Sokulsky, Ivan
Sokulsky, Ivan [Сокульсьский, Іван; Sokul's'kyj], b 13 July 1940 in Chervonoiarsky, Synelnykiv raion, Dnipropetrovsk oblast, d 22 June 1992 in Dnipropetrovsk. Poet, journalist, dissident, political prisoner, and editor of the samvydav journal Porohy; the most prominent Ukrainian dissident from Dnipropetrovsk. After completing his secondary education in Synelnykiv, he worked as a lathe operator and mechanic. From 1962 to 1964 he studied philology at Lviv University, where he participated in the activities of the Prolisok Creative Youth Club. In his third year of studies Sokulsky transferred to Dnipropetrovsk University, but on 13 May 1965 he was expelled from this university and the Komsomol on the specious charge of ‘unworthy conduct’; in reality he was accused of ‘nationalism.’ Prior to his first arrest Sokulsky briefly worked at several local mass-circulation newspapers as well as in factories in Dnipropetrovsk, in the mines of the Lviv-Volhynia Coal Basin, as a firefighter, and as a sailor in the Dnipro River fleet.
Sokulsky was arrested on 14 June 1969 as co-author of the ‘Letter from the Creative Youth of Dnipropetrovsk’ in which he defended Oles Honchar’s novel The Cathedral and criticized the Russification of the region. Sokulsky was also charged with nationalism, distributing samvydav materials, and writing ‘inappropriate’ poems. During the investigation into his case Sokulsky made a ‘voluntary’ confession and described how the ‘Letter...’ was created and circulated as samvydav. As a result many homes were searched and many people were interrogated. Despite Sokulsky’s partial cooperation with the authorities, on 27 January 1970 he was sentenced by the Dnipropetrovsk oblast court in accordance with Article 62-1 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR to 4.5 years of imprisonment. Two other individuals, Mykola Kulchinsky and Victor Savchenko, were arrested and charged in the same case.
Sokulsky served his sentence in strict-regime camps in the Mordovian ASSR, RSFSR, and participated in a number of camp protests together with fellow prisoners. From late 1971 he was also detained in a psychiatric ward of Vladimir Prison, where he was repeatedly placed in solitary confinement. Sokulsky was released on 14 December 1973, returned to Dnipropetrovsk, and on 5 August 1974 he married Orysia Lesiv, the sister of a fellow dissident, Yaroslav Lesiv, with whom he had been imprisoned. From late 1973 he lived in Dnipropetrovsk and worked at a variety of jobs from which he was regularly dismissed. He also continued writing poetry. In response to another wave of arrests of human rights activists, Sokulsky joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in October 1979. In March 1980 he was officially warned about the danger of continuing his activities, and one month later, on 11 April 1980, he was arrested by the KGB. He was charged with writing poems which contained ‘slander against the Soviet state and social order’ and criticized Ukraine’s status within the USSR, the absence of democratic freedoms, and the deplorable state of the Ukrainian language and culture. Sokulsky’s relatives were not present during the trial since they were notified about this proceeding only after it had ended. Sokulsky and his co-defendent, Hryhorii Prykhodko, did not admit their guilt and refused to testify. Their case was heard by the Dnipropetrovsk oblast court on 7–13 January 1981, and they were sentenced, in accordance with Article 62-2 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR, as ‘especially dangerous repeat offenders,’ to 10 years of imprisonment (the first 5 years in prison, 5 years in a special-regime camp) and 5 years of exile.
From 22 May 1981 onwards Sokulsky served his sentence in Chistopol Prison (Tatarstan, RSFSR) where, later that year, all of his numerous manuscripts were confiscated. In February–August 1983 he was detained in Dnipropetrovsk and subjected to various ‘re-education measures.’ On 12 June 1983 a regional newspaper, Zoria, published a fake interview with Sokulsky titled ‘Enlightenment,’ and he unsuccessfully sought a retraction of this slanderous article. Sokulsky was arrested for a third time by order of the Nizhnekamsk Prosecutor’s Office on 3 April 1985, nine days before the end of his prison term. He was convicted, on fabricated charges, by the Chistopol Municipal Court in accordance with Article 206-2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (‘malicious hooliganism and violation of prison regulations’) and sentenced to three years imprisonment, to be served concurrently with the remaining term of his previous sentence.
On 17 October 1985 Sokulsky arrived at Perm special-regime camp VS-389/36-1 in the village of Kuchino, Chusovoi raion, Perm oblast, RSFSR. In spite of his poor health he was regularly punished for refusing to work and for other ‘violations of camp regulations,’ and in 1987 he was transferred to solitary confinement for one year and deprived of the right to receive parcels. On 8 December 1987, after this camp was closed, he was transferred to neighbouring Perm Camp VS-389/35. On 13 July 1988 numerous protesters in Ukraine demanded that Sokulsky and other political prisoners still detained be released, and on 2 August 1988 Sokulsky was finally freed after Mikhail Gorbachev decided to liquidate the USSR’s remaining camps for political prisoners.
After returning to Dnipropetrovsk, Sokulsky quickly resumed his civic and political activities. He joined the Ukrainian Association of Independent Creative Intellectuals (UANTI), and he was one of the founders of local branches of the Shevchenko Ukrainian Language Society, the Memorial human rights organization, and the Popular Movement of Ukraine (Rukh). Sokulsky also established and led regional branches of the Ukrainian Helsinki Association and later of the Ukrainian Republican party, and he was the editor of nine issues of the samvydav magazine Porohy.
On 20 May 1991, during a picket in Dnipropetrovsk in support of Ukraine’s independence, Sokulsky was brutally beaten by a group of pro-communist youths, which led to a significant deterioration of his already feeble health. He died in Dnipropetrovsk on 22 June 1992 and was buried in the town of Prydniprovske.
Published collections of Sokulsky’s poetry include Vladar kameniu (The Ruler of Stone, 1992) and Oznachennia voli: Vybrani poezii (Definitions of Will: Selected Poems, 1997). Collections of Sokulsky’s letters include Lysty do Mariiechky: Vybrane lystuvannia (1981–1987) (Letters to Mariiechka: Selected Correspondence 1981–1987, 2000) and, in two volumes, Lysty na svitanku: Epistoliarna spadshchyna (Letters at Dawn: Epistolary Legacy, 2001, 2002). The latter publication includes some documents concerning the case against Sokulsky, photographs, etc. A collection of article from Porohy was published in book form as Porohy: Literaturno-mystets'kyi i hromads'ko-politichnyi samvydavnyi zhurnal: Vybrane (Porohy: Literary, Artistic, and Sociopolitical Samvydav Journal: Selected Publications, 2009).
Ivan Jaworsky
[This article was updated in 2026.]