Ukrainian Political Prisoner's Day

A political prisoner is a person who is in custody or serving a sentence of imprisonment or undergoing compulsory treatment, whose case has a clear political component, such as opposition to the current government. A political prisoner can be a person arrested on charges of political activities, as well as on other, often falsified, charges.

Ukrainian Political Prisoner's Day is celebrated in Ukraine every year on January 12 in honor of people who were arrested because of their political beliefs.

According to the history of this date, the tradition of celebrating Political Prisoner's Day was introduced in 1975 at the suggestion of Vyacheslav Chornovil, who called for opposition to repression and cruelty of the regime. The reason for the celebration was initially the repression of Soviet totalitarianism against the Ukrainian intelligentsia, and now the Russian regime, which has unleashed terror against Ukrainians - "surpassing Soviet totalitarianism."

It should be reminded that on January 12-14, 1972, the largest repressive action against Ukrainian dissidents took place, when most of the well-known representatives of the national democratic movement were arrested simultaneously, and the so-called "general pogrom" of the Ukrainian sixties began.

According to Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in the present Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.