Ольга Гейко Olha Heiko

I mostly went to Moscow to see [Petro and Zinaida] Hryhorenko and met [Tatiana] Velikanova there. I spent a couple of nights there because my own uncle did not want to take me in, and I never talked to him, to his family again. For me, it was mostly the Hryhorenkos, I always stayed with them. I talked about the events in Ukraine, specifically about Myroslav Marynovych, Mykola Matusevych. About other people as well. Somehow, at that point, it just happened that I met people more or less my own age, including [Volodymyr] Malynkovych and Halia, his wife, Yan Borodovskyi and Natasha Mamsikova, who are also a married couple, and Senia Hinzburh. That is, there were also those who wanted to leave but were not allowed to leave, the so-called refuseniks, or “otkazniki” in Russian. Some of them were also inclined toward democracy. For example, [Oksana] Meshko and [Levko] Lukyanenko, for whom the national idea, national self-determination, was the most important thing. I was more like that — perhaps because I was much younger — I was more loyal to other movements, more democratic. That's why it was easy for me to work with both. And, of course, I was more interested in those who were closer to me in age. Especially since Lukyanenko was still... He was not allowed to leave Chernihiv. <...> And I went to see him there. I also consulted him about whether I could join the [Ukrainian Helsinki] Group. And he supported me. He said that it was good to have young people, but you have to understand what you are doing.

The Olympics were supposed to be held in [19]80. And a certain kind of cleansing of Kyiv began. And the KGB said that there were three dangerous people left in Kyiv: Volodymyr Malynkovych, Mykola Horbal, and Olha Matusevych. Well, if you know what to expect from those people, you don't know from this one. She is absolutely... She was all over the place, never knowing what she's going to do the next minute. To a certain extent, they were right. And they allowed Malynkovych... They didn't just let him so much as nearly forced him to leave. They started beating him, persecuting him. [Yan] Borodovskyi, Mamsikova — she and Natasha, the Pomerantsevs had already left by then. I mean, I ended up crying so much for them all at the Boryspil [airport] that I thought I had ran out of tears. And we were saying goodbye... And then just before my arrest, we were at my house, my mother, her sister [my] Aunt Natasha. And I said that maybe I should go to the KGB and tell them that I would sit quietly or leave Kyiv for some place, so don't touch me. For the duration of the Olympics. I don't actually remember whether it was my idea or my mother's idea or my aunt Natasha's. In general, we were sitting around discussing this. I think it was March 8 or something like that. And then my mom was taken to the hospital by an ambulance because she had an abscess, an abscess in her throat, some kind of terrible strep throat. The ambulance took her away at night. And the next day, early in the morning, the KGB came to search the house. And I realized that that was it.

When I met with Mykola after the trial of Matusevych and Marynovych, he asked me to leave, that there would be no life for me here. And besides, we had such a pipe dream — to kickstart Ukrainian emigration. Because Jews are Jews, while there was no Ukrainian emigration. The fact that Nadiya Svitlychna was able to leave was, again, the goodwill of the KGB. And I received an invitation from some relatives. And I started collecting documents, trying to get an emigration permit. Ultimately, I was rejected. So I gathered all my documents and wrote a letter to Brezhnev. I don't remember what I wrote there. It was like: take it all away, I don't need it.

To disrupt our celebration at the Shevchenko monument, the Kyiv authorities decided to put on a grand concert — there were all sorts of singers, Leopold Yashchenko’s choir. So, what we did... No, we didn’t do anything bad, just a lot of students with blue-and-yellow flags showed up. My mother was in the hospital. My father was already gone. My Nazar had a month to go before his first birthday, and I was [pushing him] in a little stroller. And we came there as a whole pack, and there was a concert going on. The place was crowded. We waited and waited, and then decided that we would go there, to the monument. We were not allowed to go to the monument itself because there were young KGB men standing there, you know, such rough-looking guys. Student boys with flags were trying to climb up somewhere, they were grabbing them, one student was, a KBG guy grabbed him, my cousin Taras Antoniuk, who was nearby, bit him to take the flag back. And I told this student to give us the flag, and I would hold it. I have a child in my arms! Who would take it away from us? And we made our way up the stairs to the monument. And these choristers of Leopold Yashchenko's, they were pushing those guys down. The guys wanted to stand next to them, but they pushed them away. They were afraid. And we were standing on the stairs. I wished I could see this photo! I have no doubt that it exists because there were so many KGB people there, and they were obviously taking pictures. Taras Antoniuk was standing there, and he had such a bright Ukrainian... Appearance, he looked a bit like Shevchenko, with a black mustache and hair like that. And everyone is wearing vyshyvankas! He with a flag, me with a small child, and Oles Shevchenko next to him, and he also has such a military posture, a mustache, so handsome. And an icon in his hands. It was the Trinity, and as I speak now, I get goosebumps.

I was still pregnant. April [1988]. We organized a rally for Chornobyl. Before May 1, too, on the 26th, on Khreshchatyk. There were already stands for the rally, and we stood on them. It was also a great sight. And people, just ordinary passersby... And we had posters written on paper, I don't even know which I was holding. Or with someone. They were grabbing all the guys on the way. [Serhiy] Naboka had just left the house, and they [grabbed] him right away. Women were allowed to go in, but only one woman was detained because she had a minor son, and they grabbed him, so she went with him. Otherwise, they did not touch women. But people reacted very, very well to this. And when they grabbed someone from that crowd — well, the [Ukrainian Cultural] Club organized it — and dragged them off to the police station somewhere, passersby took their place. It was also great. And we held out like that for over an hour, maybe an hour and a half. When I called Moscow and told them about it, they envied us. "How? You lasted more than an hour? We lasted ten minutes, and that's it, and we were dispersed!" And here I was proud!