Philology student, later a teacher and humorist writer.
Mykola’s mother, Kylyna Ivanivna Kuksa (1906–1993), grew up as an orphan in service. She married an impoverished man, also an orphan, Ivan Vasylyovych Kucher (1906–1982). They joined the collective farm. During the famine of 1933, activists led by the collective farm chairman confiscated all the food from their family. They endured great hardship. His father fought through the entire war. They survived another famine in 1946–47.
In 1951, K. graduated from the Verkhniodniprovsk secondary school and enrolled in the Faculty of History and Philology at Dnipropetrovsk University. In January and February 1955, he wrote 4 anonymous letters to the staff of Radio “Liberation” (West Berlin) with recommendations on how to better conduct anti-Soviet propaganda.
On January 3, 1956, right in the middle of a lecture, K. was arrested by officers of the regional KGB directorate. He was seized, as recorded in the verdict of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Court of February 20, 1956, for “malicious slander against the leaders of the Communist Party and the Soviet authorities—the Soviet government, and on foreign policy,” for allegedly having “called for the overthrow of the Soviet government.” This sentence, under Article 54-10, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR, condemned the student to 10 years of imprisonment and 5 years of disenfranchisement, with confiscation of property (an old wristwatch and 2 rubles and 45 kopecks in his wallet).
After the trial in Dnipropetrovsk, the convicted man went before a commission of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, which was headed there by O. Vatchenko, then the second secretary of the regional committee. The commission members, ostensibly with the intent of mitigating the sentence, asked why a Soviet student would write letters abroad. “I would never have written these letters if there had been an opportunity to express what was on my mind in our press, if there had been freedom of speech.” To which Vatchenko screamed at the top of his lungs, audible throughout the prison: “You want freedom of speech? You should be crushed! Crushed! They gave you ten years?! Not enough! Twenty-five you should have gotten! To make an example of you for others! You’ve disgraced the entire oblast! The entire Union! Take him away!”
K. served his sentence in Mordovia, in the 7th zone, at the Yavas station in the Zubovo-Polyansky Raion. There, he befriended the composer Vasyl Barvinsky, the teacher Oleksa TYKHYI, and other political prisoners of various nationalities. The conditions of detention during the “Khrushchev Thaw” were relatively lenient. It was a good school of patriotism and true friendship among peoples. For some time, he worked as a librarian.
In the summer of 1957, a strike broke out in the zone demanding a review of cases. The strike committee operated out of the club and the library. In connection with this, K. was sent to work at the sawmill.
Later, K.’s case was reviewed, and his sentence was reduced. He was released on January 3, 1959. He returned to his parents in the settlement of Chervone, Verkhniodniprovsk Raion, where they had moved.
In December 1959, he was reinstated at the university, and on June 29, 1961, he received his diploma as a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature. He began teaching in schools in the Petropavlivsk and Verkhniodniprovsk Raions of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and also taught German and English language, and history. In 1963, he married a teacher, Lyudmyla Nestorivna Perekopska. In 1964, their son Vitaliy was born.
KGB officers and their unofficial informants (*seksoty*) never let K. out of their sight, especially after the Khrushchev “Thaw” had passed. They would threaten him with new imprisonment, then promise him all sorts of benefits, such as a new apartment. But he preferred to live for 25 years in “compressed” housing than to collaborate with the KGB.
As a writer, K. wrote and, with the assistance of Oleh Chornohuz, published four collections of humorous stories: “How I Became a Polyglot” (1972), “The Aunt” (1973), “Operation ‘Three Hares’” (1978), and “Seven for All” (1983). He was repeatedly a laureate of the magazine “Perets” and other publications. In 1988, he was admitted to the National Union of Writers of Ukraine. He was a lecturer for the “Znannia” society. During the perestroika era, he became a member of the NRU (People’s Movement of Ukraine), the regional society of the Ukrainian language named after D. Yavornytsky, and an activist of “Prosvita.”
He was rehabilitated on July 20, 1991.
In 1996, K. published a book of memoirs and stories, “Dubravlag,” which is valuable for its recollections of Vasyl Barvinsky, Yosyf SLIPYJ, Oleksa TYKHYI, and Oleksandr HRYHORENKO. The subjects of his essays include the Karaite composer Hryhoriy Koretsky, the Lithuanian artist Heinrich Herlachus, and the Latvian partisan Otto Irbe. His stories about the famine and about people in captivity are striking.
His time in Soviet concentration camps and constant persecution led to K. suffering from a severe case of Parkinson’s disease and experiencing terrible headaches. He was on disability pension from September 8, 1989. He died on September 4, 1999, and was buried in Dniprodzerzhynsk.
Bibliography:
1.
Kucher, Mykola. “Pakuda. A Story.” // *Zona*, No. 7, 1994. – pp. 49-66.
Kucher, Mykola. *Dubravlag. Spohady, opovidannia* (Dubravlag. Memoirs, Stories). – Dnipropetrovsk: VPOP “Dnipro,” 1996. – 98 p.
2.
58-10. *Nadzornye proizvodstva Prokuratury SSSR po delam ob antisovetskoy agitatsii i propagande. Mart 1953 – 1991. Annotirovannyi katalog* (Supervisory Proceedings of the USSR Prosecutor's Office in Cases of Anti-Soviet Agitation and Propaganda. March 1953 – 1991. An Annotated Catalog). Ed. by V. A. Kozlov and S. V. Mironenko; comp. by O. V. Edelman, Moscow: International Foundation “Democracy,” 1999. – 944 p. (Russia. 20th Century. Documents): – Kucher N. I.: p. 251.
Sirenko, V. I. *Velyka zona zlochynnoho rezhymu. Pro peresliduvannia ta represii ukrainskykh inakodumtsiv u 70–80-kh rokakh mynuloho stolittia* (The Great Zone of a Criminal Regime. On the Persecution and Repression of Ukrainian Dissidents in the 70s–80s of the Last Century). – Dnipropetrovsk: Porohy, 2005. – pp. 119, 125, 128, 139-143.
Volodymyr Sirenko, Vasyl Ovsiyenko. Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.
Last revision July 20, 2007.
KUCHER MYKOLA IVANOVYCH