Levko Lukianenko | |
---|---|
1st Ambassador of Ukraine to Canada | |
In office 14 May 1992 – 15 October 1993 | |
Preceded by | post created |
Succeeded by | Victor Batiuk |
People's Deputy of Ukraine | |
1st convocation | |
In office 15 May 1990 – 18 June 1992 | |
Constituency | Ukrainian Republican Party, Zaliznychyi district No.196 (People's Movement of Ukraine)[1] |
2nd convocation | |
In office 9 February 1995 – 12 May 1998 | |
Constituency | Ukrainian Republican Party, Novovolynsk No.68[2] |
4th convocation | |
In office 14 May 2002 – 25 May 2006 | |
Constituency | Ukrainian Republican Party "Sobor", Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc No.5[3] |
5th convocation | |
In office 25 May 2006 – 15 June 2007 | |
Constituency | Independent, Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc No.6[4] |
Personal details | |
Born | Levko Hryhorovych Lukianenko 24 August 1928 Khrypivka, Chernihiv Okruha, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union |
Died | 7 July 2018 Kyiv, Ukraine | (aged 89)
Political party | URP |
Other political affiliations | KPSS (1953-1961) |
Spouse(s) | Nadiia Lukianenko (nèè Buhaievska) |
Alma mater | Moscow State University |
Occupation | jurist, politician, writer |
Awards | |
Levko Hryhorovych Lukianenko (Ukrainian: Левко́ Григо́рович Лук'я́ненко, sometimes written as Levko Lukyanenko, 24 August 1928 – 7 July 2018) was a Ukrainian politician, Soviet dissident, and Hero of Ukraine.[5] He was one of the founders of Ukrainian Helsinki Group in 1976 and was elected a leader of the revived Ukrainian Helsinki Group, the Ukrainian Helsinki Association, in 1988.
Lukianenko is the author of the Declaration of (revived) Independence of Ukraine.
Biography
Lukianenko was born on 24 August 1928 in the Khrypivka village of Horodnia Raion, Soviet Union.[6] During World War II in 1944, he was recruited in the Soviet Army at age of 15, as he could prove that he was underage (to get drafted he lied that he had been born in 1927[7]) and served in Austria and then in Caucasus region (cities Ordzhonikidze and Nakhichevan). In Austria, he observed the arrival of Ukrainian wheat in Baden bei Wien, which reminded him of the removal of grain from Ukraine when he almost starved in the 1930s during the Holodomor.[7] That event made Lukianenko to "follow Severyn Nalyvaiko's path - I would fight for an independent Ukraine."[7]
In 1953, Lukianenko enrolled in the Law Department of Moscow State University and joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). (Lukianenko later claimed that he had joined the CPSU only "to do the highest for Ukraine."[7]) In university, Lukianenko later claimed, he was nicknamed Khokhol.[7] Soon after he graduated in 1958, Lukianenko was directed as a propagandist to Radekhiv Raion Communist Party committee. Lukianenko claimed that after the 1956 20th Congress, "I stopped pretending I was a party member."[8]
In 1959, during the Khrushchev Thaw, he organized a dissident movement in Hlyniany, the Ukrainian Workers and Peasants Union, along with Ivan Kandyba and others.[7] Lukianenko defended the right of secession of Ukraine from the rest of Soviet Union, a right that was theoretically granted by the 1936 Soviet Constitution (Articles 17 and 125).[9] In May 1961, he was expelled from the party, arrested, tried, and sentenced by the Lviv Oblast Court to death for separatism, "undermining the credibility of the CPSU, and defaming the theory of Marxism-Leninism."[7] After 72 days, his sentence was later commuted to 15 years in a prison camp.[7] Lukianenko served his sentence at first in Mordovia (Dubravlag, OLP #10, in Sosnovka, Zubovo-Polyansky District)[7] and then in Vladimir (infamous Vladimir Central). Soon after his release in 1976, he moved to Chernihiv and became a founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.[6][7] In 1977, he was arrested again and was sentenced by Chernihiv Oblast Court to 10 years in a camp and 5 years of internal exile for "Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda."
In 1988 Lukianenko was released in the wave of Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika (in total, he had spent 27 years in prison).[7] He refused to emigrate as a condition for his release, but he was released anyway in November 1988.[10] Lukianenko was elected a member of the Ukrainian Parliament in March 1990 and became the head of the new Ukrainian Republican Party the following month.[7] He was the co-author of Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine and the author of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, adopted in 1991.[6][7] In the 1991 Ukrainian presidential election, Lukianenko finished third with 4.5% of the vote.[10][7]
From May 1992 to November 1993, Lukianenko was the first Ukrainian ambassador to Canada.[10] In protest of government policies, he resigned.[10]
From 1994 to the 1998 parliamentary election, Lukianenko was a People's Deputy of Ukraine representing Novovolynsk.[2][11]
During the 1998 parliamentary election, his Ukrainian Republican Party was part (together with the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party[12]) of the Election Bloc "National Front" and he headed the electoral list of the alliance.[11] Since it did not overcome the 4% election barrier, however, he was not elected to Parliament.[11]
Lukianenko was awarded the title Hero of Ukraine by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on 19 April 2005.[5]
Also in 2005, he participated in a conference entitled "Zionism as the Biggest Threat to Modern Civilization," which was controversial for its anti-Semitic tone and his invitation of the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.[13] Lukianenko sat next to Duke and gave him a standing ovation.[14] Presenting his own paper, Lukianenko argued that the Holodomor had been carried out by a Satanic government controlled by the Jews. According to Lukianenko, 95% of Soviet people's commissars most military and judicial commissars, and Lenin and Stalin were Jewish and "thus... of the most important administrative positions... 80% were Jews."[14]
Lukianenko argued that there is no anti-Semitism in Ukraine since he has "not met a single Ukrainian, who is a opposed to all Semitic people."[14][15] According to Lukianenko, Ukrainians base their attitudes of other ethnic groups upon "their attitudes towards us."[14][15]
In 2006, Lukianenko was again elected as a member of the Ukrainian Parliament. He was elected with the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko.[11] He was again re-elected for the bloc in the 2007 parliamentary elections, but on 15 June 2007 he resigned his mandate at his own request.[11]
In 2006 and, after an interval, again in 2010, Lukianenko was elected leader of the Ukrainian Republican Party.[16][17]
Lukianenko was awarded the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (V degree) in 2007.[11]
In a 2008 article for Personal-Plus magazine Lukianenko argued that Ukrainians, as "a white race," should not mix with other races. He suggested that a Ukrainian who wants to marry a person of a different race should leave Ukraine and renounce Ukrainian citizenship.[8]
In 2016, Lukianenko was awarded the Shevchenko National Prize.[18]
Lukianenko died in a Kyiv hospital on 7 July 2018.[6] He was buried in Kyiv's Baikove Cemetery on 10 July 2018.[19][20] Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko attended his funeral in Kyiv's Saint Volodymyr's Cathedral, and the funeral service was led by the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, Patriarch Filaret.[18][20]
Personal life
Lukianenko was married to Nadiia Buhaievska (born in 1943[11]); the couple did not have children.[7]
See also
References
- ^ "People's Deputy of Ukraine of the I convocation". Official portal (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
- ^ a b "People's Deputy of Ukraine of the II convocation". Official portal (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
- ^ "People's Deputy of Ukraine of the IV convocation". Official portal (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
- ^ "People's Deputy of Ukraine of the V convocation". Official portal (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
- ^ a b (in Ukrainian) Presidential decree awarding title Hero of Ukraine, Official Verkhovna Rada website
- ^ a b c d Ukrainian dissident Levko Lukianenko dies, UNIAN (7 July 2018)
Помер Левко Лук’яненко. Радіо Свобода (in Ukrainian). 7 July 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2018. - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o (in Ukrainian) Levko Lukianenko. Eternal revolutionary, Ukrayinska Pravda (7 July 2018)
- ^ a b dissident and Ukrainian politician Levko Lukyanenko dies at 89, Kyiv Post (8 July 2018)
- ^ Human Rights on Trial (Contd.), TIME Magazine, 31 July 1978
- ^ a b c d Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century by Jan Kofman, Routledge, ISBN 0765610272
- ^ a b c d e f g (in Russian)/(website has automatic Google Translate option) Short bio, LIGA
- ^ (in Ukrainian) Українська республіканська партія „Собор“, Database DATA
- ^ David Duke participates in anti-Semitic conference in the Ukraine Archived 2012-05-15 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d Rudling, Per Anders (2006). "Organized Anti-Semitism in Contemporary Ukraine: Structure, Influence and Ideology". Canadian Slavonic Papers. 48 (2): 91.
- ^ a b Levko Lukianenko, "Do Evreis'koho pytannia, abo Chy isnuie v Ukraini anti-Semitism?" Personal Plius 73.26 (2004): 4-5.
- ^ Lukyanenko was elected leader of Ukrainian Republican Party, Kyiv Post (25 November 2010)
- ^ (in Ukrainian) Левко Лук'яненко знову очолив партію, Ukrayinska Pravda (25 November 2010)
- ^ a b (in Ukrainian) "Moscow kites condemned him to death": Poroshenko said goodbye to Levko Lukianenko (video), UNIAN (10 July 2018)
- ^ (in Ukrainian) Ukraine farewell to Levko Lukianenko, Ukrinform (10 July 2018)
(in Ukrainian) With the Hero of Ukraine Levko Lukianenko bid farewell to Khotov in the Kyiv region (video), UNIAN (9 July 2018) - ^ a b (in Ukrainian) On Baykovyi cemetery, farewell to dissident Levko Lukianenko (video), UNIAN (9 July 2018)