Born February 13, 1940, in the village of Savarka, Bohuslav raion, Kyiv oblast.
Worker, participant in the national liberation movement. In 1966, he raised the national flag.
His relatives had been participants in the national liberation struggle during the period of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR). His father had been the head of the village council, though not a communist, and was left behind for underground work during the German occupation. He saved young people from being deported to Germany, for which he was sentenced to death but managed to escape. Viktor had good patriotic teachers, including some who had been previously repressed. Thus, from childhood, he was a conscious Ukrainian and knew the national anthem. The belief that Ukraine should become independent was natural to him.
K. graduated from high school in 1957 and went to Kyiv to work in construction. He lived in a workers' dormitory in Sviatoshyn. From 1958-61, he served in the army and returned to Kyiv. This was the era of the “Khrushchev Thaw,” a time of ferment among the intelligentsia. Samizdat literature circulated, and Radio Liberty brought news of the arrests of the Sixtiers in 1965. He, too, wanted to act to awaken the national consciousness of Ukrainians.
At the suggestion of Heorhiy MOSKALENKO, a worker and evening student at the Kyiv Institute of National Economy with whom he shared a room, they decided to hang the national flag in a public place on the night of May 1st. They had difficulty finding blue and yellow fabric—women's scarves. They sewed a trident of black cloth onto the flag, which they had copied from the banknotes of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Moskalenko wrote in black ink: “Ukraine has not yet perished, she has not yet been killed. DPU.”
This was meant to refer to a currently non-existent “Democratic Party of Ukraine” to prevent the act from being attributed to the OUN. They chose the building of the Kyiv Institute of National Economy (KING, now Kyiv National Economic University, KNEU), located on Brest-Litovsk Prospekt opposite the “Bolshevik” factory. It was here, on the morning of May 1st, that columns of workers and students would form before marching to the demonstration on Khreshchatyk Street.
They arrived at night on the last tram. K. put on socks over his shoes and gloves on his hands, tucked the flag into his shirt, and put a kitchen knife in his pocket. He climbed a fire escape, then crossed the roof, clinging to its ridges. He cut down the red banner with the knife; it rolled down. H. Moskalenko had a homemade pistol loaded with sulfur from matchsticks to signal in case of danger, but he did not have to fire it. They poured aviation gasoline around the fire escape so that a dog could not pick up their trail. They threw the bottle and the remnants of the bandage used to tie the flag into a lake in Komsomolsky Park. They looked back to see how beautifully the flag was waving, illuminated by the May Day spotlights.
They were “calculated” for nine months. Students were summoned to the military enlistment office and required to fill out some forms in block letters. An informant was moved into their room and initiated provocative conversations. The young men did not talk about their act, but they did not hide their worldview either. The KGB was looking for “connections with the underground.”
K. and H. MOSKALENKO were arrested on February 21, 1967. Investigator Chunikhin said [in Russian]: “Well, what are you—a fly! And here's an elephant. The elephant—*wham!*—and he's crushed you. See, you're gone.” The Kyiv Regional Court, in a closed session on May 31, 1967, delivered the verdict: for conducting anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (Part 1 of Art. 62 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR) and for carrying a bladed weapon (Part 2 of Art. 222), K. was sentenced in aggregate to 2 years of imprisonment in strict-regime camps. H. MOSKALENKO received 3 years under the same Part 1 of Art. 62 and for a firearm (Parts 1 and 3 of Art. 222).
K. served his sentence in the strict-regime camp No. 11 in the settlement of Yavas, Mordovia. He worked as an excavator operator. It was a true Ukraine there: three-quarters of the camp's contingent were Ukrainians. Communicating with former insurgents like Vasyl Yakubiak, Vasyl PIDHORODETSKYI, Stepan Mamchur, and Dmytro Basarab, and with Sixtiers such as Oleksandr MARTYNENKO, Panas ZALYVAKHA, Mykhailo and Bohdan HORYN, Mykhailo OZERNYI, Ivan HEL, Yaroslav LESIV, and Bohdan REBRYK enriched his worldview.
He found his father already in his grave, which had not been filled in until his son’s arrival.
He had difficulty finding work as an excavator operator, and for a long time, they refused to register him at the same dormitory. The summonses from the district police officer and the KGB officer did not stop until after independence was declared. He had to change jobs, but everywhere, denunciations were written against him. Whenever high-ranking foreign guests were scheduled to arrive in Kyiv, K. would be sent on a business trip or forced to sign a promise not to leave the dormitory.
He continued to associate with the Sixtiers (Vasyl STUS, Ivan SVITLYCHNY, Ivan RUSYN) and attended rehearsals of the “Homin” choir, where he became acquainted with samizdat literature. During the crackdown on the Ukrainian intelligentsia in 1972, his home was searched.
In 1973, K. married Maria Polishchuk; they have a son, Vladyslav, born in 1992. He works at the Ukrainian Oil and Gas Institute. He participated in the independence movement. He is non-partisan.
By a resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Ukraine dated May 20, 1994, the court decisions regarding the conviction of K. under Part 1 of Art. 62 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR were annulled, and the criminal case in this part was closed based on para. 2 of Art. 6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine due to the absence of corpus delicti. However, he was still considered convicted under Part 2 of Art. 222 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR, and based on Art. 42 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR, sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment in a general-regime correctional labor colony.
On March 18, 2002, a Public Committee (later a Non-Governmental Organization) “For the Rehabilitation of the ‘May Day Two’” was created in Kyiv, which aimed to achieve the full rehabilitation of K., H. MOSKALENKO, and other politically repressed individuals who had been convicted on criminal charges. The organization’s head, former political prisoner Valeriy KRAVCHENKO, held a 20-day protest hunger strike in front of the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine in August–September 2005.
By a decree of the President of Ukraine dated August 18, 2006, K. was awarded the Order “For Courage” of the 1st degree. On the day the award was presented, August 23, a commemorative plaque was to be unveiled at the Kyiv National Economic University (KNEU) about the event of May 1, 1966, but it was removed during the night on the rector's orders.
By a ruling of a joint session of the Judicial Chamber for Criminal Cases and the Military Judicial Collegium of the Supreme Court of Ukraine dated January 26, 2007, the verdict of the Kyiv Regional Court of May 31, 1967, and the ruling of the judicial collegium for criminal cases of the Supreme Court of the UkrSSR of July 4, 1967, regarding the conviction of V.I. Kuksa under Part 2 of Art. 222 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR were annulled, and the case in this part was closed due to the absence of the constituent elements of a crime in his actions, based on para. 2 of Part 1 of Art. 6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine. K. was finally rehabilitated in this part as well.
Bibliography
I.
Viktor Kuksa. “I am still alive...” – Ukraina Moloda, 2001, No. 165 (1728). – September 12.
Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group Archive: autobiographical accounts of V. Kuksa from April 10, 2002, and H. Moskalenko from March 18, 2002. https://museum.khpg.org/1202724866
II.
Mykola Tsyvirko. “Ukraine's Manolis Glezos.” – Vechirniy Kyiv, 1993. – February 6.
Volodymyr Haleta. “To declare independence, all they needed was faith, a knife, a homemade gun, socks, and a bottle of gasoline.” – Nasha Ukraina, 1998, No. 1 (60). – January 9.
V. Ovsienko. “A flag over Kyiv.” – Shliakh peremohy, 2002, No. 20 (2507). – May 15; Same: Ekonomist, KNEU newspaper, No. 16-19 (1054-1057). – 2002. – June–July; Also: *Svitlo liudei: Memuary ta publitsystyka*. In 2 books. Book 2 / Compiled by the author. – Kharkiv: KhPG; Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2005. – pp. 90–98. https://museum.khpg.org/1202744505
Kravchenko, V. *Syno-zhovtyi prapor nad Kyievom 1 travnia 1966 roku* (The Blue-and-Yellow Flag Over Kyiv on May 1, 1966) / Foreword by V. Ovsienko. – Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2004. – 56 p.
Dmytro Shcherbyna. “Recurrences of a murky past.” – Literaturna Ukraina, 2006, No. 34 (5172). – September 7.
*Mizhnarodnyi biohrafichnyi slovnyk dysydiv krajin Tsentral'noyi ta Skhidnoyi Yevropy y kolyshnoho SRSR. T. 1. Ukrayina. Chastyna 1.* (International Biographical Dictionary of Dissidents of the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former USSR. Vol. 1. Ukraine. Part 1). – Kharkiv: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group; “Prava Lyudyny,” 2006. – pp. 356–359. https://museum.khpg.org/1132342842
Mykola Polishchuk. “The daring flag-bearers: Heorhiy Moskalenko and Viktor Kuksa raised the blue-and-yellow banner over Kyiv 45 years ago.” // Tyzhden, 2011. – July 12.
*Rukh oporu v Ukrayini: 1960 – 1990. Entsyklopedychnyi dovidnyk* (The Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960 – 1990. An Encyclopedic Guide) / Foreword by Osyp Zinkevych, Oles Obertas. – Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2010. – pp. 356–357; 2nd ed.: 2012. – pp. 400–401.
Vasyl Ovsienko, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. April 30, 2002. Last proofread August 10, 2016.
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SUPREME COURT OF UKRAINE
4 P. Orlyka St., Kyiv-24, 01024
…..March 2007, No. 5-47pO6
Certificate of Rehabilitation
By the verdict of the Kyiv Regional Court dated May 31, 1967, Kuksa, Viktor Ivanovych, born in 1940 in the village of Savarka, Bohuslav raion, Kyiv oblast, was convicted under Part 1 of Art. 62 and Part 2 of Art. 222 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR (in the 1960 version, which was in force until the Decree of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of the UkrSSR of October 14, 1974, which introduced amendments and established liability for the illegal handling of bladed weapons under Part 3 of this article) to 2 years of imprisonment on the charge that he, being nationalistically minded, together with H. M. Moskalenko, tore down the Soviet flag from the roof of the Kyiv Institute of National Economy building and in its place raised a blue-and-yellow flag. During this act, Kuksa V.I. was armed with a knife.
By the ruling of the judicial collegium for criminal cases of the Supreme Court of the UkrSSR dated July 4, 1967, the verdict of the Kyiv Regional Court of May 31, 1967, concerning Kuksa, V.I., was upheld without change.
By the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Ukraine dated May 20, 1994, the court decisions regarding the conviction of Kuksa, V.I., under Part 1 of Art. 62 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR were annulled, and the case was closed based on para. 2 of Art. 6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine due to the absence of the constituent elements of a crime in his actions. It was resolved to consider Kuksa, V.I., convicted under Part 2 of Art. 222 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR to 1 year of imprisonment.
By the ruling of a joint session of the Judicial Chamber for Criminal Cases and the Military Judicial Collegium of the Supreme Court of Ukraine dated January 26, 2007, the verdict of the Kyiv Regional Court of May 31, 1967, and the ruling of the judicial collegium for criminal cases of the Supreme Court of the UkrSSR of July 4, 1967, regarding the conviction of Kuksa, V.I., under Part 2 of Art. 222 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR were annulled, and the case in this part was closed due to the absence of the constituent elements of a crime in his actions, based on para. 2 of Part 1 of Art. 6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine.
Kuksa, Viktor Ivanovych, has been rehabilitated in this case.
Acting Head of the Judicial Chamber for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of Ukraine
M. Ye. Korotkevych