Vasyl Symonenko

Vasyl Symonenko
Василь Симоненко
Born (1935-01-08)January 8, 1935
Lubny Raion, Ukrainian SSR
Died December 13, 1963(1963-12-13) (aged 28)
Cherkasy, Ukrainian SSR
Occupation poet, public activist
Citizenship Soviet Union
Alma mater Kiev State University (1957)
Literary movement 60ers

Vasyl Symonenko (Ukrainian: Василь Андрійович Симоненко; January 8, 1935 – 1963) a well-known Ukrainian poet, journalist, activist of dissident movement. He is considered one of the most important figures in Ukrainian literature of the early 1960s. By the opinion of the Museum of dissident movement in Kiev, the works and early death of Vasyl Symonenko had an enormous impact on the rise of the national democratic movement in Ukraine.[1]

Biography

The poet was born in a peasant family in the village of Biyivtsi, Kharkiv Oblast (today - Poltava Oblast).

After graduating from Kiev State University in 1957, Vasyl Symonenko worked as a journalist in several newspapers in Cherkasy Oblast.

The debut book of poems "Tysha i hrim" ("Silence and thunder") came in 1962 and made clear the talent of Symonenko among the young poets, though he had only one year to live (cancer of kidneys was diagnosed later). His literary environment included the poets Mykola Vinhranovsky, Ivan Drach and Lina Kostenko, the publicists, critics Ivan Dziuba, Ivan Svitlichny, Y. Sverstyuk and other "shestydesyatnyky" (Sixtiers).[2]

During his last year of living Vasyl Symonenko wrote his second book – "Zemne tyazhinnya" ("Earth’s gravity"), the verses from which were quoted, written out (adding what the censor had omitted), learned by heart and compared with the poetry of Taras Shevchenko.[1]

In 1962, Symonenko together with his friends A.Horska and Les Tanyuk found the burial places of NKVD repressions in Bykivnia, Lukianivskyi and Vasyslkivskyi cemeteries near Kiev. For the fact he appealed to the Kiev City Council. In 1963 Symonenko was brutally beaten up by operatives of the Soviet Ministry of Interior at the Shevchenko rail station in the city of Smila from which he suffered a failure of kidneys and soon died in the main oblast hospital on December 13, 1963.

Already after his death there was published his satiric tale-poem "Travel to the country of Vice-versa" (1964).

The fullest collection of Symonenko’s works was published abroad under the title "Bereh chekan" ("Shore of anticipation") in Munich (1963).[1]

In 1967 the publishing house "Smoloskyp" was created in Baltimore by Ukrainian emigrants and named after Vasyl Symonenko.[3]

In December, 2008, the National Bank of Ukraine issued into circulation a commemorative coin "Vasyl Symonenko" within "Outstanding Personalities of Ukraine" series.[4]

English translations

His works have been translated partially into English.

  • Vasyl Symonenko. "Гранітні обеліски. / Granite obelisks". Translated into English by Andriy M Freishyn-Chirovsky. Jersey City: Svoboda. 1975. 143 p. (parallel bilingual texts in both English and Ukrainian)
  • Vasyl Symonenko. "Тиша і грім. Вибрані поезії Василя Симоненка / Silence and Thunder: The Selected Poetry of Vasyl Symonenko". Translated into English by Michael M Nayden. Lviv: Piramida. 2017. 128 p. ISBN 978-966-441-470-5 (parallel bilingual texts in both English and Ukrainian)

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Museum of dissident movement in Kiev.
  2. ↑ Encyclopedia of Ukraine
  3. ↑ Smoloskyp official website
  4. ↑ Commemorative Coin "Vasyl Symonenko", National Bank of Ukraine, December 2008
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