Vasily Stus: the conclusion of the poet
On the night of January 13, 1972, stripping of conscious Ukrainians was carried out all over Ukraine. Among those arrested was the poet Vasily Stus.
At Christmas, he went to Lviv. Together with friends went with a den. On the fateful night of January 12, we drove to the airfield, drove past the KGB, all the windows were shining there. Someone said: "Something is being prepared." All members of the den were arrested.
Vasily Stus waited at the Kiev airport. In early September 1972, the Kiev Regional Court accused him of “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” and sentenced him to 5 years in prison and 3 years of exile. Punishment served in the Mordovian and Magadan camps.
Most of the poems that Stus wrote in the concentration camp were withdrawn and destroyed. Only a few “were released” through the letters he wrote to his wife.
During his first imprisonment, Stus renounced his Soviet citizenship: “To have Soviet citizenship is an impossible thing for me. To be a Soviet citizen is to be a slave.”
At the end of the term in Stus concentration camp in 1977, they were sent to Matrosovo, Magadan Oblast, where he worked until 1979 in gold mines. Returning to Kiev, he joined the Helsinki Group for the Defense of Human Rights.
At Christmas, he went to Lviv. Together with friends went with a den. On the fateful night of January 12, we drove to the airfield, drove past the KGB, all the windows were shining there. Someone said: "Something is being prepared." All members of the den were arrested.
Vasily Stus waited at the Kiev airport. In early September 1972, the Kiev Regional Court accused him of “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” and sentenced him to 5 years in prison and 3 years of exile. Punishment served in the Mordovian and Magadan camps.
Photo © gazeta.ua
Most of the poems that Stus wrote in the concentration camp were withdrawn and destroyed. Only a few “were released” through the letters he wrote to his wife.
During his first imprisonment, Stus renounced his Soviet citizenship: “To have Soviet citizenship is an impossible thing for me. To be a Soviet citizen is to be a slave.”
At the end of the term in Stus concentration camp in 1977, they were sent to Matrosovo, Magadan Oblast, where he worked until 1979 in gold mines. Returning to Kiev, he joined the Helsinki Group for the Defense of Human Rights.
