RUSLAN ZABILY TOURS N. AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES, VISITS UKRAINIAN COMMUNITIES, MEETS WITH GOVERNMENT LEADERS
Toronto, Ontario, October 30, 2012… Efforts by Ukrainian researchers and academics to restore Ukraine’s historical memory and national identity was the focus of a tour by Ruslan Zabily involving six North American universities, nine Ukrainian communities and meetings with high ranking government officials. Ruslan Zabily is Director of the National Museum Memorial to the Victims of Occupation Regimes "Prison at Lonsky” in Lviv, Ukraine. The now Museum was used as a prison by the NKVD-KGB and Gestapo. It held political prisoners, innocent men, women and, even, children - Poles, Jews and, mostly, Ukrainians. Today, it is a prestigious government museum, memorial and research institution.
The two week tour in October 2012 was sponsored by the member organizations of the Canadian Conference in Support of Ukraine (CCSU): League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC), League of Ukrainian Canadian Women (LUCW), Ukrainian Youth Association of Canada (CYM), Society of Veterans of UPA, and Homin Ukrainy/Ukrainian Echo. The national tour was supported by the Semen and Olha Bida Fund of the BCU Foundation and was under the auspices of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC).
Ruslan Zabily lectured on “The Current State of Archives, Museums, and Academic Freedom in Ukraine” at the University of Manitoba, University of Saskatchewan, University of Alberta, University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, and Harvard University. In his presentation Mr. Zabily explained: “The true measure of progress in the democratization of societies affected by totalitarianism is their openness, willingness for dialogue, condemnation of crimes against humanity, and honoring the victims and those who defended the nation and fought for freedom. However, the current Ukrainian government does not seem intent on moving from declarations of European values to their implementation. On the contrary, instead of a step forward in overcoming the effects of totalitarianism, it takes two steps back to the Soviet past. Access to archival materials of the Soviet era is being curtailed, the prospect for historical research on the USSR and the Ukrainian liberation movement, as well as the policy of national memory is being undermined and attempts to harass the academic community are increasing.”
Mr. Zabily knows of these things from personal experience and from those of his colleagues that he also described in his university lecture. When Mr. Zabily was seized by Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) agents in September 2010, academics in Ukraine and across the world signed petitions in his defence. Ukrainian Canadian organizations, including from the CCSU issued letters and statements in his defence, and held protests, including at the Ukrainian Embassy in Ottawa.
Mr. Zabily spoke of these and other efforts to thwart the process of overcoming the totalitarian past and of the struggle to restore Ukraine’s national memory at community town hall meetings held in Brooklyn, New York, Chicago, Illinois, Cleveland, Ohio, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta, Montreal, Quebec, and Toronto and Etobicoke, Ontario. Many local and provincial organizations sponsored and helped organize Mr. Zabily’s visit, including in Canada, local affiliates of the CCSU, and provincial and local chapters of the UCC. In the US sponsoring organizations included the Organization in Defence of Four Freedoms for Ukraine and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America Chapters in Illinois and Ohio.
In his community talk, Zabily spoke about the work at the Lonsky Street Prison Museum, its expositions, educational programs and research. He also spoke about his colleagues and his own plight. However, his focus was on a major project to digitize archival documents and make them accessible to researchers through the D-Archive. This is an endeavour by a consortium of educational and research institutions in Ukraine to bring into the public domain documents from GPU, NKVD, KGB, Gestapo, and SS archives dealing with the Ukrainian liberation movement in the 20th century, the Genocide/Holodomor of 1932-33 and political repression. The consortium includes the I. Franko University in Lviv, the Centre for Research on the Liberation Struggle, the National Memorial Museum Lonsky Street Prison, and the Centre for Study on State-building in Ukraine at the National University of the Kyiv Mohila Academy (NaUKMA). Through the D-Archive, researchers will now be able to review documents over the internet at www.avr.org.ua. and have open access to a vast database in a special reading rooms at the "Prison at Lonsky" Museum, I. Franko University in Lviv, and at NaUKMA. Once compete, the data base will contain over 1 million pages of archival documents. As noted by Mr. Zabily, these efforts are in direct confrontation with what Russia is developing to justify its post-Soviet imperial nation-statehood, including glorification of its Soviet past and even Stalinism. According to Zabily, this in of itself should be alarming to the world. However, even more disturbing to him and his colleagues is that Russia is imposing its historical revisionist interpretation of the 20th century on Ukraine and other countries through subversive entities and programs like“Rusky Mir”.
In addition to university and community venues, Mr. Zabily held meetings with members of the Canadian Parliament and was received by the Right Honorable Stephan Harper, Prime Minister of Canada. On October 16, 2012, the Canada Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group (CUPFG) hosted a lunch with Mr. Zabily. MP Robert Sopuck, Chairman of the CUPFG, welcomed Mr. Zabily and noted his record of promoting academic freedom and standing up for human rights. On his part, Mr. Zabily expressed his deep gratitude for the support of the Canadian government for democracy and civil society in Ukraine. He also recalled how appreciative he is for the efforts of MP James Bezan, MP Mark Warawa, and Senator Rainelle Andreychuk, all of whom visited the Lonsky Prison Museum. He also thanked the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development for inviting him to testify at the hearings on Ukraine. And, .he made special reference to Prime Minister Harper’s visit to the Lonsky Street Prison Museum and how much he looked forward to seeing the Prime Minister later in the week. .
The lunch concluded with Mr. Zabily presenting MP Ted Opitz with a framed certificate of appreciation from the Museum for his work over the course of the past two years to keep the situation with regard to academic freedom in Ukraine before his colleagues in parliament and members of the cabinet. This included Prime Minister Harper’s visit to the Lonsky Street Prison Museum and the hearings on Ukraine held in Parliament in March 2012. Those hearings continued in Ukraine in May this year, where Ruslan Zabily was asked to testify. In its final report on Ukraine to the House of Commons, dated June 2012, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development addressed Mr. Zabily’s case, his integrity and courage:
“One particularly troubling case that was brought to the Committee’s attention occurred at the “Prison on Lonsky” Museum, which is a museum and research centre located at the site of a notorious prison where political prisoners had been held during the Soviet years. The director described the harassment he and his colleagues have suffered in detail. In one incident, Mr. Zabily was apprehended on the street and interrogated for hours. He was asked about the liberation movement, the documents he works with, his contacts abroad, etc. Materials were confiscated and it was recommended to him that he not pursue his studies. He told the Committee that, despite the pressure he was facing, if he had kept everything quiet and agreed to hand over his work, something similar would have happened to one of his colleagues who is also studying the 20th century history of Ukraine. So, he made a choice and discussed in public what had happened to him. To Mr. Zabily, this is one of the key achievements of the young democracy in Ukraine - youth are less afraid than their elders to go to city squares and stand up for their rights.”
Before departing Canada, Mr. Zabily was honored with a meeting with Prime Minister Harper. Mr. Harper greeted Mr. Zabily and members of his delegation of Ukrainian Canadian community leaders including, Orest Steciw, President of the LUC, Adriana Buyniak Wilson, President of the LUCW, Yaroslav Balan, Chairman, Canada Ukraine Committee of the UCC, Borys Potapenko, Executive Director of the LUC and, Taras Zalusky, Executive Director of the UCC and Chief of Staff of the Canadem Election Observer Mission to Ukraine. The meeting was also attended by MP Ted Opitz, Senator Raynell Andreychuk who also was Chief of Mission of the Canadem Election Observer Mission to Ukraine, Foreign Minister, John Baird, Minister for International Cooperation, Julian Fantino, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Cooperation, MP Lois Brown. In attendance as correspondent for Forum TV was Lisa Shymko, who also is National Vice-President of the LUWC.
Following the meeting with Mr. Zabily, Prime Minister Harper met with several hundred Canadem observers who were leaving for Ukraine the same day. In his speech to the observers, the Canadian Prime Minister made reference to Ruslan Zabily:
“In Lviv I visited the Lonsky Street Prison Museum, and I want to tell you a little bit about that, because it made a deep impression on me. It’s a complex of nondescript buildings in the middle of the city. Nearby attractive houses and small businesses crowd against each other as they would in any Canadian down. Yet for decades, this was the place where Ukrainian freedom went to die. Here communist secret police interrogated, tortured and subjected thousands of Ukrainian men, women and even children to the most horrifying cruelties. This is the terrible memory that the Lonsky Street Prison Museum preserves.
I therefore find it deeply ironic and severely disturbing that the museum’s director is now himself harassed by the present day Ukrainian secret police. The charge is revealing state secrets, the secrets, apparently, of what went on at Lonsky Street in Stalin’s day. This brave young man’s name is Ruslan Zabily. Ruslan is with us today. I met him during my visit to the museum. I’m glad he could join us, and we should all welcome and acknowledge him here today. Where is he? Ruslan? (APPLAUSE) Earlier this year, Ruslan told his story to a Canadian Parliamentary delegation visiting Ukraine. He spoke of how he was pulled off the street and held incommunicado for 14 hours. Interrogated, asked about the liberation movement, his contacts abroad, how two years after they were removed, the museum’s computer’s files and information had not been returned. Friends, in such rights abuses as these, we see the darker side of Ukraine’s history, a darker side that threatens its future.”
