his burial, despite official warnings to
not attend funeral services, and despite
the calling of Komsomol meetings, which
carried mandatory attendance, on the
same day. The magazine Halas, on whose
information I rely in the present
letter, states that Rostyslaw Bratun who
was the first to step forward and speak
at Volodymyr's funeral lost his job two
months later. Words spoken at the
funeral by the Sichko family landed them
in prison.
To the right is a second photograph
showing the statue that was eventually
erected in Volodymyr Ivasiuk's memory.
And just how did Volodymyr Ivasiuk meet
his end? His death certificate which
appears below states that he died on
24-27 April 1979 from mechanical
asphyxiation caused by hanging in a
noose, and attributes the hanging to
suicide.
The details of Volodymyr Ivasiuk's death, however, do not support the official view that
he killed himself:
They waited and searched for Volodya for 24 days. Following the
mysterious disappearance of the composer, the search for him was not
disclosed to the public, the explanation being given that such an
announcement would create a disturbance. However, the mass media are
daily used not only to help locate people, but sometimes even their
pets. [...]
It was not until May 18, 1979 that Volodymyr Ivasiuk's body was
accidentally discovered in the heavy forest near the village
Briukhovych near Lviv.
One couldn't bring oneself to believe it. The parents were allowed to
identify their son only on the following day, even though it was only a
five-minute walk from the apartment where Volodya lived to the morgue;
and the identification was conducted with gross violations of law. The
father was allowed to view the body only after he repeatedly telephoned
the Oblast Procurator threatening to send a telegram of complaint to
the General Procurator of Ukraine. The local authorities eventually
gave in with the exasperated reply: "Take your son home, and look at
him there at least a hundred years!" His death certificate reported
that he died 24-27 April 1979 at the age of 30. The cause of death:
mechanical asphyxiation. Hanging from a noose - suicide. The death
certificate was issued on May 21, 1979, and even back then, a mere
three days after the body had been discovered, without any evidence or
investigation it had been written in black and white that Volodymyr
Ivasiuk had committed suicide.
There immediately arises the question that if the composer had indeed