76-17-A4
- Main Page \ Reagan Radio Commentaries \ 1977
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Ukraine[edit]
Transcript[edit]Representatives of 35 countries, all signatories of the Helsinki agreement, met in Belgrade to decide whether they were living up to the term of that agreement. By way of a reminder, the Helsinki pact was something the Soviet Union had wanted for more than three decades. In effect it was an acceptance by all the other nations, including the U.S., that the Soviets could keep the several countries we call Iron Curtain satellites, which they took by force, in violation of more than 50 promises made during and after World War II. We rationalized our signing away of freedoms (not ours to give) on the grounds of one clause in the document wherein all signatories agreed to provide basic human rights for their own citizens. These are rights we take for granted. The everyday right to go where we want to go, say what we want to say, and be presumed innocent of wrong doing unless and until guilt can be proved beyond reasonable doubt. If the Belgrade meeting didn't take up the names of Rudenko and Tykhy (among many others) then it only compounded the hypocrisy of signing the Helsinki agreement in the first place. I mention these two because they were being tried in a Soviet court at the time the Belgrade meeting was held. Mykola Rudenko and Oleksiy Tykhy are Ukrainians. We tend to forget that U.S.S.R. stands for United Soviet Socialist Republics, and that some of those so-called republics are every bit as much captive states as are Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and the others; none more so than the Ukraine. Solzhenitsyn has written that the great majority of prisoners in the Soviet Gulag are Ukrainians. It would seem that love of freedom still lives in the Ukraine. Immediately after the Helsinki agreement was signed, a group was formed in Kiev to promote the implementation of the accords. Mykola Rudenko was chairman; Oleksiy Tkyhy a member. They were arrested last February 5th and held without charges until their trial which only took a few days and ended with them being sentenced on July 1st. Rudenko was given seven years in a concentration camp, Tykhy 10 and both were given an additional five years of exile. Exile in the Soviet Union doesn't mean they send you out of the country. There wouldn't be any punishment in that. You are moved to another type of prison -- very little different from the one you have been in. In the case of these two men, their sentences are in reality for life. One suffers from war wounds and the other, a school teacher, is in very poor health. Friends say it is doubtful they can survive their imprisonment. They were tried several miles from Kiev in a factory building, used as a courtroom for the occasion. The charge was vague -- just that they were anti-soviet. The court appointed their lawyers. Rodenko chose to defend himself. Tykhy's lawyer agreed with the prosecution most of the time. The trial was held behind closed doors with about 70 spectators handpicked by the K.G.B. Even news that the trial was being held was hushed up. Family and friends who journeyed there were arrested and held in jail for three days and then forcibly sent home. Only government-selected witnesses were allowed to testify in the trial. The sentences were a forgone conclusion. Can any at the Belgrade meeting offer one reason why the civilized nations of the world shouldn't scrap the Helsinki agreement? This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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