Background
Mykhailo Nechay was born into a working-class family in 1930. Nechay called himself a descendant of polkovnik Danylo Nechay.
Mykhailo Nechay was born into a working-class family in 1930. Nechay called himself a descendant of polkovnik Danylo Nechay.
He graduated from the regimental school in Uman.
He served two years in the Soviet army in Armenia and Georgia. He lived in Verkhniy Yasenev, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. According to him, he discovered that he had the miraculous power to stop bleeding at the age of eight.
He became recognizable in Ukraine after 1989 when he became the first Chernovtsy molfar to be officially invited to the festival "Chervona Ruta" to ensure pleasant weather for the event.
Director Sergei Parajanov consulted Nechay before shooting for his film "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" to get a better understanding of the hutsul region and the hutsuls themselves. Actor Ivan Mykolaychuk consulted Nechay to learn how to play the drymba as Nechay was the head of the ethnographic folk ensemble, which was well known for playing drymby.
In March 2010, Nechay was given the title of Honored Worker of Ukraine Culture for his service of forty years, as the head of the drymbariv amateur band "Strings Cheremosha."
In 2007 and 2009, the studio "Character" created two films about Nechay «Мудрість карпатського мольфара». Nechay had two sons.
On the morning of 15 July 2011, Nechay was killed in his house.
According to witnesses, the suspected murderer had been trying for two days to get an appointment with molfar.
As soon as he got an opportunity to be alone with Nechay, he killed him. On his way out, the murderer told the people outside who were waiting in queue to meet Nechay that he did not wish to be disturbed for a while. Police investigations later revealed that the suspect was from the village Verkhniy Yasenev.
On the evening of 15 July 2011, a police officer from the Ivano-Frankivsk police department arrested the suspect in a wooded area near the village Bukovca.
More than one hundred law enforcement officers were involved in the search operation. The suspect was a 33-year-old man who appeared to have a mental illness and had previously been convicted of killing a woman.
After his release, he was treated for schizophrenia. According to several stories, on 25 February 2010 at the day of the inauguration of Viktor Yanukovych, molfar Nechay predicted the day of Viktor"s death:
Там у вас у Києві якогось пана сьогодні висвятив на царя.
Його вб’ють через три роки.
(There you have a master"s in Kiev today consecrated king He will be killed in three years).