Andrij Shkurhan

"The majority of the nation, who wanted to live according to European laws and rules, organized a huge protest. They wanted to see Ukraine as a country developing normally among other nations of the world, and not to come back under the rule, albeit informal, of Russia, and remain a colony of a great empire that had just begun to gain power. His government, and Putin in particular, have sought to annex the Ukrainian state into their orbit. I took an active part in those events, considering that my niece was a member of the opposition in the Ukrainian parliament at the time. The opposition did not only fight against the government on the Maidan, but they also used several political methods. One of them was to convince other European countries to help the Ukrainian people to win this revolution. I translated first-hand information from the Ukrainian opposition - all the proclamations and appeals to the nation, but also to the governments of the neighboring countries, especially Poland - into Polish and sent them directly to the office of the President of the Republic of Poland or to the Polish Foreign Ministry."

"It was quite interesting in America. I was on my second pre-show, when it was over, they said, 'Okay, you’re hired, we need someone like you.' And as soon as it ended, the gentleman who was the host and from whom I had run away came up to me, along with two other sturdy and muscular men. On the other side was my uncle, and with him there were four other men. The host was coming and saying: 'He’s coming with us.' - 'My uncle said: 'He's not going anywhere, he's ours.' - 'How so? I'm the major here,' the guy said. - 'Nice to meet you,' my uncle said, 'I'm a general.' And the four men with him were Marines. That's how I stayed in the United States." - "For how long?" - "Even though it was for a really short time, it was just June of 1991, I was declared a traitor in the Soviet Union." - "Officially?" - "Something like that. My dad's hair turned gray, and my ex-wife, a former pianist and composer, officially disowned me. She said she wanted nothing to do with the traitor."

"In 1989 I went for the first time to the celebration of the 175th anniversary of the important Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, which was not allowed in Kiev at that time. But the then Minister of Culture of Latvia, you know, the Baltic countries have always been characterized by a greater quest for freedom - so the celebration of Taras Shevchenko’s anniversary was held in Latvia. I went to Latvia with my now-deceased professor Zinaida Maximenko, a meritorious Ukrainian artist and an outstanding pianist and composer, and we did concerts where we played music by Ukrainian composers, especially Mykolas Lysenko, to the words of Taras Shevchenko’s poems. None of the prominent Ukrainian artists dared, they were all given a secret order not to go to these celebrations. And Shkurhan just didn’t care, he sent everyone as far away as possible and went there and did two concerts, one in Riga and the other in Jurmala." - "Did it cause you any trouble back then?" - "It caused me problems, because they wouldn't employ me anywhere. I was on the KGB list, and when I came somewhere for a pre-singing session, they told me, 'Great, you’re hired!' But two days later, 'You know, we got a letter here saying we can't hire you.'"

"Aunt Hana also survived a lot, because her husband was arrested by the Communist government in 1946 and had to spend ten years, he wasn’t released until the end of 1956, in a gulag. In the family we had a living witness of what was happening in gulags. He was held beyond the Arctic Circle in Norilsk, working in the mines and in the brickyard. All his toes were frostbitten and amputated. He came back crippled. Those are places where the temperatures reach 40 degrees below zero. He was one of the survivors of the hell of the Soviet gulag. He came back, and for most of his life until Ukraine's independence, his rights were violated. As a former prisoner of the system, he had no opportunity to assert himself. So my parents took in their children who were born after my uncle's return from the gulag, my cousin Maria in 1957 and my cousin Peter in late 1958."