(b. August 16, 1954, in the village of Rosokhach, Chortkiv raion, Ternopil oblast – d. May 30, 2012, in Moscow).
Member of the Rosokhach youth nationalist-patriotic underground organization.
From a peasant family. His father participated in the national liberation movement. Lacking evidence, he was accused of “sabotage” for refusing to attend an FZN school (factory and plant apprenticeship). He was imprisoned from 1949 to 1953.
In 1970, Petro completed the 8th grade at the Rosokhach school. His father told him about the heroic struggle of the UPA for independence. He read and discussed literature of a patriotic nature with his friends. The young men were outraged by the destruction of memorial crosses in the village, the demolition of the church, and the grave of the Sich Riflemen. The arrests of the Ukrainian intelligentsia in 1972 prompted them to create an underground youth organization that set the goal of fighting for independence.
On November 5, 1972, in a forest clearing where UPA partisans had previously camped, in a solemn ceremony—with candles, kneeling before a cross and an icon of the Mother of God—V., Volodymyr MARMUS, Volodymyr SENKIV, and Petro VITIV took an oath of allegiance to Ukraine. They pledged to consider the struggle for independence their highest duty. The oath was written by V. MARMUS. That same day, V., along with V. SENKIV and V. MARMUS, tore down two red flags that had been put up in the village for the October holidays. Later, Mykola MARMUS, Mykola SLOBODIAN, Andriy KRAVETS, Mykola LYSY, and Stepan SAPELIAK were admitted to the organization.
The organization decided to protest against the arrests of the Ukrainian intelligentsia. They chose the date of the 55th anniversary of the proclamation of the Ukrainian People’s Republic by the IV Universal of the Central Rada and the 54th anniversary of the Unification of the UNR and the ZUNR. V. took an active part in the preparation and execution of this main action of the organization. Specifically, he purchased wallpaper for the leaflets, and on the evening of January 21, 1973, he participated in raising 4 Ukrainian national flags and posting 19 leaflets in the city of Chortkiv. The leaflets ended with the slogans: “Freedom for Ukrainian patriots!”, “Shame on the policy of Russification!”, and “Long live growing Ukrainian patriotism!”, along with demands for freedom of the press, rallies, and assembly.
The arrests began in February. V. was arrested on April 11, 1973. For 10 days, he denied any involvement in the case, but faced with evidence and threats from the investigator to commit him to a psychiatric hospital, he had to confirm them. He was sentenced along with six other members of the organization at a closed session of the Ternopil Regional Court on September 24, 1973, under Art. 64 (“participation in an anti-Soviet organization”) and Art. 62, para. 1 (“anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda”) to 4 years of imprisonment in strict-regime camps and 3 years of exile. Symbolically, during the reading of the verdict, the lights suddenly went out—the sentence, like the oath, was accepted by the light of candles held by the guards.
He served his sentence in the strict-regime camp ZhKh-385/19 in the settlement of Lesnoy, Tengushevsky raion, Mordovia, together with M. SLOBODIAN. He worked at a sawmill with the insurgent Mykola Konchakivsky and associated with UPA soldiers Dmytro Syniak, Ivan Myron, Mykhailo Zurakivsky, Roman Semeniuk, and Father Denys Lukashevych, who saw the younger generation as successors to their life’s cause. He was part of a circle of young political prisoners of various nationalities.
In the autumn of 1975, he was transferred to camp VS-389/37 in the settlement of Polovynka, Chusovoy raion, Perm oblast, in the Urals, where almost all of his co-defendants were gathered. He participated in protest actions and in preparing information about events in the zone to be sent to the outside world. Due to the confiscation of a commemorative postcard (a Cossack drawn by V. MARMUS) with friends’ signatures on April 5, 1977, he refused to leave the zone—he was held in handcuffs for several hours and carried out to the transport by force. For this, he was put in a punishment cell in Sverdlovsk.
On April 30, 1977, he arrived in exile in the settlement of Bely Yar, Tomsk oblast, from where he was sent to the village of Poludyonovka. Together with fellow exile A. KRAVETS, they repaired an abandoned house where they began to live. They worked on a farm.
In August 1977, V. was diagnosed with severe blood poisoning—a result of a forced vaccination before his transport. He was saved from death by Liudmila Smyshliayeva, whom he later married. He was repeatedly summoned by KGB officers for corresponding with other exiles, including V. CHORNOVIL.
At the end of March 1980, V. returned to the village of Rosokhach. He married in a church. They had sons, Mykola (b. 1978) and Ivan (b. 1981). He worked on a collective farm and went for seasonal work in Chernihiv and other oblasts to earn money for a house.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was an active participant in the independence movement. He was a founding member of the Chortkiv “Memorial” society, a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, the Ukrainian Republican Party, and the Republican Christian Party.
He was rehabilitated in accordance with the Law of the Ukrainian SSR of April 17, 1991, “On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression in Ukraine.”
By a decree of the President on August 18, 2006, V. was awarded the Order of Courage, 1st class.
He died of a heart attack in Moscow, where he had gone to work as a builder.
Bibliography:
“Dopovidna zapyska TsK KP Ukrainy Tsentralnomu Komitetu KPRS pro diialnist natsionalistychnykh hrup u Ivano-Frankivskii, Lvivskii i Ternopilskii oblastiakh Ukrainy. 27 veresnia 1973 r.” [Memorandum from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine to the Central Committee of the CPSU on the activities of nationalist groups in the Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, and Ternopil regions of Ukraine. September 27, 1973]. // *Natsionalni vidnosyny v Ukraini XX st.* [National Relations in Ukraine in the 20th Century]. Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 1994. pp. 418–420.
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“Fantaziie, ty sylo charivna! Vidkrytyi lyst dysydenta Ovsiienka dysydentu (i fantazeru) Sapeliaku” [Fantasy, you are a magical force! An open letter from dissident Ovsiyenko to dissident (and fantasist) Sapeliak]: http://www.istpravda.com.ua/ukr/articles/2011/08/29/53451/, August 29, 2011.
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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. p. 105; 2nd ed.: 2012, pp. 116–117.
Vasyl Ovsiyenko, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. December 13, 2002. Last read: August 3, 2016.
