The formula of struggle

As a dissident Miroslav Marinović, who was convicted by a Soviet court for lying and anti-Soviet propaganda, it became one of the most influential people in today’s Ukraine and the head of one of the best universities.

In the Perm prison, a group of prisoners as a heated argument with a supervisor. Parties clearly do not find a common language. And then passed them prisoner. “Oh, so he will not lie! Come, please!” – refers to the prisoner overseer Miroslav Marinović. The irony lies in the fact that the Ukrainian dissident who had the reputation in prison honest and uncompromising man was sentenced for lying and anti-Soviet agitation.

Marinovic, known as an anti-Soviet, Soviet special services and a cheat, really would lie not. Being on the side of truth – his credo. Since the end of 1960 – even from his student years – the principles of life and a heightened sense of justice forced him to defend the rights in a regulated framework of the Soviet regime the country.

he said that even in the most terrible moments when he thought he was dying, never regretted his position. “Good does not win every battle, but winning the war – now says Marinovic – This perspective was in me from the beginning. I’ll be on the side of good, even if I lose.”

Now Marinovic stands good in the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU), which is cited as the most progressive universities in the country. He – the permanent vice-rector of the institution, which is just 13 years of existence, has become one of the best sites for the training of journalists and business executives. According to international research firm Hay Group, UCU among the top five Ukrainian universities, whose popularity is growing rapidly.

In addition, the dissident works in the so-called Nestorovskoy group that develops after euromaidan vision of Ukraine’s mission. The document, which happens as a result, will form the basis of the country strategy. A similar experience in intellectual is already there: in the early 2000s, he developed a similar document for the city, which as a result has helped him become one of the most successful Russian cities.

The right to the word

At the time of the conclusion – seven years in prison and five years of exile – Marinovic was only 27 years old. By the time he has already weighed in dissident circles of Ukraine, as well as an impressive list of sins in the folder of the KGB investigators.

Collect dirt on the young Ukrainian nationalist state security began in the years of his studies at the Lviv Polytechnic, where he had the imprudence to criticize the Soviet system. The first serious warning Marinovic was in 1973, when with friends laid flowers at the monument to Taras Shevchenko in Kiev. “Crime” was that he paid tribute to the officially recognized poet, who died in Russia, on May 22 – the day of his reburial in Ukraine. The commemoration of that date, the Soviet secret service was considered a manifestation of nationalism.

With Shevchenko linked another case, glorified Marynovych far outside dissident circles. In 1976, he and his friend Nikolay Matusevich during the celebration of another anniversary of the day Shevchenko’s birth, which took place in the Kiev Philharmonic, took the stage and sang Zapovit. The official program, which consisted of songs about “how good to live in a Soviet country,” and read the diary of Shevchenko in Russian, the main product of Ukrainian poet not included.

“The evening was held in Russian, and it was a slap in the face to all Ukrainian,” – explains our original Marinovic indignation: he just could not tolerate such abuse. After leaving the stage, he is a bit made secure by saying that Zapovit Shevchenko loved to Vladimir Lenin. However, the safety net has not helped. When he began to play the piano, one who arranges concerts shouted: “The concert is over!” But the audience picked up Zapovit, and when turned off the light, began to sing louder.

“It was a complete defeat of those who ran and screamed that the concert is over,” – says Marinovic.

When it was over, out of the Philharmonic Friends feared, besides the entrance stood a car, and they assumed that it sit gebisty. But right there were people who came to the concert. They surrounded the brave men and conducted to the subway.

Then the KGB Marynovych not touched. “I’m happy to have been involved in at this point – he speaks of those events is now -. Such gestures have to be among the nations, they must be equal to the Ukrainians, because it maintains people in some valuable positions, gives examples of courage.”

Arrested a young dissident in 1977. “Early in the morning the doorbell rang insistently, – recalls the day the arrest of Tamil Matusevich, the sister of his best friend Marynovych, in the apartment where they lived then -. At first, we did not open, because they understood who came, but they rang and rang.”

To arrest he was ready. By the time Marinovic was already six months in the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, human rights activities. Then there was only ten brave men who gathered evidence of violations of the rights of compatriots and tried to establish the accreditation of foreign journalists in Kyiv.

“It was the dethronement of the Soviet myth, in which millions of people believed in the west, – says about the activities of the Helsinki Group Iosif Zisels, dissident, who was also a member -. We have shown that beautiful façade lying behind him – blood and crime.”

However, the Soviet court interpreted these activities under the anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda and denounced Marynovych the maximum sentence – seven years in prison.

In the camp among the political, he quickly began to enjoy prestige, says Oles Shevchenko, who was imprisoned with Marinovic (later was a member of the Verkhovna Rada of I convocation), “came to him, to solve a conflict, difficult situation or just for advice” .

Shevchenko recalls the joint celebration of Easter in 1981. On the eve of the guards warned the prisoners that the religious rite forbidden. “But we brought bread from the dining room, and in the barracks we had jam and sunflower oil – says Shevchenko -. Of these, we blinded the passover.” For this freedom of all prisoners then sent to a punishment cell.

However Marinovic not silent: he wrote a letter to the Pope on violations of the rights of believers in Soviet prisons. “Write it was impossible, so he” wrote “his head – says Shevchenko -. And then transferred to the paper and handed it to chance.”

Surprisingly, Marynovych letter to the pontiff came, and he even held a prayer service in support of Soviet political prisoners.

Varlam Shalamov, the last Stalinist camps, wrote about them as a place where the “dehumanization”. Marinovic, on the other hand, recalls his life behind barbed wire as a time of intense spiritual growth. Firstly, in the camp, he said, he had gathered a brilliant intellectual society, including writers Nikolai Rudenko and Eugene Sverstyuk poet Zenoviy Krasivskaya.

Under their influence Marinovic started writing poems in prison, and prepared a book of the Gospel of God’s fool, who released after release. Now he argues that it is in detention found faith in God.

God willing

Return Marynovych to Ukraine coincided with the beginning of perestroika. Then he began to study theology. First there were articles on inter-church peacefulness in the newspaper of the city of Drohobych, where he settled after the conclusion. “The end of the ’80s – it was a time of religious conflicts, – he explains the choice of the theme -. I have suffered from it, I saw it absurd, unwise and unpatriotic, prejudicial to the independence of Ukraine.”

Marynovych later invited to read lectures about the history of religion in Drohobych Pedagogical University. But after studying the course of history of religion in the United States, he established and headed the Institute of Religion and Society at the Lviv Theological Academy.

In parallel, he begins to work in the department of Ukrainian Association of Amnesty International and shrugs off suggestions go into politics – he repeatedly offered to run for the MPs. Marynovych not even managed to persuade his friend, Vyacheslav Chornovil, a dissident and political prisoner, and later – the founder of the People’s Movement of Ukraine.

Now Marinovic busy that loves – scientific work at UCU. Lectures, he does not read, but from time to time speaks to students with special inspiring “sermons”. “He – our living conscience, – said Otar Dovzhenko, a journalist and professor of journalism of the university -. His presence will ensure that the Criminal Code there is no corruption, no gotchas.”

When Marinovic UCU has become one of the most dynamic universities in the country – it is constantly evolving, says journalist and media expert Evgeny Hlibovytsky, worked with Marinovic first in Univskoy group, which developed the vision of Lvov, and now – in Nestorovskoy group, which is working on a strategic vision of Ukraine.

“The group Univskoy he did an unimaginable amount of work, – enthusiastically tells Hlibovytsky -. And such a man of his status can be neglected is his religious setting Marinovic did not want to practice arrogance…”

Many familiar with it people talk about his amazing honesty and inner freedom. And talking to HB, Marinovic remembered the story of how the nearly renounced his beliefs. It was in Kiev in the early ’70s. Young Marinovic a long time could not get a job because of the intervention of the KGB. Once he was an acquaintance invited to try on a prestigious location – the editorial board of the Soviet Ukrainian Encyclopedia.

“And I’m going to an interview and say to myself, in a whisper, that if I would take on the job, May 22 at the monument to Shevchenko will not go” – is now recognized Marinovic.

He is now with shame recalls the case and adds that it is convinced that no compromise will not survive – a characteristic feature of the Soviet man. This way of thinking is still working, and that he is the reason that the country can not change radically, he says in the conclusion of the conversation. The problem of the fate of the country today for Marynovych – the most important.

Sourse, 21/08/2015