Kraynyk, Mykola Mykhailovych

KRAYNYK, MYKOLA MYKHAYLOVYCH (born April 20, 1935, in the village of Solukiv, now in Dolyna raion, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast—died November 10, 2008, in the village of Solukiv).
History teacher. Member of the OUN, founding member of the Ukrainian National Organization (UZNO, later UNF-2).
From a nationally conscious peasant family. His father was an active participant in the underground. “From a young age, I was very impressionable, sensitive, and truthful,” Kraynyk later wrote. As early as 1948–1953, he conducted reconnaissance in the village for the OUN and UPA underground and distributed leaflets. He became a member of the OUN on October 14, 1951 (pseudonym “Pryvyd” [Ghost]). In the summer of 1951, he led a group of insurgents headed by OUN leadership member Vasyl Okhrymovych to the Rohatyn region. In 1954, he graduated from Dolyna Secondary School No. 1 but did not pass the exams because he was interrogated by the KGB about his connections with “bandits.”
In 1951, Kraynyk created an underground youth organization called “The Unconquered.” His last meeting with the insurgents was in 1953. Without the support of elders and in the conditions of the defeated insurgent movement and general depression in Galicia, the organization’s activities gradually faded.
On the advice of the insurgents, Kraynyk joined the Komsomol in 1952. On November 9, 1954, he was drafted into the Soviet Army but fled the draft station on November 11 to join the UPA. He searched for partisans unsuccessfully for a month and had to surrender to the military commissariat. On March 3, 1955, he was sentenced by the Dolyna district court to 1 year of forced labor on a collective farm. He passed the 10th-grade exams as an external student at Kalush School No. 1. In 1955, he passed the exams for the history faculty of Lviv State University but did not get in due to competition. From November 1955, he served in the Soviet Army in Kazakhstan, at the Esil station in Akmolinsk oblast. After demobilization, he returned home. In early 1957, he worked as a teacher of history, geography, manual labor, and physical education at the Solukiv eight-year school, but due to a lack of pedagogical education and experience, he left the school in August. He worked at the DOSAAF, and from 1958 to 1963, as an oil and gas extraction operator in the Dolyna Oil and Gas Production Department.
In May 1959, he married Daria Senkiv, an orphan from his village. They had a son, Taras (b. 1961), and a daughter, Oksana (b. 1969).
From 1961 to 1967, Kraynyk studied by correspondence at the history faculty of Chernivtsi University.
With Kraynyk’s participation, the Ukrainian National Organization (UZNO) was created on Christmas 1961 in the home of OUN member Hryhoriy Dyndyn. H. Dyndyn was elected chairman, and Kraynyk was appointed chief of staff and propagandist. In 1964, the chairman asked Kraynyk to take over leadership functions. At the end of 1964, Ukrainian National Front (UNF) member Mykhailo DIAK proposed renaming UZNO to UNF (in literature, it is called UNF-2). The organization recognized the program documents of the OUN and the UHVR as its guides but focused on non-violent, constitutional methods of activity. Its goal was to unite all forces that sought Ukraine’s secession from the USSR and opposed all forms of national and social oppression. The social system of an independent Ukraine was to be “socialism with a human face.” The first task of UZNO was to raise the national and civic consciousness of the people by conducting educational work and disseminating pre-war publications, OUN literature, and contemporary progressive literature, as well as truthful information from Radio Liberty and other foreign radio stations. The underground members had a wide range of political, cultural, and worldview interests. They distributed literature and works by the Sixtiers, including V. CHORNOVIL’s journal “Ukrainskyi visnyk” (The Ukrainian Herald), and later materials of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.
Members of the organization wrote an oath by hand, sealing it with their blood, after which it was usually burned. They used pseudonyms, paid dues, and operated conspiratorially, with the clear goal of an independent, democratic Ukraine.
From 1962 to 1969, UZNO published the journal “Prozrinnia” (Epiphany), initially handwritten and later typewritten (15 issues were published). In 1972-79, “Ukrainskyi visnyk” (25-30 pages) and an “Info-bulletin” were published irregularly. Some documents were distributed as photographic prints.
From 1963, Kraynyk worked as a teacher at an evening school. In 1964, he became a candidate, and a year later, a member of the CPSU. He was appointed director of the evening school and taught history at the day school. In 1967, he was transferred to teach in the village of Kropyvnyk, Dolyna raion, to replace the head of UNF-1, Dmytro KVETSKO, who was arrested on March 21, 1967. Kraynyk soon returned to teach in his home village. From 1968 to 1969, Kraynyk was secretary of the party organization of the Shchors collective farm and was elected a deputy of the village council and a member of the village executive committee.
In early 1969, Kraynyk noticed he was being watched. A student, Maria Vintoniv (Lytvynyshyn), whom Kraynyk was helping to prepare for university entrance, reported to the KGB that the teacher had encouraged her to join an underground organization and had given her tasks to type questionnaires. In 1970, a listening device was installed in his electricity meter. On January 6–8, 1971, Kraynyk had lengthy conversations with the KGB. He was offered cooperation, threatened, and pressured for testimony about the underground organization. In June 1971, he was expelled from the CPSU, accused of a nationalistic interpretation of history, his old ties with the UPA underground were brought up, and he was fired from his teaching job. He worked as a plumber, stoker, loader, and refrigeration equipment operator.
In 1974, UNF-2 intensified its activities. Kraynyk wrote and distributed the articles “To the Readers,” “Dear Reader,” “The World Congress of Free Ukrainians,” and the program document “Main Points for the Activity of Every Conscious Ukrainian.” He wrote many instructional letters to specific individuals and cells, which were already active in several oblasts. In 1978, a youth organization was created, led by the Komsomol organizer of the Dolyna Gas Processing Plant, Taras Dyndyn. He was also the treasurer of UNF-2. Kraynyk attempted to contact the Foreign Units of the OUN.
To earn money for the organization’s activities and to have free time, Kraynyk began working on a rotational basis in the Mari Drilling Operations Department in Turkmenistan in February 1978. This meant two weeks of work followed by two weeks of rest at home.
By August 1979, the KGB knew about the existence of the underground: on August 21, 1979, Vasyl Zvarych, imprisoned on a fabricated hooliganism charge, gave a statement in captivity about the activities of UNF. Kraynyk’s closest associate, Ivan Mandryk, was detained on September 17, 1979, and the next day he “fell” from a fourth-floor window of the Hotel “Ukraina” with a stab wound under his left armpit. That same day, the head of the youth group, Taras Dyndyn, was arrested and on September 23 gave extensive testimony about UNF. (Later, on the night of September 3-4, 1983, one of the leading figures of UNF, Mykola Matiytsiv, “fell” from a train and died.)
The case against Kraynyk was opened by the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast KGB Directorate on October 6, 1979, based on the statements of V. Zvarych and T. Dyndyn. An investigative team was formed, consisting of Lieutenant Colonel I. Rudyi, Captain O. Liabakh, and Lieutenant O. Maidanchenko. Kraynyk was detained in the city of Mary, Turkmen SSR, on September 28, 1979, on a fabricated charge of “malicious hooliganism.” At the police station, he was beaten and thrown into a cell with criminals. A week later, he was brought to the Ivano-Frankivsk KGB pre-trial detention center. On October 10, 1979, a case was opened against him for participation in an underground organization. In the autumn of that year, a series of searches were conducted at the homes of Kraynyk and his relatives in Solukiv and other locations, during which books from the 1920s-30s, many letters, samvydav—including issue 4 of “Ukrainskyi visnyk” (by V. CHORNOVIL), “The Cathedral in Scaffolding” by Y. SVERSTIUK, and articles by V. MOROZ—a camera, and typewriters were confiscated.
KGB operatives guarded Kraynyk’s cell around the clock. For a month and a half, he confessed to nothing. Then, as a form of blackmail, he was thrown into a solitary cell. On November 15, 1979, he found a piece of a blade in a crack and slit his wrists, but doctors saved him. The guards stripped him, severely beat him, and threw him into a cold punishment cell for 10 days.
Every day from November 12 to 16, investigator Major M. Tsimokh in Kyiv interrogated Taras Kraynyk, a second-year student at the Kyiv Pedagogical Institute, about his father’s activities. The young man initially refused to say anything “for family reasons,” but under the threat of having a case opened against him, he confessed that he, along with I. Koval, had taken an oath as a UNF member while still a minor.
On November 23, on the investigator’s desk, Kraynyk saw many UNF documents that he had buried with Taras Dyndyn shortly before his arrest. He suspected Dyndyn of betrayal. In reality, the can of documents fell into the hands of the KGB through the carelessness of another person. On November 29, Kraynyk began to testify. He named 21 people (with pseudonyms) to whom he had given literature and assignments, and who had paid dues. At the request of the investigation, the Prosecutor General’s Office extended the investigation period to June 4, 1980.
Cases were also opened against ten other UNF members: Ivan Koval, Taras Kraynyk (Kraynyk’s son), Taras Dyndyn, Vasyl Zvarych, Mykola Kopchak, Hanna Budnyk, Dmytro Romaniuk, Bohdan Zvarych, Maria Lytvynyshyn (Vintoniv), and Ivan Mandryk, but they were closed after a week or two. This was likely because the Frankivsk KGB did not want to admit to their superiors that a powerful underground organization with two hundred members had been operating in the oblast for years. 111 people were questioned in the case, and 22 were called as witnesses at the trial. However, the activities of UNF were never fully uncovered.
The investigation concluded on June 27, 1980. Due to his poor health (he suffered from atherosclerosis and an acute form of stomach ulcer), Kraynyk was transferred to the Lviv prison hospital. On August 12–21, 1980, he was sentenced by the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast court under Articles 62, Part 1, 64, and 208 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR (anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, organizational activity, involvement of minors—his son and I. Koval—in criminal activity) to 7 years in strict-regime camps and 3 years of exile. No mitigating circumstances were found. His fellow villagers were not allowed at the trial, and his daughter Oksana and his sister were rudely pushed out. His wife’s arms were twisted, a finger was dislocated, her clothes were torn, and she was fined for a window that was actually broken by a guard.
Supposedly “repentant,” Kraynyk managed to pass the “Indictment” to his wife during a visit when investigator I. Rudyi stepped out for a moment.
After the trial, Kraynyk was taken to the KGB pre-trial detention center in Lviv, and from there to Mordovia. He served his sentence in camp ZhKh-385/3 (village of Barashevo, Tengushevsky raion). Yuriy BADZIO, Dmytro MAZUR, and Vladimir Osipov were in this zone at the time. Kraynyk worked sewing work gloves and as a cleaner. He behaved calmly, even appearing loyal to the administration. But by using invisible ink in letters to his daughter Oksana, he received and sent out coded information about the situation of political prisoners, passing it in capsules during visits. There, he formed a “troika”: on August 6, 1985, Hryhoriy KUTSENKO and Hryhoriy Feldman took an oath as members of the UNF.
Two days before the end of his prison term, Kraynyk was taken on a transfer that lasted 3 months. He served his exile at the Matrosov mine in Tenkinsky raion, Magadan oblast, where Vasyl STUS, Zorian POPADIUK, and Yuriy ORLOV had previously been imprisoned.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet dated March 28, 1987, he was “pardoned.” He left Kolyma on April 1, after tearing up a clemency letter a KGB agent offered him.
He arrived home on April 11, 1987. He revived the activities of UNF-2. He met with former political prisoners Vasyl STRILTSIV, Bohdan REBRYK, and Vasyl ROMANIUK and helped publish Dmytro HRYNKIV’s journal “Karby hir” (Carvings of the Mountains). On December 23, 1990, he founded a branch of the Brotherhood of OUN-UPA in the Dolyna region and headed it. He joined the Rukh movement and V. SICHKO’s UCDP. On August 19, 1991, he rallied people to fight against the GKChP (State Committee on the State of Emergency).
With the achievement of independence, UNF-2 ceased its activities, as its goal had been met. He was rehabilitated on December 30, 1991. In 1993, the district authorities awarded him monetary compensation, but in the conditions of inflation, it turned out to be meager.
Starting in early 1991, Kraynyk founded a typewritten quarterly collection of documents and materials called “Archive of the UNF (Ukrainian National Front).” By September 2000, he had published 25 issues. From July 1991, he published a typewritten literary-artistic and socio-political almanac, “Heroics of the Carpathian Region.” Forty-five issues were published. He also published 10 issues of the almanac “Solukiv.”
On January 31, 1996, a congress of UNF-2 members was held in the city of Dolyna. 62 people from several oblasts attended. 48 members had passed away by that time.
In 2000, Kraynyk took part in the 10th Great Assembly of the OUN in Munich. He actively assisted historian Yuriy Zaitsev in preparing the two-volume work “The Ukrainian National Organization (UNF-2).”
By a decree of the President No. 21/2007 of January 18, 2007, Kraynyk was awarded the Order “For Courage” of the III degree.
He died on November 10, 2008, and was buried in the village of Solukiv.


Bibliography:
Information Bulletin of the UHG, No. 2, March 1980 (samvydav); Information Bulletins of the UHG… / Compiled by O. Zinkevych. – Toronto – Baltimore: Smoloskyp, 1981. – pp. 165-166.
Herald of Repression in Ukraine. Foreign Representation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. Editor-compiler Nadiia Svitlychna. New York. 1980–1985. – Kraynyk Mykola: 1980: 8-5; 1981: 1, 2, 3; 1982: 2-38; 1984: 2-37; 1985: 2-22.
Kutsenko, Hryhoriy. I Thank Prison. Memoirs and Documents – K.: “Prosvita” Publishing Center, 1998. – pp. 110-112.
Ukrainian National Front: Research, Documents, Materials / Compiled by M. V. Dubas, Yu. D. Zaitsev – Lviv: I. Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2000. – 680 pp.
The Ukrainian National Organization (UNF-2). Research, Documents, Materials. In 2 vols.: Vol. 1 / Compiler and responsible editor Yu. D. Zaitsev – Lviv: Afisha, 2005. – 704 pp.: ill. [Series: Ukraine in the 20th Century. Encyclopedia of Struggle and Repression]
Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960 – 1990. Encyclopedic Directory / Foreword by Osyp Zinkevych, Oles Obertas. – K.: Smoloskyp, 2010. – pp. 348-349; 2nd ed., 2012. – pp. 338-339.
Compiled by Vasyl Ovsiienko (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group) on June 7, 2013.