Ukrainian social and cultural activist, UPA soldier, founder and conductor of the choir "Gomin Bukovyny", co-founder of the Taras Shevchenko Enlightenment Society, founder and head of the OUN-UPA brotherhood in Bukovyna.
Biography.
Sviatoslav Melnychuk was born on September 13, 1926, in the village of Sukhoverkhiv in what was then Romania, now the Kitsman district of Chernivtsi region. His father was a priest who participated in the first liberation struggle in the ranks of the Ukrainian People's Republic. He studied at gymnasiums in Kitsman and Chernivtsi.
In October 1940, his parents moved to the Kholm region. He studied at a Ukrainian gymnasium in Sokal. In 1944, he joined the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and marched with the soldiers from Khomyn to Bukovyna. On March 3, 1945, he was wounded and arrested. On September 28, 1945, a military tribunal of the NKVD in the Chernivtsi region sentenced him to 20 years in prison. He was kept in the camps of Vorkuta. In 1956 he returned to Bukovyna. He studied at the Chernivtsi Music College, from which he was expelled, and later received his diploma in Chisinau.
He died on June 6, 2019 in Chernivtsi. He was buried at the Russian Cemetery in Chernivtsi.
Career.
In 1961-1969, he taught music and singing at Chernivtsi School No. 33, and in 1969-1986 at the Music and Cultural Education School in Chernivtsi. He wrote arrangements of songs based on Taras Shevchenko's lyrics for the choir "Gomin Bukovyny": "Behind the ravine is a ravine...", "A dug grave", "The wind blows through the oak tree"; folk songs: "The Cuckoo Cried," "Shine, Shine the Moon," "Hey, There Far Away in Volyn"; carols: "The eternal God is born", "New joy has come", "Silent Night".
Public activity
Member of the Board of the Chernivtsi Regional Association of the All-Ukrainian Society of the Ukrainian Language "Prosvita" named after Taras Shevchenko;
Member of the regional council of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew the First-Called;
Member of the regional Society of Political Prisoners and Repressed;
Member of the Board of the Ukrainian National House in Chernivtsi.
Awards.
Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, II degree;
Order "For Courage", III degree;
Medal "Builder of Ukraine";
Winner of the Sidor Vorobkevych Literary and Art Prize;
Certificate of Honor from the Chernivtsi Regional Council.
