Presidential Decree honours the memory of Petro Grigorenko

In order to honour the memory of the renowned human rights defender and participant in the dissident movement and one of the founders of the Ukrainian Public Group to Promote the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords (Ukrainian Helsinki Group), and to mark the centennial of his birth, the President of Ukraine has instructed:

1. the Cabinet of Ministers to draw up within a month, in consultation with the National Academy of Sciences, the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and the All-Ukrainian Society for Political Prisoners and Victims of Repression, and to approve a plan of measures to honour the memory of Petro Grigorenko, specifically including:
   • measures during September and October 2007 in Kyiv and other populated areas, linked with the life and public and political activities of Petro Grigorenko and aimed at honouring his memory;
   • measures aimed at raising awareness about Petro Grigorenko’s civic and human rights work in educational institutions, cultural institutions, military associations and units;
   • the minting and introduction into circulation of memorial coins to mark the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Petro Grigorenko, as well as a special postage st
2. the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea, the regional, Kyiv and Sevastopol city administrations to look into the possibility of naming particular educational and scientific institutions after Petro Grigorenko, as well as naming or renaming according to established procedure streets and squares in populated areas of Ukraine.
3. the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Committee of Ukraine to ensure wide coverage in the mass media of measures to honour the memory of Petro Grigorenko, to organize radio and television programmes about his life and work.

President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko

5 March 2007

Petro Grigorenko was born on 16 December 1907 and died in 1987.

He was an active defender of the rights of the repressed Crimean Tatar people, spoke out in defence of the Prague Spring (in Czechoslovakia) and in support of the demonstrators who went out onto Red Square on 26 August 1968 to protest against the invasion of Czechoslovakia as well as of other dissidents. [He was also one of the original members of the Moscow Helsinki Group – translator]

In 1964 for his human rights activities he was stripped of the rank of General and all honours  He was subjected to arrest and forced treatment in a psychiatric hospital.

In 1977 Grigorenko went to the USA for medical treatment and was stripped of his Soviet citizenship.