Iryna Kalynets

Who is Iryna Kalynets?

Iryna Kalynets was a Ukrainian poet, writer, activist and Soviet dissident during the 1970s. Kalynets was the wife of another leading Soviet dissident, Ihor Kalynets.

Kalynets graduated from Lviv University with a degree in philology. She taught courses in Ukrainian literature and language before joining a human rights group called "shistdesyatnyky." Kalynets was the publisher of a banned human rights journal, "Український Вісник." She also publicly protested the detention of other dissidents, including Nina Strokata and Valentyn Moroz. Kalynets and two other actvists, Nadia Svitlychna and Stefania Shabatura, were arrested for a writing on Soviet propaganda. She was sentenced to six years in prison and three years of internal exile within the Soviet Union.

Kalynets was able to return to Lviv in 1981 following the completion of her sentence. A proponent of the Ukrainian independence movement, she soon joined Memorial and Rukh, a pair of civil rights organizations.

Ukraine broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991. Kalynets was elected to the Verkhovna Rada as a deputy in Ukraine's first post independence parliament. She continued to publish writings until her health deteriorated.