Lisovy, Vasyl [Лісовий, Василь; Lisovyj, Vasyl'], b 29 August 1937 in Stari Bezradychi, Obukhiv raion, Kyiv oblast, d 20 July 2012 in Kyiv. Teacher, philosopher, dissident, political prisoner, and political and civic activist. Raised by a single mother who was seriously ill, Lisovy, himself a sickly child, had a difficult childhood. Nonetheless, at an early age he became an avid reader and demonstrated academic talents which helped him complete his secondary school studies, in 1956, with a gold medal. This allowed Lisovy to pursue university studies without writing the usual entry exams, and he began his studies at Kyiv University, at the faculty of history and philosophy, in 1956. Lisovy graduated in 1962, and in his last year of studies he became friends with fellow philosophy student Yevhen Proniuk, who introduced him to samvydav and encouraged his growing interest in the political situation in Soviet Ukraine.

From 1962 to 1966 Lisovy taught philosophy (logic and esthetics) at the Ternopil Medical Institute, where he circulated samvydav publications among a small circle of friends, and from 1966 to 1969 he pursued postgraduate studies in logic at Kyiv University, where he was also a part-time instructor. In 1969 Lisovy was appointed a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, and in 1971 he defended his candidate of sciences dissertation on the topic of a logical-philosophical study of everyday language. The articles he wrote at the time showed him to be a perceptive and original scholar. At the same time, together with fellow dissidents Yevhen Proniuk and later Vasyl Ovsiienko, Lisovy became heavily involved in the production and distribution of samvydav.

Lisovy and his colleagues were not arrested during the large wave of arrests of Ukrainian dissidents in January 1972. They thus decided to produce and distribute a new issue of the samvydav journal Ukraïns’kyi visnyk to neutralize accusations that those arrested earlier that year, in particular Viacheslav Chornovil, had been involved in this journal’s production. An open letter to members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, written by Lisovy, was to accompany this publication. In this letter Lisovy protested the large-scale arrests of Ukrainian dissidents in early 1972, and called for greater openness and democracy. Lisovy was detained on 6 July 1972 in the process of distributing this issue of Ukraïns’kyi visnyk. Following his detention he was expelled, on 8 July 1972, from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and he was formally arrested the next day. Immediately after Lisovy’s arrest his wife, Vira Lisova-Hrytsenko, was dismissed from her position at the Scientific Research Institute of Pedagogy of Ukraine. Following a lengthy investigation into his case, on 6 December 1973 the Kyiv oblast court sentenced Lisovy to 7 years of imprisonment in strict-regime camps and 3 years of exile in accordance with Article 62-1 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR (‘anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda’). Lisovy’s co-defendants were Yevhen Proniuk and Vasyl Ovsiienko.

Lisovy was initially imprisoned in Mordovian camps ZH-385/3 (Barashevo, 1974–5) and No. 19 (Lesnoi), Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, RSFSR. In late 1976, along with other political prisoners, he was transferred to Perm camp VS-389/37 (until mid-1978), and then to Perm camp No. 35, both in Chusovoi raion, Perm oblast, RSFSR. In 1979 Lisovy was sent into exile to the village of Novaia Brian, Zaigraevskii raion, Buriat ASSR, RSFSR. Because of poor working conditions (e.g., the equipment he was supposed to use did not function) Lisovy quit his job and as a result he was sentenced, in 1980, to an additional year of imprisonment in a strict-regime labor camp for being unemployed (he was charged with ‘parasitism’). He then served the remainder of his term of exile in the village of Ilka, also in Zaigraevskii raion, where he worked as a lathe operator. Lisovy’s wife and their two children joined him in exile.

Lisovy’s term of exile ended in July 1983, and he and his family returned to Kyiv. Lisovy initially worked as a research associate at the Museum of the History of Kyiv (1983–7), and as a teacher at a secondary school in Velyka Dmytrivka, Obukhiv raion, Kyiv oblast (1987–9). In 1989 the Higher Attestation Commission of the USSR reinstated his degree of candidate of philosophical sciences, and Lisovy was formally rehabilitated in 1989. In 1990 he was reinstated at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, initially as a research associate, then as a senior research associate, and from 1997 onwards as head of the Department of the History of Ukrainian Philosophy at this institute. Lisovy taught philosophy as a professor at Kyiv International University (1996–9) and at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (1998–2002). He participated in numerous conferences and roundtables, of both an academic and civic/political nature, and was involved in the development of the programs of several political and civic organizations. He was highly regarded for his objective, balanced, and sober views.

Lisovy was the author of numerous scholarly and pedagogical works devoted to philosophy and political theory, and he translated a number of philosophical texts from English and German into Ukrainian. He compiled (in collaboration with Oleh Protsenko) several important anthologies: Natsionalizm (Nationalism, 2000), Konservatyzm (Conservatism, 2d expanded edition, 2008), and Liberalizm (Liberalism, 2d expanded edition, 2009). He was co-author (with N. Polishchuk) of Anhlo-ukrains'kyi filosofs'kyi slovnyk (Anglo-Ukrainian Philosophical Dictionary, 1996), and wrote numerous entries, on topics related to philosophy, for a variety of reference works. Lisovy was also the author of Kul'tura, ideolohiia, polityka: Zbirka eseiv (Culture, Ideology, Politics: A Collection of Essays, 1997), U bahatoholossi politychnykh dyskusii: Statti ta interv’iu (Amid the Diversity of Political Debates: Articles and Interviews, 2007), Pid znakom Omehy: Poezii, Esei (Under the Sign of Omega: Poems, Essays, 2016), and Ukraïna: Povernennia chasu; Polityko-filosofs'ki rozdumy (Ukraine: A Return to the Past; Political and Philosophical Reflections, 2020). The most complete text of Lisovy’s memoirs, together with some poems and political documents written by him, was published as Spohady, Poezii (Memoirs, Poems, 2014).

Ivan Jaworsky

[This article was written in 2026.]