THE KGB MEASURES AGAINST THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE RESTORED SELF-PUBLISHED MAGAZINE “UKRAINSKYI VISNYK” UNDER THE UKRAINIAN SSR COUNCIL OF MINISTERS (THE MID – SECOND HALF OF THE 1970s)

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to study the Soviet regime reaction to the restoration of the magazine “Ukrainskyi Visnyk”, the course and stages of repressive actions against its publishers; the main measures taken by the State Security Committee (KGB) to stop publishing the magazine. The Methodology of the Research. The methodological basis of the article is the principles of objectivity, comprehensiveness, continuity and historicism. The following methods have been used in this research: analysis and synthesis, problem chronological, retrospective, typology method, method of comparison and juxtaposition of information from different sources. The scientific novelty consists in the introduction of a complex of little-known documents of the Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine into scientific circulation, which give the opportunity to elucidate the essence of the Soviet regime repressive policy against the members of the editorial board of the restored magazine “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” in the mid-second half of the 1970s. For the first time the article has provided a comprehensive analysis methods and the KGB measures in organizing repressions against the creators of the latest issues of the magazine. The Conclusion. In 1974 – 1975 the restoration of publishing the magazine “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” by Stepan Khmara, Oles Shevchenko and Vitaliy Shevchenko was the evidence of continued activity of human rights protection by the Sixtiers dissidents after the “general pogrom” of 1972 and caused a negative reaction of the Soviet leadership. In the mid-second half of the 1970s one of the key objectives of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was to identify the members of the magazine’s editorial board and to punish them. At the same time, a wide range of unofficial, extrajudicial methods were used: the use of agents, “external surveillance” services, secret searches, wiretapping of homes, secret reading of correspondence, “preventive” measures, etc. The process of repression began with unsuccessful attempts to track down the magazine’s editors (1974 – 1975), carried on during the operational work with its participants in the framework of the “Blok” case (1975 – 1978), and ended with the opening of a special case called “Vydavtsi (The Publishers)” (1978) and open judicial repressions against S. Khmara, O. Shevchenko and V. Shevchenko (1980). In 1975, in the course of investigation, it was possible to block sending Issue No. 9 of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” abroad and to block publishing subsequent issues of the magazine. Although the use of judicial repression against the magazine’s editors was delayed for years primarily due to the skillful use of conspiracy tactics by the dissidents. In the end, the harsh sentences against the members of the editorial board of the renewed “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” proved the repressive essence of the Soviet regime and became the part of a large-scale wave of arrests against the Ukrainian dissident movement at the end of the 1970s – the beginning of the 80s, which was aimed at its complete suppression.