Canada.

This is very similar to what happened in the 1930s. Germany regularly paid for oil and metals, and all wanted her to trade. Nobody wanted to see it as a monster, preferring to think that Germany will not fight with them, and with their competitors. After eight years of these errors have to pay a huge price.

We are no longer a peaceful country, and it will not be long. We need to get used to fight with minimal losses, rely on their own forces to protect their people, to rebuild the economy on a war footing, and not bury our heads in the sand. In Russia, too, there is no other option but to fight with Ukraine. They understand that with this government and with this partnership agreement is impossible.

Something we can count only when the disintegration processes in Russia will be intense. However, nobody in the world is not interested in this. What does it mean crumbling Russia? Huge fragments of the country armed with nuclear weapons. Putin, in spite of our curses, still controls the country. If only we have not climbed, prices would not be him. But he can not climb, the logic of empire – its meaning in the expansion.

I do not believe in the possibility of democratization of Russia. I spent two years in the Ural camps, lived in Moscow for more than a year. Russia within its present borders will never be a European country. There is no critical mass of people who can change the destiny of Russia. Moreover, not all countries should be European. The world rests on the balance sheet. And who will be the European world to balance China? Any democratization of Russia will lead to its disintegration, and this terrible future, with unpredictable consequences.

5 questions Iosifu Ziselsu:

– What event of your life you feel in charge?

– Of course, my participation in the dissident movement. I think all the most important thing happened then.

– What is your favorite city?

– I do not have a favorite book or a favorite city. I love Chernivtsi, where I spent my childhood, Kiev, in which I live. I like to be in Jerusalem and Barcelona.

– What move around the city?

– I have a Subaru Outback. This reliable, sturdy machine. Not very comfortable, but I like it.

– What is your monthly cost of living?

– I get a pension. More than ordinary people, but not enough to live a normal life. It is also engaged in consulting, working in a private firm. My problem is not how to provide for themselves, but rather where to find the money for our activities. Well, I have four kids that even adults, but they still need help. Perhaps today I spend at least $ 1 thousand. Per month.

– What do you seek?

– As anyone – to self-realization, once satisfied all other requirements. And I think I am quite good to deal with it.

Sourse, 02/05/2015

I do not think that without the consent of the inhabitants the city will be renamed

Without the consent of the inhabitants of the city should not be renamed, he said in a comment  “GORDON”  chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

“I’m not sure that without the decision of the local community, you can rename the city. But you’ve seen over the last 23 years, at least one law, which is performed in its entirety, just as it was written? We live in a space where the laws are not in order to fulfill them. laws of the people do not obey the laws of the people do not respect the laws of the people do not follow. They use the laws to achieve some of their goals. I do not think there will be a city renamed without the consent of residents. This should be without hysterics, and in a peaceful discussion. I do not think that without a Announce the masses it can be done then we will get additional negative effects, which have enough “, -. Zissels said.

There is a clash of two civilizations, so think about what the consequences will ban communist symbols more correctly, he said.

“There’s a novel in which the hero is a young man seeking a countess, she was refused, he turns the whole world, conquering all of Europe, and when the Countess is ready him to give up, it turns out that it is – an elderly woman and he no longer needed so. . and with that we now live in a turbulent time, we have a war on, and not just between the separatists and the Ukrainians, but a war between two civilizations -. European and Eurasian It’s so powerful collision, what to think, what consequences will result in a ban of symbols, I it seems to be incorrect. I do not think th that it will lead to some serious consequences to the positive or to the negative “- Zissels said.

However, in his opinion, for many people, the victims of the regime, this decision will be important.

“I have not yet comprehended once the consequences of yesterday’s solutions. I dreamed about it many years ago, because he was a dissident and was imprisoned in Soviet times for political activities, but it’s been more than 20 years. Although many people for whom life was a struggle with the communist system, it is very important that finally at least the end of life to get satisfaction from the fact that these misanthropic ideology abolished and banned, “- said the expert.

The honey, he said, the current law many inaccuracies that should be corrected.

“East is bad knows what the UPA, and the West does not speak what the UPA. It was a long time ago. So many myths of positive and negative during the Soviet period was unwound. The very acronym UPA with a hyphen, which created the Soviet ideology, did not exist in nature . The law had a lot of confusion -. terminological, factual, grammatical Before this law was passed, I was just going to make corrections I have quite an old man, to know how to be called in reality there are mixed up the names of organizations…History is no such organization “OUN” Yes “OUN” one, is “OUN” Second, there is a “OUN” third -. There are three “OUN” – Zissels said.

“Live – see very little consequence were other laws, I think, will also be with these Someone uses them for next separatist sentiments, someone on the contrary uses the dominance of pro-European sentiment in the end still everything goes and vanishes… “- he concluded.

Recall, April 9, the Verkhovna Rada  adopted  a law recognizing the communist regime 1917-1991 criminally and banning communist symbols.

The adopted law about the condemnation of the communist regime  contained  rule to rename the settlements, which are named in honor of the communist-era figures.

Sourse, 10/04/2015

Today, it is a conflict between civilization and the negation of civilization

What is happening today – a revision of the entire set of rules established in the world after the Second World War.

Iosif Zisels, chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups, – performance at the channel marathon  UKRLIFE.TV  on “The international implications of the terrorist attacks in France”:

There are two important systemic factor that differentiates Western Europe from the East and, in particular, from the Ukraine.

The first factor – is the presence of entities associated with the radical Islamic movement, they are in Western Europe, they do not exist in Eastern Europe. Perhaps, as we move to Europe they will, but for now it is not.

The second factor – the movement, fashionable in the left intelligentsia, in which human rights, in particular, the protection of the rights of Palestinians leads to anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment.

Sourse, 12/01/2015

The level of anti-Semitism in Ukraine is not increased

Do you see now Ukraine growth of anti-Semitism and xenophobia – to this and other questions in an interview with DW said the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Iosif Zisels.

Iosif Zisels – Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups. In an interview with DW Zissels she told whether there is in Ukraine, the rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and also responded to a number of other issues.

DW: In Russia, many say that with the advent of the current Ukrainian politicians in the country have intensified anti-Semitic sentiments. Is it so?

Iosif Zisels: I was one of the leaders of the Jewish community can assure that there is no – not only sharp, but generally no increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Ukraine. We are very carefully and attentively fix every incident, every speech, every case of an attack, and every act of vandalism. And this level – as last year. Despite the tumultuous events that took place on the Maidan in Kiev, on the military operations in the south-east of Ukraine, the level of anti-Semitism in the country increases. It was and remains one of the lowest in Eastern Europe.

– And what is the level of anti-Semitism in Russia?

– As regards the level of anti-Semitism in Russia – it is too short. Just as in Ukraine, he measured a dozen or two dozen cases per year. But Russia – authoritarian country with underdeveloped democratic institutions. And in this authoritarian model of existence can be played “Jewish card”. In Ukraine, too, is to be feared that the state wants to use it, but fortunately, there is control belongs to the civil society.

– What can you say about the allegations in the city address that the current government allegedly tolerate manifestations of neo-Nazism?

– First of all, it is a question of terminology. I think really understand what Nazism, only to narrow specialists. They are our experts, with whom we have worked for many years. In Ukraine, as in any other country, there are right-wing movements, some of which resemble the neo-Nazi. But they are in Europe. Right-wing parties have almost all European countries, and they are much more dangerous than what we see today in Ukraine.

So, the party “Freedom” is not passed to the new Ukrainian parliament, which was in the previous Parliament when Yanukovych was there 37 mandates. This demonstrates the falling level of interest in the radical demagogy of this order. Lyashko passed Radical Party, which is very different: it is less than the national radical demagogy, but more general radical demagoguery. In majority districts it took a few people who can be considered right-wing radicals with aspects of neo-Nazism. Very few of them: 423 MP – about 10. That is less than it was in the last Parliament, where there were 37.

But I think that the concerns of the Parliament, there was a general shift of the entire spectrum a little to the right. Because such a national-democratic parties as Block Petro Poroshenko, “Popular Front” and “self-help” – are themselves center-right. That is, the parliament’s center of gravity has shifted slightly to the right, and is a tribute to wartime. Requirements radicals is not particularly noticeable.

– The fact that the Parliament did not pass the “Freedom” and “Right Sector”, can be considered a success of Ukrainian democracy?

– In fact, these parties were radical demagogic. Moreover, these were the projects financed and designed to split the opposition with Yanukovych’s government. That is, in part, they were man-made projects. They can not be considered as such natural, organic manifestations of the right of the spectrum, as can be seen in many countries.

In Ukraine, the main control of the right-wing radicals has not the government, as is the case in Russia, and civil society. It itself copes with this low level of pravoradikalizma in the country, making it much better than the state. And it is – a guarantee that this rate will not be great.

– Earlier you said that “right-wing and neo-Nazi forces” involved in the conflict in the Donbass, from both sides? You can name specific examples?

– On the Russian side, according to our experts, fights about 200 neo-Nazis. Among them are, first of all, “Russian National Unity”. This is a known neo-Nazi organization in Russia, which has its own recruitment offices, training camps for militants and separate connections on the front. Others – such as, for example, the former party Limonov, is “dyed” in other colors. It is important to note also that the present or volunteers or mercenaries from European right-wing neo-Nazi parties. They, too, are fighting on the Russian side.

On the Ukrainian side, too, there is a man 30-40 – skinheads from the right-wing group “Social-National Assembly”, “Patriots of Ukraine”, for which we are following closely. In this regard, first of all, we may note the battalion “Azov”, where there may be even a few dozen people from the “Social-National Assembly.” Andrey Beletsky – the commander of the battalion (now it is a regiment) – the head of “Social-National Assembly.” However, he argues that the war changed their ideology.

– From what sources do you get information?

– We have a number of experts of the European level. We use their data, and trust them, as for many years working with them. Moreover, our data are taken from the report of the State Department’s anti-Semitism in the world and the OSCE report on the monitoring and analysis of anti-Semitism in the world. I myself 25 years engaged in the construction of networks for monitoring and analysis of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

Sourse, 06/11/2014

Israeli President raised on Russian historiography

The head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, a well-known human rights activist and Soviet dissident, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels in an interview with “Gromadska radio” stated that he could not agree with the speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. He accused the Ukrainians in the complicity in the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Second World War, informs eizvestia.com .

“He’s an old man. He bears the stereotypes of the past, historiography, which today is not considered objective. He was brought up in the Russian historiography. Israel, at least the older generation still lives under its influence. It does not reflect the opinion of the young. After all, the young religious Israelis have stood on the Maidan. These views he expressed today – it’s yesterday, “- said Zissels.

He recalled the visit to Israel of the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko in 2007.

“The delegation came to Yad Vashem and asked to show documents that indicate the involvement of Roman Shukhevych (OUN leader during World War II) to such crimes. But no one was able to show. This stereotype does not provide evidence, if everyone knows it. No, not everyone knows that. For example, I do not trust that it is not necessary to confirm the archival authentic documents “- Zissels said.

He noted that the OUN and UPA fighters fought for Ukraine, and they can not wear the stereotypical labels.

September 27 during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada parliamentary hearings devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that the Ukrainians have been involved in the repression against the Jews during the Second World War. “Many of the accomplices of crimes were Ukrainians. And among them highlights the OUN, which mocked Jews, killed them, and in many cases, were given to the Germans. It is also true that there were more than 2.5 thousand Righteous among the Nations “-. Said Rivlin.

Commenting on the Israeli president’s speech, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Vladimir Vyatrovich said Rivlin repeated Soviet myth of the OUN involvement in the Holocaust. The head of the OUN Bogdan Chervak ​​Rivlin called the statement “a spit in the soul of the Ukrainians” and urged him not to watch Russian television, as it is “not just bad, but also indecent.”

During World War II, occupied Kiev Nazi troops used the tract Babi Yar, in the northwestern part of the city as a place of mass executions of civilians, most of whom were Jews. September 29, 1941 the entire Jewish population was obliged to come to the Babi Yar, where until September 30, was shot more than 33 thousand. Man on the orders of the occupation administration. According to various estimates, at Babi Yar were killed by 70 thousand. Up to 200 thousand. Man.

Sourse, 29/09/2016

The system rotted from within and dognila before disbanding

Soviet-era dissident Yosif Zisels told why refused amnesty in the Gorbachev era, what regrets today about whether modern Ukraine may repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime

Yosif Zisels – human rights activist, dissident, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. In 1978 he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He spent six years in prisons on charges of “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Every dissident own destiny. For example, a man wrote a poem. As my friend, the Ukrainian dissident, a former teacher in the Ternopil region kultprosvetuchilische Mikola Grobal, wrote a poem called “Dumi moї, Dumi”. For this was sent to prison. For the poem. Simply laid out thoughts on paper. Or Semyon Gluzman, which persecuted for their professional activities. He made the correspondence psychiatric examination for General Pyotr Grigorenko and mathematician Leonid Plyushch and promulgated it.

The dissent came for different reasons: national, democratic, moral, emotional. The reasons were not so important to us. Most importantly, we together fought criminal imperial communist system.

I actually grew up without parents. So I have virtually no such an important element of the psyche as a “social instinct of self-preservation,” usually brings up children in a normal Jewish family. Simply no one to create it. I started very early to read samizdat. I think it is no coincidence. The fact that we were surrounded by then, and what we have been taught do not match. Not everyone is dissonance when life does not match with the pictures, which are described in textbooks. Some quietly absorbed in itself is doublethink, I called it “social schizophrenia.” Some do it quietly. Some resisted.

The Soviet government constantly demanded confirmation of loyalty. A variety of ways. Those who have studied, passed the party’s history, scientific communism. Was political information was the Komsomol, and other institutions, which are constantly monitored by the people through an extensive network. Not only controlled the KGB people were the party, trade union, Komsomol and Pioneer organizations. And I went multilevel selection. Revealed disgruntled, obstinate. Once a person has manifested itself, it was a signal that we should look at it.

I went to the dissidence almost deliberately. I drew it. I wanted to know the truth about life, about history, about relationships. And find the right answers in samizdat, as permitted by the literature is almost impossible to find the truth. It was important that others know the truth. Not immediately, at first reading itself, and then you want to share with others. Then you become it a little.

An important stimulus was originally a private confrontation lies and violence. You try to realize his need for truth is not simply to distribute this literature. Then there is the need to sign any appeals, appeals to protest against human rights violations. I’m talking about the way. Some stop at reading the literature, some – at that distribute other books, some do not sign the appeal and appeal, and others pass this hurdle and continue to develop. Then there was a real help to political prisoners, in which I was involved.

The apogee of my dissident activity can be considered as 1978 , when I was actively engaged in case of using the power of Soviet psychiatry to persecute dissidents and investigated more than 80 such stories, in the summer became a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and in December he was arrested for the first time.

I do not consider myself a victim. I tried to do something as far as possible. I tried something to counter the Soviet regime and its powerful repressive apparatus. Authorities responded to me quite “adequately”. I knew I was not alone in this, but the dissidents are not many, only a few thousand to two hundred millionth Soviet people. Nevertheless, it was more personal fulfillment, not an illusory calculation somehow undermine Soviet power. It was clear that our efforts it was impossible to destroy. She was rotting from the inside and dognila before disbanding.

The fact that the dissidents were known all over the world, destroyed the Soviet myth. 220 million people live happily, moving towards communism, nothing else is willing, but there are several thousand people who by the very fact of its existence, argue that a false myth. Here I was among those people. It was my way. I chose him and he went through it. And, fortunately, I did not meet with an obstacle that would have made me turn back.

I was already an inveterate “recidivist”, when I was offered an amnesty, it was in January 1987, went a second three-year term of my imprisonment, I had to sit 9 months. As for all the forced dialogue with the authorities, with the KGB, with investigators from the prosecutors, I did not sign any paper, any evidence not given, I do not want to change his principles when I needed to sit 9 months. I calmly refused the amnesty. She was so very communist. We had to sign a document that You shall not engage in political activity. Some signed, and then continued to work.

I did not believe that engaging in political activities. It was a formality, but I took it very seriously. If I sign it, then break its principle “not to cooperate with the authorities.” I was not sorry, and now do not regret it.

I’m sorry about the other. Going your own way, you are doomed to suffering families. With time comes the understanding that your free choice causes suffering of others: family, friends. KGB worked very well. They covered not only the one who resists, but all its surroundings, creating an inconvenience to them in life, to put it mildly. This was done to set up against the man his environment. I lost a few people who thought their comrades in these years. Some stayed, we’ve been friends for 50 years. They passed the test with me.

In total I spent in prisons and zones 6 years and the year at home under the administrative supervision of the refusal to accept the “Gorbachev amnesty.” Both times I was accused under Article 187 (approx.) Of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, in the “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Any authoritarian regime, the more totalitarian, based on the fact that there is an external enemy, there is internal, and it is necessary to deal with them. And for people to explain who the external enemy – the imperialists, capitalists, the NATO military. And the internal – dissidents “fifth column”, which does not want to go to the general structure of communism. It was a massive propaganda against such people. We tried to turn public opinion against these people. Isolate, to make their lives uncomfortable, unbearable. Even when you see that article in the newspaper against you false from beginning to end, it is embarrassing to you, the residue remains. And there are articles about the dissidents, whom the authorities deemed “outcasts” were enough.

I lived in the city of Chernivtsi and did not face persecution for the use of the Ukrainian language. For too active promotion – possible. It is already considered nationalism. And only the KGB decided what distinguishes patriotism from nationalism. On the other hand, I grew up in a Jewish environment, and only a student came to understand many issues, including national.

Can modern Ukraine to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime? Ukrainians are already very difficult to build as they were built in the Soviet era. Once upon a time this would have killed millions, and intimidate others and build. Most of destroying a part buy, this was done in the 20s, 30s. Soviet authorities or killed or drove out, or bought. So to build “our elites.” Therefore there is nothing surprising that she is today. I think that the repetition of history is impossible. It is impossible to kill 5.7 million people, to build a line of others. But the fact of the formal independence of the country does not guarantee the economic prosperity of the people and democratic development, respect for the law, eradication of corruption and the development of a new system of values. As mathematicians say, a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Recorded Jan Goncharenko

See. Also Special Project “Dissidents” edition Fokus.ua and STB for the Suppression of dissidents in the USSR

Source: focus.ua , 25.08.2016

Sourse, 25/08/2016

Yanukovych must be condemned, but corruption is a derivative of general disrespect for the law

stigmatization campaign corruption, declared an international human rights organization Transparency International, is to focus on the figure of the Ukrainian society fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych that will distract from the system solution to the problem, said a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

Viktor Yanukovych was not born corrupt, and become so because of the mentality of Ukrainian society, says Iosif Zisels.

Yanukovych headed the world ranking corrupt officials on the results of voting on the website of the international human rights organization Transparency International, which announced that begins stigmatization campaign against corruption, taking the first nine places.

“I would not want to exaggerate the importance of this campaign. While any steps to eliminate in the Ukrainian society of corruption are good, and the worst of them will not. But I’m inclined to think that we need a systematic approach. Yanukovych is not born corrupt, it is a question of education, which is determined by All the circumstances of life in the Eurasian society is corruption -. it is part of our mentality and culture we are born, live and die in corruption. “- Zissels said.

“Condemn Yanukovych necessary, he was president of the country, but to focus on his figure could divert attention from the systemic problem In fact, corruption is dissolved in all, and the problem can not be solved without the long-term by re-society programs, building on the Western partners.” – he added he.

Zissels stressed that “over the last year in this regard has been made longer than in the previous 25 years.”

“Transparency International does a lot, forcing public institutions to deal with corruption, I know this organization, I support her contacts, her activity is doubtless useful, but how it can be assumed that it decides for 45,000,000th country of its problems..?” – said human rights activist .

According to him, “corruption – is a derivative of general disrespect for the law in general, including to the tax.”

“Who pays taxes in Ukraine Corruption – this including the theft of the budget, but we do not fill it I am sure that the majority of Ukrainians do not pay all the taxes that they are put there are plenty of other laws, which we treat as.. . well as to tax is the question of respect for the law if it appears, will result in the condemnation of anti-corruption Yanukovych -.. a good measure, but it does not give a general respect for the law “- he said.

The human rights activist believes that “in the fight against corruption the first place should take no condemnation, no anti-corruption bureau or anti-corruption prosecutor, namely re-society in the spirit of European values”.

“With our values ​​we will not become either economically developed, nor a truly democratic country, to tackle corruption. Only the union of all the forces of civil society and reform forces in the government, if they are there, in the long term can give some result for the whole Ukraine, if not for us, our children, or even grandchildren, “- he concluded.

Yanukovych was the President of Ukraine with the February 25, 2010. February 22, 2014, after three months of protests on the Maidan Verkhovna Rada recognized it withdrew from the post and do not fulfill their obligations, then new presidential elections were announced. In February last year, Yanukovych left Ukraine, is now with his family, he lives in Russia.

In Ukraine against Yanukovych opened several criminal proceedings. He is accused of the mass murder of citizens, misappropriation of state property, the seizure of power by unconstitutional means, actions aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order. Concerning it applies conviction in absentia procedure .

Yanukovych’s name was included in the investigation of the Interpol database, but at the end of July 2015 wanted to suspend consideration of the complaint of lawyers who insist on the political background of the case against the former president.

Sourse, 11/02/2016

Without the knowledge of history you like cod on the waves – swim, where will the current flow

With this well-known journalist Natalia Feshchuk man talking in his second home Chernivtsi – Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, co-founder of which he is. The conversation took place before he got into the list of moral authority among the Ukrainians, compiled a few days ago one of the Ukrainian media . By the way, an interview with Iosifom Samuilovichem Ziselsom just ended his reflections on what moral authority are always there in the community, if only listen to them …

Joseph Zisels many posts and distinctions, among them – the head of the Association of Jewish organizations and communities of Ukraine, executive vice-president of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. And in a nutshell: Ukrainian dissident Jewish descent, twice convicted for anti-Soviet activities. He never worked in government, says the most comfortable feeling when engaged in public affairs.

As in the Union, and now he has his own strong opinions on what principles should build a true nation and a strong country. And yet convinced that a free man – a responsible person.

Zissels has been living in Kiev. But here, in the heart of Chernivtsi, it remains a piece of his heart, because it is here, on the street Schiller once lived with his parents.

“I have a very warm attitude to the history and the people who are no longer”

– Mr. Joseph, when you decided to found the Museum of History and Culture of Bukovina Jews, it was a sense of duty to those Jews who had once been so much in Chernivtsi?

– My parents – not local Jews and Bessarabia. They arrived in Chernivtsi after the Second World War. In Chernivtsi I am, unfortunately, not born. But I have lived here and interacted with the people remaining from before the war. And it was German-speaking Jews, there were already a little while, in the 50-60s, – two or three hundred, maybe left from the huge community, which before the war amounted to almost 80 thousand people. In the city of 120 thousand people two-thirds – it was the Jewish population. And I was struck by the story of this community, which flourished at the end of the XVIII century, when the Austrian authorities to allow Jews to settle here. But almost half of the Jews was destroyed during the Holocaust, and the other half remained in the city, but has not been able to live under the Soviet regime. In 1940, the Jews were some illusions, many of them were left sentiment, but European, and they waited for the Red Army, because on the other hand – Hitler. And they were deported to Siberia, one third of them in 1941, 12 thousand Bukovinians – Jews. Those who have stayed here, came under Romanian occupation, who was shot, who died in concentration camps. Who stayed with the time left for Israel. Live in Chernivtsi remaining units …

And I wanted to recreate the story. I thought, this is our duty. Because once the Jewish community in the city was very strong. And those who came here after the war, there were already other people – Bessarabian East Ukrainian Jews were very Soviet. I want to say that everything was up to the First World War is well. And when it came, Romania, the Jewish community has undergone a lot of suffering. This, of course, does not compare with the Holocaust. But Romania was a strong anti-Semitism. Second, the Jews of Romania considers patriots Austria-Hungary and taking revenge for that. We have archival documents showing that the Bukovina Ukrainians and Poles in 1918 protested against the annexation of this region Romania. And among the Jews of Bukovina was a protest. And then the Romanians because it does not give citizenship to many Jews. But still it was not, as in the Soviet Union. 1940 showed who is who. And those who lamented that’s how bad it was when Romania saw what could be worse than under Soviet rule. Some of the Jews, unfortunately, did not have time to leave. We traveled already in 60-70 years, when there was again a possibility. I know these families, helping them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them. Some of them were escorted right up to Chop. I had a lot of files. In particular, the archive of the poet Paul Celan. Because his friends left me his letters, poems. And I have a very warm attitude to the stories, the people, who are no longer. But this museum recalls them.

– You always emphasized that you – Ukrainian Jew. Now in Ukraine, many of our citizens such as the re-born, they want to know more about their country and its history. Some, on the contrary, is still passive. But to be a true citizen of the country, it seems to be inside? As it has been in your family?

– In me many laid. Because in a city like Chernivtsi laid a lot – here is the crossroads of history, culture and languages. This tolerant spirit of Chernivtsi. What is the difference Bukovina Jews of Galician, for example? One of the features – tolerance of the province, it has passed and the Jews too. There was a lot of tolerance and among Jews, too: between the orthodox and reformist currents in Judaism. In other cities they are irreconcilable, here they are communicated. For example, the chief rabbi of Chernivtsi was the Reform rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court was Orthodox rabbi.

At home, I received a Soviet-Jewish upbringing, not a purely Jewish. But I never hid their Jewish identity. I’ve always known who I am. At the same time, it is Ukraine, and I felt a Ukrainian part too. When I was at university, he attended lectures in Ukrainian. My Ukrainian language more with the university, the house spoke Russian. Yiddish was too, but in my family it was less. Today, I understand that if the Ukrainian laid into you since childhood, and then it starts to work. We in the Union of Soviet Jews were in we had very little Jewish. We knew about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and all. Few knew their language, history, literature. And only at the end of the 80s we started to restore the Jewish life, and began to become Ukrainian Jews who consider Ukraine as their motherland.

“Without faith and stories you like cod on the waves – swim, which carries”

– You were convicted of anti-Soviet propaganda. And what was the essence of your “propaganda”?

– I’ve been doing many things that could not do then. In Chernivtsi distributed samizdat. Helping political prisoners and their families. Gathering information on human rights violations and passed it. Joining the Ukrainian Helsinki group. There were people who helped – Ukrainian, Russian, not only Jews. It was a more or less intelligent circle. But in prison then, in 1978, was just me. Sentenced to three years. In the 84 th year – three more. At six.

– But the same could give and more …

– Could … But you do what you have to do. I considered it my duty to you need to do something against that power. As part of our small capacity.

– Who are the Ukrainian dissidents influenced you?

– How did I know about Ukrainian history, the Holodomor? Of Ukrainian dissidents. I talked with a lot of Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mihailom Gorinem. I traveled a lot for Ukraine, provedyvat those freed. I was looking for traces of what was called the investigation of psychiatric persecution, looking for people who have suffered in this way. I communicated with Ivan Svetlichny, Zinoviem Krasovskim, Panas Zalivahi – famous artist of Frankivsk. From each of them gets something pro-Ukrainian. The fact that I became a Ukrainian Jew, credit Ukrainian dissidents.

– You once said that you can not achieve human rights, if not to talk about religion and ethnicity …

– There is an opinion with which I am, so to speak, discuss. It is often said that it is possible to raise human universal values. And religion and ethnic culture is not required. I do not agree with this. Because when talking about millions of people, we can not achieve universal values, if not pass, so to speak, religion and ethnic culture. The only way to achieve this and tolerance. But the current reality is hard to implement. Because many non-religious people, they think that it is not very necessary. Although religion is gradually won over the place in our lives in comparison with the Union, but its weight in society still is not great.

I remember in the 70-80-ies of the last century, we spoke to Chornovil and Gorin that first need to be done, when finally this power will be overthrown or she falls. By the way, we did not expect it would be so fast. First of all, this is the resumption of the role of religion. Because religion – it is a very powerful educational factor in the society, which provides a set of essential values. It does not matter, Jews or Christians that. Because the value of the universal. And if it is not brought in millions of people, it is very hard to build a normal society.

Similarly, the story. Still have the illusion that you can live without it. But survive unless … but I know exactly what is in a person who has the confidence and the religious, and ethnic back to childhood, there is already such a rod, and then the whole life revolves around it. When a person enters the test in trouble, it has support within himself. Otherwise, you’re like cod on the waves: where to throw, you go there and swim. You have nothing to oppose to that external force or element. You can not change a lot in life, but you can not miss in your life and lie, going outside, and violence. To do this, you need this spiritual core – the ethnic and religious.

– Look at the dissident social events is not like other people?

– You know, dissent – it is such a feature of your character. See, we’re dreaming of a time when Ukraine is an independent and non-Communist. It came. But it turned out that this is not enough. We need to work to make a decent human life. And it needs a lot of work. Because those who had hoped that independence would give Ukraine at once, and all – were wrong. That was only the zero level. It was necessary to build many more. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time. And every maidan that occurs, adjust the path to the future of Ukraine.

– But if the government does something wrong, then it turns out that people need to think about, because the power – it is a reflection of people … Or not?

– On the one hand – yes. But as the power – it is the same people, they have dominated their own, private, over the general. There are some studies that show that as long as society is dominated by values ​​of survival, until can not begin the path of modernization of society. All go in different directions, each competing with each to survive and provide for his family. There must be something in common between people. For example, now in volunteering involve up to 8 million people in Ukraine. This is 15 percent of the population of our country. These are new people who can be the future of Ukraine. A majority of just waiting and survives. Waiting for what will happen and what they will need to adapt to new circumstances. And the volunteers and soldiers sacrifice their lives. Because common cause always requires sacrifice – in the broadest sense of the word.

– And people want at least some of the victims of politicians …

– You know, if we wait for the victims of politicians, it will get nowhere. We should not pay attention to politicians and do their own thing. We have seen that the civil society can do their job better than politicians. I do not expect that the officials themselves to make reforms. Only civil society can do it and force officials to adapt to him. If officials do not want to adapt to new circumstances, to a new life, they have to leave.

“We need to be able to live decently, with dignity and without the transcendental material prosperity”

– How many years of independence, and we are only now beginning to open up in a new way, our language, culture …

– It’s done all the time. Decades. Just in Soviet times, a small part was discovering that, because it was forbidden. Since the beginning of the 90 it began to be freely distributed, but it should affect the children. It not casually says that Moses led the people of 40 years in the desert to die all who were enslaved. In the new land, he did not want to lead the slaves. Because those who have lived in slavery, always bear the mark of slavery. We still need to go through several generations, even 25 years must pass. Because who govern us? In the 90s it was the former communists, then the former Komsomol in the 2000s, is now the former pioneers. On October need to survive. And then all will be well.

– Somehow I happened to hear accusations of dissidents address that, say, in the early 90’s insufficient pressured the Communists …

– Do not push Davy – nothing will happen. We had very little. Now up to 8 million volunteers, is not enough to turn Ukraine into a European state? What to say: more than 20 years ago we were 2-3 thousand political prisoners. How was it possible to get the 50,000,000th country, all communists, to be different? This can only be slow – not otherwise.

– And for you to spread the language and culture, so to speak, coercive methods?

– No, you only need to encourage. You need to have flexible mechanisms to encourage ownership of the Ukrainian language, the study of culture and history. You should have an advantage in borrowing positions those who own Ukrainian language. How else? No country can afford to take the officials of people who do not speak the state language. Only we have this is possible, and even in other post-Soviet countries except. And we see that they are still backward. The world is moving forward, and we graze the rear. Because we can not get rid of the post-colonial mentality.

– Now a large percentage of people who felt themselves to be Ukrainians, but also a large part of the thinking in old categories. In your opinion, what makes people in the Soviet era to think as Europeans? On the contrary, right now think in terms of a country that no longer exists?

– It is not in the country. The point of the Eurasian identity. Because it is the identity matrix was formed hundreds of years, it works at all, all the people living on this continent. And it defines the behavior of these people for the future. Metamorphosis is very slow, very slow changes. You say people feel European. They want to be Europeans. This reflective level of consciousness. Consciously they want, but they can be them? Do they want to be responsible? Freedom without responsibility – it’s nothing. Responsible work, cooperation, respect for the law. What is the difference Eurasia from Europe? Because in Europe there is respect for the law, and in Eurasia it is not. In Eurasia, not the law operates, and the person: the president, the governor, or first secretary. And we are hooked, because we live in a 300 years old Eurasian empire.

Partly we are Europeans, because the influence of the West European identity on us. We want to be Europeans, but still can not, because people think: if someone makes reforms for us. However, it should be this: not one but yourself. Fight against corruption – not somewhere, but in themselves. When you start with yourself, then you have this sense of responsibility. If you do not remake himself a little, then the children will be dissolved. No need to have the illusion that the very desire to live in Europe enough. You must be able to live as Europeans live. Modest, worthy, respect the law and work. Modestly – it including without transcendental material wealth.

– In all periods of development of Ukraine there were groups of people who are called moral authorities. But it seems they do not always hear …

– People must have the need to listen, first and foremost. If people have no need to listen to them – this is a problem people. Recently passed into eternity Eugene Sverstyuk. For me – the moral authority. But how many people knew him? I listen to it? How many people have corrected the life according to the principles of which he spoke? We all know how to live. But the country does not work … So, something is wrong …

Sourse, 27/08/2015

About the trial of Nadia Savchenko

Member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels sees several options for the end of the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko – it can award a short time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation, and if Savchenko will provide a long term, it will mean that Russia ready for isolation.

If the international observers will be present at the trial of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, it will complicate the process for Russia, as the case is fabricated, said Iosif Zisels. He said this in a comment edition of “Gordon” .

“In principle, the government may announce in the end the decision is already past the court, and said, Behold, I’m sorry, did not work to attract public and observers This one option Of course, the Kremlin is not beneficial to the presence of observers at the trial because he falsified, in my subjective.. . According to observers, especially European ones, may complicate the court, which is not the case for Russia is very easy “, – said Zissels.

According to him, the results of the trial Savchenko show what development strategy chosen Russia – the international isolation or compromise with the West.

“What is all over, I just can not say, because it does not possess all the volume of information. In addition, Russia is a country full of uncertainty. It may be a relatively short period of time, so as not to cause the West to public condemnation. On the other hand, Putin can show . that he was at all do not care, give Savchenko long time, and go to the final separation from all over the world as a result of the court will be clear what kind of tactics Russia chooses – complete isolation or still relatively compromise “, – said Zissels.

He did not think that at the time he was taken from the Moscow Savchenko in danger, despite the fact that the exact location is not known nor the lawyers nor relatives.

“I would not say that it was hidden, it is not entirely correct. We can say that in Russia there is a very old and important principle that when it formulated Stalin: There are people – there is a problem, no man – no problem. If authorities stated that they did not know where Savchenko worthwhile to worry about, but they do not yet speak, “- Zissels said.

Why and where Russia hid Savchenko?

A preliminary hearing on the case of Ukrainian pilots Hope Savchenko in the Donetsk Court of the Rostov region of the Russian Federation is scheduled for July 30th. July 17 Savchenko was was transferred from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don. July 22 protection Savchenko said he did not know where the aviator. Until July 27 the Russian authorities, by law, can not report her whereabouts. July 23 the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Ella Pamfilova has sent a formal request to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and the Federal Service of Execution of Punishments to the requirement to quickly provide information on the whereabouts of Savchenko. Before his transfer Ukrainka write a will, because it assumes that in Rostov it might have something happen.

Savchenko was captured by militants in June 2014 in Luhansk region, and then illegally exported to Russia. Thus, in the Russian jail, she is more than a year.

July 13, the General Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation approved the indictment against Savchenko and sent the case to the court. Pilot accused of the murder of two Russian citizens in the Luhansk region, as well as attempted murder. Ukrainka his guilt did not recognize.

Protection Savchenko asked that her trial was held in Moscow, instead of the Rostov region, and then looked at the jury, but the lawyers denied all petitions.

Sourse, 24/07/2015

It all starts with the exceptions of the rule

The Jews of Ukraine or Ukrainian Jews? Former dissident and co-president of the Vaad of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels – a civilizational choice and formation of a political nation.

– Joseph, a lot of talk lately about a new phenomenon – the birth of Ukrainian Jewry as a special form of identity of unknown a few years ago …

– All the Jewish communities of Europe passed a similar transformation. Including our closest neighbors, enough to read the article of the Polish-Jewish intellectual Konstanty Gebert, stresses that, despite all the vicissitudes of the general history of Polish Jews say about themselves: “We – the Poles.” According to him, democracy as a basic value, appreciate and Jews. “I’m not surprised that the Ukrainian Jews are mostly supported Ukrainian independence – says Gebert This phenomenon is repeated in Europe regularly Every time when some nations are independent, the Jews, as a rule, are on their way…”

In western Europe, the reform of Jewish identity began in the era of the Haskalah, when the Count of Clermont-Tonnerre in the Constituent Assembly proposed to equalize the rights of the Jews, because they are part of the French nation. He spoke of a nation in the European sense of the term – a political nation. It was then born the concept of the French law of Moses, the Germans of the Mosaic law, that is, Jewish identity takes on a new form – civil. Most European countries one way or another have come to such an understanding of the identity of the middle of the XIX century, the Russian Empire, that did not happen – it was moving along a path. I’m not talking about the lag phase, it’s just another path – within the framework of the Eurasian identity could not appear Russian and Ukrainian law of Moses.

– However, in Ukraine for centuries his name in the Eurasian paradigm, the process began …

– Yes, and it’s painfully long process – the formation of a political nation in the Western European sense. We all – originally from the Soviet Union, we all Soviet Jews, the main feature of which was the identification state anti-Semitism. We could not know Jewish history, tradition, language – to know nothing other than a couple of Jewish jokes, and, nevertheless, remain different. Precisely because of the state of anti-Semitism. How many of the nearly half million Ukrainian Jews were parishioners of one of the 14 active synagogues under the Soviets? Several hundred elderly. Therefore, Soviet Jews, and even “anti-Soviet Jews” like me, for example, come from the same “cradle”.

Then Ukraine became a sovereign state, and we started to get the Jews of Ukraine, while maintaining all the Soviet, but rather, Eurasian features – related to basic values, the role of government, religion, private property, etc. This civilizational values ​​that are absorbed with their mother’s milk, and do not change overnight, as the overnight Jews of Ukraine can not become Ukrainian Jews.

– Ukrainian National Democrats have long criticized the fact that in terms of cultural identity of Jews in Ukraine pro-Russian. While half of the country, including ethnic Ukrainians, belong to the same – the Russian-speaking – camp.

– It’s true, in another’s eye speck see, we do not notice the log in your … Jews living in Ukraine and are guided by the surrounding society.

– The more that the majority of the country’s Jews live exactly in the south-eastern regions.

– I would not connect to the civilizational choice place to stay – we are all Europeans and all the little little Eurasians – Ukrainians, Russian, and Jews. Just Russian Jews, who stood on the Maidan, made its civilizational choice in favor of Europe, but today many of these choices are at war. We go through the same path as that of the whole country – become Ukrainians in the political sense of the word – regardless of language, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. I stress that we are Ukrainian Jews, not because they are beginning to speak Ukrainian. I was in 1978 named in the party press “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist.” Apparently, even then I was a Ukrainian Jew, though he spoke in Ukrainian is much worse than it is now. Not in the language, and not in the religion business, and in civilizational choice. feature

And those of us who supported the Ukrainian choice not because of fashion or pragmatic reasons, but because (and this says Gebert) that prefer democracy – they are the Ukrainian Jews. Of course, the well known authoritarian leaders who sympathized with the Jews, such as Pilsudski. But when he died, Pilsudski, the Jews remembered how well they lived under Marshal – say, your grandfather died.

Yes, Jews have traditionally focused on power, we treat it loyally, sometimes entering into conflict with the aspirations of the people among whom we live. What to do – it is our history, our mentality. However, other Jews at all times defended democratic values ​​and participated in the national liberation movements, becoming part of one or another political nations.

– In our case, this process has become possible only after the Ukrainians themselves have changed their model for understanding the nation, rejecting ethnic nationalism, tailored on the patterns of the 1930s …

– It did not begin on the Maidan. I joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in 1978, become acquainted with a new generation of Ukrainian Nationalists, did not cave, otherwise I would not have joined them. Moses Fishbein poet in the 1980s worked in the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, as a Ukrainian nationalist …

– You’re talking about exceptions …

– It all starts with exceptions, and I was not the first. In the Polish uprising in 1794 involved not many Jews in the November Uprising 1830 there were more, and in 1863 – even more. When you can talk about the birth of Polish Jewry? Not in 1863, and at the end of the XVIII century. With Ukrainian Jews the same story. It’s a question of quality, not quantity. There are such people, and they are becoming more – Jews of Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa – this is not the Soviet Jews. Some of them are fighting in the Donbass, and they will go to the guerrilla groups, if will be in occupation.

It all starts with the exceptions in the 1970 Ukrainian Jews had very little, how little and Ukrainian national democrats, but the phenomenon has existed. Another thing is that the heroes of Ukraine, that is, the people who died for the independence of his people today, really, other. After Heavenly hundreds of pieces of Bandera and Shukhevych began to leave in the past.

Hundreds of children are dying today at the front – they are the new heroes of Ukraine and the new symbols of Ukrainian nationalism, although many of them do not even think that it is – Ukrainian nationalism.

– There are other forms of nationalism …

– And then there was all black, and now – not all white. And now there is an anti-Semite Levko Lukyanenko and 13 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, which we identify as the right-wing radicals, among them two men with neo-Nazi backgrounds – Aleksandr Mosiychuk and Dmitry Linko. I am convinced that the coalition does not include these characters, and I will fight for it as well as fighting for something that the leader of the Social-National Assembly Andrey Biletsky did not go to the deputies of the People’s Front list.

– Do not you think that this new identity is largely built on the denial, on confrontation with Russia. But aggression, sooner or later will end, and what remains?

– How to start identity? No one knows. But we know, for example, what happened in the 2012 elections, and why 10% voted for the radicals of the VO “Svoboda”. Not because they are right-wing radicals, it was a protest vote against Yanukovych. In any identity combined various factors – both “for” and “against.” I became the “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist” (with all the conventions of this definition) in 1978, because it was sympathetic to the National Democrats and the Communists did not like – it brought me to the dissident movement. Religious Zionists in Israel – against the creation of a Palestinian state and the expansion of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria – the series goes on.

Of course, in the absence of an external threat could start natural fragmentation of society, but it has never been united. In the meantime, the process of formation of the Ukrainian political nation and Ukrainian Jewry, as one of its components. The process itself testifies to the fact that Ukraine still Europeanized, Eurasian identity is arranged differently. The activity of the country is in Europe, the greater the Ukrainian Jews. And it’s not in the formal membership in the EU, it is important that the feeling of the people, their mentality, their identities were European – this is a very long process, but it has already started …

Interviewed by Maxim Sukhanov

Sourse, 18/05/2015

Ukrainians are not ripe for reconciliation

This year Ukraine celebrates the Day of Reconciliation for the first time and memory in honor of all the victims of the Second World War. Are Ukrainians really come to terms,  “Gordon” asked the chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosifa Ziselsa.

The idea of ​​reconciliation is popular at any time, but it can not be used in any situation to any two people, because in the conflict, which stretches since World War II, in fact, there are several dimensions.

Besides the Soviet-German, on the other hand – the French-English-German, even on our side had several dimensions: the Polish-German, Polish-Ukrainian, Ukrainian-German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian, even participated in the Carpathians in the battles with the UPA. There are a number of measurements, and most importantly – the Ukrainian-Soviet.

For example, I know of a case in 1962, when two Ukrainian women who were connected in the UPA, were shot in the bunker in the Ternopil region of the soldiers. In 1962, the year!

If we talk about today’s reconciliation, it is, on the one hand, civilization, because the Ukrainians decided that enough they have to live in the empire with the Eurasian civilization, and want to try the life of the European and then compared in 300 years, in which one It was better. On the other hand, this reconciliation is artificially caused by Russian aggression.

I do not think that we are ripe for reconciliation because the still very many forces did not satisfy his ambitions. If we talk about the dimensions that were during the Second World War, for them, of course, it has come, because we see a lot of progress on the line of Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation.

But it is not yet complete, as some Poles, for example, reacted nervously to the laws that have been adopted for the rehabilitation of UPA and other Ukrainian national organizations. This is a complex mishmash in which you need to understand. Find out about what exactly we are talking reconciliation. Young did not have these conflicts.

In Spain, where the civil war was prolonged, the family is still remembered, who had fought on which side. And this is not some kind of soft and hard memories. This is despite the fact that Franco (Spanish dictator Francisco Franco) has long put a monument to reconciliation for victims of the war on both sides.

In the southern states of the USA, despite the fact that since the civil war took place 150 years, also kept ancestral memory as to who fought for the North, and who – for the south. Although they live like the well, and the states do not fight each other, except that there is some confrontation during the election – more than one vote for Republicans, others – for the Democrats.

The issue of reconciliation is not so simple. Perhaps reconciliation at the level of Heads of State. Yushchenko (the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko), for example, has done a lot for this. But at the level of ordinary people a reconciliation does not take place so quickly.

In sociology, we see that in the last year the attitude of Ukrainians to the Poles has improved significantly, because millions of Ukrainians saw that the Poles actually help Ukraine in this complicated conflict. And as the Russian government not only did not help – she was the aggressor.

Veterans reluctance to shake hands says that a new conflict was superimposed on the old and on the contrary, it has strengthened rather than weakened.

Two of civilization people can live in peace, and they are in general, they lived more or less peacefully, despite the tension between the state structures, as long as there was no interference in each other’s identity. As soon as the intervention in the identity of other people, there is a huge energy instantly resistance.

Yet another dimension – the dimension of the Maidan – was for me as a reaction to a very significant part of Ukrainian society to try Yanukovych (fugitive ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych) and all his clique to bring us back to a state of the Eurasian identity, which we already do not want to be at as most of us.

This applies to the Donbas. This region has a different identity, and perhaps he did not want to live in a European way. If we are forced to compel him to do so, we get back the same great resistance power.

Decentralization is relevant if load it humanitarian, economic, financial and other aspects. Groisman (Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman) said several times that it is necessary to take into account the humanitarian aspect in decentralization. Historically. If we do not consider this aspect, it means that we do not spend real decentralization, it would be somewhat artificial.

Donbass within Ukraine should develop as he understands it in his own way. And the overall rate of the State of Ukraine, if it still exists, together with the Crimea and Donbas on the road to Europe must be sufficiently slow so as not to lose the regions that do not want to move in this direction. We need to talk, to explain, to try to continue to implement the values ​​that have more in Ukrainian society.

Sourse, 08/05/2015

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia

Iosif Zisels, human rights activist and head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Vaad, recalls with a smile, as in Soviet times it was called both a Zionist and a Ukrainian nationalist. Now, 40 years later, it again can be called zhidobanderovtsem, and the term has acquired a new meaning and a positive connotation.

In the Soviet Union he was a dissident, trying to defend the rights of Jews, and then joined the Ukrainian Helsinki human rights group. In 1978, on charges of defamation and anti-state activities Zissels received six years in a penal colony. Nine months before the liberation he was offered amnesty in exchange for a renunciation of political principles, but he refused.

Now, Soviet dissident and political prisoner, became one of the most influential Jews of Ukraine – he heads the largest Jewish organization, which is able at any time to lend a helping hand to every Jew of the country, engaged in the revival and strengthening of Jewish communities, their culture and religion, as well as helping wishing to exit in Israel.

Zissels well – known people abroad, where he is a member of the European and the World Jewish Congress, took over the functions of the public lobbyist Ukraine’s national interests. In his own words Zisels, he lives according to the covenant of the Jewish patriarch Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? “

“New time” meets Zissels in the office of the Association of Jewish Organizations, which is located in one of the academic buildings of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. It is a small unit into several rooms, on the door of which hung an advertisement for the recruitment of students to the specialization of Judaica. Zissels cordially invites you into his office and, distracted for a few minutes to say hello to each of his employees, invited to interview.

Ukrainians are very sensible nation, and therefore changes have been slow. Maidan two months stood and demanded concessions from the government. When I talk about that in France, there wondering how, two months? We would all smashed in two weeks!

Just Ukrainians other political temperament. We are moving at their own pace, which is slower than that of Poland or the Baltic countries. It must be taken as fact. Another problem is that our identity is dual, and expectations are always high, so some of us and sways from side to side. We believe that, if there was a revolution and change of power, all at once will change, but it is not.

Ukraine will of fate was between a European democracy and Eurasian authoritarian culture. And it is important to understand that if 20% of the population do not want to in Europe, this must somehow be considered. This is not a whim, just for them, Europe stranger. And we are encroaching on their identity, though hardly have that right.

Recall, Viktor Yanukovych wanted to encroach on our right to be Europeans – and the Maidan happened. The same thing is happening now. When threatened identity, even among people who are accustomed to submission, there is a huge energy resistance. We need to negotiate rather than fight.

Today in the country there is a desire to fight corruption, but it’s part of our culture. Corruption – is a part of Ukrainian identity. The law is not absolute for us, and its violation – not a sin, as in the West. And this shows our Eastern culture – there is not a law adopted in order to execute it, and that they enjoyed the strongest.

We used to live like this, we have formed a lot of secret agreements between government and society. For example, that the severity of the law is compensated by its failure. At low levels of wages authorities turned a blind eye to the fact that we steal, and the people turned a blind eye to the fact that steals power. In space, where there is no law with a capital letter, a person perceives any obstacle as a challenge, to solve the problem – that such obstacles put me, but I still find it, how to get around them.

So, to say, well, let’s fight against corruption, which many of us continue to steal – is meaningless. It is necessary to recognize the existence of tacit agreements and revise them. The struggle of society against corruption must be a struggle with ourselves.

Right now Ukrainian Jews began to realize themselves as Jews in Ukraine. In Europe, it happened in the late XIX century. In France, that’s when the Jews received equal rights with the French and called themselves the French law of Moses. We have this process takes place only now.

The Jews of Ukraine took a very active part in the Maidan. Were actively, perhaps, only the Crimean Tatars. And the Ukrainians have rated it – according to the latest sociological research, for the year related to the Jews and Crimean Tatars in the country has improved significantly.

We do not believe, how many Jews were on the Maidan, but we know that many of them then went to the front. The most paradoxical – some of them fought in the battalion of Azov, near the radical nationalists. In addition, in the east of the country and fight guys with Israeli passports. It is the volunteers who teach our soldiers. Israel has almost 100 years of war, and experience – most importantly, that he can pass Ukraine.

Israel does not help Ukraine officially because so fixated on their own security. In 2008, during the war in Georgia, Israel helped equip the Georgian air defense system. Then Georgia was hit by three Russian aircraft, and Israel received a warning from Russia that if he will continue to help Georgia, Iran gets a nuclear bomb, and Syria will face Russia’s S-300 missiles.

But while Israel – a democratic country, and the pressure of society can not be ignored. Most of the Israelis – people with democratic values, and they sympathize with Ukraine.

Ukrainians should not rely heavily on the support of the EU in the fight against Russia – will be less frustrating. Now, in many EU countries pre-election period. To support Ukraine, impose additional sanctions on Russia for them is to reduce the level of welfare of their countries and to expose their chances of winning at serious risk. Can help unless indirect pressure on Europe from the United States and Canada.

This is very similar to what happened in the 1930s. Germany regularly paid for oil and metals, and all wanted her to trade. Nobody wanted to see it as a monster, preferring to think that Germany will not fight with them, and with their competitors. After eight years of these errors have to pay a huge price.

We are no longer a peaceful country, and it will not be long. We need to get used to fight with minimal losses, rely on their own forces to protect their people, to rebuild the economy on a war footing, and not bury our heads in the sand. In Russia, too, there is no other option but to fight with Ukraine. They understand that with this government and with this partnership agreement is impossible.

Something we can count only when the disintegration processes in Russia will be intense. However, nobody in the world is not interested in this. What does it mean crumbling Russia? Huge fragments of the country armed with nuclear weapons. Putin, in spite of our curses, still controls the country. If only we have not climbed, prices would not be him. But he can not climb, the logic of empire – its meaning in the expansion.

I do not believe in the possibility of democratization of Russia. I spent two years in the Ural camps, lived in Moscow for more than a year. Russia within its present borders will never be a European country. There is no critical mass of people who can change the destiny of Russia. Moreover, not all countries should be European. The world rests on the balance sheet. And who will be the European world to balance China? Any democratization of Russia will lead to its disintegration, and this terrible future, with unpredictable consequences.

5 questions Iosifu Ziselsu:

– What event of your life you feel in charge?

– Of course, my participation in the dissident movement. I think all the most important thing happened then.

– What is your favorite city?

– I do not have a favorite book or a favorite city. I love Chernivtsi, where I spent my childhood, Kiev, in which I live. I like to be in Jerusalem and Barcelona.

– What move around the city?

– I have a Subaru Outback. This reliable, sturdy machine. Not very comfortable, but I like it.

– What is your monthly cost of living?

– I get a pension. More than ordinary people, but not enough to live a normal life. It is also engaged in consulting, working in a private firm. My problem is not how to provide for themselves, but rather where to find the money for our activities. Well, I have four kids that even adults, but they still need help. Perhaps today I spend at least $ 1 thousand. Per month.

– What do you seek?

– As anyone – to self-realization, once satisfied all other requirements. And I think I am quite good to deal with it.

Sourse, 02/05/2015

I do not think that without the consent of the inhabitants the city will be renamed

Without the consent of the inhabitants of the city should not be renamed, he said in a comment  “GORDON”  chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels.

“I’m not sure that without the decision of the local community, you can rename the city. But you’ve seen over the last 23 years, at least one law, which is performed in its entirety, just as it was written? We live in a space where the laws are not in order to fulfill them. laws of the people do not obey the laws of the people do not respect the laws of the people do not follow. They use the laws to achieve some of their goals. I do not think there will be a city renamed without the consent of residents. This should be without hysterics, and in a peaceful discussion. I do not think that without a Announce the masses it can be done then we will get additional negative effects, which have enough “, -. Zissels said.

There is a clash of two civilizations, so think about what the consequences will ban communist symbols more correctly, he said.

“There’s a novel in which the hero is a young man seeking a countess, she was refused, he turns the whole world, conquering all of Europe, and when the Countess is ready him to give up, it turns out that it is – an elderly woman and he no longer needed so. . and with that we now live in a turbulent time, we have a war on, and not just between the separatists and the Ukrainians, but a war between two civilizations -. European and Eurasian It’s so powerful collision, what to think, what consequences will result in a ban of symbols, I it seems to be incorrect. I do not think th that it will lead to some serious consequences to the positive or to the negative “- Zissels said.

However, in his opinion, for many people, the victims of the regime, this decision will be important.

“I have not yet comprehended once the consequences of yesterday’s solutions. I dreamed about it many years ago, because he was a dissident and was imprisoned in Soviet times for political activities, but it’s been more than 20 years. Although many people for whom life was a struggle with the communist system, it is very important that finally at least the end of life to get satisfaction from the fact that these misanthropic ideology abolished and banned, “- said the expert.

The honey, he said, the current law many inaccuracies that should be corrected.

“East is bad knows what the UPA, and the West does not speak what the UPA. It was a long time ago. So many myths of positive and negative during the Soviet period was unwound. The very acronym UPA with a hyphen, which created the Soviet ideology, did not exist in nature . The law had a lot of confusion -. terminological, factual, grammatical Before this law was passed, I was just going to make corrections I have quite an old man, to know how to be called in reality there are mixed up the names of organizations…History is no such organization “OUN” Yes “OUN” one, is “OUN” Second, there is a “OUN” third -. There are three “OUN” – Zissels said.

“Live – see very little consequence were other laws, I think, will also be with these Someone uses them for next separatist sentiments, someone on the contrary uses the dominance of pro-European sentiment in the end still everything goes and vanishes… “- he concluded.

Recall, April 9, the Verkhovna Rada  adopted  a law recognizing the communist regime 1917-1991 criminally and banning communist symbols.

The adopted law about the condemnation of the communist regime  contained  rule to rename the settlements, which are named in honor of the communist-era figures.

Sourse, 10/04/2015

Today, it is a conflict between civilization and the negation of civilization

What is happening today – a revision of the entire set of rules established in the world after the Second World War.

Iosif Zisels, chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups, – performance at the channel marathon  UKRLIFE.TV  on “The international implications of the terrorist attacks in France”:

There are two important systemic factor that differentiates Western Europe from the East and, in particular, from the Ukraine.

The first factor – is the presence of entities associated with the radical Islamic movement, they are in Western Europe, they do not exist in Eastern Europe. Perhaps, as we move to Europe they will, but for now it is not.

The second factor – the movement, fashionable in the left intelligentsia, in which human rights, in particular, the protection of the rights of Palestinians leads to anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment.

Sourse, 12/01/2015

The level of anti-Semitism in Ukraine is not increased

Do you see now Ukraine growth of anti-Semitism and xenophobia – to this and other questions in an interview with DW said the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Iosif Zisels.

Iosif Zisels – Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the head of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, which unites 15 national groups. In an interview with DW Zissels she told whether there is in Ukraine, the rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and also responded to a number of other issues.

DW: In Russia, many say that with the advent of the current Ukrainian politicians in the country have intensified anti-Semitic sentiments. Is it so?

Iosif Zisels: I was one of the leaders of the Jewish community can assure that there is no – not only sharp, but generally no increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Ukraine. We are very carefully and attentively fix every incident, every speech, every case of an attack, and every act of vandalism. And this level – as last year. Despite the tumultuous events that took place on the Maidan in Kiev, on the military operations in the south-east of Ukraine, the level of anti-Semitism in the country increases. It was and remains one of the lowest in Eastern Europe.

– And what is the level of anti-Semitism in Russia?

– As regards the level of anti-Semitism in Russia – it is too short. Just as in Ukraine, he measured a dozen or two dozen cases per year. But Russia – authoritarian country with underdeveloped democratic institutions. And in this authoritarian model of existence can be played “Jewish card”. In Ukraine, too, is to be feared that the state wants to use it, but fortunately, there is control belongs to the civil society.

– What can you say about the allegations in the city address that the current government allegedly tolerate manifestations of neo-Nazism?

– First of all, it is a question of terminology. I think really understand what Nazism, only to narrow specialists. They are our experts, with whom we have worked for many years. In Ukraine, as in any other country, there are right-wing movements, some of which resemble the neo-Nazi. But they are in Europe. Right-wing parties have almost all European countries, and they are much more dangerous than what we see today in Ukraine.

So, the party “Freedom” is not passed to the new Ukrainian parliament, which was in the previous Parliament when Yanukovych was there 37 mandates. This demonstrates the falling level of interest in the radical demagogy of this order. Lyashko passed Radical Party, which is very different: it is less than the national radical demagogy, but more general radical demagoguery. In majority districts it took a few people who can be considered right-wing radicals with aspects of neo-Nazism. Very few of them: 423 MP – about 10. That is less than it was in the last Parliament, where there were 37.

But I think that the concerns of the Parliament, there was a general shift of the entire spectrum a little to the right. Because such a national-democratic parties as Block Petro Poroshenko, “Popular Front” and “self-help” – are themselves center-right. That is, the parliament’s center of gravity has shifted slightly to the right, and is a tribute to wartime. Requirements radicals is not particularly noticeable.

– The fact that the Parliament did not pass the “Freedom” and “Right Sector”, can be considered a success of Ukrainian democracy?

– In fact, these parties were radical demagogic. Moreover, these were the projects financed and designed to split the opposition with Yanukovych’s government. That is, in part, they were man-made projects. They can not be considered as such natural, organic manifestations of the right of the spectrum, as can be seen in many countries.

In Ukraine, the main control of the right-wing radicals has not the government, as is the case in Russia, and civil society. It itself copes with this low level of pravoradikalizma in the country, making it much better than the state. And it is – a guarantee that this rate will not be great.

– Earlier you said that “right-wing and neo-Nazi forces” involved in the conflict in the Donbass, from both sides? You can name specific examples?

– On the Russian side, according to our experts, fights about 200 neo-Nazis. Among them are, first of all, “Russian National Unity”. This is a known neo-Nazi organization in Russia, which has its own recruitment offices, training camps for militants and separate connections on the front. Others – such as, for example, the former party Limonov, is “dyed” in other colors. It is important to note also that the present or volunteers or mercenaries from European right-wing neo-Nazi parties. They, too, are fighting on the Russian side.

On the Ukrainian side, too, there is a man 30-40 – skinheads from the right-wing group “Social-National Assembly”, “Patriots of Ukraine”, for which we are following closely. In this regard, first of all, we may note the battalion “Azov”, where there may be even a few dozen people from the “Social-National Assembly.” Andrey Beletsky – the commander of the battalion (now it is a regiment) – the head of “Social-National Assembly.” However, he argues that the war changed their ideology.

– From what sources do you get information?

– We have a number of experts of the European level. We use their data, and trust them, as for many years working with them. Moreover, our data are taken from the report of the State Department’s anti-Semitism in the world and the OSCE report on the monitoring and analysis of anti-Semitism in the world. I myself 25 years engaged in the construction of networks for monitoring and analysis of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

Sourse, 06/11/2014

Israeli President raised on Russian historiography

The head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, a well-known human rights activist and Soviet dissident, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Iosif Zisels in an interview with “Gromadska radio” stated that he could not agree with the speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. He accused the Ukrainians in the complicity in the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Second World War, informs eizvestia.com .

“He’s an old man. He bears the stereotypes of the past, historiography, which today is not considered objective. He was brought up in the Russian historiography. Israel, at least the older generation still lives under its influence. It does not reflect the opinion of the young. After all, the young religious Israelis have stood on the Maidan. These views he expressed today – it’s yesterday, “- said Zissels.

He recalled the visit to Israel of the third president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko in 2007.

“The delegation came to Yad Vashem and asked to show documents that indicate the involvement of Roman Shukhevych (OUN leader during World War II) to such crimes. But no one was able to show. This stereotype does not provide evidence, if everyone knows it. No, not everyone knows that. For example, I do not trust that it is not necessary to confirm the archival authentic documents “- Zissels said.

He noted that the OUN and UPA fighters fought for Ukraine, and they can not wear the stereotypical labels.

September 27 during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada parliamentary hearings devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that the Ukrainians have been involved in the repression against the Jews during the Second World War. “Many of the accomplices of crimes were Ukrainians. And among them highlights the OUN, which mocked Jews, killed them, and in many cases, were given to the Germans. It is also true that there were more than 2.5 thousand Righteous among the Nations “-. Said Rivlin.

Commenting on the Israeli president’s speech, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Vladimir Vyatrovich said Rivlin repeated Soviet myth of the OUN involvement in the Holocaust. The head of the OUN Bogdan Chervak ​​Rivlin called the statement “a spit in the soul of the Ukrainians” and urged him not to watch Russian television, as it is “not just bad, but also indecent.”

During World War II, occupied Kiev Nazi troops used the tract Babi Yar, in the northwestern part of the city as a place of mass executions of civilians, most of whom were Jews. September 29, 1941 the entire Jewish population was obliged to come to the Babi Yar, where until September 30, was shot more than 33 thousand. Man on the orders of the occupation administration. According to various estimates, at Babi Yar were killed by 70 thousand. Up to 200 thousand. Man.

Sourse, 29/09/2016

The system rotted from within and dognila before disbanding

Soviet-era dissident Yosif Zisels told why refused amnesty in the Gorbachev era, what regrets today about whether modern Ukraine may repeat the mistakes of the Soviet regime

Yosif Zisels – human rights activist, dissident, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. In 1978 he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He spent six years in prisons on charges of “slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system.”

Every dissident own destiny. For example, a man wrote a poem. As my friend, the Ukrainian dissident, a former teacher in the Ternopil region kultprosvetuchilische Mikola Grobal, wrote a poem called “Dumi moї, Dumi”. For this was sent to prison. For the poem. Simply laid out thoughts on paper. Or Semyon Gluzman, which persecuted for their professional activities. He made the correspondence psychiatric examination for General Pyotr Grigorenko and mathematician Leonid Plyushch and promulgated it.

The dissent came for different reasons: national, democratic, moral, emotional. The reasons were not so important to us. Most importantly, we together fought criminal imperial communist system.

I actually grew up without parents. So I have virtually no such an important element of the psyche as a “social instinct of self-preservation,” usually brings up children in a normal Jewish family. Simply no one to create it. I started very early to read samizdat. I think it is no coincidence. The fact that we were surrounded by then, and what we have been taught do not match. Not everyone is dissonance when life does not match with the pictures, which are described in textbooks. Some quietly absorbed in itself is doublethink, I called it “social schizophrenia.” Some do it quietly. Some resisted.

The Soviet government constantly demanded confirmation of loyalty. A variety of ways. Those who have studied, passed the party’s history, scientific communism. Was political information was the Komsomol, and other institutions, which are constantly monitored by the people through an extensive network. Not only controlled the KGB people were the party, trade union, Komsomol and Pioneer organizations. And I went multilevel selection. Revealed disgruntled, obstinate. Once a person has manifested itself, it was a signal that we should look at it.

I went to the dissidence almost deliberately. I drew it. I wanted to know the truth about life, about history, about relationships. And find the right answers in samizdat, as permitted by the literature is almost impossible to find the truth. It was important that others know the truth. Not immediately, at first reading itself, and then you want to share with others. Then you become it a little.

An important stimulus was originally a private confrontation lies and violence. You try to realize his need for truth is not simply to distribute this literature. Then there is the need to sign any appeals, appeals to protest against human rights violations. I’m talking about the way. Some stop at reading the literature, some – at that distribute other books, some do not sign the appeal and appeal, and others pass this hurdle and continue to develop. Then there was a real help to political prisoners, in which I was involved.