Lesiv Yaroslav Vasilievich

Lesiv Yaroslav Vasilievich

Genus. in 1945 in the village of Luzhki, Dolinsky district, Ivano-Frankivsk region, Ukrainian SSR; technical school education; physical education teacher. Lived in Ivano-Frankivsk.
Co-founding member of the Ukrainian National Front. Arrested on March 29, 1967. Sentenced in September 1967 under Art. 56, 64 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR to 6 years of penal colony.
In 1973, after his release, he returned to the Ivano-Frankivsk region, but was not allowed to work in his specialty. He got a job as a worker at a local timber mill. He was constantly under administrative supervision. In 1979 he became a member of the human rights organization Ukrainian Helsinki Group. Almost immediately he was arrested. Charged with drug possession. In 1980 sentenced to 2 years in prison. He served his sentence in the Rivne region in a maximum security camp. In May 1981, he was arrested in the camp on the same charge - possession of drugs. The investigation lasted six months. As a sign of protest, he went on a hunger strike. On the day the previous term ended, he received a new one - 5 years in prison. After his release, he became one of the initiators of the restoration of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and subsequently received the rank of priest. He was fined for holding a liturgy prohibited by the authorities. In 1989, he spoke at a rally in Moscow demanding the legalization of the UGCC. Together with S. Khmara, he was received by B. Yeltsin. He was arrested for religious activities in the same year, 1989, but was released at the request of believers. Co-founding member of the Ukrainian National Front. In October 1990, he died in a car accident. (According to his wife, he was killed.)