Vyacheslav Chornovil is a statesman, public and political figure, one of the founders and leaders of the People’s Movement of Ukraine, People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the I-III convocations.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on December 24, 1937 in the Cherkasy region in a family of teachers. His father had Cossack roots, and his mother was from the Tereshchenko family, known for their philanthropic activities.
In 1946, the family moved to the village of Olkhovets. There, Chornovil went to the second grade, because at the age of 4 he learned to read. Among school subjects, he was most interested in mathematics and linguistics, and also wrote works well.
In 1955, he completed his studies at school, receiving a gold medal, after which he entered the Faculty of Philology of Taras Shevchenko State University of Kyiv. After the second year, he moved to the Faculty of Journalism.
Career
In 1958, Chornovil was threatened with expulsion from the university because of his political views. Because of this, he had to leave for a year in the city of Zhdaniv (now Mariupol), where he worked on the construction of a blast furnace. During this period, he began to be published in various publications.
In 1960, he completed his studies at the university with honors, defending his diploma on the topic “Journalism of Boris Grinchenko”.
From July 1960 to May 1963 he was an employee of the Lviv Television Studio: first he worked as an editor, and later as a senior editor of youth programs.
In the period from May 1963 to September 1964, he lived in Vyshhorod, where he participated in the construction of the Kyiv hydroelectric power plant.
On September 4, 1965, Chornovil, together with Vasyl Stus and Ivan Dziuba, performed at the Ukraina cinema during the premiere of Serhiy Parajanov’s film “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”, publicly protesting against the arrests of the “sixties”. After that, he was fired from the publishing house “Young Guard”, and he began working in the newspaper “Reader’s Friend”.
Social activities and three imprisonments
For the first time, Chornovil was arrested in November 1967. At the same time, he was sentenced to a maximum security colony. The reason was his book about representatives of the sixties movement – “Woe from Wit”. After his early dismissal in 1969, he was forced to look for temporary part-time jobs: he worked as a meteorological observer at a station in Transcarpathia, as a digger in an archaeological expedition in the Odesa region, and as a loader at a railway station in Lviv.
Since 1970, he was engaged in the publication of the underground magazine “Ukrainian Bulletin”. Because of this , in 1972 he was sentenced again – this time to 6 years in a maximum security colony, followed by 3 years of exile. He served his sentence in Mordovia and Yakutia. He was released in 1978.
On May 22, 1979, he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.
In May 1980, Chornovil was arrested for the third time and sent into exile in Yakutia for 5 years. In 1983, he was released, but forbidden to return to Ukraine.
People’s Movement of Ukraine
He was able to return to his native country only in 1985, after the beginning of the Perestroika policy. In 1988, the Soviet authorities tried to deprive him of his citizenship, but he appealed to the world community to prevent this.
In the same year, Chornovil, together with other dissidents, founded the Ukrainian Helsinki Union , the first political structure that openly opposed the Soviet system. The following year, in the period from September 8 to 10, 1989, the People’s Movement of Ukraine for Perestroika was founded, which was later renamed the People’s Movement of Ukraine (NRU).
On March 30, 1990, Chornovil was elected a people’s deputy of Ukraine. He won the support of 68.60% of voters. In April of the same year, he was also elected chairman of the Lviv Regional Council.
In the first presidential election, which took place on December 1, 1991, he came in second place.
In the period from February 28 to March 1, 1992, the “Third All-Ukrainian Assembly of the People’s Movement of Ukraine” was held. During the meeting, it was possible to avoid a split in the party, which was exacerbated due to contradictions between Chornovil on the one hand and Ivan Drach and Mykhailo Horyn on the other. As a result, all three were elected co-chairs of the NRU.
However, in December 1992, at the “Fourth All-Ukrainian Meeting”, Chornovil was already elected sole chairman of the party. After that, some party members who did not agree with his political course founded the “All-People’s Movement of Ukraine”.
In March 1994, Chornovil was elected a people’s deputy of Ukraine for the second time. This time, he won the support of 62.52% of voters.
From 1995 until his death, he was a representative of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
At the elections to the Verkhovna Rada, which took place on March 29, 1998, he was elected a people’s deputy of Ukraine for the third time.
During the “Ninth All-Ukrainian Meeting”, which took place on December 12-13, 1998, Chornovil announced his intention to run for president. However, in January 1999, he decided to withdraw his candidacy.
On February 28, 1999, another split occurred in the NRU. Chornovil’s deputy, Yuriy Kostenko, together with a group of supporters, tried to take over the leadership. Chornovil was accused of authoritarianism, restraining the political growth of young people, excessive confrontation with the authorities or, conversely, of cooperation with it. In the end, he retained the position of chairman.
Death
In March 1999, Chornovil began trips to the regions of Ukraine to regain control over the NRU. However, on the 25th, while returning to Kirovohrad, he tragically died in an accident.
The investigation into the circumstances of his death was repeatedly closed and resumed. For 16 years, the case has grown with numerous materials – thousands of pages, dozens of examinations, and was also accompanied by mysterious deaths of witnesses.
Personal Life
Chornovil was married three times.
His first wife was Iryna Brunets. The couple had a son, Andrei. Later, she left her husband, taking the child with her.
In 1963, Chornovil married for the second time – with Elena Antonov. The marriage gave birth to a son, Taras. His childhood years fell on the period when Chornovil was serving his sentence, in connection with which education was mostly carried out through correspondence.
The third and last wife was the poetess Atena Pashko. They officially registered their marriage in 1978.
Vyacheslav Chornovil: interesting facts
Here are some interesting facts from the life of Chornovil:
- Chornovil’s parents, despite the prohibitions of the Soviet authorities, preserved Ukrainian customs and rituals: they celebrated Christmas and Easter, baked traditional cakes and Easter cakes, cooked kutia and painted Easter eggs;
- when Chornovil arrived in Kyiv at a young age, he was impressed by the large number of Russian-speaking people. Due to the fact that he communicated in Ukrainian, he was asked if he had come from Poland;
- Parents had a hard time with each of their son’s imprisonments. In total, Chornovil spent 20 years outside Ukraine during his life.
