On this day in 1999, Vyacheslav Chornovil, a great Ukrainian statesman, journalist, dissident, and leader of the Ukrainian national-democratic liberation movement, died in a car accident.
“Over Ukraine hangs the ominous, two-headed shadow of Russian imperialism, which is only waiting for the final collapse of our society to launch its predatory claws into the living body of our people,” this prophetic statement was made by Vyacheslav Chornovol in 1997.
He was a true national leader. He endured hundreds of interrogations, years in prisons and camps, never betrayed his friends and his idea - to fight for the independence of Ukraine to the last.
Let's recall today the most significant facts from his biography.
1. Born on December 24, 1937 in the village of Yerky in the Kyiv region (now Cherkasy region) into a family of teachers.
His father came from the ancient Cossack family of Chornovolov, and on his mother's side, Vyacheslav Maksimovich is a descendant of the family of sugar manufacturers and patrons of the arts, the Tereshchenkos.
During the Soviet era, Chornovil's family was persecuted by the communist totalitarian regime. In 1937, the future politician's uncle Petro was arrested and never returned from prison. During this terrible time, his father was also persecuted, so the family had to change their place of residence several times.
2. In 1955, he entered the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University at the Faculty of Philology , later transferred to the Faculty of Journalism.
3. Vyacheslav Chornovil dedicated his thesis to the journalism of Boris Grinchenko, whose work was banned by the Soviet authorities for a long time.
Already during his studies he had problems for his beliefs, he was even forced to interrupt his studies for a while. However, no obstacles could break the young man's will. According to the recollections of close friends, at the graduation party Vyacheslav Maksimovich went to Volodymyrska Gory, where he swore to the last to fight for Ukraine. He did not betray his views until the end of his life..
4. From May 1963 to September 1964, he lived in Vyshgorod, working on the construction of the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant.
5. He initiated a powerful national liberation movement of the sixties in Ukraine, becoming one of its most prominent participants and organizers, who during the 1960s and 1970s openly opposed the current communist regime, advocating for the revival of Ukraine, its language, culture, and state sovereignty. He took an active part in the activities of the Kyiv Club of Creative Youth (KTM).
His circle of like-minded people included such prominent figures as: Ivan Svitlychny, Ivan Dzyuba, Vasyl Stus, Yevhen Sverstyuk, Iryna Kalynets, Alla Horska, Mykola Plahotniuk, Leonid Tanyuk and others.
6. On September 4, 1965, he spoke at the Ukraina cinema at the premiere of Sergei Parajanov's film "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" together with Ivan Dziuba and Vasyl Stus, expressing a protest against the arrests of Ukrainian intellectuals.
This demonstration is considered one of the first actions of open opposition to totalitarian power.
7. For his activities, he was imprisoned three times for "anti-Soviet propaganda" (1967-1969, 1972-1979, 1980-1988), spending more than 15 years in captivity.
He withstood 83 interrogations, receiving the nicknames "Restless", "Motor of the Mordovian Zones", "Prisoner General", "toothed prisoner" from the KGB officers..
"If I were asked if I regret the way my life turned out, the 15 years I served, I would answer: not at all. And if I had to start all over again and choose, I would choose the life I lived," Vyacheslav Chornovil later noted.
8. Already in independent Ukraine, he initiated the proclamation of the Declaration on the State Sovereignty of Ukraine and the Act of Proclamation of Independence of Ukraine.
Historical footage of Vyacheslav Chornovil bringing the yellow-blue flag into the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for the first time on August 24, 1991, has been covered by the front pages of Ukrainian and world media, forever remaining in our modern history. His figure at this fateful moment is immortalized in the Museum of the Formation of the Ukrainian Nation in Kyiv…
"We have an independent state so far more than Orwell, we don't have a state yet, but only its sketch...", Vyacheslav Chornovil noted then.
9. During the first nationwide elections for the President of Ukraine, Vyacheslav Chornovil was the highest-rated candidate from the democratic forces , coming in second place, receiving 23.27% of voter support.
How would the fate of our state have turned out if he had become president? We can only guess.
But it is worth remembering that it was he who devoted his life to serving Ukraine..
10. Vyacheslav Chornovil tragically died on March 25, 1999 under unclear circumstances in a car accident on a highway near Boryspil.
20 years have passed, but the circumstances of his death remain unclear to this day, the perpetrators of the accident have not been identified, and key details of the investigation have not been clarified.
For many in Ukraine, this crime is a clear political assassination, but most of the time it was investigated as an ordinary traffic accident.
A significant part of society is still convinced that the politician could have been "removed" as a dangerous competitor in the upcoming presidential elections.
The funeral of Vyacheslav Chornovil was one of the most massive events since independence — 150,000–250,000 people took part in the procession. The line to bid farewell to him at the Teachers' House stretched all the way to Khreshchatyk.
Later, the coffin with his body was carried in hands to the Volodymyr Cathedral. After the memorial service, the mournful procession went to Shevchenko Park, and later to the Baykovy Cemetery.
"...Our independence and our statehood will become an axiom only when society is the generator of the state idea...", - Vyacheslav Chornovil always emphasized.
