Yaroslav Lesiv (January 3, 1945 - October 10, 1991) was a Ukrainian poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

, and member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group

Ukrainian Helsinki Group

The Ukrainian Helsinki Group was founded in November 1976 to monitor human rights in Ukraine. The group was active until 1981 when all members were jailed....

Yaroslav Lesiv was born in the village of Luzhkiv, (Ukrainian Лужків), in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast

Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast

Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast is an oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Ivano-Frankivsk. As is the case with most other oblasts of Ukraine this region has the same name as its administrative center – which was renamed by the Soviets after the Ukrainian writer, nationalist...

 of Western Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

.

In 1965, he joined the Ukrainian National Front, an underground organization working for Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. On March 29, 1965, his membership in this organization was discovered, and Lesiv was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

He carried out a hunger strike

On October 3, 1977, Lesiv joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.

Religious Life

Yaroslav Lesiv was active in the Ukrainian Catholic Church. From the late 1980s, Lesiv was working towards the restoration of the Ukrainian Catholic church.

In 1988, Lesiv was ordained as a priest in the Ukrainian Catholic Rite.

In 1989, Lesiv visited Moscow twice - including a hunger strike protesting the illegal status of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

In the night between October 9 and 10, 1991, Yaroslav Lesiv was killed in an automobile accident. He is buried in Bolekhiv

Bolekhiv

Bolekhiv is a city in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast of Ukraine. It is designated into a self-administrated city district of oblast subordination...

, Ukraine.