Ivan Kandyba

Ivan Oleksiiovych Kandyba (; 7 June 1930 – 8 November 2002) was a Ukrainian lawyer, who achieved most fame by being a founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.

Early life Ivan Kandyba was born into a Ukrainian peasant family in a village of Stulno, Poland. In 1945, his family was forcefully resettled in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as part of population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine. Kandyba attended law school of Lviv University, graduating in 1953. Between 1953 and 1961, he worked in the city of Hlyniany, Lviv Oblast, as notary, lawyer, and judge.

Political career In February 1960, Kandyba met Levko Lukianenko, who was also working as a lawyer. The two became friends, and Kandyba supported an idea on which Lukyanenko was working - the creation of an illegal Ukrainian Worker's and Peasant's Union (UWPU) . This organization was discovered, and Kandyba was arrested.

In 1962 and again in 1967, Kandyba served a three-year and one-year term respectively as a political prisoner. Upon his release in 1976, Kandyba was not allowed to work in Lviv. /He was labeled a repeat offender.

Because of his refusal to cooperate and insistence that he be acknowledged as a political prisoner, Kandyba was placed in isolation for 65 days on 1 January 1988.

On 5 September 1988, due to the call for his release by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Kandyba was pardoned and released. and continued to lobby for the legalization of that organization.

On 8 November 2002, Ivan Kandyba died in Lviv at the age of 72.