Veteran of the 1941–1945 war, teacher of Ukrainian language and literature. Multiplied and distributed samvydav literature.
From the family of a village carpenter. He had a talent for mathematics, but as a teenager, he read all the literary works in the village and raion libraries and in 1938 entered the philology department of Odesa State University, named after Mechnikov.
He was a veteran of the German-Soviet war from its beginning to its end. He was wounded and awarded the medals “For Courage,” “For Battle Merit,” “For the Defense of Stalingrad,” “For the Capture of Königsberg,” and “For the Victory over Germany.” He served in the 26th Motor-Pontoon Battalion as a diving instructor. He demined the DniproHES.
After the war, he completed his studies and, from 1947, worked as a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature in Volyn. He survived the famine there and sent aid to his relatives in the Poltava region. He married a teacher, Vira Mysan. From 1948, they worked together at School No. 3 in Lutsk. They lived at the school and lived for the school. They were loved by their students and respected by their colleagues. They equipped a rich literary study room and published handwritten literary almanacs and the journal “Slovo Yunykh” (The Word of the Youth) with their students. In the house where the Kosach family once lived, his wife created a museum. The tour guides there were students. This was written about in the press in 1965. I. published articles in the press on issues of Ukrainian language and literature.
Before his arrest, I. worked as an assistant in the Ukrainian language and literature department at the Lutsk Pedagogical Institute, where he taught Ukrainian literature. From February to September 1964, the historian Valentyn MOROZ worked there, with whom I. became friends.
During lectures and in the Poetry Club, which operated at the institute under I.’s guidance, he read poems by young poets such as Vasyl SYMONENKO, Mykola Vinhranovsky, Lina KOSTENKO, and Dmytro Pavlychko to the students, and referenced articles by Ivan DZIUBA. A circle of nationally conscious students gathered around him.
Through the mediation or advice of V. MOROZ, in the first half of 1965, I. obtained a copy of the book *Vyvid prav Ukrainy* (“Exposition of the Rights of Ukraine”), published in Munich in 1964, from Mykhailo and Bohdan HORYN. He photographed it and made three photocopies, which he gave to friends and acquaintances to read. From M. HORYN, students Anatolia Panas and Lesia Kovalchuk brought from Lviv a manuscript of the article “Ukrainian Education in a Chauvinistic Noose.” I. retyped it on a typewriter in several copies and distributed it among his acquaintances. He also retyped the articles “On the Occasion of the Pogruzhal'sky Trial,” “Reply to V. Symonenko’s Mother—H. F. Shcherban,” and “Letter to the Writer Iryna Vilde and Her Countrymen Who Fear the Truth” and gave them to a wide circle of acquaintances to read.
In the summer of 1965, he received the books *Contemporary Literature in the UkrSSR* by Ivan Koshelivets and *Ukraine and Moscow’s Ukrainian Policy* by Myroslav Prokop from Stefan Zabuzhko, a lecturer at the Lutsk Pedagogical Institute (previously convicted for collaboration with the OUN). He photographed them, made several copies, and gave them to friends to read. He also had and lent out the book *A Panorama of the Newest Literature in the UkrSSR* by I. Koshelivets.
He was arrested on September 1, 1965. On the same day, V. MOROZ was arrested in Ivano-Frankivsk. The case was conducted in Lutsk. The investigation into I.’s case was handled by KGB Senior Lieutenant Mykola Kolchyk. They were accused of conducting nationalist anti-Soviet propaganda and agitation (Part 1 of Article 62 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR) and of creating an anti-Soviet organization (Article 64 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR). Dozens of people were interrogated. The defendants confirmed the incriminated facts of distributing literature but denied the charges of organizational activity.
In November 1965, a collective letter was sent to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine demanding transparency in the cases of the Ukrainian intellectuals arrested in August-September, including V. Moroz and I. The letter was signed by film director S. Parajanov, aircraft designer O. Antonov, writers L. Serpylin, L. KOSTENKO, I. DRACH, and others. It was the first collective protest against the repressions.
From January 17–20, 1966, the case was heard by the criminal division of the Volyn Oblast Court, presided over by Judge I. Tseluiko. It was the first trial of the 1965 wave of arrests, intended to set a precedent for others. Although formally open, the courtroom was filled with Party and Komsomol workers, militiamen, and KGB agents. There were also a few students for whom the trial was supposed to be an “educational measure.” But the defendants, who had pleaded guilty during the preliminary investigation, refused to do so in court. The students testified in favor of the defendants. However, the court delivered its verdict: 4 years of imprisonment in strict-regime camps for V. MOROZ. As for I., a war veteran with state awards, “the court, despite the particular danger of the crime,” “showed humanity” and sentenced him to 2 years in the camps. The court found the charge of organizational activity (Article 64) unproven and acquitted them.
His wife, Vira Mysan—a talented educator—was fired from her job. She worked as a kindergarten teacher. The museum of the Kosach family that she had created was closed. The Komsomol assembly of the Lutsk Pedagogical Institute expelled students L. Kovalchuk and A. Panas from the Komsomol (VLKSM) for “systematically attending the gatherings of Moroz and Ivashchenko and facilitating the spread of nationalist literature.”
I. served his sentence in camp No. 11, in the village of Yavas, Mordovia. He was on close terms with the artist Opanas ZALYVAKHA, the art historian Bohdan HORYN, and the philologist Mykhailo OSADCHY. He worked as a plywood press operator in a workshop filled with acidic fumes. His closest friend, Anatoliy SHEVCHUK, worked there as well. He suffered from rheumatism. He made souvenirs for the prisoners, into which he pressed statements and protests, and they would pass them to their relatives during visits. Upon his release on September 1, 1968, he smuggled out letters from the artist Sofiya Karaffa-Korbut to B. HORYN by mixing them with letters from his wife.
After his release, he taught for 10 years in the village of Poromiv, Ivanychi Raion, in Volyn, then returned to School No. 3 in Lutsk. After retiring, he taught for another 7 years in the remote areas of Polissia—in the villages of Kamin-Kashyrskyi and Ratnivskyi Raions, visiting his wife once a month. He was under the watchful eye of the KGB: he was monitored, interrogated about his contacts. Nevertheless, he was revered by his students.
Bibliography:
Chornovil, V. Woe from Wit. Lviv: Memorial, 1991, pp. 85–86.
Chornovil, V. Works: In 10 vols. Vol. 2. “Justice or Recurrences of Terror?” “Woe from Wit.” Materials and Documents 1966–1969. Compiled by Valentyna Chornovil. Foreword by Les Tanyuk. Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2003, pp. 108–110, 156–159, 367, 440–442.
Kasyanov, Georgiy. Dissenters: The Ukrainian Intelligentsia in the Resistance Movement of the 1960s–80s. Kyiv: Lybid, 1995, pp. 52–53, 60.
Romaniuk, Nina. “Meeting Place – Yavas.” Ukraina Moloda, January 29, 2002.
Moroz, Raisa. Against the Wind: Memoirs of the Wife of a Ukrainian Political Prisoner. Lviv: Svichado, 2005, pp. 49–50, 56, 63–65.
Horyn, Bohdan. Not Only About Myself: A Documentary Novel-Collage: in 3 books. Kyiv: Univ. Vyd-vo PULSARY, 2006, 648 pp., pp. 116–122, 295–297.
The Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960–1990. An Encyclopedic Guide. Foreword by Osyp Zinkevych and Oles Obertas. Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2010, p. 263.
IVASHCHENKO DMYTRO PILIKARPOVYCH