Mykhailo Vasyliovych Kosiv was born to peasants Vasyl Stepanovych and Yulia Mykolaivna Kosiv on 28 December 1934 in the village of Olchówka, in the southern
Stanisławów Voivodeship of the
Second Polish Republic. Today, the village is known as
Vilkhivka, and it is located in Ukraine's western
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. He studied philology at the
University of Lviv from 1955 to 1960, and conducted post-graduate studies at the university's history of the Ukrainian language department. His
candidate of sciences thesis, "Science, journalism and fiction in the creative tradition of
I. Franko", was sent to rectors, but he was arrested before he was able to defend it. Several intellectuals from
Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, came to the city of
Lviv in 1962. Among them were poets
Ivan Drach, , and
Dmytro Pavlychko, literary critic
Ivan Dziuba, as well as an unsuccessful attempt by
Les Tanyuk and
Alla Horska to perform
Mykola Kulish's comedic play ''''. These events both agitated Lviv's young intelligentsia, leading Kosiv to found an equivalent to Kyiv's
Artistic Youths' Club. Many young members of the club, including
Bohdan and
Mykhailo Horyn,
Ivan Gel, and
Mykhaylo Osadchy, would later go on to become
Soviet dissidents. The club organised cultural events, such as a play based on the
Taras Shevchenko poem
Haidamaky. It took on a more ideological character than its Kyiv equivalent, arguing for the restoration of an independent Ukrainian state rather than human rights concerns. From 1970 to 1972 he was one of the three members of the editorial staff of
The Ukrainian Herald, alongside
Viacheslav Chornovil and
Yaroslav Kendzior. As a result, the Soviet government deprived him of the right to publish his own works for 15 years. == Political career ==