RIABCHUN, HRYHORIY YAKOVYCH

RIABCHUN, HRYHORIY YAKOVYCH (b. 1918 in the village of Miatyn, Rivne oblast – d. ?)
Imprisoned for 25 years as a soldier of the UPA. Distributed leaflets for the underground organization “Obyednannia” (Unity).
A peasant. Education: 3 grades. In the second half of the 1940s, he was imprisoned for his participation in the Ukrainian armed underground and sentenced by the Military Tribunal of the MGB troops of the Rivne oblast to 25 years of imprisonment.
In 1956, he was released from custody by a commission of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, with his conviction expunged.
He lived in the village of Adzhamka, Kirovohrad district, Kirovohrad oblast. He worked as a stonemason.
In October 1957, the early-released political prisoner Kyrylo Banatsky brought 1,300 leaflets to Ukraine from the city of Inta (Komi ASSR), which had been printed there by the underground organization “Obyednannia” (Unity). On the instruction of the deputy leader of “Obyednannia,” Volodymyr Leoniuk, he delivered 700 of these leaflets to Anatoliy Bulavsky, a former Inta prisoner, in the city of Oleksandriia, Kirovohrad oblast. Bulavsky, in turn, gave 100 leaflets to his fellow countryman Riabchun, an acquaintance from his imprisonment, for distribution. On the night of November 4-5, 1957, Riabchun, along with his fellow countryman and former political prisoner Stepan Olenych, who lived in Adzhamka after his release, distributed these leaflets in the village.
The first was an appeal: “Citizen! Have you drawn the conclusion of what the October coup of 1917 gave to the Ukrainian people? It liquidated the freedom gained by the peoples after the overthrow of tsarism, crushed the young Ukrainian People’s Republic, bringing your people a slavery even worse than the tsarist one; it led to the death of your best brothers and friends, to the decline of Ukrainian culture, and to the destruction of your well-being.” A second leaflet, addressed to the kolkhoznik (collective farmer), stated that the task set by the CPSU to catch up with the USA in the production of meat, milk, and butter was not aimed at improving the well-being of the Ukrainian people, because Ukraine is being used as a raw material base from which the colonizers export everything, leaving the Ukrainian people on the verge of starvation. “Enough of enduring the Kremlin’s yoke! Enough of being slaves! It is time to tell the Moscow-Bolshevik invaders: Get out of Ukraine!”.
These same leaflets were distributed in the Oleksandriia district of Kirovohrad oblast and in the Rivne oblast; in early 1958, they were seized from Yosyf Slabina while he was traveling, and from K. Banatsky in Bila Tserkva (he was arrested in early 1958). The KGB launched an investigation into the matter. As a result, Y. Slabina was arrested on January 29, 1959, A. Bulavsky on February 21, and Riabchun and S. Olenych on March 2. Given the extraordinary importance of this case to the authorities, the investigation was conducted in Kyiv and personally supervised by V. Nikitchenko, the Chairman of the KGB of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR.
On April 29, 1960, the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR (presided over by L. M. Chaikovskyi, with assessors H. Ya. Maryk and V. H. Tryshyn, secretary P. D. Kravets, and prosecutor I. Y. Yankovskyi), taking into account that Riabchun and S. Olenych had admitted their guilt, sentenced them under Article 7, Part I of the Law on Criminal Liability for State Crimes to 3 years of imprisonment each, without restriction of rights. In this case, K. Banatsky was sentenced to 7 years, A. Bulavsky to 10, and Y. Slabina to 7 years.
Riabchun served his sentence in the Mordovian camps.
His subsequent fate is unknown.

Bibliography:
Leoniuk, Volodymyr. “Na priu staie Obyednannia” [Unity Joins the Fray]. Zona, no. 6, 1994, pp. 163–180.
Rusnachenko, Anatoliy. Natsionalno-vyzvolnyi rukh v Ukrayini. Seredyna 1950-kh – pochatok 1990-kh rokiv [The National Liberation Movement in Ukraine. Mid-1950s – Early 1990s]. – Kyiv: Vyd. im. Oleny Telihy, 1998, pp. 63–72; 370-389.
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.

Vasyl Ovsiienko, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. February 24, 2009.