Hryn, Mykola Yevdokymovych

HRYN, MYKOLA YEVDOKYMOVYCH (born November 7, 1928, in Western Ukraine—died October 11, 2008, in Kyiv).
Geophysicist. Produced and distributed samvydav.
In 1948, he graduated from the geophysics department of the Faculty of Geology at the Lviv Polytechnic Institute. He also completed his postgraduate studies at the Department of Geophysics there and defended his Ph.D. dissertation. In 1963, he won a competition for the position of senior researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the UkrSSR in Kyiv. He was considered a very talented and promising scientist, particularly known for his research on the problem of seismic modulations. He authored numerous publications. In 1965, the publishing house “Naukova dumka” released his monograph “Interference and Spectra of Waves in Seismic Surveying.”
He read and shared samvydav literature with his acquaintances, which he received from Yivha KUZNIETSOVA, Oleksandr MARTYNENKO, Volodymyr ZAVOYSKY, Yevhen PRONIUK, and others. He was arrested at the end of August 1965. During the investigation, he gave testimony about the distribution of samvydav and pleaded guilty. In March 1966, in a closed session of the Kyiv Oblast Court, he was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment in strict-regime camps on charges of conducting anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (Part 1 of Article 62 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR). Taking into account his admission of guilt and repentance, the Supreme Court of the UkrSSR commuted his sentence to a suspended one.
Shortly after his release, a meeting of the work collective was held at the Institute of Geophysics, where the “case” of two employees—Mykola Hryn and Volodymyr ZAVOYSKY—was discussed. A KGB agent reported on the threat of “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism.” A subdued Hryn was forced to repent, stammering as he tried to justify himself. V. ZAVOYSKY managed to squeeze out, “I am not a nationalist.” None of their colleagues spoke out in condemnation. Then, the well-known theorist of Russification, Academician I. K. Bilodid, lashed out at them: “You see, we’ve found defenders of the Ukrainian language! Found them! But they can’t even string two words together in Ukrainian themselves.”
Hryn was reinstated at his job, but as a junior researcher, and he worked at the Institute of Geophysics until at least 1999.


Bibliography:
V. Chornovil. Woe from Wit. – Lviv: Memorial, 1991.— 344 pp. (Reprint: Woe from Wit (Portraits of Twenty “Criminals”). A Collection of Materials. Compiled by Viacheslav Chornovil. Fourth revised and expanded edition. – First Ukrainian Printing House in France, 1968). – pp. 53-54.
Chornovil V. Works: In 10 vols. – Vol. 2. “Justice or Recurrences of Terror?”. “Woe from Wit”. Materials and documents 1966 – 1969 / Comp. Valentyna Chornovil. Foreword by Les Taniuk. – K.: Smoloskyp, 2003. – pp. 105, 133, 404-405, 541.
Interview with Ivan Rusyn, May 26, 1999: https://museum.khpg.org/1186168371=
Interview with Volodymyr Zavoysky, May 27, 1999: https://museum.khpg.org/1236959427
Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960 – 1990. Encyclopedic Directory / Foreword by Osyp Zinkevych, Oles Obertas. – K.: Smoloskyp, 2010. – p. 174; 2nd ed., 2011. – p. 191.
Compiled by V. Ovsiienko (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group) on June 4, 2013.