Ivan Stepanovych Havrysh (*26 October 1901, Novominsk - †5 February 1985, Kaniv) was a bandura player, teacher, biologist, and amateur actor.
Biography.
He was born in the village of Novominska in the Kuban. He received a higher education. A student of the village bandura player Mykyta Varrava. An active figure in the Ukrainian revival in the Kuban. He played diatonic banduras of Kuban masters Tikhon Strokun and Dmytro Krykun. He had an extensive kobza repertoire, including songs and plays by contemporary Ukrainian composers. He performed a lot in schools and clubs in the villages of Bryukhovetska, Kanivska, Novomenska, as well as in Italy and Kolyma.
On 14 February 1933, he was arrested by the OGPU on charges of involvement in a "counter-revolutionary bourgeois nationalist group" under Article 59-1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, in fact, "for bandura and Ukrainisation" (V. Hryn's expression). By the decision of the troika of the OGPU of the SKK and DSSR on 1 August 1933, he was sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment. He served his sentence on the White Sea-Baltic Canal. During the German occupation, he worked as a clerk in the village. He emigrated to Italy. After returning to the Kuban, he was sentenced to 10 years of hard labour on the Kolyma. He died in the village of Kanivska. He was rehabilitated on 21 December 1957 according to the decision of the Krasnodar Regional Court.
