John Kolasky

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John Kolasky, born John Koliaska (Ivan Vasyliovych Koliaska; October 5, 1915 – October 20, 1997), was a Canadian-Ukrainian historian and activist. He was born in Cobalt, Ontario, to Ukrainian Canadian parents and grew up near Timmins. His surname was later changed to Kolasky. After the Great Depression, he worked various jobs and joined the Communist Party of Canada. He studied history at the University of Saskatchewan (graduating in 1948) and the University of Toronto (1950).

In 1963, the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians sent him to study at the Higher Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. In Ukraine he witnessed Russification and began distributing samizdat about it. He was arrested in 1965 and deported back to Canada. He wrote Education in Soviet Ukraine (1968) and Two Years in Soviet Ukraine (1970), which discussed Soviet oppression and dissidents. He was expelled from the AUUC and the CPC, but continued to publish and translate works, including Valentyn Moroz’s Report from the Beria Reserve (1974). He supported the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and later the Ukrainian Republican Party.

After Ukraine’s 1989–1991 revolution, Kolasky moved to Ukraine and lived with Levko Lukianenko. He died on October 20, 1997, in Khotiv or Kyiv, at age 82.