S.A.K.A

Oleksa Mikolayovich Hirnyk was a Ukrainian dissident, first against Polish and then Soviet oppression of the Ukrainian language and culture, later to be proclaimed a Hero of Ukraine. He was born in 1912 in the then Austrian-held Eastern Galicia, now part of Ukraine. He studied in Polish Lwów (now Ukrainian Lviv) and was conscripted into the Polish army. He was imprisoned for promoting Ukrainian nationalism. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939 he was released, but when the Soviet army took Lwów, former imprisoned Ukrainian nationalists were arrested and punished. He was sentenced to eight years in a Soviet penal colony. On release in 1948 he married and appeared to settle down as an engineer, but he was distressed at the Russification of Ukraine and the decline of the Ukrainian language. In 1978 he went to Kaniv and Tarasova Hora, scattered hand-written protest leaflets and committed suicide by setting himself on fire and stabbing himself in the abdomen. The authorities suppressed the incident and it was not until after independence was achieved that the truth became known in 1992. Posthumously Oleksa Hirnyk was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine and the Order of the State. A memorial boulder lies close to the monument to Taras Shevchenko. For a short biography go to the Welcome to Ukraine website.

Click here to return to the Kaniv Gallery homepage.