POPADIUK, LIUBOMYRA IVANIVNA (b. April 8, 1928, in Dukla (now the Republic of Poland) – d. September 19, 1984, in Sambir, Lviv region).
A German language teacher and a member of the Sixtiers movement. She produced and distributed samvydav literature.
She came from a family of Ukrainian intellectuals who shared the ideals of the European Enlightenment and liberalism. Her father, Ivan Popadiuk, was a Sich Rifleman who fought in the battles on Mount Makivka. In 1920 (or 1921), he escaped from Russian captivity and was wounded. He worked as a school inspector in the Ternopil region. He faced persecution from the Polish authorities and was often forced to change his job. He died in 1930 from a heart condition at the age of 38. Her mother, Sofia Mykhailivna Kopystynska, descended from a well-known family of enlighteners and taught German. She passed away in 2001 at the age of 95.
In 1931, the family bought a house in Sambir. Both Polish and German authorities repeatedly searched it, yet a significant amount of literature and periodicals that carried the spirit of freedom remained.
Lyubomyra studied at the only “Ridna Shkola” (Native School) in Sambir. In 1939, all 117 students of this school, aged 15-17, who were members of the “Ukrainian Committee,” were tortured to death at night by the Bolsheviks. Lyubomyra survived only because she was slightly younger.
She completed her secondary education in 1947 and graduated from a trade school. In 1948, she enrolled in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Lviv University. On April 21, 1953, she gave birth to her son, Zoryan POPADIUK.
After graduating in 1953, she taught in mountain villages (Sheshory and others). In 1955, she was invited to teach German to students at Lviv University and the Conservatory. She was active in cultural life, playing second violin in the Lviv Opera Theater's symphony orchestra and performing with the university's symphony orchestra.
From the early 1960s, Popadiuk was part of the Ukrainian community that later became known as the Sixtiers. Her circle of acquaintances included Ivan HEL, Viacheslav CHORNOVIL, Ihor and Iryna KALYNETS, Mykhailo KOSIV, the brothers Mykhailo and Bohdan HORYN, and Valentyn MOROZ.
Popadiuk typed and retyped samvydav literature—both Ukrainian and Russian-language—including “Internationalism or Russification?,” “The Trouble with Intellect,” “Report from the Beria Reserve,” and the “Chronicle of Current Events.” She also involved her son in this activity. The authors and subjects of samvydav often visited or temporarily stayed in her apartment, which had little furniture but plenty of warmth for both former and future political prisoners.
In 1968-69, her son, Zoryan POPADIUK, along with his classmates, created a youth organization, the “Ukrainian National Liberation Front,” which produced and distributed leaflets on the anniversary of the occupation of Czechoslovakia. For New Year 1971, they traveled to Kyiv to sing carols, reproduced samvydav, studied M. Hrushevsky’s “History of Ukraine,” and later published two issues of the journal “Progress.” In Sambir, they also restored a grave where 900 prisoners shot by the NKVD in 1941 were buried.
On December 25, 1971, V. CHORNOVIL celebrated his birthday at Popadiuk's apartment. In the morning of January 12, 1972, her home, like hundreds of others belonging to the Ukrainian intelligentsia, was searched. Only by chance was nothing found, and she was detained for just a few hours. Popadiuk refused on principle to attend KGB interrogations. Her son Zoryan—a second-year philology student at Lviv University—was accused of disrespecting the KGB officers during the search, fined by a court, and expelled from the university on February 16. His mother understood and supported his activities, as they were in keeping with the family’s tradition.
When the Lviv Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine banned the traditional March Shevchenko evenings in 1973—for the first time since 1939—the UNLF produced about 150 copies of a leaflet ending with the words: “Arise, and break your chains!” and distributed them on the evening of March 27. On the night of March 28, dozens of students were detained, including Popadiuk's son, Zoryan POPADIUK. On August 6, he was sentenced by the Lviv Regional Court under Articles 62, Part 1, and 64 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR (“anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda,” “organizational activities”) to 7 years of imprisonment and 5 years of exile. Yaromyr MYKYTKO was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment.
In June 1973, Popadiuk was dismissed from her job. She worked as a medical statistician in a hospital. In 1977, she was fired again after the newspaper “Lvivska Pravda” published a malicious slanderous article against her, Atena Pashko, Hanna Sadovska, and Olena ANTONIV, who maintained correspondence and personal contact with political prisoners and their families, including non-Ukrainians, met with those who had been released, and signed petitions and appeals in defense of political prisoners.
Popadiuk had only one visit with her son: a 24-hour visit in camp No. 17 in Mordovia and a one-hour visit in Vladimir Prison.
From February 28 to March 28, 1981, Popadiuk was hospitalized due to a dynamic cerebral circulatory disorder. In May 1981, she suffered a stroke, which left her with a non-functioning left arm. Her son, who had undergone tuberculosis surgery while in exile in the Magadan region, managed to obtain a leave of absence to visit her. She was classified with a Group II disability. In her home, there were two other disabled individuals—her mother and her sister.
After her son’s second arrest (Kazakhstan, September 2, 1982), Popadiuk suffered a second stroke. The letter officially recognizing her as a Group I disabled person arrived on the day of her funeral.
She was buried in Sambir.
Bibliography:
Visnyk represiy v Ukraini (Herald of Repressions in Ukraine). Foreign Representation of the UHG. Ed. and comp. N. Svitlychna. New York. 1980–1985. – 1980: 7-29; 1981: 2-247, 2-262, 3-98, 4-28; 1982: 2-38; 1984: 2-38, 9-1.
Zoryan Popadiuk. “Lysty Vasylia Stusa do Liubomyry ta Zoriana Popadiukiv. 1977–1979” (“Letters of Vasyl Stus to Lyubomyra and Zoryan Popadiuk. 1977–1979”) // Ukrainskyi visnyk (Ukrainian Herald). Issues 7, 8, 9, 10. – Kyiv–Lviv–Baltimore–Toronto, 1988. – pp. 181-190; also pp. 167, 265-266, 358, 294.
Kasianov, Heorhiy. Nezhodni: ukrainska intelihentsiia v rusi oporu 1960-80-kh rokiv (Dissenters: The Ukrainian Intelligentsia in the 1960s-80s Resistance Movement). – Kyiv: Lybid, 1995. pp. 135–136, 142.
V. Stus. Tvory v 6 t. 9 kn. (Works in 6 vols., 9 books). Vol. 6, book 1. – Lviv: Prosvita, 1997. – pp. 267, 410; book 2. – Lviv: Prosvita, 1997. – pp. 109, 115-117, 128, 147.
A. Rusnachenko. Natsionalno-vyzvolnyi rukh v Ukraini (The National Liberation Movement in Ukraine). — Kyiv: O. Teliha Publishing. — 1998. — pp. 196–209.
Interview with Z. Popadiuk on January 27 and 30, 2000. https://museum.khpg.org/1195677346
International Biographical Dictionary of Dissidents from Central and Eastern Europe and the Former USSR. Vol. 1. Ukraine. Part 2. – Kharkiv: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group; “Prava Liudyny,” 2006. – pp. 577–579. https://museum.khpg.org/1184443342
Rukh oporu v Ukraini: 1960–1990. Entsyklopedychnyi dovidnyk (The Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960–1990. An Encyclopedic Guide) / Foreword by Osyp Zinkevych, Oles Obertas. – Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2010. – pp. 509–510; 2nd ed.: 2012, – pp. 581–582.
Vasyl Ovsiienko, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. January 29, 2006. Last corrected by Z. Popadiuk on August 28, 2006. Last read on July 20, 2016.
