Born on March 10, 1931, in the village of Broshniv, Rozhniativ district, Ivano-Frankivsk region.
Member of the United Party for the Liberation of Ukraine.
His father, Yosyp Maksymovych (b. 1884), and his mother, Yustyna Semenivna (b. 1889), were farmers. They had two sons and a daughter.
In October 1947, for collaboration with the insurgent movement, the family was deported to the mines of Karaganda and housed in old stables. His brother, Mykhailo, escaped back to Broshniv in 1948. When his father fell ill, Ivan had to take a job in construction, and later worked as a metalworker-fitter at an enrichment plant. From 1954, he attended a construction school.
In 1956, the deportees were released from the supervision of the commandant’s office. After receiving a passport, Konevych returned to Broshniv and got a job at the “Osmoloda” timber enterprise as a worker in the drying department. The wages were very low, so he found a position as a warehouse manager at the Lavryshchev industrial cooperative in the town of Dolyna.
In Broshniv, he learned about the activities of the United Party for the Liberation of Ukraine (UPLU), which had existed since 1955. In the spring of 1958, its charter and program were adopted. The organization’s goal was to unite all segments of the population in the struggle for Ukraine’s independence and to achieve secession from the USSR, basing its actions on the Constitution, which reserved this right for every republic. They intended to contact similar organizations in other republics.
The UPLU conducted oral agitation and awakened the national consciousness of the youth. They did not have printed materials but intended to acquire a typewriter.
Groups were active in the city of Kolomyia, the village of P’yadyky, in Ivano-Frankivsk, and in the villages of Broshniv and Vyhoda. Candidacies were discussed at secret meetings, after which individuals were invited to join the organization. The oath was sealed with a signature in blood. They gathered in P’yadyky, Vyhoda, Dolyna, and Kolomyia, posting guards during meetings, strictly observing conspiratorial methods, and using pseudonyms (Konevych’s was “Chervony” [Red]).
The UPLU was exposed through denunciations by two of its members. The arrests began on December 4, 1958; Konevych was arrested in Broshniv on December 6, 1958. On March 10, 1959, the Stanislav Regional Court convicted Konevych under Articles 54-1-A and 54-11 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR for conducting anti-Soviet nationalist activities, sentencing him to 7 years of imprisonment. B. Germanyuk, Ya. Tkachuk, M. Ploshchak, I. Strutynsky, and B. Tymkiv were sentenced to 10 years in strict-regime camps, M. Yurchyk to 7 years, and V. Ploshchak to 2 years. Another 20 members of the UPLU appeared in the case as witnesses.
Konevych served his sentence in Camp No. 7 in Mordovia. He was released on December 6, 1965. Upon returning home, he got a job at the Broshniv inter-collective farm construction company, but the KGB would not leave him in peace. He was forced to move to Karaganda. In 1973, he returned to his home village and worked as a repairman at the Broshniv timber enterprise until his retirement.
He was an active participant in the creation of Rukh (the People’s Movement of Ukraine) and in the construction of the Mound of Fighters for Ukraine’s Freedom.
On August 18, 1992, he was rehabilitated in accordance with the Law of the Ukrainian SSR “On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions in Ukraine” of May 17, 1991. He resides in the town of Broshniv-Osada.
Bibliography:
Mardarovych, Ihor. “Holos pamiati” [The Voice of Memory]. *Visnyk Kolomyi* [Kolomyia Herald], no. 63 (457), November 10, 1994.
Mardarovych, Ihor. “P’yadytska orhanizatsiya OPVU” [The P’yadyky Organization of the UPLU]. *Visnyk Kolomyi* [Kolomyia Herald], no. 77 (471), December 28, 1994.
Rusnachenko, Anatoliy. *Natsionalno-vyzvolnyi rukh v Ukrayini. Seredyna 1950-kh – pochatok 1990-kh rokiv* [The National Liberation Movement in Ukraine: Mid-1950s – Early 1990s]. Kyiv: Olena Teliha Publishing House, 1998, p. 96.
Tkachuk, Yarema. *Bureviyi. Knyha pamyati* [Hurricanes: A Book of Remembrance]. Lviv: “SPOLOM” Publishing House, 2004, 386 pp.
KHRG Archives: Autobiography of Ivan Konevych, written in May 2004.
*International Biographical Dictionary of Dissidents in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former USSR. Vol. 1. Ukraine. Part 1.* Kharkiv: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group; “Prava Liudyny,” 2006, pp. 317–318. https://museum.khpg.org/1132084512
*Rukh oporu v Ukrayini: 1960 – 1990. Entsyklopedychnyi dovidnyk* [The Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960 – 1990. An Encyclopedic Guide]. Preface by Osyp Zinkevych and Oles Obertas. Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2010, p. 326; 2nd ed.: 2012, pp. 363–364.
Vasyl Ovsienko, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. June 15, 2004. Last reviewed August 9, 2016.
