Shevchenko National Prize award ceremony 2016 Levko Lukyanenko

Levko Hryhorovych Lukianenko (; 24 August 1928 – 7 July 2018) was a Ukrainian politician, Soviet dissident, and

Hero of Ukraine A Hero of Ukraine (HOU; ) is the highest national decoration that can be conferred upon an individual citizen by the president of Ukraine. The decoration was created in 1998 by President Leonid Kuchma. As of 6 June 2025, the total number of re ...

. He was one of the founders of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in 1976 and was elected a leader of the Ukrainian Helsinki Association in 1988. Lukianenko is the author of the

Declaration of Independence of Ukraine The Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine was adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR (''Verkhovna Rada'') on 24 August 1991.Khrypivka village of Horodnia Raion, Soviet Union. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in 1944, he was recruited in the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

aged 15, as he lied that he had been born in 1927) and served in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and then in the Caucasus region (cities Ordzhonikidze and Nakhichevan). In Austria, he observed the arrival of Ukrainian wheat in Baden bei Wien, which reminded him of the removal of grain from Ukraine when he almost starved in the 1930s during the

Holodomor The Holodomor, also known as the Ukrainian Famine, was a mass famine in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–193 ...

. That event made Lukianenko to "follow

Severyn Nalyvaiko Severyn (Semerii) Nalyvaiko (, , in older historiography also ''Semen Nalewajko'', died 21 April 1597) was a leader of the Ukrainian Cossacks who became a hero of Ukrainian folklore. He led the failed Nalyvaiko Uprising against the Polish– ...

's path – I would fight for an independent Ukraine." In 1953, Lukianenko enrolled in the Law Department of

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

and joined the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

(CPSU). (Lukianenko later claimed that he had joined the CPSU only "to do the highest for Ukraine.") In university, Lukianenko later claimed, he was nicknamed ''khokhol'', an ethnic slur against Ukrainians. Soon after he graduated in 1958, Lukianenko was directed as a propagandist to Radekhiv Raion Communist Party committee. Lukianenko claimed that after the 1956 20th Congress, "I stopped pretending I was a party member."dissident and Ukrainian politician Levko Lukyanenko dies at 89

Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is Ukraine’s first and most prominent English-language newspaper. It was founded in 1995 in Kyiv by American businessman Jed Sunden. In 2018, the publication was acquired by prominent Ukrainian businessman Adnan Kivan, foun ...

(8 July 2018)

Dissident activity

In 1959, during the

Khrushchev Thaw The Khrushchev Thaw (, or simply ''ottepel'')William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, London: Free Press, 2004 is the period from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s when Political repression in the Soviet Union, repression and Censorship in ...

, he organized a dissident movement in Hlyniany, the Ukrainian Workers and Peasants Union, along with Ivan Kandyba and others.Levko Lukianenko. Eternal revolutionary

Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' is a Ukrainian socio-political online media outlet founded by Heorhii Gongadze in April 2000. After Gongadze’s death in September 2000, the editorial team was led by co-founder Olena Prytula, who remained the editor-in ...

(7 July 2018) Lukianenko defended the right of secession of Ukraine from the rest of Soviet Union, a right that was theoretically granted by the

1936 Soviet Constitution The 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union, also known as the Stalin Constitution, was the constitution of the Soviet Union adopted on 5 December 1936. The 1936 Constitution was the second constitution of the Soviet Union and replaced the 1924 ...

(Articles 17 and 125). In May 1961, he was expelled from the party, arrested, tried, and sentenced by the

Lviv Oblast Lviv Oblast (, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna (, ), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast in western Ukraine. The capital city, capital of the oblast is the city of Lviv. The current population is History Name The region is named ...

Court to death for separatism, "undermining the credibility of the CPSU, and defaming the theory of Marxism-Leninism." After 72 days, his sentence was later commuted to 15 years in a prison camp. Lukianenko served his sentence at first in

Mordovia Mordovia ( ),; Moksha language, Moksha and officially the Republic of Mordovia,; ; is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, situated in Eastern Europe. Its capital city, capital is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of S ...

( Dubravlag, OLP #10, in Sosnovka, Zubovo-Polyansky District) and then in Vladimir, at the Vladimir Central Prison (infamous for its brutality). Soon after his release in 1976, he moved to

Chernihiv Chernihiv (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within the oblast. Chernihiv's population is The city was designated as a Hero City of Ukraine ...

and became a founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. In 1977, he was arrested again and was sentenced by

Chernihiv Oblast Chernihiv Oblast (), also referred to as Chernihivshchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in northern Ukraine. The capital city, administrative center of the oblast is the city of Chernihiv. There are 1,511 sett ...

Court to 10 years in a camp and 5 years of internal exile for "Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." In 1988, Lukianenko was released in the wave of

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

. He refused to emigrate as a condition for his release, but he was released anyway in November 1988. In total, he had spent 27 years in prison.

Political career

Lukianenko was elected a member of the

Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada ( ; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameralism, unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 Deputy (legislator), deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovn ...

(Ukraine's parliament) in March 1990 and became the head of the new Ukrainian Republican Party the following month. He was the co-author of Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine and the author of

1991 Ukrainian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 1 December 1991,Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1976 the first direct presidential elections in the country's history. Leonid Kravchuk, the Chairman ...

, Lukianenko finished third with 4.5% of the vote. From May 1992 to November 1993, Lukianenko was the first Ukrainian ambassador to Canada.Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century
by Jan Kofman,

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

, In protest of government policies, he resigned. From 1994 to 1998, Lukianenko was a

People's Deputy of Ukraine A people's deputy of Ukraine (, ) is a member of parliament and legislator elected by Direct election, popular vote to the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine. They are often referred to simply as "deputies". Prior to 1991, the Verkhovna R ...

from the 68th electoral district, representing the city of

Novovolynsk Novovolynsk (, ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city in Volyn Oblast, Ukraine. Novovolynsk, together with the rural settlement of Blahodatne, Volyn Oblast, Blahodatne and six villages, is incorporated into Novovolynsk urban hromada. Population: ...

. During the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election, his Ukrainian Republican Party was part (together with the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party) of the Election Bloc "National Front" and he headed the electoral list of the alliance. Since it did not overcome the 4% election barrier, however, he was not elected to the Verkhovna Rada. Lukianenko was awarded the title

Ukrainian President The president of Ukraine (, ) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, conducts negotiations and concludes international treaties. ...

Viktor Yushchenko Viktor Andriiovych Yushchenko (, ; born 23 February 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010. He aimed to orient Ukraine towards Western world, the West, European Union, and N ...

on 19 April 2005.Presidential decree awarding title Hero of Ukraine
Official

website In 2006, Lukianenko was again elected as a member of the Verkhovna Rada. He was elected with the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko. He was again re-elected for the bloc in the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election, but on 15 June 2007, he resigned his mandate at his own request. In 2006 and, after an interval, again in 2010, Lukianenko was elected leader of the Ukrainian Republican Party. Lukianenko was awarded the

Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise The Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise () is a Ukrainian award. It is awarded for distinguished services to the state and people of the Ukrainian nation in the field of state building, strengthening the international prestige of Ukraine, develop ...

(V degree) in 2007. In 2016, Lukianenko was 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 ...

."Moscow kites condemned him to death": Poroshenko said goodbye to Levko Lukianenko (video)

UNIAN The Ukrainian Independent Information Agency of News () is a Kyiv-based Ukraine, Ukrainian news agency. It produces and provides political, business and financial information, and a photo reporting service. As of October 2022, it was the most v ...

(10 July 2018)

Controversial remarks

In 2005, Lukianenko participated in a conference entitled "Zionism as the Biggest Threat to Modern Civilization," which was controversial for its antisemitic tone and his invitation of the former

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

Grand Wizard The grand wizard (sometimes called the imperial wizard or national director) is the national leader of several different Ku Klux Klan organizations in the United States and abroad. The title "Grand Wizard" was used by the first Klan which was fo ...

David Duke. Lukianenko sat next to Duke and gave him a standing ovation. Presenting his own paper, Lukianenko argued that the

had been carried out by a Satanic government controlled by the Jews. According to Lukianenko, 95% of Soviet people's commissars most military and judicial commissars, and Lenin and Stalin were Jewish and "thus... of the most important administrative positions... 80% were Jews." Lukianenko disputed the existence of antisemitism in Ukraine, claiming he had "not met a single Ukrainian who is opposed to all Semitic people."Levko Lukianenko, "Do Evreis'koho pytannia, abo Chy isnuie v Ukraini anti-Semitism?" Personal Plius 73.26 (2004): 4-5. According to Lukianenko, Ukrainians base their attitudes of other ethnic groups upon "their attitudes towards us." In a 2008 article for ''Personal-Plus'' magazine Lukianenko argued that Ukrainians, as "a white race," should not mix with other races. He suggested that a Ukrainian who wants to marry a person of a different race should leave Ukraine and renounce Ukrainian citizenship.

Death

Lukianenko died in a

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, ...

hospital on 7 July 2018 from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

.Ukrainian dissident Levko Lukianenko dies

(7 July 2018)
He was buried in Kyiv's Baikove Cemetery on 10 July 2018. Ukrainian President

Petro Poroshenko Petro Oleksiiovych Poroshenko (born 26 September 1965) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian politician and Oligarchy, oligarch who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Ukraine), Minister ...

attended his funeral in Kyiv's Saint Volodymyr's Cathedral, and the funeral service was led by the head of the

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate Ukrainian may refer or relate to: * Ukraine, a country in Eastern Europe * Ukrainians, an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine * Demographics of Ukraine * Ukrainian culture, composed of the material and spiritual values of the Ukrainian peopl ...

, Patriarch Filaret.On Baykovyi cemetery, farewell to dissident Levko Lukianenko (video)

(9 July 2018)

Honours

On 27 October 2022 the

Kyiv City Council Kyiv City Council (, ), also known as Kyivrada (), is the city council of Kyiv municipality, the highest representative body of the city community. The members of city council are directly elected by Kyivans and the council is chaired by the M ...

renamed the (

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

) Marshala Tymoshenko Street in its

Obolonskyi District Obolonskyi District is an urban district of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Obolonskyi District encompasses territories far beyond of its historical neighborhood sharing the same name. It was formed on 3 March 1975 and initially called as Minskyi ...

to Levko Lukianenko Street. On 22 February 2023 the city council of

Dnipro Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

renamed the Vasily Zhukovsky street on Dnipro's Sobornyi District to Levko Lukianenko street. On 20 May 2024 the

Poltava Poltava (, ; , ) is a city located on the Vorskla, Vorskla River in Central Ukraine, Central Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Poltava Oblast as well as Poltava Raion within the oblast. It also hosts the administration of Po ...

city council renamed a street in its city in honour of Lukianenko.

Personal life

Lukianenko was married to Nadiia Buhaievska (born in 1943); the couple had no children.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lukianenko, Levko 1928 births 2018 deaths People from Chernihiv Oblast Soviet military personnel of World War II from Ukraine Moscow State University alumni Ukrainian dissidents Ukrainian human rights activists Soviet human rights activists First convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Second convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Fourth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Fifth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Recipients of the title of Hero of Ukraine Candidates in the 1991 Ukrainian presidential election Soviet dissidents Soviet prisoners sentenced to death Ukrainian nationalists Ambassadors of Ukraine to Canada Expelled members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Ukrainian Republican Party politicians Independent politicians of Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc Ukrainian Helsinki Group Recipients of the Shevchenko National Prize Burials at Baikove Cemetery Child soldiers in World War II Honorary Citizens of Ternopil Recipients of the Order of Liberty (Ukraine)