Matusevych, Mykola

Matusevych, Mykola [Матусевич, Микола; Matusevyč], b 19 July 1947 in Matiushi, Bilotserkivsk raion, Kyiv oblast. Journalist, dissident and political prisoner. A founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (UHG), formerly married to fellow dissident Olha Heiko-Matusevych. Matusevych was a student in the History Department of Kyiv University, from which he was expelled in 1973, during his fourth year of studies, ostensibly for ‘poor academic performance.’ In reality he was expelled for being ‘politically unreliable’ in the eyes of the KGB and for his support for members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia repressed by the regime. In the early 1970s he was actively distributing samvydav and moving in dissident circles. He worked briefly as an editor at a medical publishing house, and at other odd jobs, but the KGB made it difficult for Matusevych to find employment, ‘recommending’ to potential employers that he not be hired.

Matusevych was a founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (UHG), and following the arrest of Mykola Rudenko and Oleksa Tykhy in February 1977 he signed a letter addressed to the governments of the Helsinki Accords signatory states in their defense, requesting assistance in securing their release. In March 1977 at a Taras Shevchenko memorial evening at the Kyiv Philharmonic, Matusevych and his close friend Myroslav Marynovych, without permission, took to the stage and sang Shevchenko’s iconic ‘Zapovit,’ which was not on the program. The lights in the hall were turned off, but the audience stood up and continued singing.

Subsequently, on 23 April 1977, Matusevych was arrested along with Marynovych on charges of ‘anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda,’ Article 62-1 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, and ‘hooliganism,’ Article 206-1 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR. Matusevych did not cooperate with the investigation into his case answering, in the course of almost a full year, only five questions posed by the investigator: he stated his first name, patronymic, last name, year of birth, and place of birth. He also boycotted his trial, which took place on 22–27 March 1978 in Vasylkiv, Obukhiv raion, Kyiv oblast. A visiting session of the Kyiv oblast court assigned Matusevych the maximum sentence for a first-time offense under Article 62 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR: 7 years in a strict-regime labor camp and 5 years of exile. From 3 June 1978 onwards he served his sentence in Perm Camp VS-389/35 at Vsekhsviatskaia Station in Chusovoi raion, Perm oblast.

While imprisoned Matusevych signed a variety of open letters and appeals with his fellow prisoners and regularly participated in protests including hunger strikes. He was repeatedly punished by being denied visits, and frequently assigned to solitary and other forms of special confinement for a total of 10 months. For his insubordination Matusevych was also sentenced to three years in Chistopol prison, Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, RSFSR. Throughout Matusevych’s imprisonment his wife and sister steadfastly supported him and refused to criticize him and his views. As a result, both were persecuted by the authorities.

Matusevych served his term of exile in the village of Kira, Chita oblast, RSFSR. After being ‘pardoned’ in 1988, he initially refused to leave his place of exile, demanding that he first be rehabilitated. After returning to Ukraine, Matusevych lived in Vasylkiv, Obukhiv raion, Kyiv oblast. He first worked in construction, and later in the 1990s he worked for the newspaper Dzerkalo tyzhnia and, together with fellow dissident Serhii Naboka, he hosted a human rights program on Radio Liberty.

Matusevych was disillusioned by the disputes among former dissidents in post-Soviet Ukraine, as well as by what he considered to be their unseemly political ambitions. He thus did not return to political activity and over time he began to lead a somewhat reclusive existence, living in a hut next to a large house which he began to build in the 1990s but never completed.

Ivan Jaworsky

[This article was updated in 2026.]