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.[1]
Kosiv was arrested on 27 September 1965 as part of the 1965–1966 Ukrainian purge and charged with anti-Soviet agitation. On 6 March 1966 he was released on the basis of illness and a lack of evidence against him, and he began working as a teacher. He started working at the Lviv History Museum [uk] in 1969, where he remained until 1989.[2] 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.[3] As a result, the Soviet government deprived him of the right to publish his own works for 15 years.[2]
Kosiv was re-elected in 1994,[6]1998, and 2002. Following the 1999 split in Rukh, he maintained his membership in the original iteration of the party until May 2001, when he joined the Reforms and Order Party. From 1994 to 2006 he was head of the Verkhovna Rada Cultural and Spiritual Committee.[7]
Since his retirement from the Verkhovna Rada, Kosiv has continued to take an active part in politics. Along with fellow politicians Kendzior, Volodymyr Parubii, and Oksana Yurynets [uk], he spoke out against the Russian information war against Ukraine and created a programme to be aired on Suspilne Lviv [uk] regarding the information war before it was abruptly cancelled under unclear circumstances.[9]
In 2024 Kosiv expressed opposition to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy retaining power amidst martial law in Ukraine and the Russian invasion, and referred to him ruling beyond the five-year term proscribed under non-martial law conditions as an "arbitrary seizure of power".[10]