VODYNIUK, OLEKSANDR VOLODYMYROVYCH

VODYNIUK, OLEKSANDR VOLODYMYROVYCH (b. November 27, 1929 (or 1930?) in the village of Tartakiv, Sokal district, Lviv oblast – d. February 8, 1983, city of Berdychiv, Zhytomyr oblast).
Repressed for ties with the OUN underground. Member of the underground organization “OUN-North.”
His parents were peasants. After graduating from high school, he entered the Lviv Medical Institute, but in 1948 (or 1947?) he was arrested for connections with the OUN underground and sentenced by the Military Tribunal of the MGB troops of the Lviv oblast to 25 years of imprisonment.
He served his sentence in the camps of Vorkuta, working in the mines as a master blaster. In 1947, the underground organization “OUN-North” (also known as the “Zapolyarnyi Provid OUN” or The Arctic Command of the OUN) began to operate there, founded by Mykhailo Soroka. Its objectives were self-preservation in prison conditions, mutual assistance, and the struggle for the rights of political prisoners, in particular, the separation of political prisoners from common criminals. By order of the USSR MVD dated February 28, 1948, such a separation took place. M. Soroka was released in 1948 but remained in the North and continued to lead the underground. With his arrest on December 15, 1952, “OUN-North” was not fully exposed.
Little is known about Vodyniuk’s participation in this organization, but he was likely involved in the preparation of an armed uprising in the Vorkuta camps in 1952-53, which, according to Mykhailo Lutsyk, was scheduled for June 27, 1953. A technology for producing grenades was developed and distributed to all the mines. There was a plan to seize weapons from the guards, form combat units, and advance toward the city of Kotlas and further south. Tunnels were being dug under the mines. However, the production of grenades was discovered at mine No. 7, and 7 people were arrested and sentenced (including Volodymyr Yurkiv from the Ternopil region and Volodymyr Kartash from the Kirovohrad region); at another mine, 18 people were arrested. After Stalin's death and Beria's arrest, the uprising became impractical. Due to the mass release of political prisoners following the resolutions of the Commission of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the activities of “OUN-North” were curtailed in 1956-57.
In the summer of 1956, Vodyniuk was also released by the commission of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. He lived and worked in Vorkuta.
Being a naturally active person, Vodyniuk tried to establish contact with the underground organization “Obyednannia” (Unity), which had been active since 1956 in the city of Inta, Komi ASSR. It consisted of young people who had just been released from prison. Its goal was to continue the work of the OUN under new conditions: to overthrow the occupying Bolshevik regime and create a Ukrainian Independent and United State. It conducted propaganda work, had a homemade portable printing press, and distributed leaflets in Ukraine through released prisoners. The leader was Yaroslav Hasiuk, and the deputy was Volodymyr Leoniuk. In the “Obyednannia” case, two trials were held by the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR in Kyiv in 1960, resulting in the conviction of 10 people, although over a hundred belonged to the organization. A dozen and a half, including Vodyniuk, served as witnesses.
It is known that in 1956, Vodyniuk contacted Volodymyr Zatvarsky, a member of the Governing Center and head of propaganda for “Obyednannia,” who had come to Vorkuta. There, a recently released political prisoner, Stepanyda Danylykha, introduced him to Hryhoriy Opaets, who in turn introduced him to Vodyniuk. Vodyniuk undertook to connect Zatvarsky with the leader of “OUN-North,” Sokhatsky (“Orel”), with the aim of merging the two organizations. However, this did not happen because, according to V. Zatvarsky, “the Vorkuta people did not want to earn new sentences.”
Vodyniuk was arrested again on June 24, 1960, on charges of organizational activity during his previous imprisonment. The investigation in this case against the Vorkuta prisoner Mykhailo Lutsyk had been conducted in Kyiv by Lieutenant Colonel Tarasenko since November 19, 1957. Major Sapozhnikov handled Vodyniuk's case. The accused did not betray anyone, although many were involved in this matter. In April 1961, prosecutors Maly and Yanovsky closed the case against Vodyniuk and Lutsyk and sent both by transport to Lviv.
A closed session of the Lviv Oblast Court lasted from April 4 to 12, 1961 (Judge Ziber, people's assessors Makarenko and Brailov). The sentence for M. Lutsyk was 15 years, and for Vodyniuk, 12 years under Articles 56 and 64, with the first 5 years to be served in prison. He served this time in Vladimir Prison. On November 14, 1961, Vodyniuk was declared an especially dangerous recidivist. After Vladimir, he served his sentence in the special-regime camp No. 10 in the village of Udarnyi, in Mordovia.
After his release in 1972, Vodyniuk lived in the city of Berdychiv, Zhytomyr oblast. He was married and had two sons. He maintained contact with fellow political prisoner Serhiy Babych and UHG member Vasyl Ovsiienko. He died suddenly under suspicious circumstances.
He is buried in Berdychiv.


Bibliography:
Leoniuk, Volodymyr. “Na priu staie Obyednannia” [Unity Joins the Fray]. Zona, no. 6, 1994, pp. 163–180.
58-10. Nadzornye proizvodstva Prokuratury SSSR po delam ob antisovetskoy agitatsii i propagande. Mart 1953 – 1991. Annotirovannyy katalog [Supervisory Proceedings of the USSR Prosecutor's Office in Cases of Anti-Soviet Agitation and Propaganda. March 1953 – 1991. Annotated Catalog]. Ed. by V.A. Kozlov and S.V. Mironenko; comp. by O.V. Edelman, Moscow: International Foundation “Democracy,” 1999, 944 pp. (Russia. 20th Century. Documents): p. 557.
Interview with Mykhailo Petrovych Lutsyk. Recorded by Vasyl Ovsiienko on January 24–25, 2000 (city of Skole, Lviv oblast). – http://museum.khpg.org
Bondaruk, Lesia. Mykhailo Soroka: Do 90-richchia vid dnia narodzhennia i 30-littia vid dnia smerti (27.03.1911 – 16.06.1971) [Mykhailo Soroka: On the 90th Anniversary of His Birth and the 30th Anniversary of His Death]. – Drohobych: Vydavnycha firma „Vidrodzhennia”, 2001. – pp. 24-35.
Khrystynych, Bohdan. Na shliakhakh do voli. Pidpilna orhanizatsiia “Obyednannia” (1956-1959) [On the Paths to Freedom. The Underground Organization “Unity” (1956-1959)]. – Lviv, 2004. – 416 pp.
Lukianenko, Levko. “Halytske ‘Obyednannia’” [The Galician “Unity”]. Z chasiv nevoli. Sosnova-7. – Kyiv: MAUP, 2005, pp. 421-436; Ibidem: “Rozpovid Volodymyra Yurkiva” [The Story of Volodymyr Yurkiv]. – pp. 245-265.

Compiled by Vasyl Ovsiienko on February 25, 2009. Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. This profile requires further additions and revisions.