Repressed for his connections with the Ukrainian insurgent movement. A founder and referent for propaganda of the underground organization “Obyednannya” (Unification) in the city of Inta, Komi ASSR.
From a family of poor peasants. Education: 9 grades.
For his connection with the Ukrainian armed underground, he was convicted in 1948 by the Military Tribunal of the MGB troops of Drohobych oblast under Articles 54-1a and 54-11 to 25 years of imprisonment.
He served his sentence in the concentration camps of “Minlag” (Mineral Camp Administration) in the city of Inta, Komi ASSR. He worked in the mine of camp No. 3.
The prisoners supported each other materially and spiritually. Zatvarsky participated in collecting funds for the sick and in celebrating religious and national holidays and anniversaries. The young prisoners yearned for knowledge. In the Minlag camps, a group of young Ukrainians emerged who called themselves the “student brotherhood.” They demanded the right to receive and read Ukrainian books and press. Some of the “students” in their free time taught various subjects to their knowledge-thirsty compatriots. Reports on specific topics circulated, including Zatvarsky’s handwritten reports: “Heroes’ Day. May 23, 1938”—the day of Yevhen Konovalets’s death; “The Unavenged Bazar”—about the Second Winter Campaign of 1921; “Day of Arms. August 31, 1919”—the capture of Kyiv by the armies of the UNR and UHA; “Day of Unity. January 22, 1919”—about the unification of the UNR and ZUNR; and “A Giant of Ukrainian Thought (The Centennial of I. Franko’s Birth).” These were serious, emotionally charged, and patriotic historical studies. They testify that the author had a good knowledge of history. It is likely that he consulted with other knowledgeable people while writing them.
In 1955, by a decree of the Drohobych Oblast Commission for the review of cases of persons serving sentences for “counter-revolutionary crimes,” Zatvarsky’s sentence was reduced to 10 years. In 1956, he was released on account of credited workdays. Soon after, he married a fellow released 25-year-termer, Yevhenia Yadlovska, in Inta.
In captivity, and later after his release, Zatvarsky associated with Yaroslav HASIUK and Yaroslav KOBYLETSKY. In this circle, the idea arose to create an underground revolutionary organization that would continue the cause of the OUN in the new conditions. Simultaneously, Volodymyr LEONIUK, Bohdan KHRYSTYNYCH, and Yarema Zhukovsky came to the same conclusion. Zatvarsky served as the link between these groups. The first meeting to discuss this issue took place in February 1956, when it became possible to leave the camps.
The first meeting of like-minded individuals took place in March 1956 at the residence of a Lithuanian on Poliarna Street in Inta, for which Ya. HASIUK had the keys. Zatvarsky, Bohdan KHRYSTYNYCH, Bohdan Stefaniuk, Ya. KOBYLETSKY, and Volodymyr LEONIUK were also present. No chairman or secretary was elected, and no minutes were taken. The meeting instructed Zatvarsky and B. KHRYSTYNYCH to develop a program and charter for the organization, which they named “OBYEDNANNYA” (UNIFICATION).
The main tenets of the program were as follows. The organization carries out the program of the OUN and outlines further directions in accordance with contemporary circumstances. Relying on former participants of the underground revolutionary struggle and new dedicated members, it wages a fight against the irreconcilable enemy—the CPSU and the Bolshevik administration—primarily through propaganda and exposure. “Obyednannya,” true to its name, aimed to merge the revolutionary element into a single whole, both in Ukraine and abroad; to promote the mass return of released prisoners and exiles to Ukraine; to rely on the youth, raise their national consciousness, and infiltrate all social structures (workers’, trade union, sports), while educating its members in the spirit of discipline, accountability, deep conspiracy, and constant readiness for the decisive moment. The organization planned to transfer its activities to Ukraine.
The constituent assembly of the organization took place in late May or early June with the participation of the same individuals, as well as Petro Klymiuk and Volodymyr Slyvyak (8 people).
The first point of the charter was a matter of debate—whether the organization had the right to consider itself a component of the OUN without the consent of the OUN leadership in Ukraine, as the younger members, Zatvarsky and Ya. KOBYLETSKY, insisted. Here, the younger members prevailed.
Yaroslav HASIUK was unanimously elected Leader of “Obyednannya.” He recited the oath, written by Zatvarsky. The Leader appointed the members of the Steering Committee, where Zatvarsky served as referent for propaganda. However, the division of duties was conditional: all members of the organization worked in all areas. Zatvarsky took an active part in all subsequent committee meetings, of which there were at least 10.
On personal and organizational business, Zatvarsky traveled to Galicia in February 1957 and brought back to Inta a typewriter, purchased by B. KHRYSTYNYCH, with its accessories. In 1957, he and Dmytro Zhovtiak typed his historical reports on it.
To realize the idea of uniting all revolutionary forces, Zatvarsky, through an Inta resident named Maria Lanova, established contact by letter with Hryhoriy Opaets, who was living in Vorkuta after his release. Subsequently, a recently released Stepanyda Danylykha came from Vorkuta to see Zatvarsky. She brought an important letter from H. Opaets. After that, Zatvarsky himself traveled to Vorkuta, where S. Danylykha introduced him to H. Opaets, who in turn introduced him to Oleksandr VODYNIUK. VODYNIUK undertook to connect Zatvarsky with the leader of “OUN-North,” Sokhatsky (“Orlyk”), with the goal of uniting the organizations. However, this did not happen because, in Zatvarsky’s opinion, “the Vorkuta people did not want to earn new sentences.” (“OUN-North,” also known as the “Polar OUN Leadership,” was created by Mykhailo SOROKA in 1947 in the Vorkuta camps. It fought for the rights of political prisoners, helped them survive, preserve their identity, and prepared strikes and uprisings. However, its activities were curtailed in 1956–57 due to the mass release of prisoners by decrees of the Commission of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR).
In 1958, Zatvarsky brought OUN literature from his native village of Stara Ropa to Inta; it had been stored in a *kryivka* (bunker) since 1948. This literature, in particular, was taken to Vorkuta by Ivanna Krokhmaliuk on his instructions.
Zatvarsky also participated in the publishing activities of “Obyednannya,” when the printing press, cleverly equipped by Vasyl BUCHKOVSKY, was already operational. He wrote the texts for at least three leaflets: “To the Ukrainian!,” “To the Ukrainian Youth!,” and “To the Ukrainian Young Man and Woman!,” and distributed the literature.
In January 1959, arrests of “Obyednannya” members who were distributing leaflets printed in Inta began in the Kirovohrad region: Yosyf SLABINA (arrested January 29, 1959), Anatoliy BULAVSKY (February 21, 1959), Stepan OLENYCH (March 2, 1959), Hryhoriy RIABCHUN (March 2, 1959), and Kyrylo BANATSKY (April 29, 1960). They were tried by the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR on April 29, 1960.
The KGB localized the origin of the leaflets. Searches began in Inta. Due to the danger, Zatvarsky and Ya. KOBYLETSKY handed over all organizational materials in their possession, as well as the typewriter, to Dmytro Zhovtiak for safekeeping. He kept all these items in his cellar, but it was damp and not entirely safe there. Therefore, he built two secret compartments in the vulcanization workshop of mine No. 9, where he worked, and in the spring of 1959, he hid all these materials there. Before his departure for Ukraine in the summer of 1959, he informed Ya. KOBYLETSKY and Zatvarsky, and they, in turn, informed Ya. HASIUK. This archive was seized by the KGB on December 21, 1959, and added to the case file (in B. KHRYSTYNYCH’s book *On the Paths to Freedom*, it is called “organizational archive No. 2.” It contained 45 items of underground literature—handwritten, typewritten, and printed).
Zatvarsky was arrested in the “Obyednannya” case in Inta on September 9, 1959, based on the testimony of Vasyl Vintoniv and possibly Anatoliy BULAVSKY. He was transferred to the KGB pre-trial detention center in Kyiv. For a month and a half, he gave no testimony, but then, likely subjected to psychotropic drugs—as he later recounted in the camps—he began to talk. But he conceded little by little and not completely. The verdict states that it was based on his testimony of December 16, 1959, that the organization’s archive was discovered at mine No. 9 in Inta on December 21, 1959.
At trial, Zatvarsky tried to deny practically all the charges, but the court did not take this into account.
On October 10, 1960, the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR sentenced Zatvarsky under Articles 1 and 9 of the Law on Criminal Liability for State Crimes, with the sanction of Article 1 of the same Law, and with the application of Article 37 of the Fundamentals of Criminal Legislation of the USSR and Union Republics, to 8 years of imprisonment in a correctional labor colony, with confiscation of his property, but without restriction of rights. His accomplices Ya. HASIUK and V. LEONIUK received 12 years each, B. KHRYSTYNYCH received 10, and Ya. KOBYLETSKY received 5 years of imprisonment.
Zatvarsky served the first year of his sentence in Taishet, Irkutsk oblast, and the rest in Mordovia. Levko LUKIANENKO describes him as a temperamental, sharp, and uncompromising man. He willingly entered into discussions with various people. He loved to tell young people about the national liberation struggle, the underground fight, conspiracy, and the construction of *kryivkas*.
After serving his full term, he returned to his wife in Inta and worked in a mine. With the collapse of the USSR, the couple returned to Ukraine, to the city of Sambir in Lviv oblast. Both are active in public and political life. In particular, Zatvarsky often writes for the press. He is a member of the Union of Political Prisoners and the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists.
Bibliography:
Leoniuk, Volodymyr. “Na priu staie Obyednannya” [Obyednannya Rises to the Challenge]. *Zona*, no. 6, 1994, pp. 163–180.
Khrystynych, Bohdan. *Na shliakhakh do voli. Pidpilna orhanizatsiia “Obyednannya” (1956-1959)* [On the Paths to Freedom. The Underground Organization “Obyednannya” (1956-1959)]. Lviv, 2004, 416 pp.
Rusnachenko, Anatoliy. *Natsionalno-vyzvolnyi rukh v Ukraini. Seredyna 1950-kh – pochatok 1990-kh rokiv* [The National Liberation Movement in Ukraine. Mid-1950s – Early 1990s]. O. Teliha Publishing, 1998, pp. 63–72, 370–389.
*58-10. Nadzornye proizvodstva Prokuratury SSSR po delam ob antisovetskoi agitatsii i propagande. Mart 1953–1991. Annotirovannyi katalog* [58-10. Supervisory Proceedings of the USSR Prosecutor’s Office in Cases of Anti-Soviet Agitation and Propaganda. March 1953–1991. An Annotated Catalog]. Edited by V. A. Kozlov and S. V. Mironenko, compiled by O. V. Edelman, Mezhdunarodnyi Fond “Demokratiia,” 1999, 944 pp. (Rossiia. XX vek. Dokumenty), p. 550.
Tkachuk, Yarema. *Burevii. Knyha pamiati* [Storms. A Book of Memory]. SPOLOM Publishing, 2004, pp. 112–114.
Lukianenko, Levko. “Halytske ‘Obyednannya’” [The Galician “Obyednannya”]. *Z chasiv nevoli. Sosnova-7* [From the Times of Captivity. Sosnova-7]. MAUP, 2005, pp. 421–426.
Compiled by Vasyl Ovsienko on February 10, 2009. Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.
ZATVARSKYJ VOLODYMYR MYKOLAJOVYCH