Dissident in Limbo

Harvard is a big name, no question about it. We know it will play in Peoria, but the question for a number of political prisoners in the Soviet Union is, will it play in Mordovia?

Mordovia is the prison where Valentyn Moroz, a Ukrainian historian, was held until last April. Then, after Harvard invited him to join the Ukrainian Research Institute, Soviet authorities included Moroz in a deal that sent Moroz and four other dissidents to the United States in exchange for two Soviet spies.

Now another Ukrainian dissident invited to come to Harvard has been released from Mordovia. Three times in the last two years, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures invited Sviatoslav I. Karavansky, a translator, poet and literary critic from Odessa to give two lectures on "problems in the translation of classical English texts in Ukrainian."

The purpose of the invitation was two-fold: first, translating English into Ukrainian probably is an interesting problem, at least for specialists. But more importantly, the department sent the invitation in the hope of helping Karavansky's situation. Karavansky could use some help; he has spent nearly 30 of his 59 years in Soviet jails as a political prisoner.

"There's not much we can do for imprisoned dissidents," a member of the Ukrainian Research Institute said, "but this is worth a try."

Karavansky wrote back accepting the invitation, but it's not all clear whether he will be able to leave the Soviet Union. Though out of Mordovia, he is now in internal exile and prevented from returning to the Ukraine.

Harvard officials say they'll step up efforts to get his release. "We're hopeful that he'll be able to come." Nadia Svitlychna, a former dissident now at the Institute said, "but if the Soviets want to create problems for him they certainly can."