Born December 12, 1930, in Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. - Died September 6, 2014, in Kolomyia.
Historian, member of the OUN.
His parents raised K. in a patriotic spirit. He studied at the “Ridna Shkola” (Native School), a gymnasium, and Secondary School No. 1 in Kolomyia. From the age of 12-13, he read books by D. Dontsov, the journal “Ideya i chyn” (Idea and Deed), was thoroughly familiar with Dmytro Doroshenko's “History of Ukraine,” and Omelian Terletsky's work “The Liberation Struggle of the Ukrainian People.” (This literature was confiscated from the family during a search on March 14, 1950). K.’s father worked as the director of the “Volia Pokuttia” printing house in 1941, during the German occupation, while the local authorities in Kolomyia were Ukrainian.
K. was connected with the underground and had the clandestine pseudonym “Sokil” (Falcon) since July 25, 1948. He became a member of the OUN in 1948.
In 1949, K. enrolled in the history faculty of Chernivtsi University.
In October 1950, the NKVD seized a letter from K. from the body of a killed district leader named “Borys.” The letter described the March 1950 raid carried out by the occupying authorities in Kolomyia. Although the letter was signed with the pseudonym “S-18,” the author was identified by its content. He was arrested on January 28, 1951, in Kolomyia, when he came home for winter break after the session.
On January 12, 1952, the Military Tribunal of the MGB troops of the Stanislav (Ivano-Frankivsk) Oblast sentenced K. to 25 years of imprisonment under Articles 54-1a, 54-11, and 54-10 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR. He served his sentence in the Vorkuta camps. There, with Yaroslav Zvarych, Vasyl Palashovskyi, and Volodymyr Yurkiv, he published a handwritten “Bulletin of the Ukrainian Political Prisoner.” He wrote an essay on the history of Ukraine from memory, which circulated among the prisoners (one copy, made by another hand, was later confiscated in Bila Tserkva). In 1955, he wrote a long article, “What is Soviet power?” (published in 1994 in No. 11 of the journal “Vyzvolnyi shliakh” in London).
In 1955, K.’s case was reviewed, and his term was reduced to 10 years. In 1958, he was transferred to Taishet, where he served his sentence alongside H. Pryshliak, D. SHUMUK, M. SOROKA, and P. Duzhyi. He earned two years of “credit” for his work, so he was released on October 28, 1958.
K. was forbidden to return to the western regions of Ukraine. He worked on state farms and collective farms in the Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kirovohrad oblasts. Knowing by heart poems and entire epic works by T. Shevchenko and I. Franko (in particular, he learned “Great Anniversary” from Mykhailo SOROKA), K. recited them to the peasants and retold the journalistic and literary works of other authors. He wrote the article “A Year in Great Ukraine” (published in No. 8 of the journal “Vyzvolnyi shliakh” in 1999).
In March 1960, he wrote a letter to his second cousin, Oksana Horbachevska, a student at Chernivtsi University, through her mother. In that letter, in connection with the assassination of S. Bandera, K. wrote that “great political assassinations have not stopped or reversed the course of history. The murders of Petliura and Konovalets did not stop anything in the Ukrainian liberation movement.” Due to the student's mother's carelessness, the letter was seized during a search in the dormitory. On April 9, 1960, K. was arrested in the town of Vasylkivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region. His letters to his parents from 1955 and to the school director, Olha Hanzyna, from 1957, were attached to the case, as were two postcards sent from Vorkuta with the inscriptions: “Christ is risen! – Ukraine will rise! 1917 - 1956.” On June 23, 1960, K. was sentenced for “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” to 10 years of imprisonment under Article 7, para. 2 of the USSR Law of December 25, 1958, “On Criminal Liability for State Crimes.”
On August 13, 1960, a Colonel Zashchitin arrived in Dnipropetrovsk from Kyiv and offered the convicted K. a place in one of their schools, saying they needed capable people like him. But first, he had to provide character references for everyone he had known in Vorkuta. K. categorically refused.
He served his sentence in Mordovia in camp No. 7. He communicated with L. LUKYANENKO, to whom he recited the “Decalogue” and other OUN documents from memory. He became close with Dr. Volodymyr Horbovyi.
With the introduction of special regimes in 1962, he was transferred to camp No. 10 of the special regime, where, as a particularly dangerous recidivist, he spent 8 years in cells. He worked as a lathe operator. There he befriended insurgents Dmytro Syniak and Oleksa Vodeniuk.
He was released in April 1970. He returned to Kolomyia to his parents. He worked as an electric welder at a factory.
In 1982, he wrote the article “Once More on a Riddle in Our History,” where he examined the origin and meaning of the names “Anti” and “Troyan.” He submitted it to the journal “Zhovten,” but in April 1983, a KGB captain named Petrenko discussed it with K., and in August, a Major Masliy did so. A second article, about the 2,500th anniversary of the Scythian state, sent to “Zhovten,” was also rejected due to KGB interference.
On the evening of December 24, 1983, unknown assailants shone a light in K.’s face and sprayed him with a cloud of staphylococci, which caused bacterial shock (a pseudo-heart attack). A timely analysis and blood transfusion saved K.’s life. He then notified London to publish his articles. In issue No. 2 of 1984, the journal “Vyzvolnyi shliakh” and issue No. 2 of the journal “Avanhard” (New York) published the article “2500th Anniversary of the Scythian State,” and in issue No. 5 of “Vyzvolnyi shliakh” – “Once More on a Riddle in Our History.”
During his vacation in August 1984, OUN literature was planted in K.’s house, which he discovered in time. With the onset of perestroika, the provocations ceased.
In 1988–1990, K. was the co-editor (with Dmytro HRYNKIV, Taras MELNYCHUK, and Ostap Kachur) of the literary and public almanac “Karby Hir” (Carvings of the Mountains), in which he edited the literary criticism and journalism section “Zoloti Vorota” (The Golden Gates); in 1990–95, he was co-editor (with the same team) of the newspaper of the Kolomyia city and district organization of the URP, “Na Perelomi” (At the Turning Point); in 1995–97, he was co-editor (with Yaroslav Svirniuk and Halyna Dribniuk) of the newspaper of the Kolomyia city and district organization of the KUN, “Volia Natsii” (Will of the Nation).
From 1988–94, he was a participant in the seminar on the study of “The Tale of Igor's Campaign” under the guidance of Prof. Pavlo Okhrimenko in Sumy. He published articles in the collections of scientific conference materials on the study of “The Tale” in Sumy in 1988, 1990 (“Troyan” – the first self-designation of the territory of modern Ukraine), and 1994. In the field of “Tale” studies, he proposed an argument for the authorship of Prince Sviatoslav Olgovich of Rylsk, established the participation of the young Sviatoslav Igorevich in the campaign (based on the Laurentian Chronicle), and determined that “The Tale” was written in two stages—in the summer of 1185 in Polovtsian captivity and the last two parts after the author's return from captivity in September 1188 (based on the Hypatian Chronicle), and understood the name Troyan as a state known as the Antian state. In November 1988, at the Fifth Congress of the World Ukrainian Liberation Front in Toronto, the Head of the OUN Leadership, Vasyl Oleskiv, named Ihor Kichak among the names of Mykhailo Braichevsky and Yevhen Kramar as researchers “in the great strategic plan of reclaiming our ancient history” (“Vyzvolnyi shliakh,” 1989, No. 3, p. 314).
He is the author of hundreds of articles published in journals, newspapers, and collections.
K. was a member of the Union of Political Prisoners and the Brotherhood of Former OUN-UPA Warriors. He had been a pensioner since 1992. He lived and died in Kolomyia.
Bibliography:
I.
“What is Soviet Power?” // Vyzvolnyi Shliakh (London), No. 11. – 1994. – pp. 1283 – 1291 (Article written in Vorkuta's camp 32nd mine in June 1955, found in Stryi).
“This was in 1960” // Zona, No. 8. – 1994. – pp. 70-72; Vyzvolnyi Shliakh (London), No. 8. – 1995. – pp. 70 – 72; *Chorna knyha Ukrayiny* (Black Book of Ukraine). – Kyiv, 1998. – pp. 612 – 614.
Interview with I. Kichak on March 21, 2000. https://museum.khpg.org/1265450154
II.
Viktor Hrabovskyi. “The Path to Truth” // Literaturna Ukraina, No. 42. – 1985. – October 17.
Mykola Vasylchuk. “A Tale scholar from Kolomyia” // Visnyk Kolomyi, No. 37. – 1994. – August 10.
Volodymyr Holubchenko. *“Slovo”-znavtsi. Korotkyy dovidnyk* ("Tale" Scholars. A Brief Guide). – Sumy, 1998. – pp. 27 – 28.
Vasylchuk M.M. *Kolomyysʹkyy azbukovnyk. Bibliohrafichnyy slovnyk* (The Kolomyia Abecedarium. A Bibliographic Dictionary). – Kolomyia: Vilnyy holos. – 2000. – p. 79.
Mykhailo Tomashchuk. “A Revolutionary from Kolomyia” // Liudyna i ekolohiia, 2001. – No. 10.
*Mizhnarodnyi biohrafichnyi slovnyk dysydentiv kraiiny 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. 296–298. https://museum.khpg.org/1132339431
*Rukh oporu v Ukrayini: 1960 – 1990. Entsyklopedychnyi dovidnyk* (The Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960 – 1990. An Encyclopedic Guide) / Foreword by Osyp Zinkevych, Oles Obertas
Vasyl Ovsienko, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. March 16, 2004. Last proofread August 9, 2016.
