Berdnyk-Lukianenko
Lukianenko, Levko Hryhorovych. From the Times of Captivity. Book Five: The Possessed. — Kyiv: Tampodek XXI – 2012, pp. 390–401;
Lukianenko, L. The Path to Revival: in 13 vols. Vol 9: From the Times of Captivity: The Possessed / Levko Lukianenko — Kyiv: TOV "Yurka Lyubchenka", 2014. – 648 p. (pp. 390–401).
Oles Berdnyk
During my preliminary and judicial investigation, he behaved courageously and decently. Familiarizing myself with the materials of the preliminary investigation in my own case, I saw Berdnyk’s bold and intelligent answers to the investigators’ questions. I thought: thank God! After all, the firm stance of each successively arrested member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (UHG) was our shared moral victory over the communist occupying power.
He was arrested on March 6, 1979, and tried in the city of Kaharlyk, Kyiv Oblast, on December 21, 1979. He was sentenced to six years of imprisonment in special-regime camps and three years of exile. Since this was his second political conviction, the court declared him a repeat offender and sent him to our prison to serve his sentence. He arrived on May 16, 1980. Everyone asked one another why he received a six-and-three sentence, not a ten-and-five like all the other Ukrainian repeat offenders. They didn’t ask him. Why bother asking? After all, every prisoner tells his own story to the people he starts serving time with, and then his story, in a condensed form, becomes known to everyone. It is revisited when one ends up in a cell with new inmates, and someone expresses a desire to hear the story personally. And everyone understands that the story is one thing, but you also have to see how the person will behave: will his conduct confirm his story, or will it, perhaps, provide facts of a different nature?
Once, shortly after his arrival, we found ourselves in adjacent exercise yards during our walk. I asked what was new in Kyiv, who was continuing our work. He began to say that the West had started using our activities in a way we couldn’t have imagined. His words held a note of uncertainty about the correctness of the path of struggle we had taken. This surprised me. Outside, the bright sun was shining, and the first warmth of June was pleasant, but Berdnyk’s words carried a chill. I wanted to ask him many questions, but a guard from the high platform shouted at us to stop talking and, five minutes later, led us out of the yard and back to our cell. He hadn't really said anything bad, but he responded to my optimism not with optimistic words, but with something incomprehensible. This doubt, like a small nail, remained a nagging question in my mind.
The main product the prisoners made was attaching electrical terminal blocks to cords for clothes irons: a nylon insulator had to be inserted between the electrical contact plates and then clamped with special pliers. The work wasn’t difficult, but during a shift, one had to make over 6,000 pieces—which was a great deal and demanded a very high speed, and that was exhausting. Another job was to attach this block to the electrical cord with small screws using a mechanical screwdriver. This work was also not difficult, but the quota was enormous: 522 cords.
Berdnyk went to this work for a little while and then stopped. He supposedly said he wouldn’t be able to meet the quota, which meant he wouldn’t be allowed to buy 2 rubles’ worth of food at the prison commissary. He was a tall man; the prison food was bad, vitamin-deficient, and barely enough for a person of average height, let alone for a tall man like him. You had to meet the quota, or you’d kick the bucket. His cellmates offered to help him until he learned to work fast enough to meet the production quota on his own.
Perhaps a month later, a rumor flew through the prison that Berdnyk, being an artist, had been given a job painting communist slogans, posters, banners, and so on. The slogans had communist content. This work was ideological, and for that reason, it was always believed that an honest political prisoner should not take on such a job. When our cell was led once again to the “movie hall,” a lot of plywood, cardboard, wooden slats, and other materials for making visual propaganda were propped against the walls. Berdnyk wasn't there, and we asked the guard if it was Berdnyk who would soon be decorating the prison with fresh artistic propaganda. He confirmed it.
Painting and crafting visual propaganda in this room removed Berdnyk from the constant supervision of the prisoners and gave him the opportunity to secretly meet with the Chekist Chipkasov. We did not like this at all.
A month or two later, an incident occurred that no one had foreseen. The Chekist brought sausage and some other delicacies to his office, laid them out on his desk, and ordered the sergeant to bring Berdnyk. The sergeant either misheard, got confused, or perhaps even intentionally muddled things up and summoned Rebryk from the cell instead of Berdnyk (the names are indeed similar!), and led him to Chipkasov's office. He opened the door, and Rebryk stepped into the office. Chipkasov glanced up and snapped at the sergeant: “Who the hell did you bring me, goddammit! Take him back immediately and bring who you were told!” Rebryk had enough time to smell and see the delicacies with which the Chekist was feeding traitors.
This fact was unequivocal. It fit the pattern that explained why he—a repeat offender—had been sentenced by the court to six years of imprisonment and three years of exile, unlike all the other Ukrainian repeat offenders, who were sentenced to 10 and 5 years, respectively. Soon after, he was transferred to a lenient, cell-free regime. Ivan Hel passed word to us that Berdnyk had begun trying to persuade him to repent and ask the authorities for a pardon. His indignation, like ours, knew no bounds.
Then he was taken to the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR in Kyiv for re-education. In September 1982, he was transferred to a strict-regime zone, VS-389/35 (Vsekhsvyatskaya station). In the summer of 1983, he was taken to the Kyiv KGB for re-education again, and there they broke him. And this tall man hit rock bottom: on March 14, 1984, he wrote a statement of repentance.
Berdnyk was one of the founders of the Group and knew perfectly well that what inspired our activities was a national patriotic consciousness, not some imperialist centers. Second: to fall into the “enemy’s nets,” one must meet at least once with at least one foreign enemy of the USSR. Berdnyk knew perfectly well that none of the ten founding members of the UHG had met such a person who could have caught them in their nets. He was slandering himself and us. And there is no excuse for his renunciation of the UHG Declaration and his betrayal of the Group's members. His betrayal reminded me of September 1976. Back then, Mykola Rudenko and Berdnyk came to visit me in Chernihiv, and we discussed the idea of creating the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. In a few words, Berdnyk told me about his first conviction on political charges and showed me an interesting photograph.
He is a tall, slender man, slightly past middle age. His dark-blond hair, with uneven gray streaks, hangs straight from his head down to his shoulders, fanning out slightly over them. He is standing with his back against the trunk of a giant tree with deeply cracked bark. His arms are slightly extended to the sides of his torso, and the same bark is visible behind them. A person who has seen an image of Jesus Christ even once in their life, upon looking at this photo, would immediately exclaim: “Jesus Christ!” Indeed, the analogy is complete.
Berdnyk is an artist and a writer, and the photo's composition is not an accidental click of the camera's shutter but a well-thought-out and deliberate one. Thus, for him, Christ is a model. Christ knowingly went to the cross for an idea. Berdnyk’s photo declares: he is ready to go to his crucifixion for an idea.
And here, I—his contemporary with a “slightly” different biography—began to doubt whether he could carry his cross to the end, as Christ was able to carry His. This cross is not a theatrical prop, carried from one stage to another. This cross is carried only once, to be placed on one's own grave. Death is not a play where a person wants to show off before an audience. In it, a person stands before the Supreme Judge with a naked soul and without any external finery, so why this Christ-like pose—when you yourself don't yet know if you will carry the Cross to the end?!
And when he stepped away from the massive trunk of the huge tree (an oak, it seemed), he began to sway. That tree truly breathed with immeasurable power, for its great roots had grown so deep into the earth that the ground itself rose around the trunk, forming a noticeable mound. The crown was not visible, but that trunk and the mound of earth raised by the roots created the impression of a union of earth with nature or, conversely, of Ukrainian nature with the Ukrainian land, and it evoked a sense of primeval might. Berdnyk feels it and, for the sake of its continuation through the ages, sacrifices himself: let me perish, but let this Ukrainian might live on! Let the drops of my blood and the molecules of my body fertilize the soil and nourish it for continuation through the ages! Oh, how wonderful! On the verge of Earth and Cosmos! The imagination soars into the sky and fills the heart with pride in oneself.
And then came the interrogation cell of the Kyiv KGB, with its tasteless prison food. The investigators allow food parcels. With them, one can season the prison swill and make it edible. It turns out these additions are not quite enough, and besides, the investigator is the one who permits the parcels, and he might not permit them. When he didn't, and one had to eat only prison food, it turns out there isn’t enough of it. Hunger sharpened his thoughts, and from the lofty dreams of crucifixion for the sake of Ukrainian freedom, he came down to earth and felt something completely different: not a cross on his shoulders before a Ukrainian Golgotha, but the unpleasant rumbling of his guts and a gnawing emptiness in the pit of his stomach. With each passing day, it spreads throughout the whole stomach and begins to ache. Not much. Just a little at first. He remembered Christ. He wasn't held for months under investigation; He wasn't starved. He was arrested by Roman soldiers, the executioners put the cross in His hands, led Him up the mountain, and crucified Him. But what if He had been kept half-starving for several months, if during these months He had been mentally exhausted by interrogations and faced with, on the one hand, the prospect of long suffering in prison with the very likely outcome of death, and on the other hand, the possibility of returning to a normal life, when one’s soul is torn between two shores and for months cannot find a haven?
The KGBists sensed this torment of being torn between the desire to remain faithful to the ideals of freedom and the desire to avoid suffering, and for that reason, they had reduced his sentence. And he, who portrayed himself as Christ crucified for Ukraine, turned out to be the weakest of the 41 people repressed for their involvement with the UHG. One out of forty-one! A poser!—that's what his photograph meant, the one he showed me in Chernihiv on the day Mykola Rudenko and I first met him in September 1976.
Constant semi-starvation—not hunger, not a hunger strike, but semi-starvation—clouded his mind, and he broke, knelt before the Chekists, and wrote a statement. The Chekists told him to make it public, and he sent it to Literaturna Ukrayina, which published it on May 17, 1984. Here is this drivel:
STATEMENT
On March 14 of this year, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the UkrSSR made the decision to pardon O. P. Berdnyk, who was serving a sentence for criminal activity in accordance with Soviet law. The Presidium took into account that he had repented, severely condemned his actions, assured that he would not permit any actions that could harm the interests of our country, and would do everything possible to atone for his guilt.
O. P. Berdnyk appealed to the editors of the newspaper Literaturna Ukrayina with a request to publish his statement, which is presented below.
“The humane act of the highest legislative body of the republic—the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Ukraine—which has returned to me the opportunity to live and work freely, has once again affirmed the legitimacy and deepest correctness of my decision to definitively sever any ties with ideas and forces that could bring harm to the Motherland.
To one who has not felt the pain of wandering and falling, it is difficult to comprehend my joy of resurrection. But I would like all true friends to share this joy of my spring renewal and liberation from the enemy’s ideological web.
I had to taste the bitterness of a fall, when inadmissible irresponsibility in my actions and an underestimation of the stern laws of class struggle on the world stage, as well as distorted assessments of certain events in the social life of the USSR, led me to commit a grave crime against the Motherland, giving ideological foes the opportunity to use my name, documents, and letters in a hostile campaign of slander and vitriol directed against my native country. I was punished in accordance with Soviet law.
At first, I looked for various reasons to explain what had happened. But such explanations did nothing to diminish my grave guilt. Therefore, I chose another path—the only correct one: to subject everything that had happened to a careful, rigorous analysis of reason and feeling, in order to get out of the enemy quagmire. The key to this is one—honesty before one's people.
The unconditional condemnation of the actions that brought me to the defendant’s dock helped in a decisive self-purification from ambition, resentment, false concepts, and self-adulation. I clearly understood that the slightest flirtation with the world of imperialism and pseudo-democratic irresponsibility in the ideological confrontation with the enemies of peace inevitably lead one into the camp of the foes of one’s native Fatherland. This helped me to ruthlessly cut off the slightest doubts regarding my place in the battle of ideas, to severely condemn my guilt, and to return to my native hearth, to my Mother-Fatherland.
Freed from the burden of false attachments and a mystified duty to those who created an apologia for the so-called ‘human rights defense,’ I saw in a true light the sinister plans of Western special services—the attempt to create an organized ‘opposition’ in the USSR, subsequently using it to fuel anti-Soviet hysteria in the press, on the radio, and on television in the West.
Of course, there could be no question of their desire to ‘promote’ the implementation of the Helsinki Accords. This became clear during my conversations with such employees of the former American consulate in Kyiv as Porter and Swartz, or the Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post, Peter Osnos, who persistently requested to receive critical, biased materials about life in the USSR that could be used for ideological sabotage.
Representatives of Ukrainian nationalists abroad also eagerly snatched up such materials. Their newspapers and magazines lavished praise on various newly-minted ‘oppositionists,’ desiring only one thing—to plant as much ideological dynamite as possible in the consciousness of the broad circles of the Ukrainian emigration and in the souls of unstable people in Soviet Ukraine.
Time has revealed what was carefully camouflaged, even for the most credulous people. I am not speaking of cynics—they knew at once with whom they were dealing! First, sharp criticism of shortcomings or abuses is supported by the Party and the government if it is directed along a constructive channel and stimulated by concern for improving matters. The numerous critical materials published in the press are incomparably sharper than the ‘documents’ that were passed to the West by gullible people. But the whole point is that this ‘criticism’ was addressed not to the country's leadership, but to the foes of the USSR with the aim of discrediting the Soviet system. Here, as one of Gogol's characters said, ‘any old rope’ came in handy for the household of Western anti-Soviets. Second, all channels for transferring biased materials to the West (this I know for certain) were in the hands of American and other Western correspondents, employees of press agencies, embassies, consulates—and all this was coordinated by the special centers of imperialist states, which not only inspired this entire ‘human rights defense’ campaign but also provoked unwitting, unstable people into anti-Soviet actions, grossly violating the Helsinki Accords and the spirit of détente.
This does not need to be proven! All this lies on the surface. And let the gentlemen from the special services and their hangers-on from emigrant circles not shove various ‘protests’ and ‘documents’ about ‘rights violations’ in the USSR, about some ideological persecution, under the noses of diplomats and congressmen, because from beginning to end—this is their handiwork.
The Helsinki Accords are a truly wonderful political act of 35 states, worthy of admiration. This is a manifestation of the collective wisdom of peoples who wish to establish new stages of relations in a world where there will be no violence and wars, to usher in an era of boundless cooperation and joyful creativity. Can one make any ‘choice’ between the great cause of universal peace and the blatant provocation of ideological saboteurs?
Therefore, I have the right to say to all who wander in ideological wilderness, who have taken the bait of the class enemy, who have embarked on the path of betrayal and emigrated to the West: ‘Try for a moment to cut off your resentments, ambitions, bitterness, your thirst for revenge on fate, the undeniable tragedy and drama of your personal situation, and honestly, objectively answer the question: Can you claim, if you wish to be on the path of truth, that the transfer of biased materials to the West through diplomatic representatives and correspondents—materials that are then widely used in slanderous attacks against the Motherland—that all this contributed to the implementation of the Helsinki Accords, whose main motto is: “Peace and security in Europe?!” Can you with a clear conscience declare that all this years-long ideological cacophony helped mutual understanding between peoples, promoted trust, created an atmosphere of peacefulness and calm dialogue?!’
On the contrary! Such activity turns into a time bomb, with which they try to destroy the delicate web of détente in international tensions. The secret has become clear. I have understood that the special services of the West tried to inspire the creation of so-called ‘human rights defense’ groups, and then use them to influence public opinion in the West for purposes hostile to socialism.
Can this be called promoting the implementation of the Helsinki Accords?!
If this is ‘promotion,’ then what are cynicism and mystification, deception and the most disgusting provocation? The horns of imperialism and Zionism are visible behind such ‘promotion’! The laughter of Mephistopheles is heard from behind the backs of the ‘well-wishers’ who obligingly put on a pedestal such irresponsible statements, born of wounded ambition and illegitimate conclusions about certain phenomena.
Ancient wisdom warns: if the enemy praises you—think about what foolishness you have committed! Think, then, why the most reactionary circles of the West and especially—the Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists—seized upon such ‘documents’ and ‘accusations.’ Do you want to stand alongside such an ardent fascist leader of the OUN as Stetsko, who in one of his speeches said that even if half the population of Ukraine perishes in a thermonuclear war, they will then build their ‘United Ukraine.’ That’s right! A ‘United Ukraine’ on the bones and ashes of 25 million Ukrainians, among radioactive ruins?!
Such a ‘messiah’ with the mad ravings about a nuclear solution to Ukraine's fate extends his hands to you! Will you shake them? Will you stand alongside the butchers of Beirut, Grenada, Ulster, Vietnam?
We must honestly admit: we were hatching the ‘cuckoo’s egg’ of ideological saboteurs, thinking it our own child. But when the chick hatched and began to sing hostile songs to the whole world, then—to hell with it! To deceive oneself, to kowtow before the masters of the ‘golden calf’?! In the name of what? For me, the question is decided unequivocally—I am returning to myself, that is, to my Mother-Fatherland. In joy and in sorrow, I will be with her forever!
I am certain that some of those, primarily M. Rudenko, L. Lukyanenko, who fell into the enemy's nets, would have departed from the path of anti-patriotism and voluntary self-emigration, but they are hindered by a lack of true courage—the courage to look at themselves as if from the outside, to expel from their psyche the false image of the unjustly offended and persecuted ‘fighter for truth.’ It is sometimes impossible to heal such people! One must explode from within, incinerate the dross of mystification and self-adulation. And—be born again!
What does it matter if the detractors and slanderers in the West strike you from their provocative roster?!
I want to say a few more words of caution to those who sometimes listen to Western ‘voices,’ who crave bourgeois temptations, who have fallen into the nets of imperialist sirens. Remembering my bitter experience, I say to them: ‘Uncover the hearing of your heart, look at the ‘beacons’ that lure you!’
What can they give to the peoples, besides a path to nowhere, besides antagonism and enmity, besides a fight for a fatter piece of the money pie, besides a cult of debauchery, gangsterism, and violence? Even the space age will not help them renew their decaying society, but will only hasten the dénouement! Do they not use the power of scientific genius to prepare for a space war?
Should we look up to them, we who strive not only to eliminate poverty, ignorance, and lawlessness in the world, but—first and foremost!—to raise a new human being, capable of taking on the cosmic mission of transforming the world according to the law of beauty, creativity, and joy, able to carry the baton of life and reason to other worlds?!
Are the apologists of the moneybag capable of such achievements?
I think the answer is clear. It is dictated by history. And the position of every honest person should be clear. Either to fall into the gloom of non-existence with the world of liars, mystifiers, tyrants, and bloodsuckers, or with one’s native people, with the creators of the new world, with the socialist commonwealth—to strive for the creation of the strong foundations of human life—a creation that is great, arduous, but beautiful!
I will forever walk this path!
To completely exclude any speculation regarding this statement, let friends and foes alike know that I sincerely repent of the crime committed and firmly declare that I will never violate the laws of my Country.
To create a ‘fifth column’ in one’s native country, to risk ending up in the camp of traitors to the Fatherland—this is not for me!
I want to be with my native Mother-Fatherland always—in times of peace and under the storm! We have only one Mother; another cannot be found!
Oles BERDNYK.
May 1984.
What can be said about this drivel? He not only lied about the Ukrainian Public Group to Promote the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords, he lied about himself.
Feh!!!
