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10 “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, СІЧЕНЬ 2011 REMEMBERING VASYL STUS 1938 – 1985 Born January 8, 1938, in the Vinnytsia oblast of Ukraine, Vasyl Stus, who hoped to pursue a quiet career in academia, studied at the Pedagogical Institute in Donetske and later, as a graduate student, at the Institute of Literature. It was the 1960s, a time when Ukrai ne’s young literary and artistic aspirants were spreading their wings — the words and images they created became a form of protest, symbols of a quest for something beyond the regimented, “acceptable” art sanctioned and approved by the state. Stus, like othe r students and creative artists, w as caught up in a growing wave of protest and dissent, which began as a visceral response against arrest s and closed trials targeting those who dared question a repressive regime and the repressive policies it imposed on s peech, artistic expression, and even thought. Expelled from the Institute of Literature in 1965, Stus became part of the decade’s dissident literary elite — the so - called “sixtiers” or “shest y desiatnyky.” His continued participation in what the authorities perceived as nationalist and therefore subversive activities led to an arrest in 1972. Orest Subtelny, in Ukraine: A History (University of Toronto Press, 1988), annotates the trial, citing a prosecution witness who claimed, “I knew right away that Stus wa s a nationalist because he always spoke Ukrainian.” The verdict was guilty; the sentence imposed was 5 years in a hard - labor camp in the infamous Gulag, followed by 3 years in exile. One of many victims of totalitarianism, Stus became of one many politica l prisoners whose plight became a cause c é l è bre in the West. In 1975, the Committee for the Defense of Soviet Political Prisoners published a pamphlet that was intended as a weapon of compassion against a merciless system that brooked no dissent. The fron t cover of the pamphlet proclaims its intent — providing information about political prisoners in the USSR — who they are, what they stand for, and how you can help them. The booklet includes an open letter to the political prisoners from Father Daniel Berriga n, Society of Jesus; an appeal to the free world to intervene; lists and profiles of political prisoners; and other sobering data. One of the most chilling sections describes conditions in Perm Camp 35 (Stus served his initial sentence in Camp 36, where c onditions were most likely identical): “Breakfast: a t 7:00 a.m. 10 grams of sugar, 400 grams of badly baked sour bread, which . . . should last the whole day . . . and for supper, 25 grams of bad - quality fish with porridge . . . or rotten potatoes.” There are similar descriptions of “medical care” and special punishment cells. Stus served his sentence and joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, a move that eventually led to his being rearrested in 1980 and sentenced to an additional 10 years in a hard labor camp. Having served half of this sentence, he died in September of 1985. Five years after his death, his body was returned to Ukraine and buried at Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv. An account of this sequel was published in the January 1990 issue of Our Life : On November 19, 1989, more than 30,00 Ukrainians joined in somber funeral ceremonies in Kyiv to honor the memory of Vasyl Stus, Yuriy Lytvyn, and Oleksa Tykhy. The longtime intervention of their families and many Ukrainian organizations culminated in permiss ion to bring the remains of the three warriors for the freedom of Ukraine to be laid in the bosom of their beloved land. Officiating at the ceremonies were clergy from the Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox churches. . . . The tragic fate of Vasyl Stus mirror s in many ways the fate of his spiritual teacher, Taras Shevchenko. Both died on foreign soil at the age of 47. The legacy of both is their unfailing love of their homeland and their people.” Vasyl Stus’s literary legacy is incomplete; much of what he wr ote was confiscated and destroyed as anti - Soviet propaganda, the treasonous products of a treasonous mind. Much of what remains was published in underground “samvydav” collections that were hidden and preserved or smuggled to the West. – TSC Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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