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A Lifeline
Note: some items in this Lifeline are linked to passages from Myrna Kostash's fictionalized memoir of Stus.
To go to the related passage simply click on the 'text' icon which appears next to the Lifeline entry.
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1938, January 8
Vasyl Stus born in Rakhnivka, Vinnytsia region, Ukrainian SSR
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late 1950s
graduates from Donetsk Pedagogical Institute and takes teaching assignment near his birthplace
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1959
his poems appear in print for first time
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1963
a substantial selection of his poems is published in the literary magazine, Dnipro
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1964
admitted to post-graduate studies at Institute of Literature, Kyiv
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1965
appointed senior academic assistant at the State Historic Archives; marries Valentyna Popeliukh; Ukrainian intellectuals arrested under Article 62 of the Penal Code ("Slandering the State")
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1965, September 4 (Kyiv)
premiere screening of Shadow of Forgotten Ancestors; Stus' first public political protest; his expulsion from doctoral studies
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1966
son Dmytro born; trials of those arrested in 1965
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1966, June
Stus dismissed from his position at the Archives
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1968 (Summer)
writes open letter to Writers' Union of Ukraine protesting arrests of writers; signs letter to Soviet leaders defending imprisoned Ukrainian intellectuals
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1969
writes article in Literaturna Ukraina describing campaign of terror against Ukrainian intellectuals
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1970
collection of poems, Zymovi Dereva, published in Brussels
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1970, December 7
funeral of artist Alla Horska to whom Stus dedicates poem
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1971, December
Stus writes letters to Writers' Union and to Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, accusing them of persecution of Ukrainian intellectuals
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1972, January 13
Stus arrested and imprisoned in Kyiv
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1972, February 4
KGB search Stus' apartment, confiscate papers and books, and charge him under Article 62
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1972, August 31
his trial begins in Kyiv Regional Court
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1972, September 7
Stus convicted and sentenced to five years of forced labour in Special Regime camp in Mordovian ASSR and three years of internal exile in Siberia
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1976, January
Stus' "J'Accuse" document attacking KGB is smuggled out of camp and published in New York
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1975, August 2
Suffers haemorrhage from perforated ulcer in camp
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1976, July
goes on hunger strike demanding return of his poetry
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1977
begins compulsory labour at gold mine near Magadan, Siberia
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1978
Stus' father dies
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1979, October
returns to Kyiv at end of sentence; joins the Ukrainian Group of the Committee for the Observance of the Helsinki Accords
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1980, May 14
Stus indicted as a repeat offender under Article 62
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1980, October 2
sentenced to ten years of forced labour in a maximum security camp and five years of internal exile
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1983
his prison notebook circulates in the West
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1985
an international committee of scholars, writers, and poets nominates Stus as a candidate for the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature
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1985, September 4
Stus dies, aged 47, in labour camp 36-1 near Perm, Russia
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