Conductor Levko Dohovič died at the age of 90. This was confirmed on the social network by the Ukrainian National Choir of the Carpathians, which Dohovič founded, led and conducted. A native of Transcarpathia, also referred to as the “conductor from the gulag”, died on Friday (December 5).
“It is with deep sorrow that we bring the sad news that on December 5, 2025, Levko Dohovič, the ‘conductor from the gulag’, left forever and was called to a glorious resurrection in eternity in faith and hope,” said the choir. Dohovič was the honorary chairman of the European Congress of Ukrainians and the Ukrainian scout organization PLAST in Slovakia.
At the same time, he was the founder and conductor of several, not only Ukrainian choirs and ensembles in Slovakia, but also abroad. “He was above all a great personality and one of the most important cultural figures of Ukrainians in Slovakia, who dedicated his entire life to his native Ukrainian nation,” adds the choir, saying that they will bring more information about the final farewell soon.
Dohovič was born on September 29, 1935 in Uzhhorod in the family of a Greek Catholic priest. This year, he received an award from the Institute of National Memory (ÚPN) for his resistance to undemocratic regimes and the fight for the restoration of freedom and democracy. Already in 1944, he helped his father, a Greek Catholic priest, before he was persecuted by the NKVD and when he emigrated from Ukraine to Slovakia.
From October 1948 to February 1950, he was a member of an illegal anti-Soviet resistance organization. “For mass agitation against communism and for high treason, he was sentenced to ten years of forced labor in correctional and educational camps in the Soviet Union. He was sentenced to another 20 years of forced labor for attempting to escape and participating in a prisoner strike. He was released in July 1956, and the following year he traveled to Czechoslovakia with his mother, where he worked and studied. In 1971, as part of because of the persecution, he was forbidden to lead choirs and work with youth, and until the fall of the regime he worked as a part-time worker under the supervision of the ŠtB,” explained the ÚPN.
