Vasyl Stus
Encyclopedia
Vasyl Semenovych Stus was a Ukrainian
poet and publicist, one of the most active members of Ukrainian dissident movement. For his political convictions, his works were banned by the Soviet
regime and he spent 23 years (about a half of his life) in detention. On November 26, 2005 he was posthumously given the title Hero of Ukraine
by order of the state.
(province
), Ukrainian SSR. Next year, his parents Semen Demyanovych and Iryna Yakivna moved to the city of Stalino (now Donetsk
). Their children joined them one year later. Vasyl first encountered the Ukrainian language
and poetry from his mother who sang him Ukrainian folk songs.
After the secondary school, Vasyl Stus entered the Department of history and literature of the Pedagogical Institute in Stalino (nowadays Donetsk University). In 1959 he graduated from the institute with honours
. Following graduation, Stus briefly worked as a high school teacher of Ukrainian language and literaturein Tauzhnia village of Kirovohrad Oblast
, and then was conscripted to the Soviet Army
for two years. During the study and military service in the Ural mountains
he started to write poetry and translated into Ukrainian more than a hundred verses by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
and Rainer Maria Rilke
. The original copies of his translations were later confiscated by KGB
and they were lost.
After the military service, Vasyl Stus worked as an editor in the newspaper Sotsialistychnyi Donbas (Socialist Donbas) in 1960-1963. In 1963, he entered a Doctoral (PhD
) program at the Shevchenko Institute of Literature of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev
. At the same time he published his selected poetry.
In 1965 Stus has got married; his son, Dmytro was born in 1966.
On September 4, 1965 during the premiere of the Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
movie in Kiev's Ukrayina cinema, Vasyl Stus took part in a protest against arrests of Ukrainian intelligentsia
. For the protest participation, on September 20 he was expelled from the Institute and later lost his job at the State Historical Archive. He then worked in a few places as a building constructor, a fireman, and an engineer, continuing his intensive work on poetry. In 1965 he submitted his first book Circulation (Круговерть) for publishing, but it was rejected due to discrepancy with Soviet ideology and artistic style. His next poetry book Winter Trees (Зимові дерева) was also rejected, regardless of positive reviews from a poet Ivan Drach
and a critic Eugen Adelgejt. The book was published in 1970 in Belgium
.
On September 7, 1972, Stus was arrested for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda". He served a 5 year sentence in a labor camp, and two more in exile in the Magadan Oblast
.
In August 1979, having finished his sentence, he returned to Kiev and worked in a foundry. He spoke out in defense of members of the Ukrainian Helsinki group
(UHG). Stus himself joined the UHG in October 1979.
On 14 May 1980, prior to the 1980 Olympic Games
in Moscow
, he was arrested and received a 10 year sentence for "anti-Soviet activity".
Vasyl Stus died after he declared hunger strike on September 4, 1985 in a Soviet forced labor camp for political prisoners Perm-36 near the village of Kuchino, Perm Oblast
, Russian SFSR, where he had been transferred in November 1980. Danylo Shumuk
reported that the commandant, a certain Maj. Zhuravkov, committed suicide after the death of Vasyl Stus. It must be noted that in the Kuchino camp, out of 56 inmates kept there between 1980 and 1987, 8 died, including 4 members of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group
.
In 1985, an international committee of scholars, writers, and poets nominated Stus as a candidate for the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature
, but he died before the nomination materialized. He was nominated by a German writer Heinrich Böll
, who publicly stated that he expected Stus to win the prestigious prize.
On 19 November 1989 the remains of Vasyl Stus, Oleksa Tykhy and Yury Lytvyn were brought back to Kyiv and reburied at the Baikove Cemetery. More than thirty thousand people attended the ceremony.
January 1989 the first non-governmental Vasyl Stus Prizes were awarded for “talent and courage”. This Prize was set up by the Ukrainian Association of the Independent Creative Intelligentsia, and is awarded every year on the poet’s date of birth in Lviv
.
In 1993 Stus was posthumously awarded the Taras Shevchenko
State Prize for Literature.
On January 8, 2008 the National bank of Ukraine
issued a commemorative coin dedicated to Vasyl Stus and on January 25, 2008 Ukrposhta
issued a stamp in his memory.
In December 2008 a group of current and former students of the Donetsk National University
published send an appeal to the Minister of Education asking that the university be named after (one of its graduates,) Vasyl Stus. The Minister supported the initiative and approached the Rector of the university with a request to discuss the issue among staff and at the academic council. On February 17, 2009 62 out of 63 members of the university's academic council voted against renaming the university to Vasyl Stus or Volodomyr Degtyaryov (61 voted against this), 63 voted for not changing the name of the institute. Earlier (February 13, 2009) representatives of the university's students voted in exact the same fashion.
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...
poet and publicist, one of the most active members of Ukrainian dissident movement. For his political convictions, his works were banned by the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
regime and he spent 23 years (about a half of his life) in detention. On November 26, 2005 he was posthumously given the title Hero of Ukraine
Hero of Ukraine
Hero of Ukraine is the highest state decoration that can be conferred upon an individual citizen by the Government of Ukraine. The title was created in 1998 by President Leonid Kuchma and as of August 25 2011 the total number of awards is 265. The award is divided into two classes of distinction:...
by order of the state.
Biography
Vasyl Stus was born on January 6, 1938 into a peasant family in the village of Rakhnivka, Haisyn Raion, Vinnytsia OblastVinnytsia Oblast
Vinnytsia Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Vinnytsia.-Geography:The area of the region is 26,500 km²; its population is 1.7 million....
(province
Oblast
Oblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...
), Ukrainian SSR. Next year, his parents Semen Demyanovych and Iryna Yakivna moved to the city of Stalino (now Donetsk
Donetsk
Donetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region...
). Their children joined them one year later. Vasyl first encountered the Ukrainian language
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
and poetry from his mother who sang him Ukrainian folk songs.
After the secondary school, Vasyl Stus entered the Department of history and literature of the Pedagogical Institute in Stalino (nowadays Donetsk University). In 1959 he graduated from the institute with honours
Latin honors
Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. This system is primarily used in the United States, Canada, and in many countries of continental Europe, though some institutions also use the English translation of these...
. Following graduation, Stus briefly worked as a high school teacher of Ukrainian language and literaturein Tauzhnia village of Kirovohrad Oblast
Kirovohrad Oblast
Kirovohrad Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Kirovohrad.-Geography:The area of the province is , its population is 1.1 million....
, and then was conscripted to the Soviet Army
Soviet Army
The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...
for two years. During the study and military service in the Ural mountains
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
he started to write poetry and translated into Ukrainian more than a hundred verses by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
and Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
. The original copies of his translations were later confiscated by KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
and they were lost.
After the military service, Vasyl Stus worked as an editor in the newspaper Sotsialistychnyi Donbas (Socialist Donbas) in 1960-1963. In 1963, he entered a Doctoral (PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
) program at the Shevchenko Institute of Literature of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
. At the same time he published his selected poetry.
In 1965 Stus has got married; his son, Dmytro was born in 1966.
On September 4, 1965 during the premiere of the Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors , also called Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors, Shadows of Our Ancestors, or Wild Horses of Fire – is a 1964 film by the Soviet-Armenian filmmaker Sergei Parajanov based on the book by Ukrainian writer Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky...
movie in Kiev's Ukrayina cinema, Vasyl Stus took part in a protest against arrests of Ukrainian intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
. For the protest participation, on September 20 he was expelled from the Institute and later lost his job at the State Historical Archive. He then worked in a few places as a building constructor, a fireman, and an engineer, continuing his intensive work on poetry. In 1965 he submitted his first book Circulation (Круговерть) for publishing, but it was rejected due to discrepancy with Soviet ideology and artistic style. His next poetry book Winter Trees (Зимові дерева) was also rejected, regardless of positive reviews from a poet Ivan Drach
Ivan Drach
Ivan Drach is a Ukrainian poet, screenwriter, literary critic, politician dissident, and political activist....
and a critic Eugen Adelgejt. The book was published in 1970 in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
.
On September 7, 1972, Stus was arrested for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda". He served a 5 year sentence in a labor camp, and two more in exile in the Magadan Oblast
Magadan Oblast
Magadan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia in the Far Eastern Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Magadan....
.
Ukrainian Helsinki Group
The Ukrainian Helsinki Group was founded in November 1976 to monitor human rights in Ukraine. The group was active until 1981 when all members were jailed....
(UHG). Stus himself joined the UHG in October 1979.
“In Kiev I learned that people close to the Helsinki Group were being repressed in the most flagrant manner. This at least had been the case in the trials of Ovsiyenko, Horbal, Lytvyn, and they were soon to deal similarly with Chornovil and Rozumny. I didn’t want that kind of Kiev. Seeing that the Group had been left rudderless, I joined it because I couldn’t do otherwise … When life is taken away, I had no need of pitiful crumbs. Psychologically I understood that the prison gates had already opened for me and that any day now they would close behind me – and close for a long time. But what was I supposed to do? Ukrainians were not able to leave the country, and anyway I didn’t particularly want to go beyond those borders since who then, here, in Great Ukraine, would become the voice of indignation and protest? This was my fate, and you don’t choose your fate. You accept it, whatever that fate may be. And when you don’t accept it, it takes you by force … However I had no intention of bowing my head down, whatever happened. Behind me was Ukraine, my oppressed people, whose honour I had to defend or perish”. (“Z tabornoho zoshyta” [“From the camp notebook”], 1983).
On 14 May 1980, prior to the 1980 Olympic Games
1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...
in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, he was arrested and received a 10 year sentence for "anti-Soviet activity".
Vasyl Stus died after he declared hunger strike on September 4, 1985 in a Soviet forced labor camp for political prisoners Perm-36 near the village of Kuchino, Perm Oblast
Perm Oblast
Until December 1, 2005, Perm Oblast was a federal subject of Russia in Privolzhsky Federal District. According to the results of the referendum held in October 2004, Perm Oblast was merged with Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug to form Perm Krai.The oblast was named after its administrative center,...
, Russian SFSR, where he had been transferred in November 1980. Danylo Shumuk
Danylo Shumuk
Danylo Lavrentiyovych Shumuk was a Ukrainian political activist who served a total of 42 years imprisoned by three different states, Second Polish Republic, Nazi Germany and Soviet Union.- Living in the Second Polish Republic:...
reported that the commandant, a certain Maj. Zhuravkov, committed suicide after the death of Vasyl Stus. It must be noted that in the Kuchino camp, out of 56 inmates kept there between 1980 and 1987, 8 died, including 4 members of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group
Ukrainian Helsinki Group
The Ukrainian Helsinki Group was founded in November 1976 to monitor human rights in Ukraine. The group was active until 1981 when all members were jailed....
.
Legacy
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
, but he died before the nomination materialized. He was nominated by a German writer Heinrich Böll
Heinrich Böll
Heinrich Theodor Böll was one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers. Böll was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1967 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972.- Biography :...
, who publicly stated that he expected Stus to win the prestigious prize.
On 19 November 1989 the remains of Vasyl Stus, Oleksa Tykhy and Yury Lytvyn were brought back to Kyiv and reburied at the Baikove Cemetery. More than thirty thousand people attended the ceremony.
January 1989 the first non-governmental Vasyl Stus Prizes were awarded for “talent and courage”. This Prize was set up by the Ukrainian Association of the Independent Creative Intelligentsia, and is awarded every year on the poet’s date of birth in Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
.
In 1993 Stus was posthumously awarded the Taras Shevchenko
Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko -Life:Born into a serf family of Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko and Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko in the village of Moryntsi, of Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire Shevchenko was orphaned at the age of eleven...
State Prize for Literature.
On January 8, 2008 the National bank of Ukraine
National Bank of Ukraine
National Bank of Ukraine is the central bank of Ukraine. Its headquarters building, constructed between 1902 and 1934, is located at no. 9 Institutska St., in Kiev-History:...
issued a commemorative coin dedicated to Vasyl Stus and on January 25, 2008 Ukrposhta
Ukrposhta
Ukrposhta is the national state enterprise of postal service of Ukraine, a member of Universal Postal Union since 1947. It is governed by the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine...
issued a stamp in his memory.
In December 2008 a group of current and former students of the Donetsk National University
Donetsk National University
Donetsk National University is the leading higher educational institution in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The University's history starts in 1937 from the moment of creation of a pedagogical institute in Donetsk . In 1965, the Institute was transformed into Donetsk State University...
published send an appeal to the Minister of Education asking that the university be named after (one of its graduates,) Vasyl Stus. The Minister supported the initiative and approached the Rector of the university with a request to discuss the issue among staff and at the academic council. On February 17, 2009 62 out of 63 members of the university's academic council voted against renaming the university to Vasyl Stus or Volodomyr Degtyaryov (61 voted against this), 63 voted for not changing the name of the institute. Earlier (February 13, 2009) representatives of the university's students voted in exact the same fashion.
External links
- Ukrainian art songs on poetry of Vasyl Stus