Mykhailo Spyrydonovych Melnyk ( uk, Миха́йло Спиридо́нович Ме́льник; 14 March 1944 – 10 March 1979) was a Ukrainian historian, poet, human rights activist,

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th ...

and member of the

Ukrainian Helsinki Group The Ukrainian Helsinki Group ( uk, Українська Гельсінська Група) was founded on November 9, 1976, as the "Ukrainian Public Group to Promote the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords on Human Rights" ( uk, Українс ...

. He was an author of a book about the

history of Ukraine Prehistoric Ukraine, as a part of the Pontic steppe in Eastern Europe, played an important role in Eurasian cultural contacts, including the spread of the Chalcolithic, the Bronze Age, Indo-European migrations and the domestication of the hor ...

, which was confiscated by the KGB. On November 8, 2006 he was posthumously awarded the Order For Courage 1st class by the order of

President of Ukraine The president of Ukraine ( uk, Президент України, Prezydent Ukrainy) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, condu ...

. On December 25, 2015 a street in

Brovary Brovary ( uk, Бровари, , yi, בראָוואַר, Brovar) is a city in Kyiv Oblast (Region) in northern Ukraine, an eastern suburb of the country's capital, Kyiv. It is the administrative centre of Brovary Raion (district). Brovar ...

was named after him.

Biography

Mykhailo Melnyk was born in the peasant family. In 1967 he graduated from

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv Kyiv University or Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv ( uk, Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка), colloquially known as KNU ...

and became a history teacher. Soon he began his postgraduate education in the Institute of History of Academy of Science of Ukrainian SSR, however in 1972 he was excluded from the institute for reading his poems near the monument to

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukrainian poet, wr ...

in Kyiv at the anniversary of the reburial of Shevchenko's body in Ukraine. In 1973 he was fired from his teacher work and excluded from the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union " Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspape ...

.Membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was nearly compulsory. A man in Soviet Union could not get a job other than a guard or a janitor unless he was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. That is why almost all residents of Soviet Union were members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, even those who detested it. He lived in the village of Pohreby in Kyiv Oblast with his family. He worked as a guard there. He continued to take part in protests against repressions of Ukrainian writers and human rights activists. He often contacted press asking them to report human rights violations. On July 14, 1978 while visiting Kyiv, he was detained and searched by the law enforcement. On October 24, 1978 government officials tried to charge him with an attempt to rob a store. KGB officers who held the investigation proposed him a help to find a job in his profession if he ceased all contacts with other human right activist Oksana Meshko. On November 3, 1978 Mykhailo Melnyk became a member of

. On February 16, 1979 he sent letters to the newspapers "Radianska Ukrayina" and "

Molod Ukrayiny Molod Ukrayiny ( ua, Молодь України) is a Ukrainian newspaper published daily in Kyiv. It is a Ukrainian language newspaper and the Ukrainian analogue of Komsomolskaya Pravda. Until 1934 it was located in Kharkiv. Since fall of t ...

" asking to intervene in the case of human rights activist Vasyl Ovsiyenko. On March 6 and 7, 1979 law enforcement performed searches at the houses of many Ukrainian human rights activists and writers under the investigation against human rights activist and writer

Oles Berdnyk Oleksandr Pavlovych Berdnyk ( uk, Бердник Олесь Павлович; November 27, 1926, officially December 25, 1927 - March 18, 2003) was a Ukrainian science fiction writer, futurist and globalist, philosopher and theologian, public fig ...

, including the search in the house of Mykhailo Melnyk. All his scientific and art works, which consisted of 15 folders, were confiscated.

Suicide

On March 10, 1979, several days after the search, Mykhailo Melnyk wrote a farewell letter to his wife and committed suicide to save his family from further persecutions. Mykhailo Melnyk was buried on March 11 in the cemetery in Pohreby. The funeral took part under the supervision of KGB officers. His friends Pavlo Stokotelny and Oksana Meshko, who wanted to attend the funeral, were detained by KGB on the way to it. Stokotelny was questioned about the case of Oles Berdnyk and Meshko was just held in the KGB office with no reason. The KGB continued to put pressure on the family of Melnyk, warning his widow to keep away from "unreliable" people.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melnyk, Mykhailo 1944 births 1979 suicides 1979 deaths People from Vinnytsia Oblast Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Historical faculty alumni 20th-century Ukrainian historians Ukrainian male poets 20th-century poets Soviet dissidents Soviet human rights activists Ukrainian dissidents Ukrainian human rights activists Ukrainian Helsinki Group Expelled members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Chevaliers of the Order For Courage, 1st class Suicides in the Soviet Union