Borys Oliynyk (poet)

Borys Illich Oliynyk (Борис Ілліч Олійник; Борис Ильич Олейник, Boris Ilyich Oleynik; 22 October 1935 – 30 April 2017) was a Soviet and Ukrainian poet, translator, and political activist.

Biography
The first works were published in 1950.

Graduated from Kiev State University in 1958.

He served in the Verkhovna Rada from 1992 to 2006 and was chairman of the Ukrainian Culture Fund.

Before his death, Oliynyk was the most prominent representative of the national-communist movement within the Communist Party of Ukraine.

While being Ukrainian, Oliynyk also officially adopted a Russian version of his last name as Oleynik.

Awards

 * N. A. Ostrovsky Prize of the Ukrainian SSR (1964)
 * Hero of Ukraine (October 2005)