He is a member of the People's Movement of Ukraine, and the younger brother of politicians and Soviet dissidents Bohdan and Mykhailo Horyn.
Mykola Mykolaiovych Horyn was born on 29 January 1945 in the village of Kniselo [uk] to a family of ethnically-Ukrainian peasants.
[1] Mykola Lebed was his cousin once removed, and his father died while fighting in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
He worked at SKTB Termoprylad from 1968 to 1990, aside from a year between 1969 and 1970, when he completed conscript service in the Soviet Army.
[3] After leaving office in 1997, Horyn initially departed from politics, allowing his membership of the People's Movement of Ukraine to lapse.