BULAVSKY, ANATOLIY PETROVYCH

Bulavskyj
International Biographical Dictionary of Dissidents in Central and Eastern Europe and the former USSR. Vol. 1. Ukraine. Part 1. – Kharkiv: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group; “Prava Liudyny,” 2006. – pp. 1–516; Part 2. – pp. 517–1020; Part 3. – 2011. – pp. 1021-1380; Bulavsky: pp. 1059-1060.
Abridged:


BULAVSKY, ANATOLIY PETROVYCH (b. 1929, village of Novyi Dvir, Rivne oblast). Imprisoned for 25 years for ties to the OUN. Member of the underground organization “Obyednannia” (Unity) in Inta, Komi ASSR; he distributed its leaflets in Ukraine.
From a peasant family. Education: 6 grades. For his connections to the Ukrainian underground, he was arrested in the late 1940s and sentenced by the Military Tribunal of the MGB troops of the Rivne oblast to 25 years in correctional labor camps.
He served his sentence in the camps of the Komi ASSR, with the final years in the special camps of Inta. In the summer of 1956, he became a member of the underground organization “Obyednannia,” taking an oath in the presence of its Leader V. Leoniuk and Deputy Leader B. Khrystynych, with whom he had been in contact since 1954. The organization's goal was to continue the OUN's cause under new conditions. Bulavsky regularly paid membership dues and participated in meetings.
In 1956, he was released by a commission of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with his conviction expunged, meaning he was henceforth considered to have no criminal record. Shortly after his release, Bulavsky moved with Y. Slabina to Ukraine and settled in the city of Oleksandriia, Kirovohrad oblast. He worked as a boiler operator at a stone quarry.
In October 1957, K. Banatsky, a member of “Obyednannia” released from further punishment, brought about 1,300 leaflets from Inta to Ukraine on V. Leoniuk's instruction, titled “Citizen!” and “To the Kolkhoznik!”. 700 of them were given to Bulavsky. Other members of the organization distributed the leaflets in the settlement of Khrushchev (now the city of Svitlovodsk), in the area of the Kremenchuk Hydroelectric Power Plant construction, and in the village of Adzhamka, Kirovohrad district. K. Banatsky was arrested with them in Bila Tserkva. The facts of the leaflet distribution became widely known and caused a panic within the KGB. Since all the detainees had previously been in Inta, the KGB localized its search for the printing press there. On January 29, 1959, the KGB arrested Y. Slabina, who did not betray anyone; on February 21, 1959, they arrested Bulavsky; and on March 2, H. Riabchun and S. Olenych. Given the extraordinary importance of the case, they were all transferred to Kyiv and held in the KGB pre-trial detention center of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR. The case was personally supervised by KGB Chairman V. Nikitchenko.
B. Khrystynych later wrote in his book “On the Paths to Freedom” about Bulavsky: “During the investigation and trial, he behaved as the investigators demanded, meaning he told everything he knew, and even what he did not know.” Based on Bulavsky’s testimony and, likely, a denunciation from his brother P. Bulavsky, the deputy leader of “Obyednannia,” B. Khrystynych, was detained in Lviv on June 1, 1959, and Deputy Leader V. Leoniuk on July 29, 1959.
Taking into account that Bulavsky’s first conviction had been expunged, that he pleaded guilty, condemned his actions, and cooperated with the investigation, the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR, on April 29, 1960, sentenced him under Articles 1 and 9 of the Law on Criminal Liability for State Crimes, with the sanction of Article 1 of the same law, to 10 years of imprisonment in a correctional labor colony, with confiscation of his property, without restriction of rights. His co-conspirator K. Banatsky received 15 years; Y. Slabina, 7 years; and H. Riabchun and S. Olenych, 3 years each.
Bulavsky's sentence was soon reduced to 3 years. His subsequent fate is unknown. All those convicted in this case were rehabilitated in 1992.

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.
International Biographical Dictionary of Dissidents in Central and Eastern Europe and the former USSR. Vol. 1. Ukraine. Part 1. – Kharkiv: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group; “Prava Liudyny,” 2006. – pp. 1–516; Part 2. – pp. 517–1020; Part 3. – 2011. – pp. 1021-1380; Bulavsky: pp. 1059-1060.
Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960–1990. An Encyclopedic Guide / Foreword by Osyp Zinkevych, Oles Obertas. – Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2nd ed., 2012. – 896 pp. + 64 ill.; Bulavsky: p. 105.
Vasyl Ovsiienko, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. 02.23.2009. Bulavskyj. Characters 3,379.