Draft:Olha Heiko Matusevych

Olha Heiko Matusevych - human rights activist and Ukrainian Helsinki Group (UHG) member.

Life Path
Olha Heiko Matusevych was born on September 9, 1953 in Kyiv. Olha's father served in the military, while her mother was a teacher, later becoming the Deputy Minister of Education of the Ukrainian SSR. From 1956, she served as the Editor of the Journal ‘Doshkilne vykhovannya’ (‘Pre-school education’). Olha is the elder sister of the graphic artist Mariia Heiko and the wife of the dissident and human rights activist Mykola Matusevych, with whom she fought against the Soviet regime. Olha recalls: ‘Nobody raised me as a dissident, but I was raised to be honest and decent.’

In 1976, Olha graduated from Kyiv State University, majoring in Slavic philology. However, she could not fully realize her professional profile due to the Committee for State Securityʼs - KDB's/KGB's - interference in this process. Therefore, Olha Heiko Matusevych worked as a proofreader at the ‘Radyanska Shkola’ (‘Soviet School’) publishing house. As the dissident Myroslav Marynovych recalls: ‘Nevertheless, Mykola and I had an unfailing ability to find something amusing even in the most tragic events. My attempts to find a job can serve as an example. My first job in Kyiv was as technical editor of the journal Pochatkova Shkola (Elementary school), a maternity leave replacement position. It was Hanna Sushan, the mother of one of our new friends, Olia Heiko, who got me this job through her connections. She was well known in elite Kyiv circles because Volodymyr Semychasny, who had been KGB chief of the USSR from 1961–1967, was one of her friends. So, her recommendation was sufficient to get me the job.’

Olha's active path in human rights activities was followed by the arrest of her husband Mykola Matusevych and Myroslav Marynovych in April 1977. Mykola Matusevych was charged with ‘anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” under Article 62 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR and with “hooliganism” under Article 206. He was sentenced to 7 years of hard labor in a harsh regime labor camp and 5 years of exile. As a protest against these arrests, as well as the arrests of Mykola Rudenko and Oleksa Tykhy, Olha submitted a statement to the district committee about her withdrawal from the Komsomol and began actively participating in campaigns to protect human rights.

Olha recalls: ‘And when I got to university, I saw that life wasn't so rosy. And I already felt the desire to leave the Komsomol, but somehow I stayed. We didn't make decisions ourselves. Decisions came from above, from the party organization, and my spirit of freedom couldn't bear it. I was persuaded to stay in the Komsomol at that time by Mykola Matusevych and Myroslav Marynovych. 'Stay, don't rush, you don't need it.' And so I finished university as a Komsomol member. But when the guys were arrested, my soul tore into heaven’.

Olha submitted complaints and statements to the prosecutor's office, the KDB, and Amnesty International, addressed the world public, and met with foreign journalists. She also actively participated in the activities of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, although she was not yet an official member. Myroslav Marynovych recalls: ‘Olia embraced our group wholeheartedly and began to help us fearlessly. Somehow, she managed to rent typewriters, and she would clack away, typing up the Ukrainian Helsinki Group materials. Eventually, after our arrest, I found out that Olia had officially joined the group, and this confirmed how courageous and fearless our devoted friend had been at that time.’ In May 1977, Olha Heiko Matusevych fully joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group: ‘When Mykola and Myroslav were arrested, I went to Levko Lukyanenko, asked him for permission to join the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. I was granted permission, although Mykhailyna Kotsiubynska strongly advised against it, saying, 'Olya, you're not signing up for membership, you're signing up for arrest.' But I couldn't do it any other way... We positioned ourselves not as an underground, but as an open group that would defend people's rights.’

Olha's activity in the human rights movement concerned the investigative authorities. Immediately after the trial of Myroslav Marynovych and Mykola Matusevych, she was deceitfully isolated in a venereal hospital, where she stayed for 2 months until the convicts were taken out of Kyiv. After that, Olha Heiko Matusevych lost her job, receiving an order to either resign voluntarily or be dismissed under the pretext of being absent without leave.

Olha continued to maintain contacts with dissidents, foreign correspondents and the Moscow Helsinki Group, so she was often detained by the police under fabricated pretexts. Additionally, searches were repeatedly conducted in the Heiko`s family, not only involving Olha but also her parents. Olha's parents were under a lot of pressure. So the KDB intimidated her parents, threatening to arrest Olha and imprison her for ten years, deprive her parents of party membership and pensions, and expel her younger sister from school. Olha recalls: ‘My mother supported me in everything. She's such a 'golden mother' that when she was summoned by the KGB for questioning, and they said... And she, she had a corresponding biography, she worked in the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Ukraine, was the Deputy Minister of Education of the Ukrainian SSR, and the chief editor of the magazine. And they thought they could influence me through her. They summoned her to the KGB, started threatening... And they said to her: 'Denounce, disown your daughter.' They listed everything to her, including 'you will be expelled from the party.' She took out her party card, put it down, and said 'please.' They didn't summon my mother again after that.’

In 1978, during a meeting with Mykola Matusevych, he asked Olha to leave the USSR. So she actively engaged in the issue of her own emigration and helping others wishing to emigrate. On April 18, 1979, she received a summons from the USA, however, when she tried to enter the US consulate in Kyiv, she was detained by the police. She was told that if they saw her near the consulate, she would be arrested on charges of theft or prostitution. ‘I was summoned to the State Migration Service, threatened that I wouldn't be allowed to leave anywhere. And finally, when all my options failed, I even went to Moscow about this. They politely said to me, 'Get out of here! Don't waste our time with your nonsense. Nobody will let Ukrainians go anywhere. We don't even let Jews out much, and you want to open Ukrainian emigration.’ - says Olha.

Throughout April-May of the same year, the KDB also pressured Olha Heiko Matusievych's parents to persuade their daughter to cease her ‘nationalist activities.’ In June 1979, Olha was assaulted by two unknown individuals near her house, who later reappeared with threats of rape and murder.

The situation with emigration became even more complicated when her husband was prohibited from signing the consent for departure to the USA. After complaints to the Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Institutions, the Prosecutor General of the USSR, and Leonid Brezhnev, she received a response that her husband would give permission for emigration. However, they refused to accept her emigration documents until she divorced her husband. Therefore, Olha Heiko Matusievych sent all the necessary documents for leaving the USSR to Leonid Brezhnev along with a statement that if she were not allowed to emigrate, she would renounce her Soviet citizenship and seek political asylum from the US government.

Olha continued to be persecuted, and in November 1979, after being beaten on the street, she and the artist Vasyl Kulya were taken to the police station, where they were told that they were responsible for the brawl and would be taken to court. This did not deter Olha, and on December 10 of the same year, she participated in a demonstration on Pushkin Square in Moscow to mark the proclamation of the Declaration of Human Rights, after which she was again detained by the police.

In January 1980, at the Visa and Registration Department, she was offered to pick up her documents and application for departure, but Olha refused. In February, she was summoned to the military enlistment office and demanded to present a military card. Olha advised them to turn to Brezhnev. When asked how she intended to defend her homeland without a military card, she replied that she had no obligations to the so-called motherland (USSR), which violated the rights of its citizens. Furthermore, she stated that she considered the war in Afghanistan to be an occupation. Employees of the military enlistment office and ‘witnesses’ later testified to this in court against Olha Heiko Matusevych.

On 12 March 1980 Heiko was arrested and charged under Article 187 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR - Dissemination of patently false statements defaming the Soviet political and social system. While in pre-trial detention, she wrote a statement renouncing her Soviet citizenship, and during the investigation and trial, she refused to answer questions or sign interrogation protocols. She also did not recognize the court or admit guilt. On March 26, Olha Heiko Matusevych was sentenced to 3 years in a general regime labor camp. The trial took place in closed session, so even her parents learned about it by chance after its completion. Olha served her sentence in Odesa at Camp.

On March 12, 1983, after receiving a document of release, Olha Heiko Matusevych was again detained and taken to the local KDB office. There, she was offered to renounce her beliefs, but she refused to do so. Consequently, Olha was charged under Article 62, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR (‘anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda’), and on October 10, 1983, she was sentenced to three more years of imprisonment in a strict regime camp. Olha served her sentence in the women's political camp in the village of Barashevo, Mordovia.

Even in the conditions of a strict regime, Olha continued to participate in protest actions, for which she repeatedly ended up in punitive isolation. In 1985, Olha Heiko Matusevych wrote an open letter to the Lithuanian poet Eduardas Mieželaitis, trying to prove that his compatriots were in a very difficult situation. This letter was actively distributed both in Lithuania and in other countries.

In 1986, Olha Heiko Matusevych returned to Kyiv, where she continued to face problems. She was denied registration near her seriously ill mother for a whole year. However, Olha also continued her public activities. In 1988, she was among the initiators of the Ukrainian Cultural Studies Club (The Ukrainsky kulturolohychny klub), which discussed history and held events. One such event was a demonstration in Kyiv on the occasion of the second anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster. At that time, while on maternity leave, Olha was beaten in the stomach by the police.

Later, Olha began working as an editor for the journal 'Tserkva i Zhyttia' ('Church and Life') - an informal publication of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. She worked in the publishing department of the Institute of Archeography of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, at the news agency, edited the Bulletin of the Liberal Party of Ukraine, and in other areas of the information sphere.

The life and struggle of Olha Heiko Matusevych serve as a case of dedication to one's beliefs and courage to defend them, to fight for freedom: ‘We climbed to our freedom up the stairs. The higher we were, the freer we felt. You have your beliefs - keep them and defend them. You have no right to forbid someone else from having their beliefs. I believe that such a position must be taken. Otherwise, you become a communist. Regardless of whether you call yourself a 'freedom fighter' or something else, if you forbid others from having their point of view and defending it. However, the methods by which your opponent defends their views are another matter.’