ARTICLE 187-3 of the CRIMINAL CODE of the UkrSSR

ARTICLE 187³ of the CRIMINAL CODE of the UkrSSR (analogous to Art. 190³ of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR). Introduced by the Decree of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of the UkrSSR of November 9, 1966; amended by the Decree of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of January 12, 1983): “The dissemination of knowingly false fabrications that defame the Soviet state and social system.

The systematic dissemination in oral form of knowingly false fabrications that defame the Soviet state and social system, as well as the dissemination in written, printed, or other form of works of the same content, –

is punishable by imprisonment for a term of up to three years, or by correctional labor for a term of up to two years, or by a fine of up to three hundred karbovantsi.”

It was first applied in Ukraine on August 3, 1967, against V. CHORNOVIL for his collection of materials about the repressed Sixtiers, “Woe from Wit (Portraits of Twenty ‘Criminals’)” . Those imprisoned under Art. 187³ were held in camps for common criminals, where it was easier to blackmail them and fabricate criminal cases (see the cases of V. SICHKO, Y. LESIV). (Was the article removed from the Code by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 8, 1989?)

In accordance with the Law of the UkrSSR “On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression in Ukraine” of April 17, 1991, all those convicted under this article have been rehabilitated.