Ihor Kalynets

His work reflects his pride in Ukrainian culture and the country's ancient pagan and early Christian heritage.

In Kupalo's Fire (1966), Kalynets connects the country's folklore and ancient traditions to modern, Soviet life.

He also dedicated poems to various Ukrainian cultural icons, including Taras Shevchenko, filmmaker Alexander Dovzhenko, and composer Stanislav Liudkevych among others.

[3] As a "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist", opposed to the policies of russification and general Soviet lawlessness, he was sentenced to nine years in a labour camp and exile.

In March 1971, the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine denounced Kalynets' poetry as "reprehensible", made worse by the fact that he allowed his work to be published in the West.

He was then indicted on the grounds that he "issues a veiled appeal to struggle against the Soviet government", "calls for a revival of the Uniate Church", "covertly presents the idea that the Ukrainian people are oppressed by the Soviet government", and "articulates a nationalist ideology, as well as nostalgia for the past and for an independent state".