Ivan Oleksiyovych Svitlychnyi (Svetlichny; ; 1929–1992) was a Ukrainian poet, literary critic, and

Soviet dissident Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union (USSR) in the period from the mid-1960s ...

Biography

Ivan Svitlychnyi was born on 20 September 1929 in Polovynkyne,

Luhansk Oblast Luhansk Oblast (; ), also referred to as Luhanshchyna (), is the easternmost Administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Luhansk. The oblast was established in 1938 and bore the n ...

to a family of farmers. In 1952 he graduated from the philological faculty at

Kharkiv University The V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (), also known as Kharkiv National University or Karazin University, is a public university in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It was founded in 1804 through the efforts of Vasily Karazin, becoming the second old ...

. In 1954 he gained his PhD at Shevchenko Institute of Literature in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. From 1954 to 1965 he worked as an editor at the literary magazine Dnepr. Svitlychnyi became close to

Vasyl Symonenko Vasyl Andriiovych Symonenko (; 8 January 1935 – 13 December 1963) was a Ukrainian poet, journalist, activist of dissident movement. He is considered one of the most important figures in Ukrainian literature of the early 1960s. In the opinion ...

and helped circulate his poems in

samizdat Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...

(typescript literature) and

magnitizdat ''Magnitizdat'' () was the process of copying and distributing audio tape recordings that were not commercially available in the Soviet Union. It is analogous to ''samizdat'', the method of disseminating written works that could not be officiall ...

(unofficial audio tape recordings). Svitlychnyi's poetry in turn was translated into Russian by dissident

Yuli Daniel Yuli Markovich Daniel ( rus, Ю́лий Ма́ркович Даниэ́ль, p=ˈjʉlʲɪj ˈmarkəvʲɪtɕ dənʲɪˈelʲ, a=Yuliy Markovich Daniel'.ru.vorb.oga; 15 November 1925 – 30 December 1988) was a Russian writer and Soviet disside ...

. In the early 1960s, Svitlychnyi was one of the founders of the Club of Creative Youth in Kyiv. The club of Ukrainian left-wing intellectuals was closely watched by the Ukrainian

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

. In August 1965 he was arrested for his involvement in the club and was imprisoned for one year in labour camp. In January 1971 Svitlychnyi along with 18 others was arrested in connection with the case of Yaroslav Dobosh. Dobosh was a 24-year-old Belgian of Ukrainian roots who had been recruited by a Ukrainian nationalist organisation to distribute anti-Communist literature in Ukraine. Svitlychnyi was among Dobosh's main contacts. He was sentenced to seven years of forced labour and five years of exile. He served his time Perm-35 labour camp. In 1977,

Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet Physics, physicist and a List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which he was awarded in 1975 for emphasizing human rights around the world. Alt ...

included Svitlychnyi's name in an appeal to

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

. Svitlychnyi was released in January 1983. He returned in a gravely ill condition, having suffered a stroke in prison camp. For the last three years of his life he could not move or speak, and was cared for by his wife, Leonida Svitlychna. Ivan Svitlychnyi died on 25 October 1992. He is buried in

at the

Baikove Cemetery Baikove Cemetery () is a historic cemetery memorial in Holosiivskyi District of Kyiv, Ukraine. It is a National Historic Monument of Ukraine and is known as a necropolis of distinguished people. History The cemetery was established in 1833 a ...

. Svitlychnyi was made a member of the International PEN Club in 1978 and was a member of the Union of Writers of Ukraine in 1990. In 1989 Svitlychny was awarded the

Vasyl Stus Prize The Vasyl Stus Prize (), given since January 1989, is the first non-governmental prize awarded for "talent and courage" and being worthy of the memory of Vasyl Stus. The prize was set up by the Ukrainian Association of the Independent Creative Int ...

. In 1994 he was posthumously awarded the

Shevchenko National Prize Shevchenko National Prize (; also ''Shevchenko Award'') is the highest state prize of Ukraine for works of culture and arts awarded since 1961. It is named after the inspirer of Ukrainian national revival Taras Shevchenko. It is one of the five ...

. Svitlychnyi was the brother of dissident and

human rights activist A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing campai ...

Nadiya Svitlychna Nadiya Oleksiyivna Svitlychna (, born 8 November 1936, the village of Polovynkyne, Starobilsk district, Luhansk region — 8 August 2006, Irvington, New Jersey, United States) was a Ukrainian dissident and human rights activist, and an active m ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Svitlychnyi, Ivan 1929 births 1992 deaths People from Luhansk Oblast National University of Kharkiv alumni Soviet dissidents Ukrainian male poets Ukrainian dissidents Recipients of the Shevchenko National Prize 20th-century Ukrainian poets Ukrainian nationalists Ukrainian victims of human rights abuses Ukrainian anti-Soviet resistance movement Burials at Baikove Cemetery