Two Documents from the SSU GDA (Regarding the “Dnipro” Publishing House, Rostyslav Dotsenko, and Yuriy Lytvyn)

Two Documents from the GDA SSU
(Regarding the “Dnipro” Publishing House, Rostyslav Dotsenko, and Yuriy Lytvyn)

For about ten days in March 2010, I worked productively in the Branch State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine. It was precisely in those days that Valentyn Nalyvaichenko was dismissed from his post as head of the SSU and Volodymyr Viatrovych from his post as Director of the Archive. But I still managed to photograph quite a few documents from the “BLOK” case—a repressive campaign organized by the KGB against the Ukrainian national-democratic movement from 1971 to 1986. Naturally, I was most interested in materials about myself and about those people for whom I lacked material to write biographical entries for the International Dictionary of Dissidents. I came across several documents concerning the former political prisoner and translator Rostyslav Dotsenko. Perhaps there is more in that archive about Dotsenko, who, of course, remained under close KGB surveillance after his release in 1963. But we publish what we have.
These documents are reports, compiled in the KGB and sent to the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, V. V. Shcherbytsky, and sometimes to a few other officials. In the upper left corner, there is a note of acknowledgment, with a signature. These documents were to be returned to the KGB and thus have been preserved. The documents from operational surveillance of suspicious individuals have not yet been declassified. According to SSU employees, only about 2% of them remain. During “perestroika,” there were rumors that General M. M. Holushko (a native of Kazakhstan), who was dismissed from his post as head of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR in August 1991, took a large number of these operational materials to Moscow, where he immediately assumed a high position in Russia’s security service. So, many figures of independent Ukraine today are still “on Moscow’s hook.” Some of the operational documents were simply burned.
Documentation in the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR—this combat vanguard of the CPSU—was conducted in Russian. Some things were quoted in the language of the natives.

Document 1.
Informational report from the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR to the Central Committee of the CPU dated December 28, 1972, regarding ideological distortions in the “Dnipro” publishing house.

Committee for State Security under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR
Inventory No. 910
Permanent retention period
Item on list 40
FILE No. 2 volume 7
with originals of memoranda, special communications, and information (return from the Central Committee of the CPU)
Begun “15” August 1973
Completed “19” September 1973
On “311” pages.
File in 11 volumes.
GDA SSU. – Fund 16. – Inventory 3 (1976). – Case 7. – Sheets – 7 – 15 (photo frames by V. Ovsiienko: BLOK-6 Nos. 510-519).
(Handwritten note in the upper left corner:

To Comr. Orel D. Z. (personal delivery only). Please use the conclusions to supplement Comr. Voziianov’s memo and to work on it.
– take measures to cleanse the publishing house of politically unreliable individuals.

Collect necessary materials to decide on the Party membership of Ivanychuk, Polianker, Rudenko.
V. Shcherbytsky.
7.01.73.
In the lower right corner, a stamp, filled in by hand:
Central Committee of the CPU
General Department. IV Sector
Incoming No. 783 ss “9” sheets.
“29” December 1972
Subject to return)

“28” December 1972 No. 1054-1 Kyiv
Top Secret
Copy No. 1
CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST
PARTY OF UKRAINE
INFORMATIONAL REPORT
Materials received by the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR indicate that the situation that has developed at the “Dnipro” publishing house for literary fiction merits particular attention.
Among writers, there is outrage over the selection of personnel for work at the publishing house, as well as of individuals engaged as translators of foreign literature.
For example, working as an editor at the publishing house is
DOTSENKO, Rostyslav Ivanovych, born 1931, a native of Kyiv, Ukrainian, non-Party member, with higher education.
It is known about DOTSENKO that in 1953, while a student at Kyiv State University, he was convicted for conducting nationalist activities and sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment. While serving his sentence, DOTSENKO was convicted a second time for participating in a clandestine anti-Soviet organization. After returning from incarceration, DOTSENKO was reinstated as a student at Kyiv State University and, after graduation, was hired by the “Dnipro” publishing house. Together with a number of individuals convicted in 1965–1966 for anti-Soviet activities, he engaged in the illegal distribution of ideologically harmful literature. In recent years, DOTSENKO maintained contact with DZIUBA, I., and SVITLYCHNY, I., and shared their hostile views.
A like-minded person to DOTSENKO is the translator of foreign literature PEREPADIA, Anatol, who previously worked as an editor at the publishing house. Together with DOTSENKO and DZIUBA, who also previously worked in the foreign literature department, they created an atmosphere at the publishing house in which priority for publication was given to translations most cluttered with archaisms and dialectisms.
Analyzing such lexis, many literary figures believe that this is not merely a linguistic issue, but has a definite political meaning, and they view the archaization of the Ukrainian literary language as a unique way of stoking nationalist tendencies.
One writer, describing DOTSENKO’s activities as an editor, said:
“When editing translations, he clutters the Ukrainian language with archaisms and dialectisms and explains this by claiming that the modern Ukrainian language is supposedly a photographic image of Russian, and it therefore needs to be returned to the traditions of the 1920s.”
DOTSENKO strives to translate and promote the works of those foreign writers who have discredited themselves in the eyes of progressive humanity with their hostile attitude toward Marxism-Leninism.
For instance, in the journal Vsesvit (No. 9, 1972), he published an article titled “FAULKNER: On the Cusp of the Writer’s Style,” excessively praising this writer. As is known, Soviet criticism condemned FAULKNER as a renegade for breaking with the communist movement and repeatedly making anti-Soviet statements.
Currently used as a translator for the publishing house is
SYNYCHENKO, Oleksiy Panteleiyovych, born 1931, a native of the village of Bilozerye, Cherkasy oblast, Ukrainian, a member of the CPSU, with higher education, a member of the Writers’ Union of Ukraine,
who previously headed the foreign literature department at the “Dnipro” publishing house.
SYNYCHENKO engaged nationalistically-minded individuals for the translation of foreign literary works; enjoying his particular patronage were SVITLYCHNY, who was arrested by the KGB for conducting anti-Soviet activities and participated in preparing the 8-volume collected works of Guy de Maupassant, and DZIUBA. DOTSENKO and PEREPADIA were hired on his recommendation.
SYNYCHENKO did everything possible to facilitate the publication of translated works oversaturated with archaisms and Galicianisms, which litter the Ukrainian literary language. One example is the publication of Somerset Maugham’s novel Na zhali brytvy [The Razor’s Edge] (“Dnipro” publishing house, 1970, translated by Anatoliy MULIAR).
One of the leading literary figures, a research fellow at the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, said in a private conversation about this publication:
“I am astonished by the translation of the novel The Razor’s Edge. The translator managed to ‘create’ some kind of philistine, vulgar pulp fiction out of a good, perhaps the best, novel by MAUGHAM, written, moreover, in a Ukrainian that gets stuck in your teeth. It’s some sort of backwater jargon or dialect.”
A renowned scholar, a research fellow at the Donetsk branch of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, upon reviewing the translation of the novel, stated the following:
“Here is the same mangling of the Ukrainian language that characterized most of the translations of the 1920s. This tendency is aimed primarily at separating the Ukrainian language from Russian and thus has a political underpinning.”
SYNYCHENKO provided special support to
KOCHUR, Hryhoriy Porfyriyovych, born 1908, a native of Chernihiv oblast, non-Party member, a creative professional, residing in the town of Irpin,
who is actively engaged by the publishing house as a translator.
It is known about KOCHUR that while in Poltava during the German-fascist occupation, he was an active collaborator with the German authorities. During that period, he established contact with emissaries of the OUN, from whom he received nationalist literature and distributed it among his contacts. In the autumn of 1941, a “Red Cross” organization was created in Poltava, under the cover of which Ukrainian nationalists carried out their work. KOCHUR performed a number of tasks for this organization.
For his criminal activity, on March 4, 1949, he was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. While serving his sentence, KOCHUR maintained close ties with Ukrainian nationalists, composing hostile documents which he distributed among the prisoners.
After returning from incarceration, KOCHUR remained in his former hostile positions, gathered nationalistically-minded individuals around himself, and maintained contact with the now-arrested DZIUBA, SVITLYCHNY, and SVERSTIUK. At the apartment of the writer I. STESHENKO, he organized their meetings with foreign tourists, some of whom are suspected of involvement with enemy intelligence services.
For a long time, he has been conducting extensive correspondence with foreign correspondents living in capitalist countries, including with Arkadii ZHUKOVSKY, who is the head of the foreign directorate of the nationalist organization OUN-Melnykovites.
In 1969, KOCHUR received a valuable package from England from his acquaintance Vira VOVK-SELIANSKA, who is characterized as a nationalistically-minded individual maintaining contacts with foreign nationalist organizations. In 1970, VOVK-SELIANSKA came to Kyiv, where she had a meeting with KOCHUR. According to operational data, she used her visit to gather tendentious information on behalf of a foreign OUN center.
KOCHUR uses his translations and literary articles to conduct ideologically harmful activities. For example, in the preface to J. Hašek’s book Pryhody bravoho voiaka Shveika [The Good Soldier Švejk], KOCHUR justified the hostile activities of Czechoslovak reactionary elements during the period of 1968–1969, drawing internal parallels with the resistance movement of Czechs and Slovaks against the Austro-Hungarian monarchy during World War I. With the support of SYNYCHENKO, KOCHUR refused to make corrections to his manuscript, and the preface was removed only at the insistence of the main editorial office of the “Dnipro” publishing house.
According to available operational data, KOCHUR, using his connections among well-known translators from the Ukrainian language in socialist countries, recommends works of a tendentious nature to them for translation and simultaneously obstructs the publication abroad of ideologically mature works, which leads to a distorted representation of modern Ukrainian literature abroad.
The atmosphere that existed until recently in the foreign literature department of the “Dnipro” publishing house led to the affirmation of negative tendencies in Ukrainian literary translation, cronyism, and mutual praise.
One literary figure commented on this matter:
“DZIUBA praises LUKASH for his translation of the Decameron (Vsesvit, No. 6, 1965), DOTSENKO dedicates an entire article, full of joyful paeans in honor of KOCHUR (Vsesvit, No. 9, 1965). In a special feature (Vsesvit, No. 5, 1968) reviewing the translation output of the ‘Dnipro’ publishing house, triumphant hymns are sung in honor of M. LUKASH.”
Regarding the person engaged as a translator,
LUKASH, Mykola Oleksiyovych, born 1919, a native of the town of Krolevets, Sumy oblast, Ukrainian, non-Party member, member of the Writers’ Union of Ukraine,
it is known that he systematically makes statements of a nationalist character in his circle, maintained close ties with DZIUBA, SVITLYCHNY, Z. FRANKO, and SVERSTIUK, and admires their “revolutionary” activities.
LUKASH cultivates his connections in a nationalist spirit, repeatedly expressing the opinion about the need to “attract more young people to the struggle for the national cause.”
In his creative work, he champions the concepts of P. KULISH, aimed at separating the Ukrainian language from Russian, and resorts to cluttering translations with archaisms, dialectisms, and words of German and Polish origin.
The pool of translators that the publishing house intends to commission includes individuals without regard to their political views, ignoring even well-known negative facts from their biographies.
For instance, it is currently planned to use as translators for the publishing house KOBIV, Yosyp Ustynovych, an employee of Lviv State University, about whom it is known that during the German occupation he was the chairman of the nationalist organization “Tryzub” [Trident]; MUSHAK, Yuriy Fedorovych, who makes ideologically harmful statements; and SODOMORA, Andriy Oleksandrovych, an employee of the Lviv Medical Institute, whose father was a Uniate priest.
The editor of publications in Spanish, BORYSIUK, Ivan Fedorovych, born 1927, non-Party member, who arrived in the USSR from Argentina in 1955, according to operational data systematically makes nationalist statements in his circle. For example, he declares:
“Kyiv has no freedom because everything depends on Moscow’s dictates, on the ‘elder brother’…”
He admires the activities of DZIUBA, considering him a “luminary” of literary criticism in Ukraine. In frequent conversations, BORYSIUK has expressed his intention to return to Argentina.
Among the books published by the “Dnipro” publishing house, one can rarely find works that illuminate the intense working life of the Soviet people from a Party perspective. In this connection, one member of the Writers’ Union said in a private conversation:
“Let’s take the plans of the ‘Dnipro’ and ‘Radianskyi Pysmennyk’ publishing houses. Try to find even one work here dedicated to the life of the modern working class and collective-farm peasantry! There isn’t a single book, with the possible exception of reprints of what was published two decades ago, about which the publishers themselves (not all, of course) speak of as a necessary evil.”
At the same time, in recent years, the publishing house has released a number of books in which modern reality and past events are portrayed from biased positions. Among them are the novels Malvy [Mallows] by R. IVANYCHUK and Katastrofa [Catastrophe] by V. DROZD.
Regarding V. DROZD’s novel Catastrophe, one prose writer said:
“The author deliberately paints everything in dark colors. He calls the district center Terekhivka nothing but a ‘suffocating swamp,’ and portrays life in it as ‘decay,’ ‘voluntary exile,’ and ‘provincial backwardness’.”
This novel was reprinted by the nationalist journal Suchasnist (Munich) in issues 1-3 for 1969.
The “Dnipro” publishing house plans to publish the novels Krai bytoho shliakhu [The Land by the Beaten Road] by R. IVANYCHUK, Bulochnyk z Kolomyi [The Baker from Kolomyia] by H. POLIANKER, and Viter v oblychchia [Wind in the Face] by M. RUDENKO (reprint) in 1973.
Regarding the aforementioned authors, the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR possesses the following materials:
For instance,
IVANYCHUK, Roman Ivanovych, born 1929, a native of the village of Trach, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, Ukrainian, a member of the CPSU, who works as the head of the prose department of the journal Zhovten,
was expelled from Lviv State University in 1949 with the official reason stated as “for anti-Soviet behavior.” He maintained contact with those arrested for anti-Soviet activities, M. MASIUTKO, Bohdan and Mykhailo HORYN, as well as with other nationalistically-minded individuals. His brother—IVANYCHUK, Ye. I.—was convicted in 1945 as an OUN-UPA bandit to 15 years in a corrective labor camp and released in 1955.
In the novel Mallows, R. I. IVANYCHUK presented events in Ukraine in a biased manner, interpreting some historical questions from nationalist positions.
POLIANKER, Hryhoriy Isaakovych, born 1911, a native of the city of Uman, a Jew, member of the CPSU, member of the Writers’ Union of Ukraine,
expresses pro-Israel sentiments in his circle and voices admiration for Israel’s actions in the Middle East.
RUDENKO, Mykola Danylovych, born 1920, a native of the village of Yurivka, Luhansk oblast, Ukrainian, a member of the CPSU, member of the Writers’ Union of Ukraine,
makes tendentious and slanderous judgments regarding Soviet reality in his close circle. A number of his works, such as the play Na morskomu dni [At the Bottom of the Sea] and the book of poetry Vsesvit u tobi [The Universe Within You], have an ideologically ambiguous focus.
RUDENKO was the instigator of the hunger strike by the writer BERDNYK, A., for which purpose he provided his dacha.
We report this for your information.
CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE FOR STATE SECURITY
UNDER THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE UKRAINIAN SSR
(Signature) V. FEDORCHUK

It is hardly necessary to comment on this frankly hostile document towards Ukrainian culture. We will only note the consequences known to us.
Rostyslav Dotsenko was immediately fired from the publishing house. Only in 1974, after a long search, did he manage to find “non-ideological” work—at the Republican Agricultural Library, where he worked until 1988. The translations of Dotsenko, Anatol Perepadia, Hryhoriy Kochur, and Mykola Lukash were no longer published.
Hryhoriy Kochur was expelled from the Writers’ Union of Ukraine in 1973.
Mykola Rudenko was expelled from the CPSU in 1974, and in 1975—from the Writers’ Union of Ukraine, and was arrested for the first time on April 18, 1975. His books were removed from bookstores and libraries.
Advertisements for the popular futuristic lectures by the science fiction writer Oles Berdnyk were canceled. On August 13, 1976, Order No. 31 was issued by the Main Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, with the note “for official use”: “To remove from general and special use libraries and the book trade network of the USSR the books of Berdnyk, Oleksandr Pavlovych (Oles Berdnyk).” At the same time, he was expelled from the Writers’ Union of Ukraine. He was arrested on March 6, 1979.
Ivan Svitlychny was imprisoned on January 12, Yevhen Sverstiuk on January 14, and Ivan Dziuba on April 18, 1972.
We should add that documents from April 22 and June 1, 1975, state that “the editorial board of the journal Vsesvit is publishing translations by certain contacts of the ‘Blok’ case who have compromised themselves in the past with nationalist manifestations (A. PEREPADIA, A. SYNYCHENKO, R. DOTSENKO, Ye. POPOVYCH, O. SENIUK, and others).” The editor of Vsesvit at that time was Dmytro Pavlychko, and the deputy editor was Oleh Mykytenko. The KGB directly interfered in the work of the editorial office: “In a conversation with an operative, D. PAVLYCHKO stated: ‘I know that some people may not like this, but I see no other way out of the current situation. Besides, there was no directive not to publish these people. If there’s a miscalculation, I’ll gladly go into creative work, where there are fewer troubles and better pay’.” “According to our source, when D. PAVLYCHKO is asked by editorial staff whether it is possible to publish translations by the same A. SYNYCHENKO or A. PEREPADIA, he answers: ‘If the person is not in prison, then it is possible’.” (Document No. 378 dated June 1, 1973). In connection with such bold statements for that time, the KGB “literary critic” Zadorozhniuk—head of a department in the KGB Administration under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR—signed a very detailed “Certificate” on April 10. It speaks of D. Pavlychko’s participation in 1945 in a “youth reserve UPA company,” of his arrest for several months, of his father’s cooperation with the UPA, of the “tendentious” 1968 collection Hranoslov, of his “connections” with the “objects of the ‘Blok’ case” Ivan Dziuba, Ivan Svitlychny, Yevhen Sverstiuk, Mykhailyna Kotsiubynska, Zinovia Franko, Bohdan Horyn, Vasyl Lisovyi, Yevhen Proniuk, not to mention the circle of talented translators who had to work in the 1970s with a KGB noose around their necks.

Document 2.
Informational report from the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR to the Central Committee of the CPU dated March 26, 1974, on the activities of Yu. Lytvyn, R. Dotsenko, and others.
top secret
KGB of the USSR
secretariat
Inventory No. 1029
Retention period
Permanent
After 10 years
FILE No. 2, volume 11
with originals of memoranda,
communications and information – return
from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
Begun “11” November 1974
Completed “26” December 1974
On “297” sheets
File in “11” volumes
“26” March 1974 No. 146 Kyiv
(Reported to Comr. Shcherbytsky, V. V.
“2” “12” 1974. Signature)
TOP SECRET
Series “K”
Copy No. 1
CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST
PARTY OF UKRAINE
to comrade SHCHERBITSKY, V. V.
MEMORANDUM
The KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, in its report No. 23 of January 12 of this year, reported that the KGB Administration for the Kyiv oblast is investigating –
LYTVYN, Yuriy Tymofiiovych, born 1934, an excavator operator’s assistant at the “Ukrpromekskavatsiia” trust, resident of the town of Vasylkiv, convicted in 1955 for creating a nationalist organization to 10 years of imprisonment
and
DOTSENKO, Rostyslav Ivanovych, born 1931, resident of the city of Kyiv, unemployed, convicted in 1953 and 1956 for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.
According to operational data received, LYTVYN, even while incarcerated, harbored the intention of creating an anti-Soviet organization, and in 1972 wrote a draft “program” and “manifesto” for an anti-Soviet organization of an anarchist bent.
In the course of further operational measures, data was obtained that LYTVYN, in January-February of this year, while on a business trip to the town of Novyi Rozdil, Lviv oblast, on January 30, met with a former courier of the OUN gang leader Roman SHUKHEVYCH – ZARYTSKA, Kateryna, who returned from imprisonment in 1972, and on February 2 traveled to the town of Dolyna, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, where he had a meeting with a former member of the so-called Central Directorate of the OUN – HORBOVYI, V. N., born 1895, who returned from a correctional labor institution in 1973.
The main purpose of his meetings with the above-mentioned nationalists is allegedly to collect materials for writing “memoirs” about SOROKA, M. M., a former career OUN member who died in confinement in 1970. During the meeting with HORBOVYI, LYTVYN asked him to personally participate in writing these “memoirs.” The latter allegedly promised to prepare a preface to the “memoirs,” as well as a chapter on the period of their joint stay in places of confinement. According to LYTVYN, the editing of what HORBOVYI writes will be done by one of his acquaintances in Kyiv, whose name he did not disclose. It is most likely that this will be done by DOTSENKO, R. I., who worked as an editor at the “Dnipro” publishing house.
LYTVYN continues to acquaint his close contacts with the “programmatic documents” he has prepared. Thus, on January 29 of this year, the KGB Administration for the Kharkiv oblast obtained data on the passage of a document addressed to his former camp-mate –
PASHKOV, Ivan Hryhorovych, born 1936, who works as an editor at the Kharkiv inter-regional production, artistic, and advertising combine, a resident of Kharkiv, convicted in 1962 for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda,
with an enclosure of selected excerpts from the so-called anarcho-communist manifesto.
On February 3 of this year, the KGB Administration under the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the Krasnoyarsk Krai operationally recorded the passage of a package sent by LYTVYN through a front address to –
SUKHODOLSKY, Arkadiy Vasylyovych, born 1927, a resident of Krasnoyarsk, twice convicted for anti-Soviet activities.
As established, the package contained “programmatic documents”: “Theses on the State” and “Anarcho-Communist Manifesto” (the text of the latter is attached).
On April 8 of this year, a working meeting of the concerned KGB bodies will be held in Moscow to develop joint measures aimed at suppressing the hostile activities of LYTVYN, DOTSENKO, SUKHODOLSKY, PASHKOV, PEROVSKY, N. M., a resident of Belgorod, KURALIEV, a resident of Kostroma, and MAZUR, D. Ya., a resident of Derbent.
ATTACHMENT: Copy of the “Anarcho-Communist Manifesto” on 15 sheets.
CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE FOR STATE SECURITY
UNDER THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE UKRAINIAN SSR
(Signature) V. FEDORCHUK

Commentary. Yuriy Lytvyn, a friend of Rostyslav Dotsenko from their time of imprisonment in the mid-1950s, was indeed interested in anarcho-syndicalism and collected many quotations from figures of this movement, but to call these materials a program for an organization is a great exaggeration. As for the book of memoirs about Mykhailo Mykhailovych Soroka—an outstanding personality, perhaps the most authoritative among Ukrainian political prisoners of the 1940s–60s—Yuriy did have such a plan. It is quite possible that he shared it with R. Dotsenko, who may have agreed to edit the book. Lytvyn also described this dream of such a book to me in the Kuchino camp in the Urals in the early 1980s. This dream was realized with the publication of the book: Lesia Bondaruk. Mykhailo Soroka: On the 90th Anniversary of His Birth and the 30th Anniversary of His Death (27.03.1911 – 16.06.1971). – Drohobych: “Vidrodzhennia” Publishing Firm, 2001. – 294 pp., 40 pp. of illustrations.
The same case is mentioned in document No. 23 dated January 12, 1974. And in the “Special Communication” No. 529 dated October 23, 1974, it is directly stated: “Through operational measures, it was established that at the apartment of LYTVYN’s wife in Vasylkiv, the following documents are stored…” This means that secret searches were usually conducted in homes!

Prepared by Vasyl OVSIYENKO
April 17, 2013