Ivanyshyn, Volodymyr Mykhailovych

IVANYSHYN, VOLODYMYR MYKHAILOVYCH (born November 17, 1939, in the village of Duba, Rozhniativ raion, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast—died in December 1985 at Rozdilna station, Odesa oblast). From the Sixtiers circle. Teacher, poet, literary critic, artist. From a Boyko peasant family. The middle of three sons, Yevhen, joined the UPA (pseudonym – Viter) in August 1948 and died in combat on October 14, 1949, at the age of 20. The family was exiled to Tomsk oblast, and their property was confiscated. In 1954, Volodymyr finished the Buzhdiur seven-year school in Chayinsky raion, Tomsk oblast (according to other sources, he completed 9 grades in 1957). He worked as a lumberjack and a motor operator’s assistant at a logging station, and in 1957, he completed courses for forest foremen-inspectors. From 1958 to 1961, he served in the Soviet Army. There, he graduated from an aviation specialist school as an electromechanic and a driver of mobile airfield power units. He was involved in sports. He spent the last two years of his service in an aviation unit in the city of Stryi, Lviv oblast. He wrote poetry, some of which was published in the newspapers “Slava Rodiny” and “Krylia Rodiny” (1961). After demobilization, he returned to his home village, where his parents had already moved back, although without his older son, Vasyl, who had drowned in 1958 while saving a Russian girl. For some time, Volodymyr managed a club. In 1962, he passed the secondary school exams as an external student at the Perehinsk workers’ youth school and enrolled in the Russian department of the philological faculty at the Ivano-Frankivsk Pedagogical Institute. He studied by correspondence. From 1963, he worked at the Dubivska eight-year school, first as a physical education teacher, and then teaching Russian language and literature. He researched the works of V. Stefanyk, Lesia Ukrainka, and Hryhir Tiutiunnyk. He wrote several journalistic notes and reviews of books by A. Matviienko, A. Malyshko, I. DRACH, and M. Stelmakh (whose novel “Geese-Swans Are Flying” he translated into Russian). He was acquainted with M. KOSIV, a postgraduate student at Lviv University, M. OZERNY, a teacher at Ripne secondary school, and V. MOROZ, a lecturer at the Ivano-Frankivsk Pedagogical Institute, who were arrested in August-September 1965 on charges of conducting anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (Article 62, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR). Volodymyr Ivanyshyn, a fourth-year student, was also arrested on August 28, 1965, on suspicion of distributing samvydav literature, nationalism, and devout adherence to the underground Greek Catholic Church. During three searches, articles such as “Regarding the Trial of Pohruzhalshy, ” “A Reply to V. Symonenko’s Mother, Shcherban H. F. , ” “Ukrainian Nationalism at the Present Stage, ” “I. Dziuba’s Speech at the Symonenko Evening, ” and “Ukrainian Education in a Chauvinistic Noose” were confiscated. Even poems by V. SYMONENKO, L. KOSTENKO, I. DRACH, M. Vinhranovsky, and D. Pavlychko, which had been published in Soviet publications in the early 1960s and copied by hand, were seized. Also taken were various excerpts, old books, and notebooks with the addresses and names of his students. He had to provide an explanation for every little thing: Where did you get it? Why did you copy it? Who did you give it to to read? They tried to incriminate him with a quote from Lenin’s works containing a negative characterization of the Great Russian chauvinist—it was supposed to be the cornerstone of the accusation! The investigation reluctantly had to drop this charge. Poems such as “Hands, ” “You Teach Me, Father. . . ” and “In Space—There Is History” were deemed defamatory. Deemed unworthy of a Soviet teacher were: a school evening on the theme “Let Us Cherish Our Native Language”; a cap placed on a plaster head of the “leader of the world proletariat”; Franko’s assessment of Karl Marx’s teachings; and his refusal to join the Komsomol… During interrogations (there are 39 protocols in criminal case No. 2910 P), Ivanyshyn maintained his dignity. He formally admitted his “mistakes, ” which he explained by personal factors (the deaths of his brothers and his Siberian exile) as well as national ones (the Russification policy in Ukraine). He was released from custody on January 29, 1966, under Article 7 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR as someone who was not socially dangerous. He agreed to make a public repentance at a meeting of his fellow villagers, where he was handed over “to the collective of workers for re-education and correction. ” He was not reinstated at the institute. The rest of Ivanyshyn’s life was a “walk through torment” under the vigilant eye of the KGB. For a long time, he was unemployed. Having a talent for drawing, he decorated kindergartens, houses of culture, and dachas. He worked as a teacher in the Yavoriv raion of Lviv oblast but was soon dismissed. He found temporary lodging with friends at a dacha, in a workshop, or in an attic. He worked as an electrician, a bricklayer, a painter, and a stoker. To avoid constant persecution, he went to work as a lumberjack in Irkutsk oblast. In December 1969, Ivanyshyn signed a letter from 16 former political prisoners to the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the UkrSSR, O. Liashko, titled “‘Cell’ Cases Again?” protesting the new imprisonment of S. Karavansky and demanding guarantees of public trials for political cases. In the late 1960s, he returned to his native village. He reconnected with the recently released V. MOROZ. On April 29, 1970, he went to visit him in Ivano-Frankivsk and walked into a search. The KGB officers also searched him and released him after two hours. But they brutally seized him again on the street, tore his clothes, took him to the KGB, and tried to confiscate his passport. The detainee stated that his passport was not within the KGB’s jurisdiction. He was then taken to the police station. After taking a written statement, he was released 7. 5 hours later. His complaint dated May 1, 1970, was published in issue 2 of the “Ukrainskyi visnyk. ” This became a pretext for further persecution. In 1984, he was forcibly committed to a psychiatric hospital. He returned to the village exhausted and emaciated. In December 1985, Ivanyshyn was working on restoring “Pidhorny’s dacha” in Pidliute, near Osmoloda, after a fire. One day, he was called away by an unknown person. The artist was never seen alive again. Some time later, the village council was informed that he had been hit by a train near Rozdilna station in Odesa oblast. The mutilated body could not be identified. The identity was established based on an undamaged passport found in his pocket. The official version was suicide. According to his friends, as a devout Greek Catholic, he would not have committed such an act. Ivanyshyn knew the Holy Scriptures well. He played several musical instruments and sang beautifully. The Ukrainian-language magazine “Nasha kultura” (Our Culture) in Poland published his in-depth studies on V. Stefanyk: “Poet of Love” (1981) and “Son of the Earth. ” He wrote the latter in Irpin, where he was temporarily living and working as an electrician at the House of Creativity. It was published in 1983 in Poland. In Ukraine, his articles about Lesia Ukrainka and T. Shevchenko were published, but under someone else’s name. He reviewed a collection of short stories by Hryhir Tiutiunnyk, “The Scent of Yarrow, ” Iryna Vilde’s novel “The Richynsky Sisters, ” an album of pysankas, the book “Vasyl Stefanyk in Criticism and Memoirs, ” and a new edition of the “Ruthenian Triad. ” Ivanyshyn is the author of the romance “Thorn Rose” (1972, music by Halyna Menkush), dedicated to V. CHORNOVIL. After the trio “Zoloti kliuchi” (Golden Keys) performed the sorrowful romance at the “Ukraina” Palace in Kyiv, it was unofficially banned as ideologically harmful and nationalistic. His “Lullaby” is sung by Nina Matviienko in I. Mykolaichuk’s film “The Lost Letter” (Ivanyshyn was an artist for this film). Other well-known songs with music by H. Menkush to Ivanyshyn’s lyrics include “Extinguish the White Fire” and “Garden of Love. ” After Ivanyshyn’s death, many of his works were lost. Bibliography: 1. Echoes of Time (V. Stefanyk) // Dnipro. – 1969. – No. 6. – pp. 143-144; “Cell” Cases Again? (Under Investigation: Political Prisoner Sviatoslav Karavansky) [Letter from 16 former political prisoners to the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the UkrSSR, O. Liashko] // Ukrainian Herald, issue I. January 1970 (samvydav); also: // Chornovil, V. Works: In 10 vols. – Vol. 3. (“Ukrainian Herald, ” 1970-72) / Comp. Valentyna Chornovil. Foreword by M. Kosiv. – K. : Smoloskyp, 2006. – pp. 100-102; Letter to B. Horyn dated 8. 10. 1970 // Horyn, Bohdan. Not Only About Myself: A Collage-Novel: In 3 books. – Book Two (1965–1985). – K. : University Publishing House PULSARY, 2008. – p. 421; Complaint to the Prosecutor of the UkrSSR dated 1. 05. 1970 // Ukrainian Herald, issue III, October 1970 (samvydav); also: // Chornovil V. Works: In 10 vols. – Vol. 3. (“Ukrainian Herald, ” 1970-72) / Comp. Valentyna Chornovil. Foreword by M. Kosiv. – K. : Smoloskyp, 2006. – pp. 236-238; The Scent of Yarrow: Observations on the Prose of Hryhir Tiutiunnyk // Dnipro. – 1970. – No. 8. – pp. 153-156; Son of the Earth: An Essay on V. Stefanyk // Nasha kultura (Warsaw). – 1983. – No. 7. 2. [Skochok, Pavlo]. Record of the trial in Ivano-Frankivsk of teacher Ozerny on February 4–7, 1966 // 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. 243-245, 271-273; Moroz, V. Statement to the Prosecutor of the UkrSSR dated 2. 05. 1970 // Ukrainian Herald, issue II, May 1970 (samvydav); also: // Chornovil V. Works: In 10 vols. – Vol. 3. (“Ukrainian Herald, ” 1970-72) / Comp. Valentyna Chornovil. Foreword by M. Kosiv. – K. : Smoloskyp, 2006. – pp. 234-236; Pashko, A. On the Publication of Works by Volodymyr Ivanyshyn // Pashko A. At the Tip of a Candle: Poems. – Baltimore – Toronto: Smoloskyp, 1991. – pp. 63-66. Ivanyshyn, I. Ploughman of an Unploughed Field [in memory of Volodymyr Ivanyshyn] / Ivan Ivanyshyn // Novyi chas, 1992. – March 5-11; Pikhmanets, R. From the Cohort of Titans: an essay on the life and work of Volodymyr Ivanyshyn / R. Pikhmanets // Halychyna: a scientific and cultural-educational journal, 1998. – No. 1. – pp. 119-126; Ivaniv, B. Author of “Thorn Rose” / Bohdan Ivaniv // Rozhniativshchyna. The Charming Boyko Land. – Broshniv: Talia, 2001. – p. 24; Maliuta, I. I Was Coming to You: about Volodymyr Ivanyshyn / I. Maliuta // Shliakh peremohy, 2001. – July 18; I Was Coming to You. . . // Ukr. kultura. – 2001. – No. 6. – pp. 32-33; Pikhmanets, Roman. From the Cohort of Titans: about Volodymyr Ivanyshyn / R. Pikhmanets // Rehabilitated by History. – Ivano-Frankivsk: “Misto NV”, 2004. – pp. 232-237: http: //vk. com/doc-23020767_41964379?dl=28aabb49a7217e1962; Menkush, H. The Garden of Love of Volodymyr Ivanyshyn // Lit. Ukraina. – 2009. – November 19; Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960 – 1990. Encyclopedic Directory. / Foreword by Osyp Zinkevych, Oles Obertas. – K. : Smoloskyp, 2010. – p. 262; 2nd ed. , 2012. – p. 288: Our Genius Compatriot Volodymyr Ivanyshyn: http: //mistatree. org/blogs/dub/nash-gen-alnij-zemljak-volodimir-vanishin. html, 6. 11. 2012 Maliuta, Ivan. Ahow! – K. : Publishing House named after O. Teliha, 2012. – pp. 26-30. Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. Compiled by Vasyl Ovsiienko on June 1-3, 2013.