From the circle of the Sixtiers. President of the Lviv “Prolisok” Club of Creative Youth. Participated in publishing the journal *Ukrainian Herald*.
His father, Vasyl Stepanovych (1908–1967), and mother, Yuliia Mykolaivna (1913–2008), were peasants.
From 1955 to 1960, Mykhailo studied at the Faculty of Philology of the Ivan Franko Lviv State University, and until 1964, he was a postgraduate student in the Department of the History of Ukrainian Literature. He prepared his Candidate of Sciences dissertation on the topic “Science, Publicism, and Belles-Lettres in the Creative Tradition of I. Franko,” but did not defend it due to his arrest.
From August 1960, he was a research fellow at the Lviv Literary and Memorial Museum of I. Franko. In January 1962, he became the head of the Franko studies office at Lviv University. He was part of the circle of young Ukrainian intelligentsia later known as the “Sixtiers.”
In 1962, Kyiv poets I. DRACH, M. Vinhranovsky, D. Pavlychko, and literary critic I. DZIUBA visited Lviv. They held evening events at the Writers’ Union and the university. That same year, L. TANIUK and Alla HORSKA arrived, attempting to stage a play at the M. Zankovetska Theater based on M. Kulish’s drama “Thus Perished Huska.” The play was banned. These events stirred the young Lviv intelligentsia. Following the example of the Kyiv Club of Creative Youth, the Lviv Club of Creative Youth (KTM) was established, taking the name “Prolisok” (Snowdrop). It was headed by postgraduate student M. Kosiv. Actively involved in the club were psychologist M. HORYN, his brother, art historian B. HORYN, history student I. HEL, and university lecturer M. OSADCHY. Later, poets I. KALYNETS and his wife Iryna STASIV-KALYNETS, poet H. Chubai, and artist S. SHABATURA joined “Prolisok.” The club became a center of national culture, where informal literary readings and art exhibitions were held, evenings in memory of repressed artists were organized, and plays by repressed playwrights were staged. The staging of T. Shevchenko’s poem “Haidamaky” particularly moved Lviv.
In the KTM “Prolisok,” an organized educational, cultural, and artistic movement with clear signs of ideological opposition was forming, although political goals were not openly declared. It was, in the words of Ye. SVERSTIUK, a powerful moral, ethical, aesthetic, and semi-ideological opposition. According to I. HEL, the Lviv group formulated their program as the “Struggle for the Statehood of Ukraine,” while the Kyiv group focused on protecting human rights and the cultural rights of the nation.
After M. Khrushchev’s devastating speeches at meetings with the intelligentsia in Moscow, massive pressure on dissidents began. Accusations of “formalism,” “lack of ideology,” and “bourgeois nationalism” were rampant. The KTM in Kyiv was closed in 1964, while the Lviv “Prolisok” lasted until the arrests of 1965.
Uncensored literature, the printing of which was organized by M. HORYN, I. HEL, Kosiv, and M. HATALA, circulated within this circle. Émigré publications were also distributed. For instance, Kosiv disseminated typewritten or photocopied articles such as “Contemporary Imperialism” (by M. MASIUTKO), “The Present and Future of Ukraine (Incomplete Theses for Discussion)” (by Ye. PRONIUK), “A Response from Ukrainian Cultural Figures in the USA and Canada to the Cultural Figures of the UkrSSR,” “Literature and Pseudo-literature,” “Class and National Struggle at the Current Stage of Human Development,” “A Response to V. Symonenko’s Mother,” “Ukrainian Education in a Chauvinist Noose” (a collective analytical work), “To the Writer Iryna Vilde and Her Compatriots Who Are Not Afraid of the Truth,” and “Regarding the Trial of Pohruzhalsky” (by Ye. SVERSTIUK).
To stop these dangerous tendencies before they grew to a dangerous scale, the state security organs of the UkrSSR, on instructions from Moscow, launched a preemptive strike against the Sixtiers in late August and early September 1965. In total, more than 25 people were arrested, including Kosiv on August 27, 1965. All were charged with conducting “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” under Article 62, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR.
During a search of Kosiv’s home, several samvydav articles were seized. Almost all the political prisoners of that time (except for M. MASIUTKO) were not psychologically prepared for KGB interrogations. Moreover, they did not consider themselves criminals merely for reading something—officially unpublished—and giving it to others to read. Therefore, they generally did not hide from whom they had received a particular material. Such behavior during interrogations was also characteristic of Kosiv.
Kosiv’s name appeared in several statements by the intelligentsia in defense of those arrested. These arrests did not intimidate the Sixtiers; on the contrary, they became a catalyst for the development of the resistance movement, sparking a protest at the premiere of the film “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” on September 4, 1965, collective letters of appeal in defense of the arrested, including Kosiv, and the publication of I. DZIUBA’s book *Internationalism or Russification?* and V. CHORNOVIL’s *Woe from Wit*.
By a resolution of the investigative department of the UKGB under the Council of Ministers of the UkrSSR for Lviv oblast, dated February 17, 1966, the criminal case against Kosiv under Article 7 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the UkrSSR was terminated, and he was released on March 6, 1966. The resolution stated that the accused had condemned his actions and behaved frankly, which contributed to the disclosure of the crime. It was taken into account that Kosiv’s practical criminal activity was insignificant; the crime was committed by him for the first time and did not have serious consequences; and that he no longer posed a public danger. But the investigation was mistaken.
After his release, Kosiv could not find work for over six months. From 1967 to 1969, he taught at an 8-year school in the village of Krekhiv, Zhovkva raion. From 1969 to 1989, he was a research fellow and head of the sector at the “Arsenal” Museum of Ancient Weapons in the Lviv Historical Museum.
Kosiv did not break his ties with the Sixtiers’ milieu. For example, he protested with a statement against the arrest and conviction of V. MOROZ (1970). He was on friendly terms with V. CHORNOVIL and participated in the preparation and publication of the uncensored typewritten journal *Ukrainian Herald* (1969–72).
After the arrests of January 12, 1972, Kosiv, together with V. CHORNOVIL’s wife, Atena Pashko, published the sixth issue of the *Ukrainian Herald* in March, which had been prepared by CHORNOVIL. Kosiv compiled and added information about the January 12 arrests. Yaroslav Kendzior photographed the journal and passed it abroad through athletes. In Ukraine, the *Herald* was not circulated on paper, but its materials were broadcast on Radio Liberty. The rough drafts and typescripts were destroyed, and the object of greatest interest to the KGB—the typewriter—was sunk in a lake. The publication of the journal confused the investigation.
In April, the KGB told CHORNOVIL that Kosiv had been arrested and threatened to arrest his wife and sister Valentyna. The women were indeed detained for three days. To divert suspicion from others, on April 15 and 25, 1972, CHORNOVIL told the investigators that the idea of publishing the *Ukrainian Herald* was his, and that none of the arrested (he added a long list, including Kosiv) were involved in its publication. At this time, Kosiv underwent a serious operation and spent two months in the hospital. CHORNOVIL’s statement and the hospital stay saved him from arrest.
CHORNOVIL received reliable news about the journal’s publication in late summer or early autumn of 1972 and, in a note passed to his wife through the investigator, wrote: “Don’t send any more warm socks, I have enough.” This meant: stop publishing the *Herald*. At the end of the investigation and at the trial, CHORNOVIL stated that he had misled the investigation: they had no proof that he published the journal. The court had to drop this charge as unproven. But at the end of 1976, CHORNOVIL declared that he had indeed published the *Ukrainian Herald*.
Saved from arrest, Kosiv immersed himself in scientific work. He occasionally managed to publish scientific articles.
With the onset of perestroika, Kosiv took an active part in the movement for the revival of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), in the creation of the People’s Movement of Ukraine (Rukh), and later became a member of its Central Leadership (Provid), Political Council, and deputy chairman of Rukh (until May 2001). From 1988 to 1996, he was the deputy chairman of the Lviv regional organization of the “Prosvita” Society of the Ukrainian Language. From 1989 to 1990, he was a research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. After V. CHORNOVIL’s election victory, he served as deputy chairman of the Lviv Oblast Executive Committee for humanitarian policy (April 1990–August 1992). He was a People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th convocations.
Kosiv is the author of the books *About Ukraine* (1990), *Let’s Return to the Sources* (vol. 1 – 1996, vol. 2 – 2004), *Bilingualism or Languagelessness?* (1998), *Until When? When?* (1998), *The City of Belz* (1990), *The Kyiv-Galician Patriarch of the Ukrainian Church as a Centuries-Old Ukrainian Longing for Unity* (2004), *They Only Resurrect Where There Are Graves* (2006), *The Museum of Tamed Weapons* (2006), *He Who Gives in Time Gives Twice* (2007), *The Korniakt House* (2007), *Language Is a Means of Communication and Understanding Between People, Not a Subject of Discord and Division in the Country* (2008), and about 350 scientific and publicist works on literary studies, regional studies, art history, problems of theater development, fine arts, language functioning, research on Ukrainian history, religious relations, and analysis of political problems. He is a member of the editorial board of the 10-volume edition of V. CHORNOVIL’s works. He is a member of the Writers’ Union of Ukraine (1987). He is an Honored Art Worker of Ukraine (March 1995). He was awarded the Order “For Merit,” III degree (August 2005).
His wife, Maria Antonivna (b. 1949), is a journalist; his son is Vasyl (b. 1973); his daughter is Hanna (b. 1976).
Bibliography:
1.
Kosiv, M. “Like an Unquenchable Volcano.” *Moloda natsiia: Smoloskyp*, no. 4, 2005. Also, abridged in: Chornovil, V. *Works: In 10 vols.*, vol. 3 (*Ukrainian Herald*, 1970-72), compiled by Valentyna Chornovil, foreword by M. Kosiv, Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2006, pp. 27-57.
2.
Kasianov, G. *The Dissenters: The Ukrainian Intelligentsia in the Resistance Movement of the 1960s-1980s*. Kyiv: Lybid, 1995. 224 pp.
Chornovil, V. *Works: In 10 vols.*, vol. 2. *Justice or Relapses of Terror?*, *Woe from Wit*. *Materials and Documents 1966–1969*, compiled by Valentyna Chornovil, foreword by Les Taniuk, Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2003, 906 pp., illus.
*Who is Who in Ukraine*. Vyd-vo “K.I.S.”
Wikipedia: http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Horyn, B. *Not Just About Myself: A Documentary Novel-Collage: In 3 books*, book 2: 1965–1986. 2008. 648 pp., illus.
*The Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960–1990. An Encyclopedic Guide*. Foreword by Osyp Zinkevych and Oles Obertas. Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2010, pp. 336-337; 2nd ed., 2012, pp. 373-374.
KOSIV MYKHAILO VASYLIOVYCH