Once this name was like a bomb that tore apart Lviv society: many could not believe that this person, without a passport and unnoticed by the GPU, could leave Solovki - through the entire Union! - to move abroad... Vitaly Yurchenko's real name is Yury Tymofiyovych Karas-Galynskyi. He was born in 1899 in the village of Tekucha, Uman district. He graduated from a real school, organized a branch of the "Enlightenment" society in his native village, participated in the Ukrainization of church life. After the defeat of the UNR, he remained a teacher, taught Ukrainian language and literature, and studied at the Institute of National Education. The activity and popularity of the village teacher soon attracted the attention of agents of the GPU. On October 31, 1929, he was arrested.He served his sentence in the Solovetsky camps, during the construction of the Kotlas - Ust-Sysolsk railway. On June 28, 1930, Yuriy escaped, traveled more than 5,000 km, crossed the border with Poland and settled in Lviv. In 1931–32, he published his memoirs "From the Notes of an Exile" in 3 parts - "On the Road to Solovki", "Hell on Earth", "In Usevlon of the OGPU and Escape from There".Yurchenko was the first in the world to describe the cost-free technology of extermination of people in concentration camps by the totalitarian regime.The writer's life ended tragically. During the war, he had connections with the local German commandant's office and helped Ukrainian marching groups by obtaining the necessary documents. There is a version that in the fall of 1942 he was shot by some armed men. To this day, it is not known for sure who it was: a Ukrainian fighter who believed that Yurchenko was a Polish agent, a Polish fighter who took revenge for his connections with the Germans, or a Bolshevik. Most likely, Yurchenko was killed on February 12 or 13, 1943 by Soviet partisans on the charge of writing slanders against the Soviet authorities.