1. Vitaliy Kalynychenko was a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.
14 Facts About Vitaliy Kalynychenko
1. 2.
Vitaliy Kalynychenko was approached in 1964 to act as an informant, but his unwillingness to do so caused him to be arrested by a fellow student in 1965.
3.
Vitaliy Kalynychenko was released without charge, and worked in Leningrad as an electrical engineer.
4.
On July 20,1966, Vitaliy Kalynychenko was caught trying to flee to Finland.
5.
Vitaliy Kalynychenko was taken to Moscow, where, according to standard Soviet procedure, his mental state was examined.
6.
Vitaliy Kalynychenko was ruled sane by the Serbsky Institute of General and Forensic Psychiatry in Moscow, and stood trial.
7.
On January 12,1967, Vitaliy Kalynychenko was charged with "attempting to betray his homeland", and was sentenced to 10 years in a harsh regime labour camp.
8.
Vitaliy Kalynychenko protested to his sentence on the grounds that he had not been sentenced for trying to cross a border illegally, but rather that he was a political prisoner.
9.
Vitaliy Kalynychenko joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group on October 3,1977.
10.
Between October 17 and 27,1977, Vitaliy Kalynychenko went on a hunger strike, demanding to be allowed to emigrate from the USSR.
11.
On October 23,1977, Vitaliy Kalynychenko sent a letter to the Supreme Soviet denouncing Soviet citizenship, military ticket, and university degree.
12.
On November 29,1979, Vitaliy Kalynychenko was arrested a second time, and charged with distributing information of the Moscow Helsinki Group, the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, as well as Anti Soviet Agitation and Propaganda.
13.
On May 16,1980, the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Court ruled that Vitaliy Kalynychenko was a repeat offender and he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and 5 years exile.
14.
Vitaliy Kalynychenko lived in Washington, DC, until his death on April 27,2017, at a senior care facility in Silver Spring, Maryland.