Mykola Kulish
Encyclopedia
Mykola Kulish (born December 19, 1892 in the village of Chaplyntsi, Dnieper uyezd
, of Taurida Governorate
(today it is an urbanized settlement of Chaplynka in Kherson Oblast
) – died November 3, 1937 in Sandarmokh
near Medvezhyegorsk
, Karelia
) was a Ukrainian
prosaic
, drama writer
, pedagogue, veteran of the World War I
, Red Army veteran.
seat) which in his letters he called it Chaplyn. From age 9 he studied in a parish
church and school. Since 1905 Kulish studied at the Oleshky municipal eight-year school. Here he met with Ivan Dniprovsky. In 1908 he enrolled into the Oleshky pro-gymnasium which got closed down before he could graduate. During his school years he published several short verses and epigrams in students' hand-written magazines which gave him a certain degree of fame among his peers. In 1913 for the first time he writes a play At fish catching which later became the base for his comedy That was how perished Huska .
At 22 he enrolled in the Novorossiysk University
Philology
Department. However his education was interrupted again because of the World War I
as he was drafted to the Army. At first he served as a private at the reserve battalion. In 1914 he was sent to the Odessa school of praporshchik
s (flag-bearers) after which he went to the front-lines being there from 1915–1917. He continued to write short verses and small plays which were published in a military press-media. In 1917 already as an officer he chose the side of the February Revolution
.
From the start of 1918 he was a head of Oleshky
council of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies. In July 1919 in Kherson
he organized the Dnipro Peasantry Regiment as part of RKKA. The regiment participated in the defense of Kherson
and Mykolaiv
from the forces of Anton Denikin. During the government of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky
he was imprisoned for five months. After the return of the Red Army he was appointed as the chief of staff of Kherson and Dnipro uyezd Army groups.
After the demobilization in 1920 he worked as a instructor for several bodies of People's Education in Oleshky uyezd as well as edited the newspaper Chervony Shliakh
in Zinovyevsk (today Kirovohrad
). During this time he putted together a Ukrainian alphabet Pervynka. He also started to tour around the southern Ukraine organizing various schools and helping the hungry during the famine of 1921–1922. He later wrote a story in Russian Po vesiam i selam that consisted of two parts.
In 1922 he worked in the governorate department of People's Education in Odessa as a school inspector. In 1924 Kulish wrote a play 97 where he described the famine of Kherson
region in 1921–1922. Together with another play Commune in steppes (1925) his works were staged in Kharkiv's theater and brought him a general recognition. In Odessa he joined the writers' society of Hart
. In 1925 returned to Zinovyevsk where he edited Chervony Shliakh
. Later that year he moved to Kharkiv
where he met with various prominent Ukrainian writers and poets such as Mykola Khvyliovy, Ostap Vyshnia, Yuriy Yanovsky, Volodymyr Sosiura, and many others. Here Kulish became a member of VAPLITE
and worked with theatrical group Berezil led by Les Kurbas
.
In November 1926 he was elected as the president of VAPLITE until January 1928. Simultaneously with it Kulish was a member of the editorial collegiate of Chervony Shliakh
. His works were published in the almanac Literary Fair. Since the end of 1929 Kulish was a member of presidium of a new literary union Politfront. Suddenly since 1930 all his fame was diminishing receiving all kinds of negative critical reviews. Kulish moved out of Kharkiv back to his native Kherson region. Seeing the Holodomor
of 1933 he was growing more and more upset with the revolutionary ideas. During that time his plays Narodny Malakhiy, Myna Mazaylo, Pathetic sonata were recognized as hostile to the communist regime.
At the first All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers that took place August 17 – September 1, 1934 Mykola Kulish was proclaimed as a bourgeoisie-nationalist playwright. Particularly critical of him was Ivan Kulik
who also mentioned the theatrical troop of Les Kurbas
as one who performed the Kulish's plays. In December 1934 after the burial of his friend Ivan Dniprovsky Kulish was arrested by the agents of NKVD
. He died on November 3, 1937 in a correctional-labor camps at Solovki
.
Uyezd
Uyezd or uezd was an administrative subdivision of Rus', Muscovy, Russian Empire, and the early Russian SFSR which was in use from the 13th century. Uyezds for most of the history in Russia were a secondary-level of administrative division...
, of Taurida Governorate
Taurida Governorate
The Taurida Governorate or Government of Taurida was a historical governorate of the Russian Empire. It included the Crimean peninsula and the mainland between the lower Dnieper River and the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov It was formed after the defunct Taurida Oblast in was abolished in...
(today it is an urbanized settlement of Chaplynka in Kherson Oblast
Kherson Oblast
Kherson Oblast is an oblast in southern Ukraine, just north of Crimea. Its administrative center is Kherson. The area of the region is 29000 km², its population is 1.12 million.Important cities in the oblast include:...
) – died November 3, 1937 in Sandarmokh
Sandarmokh
Sandarmokh is a forest massif in Medvezhyegorsky District, Karelia, Russia, a burial site of victims of Soviet political repressions, where over 9,000 bodies were discovered after the place was found in 1997 by members of the Memorial Society....
near Medvezhyegorsk
Medvezhyegorsk
Medvezhyegorsk , formerly known as Medvezhya Gora and Karhumäki, is a town and the administrative center of Medvezhyegorsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia. Population: 15,800 ....
, Karelia
Karelia
Karelia , the land of the Karelian peoples, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden...
) was a Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
prosaic
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
, drama writer
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, pedagogue, veteran of the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Red Army veteran.
Brief biography
Kulish was born in a village of Chaplyntsi (today it is a raionRaion
A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet countries. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district"...
seat) which in his letters he called it Chaplyn. From age 9 he studied in a parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
church and school. Since 1905 Kulish studied at the Oleshky municipal eight-year school. Here he met with Ivan Dniprovsky. In 1908 he enrolled into the Oleshky pro-gymnasium which got closed down before he could graduate. During his school years he published several short verses and epigrams in students' hand-written magazines which gave him a certain degree of fame among his peers. In 1913 for the first time he writes a play At fish catching which later became the base for his comedy That was how perished Huska .
At 22 he enrolled in the Novorossiysk University
Odessa University
The I. I. Mechnikov Odessa National University , located in Odessa, Ukraine, is one of the country's major universities. It was founded in 1865, by an edict of Czar Alexander II of Russia, reorganizing the Richelieu Lyceum of Odessa into the new Imperial Novorossiya University. In the Soviet...
Philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
Department. However his education was interrupted again because of the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
as he was drafted to the Army. At first he served as a private at the reserve battalion. In 1914 he was sent to the Odessa school of praporshchik
Praporshchik
Praporshchik is a rank in the Russian military.-Imperial Russia:Praporshchik was originally a name of a junior commissioned officer rank in the military of the Russian Empire equivalent to ensign...
s (flag-bearers) after which he went to the front-lines being there from 1915–1917. He continued to write short verses and small plays which were published in a military press-media. In 1917 already as an officer he chose the side of the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
.
From the start of 1918 he was a head of Oleshky
Tsiurupynsk
Tsiurupynsk is a city in Kherson Oblast of Ukraine that until 1928 was called Oleshky. It is the oldest city of the oblast and one of the oldest in the southern Ukraine. Population of it is 30,123 ....
council of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies. In July 1919 in Kherson
Kherson
Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry...
he organized the Dnipro Peasantry Regiment as part of RKKA. The regiment participated in the defense of Kherson
Kherson
Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry...
and Mykolaiv
Mykolaiv
Mykolaiv , also known as Nikolayev , is a city in southern Ukraine, administrative center of the Mykolaiv Oblast. Mykolaiv is the main ship building center of the Black Sea, and, arguably, the whole Eastern Europe.-Name of city:...
from the forces of Anton Denikin. During the government of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky
Pavlo Skoropadsky
Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi 3 May 1873, Wiesbaden, Germany – 26 April 1945, Metten monastery clinic, Bavaria, Germany) was a Ukrainian politician, earlier an aristocrat and decorated Imperial Russian Army general...
he was imprisoned for five months. After the return of the Red Army he was appointed as the chief of staff of Kherson and Dnipro uyezd Army groups.
After the demobilization in 1920 he worked as a instructor for several bodies of People's Education in Oleshky uyezd as well as edited the newspaper Chervony Shliakh
Chervony Shliakh
Chervony Shliach — political and literary-scientific monthly that was founded in 1923, Kharkiv. It continued to be published until February 1936.- History :...
in Zinovyevsk (today Kirovohrad
Kirovohrad
Kirovohrad , formerly Yelisavetgrad, is a city in central Ukraine. It is located on the Inhul River. It is a motorway junction. Pop. 239,400 ....
). During this time he putted together a Ukrainian alphabet Pervynka. He also started to tour around the southern Ukraine organizing various schools and helping the hungry during the famine of 1921–1922. He later wrote a story in Russian Po vesiam i selam that consisted of two parts.
In 1922 he worked in the governorate department of People's Education in Odessa as a school inspector. In 1924 Kulish wrote a play 97 where he described the famine of Kherson
Kherson
Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry...
region in 1921–1922. Together with another play Commune in steppes (1925) his works were staged in Kharkiv's theater and brought him a general recognition. In Odessa he joined the writers' society of Hart
Hart
Hart may refer to:* HART , an abbreviation/acronym* Hart's Rules, a non-fiction book* Another spelling of Heorot, the Anglo-Saxon mead hall* Hart-Rouge, Canadian band* The Hartt School* Deer:** Hart ** Adult deer** Red deer...
. In 1925 returned to Zinovyevsk where he edited Chervony Shliakh
Chervony Shliakh
Chervony Shliach — political and literary-scientific monthly that was founded in 1923, Kharkiv. It continued to be published until February 1936.- History :...
. Later that year he moved to Kharkiv
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
where he met with various prominent Ukrainian writers and poets such as Mykola Khvyliovy, Ostap Vyshnia, Yuriy Yanovsky, Volodymyr Sosiura, and many others. Here Kulish became a member of VAPLITE
VAPLITE
Vilna Akademia Proletarskoi LITEratury was a literary union in Ukraine. It was established in Kharkiv and existed from January, 1926 to January 28, 1928....
and worked with theatrical group Berezil led by Les Kurbas
Les Kurbas
Oleksandr-Zenon Stepanovych Kurbas , a Ukrainian movie and theater director, is considered by many to be the most important Ukrainian theater director of the 20th century...
.
In November 1926 he was elected as the president of VAPLITE until January 1928. Simultaneously with it Kulish was a member of the editorial collegiate of Chervony Shliakh
Chervony Shliakh
Chervony Shliach — political and literary-scientific monthly that was founded in 1923, Kharkiv. It continued to be published until February 1936.- History :...
. His works were published in the almanac Literary Fair. Since the end of 1929 Kulish was a member of presidium of a new literary union Politfront. Suddenly since 1930 all his fame was diminishing receiving all kinds of negative critical reviews. Kulish moved out of Kharkiv back to his native Kherson region. Seeing the Holodomor
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
of 1933 he was growing more and more upset with the revolutionary ideas. During that time his plays Narodny Malakhiy, Myna Mazaylo, Pathetic sonata were recognized as hostile to the communist regime.
At the first All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers that took place August 17 – September 1, 1934 Mykola Kulish was proclaimed as a bourgeoisie-nationalist playwright. Particularly critical of him was Ivan Kulik
Ivan Kulik
Ivan Yulianovych Kulik was Jewish-Ukrainian poet, writer, translator, diplomat and Communist Party activist, . He also wrote under names "R. Rolinato" and "Vasyl Rolenko".-Biography:...
who also mentioned the theatrical troop of Les Kurbas
Les Kurbas
Oleksandr-Zenon Stepanovych Kurbas , a Ukrainian movie and theater director, is considered by many to be the most important Ukrainian theater director of the 20th century...
as one who performed the Kulish's plays. In December 1934 after the burial of his friend Ivan Dniprovsky Kulish was arrested by the agents of NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
. He died on November 3, 1937 in a correctional-labor camps at Solovki
Solovki
The Solovki prison camp was located on the Solovetsky Islands, in the White Sea). It was the "mother of the GULAG" according to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn...
.
Works
- 97
- Commune in steppes
- Farewell, village
- That was how perished Huska
- Khuliy Khuryna
- Zoná
- Zakut
- Eternal mutiny
- Legend about Lenin
- Colonies
- Narodny Malakhiy
- Myna Mazaylo
- Pathetic sonata
- Maklena Grasa
- Autobiography from a notebook
External links
- Library of Ukrainian Literature
- Ukrainian center
- memorial.org.ua
- Librarian informational portal
- Island of knowledge
- Kharkiv Oblast Universal Library
- Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- Dompavlov Travelling
- Kherson Oblast Library for children
- Natalia Chukhontseva — artistic works about Mykola Kulish
- Works of Mykola Kulish – E-Library Чтиво
- Works of Mykola Kulish on Lib.ru