MURASHOV, YURIY IHOREVYCH (born May 13, 1945, in the city of Apostolove, now in Dnipropetrovsk oblast—died September 1, 2005, in Kyiv).
Teacher. Translator. Polyglot. Human rights activist. Public figure.
He graduated from Kyiv School No. 71. In 1968, he graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a degree as a translator-consultant; in 1974, he graduated from the Faculty of History, and in 1975, he completed Arabic language courses.
As a student, aware of Ukraine’s colonial status within the USSR, he independently studied Swahili, believing that the experience of liberation of African and Arab countries might one day be useful to Ukraine. For the same reasons, Murashov’s first literary attempts were translations of African American poets.
He worked at the State Historical Museum of Ukraine as a tour guide-translator and later as the head of the numismatics department.
When a campaign against numismatists began in 1969, which culminated in the legal persecution of collectors for alleged currency transactions, Murashov, called as an expert, gave truthful, professional testimony that contradicted the investigators’ intentions.
In the 1970s, he took an active part in the human rights movement. He distributed samvydav.
From 1977 to 1983, he worked as a teacher of English and history at Schools No. 197 and No. 147 in Kyiv.
From 1983 to 1985, he worked as a senior laboratory assistant for the Podil Archaeological Expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, participating in archaeological excavations in Kyiv’s Podil district.
Beginning in 1986, he taught English at Secondary School No. 262, where he organized a teenage tourist club, fostering patriots of the future independent Ukraine. He led caving excursions with them.
With the onset of perestroika, Murashov participated in the activities of the Ukrainian Culturological Club and the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. When it transformed into the Ukrainian Republican Party (URP), he became a member of the URP Council. In 1992, along with S. KHMARA, he became one of the founders of the Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party, and from 1994 to 2001, he was a member of its Central Board and the head of the Kyiv regional organization.
He was an organizer and participant in numerous actions that preceded independence, including the reburial of V. STUS, Y. LYTVYN, and O. TYKHY, and the Human Chain of Unity on January 22, 1990.
In 1990, he was one of the founders and later the head of the human rights organization “Ukrainian Committee ‘Helsinki-90’.” He was the author of a number of publications on human rights.
He was fluent in English, French, Polish, Swahili, Arabic, and Turkish.
On September 1, 2005, in Podil, Murashov was struck by a car. The driver did not provide assistance. He died of blood loss. He is buried in Kyiv at the Baikove Cemetery, plot No. 33.
Sources: https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Vasyl Ovsiienko