Vyacheslav Chornovil
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| Vyacheslav Chornovil Вячесла́в Чорнові́л |
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Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada
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| In office 1994 – 1999 |
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| Born | December 24, 1937 Yerky, Cherkasy Oblast, Ukrainian SSR Soviet Union |
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| Died | March 25, 1999 (aged 61) Boryspil, Kiev Oblast, Ukraine |
| Nationality | Ukrainian |
| Political party | People's Movement of Ukraine |
| Children | Andriy Chornovil, Taras Chornovil |
| Occupation | Politician and Soviet dissident |
Vyacheslav Chornovil (Ukrainian: Вячесла́в Макси́мович Чорнові́л) (December 24, 1937 in Yerky, Katerynopilskyi Raion, Cherkasy Oblast - March 25, 1999, near Boryspil, Kiev Oblast) was a Ukrainian politician. A prominent Ukrainian dissident to the Soviet policies, he was arrested multiple times in the 1960s and 1970s for his political views. A long-time advocate of Ukrainian independence, he was one of the most prominent political figures of the 1990s in newly independent Ukraine.
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[edit] Education
Chornovil studied journalism at the University of Kiev and joined the Komsomol. He graduated in 1960.
[edit] Political career
[edit] Soviet Union
Chornovil worked for various newspapers and in television in Lviv and Kiev. He became known as a dissident after documenting the illegal imprisonment of some Ukrainian intellectuals. He himself was ordered to stand witness and testify at one of them, but he refused and was sentenced to three months of labor. Later, he covered a similar story about twenty Ukrainians.[1] He was charged with slander and sentenced to three years of imprisonment[2], but was released in half the time under a general amnesty in 1967 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution. The Times awarded him the Tomalin Prize for the documentation of the trials.
He was imprisoned another time for being involved in Ukrainian separatist movements and affiliated publications. Chornovil renounced his Soviet citizenship and decided to move to Canada in 1975 but was not permitted to do so. He joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, which helped to monitor and enforce the 1975 Helsinki Accords.
He was arrested yet again for "attempted rape" in a falsified case in 1980 and was sentenced to five years in prison, after which he carried out a 120-day-long hunger strike. He was released in 1983 following the protest of the Prosecutor. He was arrested various other times during the next ten years.
[edit] After Ukrainian independence
Chornovil ran for President of Ukraine in 1991 but was defeated. He was one of the most important members of the People's Movement of Ukraine, a right-wing party. He was elected to the Verkhovna Rada for the People's Movement of Ukraine in 1994 and 1998 and was the head of that party.
[edit] Death and remembrance
Chornovil was expected to become the main opposition candidate against the incumbent president Leonid Kuchma for the 1999 presidential election, but Chornovil's presidential campaign was interrupted in its early stages by his suspicious death in an automobile crash in March 25, 1999. The official investigation carried by the Ministry of Internal Affairs concluded that the crash was purely accidental and discovered no evidence of the foul play. However, some of Chornovil's supporters called his death a political murder and called on bringing those responsible for it to justice.
In 2003, the National Bank of Ukraine issued a commemorative coin with the nominal of 2 Hryvnias dedicated to Chornovil.
On August 23, 2006, Viktor Yushchenko, the current President of Ukraine, unveiled a monument to Chornovil and ordered a new investigation into his death. On September 6, 2006, Yuri Lutsenko, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, announced that based on the information he saw, he personally believes that Chornovil was a victim of the murder rather than a car accident.[3][4] Lutsenko stated further that the investigation is now carried by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine, the law enforcement authorities not under Lutsenko's control. He went further, alluding that "certain circles" in the Prosecutor's Office and Security Service are stonewalling the investigation.[5] However, on August 9, Oleksandr Medvedko, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, commented at the news conference that Lutsenko's statement is "unprofessional" as his conclusions are based on unreliable information.[6]
[edit] References and footnotes
- ^ Applebaum, Anne. Gulag: A History. New York: Doubleday, 2003. p. 552
- ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica - Ukraine under Shelest
- ^ National Radio Company of Ukraine News Report
- ^ Ukrainian Government Archives
- ^ БукІнфо - Головна | Політика, Економіка, Культура, Спорт, Аналітика, Інтерв'ю, Персоналії |
- ^ The Day Weekly Digest
[edit] External links
- Vyacheslav Chornovil biography (Ukrainian). People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) website.
- Ukrainian Weekly newspaper biography
- Vyacheslav Chornovil's Death
- Pictures of the Monument
- Obituary, The Times
| Persondata | |
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| NAME | Chornovil, Vyacheslav |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Member of Ukrainian Parliament |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 24, 1937 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Yerky, Katerynopilskyi Raion, Cherkasy Oblast, Ukrainian SSR |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 25, 1999 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Boryspil, Kiev Oblast, Ukraine |
