VALENTYN MOROZ: HISTORIAN, WRITER AND DISSIDENT

Abstract

Formulation of the problem. The purpose of writing this article was the need to commemorate the memory of Valentyn Yakovych Moroz, a Volyn man, a political prisoner, an active participant in the dissident movement on the first anniversary of his death. He was the author of more than 100 works, a doctor of humanities at Jersey State College, a member of the «Slovo» association of Ukrainian Writers, and an honorary citizen of Volyn since 2017. He has dedicated his entire life fighting against totalitarianism. He died on April 16, 2019 in Lviv. He was buried in Lychakiv cemetery.
The methodological basis of this research is a set of general scientific, interdisciplinary, historical and source methods, in particular: historicism, objectivity, historical-comparative, alternative, analysis and synthesis, etc. Their use allows us to recreate the process of forming the political views of V. Moroz, the reasons for the transformation of his consciousness in the direction of dissent, an uncompromising position on the Soviet totalitarian system against which he devoted his own life.
The state of scientific study of the problem. The dissident movement is of great interest to Ukrainian historians. The first investigations were published in the mid-1990s. Among the authors are G. Kasianov, V. Baran, and
B. Zakharov, who focused on the participation of the Ukrainian intelligentsia in the resistance movement. In the early 2000s, dissident movement research centers appeared that published their own intelligence, distributed memoirs and self-published literature, and recorded and published interviews with dissidents. In these works, V. Moroz was mentioned as one of the many authors of illegal literature, political prisoner managed to emigrate abroad. Sometimes there is conflicting information about the terms of his sentences. The only monograph dedicated to V. Moroz was personally published in 2018 by O. Poliansky. Due to the small circulation, it is difficult for the general public to get acquainted with it. Therefore, in our opinion, the intelligence proposed by the author is relevant and is designed to honor the memory of the extraordinary personality of who was V. Moroz.