Viacheslav Maksymovych Chornovil was a Ukrainian politician and Soviet dissident.
29 Facts About Viacheslav Chornovil
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From 1992 onwards, Chornovil was one of the leaders of Rukh, the People's Movement of Ukraine, which was the first opposition party in democratic Ukraine, and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Chas-Time from 1995.
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One of the most prominent political figures of the 1980s and 1990s, Viacheslav Chornovil paved the way for contemporary Ukraine to regain its independence.
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Viacheslav Chornovil became one of Ukraine's foremost independence activists, and was an early member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.
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Viacheslav Chornovil has been remembered as one of the most significant figures in Ukraine's regained independence in 1991.
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Viacheslav Maksymovych Chornovil was born in Yerky, in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
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Viacheslav Chornovil enrolled into the University of Kyiv initially at the College of Philology, but after the first semester transferred to the College of Journalism.
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Viacheslav Chornovil graduated in 1960 with honours, and defended his diploma with a thesis titled "Publicist Work of Borys Hrinchenko".
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Viacheslav Chornovil worked for various newspapers and in television in Lviv and Kyiv between 1960 and 1964.
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On 5 September 1965, with Ivan Dzyuba and Vasyl Stus, Viacheslav Chornovil protested at the premier of Sergei Paradjanov's "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" outside the Ukraina Movie Theatre.
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For refusing to be a witness and testify at the trials of the Horyn brothers, Viacheslav Chornovil was given three months of forced labour.
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Viacheslav Chornovil acquired the reputation of a dissident after documenting the illegal imprisonment of certain Ukrainian intellectuals.
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Viacheslav Chornovil was imprisoned a second time in 1972 for being involved in Ukrainian independence movements and affiliated publications.
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Viacheslav Chornovil served this term of imprisonment in Mordovia, in camps for political prisoners in the villages of Ozernoye and Barashevo, where he frequently took part in protests, demonstrations and hunger strikes.
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Viacheslav Chornovil spent half of his term at Camp 17 in the punishment cell or in solitary confinement in the camp prison.
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Viacheslav Chornovil renounced his Soviet citizenship and decided to move to Canada in 1975, but was not permitted to do so.
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In 1978, Viacheslav Chornovil was exiled to the Soviet Far East, travelling the thousands of miles by train, and on foot to the village of Chappandu, in Yakutia.
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Viacheslav Chornovil was released in 1983, but following an objection by the Prosecutor of the Yakut ASSR, he was not to allow return to Ukraine.
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Viacheslav Chornovil ran for President of Ukraine in 1991, but was defeated, winning only in western Ukraine.
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Viacheslav Chornovil was one of the most important members of Rukh, People's Movement of Ukraine.
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Viacheslav Chornovil was elected to the Verkhovna Rada for the People's Movement of Ukraine in 1994 and 1998, and was the head of that party.
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Vyacheslav Viacheslav Chornovil was founder of the independent socio-political newspaper Chas-Time, and served as editor-in-chief from 1995 to 1999.
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Kuchma's subsequent crackdown on independent media caused Viacheslav Chornovil to become one of the foremost critics of his government.
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Viacheslav Chornovil was expected to be the main opposition candidate to incumbent president Leonid Kuchma in the 1999 presidential election, but his death brought an abrupt end to his campaign.
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However, some of Viacheslav Chornovil's supporters called his death a political murder and called on bringing those responsible for it to justice.
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The theory of murder is stated on the website dedicated to Vyacheslav Viacheslav Chornovil and created by his son Taras Viacheslav Chornovil, a deputy of Verkhovna Rada formerly from the Party of Regions.
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On 23 August 2006, President Viktor Yushchenko unveiled a monument to Viacheslav Chornovil and ordered a new investigation into his death.
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On 6 September 2006, Yuri Lutsenko, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, announced that based on the information he saw, he personally believes that Viacheslav Chornovil was a victim of murder rather than a car accident.
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Viacheslav Chornovil went further, alluding that "certain circles" in the Prosecutor's Office and Security Service are stonewalling the investigation.