Viacheslav Chornovil was originally a journalist before honing into his dissident values against the Soviet Union. His parents, who used to be teachers, have always been given backlash when facing their career. During the Soviet Union, it was common for educators and journalists to be given the title of a ‘nonstandard thinker’, which is the USSR’s label given to anyone who would differ from Stalin, the infamous dictator of the Soviet Union, and his ideals. By being named a 'nonstandard thinker', this title would impose a more struggling life, especially the more known it was throughout their community, (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine). Because of this label of ‘nonstandard thinking’, the public would often scare individual thinkers into converting into the USSR’s values. However, this did not scare Chornovil, and instead gave him more reason to resist Soviet power in order to support his parents. This label forced Chornovil to receive immense backlash from everyone surrounding him, and forced him to stray away from the public eye to remain with his job. Chornovil still wanted to find ways to show support for Ukraine’s independence, and so he decided to join the Ukrainian Helsinki Association (UHA). The UHA was an organization that would focus on ensuring Ukrainians’ independence from the Soviet Union by following the Helsinki Accords: a signed document containing principles that each country who signed should follow, which the USSR were breaking on multiple accounts. Because of the Soviet Union not following the doctrine on many occasions, the members of the UHA were able to combat the Soviet Union, and compelling them to stop from continuing various unjust acts (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine). Chornovil's resistance against the Soviet Union had ruined his life numerous times, from losing jobs to being sent to prison for separate occasions, and yet he risked his happiness to continue fighting, and joined organizations that desired Ukraine's independence. Chornovil’s perseverance to alter from the opinions of the public gave him the opportunity to collaborate with other like minded individuals, enhancing his way to give Ukraine freedom.

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Viacheslav Chornovil benefited from his stance as a publisher, and would often publish his dissident works in secret to influence his audience. This was ultimately noticed by the KGB, and they forced him to lose his job as the head of Молода Гвардія (a popular newspaper company), amongst other Ukrainian dissidents (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine). Although Chornovil understood that separating himself from public opinion would worsen many aspects of his life, he continued to fight for Ukraine and its separation from Russia. On November 15th, 1968, he was sentenced to three years in the Gulags for the “dissemination of slanderous fabrications that defame the Soviet social and state order" (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine). The use of the Gulags had skyrocketed during the period of Ukrainian resistance from the USSR, however Viacheslav Chornovil would prove that not even imprisonment can stop a Soviet dissident’s duty. The Gulags were a Soviet labor camp dedicated for compromising dissidents in order to halt their resistance against the Soviet Union. Gulags were purposely built for ensuring the prisoners’ decline in health, with various reports on receiving barely any access to food and water, nonstop labor, and horrid winters that the prisoners had to combat with no resources. This terrible environment, while worse than what the public momentarily thought, was the common outcome for many Ukrainian dissidents throughout this period. Still, Chornovil continued to fight for independence while knowing it is entirely possible for him to wound up there as well. The Gulags purposely gave no resources to its prisoners to keep journalists from documenting the events taking place inside. Because of this, Chornovil found ways to combat the Russian government, by instead going on the forty-eight day long hunger strike. He did this strike because he knew that attempting to publicize the Soviet Union’s unjust acts should not have resulted in being forced into confinement. Once being released after being given an amnesty (an act of forgiveness from past offenses), he was still not permitted to enter Ukraine. Even so, he continued to fight for Ukrainian rights. His continuous love for his country gave him strength to endure one of the most physically and emotionally straining parts of his life, and although he had countless people urging him to back down, he remained true to himself. Through dedication and patience, Viacheslav Chornovil was able to survive the Gulag, and would continue to strive for Ukraine's freedom.

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In order to expand his ideals onto western influence, Viacheslav Chornovil had to become covert with his writing to achieve having a larger audience. Лихо з Розуму, a document stated the numerous violations the Soviet Union had committed against ordinary Ukrainian citizens, became a global phenomenon through the use of illicit journalism. This work was an advancement for Ukrainian independence after both France and Canada began mass producing this chronicle to the public. These papers eventually changed its name to The Chornovil Papers (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine). The Chornovil Papers were essentially made to document the problems that the Soviet Union was momentarily enforcing that consequently took away basic rights from Ukrainians, and presented possible outcomes of what would happen if the Soviet Union would continue going down this path. Specifically, Chornovil used tactics such as embarking fears onto other countries in order for this document to become more recognized, because he knew the best way to make people listen was to imply how the Soviet Union expects to grow their authority onto other countries. Chornovil then published Що і як обстоює Б. Стенчук: 66 Відповіді “Інтернаціоналісти”, an essay that opposed Bohdan Stenchuk: an official Soviet Propaganda journalist. His writing throughout the essay was publicly praised, leading him to receive the Journalism Award from the London Times in 1975 (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine). Opposing Bohdan Stenchuk’s ideals about the USSR’s authority gave him global recognition, which would make him have a stronger impact and one step closer towards gaining independence. Chornovil receiving an award from the western popularization had progressed his goal for independence immensely because of receiving global support, as well as allowing individuals to recognize how badly the USSR had violated the Helsinki Accords. He continued to put his life at risk when succeeding to publish these illicit articles, while understanding his outcome is likely to become arrested once again. By covertly publishing his illicit documents towards both fellow Ukrainian dissidents and countries that feared Russia, he was able to weaken Russian authority, by inspiring a new wave of activism towards the youth. Without publicizing his cause through the use of illicit journalism, Chornovil would have never been able to successfully assist with ensuring Ukrainian independence, and so he was willing to continue sacrificing a comfortable life and remain to be hated under Soviet control.