Serhiĭ Naboka

Serhii Vadymovych Naboka (; 26 April 1955 – 18 January 2003) was a Ukrainian Soviet dissident and journalist. He was the founder of , the first legal, uncensored newspaper in Ukraine since the foundation of the Soviet Union.

Early life and career Serhii Vadymovych Naboka was born 26 April 1955 in the city of Tula, Russia, to journalists Kateryna Mykhailivna Zelenska and Vadym Ivanovych Naboka. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved to the city of Kyiv. Serhii was a student at Kyiv's Secondary School No. 130 from 1962 to 1972. At the age of 13 or 14, Naboka read The State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin; the work led him to develop anti-Soviet and anti-communist views. Later textbooks and state-sponsored literature led him to further question the official history of Ukraine. He later remarked that in reading Soviet literature, "Such a lie was revealed, even in something of a philosophical sense."

Naboka first applied to the Institute of Journalism at Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv in 1972, along with the Faculty of Art History at the Kyiv Art Institute (now the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture). He was rejected from both, and he later worked as a freelance correspondent for Evening Kyiv and Molod Ukrayiny until 1974, when he was conscripted into the Soviet Army. Due to poor health, he served in an engineering battalion, variously working in Leningrad, Moscow and Riga. Naboka was alarmed by the 1972–1973 Ukrainian purge; like many Ukrainian youths at the time, he frequently listened to Western radio stations and participated in political debates. After his military service, Naboka became a student at Shevchenko University's journalism faculty in 1976. In 1978 or 1980, He remained imprisoned for three years before being released in 1984, after which he worked as a janitor, librarian and in transportation. During perestroika, Naboka returned to political activity, advocating for the revival of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. At the time, it was the first non-governmental organisation to operate in Kyiv. It was later followed by the Lviv-based Ukrainian Helsinki Union (UHS), which included the Ukrainian Culturological Club.

Naboka became a political commentator on Radio Liberty in 1989. The same year, he became director of Republic, the first private news agency in Ukraine. Between 1989 and 1990, he was a member of the People's Movement of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Republican Party. 18 January 2024, the City Council voted to rename in the city after Naboka as part of efforts to Derussify local place names in the city. The street had previously been named after Pavel Bazhov.