How the diaspora rescued Ukrainian dissidents from Soviet concentration camps

Ukrainian dissidents – the Soviet prisoners of conscience about whom we used to read in books – speak to us in the unique old videos. In her vlog, journalist Darka Hirna has used the footage filmed and digitized by Yurij Luhovy, once a photographer and film director of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee and one of those abroad who in the 1960th – 1980th fought for the release of Ukrainian intellectuals from concentration camps and psychiatric confinement.

“The testimony of these people is proof that the independence of Ukraine in 1991 did not fall from the sky on our heads, but was won at the cost of the lives of concrete people, usually the best intellectuals of our country,” says Darka.

Like now, during the Russian-Ukrainian war, Ukrainian emigrants in the 20th century tirelessly informed the governments of their countries about the problems in occupied Ukraine and reported facts about the persecution and murders of Ukrainians.

The video features the legends of the Ukrainian dissident movement, including Nina Strokata Karavanska, Svyatoslav Karavansky, Petro Hryhorenko, Nadiya Svitlychna, Victor Borovsky, and Valentyn Moroz.