The National Rehabilitation Commission at its meeting in December 2023 rehabilitated the outstanding Armenian film director Sergei Parajanov. The presentation was made by the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.
This was written by the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance Anton Drobovych.
The National Commission made its decision after analyzing the directorʼs criminal case and other archival documents, where it revealed a political motive for the persecution and conviction of Parajanov.
Sergei Paradzhanov.
Wikimedia
According to him, the Office of the President and Ukrainian human rights defenders, in particular the Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights (UHUHR), supported the case. He also thanked Roman Podkur, his colleagues, Volodymyr Tylishchak and the State Archive of the Kyiv region.
"The legal rehabilitation of Sergei Parajanov is truly a unique and significant event. It is another proof of the thesis that good and justice ultimately win, even if only in a strategic perspective. All victims of the communist totalitarian regime, like any totalitarian regime, have the right and opportunity to be restored in dignity and truth. It is very inspiring that this rehabilitation took place just in time for the centenary of the birth of Sergei Parajanov," noted the chairman Anton Drobovych.
Who is Sergei Parajanov and what was he convicted of?
Sergei Parajanov was born in 1929 in Tbilisi and was imprisoned in a Russian prison for Ukrainian nationalism. He received international recognition for the 1964 film "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors", based on the work of Mykhailo Kotsiubinsky. At the premiere of the film in the Kyiv cinema "Ukraine", a protest took place — the creative intelligentsia condemned the political repressions of the Soviet authorities in Ukraine.
Cinema "Ukraine". Kyiv. 1960s.
Two years later, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine "On serious deficiencies in the organization of film production at the Kyiv Film Studio named after Dovzhenko". The authorities criticized, in particular, the script of the film "Kyiv Frescoes" by Sergei Parajanov.
In 1973, the Soviet authorities accused Sergei Parajanov of "Ukrainian nationalism and homosexuality", sentencing him to five years of strict regime camps.
Sergei Parajanov is also known for the fact that he initiated the genre of collage in Ukrainian fine art and was a representative of the wave of Ukrainian poetic cinema. In 1990, he posthumously received the title of Peopleʼs Artist of the Ukrainian SSR, and in 1991 — the State Prize of Ukraine named after T. Shevchenko.