Executed Renaissance: How political repressions ruined an entire generation of Ukrainian writers
Their tragic fates
Introduction
We are all well aware of famous, renowned Russian writers and the works of Russian literature that are read by the majority. We are all well aware of numerous European and American writers, poets, and thinkers who have greatly contributed to each of the cultures they belong to, too, and are known worldwide.
And yet, for one reason or another, people know little to nothing about Ukrainian literature. Despite the fact that, as in every country with its own distinctive culture and features of individuality, its literary circles were always full of people from a wide variety of poetic styles who wrote equally interesting, fascinating lyrical, and prose works that deserve to be known. And yet, even with their enormous potential to become known internationally, the lives of writers of the “Executed Renaissance” were unfortunately cut short.
They were not given a chance to thrive.
This tragic period in Ukrainian history and literature, where throughout the 1920–the 1930s the Soviet regime repressed and executed approximately ~30.000 thousand Ukrainian intellectuals is regarded as the “Executed Renaissance”. Some of the most prominent Ukrainian minds who worked in art, poetry, cinematography, theatre, music, and more faced terrible deaths, because the views and outlooks portrayed in their works were different from those of the communist regime. Their ideas were considered counterrevolutionary because of their focus on Ukraine, on the question of Ukraine and its future, rather than on the bright outlook for the proletariat under the tutelage of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Their personal stories sound like something many of us could imagine to be only in the plot of an action movie. Drama, betrayal, internal conflicts, the war of values and priorities…
This article is going to talk about the emergence of this new poetic generation, its historical background, its most known representatives & their stories in greater detail.
Historical background
Ukrainian War of Independence
In order to talk about the Executed Reinaissance we should first dive deeper into its origins.
The generation of poets that would be later repressed emerged from the Ukrainian War of Independence — another crucial period in Ukrainian history that lasted from 1917 until 1921. After the events of the October Revolution in the Russian Empire occurred, and the government lost most of its control, Ukraine’s future leaders took it as an opportunity to make the country independent. Throughout the abovementioned period, many things have been changing — the governments within the country(from an autonomy to a monarchy, from a monarchy to a Republic), their structures and approaches, etc. One thing stayed the same, up until the Soviet occupation and creation of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic — every government was interested in keeping the culture alive.
Throughout the entire time of the Ukrainian War of Independence, despite the critical political and economic circumstances the state was in, inside it was thriving theatre, literature, and art in general. Just as much as there was increasing interest towards it. Ukrainian schools were opening in big cities and small towns. Books in Ukrainian began to be widely published. This, too, can be explained by the fact that the Ukrainian language and literature were oppressed in the Russian Empire, by acts such as the Ems Ukase or the Valuev Circular. Thus, the newly reached breath of freedom was… Refreshing.
One of the best examples would be the “Prosvita” organization — founded in Lviv, in 1868, long before the events described above, yet the one that also partook in bringing back Ukrainian culture & language into daily lives, having 952 offices across Ukraine by autumn 1917.
Many future poets who would become the victims of political repressions were participating in the Ukrainian Independence Wars or were thriving in the overall atmosphere of euphoria surrounding the revival and the upbringing of the Ukrainian culture.
“They were a new generation, carrying the burden of the victories and defeats in Ukraine’s struggle for independence. They had an understanding of Ukraine’s position in World History, as well as fresh and diverse ideas about the development of Ukrainian culture and literature “
— mentioned by a Ukrainian scholar and researcher Tamara Gundorova.
Some of these writers would be devoted communists, yet neither that could save them from their tragic fates.
Ukrainization in the USSR
Ukrainization policies were introduced shortly after the establishment of the Communist power in 1923 and lasted until 1933. They were pursued by the CP(Communist Party) of Ukraine in order to strengthen the image of the Soviet government in the eyes of Ukrainians and to gain their loyalty by supposedly “assisting” them with making the governmental institutions Ukrainian-speaking, actively recruiting Ukrainians into the Party, financially supporting non-Communist cultural institutions, etc.
This also included developing a pro-Communist Ukrainian intelligentsia that would play a key role in spreading the communist ideals, and its spirit, and influencing people through their works — knowingly or not.
Throughout this period the poets — uplifted by the surprising freedom they received from the government — created numerous literary associations(such as “Lanka”, “Pluh”. The most influential — “VAPLITE”). The main motifs of their works were independent thinking, rebellion, and beliefs in their personal ideas — it was the modernist literary approach.
The writers that have illuminated these features the most were the ones to be repressed first.
Personalities
The following chapter is going to talk about some of the most recognizable and known victims of the Stalinist repressions. Their destinies were intertwined in one way or another — they knew each other, through their acquaintances or personally. Most of them were friends and created together, some were members of the same literary organizations. The point is, that the repressive Soviet machine broke the lives of each of them in their way.
Some have succumbed to the pressure from the authorities, being unable to endure it mentally anymore, and began writing poems where they glorified the USSR. Some ended up imprisoned and later shot. Some have taken their own life from seeing their loved ones go.
Pavlo Tychyna
Pavlo Tychyna was one of the most promising, innovative modernist poets of the first half of the 20th century. Unfortunately, he is also a vivid example of a person who was morally broken by the Soviet repressive regime. He was the only writer who broke under the pressure of the secret services and began to write for the government. His personality is the subject of much controversy and discourse regarding his position and whether he is a “traitor” to this day.
Pavlo Tychyna was born on the 23rd of January, 1891, in the village of Pisky, located in the Chernihiv region. He was a talented writer, poet, publicist, politician, activist, and translator, and single-handedly managed to learn almost 20 languages at a proficient level. His thoughts and feelings throughout different stages of his life can be easily traced through collections of his poetry, depending on the year of publication.
He began his writing career and published the first volume of his poems in 1919, in Kyiv, amidst the atmosphere of national and cultural revival, upbringing, and the euphoria around it. The name of the volume was “Solar Clarinets”, and it might be the best reflection of his true worldview — with his most sincere thoughts in it, and his innocent nature still intact. His earlier works also revealed a strong symbolist influence.
Tychyna remained an independent poet throughout the 1920s, which is still resembled in his other works: “Instead of Sonnets and Octaves”, “In the Cosmic Orchestra”. In 1923 he moved to Kharkiv and began to live in the house “Slovo” along with other prominent poets of this period. He joined “VAPLITE” under the leadership of Mykola Khvylovy, was heavily criticized for this decision, and accused of “bourgeois nationalism”, which forced him to go silent for a certain period of time.
Tychyna eventually succumbed to the pressure from the Communist party in the 1930s, after several years of resisting it, absolutely desperate. He had to witness his friends and loved ones get arrested and repressed. Mykola Khvylovy, one of his friends, shot himself in his apartment. Pavlo Tychyna felt threatened and pressured, especially considering his past during the Ukrainian Independence Wars that was regularly brought up against him. This moral strain on his mental health caused him to eventually break down — that’s how he became one of the “pawns” of the Soviet regime, writing poems on demand. The degradation of his self in his works began with the poems “The Party is Our Guide”(1934), and “To Grow and Act”(1949).
Tychyna would be remembered by most as a Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, the author of the lyrics for the anthem of the Ukrainian SSR, Minister of Education of the Ukrainian SSR, and a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He would be known as the “loyal servant” of the Communist Party and considered a traitor by some of his fellow colleagues, and would hopelessly try to redeem himself by financially helping other literary organizations and poets. He got recognition and wealth, and would be a role model for the next generation of Ukrainian writers, yet for an incomparable price… The thing is, he never wanted it.
He became a broken clarinet.
Mykola Khvylovy
Mykola Khvylovy is one of the most recognizable writers of the period — one of the founders of post-revolutionary Ukrainian prose. He was born on the 13th of December, 1893, in Trostianets village of the Kharkiv region(now the Sumy Oblast’).
It is difficult to write about his transformation as a person. However, one of the foundations of his personality lies in the evolution of his views.
In pre-revolutionary times, Mykola Khvylovy had problems because of his ties to the socialist circles — at one point, he was expelled from the Bohodukhiv gymnasium where he studied because of his ties to them during the revolutionary unrest.
During the Ukrainian Independence Wars(1917–1921) and the First World War, Mykola Khvylovy formed as a committed communist. At the head of an insurgent group that he organized in late 1918 in the Kharkiv region, he fought against the Germans, as well as against the Hetmanate(the monarchist government), and the UPR(Ukrainian People’s Republic that came after the monarchy) army.
After his long revolutionary history, he moved to Kharkiv — the literary capital of the time — in 1921. In the same year, he begins publishing in newspapers and magazines. He actively declares himself as one of the organizers of literary and artistic life, a founding member of many literary organizations of the period. I have mentioned before his affiliation with “VAPLITE”(1924) that he had founded. He was also an active member of VUSPP(1927) and of the “Prolitfront”(1930).
An important mention should be made about his views and their transition, as they play a key part in how Mykola Khvylovy met his end. He was a fierce supporter of the abovementioned Ukrainization policies and opposed the Russification vector of the Ukrainian-Soviet culture’s development, generally advocating for Ukrainian society. He was sparkling numerous literary debates and discussions throughout 1925–1928 with his controversial(for the time) articles, printed in the journals. In these works, he demanded that the new Ukrainian literature stops imitating Moscow. He believed that Europe’s leading role in the cultural process should be replaced by a “Eurasian Renaissance”, in which the modern Ukrainian culture would play a leading role.
These works, and his future romances where his characters, just like him, were tirelessly polemicizing, seeking answers to the most pressing questions of the day, and raising painful problems of national existence, would be ridiculed and become the victims of heavy criticism.
He tried to explain his slogans — to those that were perceived as controversial(for the time and the regime, they most likely were); tried to explain to his opponents that he did not promote the idea of breaking economic and political ties with Soviet Russia — however, the debate took on a political tone, so cultural issues were no longer taken into account by anyone.
Joseph Stalin personally pointed to Kvylyovyi’s speeches and called them those that spread an “anti-russian” sentiment in Ukraine in one of his letters addressed to comrade Kaganovitch and other members of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks(a letter from April 26, 1926).
In an attempt to save the VAPLITE from dissolution, Khvylovyi was forced to publicly condemn his views and renounce them in 1926–1928.
Then the secret police began to closely monitor his activities.
“Mykola Khvylovy is a certain set of traits, an armed enemy, a nationalism that is beyond anything else, a phenomenon that has its own weight and is therefore very dangerous.” — Stanislav Kosior.
As a result, Mykola Khvylovy was almost completely isolated from literary life by the Soviet regime by 1931 despite his effort to “fit into the Party line”.
Following the arrests of some of his fellow colleagues, as a form of protest against the beginning of mass repressions, he shot himself in his apartment in the house “Slovo”(where many poets of the literary movement lived) on May 13, 1933, in Kharkiv.
Volodymyr Sosiura
Volodymyr Sosiura was born on 6'th January 1898, in Debaltseve, Donetsk region. Was a talented writer and translator, and author of over 40 volumes of his own poetry. He himself represents a pleiad of artists inspired by the ideas of the Ukrainian Liberation Wars, as someone who has fought in them on the side of the Ukrainian People’s Republic.
He loved Ukraine from an early age, which would also push him to join its side in the Independence Wars. Sosiura’s political disagreements with his first wife and her chauvinistic views were one of the reasons for their divorce, as he wrote in one of his later poems:
“We met in May,
before I knew what an idea meant.
You didn’t like my Ukraine
even then, you laughed at it.”
After the beginning of the Soviet occupation of Ukraine, he studied at the Communist University in Kharkiv(1922–1923). He also belonged to the literary organizations “Pluh”, “Hart”, “VAPLITE”(indeed the ones under the leadership of Mykola Khvylovy), and VUSPP. Sosiura’s early works contain themes of love, happiness, and tears, and are generally full of emotion. Just like him.
His early works also express the duality of a typical contradictory Ukrainian intellectual of the 1920s, where they cannot combine or choose between their devotion to the Bolshevik revolution and their sense of national duty for their people and place of birth. It was a common issue for many poets and literary personalities of that time, as we have seen even with Mykola Khvylovy(although, he tried to combine the two and became a target).
Some of these caused conflicts between him and the communist party at the beginning of the 1930s, and for one of his volumes(specifically: “A Heart”) to be banned. This, and the starvation of millions of Ukrainians during Holodomor, along with political repressions that impacted Sosiura, his friends, and close people brought him to the brink of a mental disorder.
Another tragedy of his life was the betrayal of no one else, but his second wife — Maria Danilova, who turned out to be secretly denouncing him to the KGB(they got married in 1931, and 10 years after she was recruited by the NKVD, while in evacuation in Ufa during WWII).
“No denunciations by Maria Sosiura could be found in Ukrainian archives, but the fact that she wrote them became known thanks to a case opened on charges of disclosing state secrets. Maria “revealed” herself first to her husband, and then to several other acquaintances.” — Radio Svoboda.
If it wasn’t for Maria writing a letter to the head of the Writers’ Union of the Ukrainian SSR, Oleksandr Korniichuk, she would have gotten away with it.
“Now, before the congress, I have to work on several candidates so that I don’t get into trouble at the congress. But there is a lot of talk around me that I am this and that… maybe I am not a good conspirator. The place of my appearance: Teatralny Hotel, room 26. Maybe someone saw me entering and leaving the hotel… But don’t believe anything about me, that I am immoral, depraved, etc… In short, what I have revealed to you is a state secret for which I can pay with my life I took an oath. I have entrusted you with my life. If I reveal myself, I will be killed by nationalists. If you reveal me, I will be killed by the Soviet government.” — From the abovementioned letter.
In 1949, Maria was arrested for disclosing state secrets and exiled to Kazakhstan. Five years later, she returned and found out that Volodymyr had remarried. For the sake of Maria, he divorced his third wife and returned to her. They lived together until the end of the poet’s life.
Sosiura survived the political repressions of the 1930s; he also survived the Second World War and lived until 1965, passing away at the age of 67. Yet, being witness to people close to him being exiled, or killed, and being betrayed himself by his wife took a toll on him.
Despite being awarded the “Stalin Prize”(the highest honor at the time), he still got heavily criticized later for his poem “Love Ukraine” in 1951 and was accused of “bourgeois nationalism”.
Volodymyr Sosiura was also hospitalized in psychiatric institutions on several occasions, without real reason or a serious underlying issue behind it.
He passed away on the 8th of January, 1965.
Conclusions
What lessons can we make from this? From the tragic fates of those affected by it? How can we prevent this from happening again? Those are rhetorical questions.
I guess that the main point is that whatever you do to try and pacify the monster(in this situation — the Soviet regime), you will eventually become one of its victims. You can choose: to fight openly, fiercely and die faster, or to give in and slowly fade into oblivion, and to lose yourself as a person. You can be a believer, and be a communist yourself — the moment you speak about your country’s future within the system and it goes past the acceptable limits, you become targeted. We saw this with Khvylovy — no matter how big of a communist he was, his risky slogans and somewhat reckless(for a totalitarian regime) ideas made him a target to attract bullets.
We saw that with Tychyna — a naive, prosperous young writer turned into a “court poet”, driven by fear and broken morally. The words of the anthem for the Ukrainian SSR, written by him, were written by a different Pavlo Tychyna — someone he had become after his light was taken from him. By someone who was no longer naive and innocent. They were not his real words or thoughts — they were written down on demand.
Volodymyr Sosiura is somewhat different — although, he is also a good example of someone who can have a bright light in themselves and lose it once they go through the tyrannical system the USSR was. He was not as well-regarded and held in high demand by the authorities as Tychyna was, was ridiculed for the undying patriotism that he carried through his life — from youth until death — and yet, he remained neutral. For the sake of saving his life. And still, he was under constant supervision — sometimes under supervision from someone he couldn’t suspect at all.
The lessons you take from this article depend on you, dear reader. It(the article) is quite surfaced and introductory, for there have been many, many more victims of repressions, and writers among them… One article would be unable to fit in all of them and their full biographies. Although, you are always welcome to go to the Encyclopaedia of Ukraine and learn about it. And about these personalities.
I do sincerely hope that this introductory article was found helpful and interesting. Should you wish to take a look at the bibliography used to compose and write it, you are always welcome to visit my Ko-Fi page(from now full bibliographies, with sources that have not been mentioned in articles with a link will be available here).
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