NAZARENKO, OLES TERENTIIOVYCH (b. September 27, 1930, in the village of Zemlianky, Makiivka district, Donetsk region)
A member of the Sixtiers movement (the Vyshhorod group), he produced and distributed samvydav.
His father, Terentiy Kostyantynovych Nazarenko (1905–1984), worked as the economic director of the Panteleimonivka Brick Factory. In 1935, the family moved to Yasynuvata station. His father began working in the railway accounting department. When the Great Terror began in 1937, out of fear, he agreed to work as an accountant for the NKVD in Yasynuvata. After the war, he became head of the financial unit of the South-Donetsk Railway, rising to the rank of major, though he never wore the uniform. His mother, Kylyna Ivanivna Sandul (1908–1989), of Vlach origin, was a homemaker with little education. Nazarenko’s worldview was influenced by his grandmother, Paraska, who called the communists bandits and “dog-heads.”
Nazarenko started school in 1938, completing his seven-year education only in 1947. That same year, he entered the Sloviansk Railway Transport Technical School to train as a locomotive engineer. After two years, he left, went to work in a factory, and finished his studies at an evening school.
In 1950, he was conscripted into the army. He served in the Krasnoyarsk Krai and the Chita region, trained as a radio operator, worked on direction finders and communications radio stations, and completed a reserve officers' school but refused to take the final exam. He was demobilized in 1954 with the rank of sergeant.
He worked as a lathe operator at a factory in Yasynuvata and, from 1956, as a literary contributor to the Selidove district newspaper “Zoria Komunizmu” (The Star of Communism). Unable to endure the communist demagoguery, he left in 1959 to work on the construction of the Siverskyi Donets–Donbas canal.
Dissatisfied with the total Russification of the Donbas and yearning for a Ukrainian Ukraine, Nazarenko went to work on the construction of the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant in the spring of 1962. He lived in a dormitory in the town of Vyshhorod. While working on a dredger, he collected an entire “museum” of fossilized bones and artifacts, which he stored under his bed. A year later, he met Vasyl Kondriukov, a party member who was critical of the CPSU's policies. In 1963, he met Volodymyr Komashkov, who was a close acquaintance of V. CHORNOVIL. Komashkov brought him samvydav literature: poems by V. SYMONENKO, M. Vinhranovsky, M. KHOLODNY, and Lina KOSTENKO, as well as the memoirs of Petro Panch (which Nazarenko photographed in a single night). He also obtained a typescript of V. Sosiura's poem “Executed Immortality,” poems by Yevhen Malaniuk, the poem “Ashes” by Yuriy Klen, and books such as Holubets’s “History of Great Ukraine,” Dmytro Doroshenko’s “History of Ukraine,” Dmytro Dontsov’s “Nationalism,” Yuriy Lypa’s “The Ukrainian Race,” Pylyp Orlyk’s “Derivation of the Rights of Ukraine,” Pronin’s “Ukraine and Moscow’s Ukrainian Policy,” and a “Collection in Honor of Scholars Destroyed by Bolshevik Moscow.” Nazarenko photographed V. CHORNOVIL’s typescript “Justice or a Relapse into Terror?” and made several photocopies. He later made several photocopies of Chornovil's typewritten book “The Trouble with Intellect (Portraits of Twenty ‘Criminals’).” He avoided personal contact to not draw attention to himself. In the summer of 1966, at the request of I. SVITLYCHNY, Komashkov introduced him to Svitlychny.
Nazarenko block-lettered, photographed, and reproduced the article “On the Occasion of the Trial of Pohruzalsky.” He also photographed and reproduced a typescript of Ivan DZIUBA's work “Internationalism or Russification?,” Valentyn MOROZ’s “Report from the Beria Reserve,” and many other texts. At his own expense, he set up a photo lab in the dormitory, bought a typewriter, and had a typist, Larysa Panfilova, type samvydav for free in Kyiv. He attempted to develop printing ink to produce leaflets.
A whole group of like-minded individuals formed in Vyshhorod, reading and distributing samvydav. It included workers V. Kondriukov and V. Komashkov (also a poet), the teacher and poet Oleksandr DROBAKHA, Vitaliy Riznyk, foreman Valentyn KARPENKO, electricians Bohdan Dyriv and Vasyl Gedz, workers Petro Yordan, and the recently released political prisoner Ivan HONCHAR from the village of Havrylivka. This circle also included Mykola Ponomarenko, Maria OVDIENKO, Lyudmyla Sheremetyeva, and the poet Nadiya KYRIAN. The journalist Pavlo SKOCHOK and the poet Volodymyr Zabashtansky visited Vyshhorod. Nazarenko attended the republican literary studio “Molod” (Youth), and on one occasion Zabashtansky suggested he arrange with the Komsomol organization to hold a literary evening and amateur arts concert in Vyshhorod. However, the Party Committee demanded to review the program in advance and required the dean of the faculty to take written, university-sealed responsibility for the event. The students refused to hold the literary evening. The same Party Committee banned the literary studio “Malynovi vitryla” (Crimson Sails), which had been organized by O. DROBAKHA.
The question of formally organizing the group arose, but common sense suggested that, in the event of exposure, the group would be accused of “treason.” Nevertheless, rumors spread in Vyshhorod and far beyond about the existence of a nationalist organization called “Crimson Sails,” which was supposedly planning to start an uprising and blow up the hydroelectric power plant (in reality, this involved four workers who had stolen grenades from an airfield to stun fish), and about a nationalist congress (which was just a gathering of V. CHORNOVIL's friends on Kozachyi Island). Senior KGB officials spoke seriously about this in their lectures across various regions of Ukraine, though without naming specific individuals.
On September 4, 1965, he, along with O. DROBAKHA and B. Dyriv, attended the premiere of the film “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” at the “Ukraina” cinema.
In 1965, Nazarenko enrolled in the evening division of the history faculty at Kyiv State University and moved into a dormitory in Kyiv, working for a construction company in the Kurenivka district.
On May 22, 1967, the commemoration of T. Shevchenko at his monument in Kyiv, on the anniversary of his reburial, turned into a large, unsanctioned demonstration. Knowing that the authorities planned to prevent anything similar in 1968 and were even preparing to set workers from the “Arsenal” factory and Komsomol activists against the participants, Nazarenko wrote an “Appeal to the People of Kyiv.” In the leaflet, he very cleverly quoted V. Lenin on the tsarist government’s ban on commemorating Shevchenko in 1914: “After this measure, millions and millions of ‘common folk’ began to transform into conscious citizens and became convinced of the correctness of the conclusion that Russia is a ‘prison of nations.’”
The leaflet ended with a slogan acceptable at the time: “Shame on the Russifiers! Long live Leninist national policy!” Through V. Komashkov, Nazarenko passed the leaflet to I. DZIUBA, who supposedly approved it. Maria OVDIENKO typed up to 120 copies of the leaflet. Nazarenko and Mykola Ponomarenko mailed them to higher educational institutions in Ukraine and the trade union organizations of Kyiv's factories. The action was effective: one-third of the leaflets did not reach the KGB. On May 22, Shevchenko Park was flooded with KGB agents and police. Anyone who came with flowers or tried to speak was arrested.
In June, Nazarenko imprudently read his leaflet at a housewarming party to which friends had invited him. There, an unknown man asked to see it and tried to run off with it. The leaflet was taken back, but a week later, on June 26, 1968, Nazarenko was detained on the street and arrested. During a search of his home, the same leaflet was confiscated.
About 30 people were interrogated in the “Nazarenko case.” This raised suspicions that he might have betrayed his friends. This version was supported by V. CHORNOVIL’s uncensored journal “Ukrainian Herald,” which, however, noted that Nazarenko took full responsibility for the case. In reality, two of Nazarenko’s notebooks with phone numbers and addresses had fallen into the hands of the investigators, and they worked from that information. Furthermore, an expert analysis confirmed that the manuscript of the article “On the Occasion of the Trial of Pohruzalsky,” a facsimile of which had been imprudently published in foreign newspapers, was in Nazarenko's handwriting.
In January 1969, the Kyiv Regional Court, under Article 62, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, sentenced Nazarenko to 5 years of imprisonment in strict-regime camps. His accomplices, Vasyl KONDRIUKOV, received 3 years, and Valentyn KARPENKO, 1.5 years.
In April 1969, Nazarenko was transported to the Mordovian camps. The blackmail continued en route: at the Kholodna Hora prison in Kharkiv, he was placed in a blood-spattered death row cell. But in the prison wagon, he was lucky enough to meet V. MOROZ.
In camp No. 11, in the settlement of Yavas in Mordovia, Nazarenko met some of the “twenty criminals”—the artist Panas ZALYVAKHA, the writer Anatoliy SHEVCHUK, and members of the “Ukrainian National Front” Yaroslav LESIV, Hryhoriy PROKOPOVYCH, Mykhailo DIAK, and Vasyl KULYNYN. Soon, Nazarenko was transferred to camp No. 19 in the settlement of Lesnoi.
The political camps were a real Ukraine: national and religious holidays were observed, prisoners had access to good literature in their possession and in libraries, cultural life was maintained, and Ukrainians carefully guarded their reputation in the camp’s “international community.” For example, 25-year-old Ivan POKROVSKY assigned Oleksandr Okhrimovych to look after Nazarenko.
In the spring of 1970, Nazarenko was caught rewriting his article on cigarette paper to smuggle it out and was sent to camp No. 17, where the conditions were much worse. His circle of contacts there included M. MASIUTKO, Stepan Bedrylo, and Mykola KOTS.
In the summer of 1972, Nazarenko was part of a large transport to the Perm camps. He finished his sentence in camp No. 35, at Vsekhsvyatskaya station in the Perm region. He was placed in a punishment cell twice. At the end of 1972, he spent five days on his feet, as lying on the concrete floor would have meant catching a cold and falling ill. Here, he was in close contact with M. HORBAL, Andriy KOROBAN, I. KALYNETS, and Z. ANTONIUK.
He was released on June 26, 1973. He went to Kyiv to see Oksana MESHKO. He suggested she create a committee or association of women who were petitioning for their imprisoned husbands, sons, and brothers. He looked for a way to set up a printing press for samvydav and get it abroad.
After lengthy efforts, he obtained a passport in Brovary, near Kyiv, but was not allowed to register his residence anywhere and, consequently, could not find a job. He lived with acquaintances.
In April 1974, the police detained Nazarenko and sent him to Yasynuvata in the Donetsk region for 6 months of administrative surveillance. After completing the surveillance period, he returned to Kyiv, where he was detained by the KGB and again sent by a court to Yasynuvata for one year of surveillance.
That year, he managed to get permission to move to Skadovsk in the Kherson region, where he married Lidiya HUK, who had returned from prison in September 1973. He had trouble finding work but eventually found a job as an electrical equipment technician.
In 1976, Irina Korsunskaya visited Skadovsk from Moscow, and Nazarenko discussed with her the creation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.
In 1978, his daughter Yaroslava was born.
That year, Nazarenko, along with former political prisoner Fedir Klymenko, visited O. MESHKO in Kyiv. At her request, he wrote a report about a riot in Kherson related to the murder of a druzhynnyk (volunteer patrolman). O. MESHKO, contrary to her promise, did not destroy the manuscript, and it was confiscated during a search the next day. In addition, a letter from Nazarenko to I. POKROVSKY about his persecution was published abroad in a collection of materials for the Belgrade CSCE conference. The head of the Kherson regional KGB summoned Nazarenko and threatened him with imprisonment under Article 187-1. Nazarenko was forced to promise in writing that he would no longer maintain contact with O. MESHKO.
However, the KGB seized the opportunity to imprison Nazarenko in connection with a minor domestic dispute. “Taking into account the personality, especially dangerous to society,” the Skadovsk court sentenced him to 3 years of imprisonment in 1981. He served his sentence in Dniprodzerzhynsk. The article under which he was convicted was subject to amnesty following the death of L. Brezhnev, but he was not released, with the explanation: “Although you have no disciplinary violations, you are a person of interest to the KGB.”
After his release, he has been living in Skadovsk. In 1990, he made a video film about M. OSADCHY.
He has been retired since 1990.
Bibliography:
1.
Interview with Oles Nazarenko, recorded on January 6 and 18, 1999, in Kyiv and on January 18, 2001, in Skadovsk. https://museum.khpg.org/1186430257
O. Nazarenko. Vyshhorodski lehendy (Vyshhorod Legends). https://museum.khpg.org/1186431423
2.
Chornovil, V. Tvory: U 10-y t. – T. 3. (“Ukrainskyi visnyk,” 1970-72) (Works: In 10 vols. – Vol. 3. [“Ukrainian Herald,” 1970-72]) / Comp. Valentyna Chornovil. Foreword by M. Kosiv. – Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2006. – pp. 76-78, 370, 610-614.
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. – p. 84.
Danyliuk, Y. Z., Bazhan, O. H. Opozytsiia v Ukraini (druha polovyna 50-kh – 80-i rr. XX st.) (The Opposition in Ukraine [second half of the 1950s – 1980s]). – Kyiv: Ridnyi krai, 2000. – pp. 37, 193-194.
Interview with O. Drobakha on July 20, 2000. https://museum.khpg.org/1374852975
Komashkov, Volodymyr. Vyshhorod. Vybrani tvory (Vyshhorod. Selected Works) / “Museum of the Sixtiers” public organization; Comp. O. Rohovenko, V. Chornovil; art design by H. Sevruk. – Kharkiv: Folio, 2004. – 176 p.
International Biographical Dictionary of Dissidents from Central and Eastern Europe and the Former USSR. Vol. 1. Ukraine. Part 1. – Kharkiv: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group; “Prava Liudyny,” 2006. – pp. 505–509. https://museum.khpg.org/1184408983
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. 453-454; 2nd ed.: 2012, – pp. 514–516.
Vasyl Ovsiienko, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. February 15, 2006. With corrections by O. Nazarenko on July 6 and August 28, 2006. Last read on August 15, 2016.
