Today, Ukraine celebrates Ukrainian Political Prisoner Day: the history of its establishment
Kyiv • UNN
On January 12, Ukraine celebrates Ukrainian Political Prisoner Day, initiated in 1975 by Vyacheslav Chornovil. This day honors Ukrainians who suffered for their beliefs, particularly during the repressions of 1972 and the ongoing Russian aggression.
Today, January 12, Ukraine celebrates Ukrainian Political Prisoner Day. The tradition was established in 1975 in Mordovian camps on the initiative of Vyacheslav Chornovil, who called for resistance to the repression and cruelty of the Soviet regime. Since then, every year on this day, Ukrainians who suffered for their political convictions and desire to be free are remembered.
Details
It was on this day, January 12, 1972, after the Christmas verteps, that the second wave of pogroms against the Ukrainian intelligentsia began, which put an end to the Sixtiers movement. That year, within a few days, Ivan Svitlychny, Yevhen Sverstyuk, Vasyl Stus, Leonid Plyushch, Zinoviy Antonyuk, Ivan Dzyuba, Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mykhailo Osadchy, Ivan Hel, Stefania Shabatura, Iryna Stasiv-Kalynets were arrested in Kyiv and Lviv.
Ukrainian poet and dissident Ihor Kalynets died in Lviv28.06.25, 17:07 • 5005 views
The next wave of arrests took place in April-May 1972. In total, between 1972 and 1974, more than a thousand searches were conducted, 193 people were arrested, 100 of them for anti-Soviet propaganda and 27 for religious beliefs.
During the premiere of the film "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" in the Kyiv cinema "Ukraina" on September 4, 1965, literary critic Ivan Dzyuba from the stage, postgraduate literary scholar Vasyl Stus and journalist Vyacheslav Chornovil in the hall called for standing up in protest against the arrests of Ukrainian intellectuals that took place in the summer of 1965. 140 attendees signed the protest letter.
For their desire to be free, the Kremlin punished severely: almost all received 7 years of imprisonment in strict regime camps and 5 years of exile - and were expelled from Ukraine - to Mordovia and the Perm region of Russia, then to Siberia and Kazakhstan. Those whom the regime feared most were sent to psychiatric hospitals.
In general, the Soviet regime's struggle against the dissident movement in Ukraine began in the mid-1950s. The revitalization of national and cultural life after the death of Joseph Stalin and the emergence of the Sixtiers movement frightened the top party leadership. Therefore, the Committee for State Security (secret police) worked to suppress the dissident movement. Only during the "Khrushchev Thaw" - from 1954 to 1964 - almost 800 people were arrested for so-called "anti-Soviet activity".
And in 1965, from August 24 to September 4, in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Lutsk, Feodosia, KGB officers arrested more than 20 representatives of the Ukrainian intelligentsia. Among them were brothers Mykhailo and Bohdan Horyn, Ivan Svitlychny, Sviatoslav Karavansky.
The tradition of celebrating Ukrainian Political Prisoner Day was introduced in 1975 on the initiative of Vyacheslav Chornovil, who called for resistance to the repression and cruelty of the Soviet regime. The idea was supported by the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, created in 1976, whose members also quickly fell victim to repression.
The current Russian authorities emulate Soviet methods of combating dissent. After the start of Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014, a real terror against Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars unfolded in the temporarily occupied territories of the Russian Federation.
After the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russians continue to persecute Ukrainians in the occupied territories, commit war crimes, and violate human rights and freedoms.
In particular, as of January this year, the occupiers illegally imprisoned 224 people in temporarily occupied Crimea, 133 of whom are Crimean Tatars.