Vyacheslav Chornovil

Infobox Officeholder
honorific-prefix =
name = Vyacheslav Chornovil
Вячесла́в Чорнові́л
honorific-suffix =


imagesize =
small

caption =
birth_date = December 24, 1937
birth_place = flagicon|USSR Yerky, Cherkasy Oblast, Ukrainian SSR Soviet Union
death_date = death date and age|1999|3|25|1937|12|24
death_place = flagicon|Ukraine Boryspil, Kiev Oblast, Ukraine
order =
office = Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada
term_start = 1994
term_end = 1999
nationality = Ukrainian
spouse =
party = People's Movement of Ukraine
children = Andriy Chornovil, Taras Chornovil
residence =
occupation = Politician and Soviet dissident
religion =
footnotes =

Vyacheslav Chornovil ( _uk. 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.

Education

Chornovil studied journalism at the University of Kiev and joined the Komsomol. He graduated in 1960.

Political career

oviet 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. [Applebaum, Anne. "Gulag: A History". New York: Doubleday, 2003. p. 552] He was charged with slander and sentenced to three years of imprisonment [ [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-30086/Ukraine Encyclopaedia Britannica - Ukraine under Shelest] ] , 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 [ [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,924551,00.html Killing the Spirit of Helsinki] , "TIME Magazine", December 1, 1980] , 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.

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.

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. [ [http://www.nrcu.gov.ua/index.php?id=148&listid=33534 National Radio Company of Ukraine News Report] ] [ [http://www.archives.gov.ua/Sections/Ukraineomni/prechornovil.htm Ukrainian Government Archives] ] 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. [ [http://www.bukinfo.cv.ua/index.php?action=shownews&newsid=42be02d040122f51862978c0bbf1283fd774 БукІнфо - Головна | Політика, Економіка, Культура, Спорт, Аналітика, Інтерв'ю, Персоналії | ] ] 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. [ [http://www.day.kiev.ua/168423 The Day Weekly Digest] ]

References and footnotes

External links

*
* [http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1999/149905.shtml Ukrainian Weekly newspaper biography]
* [http://mignews.com.ua/en/articles/221370.html Vyacheslav Chornovil's Death]
* [http://www.president.gov.ua/en/gallery/album/?paid=525 Pictures of the Monument]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19990331/ai_n14217245 Obituary] , The Times

Persondata
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