UCRAINA

UKRAINE. -

I. GEOGRAPHY

One of the 16 federated republics that make up the U.S.S.R., admitted to the Union on 30 Dec. 1922 (abbreviation: U.S.S.R.). Its territory, which covered 445,300 sq. km. in 1939, expanded to the current 576,000 sq. km. (more than 1/10 of European Russia) following the annexations that took place after the Second World War: Galicia (from eastern Poland), Transcarpathian Ruthenia (from Czechoslovakia), Bessarabia and northern Bukovina (from Romania).

Ukraine corresponds to a natural region that marks the transition from the broadleaf forests of southern Russia to the arid steppes of the southeast, from the Central European plain to the lands of the lower Don, which foreshadow nearby Asia; and at the same time it is a historical region on the border between the Mediterranean world and the Slavic world, between Catholicism and Russian Orthodoxy, a battleground between Europeans and Asiatics; and, taken as a whole, a country of recent colonization.

Its landscape is that of a vast plain, which slopes gently down toward the Black Sea, barely disturbed by the incisions carved by the watercourses flowing into the Dnieper, the Don, and the Donets; and it corresponds to the area in which the average annual precipitation remains between 300 and 450 mm., i.e., a semi-arid sector whose typical spontaneous vegetation—the steppe—gradually becomes impoverished toward the southeast. On the other hand, toward the northwest, the steppe gives way to the broadleaf forest of central Russia, which covers more than 1/5 of Ukraine’s surface (provinces of Kiev, Chernigov, and Volhynia).

Within the Soviet Union as a whole, as it was in tsarist Russia, Ukraine represents above all a reserve of agricultural products. The original steppe has long since been converted into one of the most productive grain-growing regions of Eastern Europe, thanks to the fertility of its soil, the chernozem (or black earth): occupying only about 1/7 of the surface area devoted in the Soviet Union to grain cultivation, Ukraine alone provides more than a quarter of the production (100 million quintals; in addition to 30 million quintals of rye, 35 of oats, 25 of maize, etc.). Also noteworthy, and recently expanding, are the cultivation of cotton (1/7 of the cultivated area in the U.S.S.R.) and of sugar beet; as well as those of flax, tobacco, sunflower, and fruit trees. The importance of livestock farming, however, remains relatively modest, though it still accounts for 8 million head of cattle, 3–4 million sheep, and an equal number of horses.

No less significant is Ukraine’s role in the industrial production of the U.S.S.R. The southern regions of Ukraine indeed possess substantial mineral resources. The Donbas, or Donets Basin (covering 23,000 sq. km.), though it holds only 6% of the Union’s coal reserves, supplies it with 2/3 of its production; while a little to the west, in the Kryvy Rih (Dnieper) area, iron is extracted (21 million tons available), and at Nikopol manganese; and in addition bauxite near Mariupol, graphite at Uman, and lignite in several places, not to mention the oil of Galicia. Industrial expansion is further aided by the availability of electric power, whose vast installations (Dnieper, with 800,000 kW of installed capacity) are also located near the mines from which the raw materials are extracted. Among the industries, metallurgical ones dominate (38% of pig iron, 25% of steel, 26% of rolled products produced in the U.S.S.R.), along with mechanical industries (tractors, agricultural machinery, railway equipment, etc.), but other branches are also represented, including food processing and chemicals, which are noteworthy for their importance.

The average population density (71 per sq. km.) is the highest among the federated Soviet republics; in the industrial district of the southeast, between the Dnieper and the Donets, local figures rise to more than 150–200 inhabitants per sq. km., an exceptional value within the U.S.S.R. The population tends increasingly to concentrate in the industrial regions and, in general, in the major urban centers, whose number has now reached about twenty. Two of these have more than one million inhabitants each: Kiev, the historic capital, and Kharkov, the industrial capital; three have more than 500,000: Odessa, the most important port on the Black Sea, Dnepropetrovsk and Stalino, both large industrial complexes, and at least six have more than 200,000: Lviv in Galicia, Zaporozhye, Makeyevka, Mariupol, Voroshilovgrad, and Kryvyi Rih.

Because of its geographical position and history, Ukraine is, of all the federated units of the U.S.S.R., the one closest to Europe and the one that, after the Great Russians, possesses most fully the characteristic elements (tradition, culture, language, and literature) of a distinct nationality within the ethnic mosaic of the Soviet Union.

II. CIVIL HISTORY

I. Name

Over the centuries the name of this territory has changed several times for internal or external political reasons (Rusj, Ukraina, Malorossija). Herodotus calls it Scythia; from the 4th century it comes under the name Sarmatia. In the 2nd–3rd centuries A.D. it is called Roxolania. On maps compiled between the 14th and 16th centuries it is called Cumania, Comania, but also Sarmatia, Ruthenia, Russia (cf. the maps of Marino Sanuto 1320, Paolo Torlani 1565, etc.). But the names still in use today are Rusj (Russia) and Ukraine.

The patriarchs of Constantinople used the terms Magna Russia (Μεγάλη Ρωσσία) for the north and Parva Russia (Μικρά Ρωσσία) for the southern Ukrainian region. This administrative-ecclesiastical distinction was subsequently adopted by some writers; only after Ukraine’s federation with Muscovy in 1654 did the tsar style himself tsar of Great and Little Russia (from the Greek Ρωσσία, not from the ancient Rusj). In time this name became increasingly distasteful to Ukrainians. After Russia officially changed its name from Muscovy to Russia (Rossija) in the 17th century, the name Ukraine became ever more firmly established. There are official documents in which almost all the Ukrainian provinces are occasionally designated by this name (letters and appeals of the kings of Poland). From the early 17th century it was in use among the Cossacks (Konasevčič, 15 Feb. 1622). In 1654 (3 Jan.) it is called “Ukraine, our homeland,” and in 1658 “Rusj” and “Ukraine” are equated (Vyhovskyj in negotiations with the Swedes). 19th-century writers commonly used it (Shevchenko). With the proclamation of the independence of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (20 Nov. 1917; 22 Jan. 1918) and of the West Ukrainian People’s Republic (10 Nov. 1918), and later with the creation of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the name was officially recognized. After the proclamation of Carpathian Ukraine as an independent state (15 Mar. 1939), the name Ukraine officially encompassed the entire ethnographic territory.

2. Position and Ethnography

Between the 21st–45th east meridians and 43rd–53rd north parallels, Ukraine borders the Black Sea from the Danube delta to the Caucasus (ca. 1,800 km). All other geographical frontiers are open. Ethnographically, it borders Romania (900 km), Hungary (100 km), Slovakia (200 km), Poland (ca. 550 km), Belarus (1,000 km), Russia (700 km), and the Don Cossacks (750 km). The mixed Ukrainian territory under the Caucasus borders the Kalmyks (400 km), Dagestan (250 km), and the peoples of the Caucasus (ca. 600 km). These frontiers, as they existed before 1939, have shifted considerably over the centuries. Political frontiers and ethnographic boundaries of Ukraine have never coincided during the past millennium. The Kievan State (10th–12th centuries) extended beyond ethnographic boundaries (under Volodymyr, ca. 3 million sq. km). The Cossack Hetmanate (17th–18th centuries) encompassed 200,000–300,000 sq. km. In the period 1917–21, Ukraine covered more than 630,000 sq. km; the USSR (now 576,000 sq. km) includes three-quarters of the entire ethnographic territory and four-fifths of the people, among its 41 million inhabitants. The entire ethnographic territory, both within and outside the USSR, including mixed territories, comprises 945,000 sq. km, with 55 million inhabitants. About 5 million Ukrainians live in Asia, Western and Central Europe, and America as colonists or political émigrés.

3. Historical Development

Ukraine was inhabited from prehistoric times. Written sources mention the Cimmerians, then from the 7th century BC the Scythians; from the 6th century BC dense Greek colonies were established on the Black Sea coast. From the 4th century AD the local population is known as the Antes, mentioned in the 6th century by Jordanes and Procopius. Their organization is uncertain; an oligarchy of tribal princes. After two more centuries of obscurity, the Antes withdrew further north. In the 9th century, various tribes appear in history, later forming the State of the Rurikids of Kiev and developing into three distinct ethnic and state groups: Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.

In the second half of the 9th century, Scandinavian Normans descended the Dnipro and settled midway (Kiev). The first historical prince of Kiev was Oleh (882–912), who captured Kiev (882), fought the Byzantines (907, 911), and left the Kievan State to his son Ihor (912–945). Ihor concluded a political-commercial treaty with Byzantium in 944. His widow Olha (945–64) attended to internal affairs. The advance of Christianity at Kiev led her to baptism (955–57), but her son Sviatoslav I restored paganism, fighting the Bulgars and Greeks. After his tragic death (972), the kingdom was divided among his sons, and after fratricidal strife, Volodymyr (972–1015) emerged victorious, converting his people to Christianity (987–99). His State (ca. 3 million sq. km) was again divided among his sons after his death until Yaroslav the Wise reunited it, fighting Byzantines, Poles, and Mongols. By 1054, his sons resumed internecine strife: Iziaslav I relied on the West, the princes of Pereiaslav on Byzantium, and the princes of Chernihiv sought ties to the north. In 1075, Gregory VII crowned Iziaslav’s son, Yaropolk, in Rome. By the late 11th century, the Byzantine branch of Vsevolod prevailed. His son Volodymyr Monomakh restored the State to its former glory, but his successors could not maintain his achievements. Between 1145–55, a struggle ensued between the southern and northern regions of Vladimir. Soon after, the North gained the upper hand over the South, culminating in the sack of Kiev (1169). Kiev’s glory declined irreparably despite efforts by some princes (e.g., Roman of Halych [1190–1205], Sviatoslav III [1175–94]), and the history of individual regions began.

The Tatar invasion, victorious in 1223, prevented the restoration of the ancient Kievan State. Then, in 1237–41, they irreparably divided this territory into two parts: the northeast (Moscow) and the southwest (Ukraine, Halych). The prince of the latter sought to resist with the—alas, only moral—support of the West (coronation by Innocent IV, 1253) and, despite defeat and humiliation, managed to organize the State of Galicia and Volhynia, which lasted until the mid-14th century. The northern princes saved themselves by collaborating with the Tatars.

The princes of Halych, who dominated Ukrainian territory almost as far as Kiev and beyond, strove to develop the Ukrainian State through continuous struggles with the Tatars, Lithuanians, and Poles. However, upon the extinction of the dynasty, Lithuania and Poland took political control of the territory. Lithuania, in turn, underwent significant cultural influence from Ukraine. The Union of Horodło (1413) between Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine aimed at a federation under the Jagiellonian dynasty (1377–1433), which reigned until 1572. Ukraine remained partly under Lithuanian grand dukes and partly under Polish kings. With the Ecumenical Union of Florence (1439), Ukraine sought to achieve parity even in religious matters. The union did not collapse on its own in the first decades of the 16th century under the political, cultural, and religious pressure of Latin Poland-Lithuania until the Union of Lublin (1569) transformed the personal union between Poland and Lithuania into a real union, and many Ukrainian lands were transferred from Lithuania to Poland, remaining open to Polish influence.

The Ukrainians found themselves forced to retreat into the Black Sea steppe, traversed by the Tatars; thus, the Cossack movement developed. These were men of various classes who chose freedom outside the Polish State. For defense against the Tatars, they organized into groups (sich) and sought a modus vivendi with the State. Early successes came under King Stefan; soon after, Venetians, Austrians, and even the Holy See sought to use them as a vanguard against the Turkish threat. Their daring raids as far as the gates of Istanbul created an aura of glory around them. Generally, the government’s policy toward the Cossacks was unfortunate. The Polish magnates saw a danger in the proximity of this democratic and independentist movement. Thus, a series of internecine struggles ensued between the two sides (1625–40); until, in the decade 1640–50, a revolt against Poland broke out, victorious under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnytsky. The new king of Poland granted various privileges and removed obstacles, but the struggle flared up again with varying outcomes. After unsuccessful negotiations with Turkey, Sweden, and Moldavia, B. Khmelnytsky allied with Muscovy (1654), driven by religious reasons. Since 1620, the Cossacks had considered themselves the protectors of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church against Latin Catholicism and fought the Union of Brest (1596), as an instrument of Poland; in the period 1648–50, they demanded its abolition from Poland as compensation for political peace.

JOHANN MAZZEPPA (1687–1709), relying on Muscovy, which at the time of this union began to be habitually called “Russia,” reorganized the territory, promoted cultural development and a certain agitation by in some way creating a ruling class. During the war of Tsar PETER I (1687–1725) with King CHARLES XII of Sweden he remained on the sidelines, seeking an opportunity to break away from Muscovy and proclaim his own independence. On the eve of the Battle of Poltava he joined Charles XII, and after the defeat fled to Turkey. His successor, PHILIP ORLYK (1710–40), later converted to Catholicism and vainly sought to interest Europe in the fate of Ukraine. Peter I reinstated hetmans obedient to Russia, then entrusted the administration of Ukraine to a so-called “College” under the presidency of Muscovite generals. ELISABETH (1741–62) reinstated the hetmanate (C. ROZUMOVSKY, 1750–64), but CATHERINE II suppressed that semblance of independence (1764) and aimed at the complete suppression of Ukrainian national and social freedoms.

The part of Ukraine on the right bank of the Dnieper, excluding Kiev, after the Peace of Andrusovo between Poland and Muscovy (1667) returned to Poland. The development of Ukrainian Catholicism in that region saved it from complete assimilation to Polish administration and culture. The head of the nation was the metropolitan of the Ukrainian Church. But mounting social and administrative pressure provoked in the second half of the 18th century in Ukraine a popular uprising (haidamak movement, 1768), which was repressed by Poland and Muscovy. Muscovy occupied the part of Ukrainian territory subject to Polish rule since 1667. A small portion passed under Austrian rule (1772) and thereafter had its own history.

A few years later the territory was divided into governorships, the land with the peasants was assigned to the favorites of the Tsarina. By the end of her reign even the Ukrainian Catholic Church was liquidated, just as in 1685 the non-united Ukrainian Church had been subjected to the Patriarch of Moscow. The reign of PAUL I and ALEXANDER I brought some easing of centralization in Ukraine, but under the reign of NICHOLAS I (1825–55) the watchwords were autocracy, orthodoxy, and nationalism. At the same time

a national awakening began, patriotic traditions were cultivated, the powerful poetry of SHEVCHENKO was heard, though later suppressed by a ban on publication in the Ukrainian language (1876). Secret societies arose (Society of Cyril and Methodius), a revolutionary movement developed, while the peasants demanded land (1861). After the revolution of 1905 political parties emerged (democratic, republican, radical, social, etc.) which, after the fall of the tsars (1917), entered the political life of Ukraine.

Western Ukraine under Austria faced difficulties in coexistence with the Poles, and the government of Vienna fostered a crisis in 1848. With the abolition of serfdom, the “springtime of the peoples” was felt among the Ukrainians as well, prepared in the first half of the century through popular and higher schools, the literary revival (1837), and the creation of the Halych Metropolia. In the second half of the century this revival was hindered by Polish pressures on the Vienna government and by the Russophile movement, fostered and developed by Russia. Nevertheless, a national press began, political parties arose (radical, popular, democratic-nationalist, democratic-socialist). Parliamentary life began (1867) and the struggle for a Ukrainian university in Lviv. The same occurred, though with a slight delay, in Carpathian Ukraine under Hungarian rule, and in Bukovina.

Toward the end of the First World War, both in Kiev and in Lviv the realization of national independence seemed imminent. From March 1917 in Kiev successive congresses of various parties were held. A Central Council was formed, followed by trade union congresses. After the communists took power in Moscow, full independence of Ukraine was proclaimed, a separate peace was signed with the Central Powers (9 Nov. 1918), and the communist threat was repelled with German help (the period of SKOROPADSKYJ). But with the German demobilization, the communists advanced. At the same time in the western part, subject to Austria, after the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, the Western Ukrainian Republic was proclaimed, which on 22 Jan. 1919 united with the eastern part, also uniting its defensive efforts against the Bolsheviks, against Polish aggression, and against the Russian White generals. In 1920 an agreement was signed with Poland and Kiev was reconquered. But a new communist advance pushed Ukrainian armies westward. Warsaw was threatened and saved by joint efforts. Poland made peace with the communists at Riga (18 Nov. 1922). Galicia and Volhynia passed to the Poles; eastern Ukraine became the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic with its own government, which was gradually reduced to a satellite of Russia and joined with other Soviet Socialist Republics in the Soviet Union (10 May 1923); Carpathian Ukraine in these circumstances joined Czechoslovakia with a guarantee of autonomy (10 Sept. 1919). Bukovina was assigned to Romania by the Paris Peace Conference.

In Soviet Ukraine, after the famine of 1921–22 and the New Economic Policy (NEP), collectivization and industrialization followed, along with the subsequent famine of 1933, the operations against the bourgeoisie, the “nationalists,” and deviationist communists.

In Poland every attempt to obtain autonomy remained sterile. Despite Warsaw’s centralist regime, however, cultural and economic life in the country developed. In Czechoslovakia the promised autonomy was not realized; a Russophile movement also developed. But the national movement was able to organize its forces so that in 1938–39 it could take power in the country and, after the fall of Czechoslovakia, proclaim independence (15 Mar. 1939). In Bukovina Romanian pressure was felt.

At the beginning of the Second World War, western Ukraine was largely occupied by Soviet troops and incorporated into the U.S.S.R.; Carpathian Ukraine was occupied by Hungary. After 22 June 1941 almost all Ukrainian territory was occupied by the Germans and their allies and placed under military or civil administration (General Government, Commissariat of Ukraine, Transnistria). With the advance of Soviet armies in 1943–44, Ukraine was reoccupied and reconstituted as a Soviet republic together with Carpathian Ukraine (29 June 1945). Thus the U.S.S.R. united almost all Ukrainian lands. From the remnants left outside the borders, the population was transferred into Ukraine. The communist regime began anew in full force. The Catholic Church was destroyed, the partisan movement fought and driven back into the mountains. Abroad, part of the political emigration took refuge, developing and reorganizing the parties and forming a Ukrainian National Council.

Thus the question of Ukraine’s self-determination remains open as a national and international legal problem.

III. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: V. KIEV.

IV. LITERATURE

At the end of the 10th century the development of Ukrainian literature begins. Until the 18th century the ancient Church Slavonic language was used, introduced into Ukraine along with Christianity and profoundly altered over the centuries in vocabulary, phonetics, and morphology. From the 11th century onward, translations from Greek and Church Slavonic spread in Ukraine: liturgical and moral books, apothegms, hagiographical works, apocrypha, historical texts, narratives, and romances of Eastern provenance, transmitted, in a certain manner, through Bulgaria. From its origins, Ukrainian literature is distinguished above all by ecclesiastical oratorical prose: sermons by St. Theodosius of the Caves, by the metropolitan of Kiev Ilarion, by Cyril of Turiv (12th century), by Serapion of Kiev, bishop of Vladimir (13th century). Also notable are the Admonitions to the Sons of Prince Vladimir Monomakh (12th century). Among hagiographical works, the Life of SS. Boris and Hlib, the Life of St. Theodosius of the Caves, and especially the Patericon of the Kiev Caves (13th century), a collection of biographies of the saints of Kiev and accounts of the foundation of the monastery, hold particular importance. Of greater significance are the chronicles (up to the 12th century), particularly those of Galicia and Volhynia, which provide ample and varied material on the events of Ukraine. Among epic narratives, the Lay of the Host of Ihor (c. 1087), of unknown authorship, stands out for its poetic qualities, filled with national sentiment, imbued with images of pre-Christian mythology, and notable for the fusion of folkloric hues and literary artifices (v. RUSSIA, literature).

After a period of literary decline in the 14th–15th centuries, literature revived with the struggle for independence under Khmelnytsky. From the late 16th century through the 17th and 18th centuries, Baroque predominated. This phase includes numerous treatises and polemical pamphlets (in connection with the Union of Brest of 1596) by Metropolitan I. Potij, H. Smotryckyj, M. Smotryckyj, Z. Kopystenskyj, J. Boreckyj; the sermons of J. Galatovskyj, L. Baronovyč, A. Radyvylovskyj, and others; and the collections of tales by Kosov, A. Kalnofojskyj, and D. Tupalo. From the 18th century, the so-called Cossack Annals of Samovydec, H. Hrabianka, and S. Velyčko have survived. Rich Baroque poetry in verse of a spiritual character emerged (K. T. Stavrovcekyj), later (with the collection The God’s Herald, 1790) poetry of a patriotic, panegyrical, philosophical, and amorous-lyrical nature (H. Skovoroda). Baroque drama (17th–18th centuries) is represented by D. Tupalo, T. Prokopovč (Vladimir, 1795); the anonymous The Judgment of God (1728); H. Konyskyj; and others. The Easter dramas, saint plays, and moralities feature comic interludes and document the living language extensively (e.g., the comic dialogues of Ivan Krashevčj from the late 18th century). In the burlesque poem Eneida (1798–1849) by Ivan Kotliarevskyj, Ukrainian literature abandons Church Slavonic in favor of the living popular language. With this and other works, Kotliarevskyj earned the well-deserved title of the father of Ukrainian literature. In the 19th century, burlesque and preromantic tales (Marusia) by Kvitka-Osnovianenko appeared.

Romanticism, in the period 1830–50, linked to the admiration of folk song and national antiquity, gave impetus to Ukrainian literature. The lyric poetry of L. Borovkovskyj, L. Hrebinka, M. Petrenko, A. Mohyla-Metlynskyj; the poems and tragedies of M. Kostomarov; the tales of O. Storozenko; and in Western Ukraine, the collection Nymph of the Dniester (1837) by the priest M. Šaškevič, I. Vahylevych, and I. Holovackyj, drew inspiration from folk song, bringing elements of European poetry into Ukrainian literature. With Nymph of the Dniester, a new era in literature began in Western Ukraine. In the figure of Shevchenko (1814–61), Ukrainian literature found its greatest poet: notable is the depth of his analysis of Ukraine’s historical past and the profound expression of the suffering of the Ukrainian people in his verses. Among his best-known works are: Dream; The Great Ravine; Caucasus; The Testament. The thematic and ideological richness is matched by artistic perfection. Panteleimon Kulish, a poet (collections Dawn, 1893; Rural Poems, 1882; The Bell, 1893), historical novelist (Black Council, 1857), short story writer, playwright, critic, and translator of Byron and Shakespeare, enriched Ukrainian literature with ideas and influences from Western literatures. In the transition from Romanticism to Realism, Marko Vovčok (pseudonym of M. Vilinska-Markovyč) is notable for her Folk Tales (1857); the poet and prose writer F. Pidhajnyj; the poets S. Rudanskyj, L. Hilbo; and the poets with a realistic bent O. Pčika, B. Hrinchenko, I. Mandžura, P. Hrabovskyj, who sang of the harsh fate of the people. Realist-popular prose is represented by A. Svyndyckyj (Liuboratsky, 1862); I. Nečuj-Levickij (Mykola Dzheria and other novels on the life of peasants and intellectuals: The Clouds); P. Myrnyj (novels, Lost Forces, The Harlot). A notable and complex figure is Ivan Franko (1856–1916), who depicted social underclasses (Boa Constructor and Boryslav Laughs) and the life of intellectuals (The Cross Paths). In his poetry, he oscillates between realism, lyrical notes, and philosophical insights (Withered Leaves; My Emerald and others).

Impressionism in modern prose is manifested in Ukraine by M. Kociubynskyj (*Fata Morgana*; *The Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors*), O. Kobyljanska, K. Hrynekyč, M. Ceremšyna (pseudonym of Iwan Semeniuk); G. Chotkevčj, W. Stefanj (*Maple Leaves*; *My Word*); S. Vayščenko, A. Teslenko, M. Jakšiv, B. Lepkyj and others. Some poets fall within the orbit of psychological realism: A. Krymskyj, the Seagull of the Dnipro (pseudonym of L. Vasylevska), V. Samijlenko. The modern orientation is also reflected in the poets of the *Young Muse* group: P. Karmanskyj, V. Pačovskyj and others, including B. Lepkyj. Not to be forgotten is the singer of the national revolution O. Olesj (pseudonym of Kandryba), and finally M. Filanskyj. V. Vorona (pseudonym of Laryssa Kosč, 1871–1913), in his lyric poetry (*On the Wings of Song*; *Isolde the Fair*), in his dramatic poems (*Babylonian Salute*; *On the Ruins*; *Orgy*; *The Stone Master*; *The Forest Song* and others), enriched Ukrainian poetry with inspirations drawn from world history and literature, while also extolling the resistance of Ukrainians against their oppressors. The Soviet regime increasingly exerted pressure on Ukrainian cultural and literary life.

Symbolism in Ukraine created a fusion of folk tradition with modern sensibility. In this context, mention must be made of P. Tyčyna (*Sunlit Reeds*; *The Plough*), who, under pressure from the regime, ended up becoming the Kremlin’s official poet. The same fate befell M. Rylskyj (*Under Autumn Stars*; *Azure Horizons*; *The Thirteenth Spring*). From the neoclassicist group, M. Zerov (*The Kamena*), their most important figure, was liquidated along with P. Fylypovč and M. Draj-Chmara. Their work was continued in Western Ukraine by J. Klen, M. Orest, S. Hordynskyj. Among other poets, V. Svidzinskyj, E. Plužnyk, T. Osmačka, B. Antončič (*Western Ukraine*), M. Bažan, who became the official poet from 1934 (*Engraved Shadow*; *Constructions*), stand out. Historical themes were treated with philosophical overtones by the group of Western Ukrainian and émigré poets associated with the journal *Vysny* (1930): E. Malaniuk (*Earthly Madonna*); O. Olžyč (*Shadow*; *The Towers*); O. Ljubovnyk, L. Mosendz, O. Teliha, J. Lypa, P. Stefanovč and others; in prose, the best known are: G. Kosynka, M. Chvylovyj (*Autumn*), A. Lubčenko (*The Path of the Storm*; *She*), J. Janovskyj (*The Master of the Ship*; *The Four Sabres*), V. Pidmohlyj (*The Bread Problem*; *The City*), M. Ivčenko (*The Working Forces*), B. Antončič-Davydovč; in Volhynia, U. Samčuk (*Volhynia*; *Maria*). Among playwrights, the leading figure is M. Kulč (*Myna Mazailo*; *The Pathetic Sonata*). The communist persecutions of Ukrainian literature reached particular intensity in 1933–38. During this period, 100 Ukrainian writers were executed or deported; others were turned into instruments of Soviet propaganda, with no possibility of deviating from the official line of so-called “socialist realism.” Even in Western Ukraine after the First World War, new paths were sought. The entire literary life of Galicia, Volhynia, and the emigration grouped around four journals: *New Paths*, pro-Soviet in orientation, with praise for the work of the Soviet Union; *The Messenger*, nationalist in direction, led by E. Malaniuk and O. Olžyč in poetry and R. Jendyk and U. Samčuk in prose; *We* (in Warsaw), with a group of writers tied to the past; the fourth group, around the journal *Encounter*, included J. Kosč, S. Hordynskyj and others. Catholic writers gathered around *Bells* (Lviv), where the poetry of B. I. Antončič and the prose of N. Koroleva stood out. Also noteworthy is the group of women writers: K. Hrynekyč, N. Koroleva, I. Wilde, H. Žurba, U. Kravčenko.

In Bukovina, literary life after the war was almost nonexistent. More vigor was found in Carpathian Ukraine, with young writers such as V. Grendža-Donskyj, Zoreslav, I. Hlavskyj, A. Harasevč.

After the Second World War, all literary activity outside Soviet Ukraine took place in Western Europe. America contributed little of note. In the *Ukrainian Artistic Movement*, a process of rapprochement began between writers from Eastern and Western Ukraine. New names emerged with contemporary, world-historical, and traditional themes (H. Ščidnyj, B. Domontovč, I. Kosteckyj; M. Orest, V. Barka, L. Poltava, etc.). *Vedi* tav. LXVI.