Chubatyy, Mefodiy

CHUBATYY, MEFODIY (b. 1938 in Velyki Hayi, Terebovlia raion, Lviv oblast).
Music teacher. Repressed for Ukrainian patriotism.
From a peasant family. After school, he graduated from a college of cultural education, served in the army, and studied in the orchestra department of the Ternopil Music College. He graduated in 1965. In September, he was supposed to start working there as a teacher, but his arrest prevented it.
Chubatyy belonged to a circle of patriotic youth who considered themselves a semi-legal organization. They carried out cultural work, awakened national self-awareness, and indirectly propagated the idea of Ukrainian independence. The leaders of this environment were the young historian Ihor GERETA and his brother Oleh, a student at the Lviv Conservatory. Among them were the bandura player Mykola LYTVYN, the poet Vasyl Yarmush, the pharmacist Khrystyna Durbak (Kurkevych), the economist Maria Tyvoniuk (Tebenko), the financier Iryna Zahaliuk, and the teachers Mykhailo OZERNYI and Mykhailo Huralchuk, among others. Samvydav literature circulated within this circle, including “Regarding the Trial of Pohruzhalsky,” “Ukrainian Education in a Chauvinist Noose,” “The Speech of Pope Paul VI,” Eisenhower’s speech at the unveiling of the T. Shevchenko monument in Washington, and others.
As early as August 22, 1965, Chubatyy attended a party at I. GERETA’s home, where they talked about Russification, the reduction of hours for the Ukrainian language in schools, the anthem “Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished…,” and already in the last days of August (probably August 27), he was arrested and accused of conducting “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” (Part 1, Article 62 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR). At that time, a wave of arrests of the Ukrainian intelligentsia swept through Ukraine. In Ternopil, I. GERETA and M. LYTVYN were also caught up in it. Since the investigation had no physical evidence of the existence of an organization (no one wrote anything down), M. LYTVYN was released a month later after promising “not to fight against the Soviet government,” while the investigation into the case of Gereta and Chubatyy lasted for six months.
Both pleaded guilty and confessed that they had received the articles “Ukrainian Education in a Chauvinist Noose” and “The Speech of Pope Paul VI” from M. OZERNYI and testified to this at his trial on February 3–7, 1966.
Taking into account the defendants’ repentance and their “assistance in solving the crimes,” the Ternopil Regional Court on February 25, 1966, sentenced I. GERETA to 5 years and Chubatyy to 4 years of a suspended sentence and released them in the courtroom. This means they would have undoubtedly been imprisoned if they had committed any new illegal acts.
After his release, Chubatyy worked as a teacher at a music school in the city of Zboriv, Ternopil oblast.

Bibliography:
Chornovil, V. *Woe from Wit*. Lviv: Memorial, 1991, p. 274.
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, pp. 265-269, 645.
*The Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960–1990. An Encyclopedic Guide*. Foreword by Osyp Zinkevych and Oles Obertas. Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2010, p. 713.

V. Ovsienko, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 10, 2012.