Ukrainian poet, writer, and dissident Ihor Kalynets died in Lviv. He was a long-term prisoner of Soviet concentration camps, said the head of the Lviv Oblast Military Administration, Maksym Kozytskyi, writes UNN.
Very sad news: Ihor Kalynets, a native of Lviv region, an outstanding poet, writer, dissident, and a long-term political prisoner of Soviet camps, passed away at the age of 86.
The head of the OVA added that Kalynets was a laureate of numerous awards and distinctions, including the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine.
His word was the voice of freedom, and his life was an example of indomitability and devotion to Ukraine.
He also expressed condolences to Ihor Kalynets' family and friends.
This is a great loss for Lviv region and our entire state. Bright memory. Sincere condolences to family and friends.
Valeriy Shevchuk, a prominent Ukrainian Sixties writer, has died06.05.25, 11:55
For reference
Ihor Kalynets was born on July 9, 1939. At the age of 17, he came to Lviv to study. In 1972, Ihor Kalynets was sentenced by Soviet authorities to more than six years of strict regime imprisonment and three years of exile. Investigators believed that Kalynets' poems allegedly "pose a great threat to the existence of Soviet power and the monolithic nature of the USSR." He was held in Perm concentration camps along with many other famous Ukrainians.
In exile in Transbaikalia, Ihor Kalynets was with Ivan Svitlychny, Vasyl Stus, Mykola Horbal, Semen Hlyuzman. In Transbaikalia, the poet was with his wife Iryna Stasiv-Kalynets, a publicist and public figure (1940 – 2012).
Ihor Kalynets is the author of 17 poetry collections, numerous prose works, and journalistic articles. In 1992, Ihor Kalynets was awarded the Shevchenko Prize for his book of selected poems "Thirteen Analogies."