Tag #156074 - Interview #94776 (Grigoriy Stelmakh)

Our plant is located near Babi Yar. At the height of struggle against dissidents and during the period of terrible anti-Semitism our plant and Artyom plant arranged for volunteer teams on 29 September every year, on the anniversary of mass shootings, to be on duty in the area. There were spontaneous meetings in Babi Yar and KGB officers [18] wearing civilian clothes were watching them. Jewish members of the party were forced to join these volunteer units. They were instructed to watch the people who came to the Babi Yar to commemorate their deceased compatriots. KGB explained that we were not to bother individuals, but the groups of people, particularly the ones wearing caps (kippah) and covers (tallit) and they were lighting candles, it was required to report about them immediately to a special truck with investigation officers. They often broke up those meetings and arrested people. I am proud to say that they never offered me to join this group, although some Jews willingly participated there. In those years Yevgeniy Yevtushenko’s [Yevtushenko Yevgeny - Popular Russian poet. Born in 1933. Yevtushenko's first book of poems was published in 1952. He soon became the most popular spokesman of the young generation of poets who refused to adhere to the doctrine of socialist realism. The publication in Paris of Yevtushenko's Precocious Autobiography (1963) brought him severe official censure, and he was frequently criticized by the Russian government for his nonconformist attitude. Despite this, he made several reading tours abroad during the Soviet era. He has also written novels. In addition, he is an actor, director, and Photo grapher] poem ‘Babi Yar’ was published. It struck with acute truth and pain. ‘I can still remember every line. The world community a monument to the deceased was installed. However, there was ‘to Soviet people’ inscription on it and not a word about tens of thousands of Jews exterminated here, but everybody knew, anyway. Then perestroika [19] began and the Jewish community installed the mournful ‘menorah’. I remember the 50th anniversary of the shooting on 29 September 1991, when in front of many people and in presence of Bill Clinton, the former US President, Leonid Kravchuk, the first President of Ukraine, expressed apologies to the Jewish people on behalf of the Ukrainian people and I believe he knew what he was apologizing for. Not only for the actual fact of this shooting, but for many years of state and everyday anti-Semitism.