The KGB measures against the editorial board of the restored self-published magazine “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” under the Ukrainian SSR council of ministers (the mid - second half of the 1970s)

PhD (History), Senior teacher of the Department of History of Ukraine and Methods of Teaching History Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, 57 Shevchenko Street, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine

кандидат історичних наук, старший викладач кафедри історії України і методики викладання історії Прикарпатського національногоуніверситету імені Василя Стефаника, вул. Шевченка, 57, м. Івано-Франківськ, Україна,

Key words: "Ukrainskyi Visnyk", State Security Committee (KGB), Ukrainian dissident movement, Soviet regime, Stepan Khmara, Oles Shevchenko, Vitaliy Shevchenko. ukrainskyi visnyk state security committee

ЗАХОДИ КДБ ПРИ РАДІ МІНІСТРІВ УРСР ПРОТИ РЕДАКЦІЇ ВІДНОВЛЕНОГО САМВИДАВНОГО ЧАСОПИСУ “УКРАЇНСЬКИЙ ВІСНИК” (СЕРЕДИНА - ДРУГА ПОЛОВИНА 1970-х рр.)

Метою статті є аналіз реакції радянського режиму на відновлення журналу "Український вісник", ходу та етапів репресивних акцій проти його видавців; виокремлення основних методів, які використовувалися Комітетом державної безпеки (КДБ) задля припинення виходу самвидавного часопису. Методологія. Методологічною основою статті є принципи об'єктивності, всебічності, наступності, історизму. У роботі використано методи аналізу та синтезу, проблемно-хронологічний, ретроспективний, типології, порівняння та зіставлення інформації з різних джерел. Наукова новизна зумовлена введенням до наукового обігу комплексу маловідомих документів Галузевого державного архіву Служби безпеки України, які дозволяють розкрити основні етапи та хід репресивної політики радянського режиму проти членів редакції відновленого самвидавного часопису "Український вісник" у середині - другій половині 1970-х рр. У статті вперше здійснено комплексний аналіз основних методів та заходів КДБ в організації репресій проти творців останніх номерів журналу. Висновки. Відновлення видання часопису "Український вісник" Степаном Хмарою, Олесем Шевченком та Віталієм Шевченком у 1974 - 1975 рр. було свідченням продовження активності середовища шістдесятницького правозахисту після "генерального погрому" 1972 р. та викликало негативну реакцію радянського керівництва. Виявлення членів редакції журналу та розправа над ними стала одним із ключових завдань Комітету державної безпеки при Раді Міністрів Української Радянської Соціалістичної Республіки в середині - другій половині 1970-х рр. При цьому було застосовано широкий комплекс неофіційних, позасудових методів: використання агентури, служби "зовнішнього спостереження", негласні обшуки, прослуховування помешкань, таємна читка кореспонденції, "профілактичні" заходи та ін. Процес розправи розпочався із спочатку малоуспішних намагань вийти на слід редакції журналу (1974 - 1975), продовжився у ході оперативної роботи із її учасниками в рамках справи "Блок" (1975 - 1978), завершився відкриттям спеціальної справи під назвою "Видавці" (1978) та відкритими судовими репресіями проти С. Хмари, О. Шевченка та В. Шевченка (1980). У ході розслідування вже у 1975р. вдалося успішно заблокувати передачу № 9 "Українського вісника" за кордон та припинити спроби створення наступних номерів журналу. Проте застосування судових репресій проти редакції журналу було відкладено на роки передовсім через вміле використання дисидентами тактики конспірації. Зрештою, жорсткі вироки проти членів редакції відновленого "Українського вісника" засвідчили репресивну сутність радянського режиму та стали частиною масштабної репресивної кампанії проти українського дисидентського руху на рубежі 1970 - 1980-хрр., спрямованої на повне його придушення.

Ключові слова: "Український вісник", Комітет державної безпеки (КДБ), український дисидентський рух, радянський режим, Степан Хмара, Олесь Шевченко, Віталій Шевченко.

The Problem Statement

The Ukrainian dissident movement of the 1950s and 1980s was a crucial milestone in the struggle for the restoration of Ukraine's independence. Confrontation of dissidents with the Soviet regime took place under very difficult and unequal conditions, primarily due to increased repressive pressure by the authorities and indifference of the main mass of the population. The resumption of the self-published magazine “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” in the mid-1970s, after the arrest of its editor-in-chief Viacheslav Chornovil, was a unique and symbolic event that testified to the indomitability and further development of the resistance movement under the conditions of increasing political persecution. The study of certain aspects of the Ukrainian dissidents struggle against the Soviet regime is socially vital and topical at the current stage of the national state formation. The significance of such studies is particularly growing in the context of aggression against Ukraine by the Russian Federation, which considers itself the successor of the Soviet Union. The relevance of the article is facilitated by relatively insignificant attention of modern Ukrainian historiography to the national movement issues of the 1970s and the presence of a vast array of unpublished and previously unavailable materials from the former archives of the State Security Committee (KGB).

The Analysis of Recent Research and Publications

We can come across a significant analysis of the Ukrainian dissident movement in the 1970s in general and restoration of the publication of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” in particular in the works, written by modern Ukrainian historians Heorhiy Kasyanov (Kasyanov, 2019, pp. 181-182), Anatoliy Rusnachenko (Rusnachenko, 1998, pp. 193-194), Oleh Bazhan and Yuriy Danylyuk (Bazhan & Danylyuk, 2000, pp. 76-77, 207-208), Borys Zakharov (Zakharov, 2003, p. 109). Certain aspects related to the self-published magazine using the KGB documentation in their research were elucidated by Vasyl Derevinsky (Derevinsky, 2016, pp. 146-175) and Oleh Bazhan (Bazhan, 2018, p. 236). The Soviet Special Services and the Ukrainian National movements confrontation in the middle - second half of the 20th century was reflected in the articles, written by Yaroslav Antoniuk and Volodymyr Trofymovych (Antoniuk & Trofymovych,

2021) , Olha Bertelsen (Bertelsen, 2021), Ya. Antoniuk and Dmytro Viedienieiev (Antoniuk & Viedienieiev, 2022), Ruslan Siromskyi and Volodymyr Kachmar (Siromskyi & Kachmar,

2022) , Vasyl Marchuk and Bohdan Maksymets (Marchuk & Maksymets, 2022). However, important aspects of the issue related to the KGB organization of extrajudicial and judicial repressions against the publishers of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” in the mid-second half of the 1970s, remained almost unnoticed by researchers of the Ukrainian dissidents. The source base of the article is the materials of F.16 of the branch State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSA SSU), which have been declassified recently, as well as the memories of dissident movement participants.

The purpose of the research is to study the Soviet regime reaction to the restoration of the magazine “Ukrainskyi Visnyk”, the course and stages of repressive actions against its publishers; to single out the main measures taken the State Security Committee (KGB) to stop publishing the magazine.

The Results of the Research

One of the greatest achievements of the Ukrainian dissident movement was the publication of the illegal self-published magazine, which was called the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. Under the conditions of conscious tactical refusal to representatives of the Ukrainian Sixtiers human rights protection to establish an organization, the magazine managed to become a kind of coordination centre of the movement. The most iconic publicistic and fiction works, written by the Ukrainian authors were published on the pages of the magazine, provided a chronicle of repressions and information about manifestations of Russification and Ukrainophobia on the territory of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (UkrSSR). A journalist Viacheslav Chornovil was the editor of the first six issues of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk”, which were published from January of 1970 till March of 1972; the dissidents Valentyn Moroz, Mykhailo Kosiv, Yaroslav Kendzior, Atena Pashko, Mykola Plahotniuk, Zinovii Antoniuk, Stefania Shabatura, Iiyna Kalynets and the others provided active assistance to him (Chornovil, 2006, p. 14).

The magazine was extremely negatively recepted by the Soviet leadership. The regime's reaction was increased repression against the members of the Ukrainian dissident movement. In those processes the main role was played by the KGB under the Council of Ministers (RM) of the Ukrainian SSR, which since 1970 had been headed by Vitaliy Fedorchuk, a supporter of a harsh policy towards the dissidents. In the summer of 1971, a case of group operation “Blok” was opened against the representatives of the Sixtiers wing of the Ukrainian national movement. During the period of 1972 - 1973, as the part of this case, the KGB employees carried out a “general pogrom” - a large-scale wave of repressions, the victims of which were the most active Ukrainian dissidents. There were the following dissidents among those arrested: Viacheslav Chornovil, Ivan Svitlychny, Ivan Dziuba, Yevhen Sverstiuk, Vasyl Stus, Mykola Plahotniuk, Zinovii Antoniuk, Oleksandr Serhiyenko, Stefania Shabatura, Iryna and Ihor Kalynets, Mykhailo Osadchyi, and the others (Kasianov, 2019, pp. 150-152). It was much more difficult to continue an active confrontation with the authorities under the new conditions. The publication of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” was stopped as the majority of its creators ended up behind bars. The following Kyiv dissidents Yevhen Pronyuk, Vasyl Lisovy and Vasyl Ovsienko made an attempt to restore the magazine in 1972, which was not successful due to a rather quick arrest of the publishers. Numerous dissidents, who remained at large decided to suspend their activity in fear of new repressions.

However, there were a few brave people among the Ukrainian dissidents, who managed to renew the magazine even under such difficult conditions. According to A. Rusnachenko, the agreement on the creation of a new issue of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” was reached in 1973 during a meeting in Kyiv between Stepan Khmara, a dentist from Chervonohrad, Lviv Region, and Oles Shevchenko, a journalist from Kyiv, executive secretary of the “Ukrainian Biochemical Journal”. Their goal was to demonstrate that the Ukrainian dissident movement continued to exist even after the “general pogrom”. Vitaliy Shevchenko, a Kyiv journalist and employee of the Radiotelegraph Agency of Ukraine (RATAU), also joined the magazine editorial board at the initiative of O. Shevchenko. Owing to the activity, first of all, of S. Khmara, Issue 7 of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” was ready in March of 1974; its editor under the pseudonym Maksym Sahaidak was the author of almost all the materials published in the magazine (Rusnachenko, 1998, p. 193). Owing to the efforts of Roman Nakonechny, a close friend of S. Khmara, an employee of the Lviv store “Art”, the photo film with the magazine was transferred abroad successfully (Stepan Khmara...), where it was published under Issues No. 7-8 later (taking into account a considerable volume) (Rusnachenko, 1998, p. 194; Sahaidak, 1975).

Several months passed before the information about the restoration of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” reached the KGB. On October 9, 1974, the Ukrainian diaspora newspaper “Svoboda” published a notice from the information service “Smoloskyp” about the receipt of a new issue of the self-published magazine from Ukraine - Issues No. 7-8 and dated “Spring of 1974” (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1037, p. 96; Novyi vypusk, 1974, p. 1). In a matter of days, the leadership of the KGB at the RM of the Ukrainian SSR became interested in the data. One gets the impression that the restoration the magazine publishing under the harsh conditions of increased pressure by the regime came as a big surprise for the KGB employees. It could be evidenced by the fact that the leadership of the special service initially treated the information received from abroad with distrust and ordered to check its veracity. However, on October 23, on the desk of the First Secretary of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, there was a report of the head of the republican KGB Vitaliy Fedorchuk, which stated that the KGB employees were taking urgent measures to identify the people involved in publishing of this issue of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” and the channels of its illegal transmission abroad (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1037, pp. 294-295).

The restoration of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” became a significant challenge for the Soviet regime, because it was the evidence that the Ukrainian national movement continued its existence even after the “general pogrom” of 1972. That is why, the search of the publishers of the magazine became one of the priority tasks for the KGB in the following years. First of all, those involved in the case of the group operational development “Blok”, who remained at large and continued to show some activity in the direction of dissidents, came under suspicion, namely Yurii Badzio, Borys Antonenko-Davydovych, spouses Yevhen and Vira Cherednychenko in Kyiv, Atena Pashko, Liubomyra Popadiuk in Lviv (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1043, p. 71). During the years of 1974 - 1978, the measures taken in order to identify the editors of the restored magazine took place within the framework of the “Blok” case.

The whole process of tracking down the dissident movement employees' members, who were engaged in publishing the latest issues of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk”, by the KGB can be divided into three stages:

1. October of 1974 - September of 1975 - the efforts made to track down the magazine's editors, confusion of the KGB bodies;

2. September of 1975 - June of 1978 - operational work with the publishers of the magazine within the framework of the “Blok” case;

3. June of 1978 - December of 1980 - the creation of a special case of the operative group development “Vydavtsi (The Publishers)” and open repression against its participants.

At the initial stage of the investigation, the cadebists were focused on Kyiv dissidents - the subjects of the “Blok” case. It was found out that Yu. Badzio and B. Antonenko-Davydovych received information about the resumption of publishing of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” from their acquaintances in Lviv, as a result of operational measures at the end of 1974 - at the beginning of 1975. In February of 1975, the KGB agent “Vasiliev” was sent to Lviv and held several meetings with A. Pashko, using a hidden microphone. The dissident, however, did not tell “Vasiliev” any valuable information, stating that she knew about the new issues of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” only from foreign radio broadcasts. Instead, during conversations with L. Popadyuk the agent “Travnevnyi” managed to obtain information about her alleged contacts with the publishers of the magazine (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1043, pp. 71-72).

Having not received sufficient information about publishing of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” directly from the objects of the “Blok” case, the KGB employees focused on checking their contacts. According to intelligence reports, individual supporters of the subjects of the case, who in recent years were not sufficiently active and considered themselves free from the supervision of the KGB, could have been involved in the restoration of the magazine. In particular, in February of 1975, the KGB kept an eye on Mykhailo Honchar, a methodologist at an excursion-tourist station in Lviv. According to the KGB, he was the person who informed Yu. Badzio about the latest issues of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk”. In March of 1975, the KGB operation on Liubov Voloshyn, a researcher of Lviv Museum of Ukrainian Art started, who had the imprudence to inform the KGB agent “Haidai” that she was familiar with the contents of the last issue of the self-published magazine (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1043, pp. 74-75).

In the end, the KGB employees were able to obtain the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” Issues No. 7-8 distributed on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR only in June of 1975. A comparison of its text with operational and technical data obtained in May of 1974 in the apartment of the spouses Ye. and V. Cherednychenko showed, that the married couple had got informed of the magazine materials (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1047, p. 62).

During the year of 1975, the KGB employees got closer and closer to the publishers of the magazine. They used the capabilities of the agents quite successfully. In a conversation with the agent “Vasiliev”, Yu. Badzio said that there were plans to publish three more issues of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” - paired Issues No. 9-10 and Issue No. 11. The agent managed to earn the dissident's trust fully, who handed over to him separate materials that were to be included in the next issues of the magazine - the texts authored by political prisoners Z. Antoniuk and I. Kalynets, as well as an open letter by V. Stus and V. Chornovol to I. Dziuba. In September of 1975, the cadebists managed to find out that the dissident, Yu. Badzio handed over the specified materials to Oles Shevchenko, owing to the increased monitoring of Yu. Badzio's behaviour and the use of the special measure “MRT”. In turn, Oles Shevchenko showed the materials to Vitaliy Shevchenko later (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1047, pp. 62-63). Thus, the KGB succeeded in attacking Kyiv members of the editorial board of the renewed “Ukrainskyi Visnyk”.

According to operational data of the KGB, O. Shevchenko searched for an opportunity to hand over separate self-published materials for publishing in the next issue of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” to the dissident milieu in Lviv. The KGB employees used this journalist's intention against him as they managed to set him up with the agent “Edelweiss” to perform this task. In September of 1975, under the operational control of the KGB, on behalf of O. Shevchenko, the agent “Edelweiss” handed over the relevant documents to Roman Nakonechnyi. The KGB employees managed to find out that

R. Nakonechnyi handed over the documents to V Khmara, a part-time student of Lviv Polytechnic, whose brother was Stepan Khmara, who had had a meeting with O. Shevchenko in Kyiv a month before the specified events. In the end, the materials were left by R. Nakonechnyi in the village of Vatutino near the city of Chervonohrad in the house of D. Dmytrash, a former OUN member (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1047, pp. 63-65). It was impossible for the cadebists to trace a further path of the self- published documents, S. Khmara probably got them later somehow.

During the process of monitoring the transfer of documents meant for the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk”, the KGB managed to keep tabs on the key people, who were involved in the preparation of the magazine and its distribution abroad. However, the leadership of the special service, taking into account relatively small amount of information received, was not fully aware of who exactly was a member of the magazine editorial staff and who was ultimately the main organizer of the publication. In the autumn of 1975, a complex of operative and search measures was developed in order to identify these people; O. Shevchenko, V. Shevchenko,

S. Khmara, R. Nakonechnyi and 5 other people were monitored (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1047, p. 67). The KGB employees received reliable information about their participation in publishing the magazine, but did not have sufficient evidence to initiate prosecutions against them. A report note to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine dated November 7, 1975 indicated that a key place in the system of operational measures regarding the “Blok” case was given to the search of the editors of the restored “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1047, p. 79). During the period of 1975 - 1978, crucial steps taken by the KGB in this direction were agent penetration into the environment of magazine publishers, operational documentation and termination of their dissident activities, blocking the publication of the magazine issues.

Rather significant “success” of the KGB employees was the fact that they prevented the text of Issue No. 9 of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” from being sent abroad in September of 1975. According to the KGB documentation, this special operation was implemented in a rather original way. Right after R. Nakonechnyi had a meeting with the agent “Edelweiss”, the cadebists carried out an undercover search (in the KGB terminology - “event D”) in his apartment. There was found an undeveloped photographic film wrapped in a newspaper among the self-published materials. During its development in the laboratory of Lviv KGB Department, it was found that printed text of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” Issue No. 9 dated December of 1974 was removed from it (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1047, pp. 94-145). The KGB employees found out that R. Nakonechnyi performed the functions of a transmission link regarding the collection of materials for the magazine that came from Kyiv, as well as was involved in the matter of further transfer of the materials abroad (since the “Mystetstvo” store was visited by foreign tourists regularly). Finally, the cadebists replaced the photographic film secretly in R. Nakonechnyi's apartment with another one, identical in appearance, which was specially made in the KGB laboratory. On the updated photographic film, the majority of the frames could not be viewed due to the imitation of signs of a camera malfunction. Later on, in a conversation with the spouses Ye. and V. Cherednychenko, O. Shevchenko talked about the fact that unsuccessful attempt to transfer the photo film of Issue No. 9 of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” to the West unsuccessful (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1047, pp. 65-66). In the end, as a result of the insidious actions of the KGB, the above-mentioned issue of the magazine never saw the light of day.

However, the “operational monitoring” of the dissidents, who restored the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” draged on for several years due to their skillful use of conspiratorial tactics. In particular, the couriers used conditional passwords and pre-agreed answers during the transfer of self-published materials from Kyiv to Lviv (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1047, p. 64). In the autumn of 1975, S. Khmara revealed that he was kept under the surveillance by a group of the KGB external surveillance service (Stepan Khmara...). After that, the work on new issues of the magazine was suspended. Stepan Khmara and Roman Nakonechnyi behaved very cautiously, they were aware of the presence of operational KGB listening devices in their apartments, and tried to check the premises for secret searches (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1054, p. 118). In November of 1975, S. Khmara, during a meeting with O. Shevchenko, stated that he suspected the possibility of the KGB monitoring their behaviour (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1054, p. 117). In 1976 the editor-in-chief of the restored “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” recommended to his acquaintances “to be in the shadow, to be restrained in public, to keep up only patriotic conversations at work and to support everything that is written in newspapers” (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1054, p. 118).

The KGB's attempt to initiate judicial repression against V. Shevchenko failed in 1976. The Secret Service employees managed to obtain the information that V. Shevchenko showed his friend and like-minded engineer V. Troyak the photocopy of Issues No. 7-8 of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” in March of 1976. More than 90 titles of self-published documents were discovered, some of which were published on the pages of the magazine during a secret rummage of his apartment. On April 29, the KGB leadership informed the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine about the sufficiency of the evidence to open criminal proceedings against V Shevchenko under Art. 62 of the Criminal Code (CC) of the Ukrainian SSR (“anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda”). Finally, in July of 1976, the party leadership gave consent to such actions. However, during the second secret rummage on July 21, there were not found any relevant documents in V. Shevchenko's apartment. As it turned out, 4 days before that, the dissident and his wife noticed the employees of the external surveillance service (in KGB terminology - the “NN” service) of the KGB, who kept an eye on the apartment. Vitaliy Shevchenko managed to hide all available self-published materials in the apartment (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1054, pp. 116-117). During one of his later interviews, he recalled these events the following way: “The first carried out search was secret in 1976, because they received information that my secretary was stuffed with the self-published materials. It was so. I noticed that my family members were being followed... And since the children were being followed, it means that it was in order to conduct a secret rummage at my apartment... That is why, I grabbed all the most dangerous things for me... put them in a backpack and took them out” (Interviu z Vitaliiem Shevchenkom, 1998). The cadebists had to suspend the opening of the criminal case until the discovery of the hidden documents. In the report note, the situation around V Shevchenko was characterized as a “failure” (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1054, p. 117).

Also, due to the suspiciousness of the publishers of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” the KGB employees could not infiltrate their environment for reliable agents for a long period of time. In April of 1976, in one of the leaders of Lviv dissident milieu, Mykhailo Horyn, who knew about the preparation of new issues of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk”, there was introduced the agent “Zyhmund”. During the meeting with M. Horyn, the agent “Zyhmund” was invited to carry out certain errands related to the magazine (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1054, p. 115). However, taking into consideration the lack of information about further “useful” actions taken by the agent “Zyhmund” for the KGB, it can be assumed that the agent did not earn an appropriate level of trust among the dissidents. The attempts made by the agents of “Almara” and “Chesnyi” to spy on S. Khmara and R. Nakonechnyi, were also in vain (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1054, p. 119). Finally, in October of 1977, the KGB leadership focused on the weaknesses of the agents' positions among the key drawbacks of the work to identify the editorial office of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1064, p. 108).

However, the collection of information about the publishers of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” carried on. In the report of the KGB on the “Blok” case dated August 14, 1976, S. Khmara and R. Nakonechnyi were characterized as “fanatic nationalists... in whose re-education there is no confidence”. The main task of further work with them was to compromise them in front of like-minded people and the public, as well as possible prosecution for the criminal offences allegedly committed by them. At the same time, V. Shevchenko and O. Shevchenko were classified as “fanatically minded objects of the case... who are unlikely to be re-educated”. It was supposed to “stop monitoring them and, at a politically advantageous moment, abdicate them to criminal responsibility for the anti-Soviet activities, until these individuals became renowned in the West and turned into the newly-emerged “leaders” of nationalist betrayers” (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1054, p. 129).

The last quote indicates a certain dependence of the repressions of the Soviet regime in Ukraine on the international situation. Obviously, the open repression of the creators of the last issues of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” as of 1976 was not “politically profitable”, including due to the de-escalation of international tensions in relations between the USSR and the USA, and the ongoing negotiation process between the two superpowers. The Soviet authorities feared significant international publicity for future arrests. The leadership of the KGB categorically did not want international resonance to be created around the names of the Ukrainian dissidents, taking into account the possibility of significant campaigns organised by the diaspora in defence of one or another member of the national movement. Such kind of campaigns in defence of a historian and publicist Valentyn Moroz (Paska, 2018, pp. 172-209) and victims of the “general pogrom” of 1972 were regularly held in the first half of the 1970s and caused significant reputational losses to the USSR. In the end, the Soviet regime resorted to direct repression against the environment of publishers of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” only in 1980, already after the end of detente and the beginning of a new round of confrontation with the USA.

During the year of 1977 the KGB employees, continuing operational measures within the framework of the “Blok” case, intensified intelligence and operational measures against V. Shevchenko's close acquaintance, an engineer V. Troyak. The operational contact was established with him and written materials were received about the involvement of V. Shevchenko and O. Shevchenko in the resumption of the publication of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1064, p. 104). There was taken the photocopy of Issues No. 7-8 of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” during rummages at Mykola Korpaniuk's and Yaroslav Ostash's apartments, the contacts of V. Troyak, in the town of Kosiv, Ivano-Frankivsk region (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1060, p. 63). The cadebists also received the application materials for V Shevchenko from an engineer A. Matviyenko, another acquaintance of his, who was recruited as an agent successfully. They planned to use A. Matviyenko to influence V Shevchenko in order to induce him to report to the KGB authorities, which, however, was unsuccessful (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1064, p. 104). The agents “Almaz” and “Ramzai” were keeping tracks on S. Khmara (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1054, p. 119; c. 1064, pp. 104-105; c. 1074, p. 87).

In October of 1977, the leadership of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR decided to terminate the “Blok” case, and to organize the monitoring of persons involved in the restoration of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” in the newly created case of the group operational development “The Publishers” (in the original “Vydavtsi”) (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1064, pp. 109-110). De facto, this decision was implemented in June of 1978. The “Publishers” case involved 10 people, 7 of whom were the objects of the “Blok” case in the past: O. Shevchenko, V. Shevchenko, the spouses Ye. and V. Cherednychenko , S. Khmara, R. Nakonechnyi, L. Voloshyn, and the others (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1074, pp. 69-70).

During the years of 1978 - 1980, in the course of work on the “Publishers” case (the third stage of the investigation), the KGB employees discovered quite a lot of valuable information previously unknown to them. Owing to the activities of the agents, it was found out that in 1975, the work on the preparation of regular issues of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” was temporarily suspended due to pressure by the KGB. Only at this stage, the cadebists receive verified data that the main organizer of Issues No. 7-8 and 9 of the magazine was S. Khmara, who prepared on his own the majority of the materials published on its pages (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1074, pp. 87-88). According to the reports of “Almaz” and “Ramzai” agents, in April of 1978 he started collecting materials and preparing a new issue of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk”. The dissident held several meetings with his associates in order to gather information and prepare documents for the next issues. Having not received a tangible support, S. Khmara did not abandon his intention to resume publication of the magazine and, for this purpose, established contacts with the former UPA soldiers M. Vuyev and V. Levkovych (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1080, p. 152). The special service employees also found out that the subjects of the “Publishers” case do not have their own stable communication channel with the foreign country, but they were trying to establish it. Taking into consideration the issue, there were made attempts to keep S. Khmara under surveillance with the help of the following agents “Lvivsky” and “Krystal”, who had the opportunity to go abroad (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1074, p. 88).

According to the KGB, the other subjects of the case - O. Shevchenko, V Shevchenko, the Cherednychenkos, R. Nakonechnyi, they all “remained on nationalist positions”, but did not take part in attempts to restore the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” in April of 1979. Numerous agents were spying on the above-mentioned objects, which made it possible to exercise a reliable control over the behaviour of dissidents fairly. O. Shevchenko and V. Shevchenko were exerted a “deterrent influence” by agents who managed to gain their trust (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1074, p. 88). The KGB listening devices were installed in the dissidents' apartments. Later, O. Shevchenko recalled the following: “At that time in my apartment... they drilled holes in the reinforced concrete floors in all rooms, even in the corridor, and inserted the listening devices - miniature microphones. Thus, my apartment was tapped, the phones were tapped. “Tails” were constantly following me, and my wife, even my children” (Interviu z Olesem Shevchenkom, 1998). Serious “preventive” work was carried out in relation to the spouses Ye. and V. Cherednychenko. They were issued an official warning in accordance with the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated December 25, 1972. The KGB operatives held regular meetings with the married couple, which was used both to limit their activity in the direction of dissidents and to compromise them among like-minded people (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1074, p. 88).

Also, during the years of 1978 - 1980, the actions of the subjects of the “Publishers” case regarding the restoration of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” were documented for the purpose of preparing for further court proceedings. In particular, the KGB employees conducted a series of conversations with R. Nakonechnyi and L. Voloshyn, as a result of which they received written statements about S. Khmara's “anti-Soviet statements”, the collection and preparation of materials for the latest issues of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” and attempts to transfer them to the border (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1074, p. 89).

The KGB employees took active action in March of 1980. In particular, on March 19, the apartment of the driver Budnyi (an acquaintance of R. Nakonechnyi) was searched (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1074, p. 89; Khronika represii, 1981, p. 8), who was probably previously recruited as an agent under the code name “Borets”. The KGB employees knew that he had a damaged photo film of Issue No. 9 of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” previously produced by the KGB (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1074, p. 89). The seizure of the photographic film was apparently the reason for the start of a special operation aimed at arresting the members of the magazine's editorial staff. Finally, on March 28, 1980, the head of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR V Fedorchuk turned to V. Shcherbytskyi with the following proposal: “Taking into account Khmara's fanatical anti-Sovietism, his persistent attempts to resume the publication of the anti-Soviet “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” and with the aim of disrupting these plans, we consider it necessary on the basis of documented data on his hostile activities, open a criminal case against him under the specified article and carry out a complex of operational and investigative actions. This will make it possible to fully reveal and procedurally document his and his accomplices' criminal activities related to publishing, distribution and handing over of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” abroad” (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1080, p. 153).

The Central Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine sanctioned these actions very quickly, because already on March 31, S. Khmara was arrested, and his apartment was searched. Two days before that event, on March 29, R. Nakonechnyi's apartment was searched. On March 31, O. Shevchenko was detained in Kyiv, who was taken by the KGB directly from the hospital, and V. Shevchenko's apartment was searched (Khronika represii, 1981, pp. 6-8). On April 14, 1980, two weeks later, the KGB employees arrested V. Shevchenko, who was expelled from the party previously (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1080, p. 262; Interviu z Vitaliiem Shevchenkom, 1998). In April of 1980, on the initiative of V Shcherbytskyi, members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine officially approved the opening of a criminal case against the creators of the last issues of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” (SSA SSU, f. 16, c. 1080, p. 262).

The investigative actions went on for nine months, which ended with the trial of S. Khmara, V Shevchenko, and O. Shevchenko in Lviv on December 15-24, 1980. All the above-mentioned were convicted under Art. 62, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR. In addition, among other things Stepan Khmara was indicted for creating and distribution of Issue No. 7-8 of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” to the West, the authorship of the article “The Ethnocide of the Ukrainians in the USSR” that was published in Issue No. 7-8, V. Shevchenko - storage and distribution of the magazine and authorship of the article “The Czechoslovak Politics through the Eyes of a Ukrainian”, appointed for publication on its pages, and to O. Shevchenko - to collect materials for an illegal magazine and hand them over to S. Khmara. The accusations were based mostly on the testimony of those friends and associates of the arrested, who were persuaded to cooperate with the KGB through increased pressure and several years of intelligence work. In particular, R. Nakonechnyi, a driver Budnyi, RATAU employees, alleged KGB agents Hnatenko and Yaremenko, Kyiv engineers V. Troyak and A. Matviyenko were forced to give such kind of testimony. As a result, S. Khmara received 7 years of strict regime colonies and 5 years of exile with the confiscation of the property, V. Shevchenko - 7 years of colonies and 4 years of exile, and O. Shevchenko, taking into account his recognition of his “guilt” - 5 years of colonies and 3 years of exile (Khronika represii, 1981, pp. 5-8).

The Conclusion and Prospects for Further Research

In 1974 - 1975 the resumption of publication of the magazine the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” by S. Khmara, O. Shevchenko and V. Shevchenko was evidence of the continued activity of the Sixtiers human rights protection after the “general pogrom”. Under extremely difficult conditions, the Ukrainian national movement continued its existence, which caused a negative reaction of the Soviet leadership and the KGB of the RM of the Ukrainian SSR. Identifying members of the magazine's editorial staff and dealing with them became one of the main tasks of the special service in the mid-second half of the 1970s. At the same time, the KGB employees used a wide range of unofficial, extrajudicial methods: the use of agents, “external surveillance” services, secret searches, wiretapping of homes, secret reading of correspondence, “preventive” measures, etc. The process of repression began with unsuccessful attempts to track down the editors of the magazine (1974 - 1975), continued during operational work with its participants in the framework of the “Blok” case (1975 - 1978), and ended with the opening of a special case called “The Publishers” (1978) and open judicial repressions against S. Khmara, O. Shevchenko and V Shevchenko (1980). In the course of the investigation, the KGB employees managed to block the transmission of Issue No. 9 of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” abroad and stop attempts to create subsequent issues of the magazine as early as 1975. However, the use of judicial repression against the magazine's editors was delayed for years primarily due to the skillful use of conspiracy tactics by dissidents. Harsh sentences against the members of the editorial board of the renewed “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” proved the repressive essence of the Soviet regime and became the part of a large-scale repressive campaign against the Ukrainian dissident movement at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, aimed at its complete suppression. After all, already during the period of perestroika, after a certain liberalization of the socio-political situation in the Ukrainian SSR, the edition of “Ukrainskyi Visnyk” was restored by V. Chornovil; during the years of 1987 - 1989, eight more issues of the magazine were published. We consider a detailed analysis of the archival investigative cases of S. Khmara, O. Shevchenko and V Shevchenko, the study of the contents of Issues No. 7-8 and 9 of the “Ukrainskyi Visnyk”, as well as the subsequent dissident activities of its creators in prison, as promising directions for further research.

Acknowledgement. The author expresses his gratitude to the employees of the State Security Service of Ukraine in Kyiv for the opportunity to use archival materials.

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