by Askold S. Lozynskyj
April 24, 2023
A cemetery is often more than a burial place. It is many times a museum and monument to history. I recall,when my children were young, I visited with them the Lychakivsky cemetery in Lviv in order to educate them (and myself) about a part of Ukrainian history specifically dealing with Western Ukraine. Frankly, I hesitated when it came to the Baykovyj cemetery in Kyiv since my children were very young and I was not sure how to present the roles of many nefarious individuals buried there. Are Scherbytsky and the like better forgotten? This is at best a topic of debate and for analysis. Today I am more inclined to highlight the positive.
St. Andrew’s cemetery in South Bound Brook, New Jersey is the site of our family’s annual pilgrimage on the Sunday (Providna in Ukrainian Orthodox and Tomyna in Ukrainian Catholic ) following Easter according to the old Julian calendar. It is traditional according to Ukrainian Christian Orthodoxy that the graves of loved ones be visited, decorated and the deceased be remembered in prayer. My entire family which is interred in the United States can be found there.
My family holds a requiem service (Panakhyda) at each grave site of our family members with service by either a Ukrainian Catholic or Orthodox priest. We do not distinguish nor discriminate. We usually hold such ten services in part a single service for contiguous grave sites, praying for roughly twenty deceased.
It has become our family tradition to pray annually at the grave sites of four prominent Ukrainians whose graves are somewhat neglected as in each case the deceased left no progeny yet certainly deserve our attention and prayers. The four in order of date of passing are the poet and writer Yevhen Malaniouk, the ideologue of XX century Ukrainian integral nationalism Dmytro Dontsov, and dissidents and long time political prisoners Nina Strokata Karavanska and Sviatoslaw Karavansky.
Yevhen Malaniouk was born in Arghangorod, Kherson province. He died 55 years ago in the USA. Dmytro Dontsov was born in Melitopol. He died in Montreal 50 years ago. Nina Strokata Karavanska was born in Odessa. She died in the USA 25 years ago. Her husband, Svyatoslav Karavanskyi was also born in Odessa. He died in the USA in 2016. Each one was very significant in Ukraine’s mosaic of state building in the modern era.
Much has been written about each of these individuals and some of it is available on the Internet. I urge readers of this piece to look it up. For the sake of brevity I refer you a single quote written early on after the death of the Soviet monster Josef Stalin when many of his crimes were being exposed and hypocritically rued by his very accomplices, distancing themselves from the main perpetrator.
Dmytro Dontsov wrote as follows in August 1954:
“The so-called civilized world is clearly losing its historical memory. Hence his lack of understanding of Russian affairs, and among them the strange for that world phenomenon of Moscow remorse. Starting from the first “show trials” of the Old Bolshevik Guard, until Beria’s repentance, this phenomenon remains a mystery to the West. True, we have already understood that the Moscow system of torture, physical, moral and “scientific-medical” with its “brain-washing”, reaches incredible results. But isn’t this diabolical system the whole reason for that repentance?”
In addition to the memorable anniversaries of the passing into eternity of at least three and the birthplaces of all four, because it is precisely in these places that the most heinous war is taking
place today, this statement of Dontsov is not only astute analysis but relevant and perspicacious. Even critics of Dontsov’s integral nationalism should take note of what Dontsov wrote.
Today’s war in Ukraine, despite its atrocities, is still only another example of Moscow’s egregious aggression that hopefully will convince the whole world of Russian cultural barbarism and the need to tear down this evil empire. It will remain evil as long as it is allowed to exist. Upon the demise of Vladimir Putin will the global community by the remorse played out for them on the world stage by Putin’s henchmen such as Sergei Lavrov and go back to “business as usual?” Russian aggression will not end with the death of Putin. Because of Great Russian culture Russian mothers continue to spawn new barbaric aggressors. Regime change does not suffice. End of empire is the only solution.