A court in Kyiv on October 19 forbid the distribution of a book about a Soviet dissident written by a professor of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU), Vakhtanh Kipiani. Myroslav Marynovych, UCU’s Vice-Rector of University Mission, addressed the issue on behalf of the UCU Rector’s Office.
“The decision of the Darnytskyi District Court of Kyiv of October 19 this year to forbid the distribution of Vakhtan Kipiani’s book ‘The Case of Vasyl Stus’ immediately became symbolic in its tragic character. The very fact of forbidding the printed word ironically sounds like going ‘Back to the USSR,’” wrote Marynovych.
Editor’s note: Vasyl Stus was a Ukrainian dissident during Soviet times whose written works were banned. He died in imprisonment in 1985.
“In the name of the Ukrainian people,” continued Marynovych, “the Ukrainian court make access impossible to a book which should be studied in every Ukrainian school… The radical cleansing of the judicial system should be task #1 for our society and a demand that should begin every meeting with candidates in the elections.”
Note: Myroslav Marynovych, a founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, was imprisoned and then exiled for human rights activities in the Soviet Union from 1977 to 1987. The photo shows Marynovych receiving an award from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in 2014.
