- Levko Lukyanenko
Levko Lukyanenko ( _uk. Лук'яненко Левко Григорович); also Levko Lukianenko is a Ukrainian politician, and Soviet
dissident .Lukyanenko was born on
August 24 ,1928 in the Khrypivka village ofChernihiv Oblast . Following graduation from the Law Department ofMoscow State University and after serving in the Russian army, he worked in district party committees inLviv Oblast .In 1959 in the time of the
Khrushchev Thaw , he organized a dissident movement called the Ukrainian Workers and Peasants Union; he defended the right of secession of Ukraine from the rest of Soviet Union, a right theoretically granted by the1936 Soviet Constitution . [ [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,946916,00.html Human Rights on Trial (Contd.)] , "TIME Magazine ", July 31, 1978] In 1961 he was arrested, tried, and was given the death penalty, which was later commuted to 15 years in a prison camp. In 1976 he became a founding member of theUkrainian Helsinki Group . In 1977 he was arrested again and was sentenced to 10 years in a camp and 5 years of internal exile.Lukyanenko was released in the wave of
Gorbachev 'sperestroika , and was elected a member of Ukrainian parliament in 1990. He was the co-author ofDeclaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine and the author ofDeclaration of Independence of Ukraine adopted in 1991.In 2006, Lukyanenko was a member of Ukrainian parliament, elected with the
Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko .Since 2007 Levko Lukyanenko left active political life and concentrated on writing his
memoirs .References
External links
* [http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20053/18 Levko Lukyanenko, indomitable champion of the national cause]
* [http://www.perm36.ru/eng/ "Perm-36"] - Soviet camp for political prisoners
* [http://exlibris.org.ua/lukjanenko/index.html Levko Lukyanenko, "Confession in death ward", in Ukrainian]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
