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Death of a Young Political Gadfly—Oleksandr A. Kryvenko in Memoriam (13 May 1963 to 9 April 2003); Or, Reflections on Ukrainian Politics and Foreign Policy in 2003–2005

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Yaroslav Bilinsky
Yaroslav Bilinsky*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Delaware, U.S.A. yby@udel.edu
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Extract

The good die young.

If you kill me you will not easily find a successor to me, who, if I may use such ludicrous figure of speech, am a sort of gadfly, given to the State by God; and the State is a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life. I am that gadfly which God has attached to the State, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you. You will not easily find another like me, and therefore I would advise you to spare me.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , December 2005 , pp. 517 - 531
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Notes

1. “Appendix 3: Selected Proverbs,” The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus: American Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 1805.Google Scholar

2. Plato, “Apology,” trans. Benjamin Jowett, in The Dialogues of Plato (New York: Bantam, 1986), p. 16.Google Scholar

3. In late December 1991, I had the honor of being received by the Greek Catholic Archbishop Volodymyr Sternyuk, who had led the “Church of the Catacombs.” I briefly interviewed Vyacheslav Chornovil, in his office, and at greater length Ihor R. Yukhnovsky, who had graciously invited my research assistant and I to his home. At his Lviv University office I then talked to Viktor Pynzenyk, who had just been elected to the Supreme Rada (Parliament) in Kyiv and whom I had met before, when he gave a lecture at the University of Delaware. (Pynzenyk was late for his appointment, because he was involved in a minor automobile accident.)Google Scholar

4. In late April 2002, after I participated in an international conference in Kyiv on Ukraine's future—or, to be more exact, non-future—in the European Union, the son of a friend mentioned that he had just started working for Kryvenko and that Kryvenko could give me information that was well-nigh sensational. Since I was leaving Kyiv in two days, my new friend arranged for me to see his new superior the very next day, 29 April 2002, at 11 a.m.Google Scholar

5. “Kryvenko Oleksandra Anatolıyovych,” Kyivs'ke naukove tovarystvo im. Petra Mohyly; Seriya “Khto ye khto v Ukraini” [Kyiv Scientific Society Named After Petro Mohyla; Series “Who's Who in Ukraine”], Khto ye khto v ukrains'kiy politytsi; vypusk 4 [Who's Who in Ukrainian Politics, 4th edn] (Kyiv: Tov KIS, 1998), pp. 202–203.Google Scholar

6. I am indebted for this to an anonymous reviewer of the article.Google Scholar

7. Same source as in note 6.Google Scholar

8. Roman Woronowycz, Kyiv Press Bureau, “Leading Journalist Oleksander Kryvenko, 39, Killed in Car Accident Outside Kyiv,” Ukrainian Weekly (Parsippany, NJ), Vol. 71, No. 15, 2003, p. 4. Henceforth cited as Woronowycz, “Obituary of Kryvenko.”Google Scholar

9. Same source as in note 6.Google Scholar

10. Lazarenko's large entry in Khto ye khto v ukrains'kiy politytsi; vypusk 4, pp. 216–217, on p. 216 mentions that in September 1997 he became the president of the All-Ukrainian Political Association Hromada[Community]. Lazarenko's trial in a US federal court, on charges of money laundering, began on 15 March 2004. See Editorial, “Pochavsya sud nad Pavlom Lazarenkom” [The Lazarenko Trial Has Begun], Svoboda [Liberty] (Parsippany, NJ), Vol. 111, No. 12, 2004, pp. 1–3.Google Scholar

11. Woronowycz, “Obituary of Kryvenko.”Google Scholar

12. Ibid.Google Scholar

13. Editorial, “Pokhovaly Oleksandra Kryvenka” [Oleksandr Kryvenko Has Been Buried], Mist (New York and Toronto), No. 15 (issue 262), 2003, p. 3. This, together with Ihor Hulyk's editorial column, is part one of its front-page story “Pam”yati Oleksandra Kryvenka: Ukraina vtratyla shche odnoho zhurnalista, yakyi vyboryuvav yii nezalezhnist'“ [Oleksandr Kryvenko in Memoriam: Ukraine has Lost Another Journalist Who Had Successfully Struggled to Bring Her Independence].Google Scholar

14. Undated grant application. Document supplied by Oleksandr A. Kryvenko. According to an anonymous reviewer of the article, his visit to the United States in 1994 lasted two weeks.Google Scholar

15. “Pokhovaly Oleksandra Kryvenka.” Date of February 14 from Bilinsky's interview with Kryvenko 29 April 2002.Google Scholar

16. [Letterhead:] Ukrains'ko-pol's'kyi zhurnalists'kyi klub “Bez uperedzhen'” [The Ukrainian–Polish Journalists Club “Without Prejudice”] [addresses in letterhead omitted], “Zvit pro vykorystannya hrantu vid Freedom House (No. PRU-RE-01-03), otrymanoho dlya poyizdky predstavnykiv ukrains'kykh politychnykh i intelektual'nykh elit u Varshavu na seminar v Seymi R[espubliky] P[ol'shchi] ‘Ukraina i Pol'shcha v period transformatsiyi. Media i vlada’ (13–15 bereznya 2001 roku” [Report on the Utilization of the Grant from Freedom House … Which Was Received for the Travel to Warsaw of Representatives of the Ukrainian Political and Intellectual Elites (to Participate in) the Seminar in the Sejm of the Republic of Poland “Ukraine and Poland in the Period of Transformation: Media and the Government,” March 13–15, 2001]. Two-pages document, undated, but signed and supplied by Oleksandr A. Kryvenko.Google Scholar

17. Keesing's Record of World Events: News Digest for March 2001 , p. 44073.Google Scholar

18. Woronowycz, “Obituary of Kryvenko.”Google Scholar

19. Ihor Hulyk, “Kolonka redaktora: Holyi vektor” [Editor's Column: Naked Vector], Mist, No. 15 (issue 262), 2003, p. 3. See also note 13.Google Scholar

20. Woronowycz, “Obituary of Kryvenko.”Google Scholar

21. At Warsaw University, on 21 July 2004, I briefly talked with Volodymyr Pavliv, a close collaborator of Kryvenko. Mykola Ryabchuk, a member of the editorial board of Kyiv's journal Krytyka [Criticism] and a fellow paper-giver and participant in the Warsaw Special Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), had strongly urged me to contact Pavliv, because he had just published a book on Kryvenko. Pavliv was working as a correspondent of Radio Free Europe and Liberty in Warsaw. The Ukrainian literary scholar Bazyli Nazaruk, of the Department of Ukrainian Philology of Warsaw University, helped me to locate Pavliv. Pavliv met with me during the ASN Convention, answered my questions and graciously gave me his 84-page book dedicated to the memory of Kryvenko.Google Scholar

22. Volodymyr Pavliv, Syndrom prohranoyi viyny: 12 ese pro Oleksandra Kryvenka [The Syndrome of Defeat in War: 12 Essays about Oleksandr Kryvenko] (Ivano-Frankivsk: “Lileya …” [Lily NV], 2004), p. 21.Google Scholar

23. Ibid., p. 13.Google Scholar

24. Ibid., pp. 14–15. Words in quotation marks are Pavliv's.Google Scholar

25. Ibid., pp. 54, 58, 64.Google Scholar

26. As suggested by an anonymous reviewer of the article.Google Scholar

27. Pavliv, Syndrom prohranoyi viyny , p. 62.Google Scholar

28. Ibid., p. 61.Google Scholar

29. Ibid., p. 78, n. 43.Google Scholar

30. Ibid., p. 2.Google Scholar

31. Anton Vodiznyi, “Ukraine [Through the Deputy Head of the Foreign Ministry's Press Service—Y.B.] Says It Is Necessary to Reform the OSCE: Does Not Favor OSCE's Monitoring of Adherence to Human Rights,” Ukrainian News, Kyiv, 13 July 2004, or Item No. 7, The Action Ukraine Report-04 , No. 116, 15 July 2004, via Google Scholar

32. Adrian Karatnycky, “Ukraine's Orange Revolution: Essay,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 84, No. 2, 2005, pp. 35–62; accessed through The Action Ukraine Report, No. 463, 17 April 2005, CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33. See: (1) Ukrains'ke natsional'ne informatsiyne ahentstvo [Ukrainian National Information Agency], “Resonant Event,” Ukrinform: News from Ukraine , 5 March 2005, This is the fullest account, though with one error: it was on 3 March 2005 that Yury Kravchenko was summoned to testify the next day. This account gives several statements by President Yushchenko and criticisms by Members of Parliament Hryhory Omelchenko, Vladimir Stretovich and Andri [sic] Shkil; Minister of Transport and Communication Yevhen Chervonenko; and Vice-Premier Mykola Tomenko, <www.ukraine.be/news/actualit/a050305.html>. (2) “Kravchenko's Suicide Note Is Made Public. He Accused Kuchma,” Ukrains'ka pravda, 5 March 2005; trans. Olga Bogatyrenko for UKL [Ukraine List], <www.ukrainianstudies.uottawa.ca/Ukraine_list/ukl340_8html>. This contains detailed description of the two head wounds. (3) Anna Arutunyan, “Ukrainian Journalist Murder Case Gains New Impetus,” Moscow News, 9 March 2005, <english.mn.ru/issue.php?2005-9-3>. This misidentifies Socialist leader Alexander Moroz as a Communist; good analysis otherwise, especially in the MN file on Gongadze..+(2)+“Kravchenko's+Suicide+Note+Is+Made+Public.+He+Accused+Kuchma,”+Ukrains'ka+pravda,+5+March+2005;+trans.+Olga+Bogatyrenko+for+UKL+[Ukraine+List],+.+This+contains+detailed+description+of+the+two+head+wounds.+(3)+Anna+Arutunyan,+“Ukrainian+Journalist+Murder+Case+Gains+New+Impetus,”+Moscow+News,+9+March+2005,+.+This+misidentifies+Socialist+leader+Alexander+Moroz+as+a+Communist;+good+analysis+otherwise,+especially+in+the+MN+file+on+Gongadze.>Google Scholar