Microbiologist. Participant in the human rights movement, keeper of samvydav.
Her father, Petro Platonovych Voznyi (1910–1984), studied at the Zhytomyr Agricultural Institute, and her mother, Nadiia Antonivna Smulska (1909–1992), attended a pedagogical technical school. They married in 1930. Her father was drafted into the army, while her mother taught in the village of Fasova in the Zhytomyr region, where she and her child endured the famine. When her father was sent to the Military Transport Academy in Moscow in 1934, he brought his family to live with him; in 1937, they moved to Khabarovsk, and in 1945, to Sakhalin.
In 1948, the family moved to Kyiv, where Halyna finished the 10th grade. From 1949 to 1954, she studied at the Faculty of Biology at Kyiv University. From 1957 to 1960, she worked at the Institute of Physiology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and pursued postgraduate studies at the Institute of Agriculture, defending her candidate’s dissertation in microbiology in 1963.
Even then, V. had a reputation as a “nationalist” because she had written a letter to state authorities protesting the plan to erect a monument to A. Pushkin near the Opera Theater in Kyiv. At the time, the Ukrainian public, including Maksym Rylsky, was demanding (and succeeded in ensuring) that a monument to Mykola Lysenko be placed there instead.
From 1962, V. became an active member of the KTM—the “Suchasnyk” (Contemporary) Club for Creative Youth, where she was appointed treasurer. She collected contributions for regular events, excursions (she traveled with art historian M. Lohvyn to Korets, Ostroh, Pochaiv, Buchach, and Sokyryntsi), and for a wheelchair for Yevhen KONTSEVYCH, whom she visited frequently starting in 1962. V. was at the funeral of Vasyl SYMONENKO in January 1963. The KTM collected and gave his mother a considerable sum of money to erect a monument in Cherkasy. V. took on the responsibility of notifying people about the upcoming meetings and events of the KTM.
She met and befriended Nadiia, Leonida, and Ivan SVITLYCHNY, Alla HORSKA, Halyna Zubchenko, and Ivan Honchar, and together with them, she participated in organizing artistic evenings and art exhibitions, and took part in Christmas caroling.
In 1962, she met the artist Veniamin Kushnir, whom she later married. They stored and organized the duplication of samvydav literature (V. preserved what is likely the largest collection: 67 works by various authors, which she later donated to the Museum of the Sixtiers. Among them was a photocopy of Lina KOSTENKO’s 1963 collection “Zorianyi integral” (The Starry Integral), which had been “slashed” (censored), and a book by B.-I. Antonych, which was also never published). This collection survived because she kept it not at home, but at her father’s, who was in the military. The couple noticed on several occasions that KGB officers had conducted searches of their apartment in their absence, even demonstratively leaving cigarette butts to intimidate them. They found nothing, so no official searches were conducted.
The first works for V. were the article “The Cult of Personality in Biology,” which she proofread with Yevhen PRONIUK, and Yevhen SVERSTIUK’s article “Regarding the Trial of Pohruzhalsky.” Incidentally, V. witnessed the fire at the V. Vernadsky Central Scientific Library from May 24–26, 1964. She was sent from work to sift through the charred books. She was struck by the enormous pile of wet books—reaching the ceiling—which were later dried on hung ropes. She attended the Pohruzhalsky trial. In 1968, she twice saw books burning in St. George’s Church of the Vydubychi Monastery.
She participated in a torchlight procession on June 8, 1963, from the Institute of Food Industry on Volodymyrska Street to the monument of Ivan Franko. Every year on May 22, she went to the T. Shevchenko monument, including in 1967, when the column heading to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine was doused with water from fire trucks.
Despite this, the young intelligentsia also knew how to have fun. For instance, on September 20, 1964, as part of the famous Central Jubilee Committee (TsYUK: CHORNOVIL, Riabokliach, BILOKIN, and Vozna), she participated in the celebration of the “joint 70th anniversary” of I. SVITLYCHNY and A. HORSKA.
Just after getting married, she and her husband traveled to the Carpathians. In Ivano-Frankivsk, they went to visit Panas ZALYVAKHA—only to find he had just been arrested on August 27, 1965. V. Kushnir traveled to Mordovia hoping to get a visit with his friend, but afterward, he himself began to be harassed: his exhibitions and publications were banned. He took this very hard. V. also faced persecution: her certification and promotion to the rank of senior researcher were delayed, and she was eventually sent into early retirement as an unreliable person.
She sent letters and parcels to political prisoners. In 1972, she was summoned for interrogation in the case of N. SVITLYCHNA.
From 1966 for over 20 years, V. worked at the Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, where for the first time in Ukraine, she created a laboratory for the clonal propagation of tropical and subtropical plants. After retiring in 1986, she wrote three monographs and methodological recommendations.
During the period of Ukraine’s independence, she was an active participant in rallies, gatherings, community events, and actions. She organizes exhibitions of V. Kushnir’s paintings.
She lives in Kyiv. Her son, Ivan (b. 1970), is an architect.
Bibliography:
Okhrimovych, A. From the Cohort of the Sixtiers // Suchasnist. — 1992. — No. 12. — pp. 129-136.
The Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960–1990. An Encyclopedic Guide / Foreword by Osyp Zinkevych, Oles Obertas. – Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2010. – p. 120.
Interview with H. Vozna, March 6, 2011.
In the photo: Halyna Vozna Kushnir next to a portrait of Vasyl Symonenko by Alla Horska.
VOZNA HALYNA PETRIVNA