# Les Tanyuk

Leonid Stepanovych Tanyuk (Ukrainian: Леонід Степанович Танюк 7 August 1938 – 18 March 2016) was a Ukrainian theatre and film director, Soviet dissident and politician. A founder of the Artistic Youths' Club in the 1960s, Tanyuk was a People's Deputy of Ukraine from 1990 to 2007, representing Kyiv, Drohobych and Ukraine's 166th electoral district for the People's Movement of Ukraine before being elected on the proportional list of the Our Ukraine Bloc.
He was a husband of Nelli Korniyenko, a native of Khabarovsk and merited worker of arts of Ukraine.

## Early life

Leonid Stepanovych Tanyuk was born in the village of Zhukyn [uk] within Ukraine's central Kyiv Oblast, then part of the Soviet Union. He was the son of Stepan Samiilovych Tanyuk, a teacher of the Ukrainian language and literature. His mother was Natalia Mykolaivna, also a language teacher.
As a child, Tanyuk was imprisoned in several Nazi concentration camps, as his father had been a leader of the communist underground in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. His father had been spared from immediate execution as his own father (Tanyuk's paternal grandfather) had been killed during the Great Purge. Tanyuk was at one point separated from his family; he was only returned to his parents after the conclusion of World War II. Following the war, Tanyuk and his family returned to Ukraine, but were not allowed to live in Kyiv. They returned to his father's hometown of Lutsk.
He studied at the National University of Theatre, Film and TV in Kyiv.

## Dissident activities

In 1959, Tanyuk was one of the founders of the Artistic Youths' Club in Kyiv. He was elected the club's first president. Under his leadership, the group was active in promoting Ukrainian culture and protesting Soviet totalitarianism. He and other members were made demands to the Soviet authorities to preserve Churches and other monuments that faced destruction. In 1962, he and fellow members Vasyl Symonenko and Alla Horska were sent to investigate information about mass graves in Bykivnia from the 1930s terror implemented by Joseph Stalin. After questioning the locals, they wrote a letter to the authorities demanding an investigation into the executions and the burials. It was at this point that the Soviets began to exert strong pressure on the club, and Tanyuk was removed as president, though he effectively continued to lead the organization until it was closed in 1964.
During the early 1960s, Tanyuk travelled around Ukraine and produced numerous drama productions, which were later banned. He also established clubs similar to the Artistic Youths' Club outside of Kyiv.

## Activities after Ukrainian independence

From 1991 until his death, Tanyuk was Chairman of the Union of Theatrical Figures of Ukraine.
In the 1990 Ukrainian parliamentary election Tanyuk was elected to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament), representing Kyiv's Vatutinskyi District (now known as Desnianskyi District). He was reelected in the 1994 parliamentary election as the People's Deputy for the city of Drohobych, in Lviv Oblast, and in the 1998 parliamentary election for Ukraine's 166th electoral district, located in Ternopil Oblast. In all three elections he was elected as a member of the People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh). Tanyuk was reelected in 2002 and 2006 as the 12th and 14th candidate on the proportional representative list of the Our Ukraine Bloc, a coalition that Rukh was a member of.
Tanyuk died on 18 March 2016; the cause of death was not disclosed.