{"id":128084,"date":"2025-07-28T15:48:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T12:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theukrainians.org\/holubiatnia-ivana-ta-loli\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T12:23:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T09:23:42","slug":"ivan-and-liolias-dovecote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/ivan-and-liolias-dovecote\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan and Liolia\u2019s Dovecote"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201c\u2026I do remember the day that\u2019s approaching, yet I keep thinking that in the last ten years I have enjoyed more happy days, while you were faced with constant hardships. Well, let us hope that in the next ten years it will be the other way around \u2014 I\u2019m ready to redistribute the joys and worries between us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 27, 1966 \u2014 their 10th wedding anniversary \u2014 Liolia Svitlychna received this letter from her Ivan. Svitlychnyi had been arrested a few months earlier. On the last day of summer, their apartment at 35 Umanska Street was raided. Ivan wasn\u2019t at home. A week later, Leonida Svitlychna officially inquired with the KGB about her husband\u2019s whereabouts and received an answer: he had been arrested and held in a detention center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the next 10 years, their joys and worries did not end up being split evenly. Ivan Svitlychnyi was arrested for the second time and sent back to the camps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in 1981 together in Altai, where Ivan was in exile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On their 30th anniversary, following imprisonment, hunger strikes, exile, old and new health issues, there was little cause for celebration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On their 35th anniversary, Ivan could no longer speak or move and ate out of Liolia\u2019s hands. She was the only one who understood what he was trying to communicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 1993, they would have celebrated 37 years of marriage, but Ivan died three months earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is no coincidence that this excerpt from the Gospel of John [Ukrainian: \u201cGospel of Ivan\u201d \u2014 Ed.] <\/em>is etched on his tombstone: \u201cHe was a lamp that burned and gave light.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also no coincidence that after his death, Viacheslav Chornovil wrote: \u201cToday, I have this feeling that we are eternal and immortal. After all, it all happened so long ago. We outlived Stalin! We lived through the [Khrushchev] thaw, and we survived the sixties. We were destined to witness what the Executed Renaissance generation of the 1920s did not live to see. Only a few of them experienced the thaw of the 1960s, and only a handful survived to see our day. We scattered \u2014 some entered into politics, some became writers, some joined one party, and others joined another. But we need people who bring us together. Ivan Svitlychnyi brought us, the Sixtiers, together. Let us not forget this.\u201d [Sixtiers, Ukrainian \u201cshistdesiatnyky\u201d refers to the 1960s Ukrainian cultural dissident movement \u2014 Ed.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a7\u00a7\u00a7<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[This piece was made possible thanks to the support of The Ukrainians Media community \u2014 hundreds of people who believe in independent, high-quality journalism. Join<\/a> to help us keep creating meaningful content.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a7\u00a7\u00a7<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the library to the wedding<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 1950s, Akademka (the Vernadsky Library) was the best place to study in Kyiv. So many undergrads and graduate students gathered there that every two hours, even in the dead of winter, its large windows would need to be opened to let the fresh air in. That\u2019s when everyone would be kicked out of the reading halls into the hallways, and in those hallways, people met and fell in love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, a newcomer appeared among the graduate students from the Institute of Literature. Leonida Tereshchenko, a longtime Akademka visitor and a graduate student at the Institute of Structural Mechanics, did not pay much attention to him. He looked like any other guy \u2014 poorly dressed, high forehead, dark hair combed back. Skinny. He introduced himself as Ivan Svitlychnyi. From time to time, they would cross paths in the library hallways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome time had passed. One day I was listening to a lecture, and when I looked at the blackboard, instead of formulas I saw\u2026 Ivan. His face emerged from my subconscious, and continued emerging time and time again,\u201d <\/em>recalls Leonida in her book \u201cKind-Eyed: Remembering Ivan Svitlychnyi.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After spending their days at the library, they hurried to the theaters, cinemas, and concerts in the evenings. He would walk her to the stop of the tram that took her home to Podil. At that time, Svitlychnyi lived in the postgraduate dorm on Kostiolna. Before moving to Kyiv, he graduated with honors from the Department of Ukrainian Philology at Kharkiv University. Liolia graduated from the Construction Institute. It seemed as if they belonged to two different worlds. Yet, a year after they met, they decided to create their own. The wedding got postponed, however, due to the death of the groom\u2019s father. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January of 1956, Liolia headed to her own wedding in Polovynkyne, Ivan\u2019s native village, along with her odd dowry. He was waiting for her there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIvan\u2019s post-graduate studies had ended, so he needed to move out of the dorm. By that time, he\u2019d accrued many books \u2014 as he always did, wherever he was. So I was transporting a very unique \u201cdowry\u201d to Polovynkyne \u2014 two sacks of Ivan\u2019s books, which I was barely able to carry into the train,\u201d <\/em>Liolia recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, she took the train to Kharkiv. Then, with Ivan\u2019s sister Nadiya, she traveled by train to Svatove, after which they had to travel 60 more kilometers by bus to Starobilsk. Only, due to the snowstorm, all the buses were cancelled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe bus station was located in a tiny house, about 15 square meters, but because of delays, a whole bunch of people got stuck in there. We had to wait for three days for the roads to get cleared. We finally got to Polovynkyne, but the groom\u2026 wasn\u2019t there. Ivan and his best man Slavko Petyk, his university buddy, couldn\u2019t wait for my bus any longer, so they took the kolkhoz horses and tried to reach us by horse-drawn sleigh. Somehow, we\u2019d missed each other on the way,\u201d <\/em>wrote Liolia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Polovynkyne, the Svitlychnys lived in a clay house with two rooms. The only light source they had was a kerosene lamp. Ivan was the eldest son in a family of illiterate farmers. His mother worked as hired help to feed the family, and, more than anything else, she wanted her children, Ivan, Mariya and Nadiya, to receive an education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1943, their house was taken over by the Germans. The Svitlychnys moved into the barn. Ivan and his friend decided to make explosives and blow up a German weapons depot, but the device exploded in young Ivan\u2019s hands. Only his little fingers remained intact; all other fingers were injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around this time in Kyiv, Leonida Tereshchenko was hiding with her mother from the Germans in the crypts of the Baikove Cemetery. Before that, she deliberately enrolled in the medical and then hydromeliorative institutes \u2014 the only ones that functioned during the occupation \u2014 because students were not sent to Germany as Ostarbeiters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For four years, the young couple lived in a room that had once been a monastic cell in the Frolivsky Monastery. Six people lived within a 14-square-meter space: them, Leonida\u2019s mother, and her brother\u2019s family. They slept on books. They left early in the morning and returned late at night. Ivan worked as a junior researcher at the Institute of Literature and later at the Dnipro<\/em> magazine. Liolia worked at the Construction Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They earned 180 karbovantsi between the two of them, most of which they would spend on books.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ivan Svitlychnyi and Liolia by their unfinished new house in Polovynkyne. Photo courtesy of the Museum of the Sixties<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Dovecote\u201d on Umanska<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1960, the Svitlychnys finally got an apartment. It was small, but it had a kitchen and all the amenities. It was theirs. It was on the fifth floor. They moved from Frolivska Street to Umanska Street with one suitcase and a truckload of books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, in the courtyard on Umanska Street \u2014 a typical Khrushchev-era block \u2014 I sit on a bench and stare at the fifth-floor window. I look at it in awe. I imagine a young Vasyl Stus pushing open the entry door. Or Symonenko. It\u2019s likely the doors were different then, that nothing remains of the Svitlychnys in their old apartment, and that the people who live here now are indifferent to the Sixtiers. But if walls could remember, they would remember the voices of the best of the 1960s generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The voice of Vasyl Symonenko. The voice of Vasyl Stus. Here they are, reciting their poems. Svitlychnyi presses the button on his tape recorder. And thanks to him, in 2025 I can listen to the Vasyls\u2019 voices.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Personal belongings from the Museum of the Sixties collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Dovecote.\u201d That\u2019s what Stus called the apartment that became the center of literary and cultural life in the capital. Poets read their poems here. Discussions took place here. Ivan Drach, Lina Kostenko, Ihor Kalynets, Mykola Vinhranovsky, Yevhen Sverstiuk and Ivan Dziuba all came here to spend time together. Liolia served them whatever food she had on hand. Those who needed to stay over for the night or longer. Ivan gave literary advice and books from the best library in Kyiv \u2014 his own. \u201cThe Mustachioed Aesthete,\u201d as Symonenko called him; or \u201cthe Mustachioed Sunbeam,\u201d as Stus called him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI bow before my dear Mustachioed Sunbeam, and before my mustacheless hosts, with whom I enjoyed so many warm conversations and silences,\u201d <\/em>wrote Stus to Svitlychnyi from behind bars. \u201cI remember the book-laden walls, shelves filled with art prints, ceramics, books and the thoughtful twilight hours so befitting contemplation and content. As God is my witness \u2014 if I were to recall all the homiest places in Kyiv, that swallow\u2019s nest beneath the very roof was one of them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A girl comes out of the Svitlychnys\u2019 apartment building. She\u2019s hopping cheerfully, her dog on a leash. \u201cAre you waiting for someone?\u201d she asks me, a strange woman who\u2019s been standing under the windows of her house for several hours. \u201cThe ones I\u2019m waiting for are long gone.\u201d The girl is befuddled: \u201cHow come?\u201d \u201cThey used to live here on the fifth floor. Maybe you\u2019ve heard of them \u2014 the Svitlychnys? Or perhaps you\u2019ve heard of the poet Vasyl Symonenko. His poems are in the school curriculum; he used to visit them.\u201d \u201cYes, we studied him in school.\u201d The girl walks away with her dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no one left living in the house on Umanska Street who would remember the guests visiting that entrance on the corner in the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tricks for the KGB<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On August 31, 1965, the Svitlychnys\u2019 home was raided. The entire apartment was turned over. Despite being maimed by explosives as a child, Ivan was quite handy \u2014 he was a hairdresser for the women in his immediate circle, repaired watches and appliances and fixed plumbing. He was also quite skilled in deceiving KGB agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the apartment, there was a homemade door in the bookcase that divided the room into two parts. It opened after a certain sequence of steps: first, you had to open the refrigerator, then flip the switch in the hallway\u2026<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The lock on the front door also had some secret features. As Ivan\u2019s sister Nadiya Stitlychna later described these inventions, \u201cHe honed his ingenuity and didn\u2019t allow anyone to turn him into a guinea pig, though they called him \u2018Hare.\u2019\u201d<\/em> (a school nickname because of his ears).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1965, Ivan was arrested on the train. Liolia was summoned for questioning. \u201cIs my husband a murderer, or a rapist? Why did you arrest him?\u201d<\/em> she asked the detectives, trying to highlight the absurdity of the situation. Lina Kostenko gathered signatures for Svitlychnyi\u2019s release. Ivan Drach wrote an inscription on the criminal code book that Leonida wanted to deliver to Ivan: \u201cMay the mustache land back on its airfield\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one round of questioning, Ivan asked the KGB agent why so many idiots worked for them, and he replied: \u201cDo you think a smart person would go for a job like this?\u201d<\/em> On April 2, 1966, he sent a birthday greeting to Liolia:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDear Liolia!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since I have no way of congratulating you in person, and you currently serve as my polpred [the Soviet term for plenipotentiary; until 1941 they were the diplomatic representatives of the USSR to a foreign government \u2013 Auth.] and the temporary head of our family, I ask you to proclaim this in my name when the time comes:<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long live Liolia!<\/em>
Liolia, may you be here for many years!<\/em><\/em>
May you have much happiness<\/em>
Just as much as hardships! (Which has been plentiful so far)\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the morning of April 30, Liolia got summoned by the head of the KGB, who informed her that Ivan would be released as he was considered \u201csocially non-threatening.\u201d<\/em> A few minutes later, he was brought to her. He didn\u2019t know he was getting released \u2014 in the morning, he was washing the floors in his cell, as physical exercise. When he went to collect his things, Liolia cried for the first time in the eight months of his imprisonment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Left \u2014 Svitlychnys in Kyiv, 1960, right \u2014 the Svitlychnys\u2019 wedding photograph, 1956. Photos courtesy of the Museum of the Sixties<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the evening, the Svitlychnys went to the Pechersk district to Lina Kostenko\u2019s house. They traveled home at night. A stranger came up to them in the underground pedestrian crossing on Besarabska Square:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre you Svitlychnyi?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou got released?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvidently\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the morning, everyone in Lviv knew that Ivan was free. The stranger, as it happened, was from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second arrest<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the moment he was released in 1965, Svitlychnyi was blacklisted. His works were no longer published. He translated and published under pseudonyms. In January 1972, he was arrested for the second time. As before, he was charged under Article 62 of the Criminal Code \u2014 anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. That time, Svitlychnyi\u2019s sister Nadiya, Yevhen Sverstiuk, Vasyl Stus and Viacheslav Chornovil were also detained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivan does not lose his sense of humor during the investigation. Detective Siryk told Nadiya Svitlychna a curious story. When he was questioning Ivan, the latter suddenly asked, \u201cHow do you feel about striptease?\u201d<\/em> Siryk, taken aback, mumbled something in response. Ivan continued, \u201cI\u2019ll take off my sweater, then, because it\u2019s quite warm in here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year later, in a closed court session, Svitlychnyi was sentenced to 12 years: seven in a strict corrective colony and five in exile. Ivan\u2019s mother and wife were not allowed to attend the trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember how Liolia came up to me after the trial, all dressed up in a black suit with a beautiful brooch, her eyes shining, saying, \u2018Full charges!\u2019 It sounds like a story, but it\u2019s true; it really happened, I\u2019m not making it up. She was so joyous \u2014 they sentenced her husband to 12 years, but she was radiant,\u201d <\/em>recalled Mykhailyna Kotsyubynska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To outsiders, it seemed strange \u2014 the wife was happy that her husband had been given the harshest sentence. But Leonida was worried that he would crack under pressure and that it would kill him faster than any \u201cfull charges.\u201d He didn\u2019t crack. And that\u2019s why she was happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Letters and messages on buttered bread<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In mid-July 1973, Ivan was sent to the labor camps in the Urals. Liolia wrote him letters every five days. She put a number on each one to check whether it had arrived. Ivan wrote back twice a month. Long, long letters, sometimes as many as 20 pages. He\u2019d ask about his friends, the processes in literary circles and recount what he had read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to censorship, they developed their own language. If Ivan wrote about \u201creceiving Leopold Ivanovich\u2019s treatment,\u201d it meant that he was on hunger strike. If there were no letters for a long time, it meant that Ivan was in a \u201ccell-type confinement\u201d (PKT), from where he was allowed to write one letter per month, or in solitary confinement (SHIZO), from where correspondence was completely prohibited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 1973, Liolia traveled to visit Ivan. They had not seen each other since his arrest in January 1972. Liolia wanted to be there for Ivan\u2019s birthday on September 20. She flew from Kyiv to Perm, and from there she took suburban trains with transfers to the station closest to the camp, Vsesvyatskaya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The train arrived at night, and there was nowhere to stay the night, so in the morning she took a bus to the village of Tsentralnoye, where the 35th camp was located. She waited another day at the camp itself. They wanted to talk about everything, but they were fully aware that even the walls were listening.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Liolia spread butter on bread, and they wrote their most secret thoughts to each other on the butter with hairpins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the visit, Liolia was subjected to a humiliating search. They ripped her skirt. They tore the soles off her shoes. She managed to avoid a gynecological examination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy dearest, precious one!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am writing this letter to you on Your day, on Our day, on the holiday I value above all other holidays. I am writing early, a little ahead of time, so that I am not too late. I am writing on roses and lilacs, painted ones, of course, but I would like to present to You the real ones. I want to… But many of the things I want are not possible now. And it is still unknown what was more abundant in my roses, which were not so often gifted \u2014 petals or thorns; I did not value the joys of life very much and did not bring You much joy anyhow…<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But today, on Your day, on Our day, I\u2019d like to present you this triolet:<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long live today, long live forever!<\/em><\/em>
Zygzytsia, Yaroslavna, Lada!<\/em>
You are my gold, my Eldorado!<\/em>
Long live today, long live forever!<\/em><\/em>
Within the whirl of life\u2019s endeavours,<\/em>
Hold your head high, and play staccato.<\/em>
For years and years! Long live forever!<\/em>
Zygzytsia\u2026 Yaroslavna\u2026 Lada\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

13.3.74. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many more sentences on eight postcards that do indeed depict flowers and lilacs, as Svitlychnyi describes. The letter was written 20 days before Liolia\u2019s birthday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signed always: Your Ivan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1974, Ivan endured prolonged hunger strikes throughout the year. In October, on the 56th day of his hunger strike, Svitlychnyi was transferred from the camp. Liolia received a postcard from him: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDear Liolia!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m being transferred, going on the Moscow train. Do not know where. I\u2019ll write when I get there.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheers to us.\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

19.10.74. \u0406.S.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

23.10.74. \u2014 \u201cI\u2019m being taken to Kazan. \u0406. S.<\/em><\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On November 10, Ivan was taken not to Kazan, but to Kyiv. He weighed 44 kilograms (before imprisonment, he weighed 70). On November 22, Svitlychnyi was allowed a general visit [a non\u2011private visit with relatives present \u2014 Auth.]<\/em>, and Liolia cried then \u2014 her Ivan was emaciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy dear old love.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I address You thusly by tradition, but it turns out that You are not as old as You pretend to be. I told You that I always had before me this visage of my sad, exhausted, even gray-haired other half that came to visit me in the Urals, and I thought that You had remained that way. Yet, this time, I was pleased and delighted to see you looking fresh, composed, even rejuvenated.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the visit, You spoke extensively about my health. I share Your concern, but there is no need to exaggerate; there was and is nothing alarming, and I am not as thin as You may think: in the month before our meeting, I managed to gain half a pood [eight kilograms \u2013 Ed.] in trying to get back to how I used to be, but I consciously do not want that. I feel better, more productive in my current shape, and my blood pressure is stable. And my head doesn\u2019t hurt as often\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.12.74.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ivan\u2019s letters to Liolia. Courtesy of the Museum of the Sixties<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On December 15, Svitlychnyi was sent back to the camp \u2014 he was held in Kyiv for a month. In April, Liolia visited him again. They allowed her in for one full day. In total, during his seven years in the camps, they had five full days together:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDear Liolia!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am terribly late with my letter to You, but the fault is not my own: I wrote to You twice, and my letters got confiscated twice. So now I won\u2019t write anything anymore.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m awaiting Your arrival. When I said that mom wants to visit, I didn\u2019t mean she should come in your stead. The wife is irreplaceable. I think You understand that. And You should never think otherwise \u2014 I await You more than anybody else. May my mother and Nadiya split the second spot\u2026 <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your I.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

24.08.76.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exile<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 13, 1978, his term in the camps came to an end. Svitlychnyi spent an entire year in the hospital there. He was admitted due to cerebral vasospasms and contracted hepatitis in the hospital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Svitlychnyi was sent into exile a week earlier than expected. For the first time in the camp\u2019s history, a prisoner\u2019s belongings had to be transported by horse \u2014 Ivan had collected that many books, magazine clippings and other materials. Before that, he had sent over 200 kilograms of books to Kyiv by mail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivan was transported alongside criminals. They helped him carry his belongings and provided him with food: \u201cHere you go, old man, have some sugar \u2014 you can\u2019t be eating the rotten fish.\u201d<\/em> At that time, Ivan Svitlychnyi, A.K.A. \u201cold man,\u201d was 49 years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivan served his exile in Altai, a place with low atmospheric pressure and oxygen deficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The village didn\u2019t even have a nurse. Given Svitlychnyi\u2019s health condition, it was a death sentence. Liolia remembered how Ivan suffered from nosebleeds that came on suddenly as he was simply walking in the street and even while he was sleeping: \u201cIn the 70s, during his imprisonment, the nosebleeds stopped, but the headaches got worse. When I asked the KGB officers if Ivan had nosebleeds and needed handkerchiefs, they took it as a joke. Fellow camp inmates recall how often Ivan complained of headaches; sometimes he couldn\u2019t even speak, only touch his head with his hand. In his letters from the camp, he often writes about headaches and cerebral vasospasms. Once, he had a seizure in the camp and lost consciousness.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Ivan persevered. He worked as a security guard and spent his free time writing. He wrote letters to his wife:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLong live the best woman in all of glorious Kyiv and its surrounding areas!<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday was a day of much celebration \u2014 I received two letters from You (four in total) and also from Mykhasia, Golden Raya and my grandmother from Uman.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you can see, the finest women in all of Ukraine have not forgotten me here, and despite my sclerosis, I have not forgotten them, simply because I never stop thinking about them. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My health has improved, but only to the extent that it ever improves when I go to the hospital\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

27.02.79. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 1979, Ivan was granted leave to visit Kyiv. It was the first and only time since his arrest that the Svitlychnys had walked around the city together. They were followed everywhere. Even when they went to visit Liolia\u2019s mother\u2019s grave, they could see the heads of KGB agents peeking over the fence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting in June 1979, Liolia was constantly with Ivan in Altai. He was given a job as a security guard and housed in a dormitory with alcoholics. However, Svitlychnyi continued translating and worked on a thesaurus, which was never published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 20, 1979, Ivan turned 50. He received over 50 telegrams from three different corners of the world. The Svitlychnys celebrated together, just as they would later celebrate their silver wedding anniversary on January 31, 1981.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In February 1980, Ivan was transferred to Maima, a district center near Gorno-Altaysk. He was housed in a 12-square-meter hut with the militia officer assigned to keep an eye on him. He got a job as a bookbinder at the regional library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those were his last happy days \u2014 if any time in exile can be happy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy days in a dormitory full of thieves and drunks. But Liolia was there with him. And there was a map of the Soviet Union above his bed, marked with the whereabouts of their friends who were also in camps and serving out their exiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUkrainians have occupied Siberia,\u201d S<\/em>vitlychnyi would laugh under his breath, and Liolia would join in his laughter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then Ivan had a stroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photos and personal belongings, including letters, from the Museum of the Sixties collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nine months in hospitals<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was August 1981. The mail had arrived, Ivan lay down to have a rest and asked Liolia to read him a letter. He fell asleep while sitting. Suddenly, he fell on the floor. Liolia called an ambulance. An hour later, a nurse arrived and called a doctor. The doctor diagnosed a stroke and said he was in no condition to be transported. Nevertheless, he was taken to the district hospital. He was clinically dead. The next day, more than 24 hours later, he underwent brain surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liolia walked under the windows of the operating room. The doctor came out to her: Ivan was still alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They let her see Ivan only three days later. The doctor said that only 5-10% of patients survive such operations and advised her to call his relatives to say goodbye. Ivan was getting transferred from hospital to hospital. New ailments were discovered and new diagnoses were made \u2014 brain cancer, spinal sarcoma. They treated him so much that he contracted a staph infection. After an electrophoresis treatment on his neck, Svitlychnyi had another stroke. He lost movement in his right arm and became unable to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liolia was always by his side. Nine whole months in hospitals. She brought food to the patients, and in return, got free porridge and soup. She wrote letters to the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada, asking them to allow Ivan to be transferred to a hospital in Kyiv. She was refused.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

She asked for his term of exile to be shortened due to severe illness. Nobody listened. The Svitlychnys served out their exile until the last day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before leaving, they were warned: \u201cNo demonstrations among the welcoming party!\u201d<\/em> Ivan, who was almost immobile, unable to write or read, was still feared by the all-powerful state. Liolia wondered: what demonstrations? If even one person came out to help carry Ivan up to the fifth floor to their \u201cdovecote,\u201d it would already be enough. All their friends were either in prison or hiding in the corners of their homes \u2014 they were afraid. Valeriy Marchenko met the Svitlychnys. He happened to be in Kyiv between his own prison terms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Courtyard of the residential building on 35 Umanska Street, where the Svitlychnys lived<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Home<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At home, Ivan hoped that his condition would improve. He asked Liolia to buy him books. He still remembered letters and could put a few words together. He listened to the radio and classical music, especially Bach. Or Nadiya on Radio Liberty; by that time, she had already managed to escape to the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivan hoped that their \u201cdovecote\u201d would be what it was in the past, with poetry readings and literary evenings, hosting crowds of creative young people. But of his former friends, only those who were not intimidated by the KGB came to visit: Mykhailyna Kotsyubynska, Halyna Sevruk, Semen Hluzman, Yevhen Sverstiuk, Nadiya Odarych, Helya Ponomariova, and Ira Piievska. There was also Zinovii Krasivskyi, who welcomed them into his home in Morshyn for several months every summer. This allowed Ivan to have some fresh air and spend time outdoors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the time, the \u201carchitect of the Sixtier movement\u201d<\/em> (as Mykhailo Horyn called him) and \u201cthe driving force of the Sixtiers\u201d<\/em> (in Bohdan Horyn\u2019s words) was constantly confined to his apartment. He was able to move around the room on his own, but was unable to descend from the fifth floor of the building, which didn\u2019t have an elevator. Liolia requested a change of residence, applying for an apartment exchange. However, the Svitlychnys were granted a different apartment only in 1991, shortly before Ivan\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his last three years, Ivan lay motionless, unable to talk. Only the expression in his eyes or the squeeze of his left hand could communicate to Liolia what he wanted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Svitlychnys and Ivan\u2019s mother, Melania Illivna, 1980s. Photo courtesy of the Museum of the Sixties<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One day, there was a knock at their door. A girl stood on their doorstep. It was Ivanka Krypiakevych, the daughter of their friends. She had come to make a choice \u2014 get married or join a convent. For some reason, she felt that the right answer would come to her only in this apartment filled with books, where Ivan lay critically ill on the bed, with Liolia by his side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivanka gave Liolia a chance to take a break. While she was running errands or simply resting during the day after a sleepless night, the girl sat next to Svitlychnyi. One day, he grabbed the cross she wore around her neck. It was a dark wooden cross from the Garden of Gethsemane. That moment was significant because by that point, Ivan could hardly move. Ivanka suggested that Liolia call a priest. So they did. They prayed together. The priest gave Svitlychnyi the sacrament of reconciliation. Everyone was full of inspiration and at peace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late October 1992, Ivan\u2019s condition deteriorated sharply. Liolia understood this was the end, so she called for his sister Nadiya to come from America and his sister Mariya from Polovynkyno; Ivan\u2019s mother was too weak to travel to Kyiv. Nadiya did not arrive in time to say goodbye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivan lay in his bed. Liolia read to him a poem by Vasyl Stus, whom he loved very much and whose death he mourned deeply. \u201cI cannot live without Ivan\u2019s smile,\u201d<\/em> Liolia had read. Ivan cried and squeezed her hand… Fifteen minutes later, he lost consciousness. On October 25, 1992, at 5:45 p.m., his heart stopped beating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivan Svitlychnyi was buried in the Baikove Cemetery. He was dressed in a vyshyvanka, which Vasyl Stus had once gifted him. He was laid to rest not far from Stus\u2019 grave. They say that Les Taniuk said at the cemetery: \u201cThe best thing to happen to you, Ivan, is your funeral!\u201d<\/em> \u2014 because so many people attended it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Ivan\u2019s funeral was certainly not the best thing that happened to him. That would be Liolia.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ivanna Krypyakevych, now Dymyd, the same girl who knocked on the Svitlychnys\u2019 door in the early 1990s when facing an important choice in her life [Ivanna married a priest and gave birth to five children \u2014 Auth.]<\/em>, stands with me at the grave of Ivan and Liolia. It is a pleasant autumn day. Red viburnum berries hang over the Svitlychnys. Ivanka takes children\u2019s books out of her bag \u2014 the ones her uncle Ivan gave her when she was a child. Rudyard Kipling\u2019s \u201cHow and Why.\u201d She reads it aloud. \u201cListen to this wonderful translation!\u201d she says to me. Ivanka suspects that Svitlychnyi himself translated it, but the book is credited to another translator \u2014 those were the times when some people translated to earn a living, while others assigned their names to their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivanka lights a candle. And she recalls: \u201cLiolia shone brightly and burned steadily. I have never seen a steadier woman in my life. Her husband\u2019s mangled body in her arms; he can no longer speak. At the end, he just lay there, and she put a board under him so he wouldn\u2019t fall out of bed. She took care of him. Ivan would suffer spasms. He groaned in pain, screaming horribly, but it was unclear where the spasm occurred, where the pained muscle was. He couldn\u2019t explain where it hurt. She massaged him, looked for doctors, medicine and scurried around. She spent sleepless nights staying by his side. I witnessed this struggle. You couldn\u2019t call it a struggle against illness; it was a struggle against Ivan\u2019s slow death, which lasted from 1984 to 1992. It was service on her part. But she didn\u2019t see it as a sacrifice. It was her whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, you were all you were capable of being:<\/em><\/em>
My Easter Sunday and my Monday,<\/em>
My guarantor of \u201ceverything will be okay\u201d,<\/em>
The dewdrop on a stone<\/em>
And the stone itself \u2014 solid corundum.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what Ivan Svitlychnyi wrote about his Liolia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonida Svitlychna outlived her husband by eleven years. Following Ivan\u2019s death, she published his books, letters, and memoirs. In 2003, she was laid to rest beside him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The story of the Svitlychnys is about love in dark times. Amid arrests and home raids, in prison camps, in exile and in the hospital. About five visits in seven years, and two people sharing one life <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5239,"featured_media":126034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2244,2408],"tags":[2279,2438,2619,2622,2235,2621],"class_list":["post-128084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview-en","category-portrait","tag-socialactivity-en","tag-dysydenty-en","tag-ivan-svitlychnyi","tag-sixtiers-museum","tag-suspil-stvo-en","tag-vasyl-symonenko-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128084"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128897,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128084\/revisions\/128897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}