The Security Service of Ukraine opened Soviet archives on Christmas repressions on January 6. This was reported in the SBU Telegram channel.
Less than half a century ago, the Soviet government launched a whole punitive operation against the Ukrainian intelligentsia for New Year's nativity scenes. One of these repressive stories began in early 1972. In the secret messages of the KGB leadership, it appeared as the "Block" operation.
The photo shows a festive nativity scene in one of Lviv's apartments. That evening, Vasyl Stus, Elena Antoniv, Irina Kalynets, Maria and Anna Sadovsky and other Ukrainian artists gathered together with the carolers. They went to congratulate their friends, among whom there were many outstanding Ukrainians.
And already on January 13, 1972, the KGB reported to the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Peter Shelest about the official start of the operation. Searches and detentions began in Kyiv and Lviv. Among those arrested in connection with the Block case were Vasyl Stus, Vyacheslav Chornovol, Yevgeny Sverstyuk, Ivan's granddaughter Franko Zinovia, Ivan Svetlichny and others.
Repressions continued even later. At the beginning of 1974, a secret denunciation was sent to the name of the new secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Volodymyr Scherbytskyi, about the preparation of New Year's carols by "individual nationalists".
The Soviet government applied already refined methods of pressure - wiretapping of telephone conversations, surveillance, strengthened militia units and "husbands" in places where carolers appeared. However, despite this, many people still remained loyal to traditions.
Materials and photos of this case, collected by the State Archive of the SBU, can be found at link
