A Sixtier, participant in the production of samvydav, a political prisoner.
Ponomaryov was born into a family of active communists—his father had awards and the title of “honorary Chekist,” and his mother worked in the healthcare organization system.
In 1938, Ponomaryov's mother, 8 months pregnant, was held for a full day at the NKVD, demanding she testify against leading doctors in Kharkiv. She refused; she was thrown out of the office and stood for hours by the office door because there was no chair. Her husband—an “honorary Chekist”—could not help in any way; he was simply not allowed into the institution. Ponomaryov's mother was saved by a change in the investigative staff after the arrest of N. Yezhov. Before her eyes, her investigator was led out of the office in handcuffs, so his successor let her go. Ponomaryov's father did not return to the family after WWII; his mother raised two sons alone, was ill, and retired early. They lived in great poverty.
In 1956, Ponomaryov graduated from secondary school, and in 1961, from the Kharkiv Automobile and Highway Institute with a degree in mechanical engineering.
As a high school student, he read the transcript of one of the trials of the 1930s. He was greatly struck by the falsity of the trial itself, the fantastical slanders the defendants made against themselves and other accused. This sparked a considerable interest in what was really happening in the country. N. Khrushchev's report at the 20th Party Congress revealed a great deal, but it was also a half-truth, and only about past times. The only source of information about the present was foreign “voices,” which almost everyone in the USSR listened to.
In 1963, Ponomaryov married Iryna Rapp and through his wife met the Yakir family in Moscow, in which there were three political prisoners. Her stories, some archival materials, and then “tam-” and “samvydav” captivated Ponomaryov. He actively read himself, made copies, and gave books and materials that were banned or not recommended in the USSR to friends and acquaintances to read.
In 1969, he signed open letters to the public in defense of P. GRYGORENKO and to the UN Human Rights Committee about human rights violations in the USSR.
He was arrested on December 3, 1969. He was sentenced by the Kharkiv Oblast Court along with V. NEDOBORA on March 11, 1970, to 3 years of imprisonment in general-regime camps under Article 187-1 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR. He served his sentence in the “Trudove” camp in Vinnytsia Oblast. He was released upon completion of his sentence on December 2, 1972.
After her husband's conviction, Ponomaryov's wife was transferred from her position as an assistant at the physics faculty of Kharkiv State University to the research sector, away from students, although the KGB had recommended firing her from her job at KSU.
Ponomaryov and his family were constantly under the watchful eye of the KGB. This was especially true as the relationships in Ponomaryov's circle of friends grew wider and closer. Even Ponomaryov's son (born in 1965) was not admitted to the military department of the Polytechnic Institute; in the 1st (secret) department, they asked if he communicated with his father. This was likely a hint that he should renounce his father, as was the practice in the 1930s. This did not happen, and his son served in the army on general terms after graduating from the institute. Ponomaryov's son now works in his field in the USA.
Ponomaryov died on September 19, 2003, and is buried in Kharkiv.
Bibliography:
KHPG Archive.
Iryna Rapp
PONOMARIOV VOLODYMYR VOLODYMYROVYCH