Ukrainian educator and human rights activist
Myroslav Frankovych Marynovych
(
Ukrainian
:
Миросла?в Фра?нкович Марино?вич
; born 4 January 1949) is a Ukrainian educator, human rights activist, and former
Soviet dissident
, and longtime vice-rector of the
Ukrainian Catholic University
in
Lviv
. The co-founder of
Amnesty International
Ukraine, Marynovych was a founding member of the
Ukrainian Helsinki Group
.
Early life
[
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]
Marynovych was born on 4 January 1949, in the village of
Komarovychi
of
Staryi Sambir Raion
of
Drohobych Oblast
(now
Lviv Oblast
). His grandfather was a priest of the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
and his family was very religious.
[1]
In Drohobych he attended high school, from which he graduated with a gold medal. Then he worked as an
exempt secretary
of
Komsomol
at a plant in Drohobych for a year.
In 1967, Myroslav Marynovych began studying at the
Lviv Polytechnic Institute
. At the Institute, he spoke out against the
Soviet
government.
[1]
As a result of this, his first meeting with the
KGB
took place in 1970.
Career
[
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In 1972 he graduated from Lviv Polytechnic and worked as a translator for English at the Ivano-Frankivsk plant "Positron". At the same time he met with dissidents from
Lviv
and
Kyiv
. On 22 May 1973, he was arrested and searched by police in Kyiv when he laid flowers at the monument to
Taras Shevchenko
.
[2]
Afterwards he was conscripted into the
Soviet Army
, where he served from 1973 to 1974 in
Vologda
.
[3]
After his release from the army, Marynovych moved to Kyiv in 1974. He worked as a technical editor for the magazine
pochatkova shkola
(Elementary school) and at publishing house
Tekhnika
, where he was fired by KGB order. He was unemployed for some time. Before his arrest, he arranged to stick posters.
[2]
Prison time
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In 1976, Marynovych met
Mykola Matusevych
, and became a founding member of the
Ukrainian Helsinki Group
. Since then he was repeatedly detained by police in
Kyiv
and
Serpukhov
. Searches were conducted in
Drohobych
, and he was constantly threatened. Eventually, because of their membership, Marynovych and Matusevych were arrested on 23 April 1977, on the charge of "
Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda
".
[3]
At the trial and sentencing he denied any guilt. After 11 months he was finally convicted and sentenced to the maximum term - seven years of severe security camps and five years in exile.
[1]
Marynovych was in the camp
Perm VS-389/36-2
in
Perm Oblast
.
[4]
[5]
There he took part in all human rights actions, held
hunger strikes
, including a 20-day protest, and narrated a camp chronicle.
[6]
For the whole term he had about 150 days of
solitary confinement
in a ShIZO cell (ШИЗО, from Штрафной ИЗОлятор/Shtrafioi Izolyator). In 1978,
Amnesty International
identified Marynovych as a
prisoner of conscience
. After completing his seven years imprisonment in April 1984, Marynovych was exiled to the village of
Saralzhin
in the
Oiyl District
of
Aktobe region
of
Kazakhstan
, where he worked as a
carpenter
. He married Lyuba Kheina, who travelled from Kyiv to join him in exile.
[7]
Later activities
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]
In 1987, he returned to
western Ukraine
, and worked in an
oil refinery
in
Drohobych
. He also worked as a reporter in the local newspaper,
Halytska Zorya
(The Star of Halych; Ukrainian: Галицька Зоря).
[8]
Also in 1991 Marynovych founded the first Amnesty International group in the USSR and served as its head till 1996.
[7]
[9]
From 1993 to 1997 he served as chairperson of the National Committee.
[10]
In 1997, he became the founding director of the Institute of Religion and Society at the Lviv Theological Academy (after 2002, known as the Ukrainian Catholic University), and since 2007 he has been the president of the institute.
[10]
From 2000 to 2005 he served as Vice-Rector for External Affairs at the Ukrainian Catholic University.
[10]
[11]
[12]
In 2010 he became the president of the Ukrainian Centre of
PEN International
and serves till now as honorary president.
[13]
[7]
Publications
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Marynovych's first published work came out in 1990, titled
The Gospel According to God's Fool
.
[14]
This work had been written while he was serving in exile, and was later translated into German and French.
In 1991, his second work was published, entitled
Ukraine on the Margins of the Holy Scripture
(Ukrainian: Укра?на на пол? Святого Письма).
In 1993 - "The Atonement of Communism", "Ukraine: Road through the Desert".
Books
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Awards
[
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Among his awards, Myroslav Marynovych received a prize from the journal
Suchasnist
(“Modernity”) for his political science report “Atoning for Communism” (1993), the Valerii Marchenko award from the Ukrainian-American Bureau for Protection of Human Rights for the best human rights publication (1995), the Vladimir Zhabotinsky Medal for the promotion of inter-ethnic understanding from the Ukraine-Israel Society (1999),
[14]
the Sergio Vieira de Mello Humanitarian Award (2013),
[15]
and the
Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom
(2014).
[16]
Marynovych has received many educational awards, including fellowships at
Columbia University
(USA), the
World Council of Churches
(Switzerland), and the
Catholic University of Nijmegen
(The Netherlands).
[14]
State awards
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Video
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References
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