Helsinki Monitoring Group in Kyiv: The Struggle and the Ordeal
When Leonid Brezhnev agreed to Western countries’ requests
for the inclusion of human rights provisions into what has become known as the
Helsinki Accords, little did he realize how much trouble that would cause him
later. This fateful decision could very well have contributed to the collapse
of the USSR in 1991.
Dissidents in the evil empire’s captive nations and Russia
began forming public groups to monitor Moscow’s compliance with the Helsinki
Accords. The Ukrainian Public Group to Monitor Compliance with the Helsinki
Accords was organized in Kyiv on November 9, 1976. Next year will be its 45th
anniversary. This is the story of members, their struggle and ordeal written by
me and published in the 1979 edition of The Almanac of the Ukrainian National
Association.
