Servant of the People in Kyiv

"Pavel Korchagin?"

A committee member asked in a low voice.

Haniyev smiled and said, "Oleksandr Khrushchev, you are truly wonderful. My son was born when I was imprisoned for pursuing national and ethnic hope. I hope that we can, like Pavel Korchagin, persevere in fighting against the Westernization reformists like Gulenko and Gorbachev. Perhaps my son can inherit our spirit and become a future national pioneer."

Oleksandr Hershko is a professor of psychology and social relations at the University of Kyiv. He has been very active since becoming a member of the Committee of the People's Movement of Ukraine, and Haniyev was deeply impressed by him.

Khrushchev clenched his fist and said, "My son, Oleksandr Kornienko, is also four years old. Mr. Haniyev, we are all role models for our children. You have high hopes for your son, which is worthy of our learning..."

After hearing this, Haniyev had an idea: The name Oleksandr Kornienko is quite familiar. Could he be Zelensky's close confidant?

More than 30 years later, the director of the election office of Zelensky's Servant of the People Party was named Oleksandr Kornienko. He was responsible for the preparation and operation of Zelensky's election and played a very important role. Later, after Zelensky was elected, he served as the first deputy speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and has always supported Zelensky.

Haniyev's thoughts drifted away. He shook his head and said, "Because none of us slept well, it's too late now. Let's go to bed quickly. We can discuss how to operate the subsequent local people's movement tomorrow..."

Haniyev's prestige had already been established invisibly. Before he finished speaking, everyone agreed to go back and rest.

Lying in bed, Haniyev had many thoughts in his mind. Finally, he suppressed his distracting thoughts and kept repeating in his mind: "Paul Viktovich Haniyev... My little Pasa..."

Chapter 215: The Spring Breeze of Reform Blows Across the Land (1)

December 1988 did not see any major international events, but it was a very special period for Kyiv, as many people in Kyiv were imprisoned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs police.

Since last month, college students, high school students and many ordinary people in Kyiv have participated in the activities of "criticizing Gorbachev's reforms". Many people have even joined the "Rukh", believing in the "History of Ukrainian National Development" and rational reform political propositions promoted by the "Ukrainian People's Movement" and the People's Daily.

The waters in Kyiv have long been muddy.

The movement started with great fanfare. Within a few days, it had swept across all universities in Kyiv and then spread to various areas.

Although the Ukrainian central government has attached great importance to it since last month, and Gulenko has repeatedly ordered investigations and asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to disperse the students' rallies and propaganda, many departments such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Political Department, and the State Security Committee have always been permissive towards "Rukh" and the people's movement in Kiev, which means that Gulenko's orders have not been strictly implemented. As a result, there have been more and more mass incidents in Kiev in the past 20 days, and the actions and propaganda of the people's movement have become more and more intense, almost to the point where they can be seen everywhere.

After alarming Moscow, Gulenko also keenly realized that something was wrong. After gaining the support of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he directly dismissed several Ukrainian ministers and replaced them with people who had nothing to do with Sherbitsky.

Then, Ukraine's First Secretary Gulenko, adhering to the working attitude of catching those who create problems, directly ordered the abolition of "Rukh" and the arrest of all Rukh members and those who participated in the propaganda of reactionary ideas. In a few days, Kiev went from prosperity to chaos.

Within two days, the leadership team and all members of the Ukrainian People's Movement Committee, which was composed entirely of literati and scholars, as well as the presidents and secretaries of the youth student unions of some universities were arrested by agents and police sent by the Ukrainian Central Committee.

You should know that the "Ukrainian People's Movement" is a non-governmental organization that emerged after the Chernobyl incident in 1986. When Haniyev took over and turned the organization into a legal organization in August 1988, the organization already had hundreds of thousands of participants. However, due to the lack of organizational management and organizational framework, "Rukh" at that time was just a loose non-governmental environmental protection propaganda organization with dozens of senior intellectuals as the core and hundreds of thousands of students, young people and Kyiv citizens as members.

After Haniyev became the leader of Rukh four months ago, he set about promoting the organization and management of the Ukrainian People's Movement, and then made adjustments to the membership development and publicity plans.

At that time, Haniyev also took out a sum of money from the "Rosen Images" company to use as start-up funds for the "Ukrainian People's Movement."

With the full support of Haniyev, the deputy director of the Education Committee, who used his power, connections and funds, the Ukrainian People's Movement Committee began to continuously transform and upgrade the "Ukrainian People's Movement".

In just three months, the Ukrainian People's Movement was built into a nascent political organization with a basic organizational structure and management. There were dedicated people responsible for each task, and there were also full-time staff within the organization.

Precisely because the "Ukrainian People's Movement" already possessed all the conditions of a political organization, Haniyev could not wait to launch a campaign to criticize the "Gorbachev Reforms" and to promote the Ukrainian national historical perspective. What he wanted was to overthrow Gurenko's rule through this struggle and help Sherbitsky come back to power. This was his apparent reason.

Deep in Haniyev's mind, he was also prepared to use this struggle, relying on the suppression of the top leaders of the CPSU and high-pressure external forces to unify the thoughts of the "Ukrainian People's Movement", eliminate the rotten and retain the essence, and let the strong waves sift the sand. When the struggle was over, those who remained would be those who were in line with his own thoughts, believers in the Ukrainian national historical view and the rational reforms he advocated. They would also become the foundation for his holding the highest power in Ukraine.

12月5日中午哈尼耶夫被抓捕入狱，12月4日——6日，乌克兰人民运动委员会为首的发动“戈尔巴乔夫改革”批判运动和乌克兰民族史观宣传活动的上千名组织者、领导者都被抓捕。

These people have special identities. Some are students from families of central ministers or department-level cadres, some are professors and leaders of major universities in Kyiv, some are Ukraine's most famous poets and authors, and there are also many young cadres and some senior cadres at the department and ministerial levels. The sudden arrest of thousands of people was no less than a major earthquake for Kyiv, and it also alarmed the whole of Ukraine and even Moscow.

Many of Haniyev's friends and old colleagues were very surprised when they heard the news. They continued to inquire about the news from Kiev through their respective channels of communication, and Potanin was the most concerned among them.

Haniyev's imprisonment alarmed two Soviet ministerial-level units, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Countless other low-level cadres pleaded for Haniyev. It is said that the city of Yalta even created a blood petition of the people to plead for Haniyev, which caused a huge uproar and also led Reuters to publicize the phenomenon in a big way.

Haniyev's imprisonment attracted the attention of dozens of department-level and bureau-level officials and two ministerial-level units. More than 80,000 people in one city petitioned for justice for him. What's more, in addition to Haniyev, there were hundreds of big figures in the cultural and educational circles who had a significant status, as well as students from families of senior officials.

As more and more people were arrested and imprisoned, the whole of Ukraine was in chaos.

Major universities were shut down because of the arrests of professors and students. The remaining teachers went on strike and students boycotted classes. Other intellectuals in the academic community also published speeches in various domestic and foreign newspapers and media criticizing the Soviet Union's human rights violations and strongly supporting those who were arrested and imprisoned.

The officialdom in Kiev was also in turmoil. The arrest and imprisonment of children implicated countless families. Many officials sought connections to help their children escape punishment. Some even handed notes of plea to the desk of First Secretary Gulenko.

If it were just these disturbances, Gulenko could tolerate it temporarily. At most, he would not pursue or try the arrested people for the time being.

Gulenko is not an idiot. After investigation, he knew that "Rukh" had a deep background and involved many people. He also guessed that Sherbitsky was actually behind this major movement. He knew that he could not really take ruthless action, otherwise he would lose everyone's support and even be driven out of office.

In order to satisfy the General Secretary and resolve the crisis, Gulenko originally planned to arrest only the intellectuals and student leaders who led the riots, ban the "Rukh" and stop the rally and propaganda activities in Kiev. After a period of time, the wave of criticizing reforms and promoting nationalism will subside. At that time, Haniyev and others will be released and sent to remote areas under certain pretexts. They will not be allowed to stay in Kiev, which will disintegrate these counter-revolutionaries to the greatest extent.

This was what Gulenko believed to be the best way he could handle the situation. For this reason, he even made a special trip to call Sherbitsky of the Friendship Sanatorium after the arrest on December 10, asking the old secretary for some help and making many assurances about future work.

In response, Sherbitsky only offered some high-sounding words of comfort and expressed his support for Gulenko's crackdown and severe punishment on the counter-revolutionaries and counter-revolutionary propaganda in Kiev.

After Gulenko hung up the phone, his face turned pale. He slammed his fist on the desk and cursed, "Damn old bastard! He must be behind Haniyev and the others!"

After calming down, Gulenko ordered the KGB and MVD leaders to submit their findings. After listening to the interrogation materials and the investigation of Shcherbitsky, Gulenko frowned. "Although all the information doesn't indicate Shcherbitsky's support for these people's counter-revolutionary actions, Haniyev is Rukh's top leader, and Haniyev is Shcherbitsky's most trusted person," he said.

When I asked Novikov and others to investigate Rukh, several of their departments used some irrelevant information to evade me. It was not until half a month ago that I learned that Kiev's counter-revolutionary and national independence propaganda and even propaganda materials were created by Haniyev, who turned out to be the top leader of Rukh.

Haniyev, Novikov and others often go to Sherbitsky's villa No. 12 in the suburbs to hold rallies. Nikolay is their organizer. I can conclude that the many activities against reform and Ukrainian nationalism that have lasted from last month to now are counter-revolutionary acts instructed by Sherbitsky, organized by Nikolay, and led by Haniyev!

It’s a pity that there’s not much evidence…”

The top leaders of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Security Committee are Gulenko's newly promoted confidants. They had been sitting on the bench as deputies in the department and were very low-key during the Sherbitsky era. If Gulenko had not found an opportunity to remove the top leaders of the two departments, they would have had no chance to move forward.

Now that he has become the minister and is Gulenko's man, he naturally has to help Gulenko deal with Sherbitsky.

Although their abilities were not outstanding, they were veteran cadres who had worked hard for decades. After analysis, they still managed to find some specious evidence.

Gulenko nodded in satisfaction. "That's enough. The General Secretary has always been wary of Shcherbitsky, worried he might stir up trouble. Now with this information and evidence, coupled with the reform movement in Kiev, Shcherbitsky can't shake off his suspicion even if you don't admit it."

"This so-called popular movement in Kyiv criticizing Gorbachev's reforms is absolutely a counterattack by the conservatives led by Shcherbitsky against the reformists. I will report this to the General Secretary immediately!"

Chapter 216: The Spring Breeze of Reform Blows Across the Land (2)

The victory or defeat of a political struggle is never decided on the surface, but outside the chessboard.

Gulenko wanted to put an end to the mass movement in Kiev, so he immediately arrested all the Rukh leaders with thunder-like means. But can this really stop the people's movement in Kiev?

It was pitch black inside a secret prison in Kiev, but an orange-red light was emitted from a prison block at the east end.

Haniyev, Makar, Hershko and others were sitting on the ground, discussing something secretly.

Two KGB policemen were standing outside their prison door. One of them was named Zaliznyak, who was arranged by officials from Sherbitsky's faction to help Haniyev communicate with the outside world. He was one of Haniyev's own people whom he had only known in the past two days.

The other was named Ganur, a peripheral member of the "Ukrainian People's Movement" and an ordinary KGB agent.

Because Ganur joined the "Rukh" late last month after being inspired by the "History of the Development of the Ukrainian Nation", he did not have time to participate in any action and thus escaped the disaster.

After learning that Haniyev and others were arrested, he wanted to make some contributions to the organization. After his own efforts, he was seconded to the secret prison to guard Haniyev and others.

As soon as he arrived, he quietly revealed his identity to Haniyev and took out the application he wrote ten days ago to join "Rukh" as proof. He could recite Haniyev's works by heart and showed his great admiration for Haniyev.

Haniyev was worried that this man was a traitor sent by Gulenko. He was very worried and asked Sherbitsky's people to investigate Ganur. Only after confirming that he could be trusted did he really choose to believe him.

Now Haniyev and other leaders of the "Ukrainian People's Movement" have been caught in one fell swoop, and the people's movement in Kiev has lost its organizer and leader. If the Ukrainian Central Committee is a solid block led by Gulenko and there are no people from Sherbitsky to help Haniyev, Haniyev and others will be really imprisoned and unable to contact the outside world. At most, in half a month or a month, the vigorous "people's movement" in Kiev will die down.

However, the confrontation between Haniyev and Gulenko is not like playing chess where all the pieces are placed on the board. Haniyev has countless pieces outside the board that he can use, including those placed by Sherbitsky and those developed by Haniyev himself.

After Haniyev connected with the two people outside the door, he quietly communicated with the committee members and cadres in the same prison area during the day. After nightfall, he used the candles brought in by Zaliznyak and Ganur for lighting, ate dried meat and drank black tea, and discussed the next arrangements and deployments with everyone.

Haniyev and others have a unified opinion, that is, although everyone has come in, the "people's movement" in Kiev cannot stop.

Things have come to this point today. No matter what everyone thought before, we can only move forward firmly at this moment.

Haniyev told everyone that now domestic and foreign media are keeping an eye on the people's movement in Kiev. Only if the people's movement continues, and even advances wave after wave, will it make sense for everyone to be arrested, and this movement will have the best effect.

According to the planned goals pointed out by Haniyev, this people's movement will continue until next year. It will not stop and lie dormant until countless Soviet people and countless Ukrainians have been awakened, waiting for the opportunity to awaken again.

The arrest of the core leaders at this time dealt a major blow to the Ukrainian people's movement, but Haniyev and others who were in prison were still strategizing, preparing to take advantage of Gulenko's relaxation of vigilance to plan a new round of major activities, preparing to give Gulenko and Gorbachev a big gift with the largest people's movement in decades.

After agreeing on many details, Director Haniyev folded up several pieces of paper covered with words in one breath and walked to the door.

"Zaliznyak, Ganur, please give these two action plans to Sergei and Poroshenko at Kyiv State University."

The two agents, who had different purposes but the same mission, were both from Haniyev's faction. They looked at each other, nodded, and disappeared into the darkness of the prison in the blink of an eye.

Haniyev returned to his bed and waved, "Davarich, go to sleep."

The faint candlelight in the prison disappeared, and darkness and coldness embraced Haniyev again.

Haniyev lay on the hard bed, covered with a thin, musty blanket, but a smile played on his face: "Have a good sleep, there will be something interesting to watch in a few days..."

Because the leaders and organizers of the Ukrainian people's movement have basically been arrested and imprisoned, the hundreds of thousands or even millions of supporters outside are just headless flies with empty blood. The few intellectuals and university youth association backbones who have not been arrested are also under surveillance by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB, and cannot take any action easily.

Under such circumstances, if Haniyev wanted to remotely command the Kyiv People's Movement outside the prison, he not only needed the cooperation and help of the special agents and police guarding the prison, but also had to find a liaison outside the prison. This liaison must not only be smart and reliable, but also not be someone targeted by the agents and police.

Therefore, Haniyev could only think of his two friends.

Sergei, deputy director of the Logistics Department of Kyiv National University, also serves as the head of the Security Department. He is the main person responsible for Kyiv National University's cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs in managing students and teachers. If he secretly helps Haniyev to "ventilate" the "people's movement", it will not only conceal the truth, but also achieve the best results.

There is also Poroshenko, the general manager of Rosen Imaging. He is a senior at Kyiv National University and lives off campus because of his business. His network of connections and money allow him to do things off campus that many students and ordinary intellectuals cannot do.

Haniyev did not consult with the two men in advance, but he believed that his arrest and imprisonment had become a hot topic, and they would make the right choice after seeing his handwritten letter.

After the police in Kyiv arrested professors and students from various universities on December 5, professors and students from more than 12 universities including Kyiv National University, Kyiv University of Science and Technology, Kyiv Polytechnic University, Ukrainian National Academy of Arts, and some high schools and technical schools went on strike and held small-scale rallies to express their opposition and protest against the Soviet Communist Party's human rights violations.

However, due to the lack of organizational leadership and central idea, and the fact that thousands of people were arrested, which did scare many timid members, the people's movement in Kiev has stagnated since the 5th. If nothing unexpected happened, it might have been suppressed by Gulenko in half a month.

Unfortunately, Gulenko faced not only Haniyev, but also Sherbitsky.

After receiving Haniyev's instructions, Poroshenko and Sergei began to contact some university professors or cadres of the Student Union and Youth League who had not been arrested yet through their own circles of connections without any hesitation.

The peaceful Kyiv began to stir again.

On the morning of December 11, teachers and students from major universities in Kyiv, which had suspended classes, suddenly began to organize demonstrations outside the campuses, demanding that the Soviet Communist Party authorities immediately release Haniyev and Rukh.

Reuters reporter Anato, who had already received the news, immediately went to Kyiv National University to film and conduct interviews.

Upon receiving the news, Gulenko was both shocked and angry. He was furious and hurriedly ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs police to evacuate and suppress all marches and rallies in universities. If necessary, they were allowed to continue arresting people and firing warning shots.

As a man who spent his childhood during World War II and his youth during the Stalin era, Gulenko had the determination to make decisions promptly at critical moments of crisis, but also the iron heart to "get along" with the people in order to suppress the people's movement.

But Gulenko didn't know that times had changed, and the General Secretary of the Soviet Union was not a person with such determination and kindness.

An hour after Gulenko issued the order, police from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the KGB and the Ministry of Justice arrived at various universities to carry out suppression and evacuation.

But young people are always impulsive. This time, because of the advance preparation and encouragement, countless students began to resist with force in order to awaken the people's great goal, fighting with the police with bare hands. Although the students could not beat the police, there were a large number of students in dozens of universities. However, there were more than 3,000 police officers scattered in more than 20 universities. Facing ten or dozens of times more students, as long as the police from the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not dare to open fire, this struggle was doomed to fail for the smaller side.

The protesting teams of teachers and students from Kyiv National University, Kyiv University of Science and Technology, Kyiv Polytechnic University, Ukrainian National Academy of Arts and other universities began to come into contact with each other in the chaos, and then their fighting spirit became even higher.

As the police retreated step by step, gunshots finally rang out.

Of course, the gunshots were only to intimidate the students, and no police dared to actually shoot at the students.

However, this great movement organized by Haniyev and others had already thought of all kinds of problems. Their arrest made countless students, teachers and intellectuals who thought they had seen the truth and were the only sober people in the Soviet Union feel depressed and sad, and depressed for many days.

This people's movement was organized, disciplined, and even had financial support. The students' resentment had been suppressed and fermented for a week. After this organized outbreak, all those who actively participated were so excited that they lost their minds.

The sound of gunfire frightened some people, but the sudden roar from the crowd made everyone instantly furious.

"The police killed people, and Gulenko raised a butcher knife against the people. We should not be afraid. Let us use our blood to tell the world that there are intellectuals with conscience in Ukraine!"

……

Various words of encouragement were heard, and the college students in Kyiv rushed towards the police group like an angry herd of bulls. Soon they beat the already frightened policemen to pieces and made them flee in panic.

Upon hearing the news, Gulenko's face turned red, and he pounded the walnut table with his fists again and again. His roar seemed to shake the entire glass of the Mariinsky Palace.

The Minister of the Interior in front of him was also frightened and retreated, hurriedly arranging for the police to continue to control the situation and follow the marching crowd.

After calming down, Gulenko, as the supreme leader of Ukraine, picked up the red phone and called the Soviet Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces in Moscow, preparing to request the Ukrainian armed forces to maintain order in Kiev and impose a curfew, and if necessary, to suppress the rioters.

Just after hanging up the phone, before Gulenko had time to drink a sip of water, his Moscow hotline rang. He knew it was the General Secretary's accountability, so he took two deep breaths before holding his forehead and picking up the phone.

Gorbachev's stern voice came out from the microphone -

"Comrade Stanislav Ivanovich Gurenko, you dared the police to shoot at the students? Don't you want to do it?"

Gulenko's heart tightened, and he hurriedly explained, "Your Excellency General Secretary, please listen to me... I only asked them to fire warning shots... They didn't shoot at the students..."

Gorbachev interrupted Gulenko's explanation and said sharply, "Just now, the United States and Britain called me to inquire about the situation. Their ambassadors protested to us, saying that our police, under the orders of you, the First Secretary, shot and killed three university students, and demanded that we immediately stop violating human rights...

Comrade Gulenko, you have put us in a passive position!"

"We didn't shoot anyone, it must be a rumor..."

Gulenko was sweating profusely, and Gorbachev's voice suddenly became short and powerful.

"You must immediately investigate the situation and report to me. Also, you must immediately halt the order to mobilize the army to suppress the student protests. It's already humiliating enough that the police force was defeated by the students. You must not send the army to suppress the student demonstrations. If you do so, we, the Soviet Union, will lose face internationally, and the results of our years of hard work in reform will be wiped out..."

"Okay, General Secretary, but if we don't suppress them, are we just going to let them continue to make trouble?"

"The French ambassador is here again...

Gulenko, you need to appease them, not become an enemy of the people. I give you three days to handle the Kiev incident, or I will replace you with someone who is capable of handling this matter!"

Gorbachev said this irritably and hung up the phone.

Gulenko dropped the phone, frowned, and said sharply, "Leonid Makarovich Kravchuk, please come over."