ROZUMNYI, Petro English teacher Address: Ukrainian SSR Dnepropetrovsk An English teacher living in Dnepropetrovsk, Rozumniy joined the Ukrainian Group in the late summer of 1979. In October he visited his friend, Yevgeni Svertsyuk, a Ukrainian writer sentenced in 1972 on a political charge, at his place of exile. While there, Rozumniy purchased a hunting knife. Upon his return to Ukraine, he was arrested on October 26, 1979 for possession of a weapon (knife), Article 222 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code. Rudenko served from 1941 to 1945 in the Soviet Army and was seriously wounded. After the war, he was an editor in the official Ukrainian publishing house, "Soviet Writer". From 1947 to 1950, he was managing editor of Dnipro, the official journal of the Young Communist League of the Ukrainian S.S.R. During this period, Rudenko held the position of Deputy Secretary, then Secretary of the Party organization of the Union of Soviet Writers of the Ukrainian S.S.R. From 1947 onward, numerous collections of his poetry were published officially in the USSR. By the early 1970's, however, his work had begun to be criticized for idealizing the peasant style of life. He was soon unable to obtain literary work and was forced to seek employment as a watchman. In 1973 or 1974, he was expelled from the Party. Rudenko joined the Moscow chapter of Amnesty International after its inception in September of 1974. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested in Kiev along with another Amnesty member, Andrei Tverdokhlebov and detained for 2 days. In June of 1976, he was expelled from the Union of Writers and later informed that his expulsion was for "behavior incompatible with membership". In November of 1976, the Ukrainian Public Group to Promote Observance of the Helsinki Accords was formed with Rudenko as chairman. During a series of police searches at the homes of Ukrainian Group members one month later, Group documents and Rudenko's manuscripts were confiscated. On February 5, 1977, Rudenko and Oleksiy Tykhy were arrested. Rudenko was sentenced at a closed trial on July 1, 1977, to seven years in strict regimen labor camps followed by five years of internal exile under Article 62 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code, "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." He is in extremely poor health. Senyk was first arrested in 1944 and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for participation in the organization of Ukrainian nationalists. She was released in 1954, an invalid of the second category. of She worked for a time as a nurse, but was arrested again in October of 1972 for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda," Article 62 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code. For her alleged crime of writing "subversive" poetry dealing with Ukrainian nationalism and for associating with Ukrainian dissidents, Vyacheslav Chornovil and Valentyn Moroz, Senyk was sentenced to 6 years strict regimen camp and 3 years of internal exile. From her place of exile, Senyk joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group in the fall of 1979. |