Today in Kyiv, they said goodbye to politician Stepan Khmara, who was buried at the Baikovo cemetery.
About this reported the mayor of the capital Vitaliy Klitschko.
“Until his last breath, he supported and fought for Ukraine – a free and democratic state. Having lived a very difficult life, he always spoke his mind. He never betrayed his convictions and did not compromise with his conscience,” said the mayor.
Klitschko added that such a moral authority will be sorely lacking in Ukraine.
Stepan Khmara died at the age of 87. Recently, the politician has been ill, in the fall he was confirmed with a serious diagnosis.
The life of a dissident
- Stepan Ilkovich Khmara was born on October 12, 1937 in the village of Bobyatyn, Lviv region. He received his higher education at the then Lviv Medical Institute, majoring in dentistry
- After graduating from school, he worked as a driver for 4 years, following which he entered the dental faculty of the Lviv Medical Institute, graduating in 1964.
- In 1972, he began to participate in the publication of the underground magazine “Ukrainian Herald” and was engaged in self-publishing.
- In 1975, law enforcement agencies made the first attempt to arrest Stepan Khmara. The case was closed due to the lack of evidence of a crime.
- However, in 1980, Stepan Khmara was arrested and sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment and 5 years of imprisonment under the article “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda”. Stepan Khmara served his sentence in the Perm region. After being released in 1987, he took an active part in the reproduction of the Ukrainian Helsinki group.
- In the spring of 1990, Stepan Khmara was elected a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from the Industrial (No. 261) electoral district. 63.61% of voters cast their votes for him.
- In April 1990, Stepan Khmara, together with Lev Lukyanenko and Mykhailo Horyn, created the Ukrainian Republican Party, of which he was elected deputy chairman.
- In November 1990, Stepan Khmara was arrested once more and remained in prison until April 1991. He was accused of assaulting a police officer. This action was called “The Cloud Affair”.
- Subsequently, Stepan Khmara and a group of his supporters created the Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party (UKRP), of which he was elected head.
- In the parliamentary elections held on March 27, 1994, Stepan Khmara won his biggest political victory. From Zaliznychny (No. 261) electoral district, from which Stepan Khmara was running, Mykhailo Horyn, the head of the rival URP, was also a candidate. Stepan Khmara defeated his opponent with a margin of 29.48% of the votes, gaining 54.41%.
- On the eve of the parliamentary elections in March 1998, the Ukrainian People’s Party of Ukraine created a pre-election bloc together with the People’s Party of Ukraine and the Communist Party of Ukraine. The block was named “National Front”. Stepan Khmara was third on the block list. However, the bloc did not overcome the four percent barrier and Stepan Khmara did not enter the Verkhovna Rada. At the same time, he took part in the elections from single-mandate electoral district No. 116. However, even here Stepan Khmara lost, yielding to the candidate from the NRU.
- On December 15, 2001, the Ukrainian Communist Party of Ukraine dissolved itself and its members moved to the Motherland. Stepan Khmara becomes Yulia Tymoshenko’s deputy head of the Motherland. Thus, Stepan Khmara took part in the parliamentary elections on March 31, 2002 under number 10 on the electoral list of BYU.
- Active participant of the Orange Revolution of 2004.
- In the spring of 2005, Stepan Khmara left Batkivshchyna and became a member of the UNP. In the parliamentary elections of March 26, 2006, he participated under number 13 of the electoral list of the “Ukrainian People’s Bloc of Kostenko and Plyushch”. Since the bloc lost the elections, Stepan Khmara did not enter the parliament.
- On September 30, 2007, Stepan Khmara took part in the parliamentary elections at number 94 on the pre-election list of the bloc of parties “Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense”, which included the UNP. However, only candidates of this political force from number 1 to number 72, inclusive, entered the Verkhovna Rada.
- Stepan Khmara is the author of the books “Ethnocide of Ukrainians in the USSR” and “General pogrom”.
