Illia Oberyshyn

Ilya Stepanovych Oberyshyn was a Ukrainian soldier who fought against both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union as a part of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the 1940s. He became a fugitive in the Soviet Union as a result of the fighting and went into hiding in 1951. Oberyshyn was not able to get a job, get married, or visit a hospital as a result. He also faced imminent arrest for not having a Soviet passport, which he burned in 1944. It was only after hearing the results of the Ukrainian independence referendum in December 1991 when he came out of hiding and turned himself in to the Ukrainian authorities. He then lived an active political and social life until he died in 2007.