About Valerii Marchenko – this forgotten hero of Ukraine

Dutch sovietologist, human rights activist and secretary general of the international organization Global Initiative on Psychiatry, a teacher of Georgian universities, Lithuania and Ukraine Robert Van Vorenus about Valerie Veniaminovich Marchenko, a journalist known Ukrainian dissident, fighter for Ukrainian independence, actively opposed the Russification of Ukrainian national culture, a member of Ukrainian Helsinki group, double-Permian camps of political prisoners, who died 37 years October 7, 1984 in Leningrad regional prison hospital.Ivana Gaaza.

I recently watched a documentary that a friend advised me. The film, entitled “Pryamostoyanie: Valeriy Marchenko» produced by state-owned company “Culture” – a documentary film about one of the least known Ukrainian heroes who died at the hands of the Soviet authorities, Valeria Marchenko. The film is likely to look only a few, and then he will be on the shelf, and Valeriy Marchenko will remain forgotten – as well as after his death in 1984.

The people, who is recovering after the uprising of 2013-2014, which ended in bloodshed on the Maidan, and culminating in an undeclared, but it is a real war with Russia, needs heroes, and Independence, as well as the war in the East, creating such characters – both real and fake. It happens in life – some people will remember the characters, although this status and did not deserve, some become heroes by chance, and some are really heroes. And some of these real heroes overlooked because of their modesty, lack of self-love or extravagance, or because they have become heroes in the wrong moment in history.

Valeriy Marchenko clearly did not consider himself a hero, and at the time did not consider his actions heroic. Valery was a journalist, to do what did 99.9% of his colleagues, he was telling the truth and opposed the Sovietization and Russification of Ukrainian society. When almost all floating down the river, he said that he thought he wrote what he wanted to write, and, most importantly, criticized the regime when he thought it necessary. And for that he paid with his life.

In 1973 he was arrested for the first time at the age of 26 years, for a number of items which are called anti-Soviet regime, and Marchenko received six years imprisonment and two years of exile. He returned to Kiev in the midst of Andropov repression aimed at the destruction of dissident movements. Most of the returning prisoners tried to lie to ride out the storm, but Valery. He immediately resumed his activities, joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and the determined his fate. Soviet justice was swift: in October 1983, Valery was re-arrested for anti-Soviet agitation, this time as a repeat offender.

During the trial, he could barely stand because of poor health. Valery, who was suffering from nephritis, knew that awarded him fifteen years have been, in effect, a death sentence. He even told the court that he could give and less – still he would not live. And indeed, on the way to the camp, he was seriously ill, was transferred to the Central Prison Hospital in Leningrad and died there on October 7, 1984. Despite the fact that the hospital across the street was the equipment for kidney dialysis, the authorities refused to transfer him there. They want the death of the victim.

I remember those days very well, and my sister is very worried about the fate of Valery. In just a few years before she asked me to find her a Soviet political prisoner, with whom she would like to correspond, and fate led me to Valeria. Why him? I do not know. How could I know that his life would end this way, and how was I to know that he was the best friend of man, which I did today, it is my best friend?

Perhaps I chose it because of the sadness in the eyes on the few photos that we had, or because of his youth, which was evident in other photos. The fact that my sister and Valery began to actively correspond, and he became a member of our family – a relative living far away.

Days when he died in Leningrad, were filled with anxiety, phone calls through friends of friends, receive the latest news from Valery mother, Nina Mikhailovna. And then the last terrible news: Valery was dead, killed by a brutal repressive system.

The film is made all these memories come back, but he did not do just that. He made me realize once again how human memory is short, and that sometimes a person’s destiny determines the minor decision. I am sure that Valery had never thought about how it will remember – he just did what he was supposed to. And his poor mother who lost her son and lived for decades with the pain that he was killed at such a young age, found comfort in the knowledge that some people cherished his memory as well as she did. She also became family to us, and the memory of her kindness, her determination and will power is still with me; they are expensive to people who were close to Valery.

And Ukraine? He remembers whether Ukraine had lost its great son in 1984, at a time when many who are now in power, have decided to keep a low profile, but instead began to collaborate with the Soviet regime? I’m afraid not. For them, Valery useless. It’s too clean, it does not use their selfish purposes.

Perhaps it is time to change everything, to revive the memories of those who have been forgotten, who gave their lives for the country, which was the dream and to the creation of which has not survived. But it is also symbolic: a country that is not yet in a position to honor the memory of those who opposed the totalitarian regime, are destroying the country for decades, and the mentality of the people has not got out of a nightmare. In front of her is a long way – not through the political game or lustration, but after digesting its past and accepting that we all have huge wheels of the Soviet machine.

For Valeria is probably the better – I doubt that he would like to become an object of political games to be used for the sake of other people’s ideals. He lived his life and died in silence. But he continues to live in those who loved him, to those whose lives he influenced his lyrics and his love for his country and people.

Sourse, 12/01/2016