Valeriy Marchenko

Who is Valeriy Marchenko?

Valeriy Marchenko was a poet, journalist, translator, and member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.

Marchenko was born into an educated family. His grandfather, Mykhaylo Marchenko, was the first Soviet dean of the University of Lviv. His mother was a teacher of literature. Valeriy Marchenko completed the Kiev Academy of Arts and worked in the newspaper Literary Ukraine as a translator. He translated into Ukrainian from Azerbaijani and Polish. His speciality was Azerbaijani-Ukrainian literary relations.

On June 25, 1973, Marchenko was arrested and charged with Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, mainly for three articles he wrote, as well as his efforts to publicize Ivan Dziuba's work Internationalism or Russification? in Ukraine. On December 29, 1973, Marchenko was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment and 2 years exile.