Dmytro Vasylyovych Pavlychko (; 28 September 1929 – 29 January 2023) was a Ukrainian poet, translator, scriptwriter,

culturologist Culturology or the science of culture is a branch of the social sciences concerned with the scientific understanding, description, analysis, and prediction of cultures as a whole. While ethnology and anthropology studied different cultural practice ...

, and politician. Pavlychko published poetry and translations since the 1950s. His work came under censorship from the Soviet Government. Pavlychko, who had been imprisoned as a Ukrainian Nationalistfollowing

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, would work within the constraints of the Soviet state and become a well regarded author and

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

scholar in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. Following the easing of censorship in the late 1980's, Pavlychko would help shape Ukrainian statehood. He entered politics and would co-create Ukraine's first independent political party. In 1990, he co-authored the "Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine," declaring Ukrainian law overruled Soviet law. Pavlychko was also a member of the Verkhovna Rada for two terms in the 1990s. He served as Ukraine's Ambassador to Slovakia and later to Poland.

Biography

Dmytro Pavlychko, recognized as a hero of Ukraine, had a life reflective of many of his generation.

Early life

Dmytro Pavlychko was born on 28 September 1929 in a

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

worker family living in the village of Stopchativ near the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...

. Today this place is near the town of Yabluniv in Kosiv Raion,

Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (), also referred to as Ivano-Frankivshchyna () or simply Frankivshchyna, is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (region) in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Ivano-Frankivsk. It has a pop ...

Imprisonment

Between 1945 and 1946 he spent about 12 months in Soviet prison, after participating in the

Ukrainian Insurgent Army The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist partisan formation founded by the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) on 14 October 1942. The UPA launched guerrilla warfare against Nazi Germany, the S ...

at the age of 16. Dmytro served with the UPA for three months, leading to the prison sentence. Later Andriy Malyshko teasingly called Pavlychko a " Banderovite broth cook". In a collection of poetry, in his last published book “Poems from Maidan,” Pavylchko would call back to his time in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army writing, "I am with Dmitry Pavlichko from Stopchatova, I am a soldier from Spartan squad".

Education and Career

In 1953 Pavlychko graduated from Lviv University (Department of

Philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

), worked in "Zhovten" (now, "Dzvin") Magazine. After coming later to

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

he worked in the office of the National Writers' Union of Ukraine and in 1971–1978 as an editor at "Vsesvit" ("Universe") Magazine. Pavlychko was an honorary Doctor of Science of Lviv and Warsaw Universities and professor of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In 1986 Dmytro Pavlychko became secretary of the Writers' Union of the USSR. In 1988 he would become Secretaryof the Writers' Union of Ukraine. Pavlychko lead the Shevchenko Ukrainian Language Society from 1989-1990.

Political career

Dmytro Pavlychko was acrive in Ukrainian politics during the Soviet era and after independence. Pavlychko was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR in 1990. He served as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission. He was people’s deputy of the Supreme Council of Ukraine until 1999. Pavlychko would serve again from 2005-2006. Dmytro Pavlychko 2006–11 he served as chairman of the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council. In the late 1980s Dmytro Pavlychko was one of the founders of People's Movement of Ukraine. Pavlychko noted that Rukh was formed by himself and other Communists such as Ivan Drach and Volodymyr Yavorivs’kyi uwhen a membership in the Party remained desirable because Rukh united various political groups and forces, but was allowed to operate. Pavlychko officially left the Party after Gorbachev and the Party refused to recognize Lithuanian Independence. Pavlychko participated in the renewal of the

Prosvita Prosvita (), since 1991 officially known as All-Ukrainian Prosvita Society named after Taras Shevchenko () is an enlightenment society aimed to preserve and develop Ukrainian culture, education and science, that was created in the nineteenth cen ...

Society, the

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (; ; 9 March 1814 – 10 March 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist, and ethnographer. He was a fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts and a member of the Brotherhood o ...

Ukrainian language society. Dmytro Pavlychko would help organize and lead the 500th anniversary of the Zaporozhian Sich celebrations in 1990. The previous year in June, Dr. Olena Apanovcyhm lead an expedition to the

Zaporozhian Sich The Zaporozhian Sich (, , ; also ) was a semi-autonomous polity and proto-state of Zaporozhian Cossacks that existed between the 16th to 18th centuries, for the latter part of that period as an autonomous stratocratic state within the Cossa ...

on behalf of the Ukrainian Society for the Preservation of Monuments. Apanovcyh approached Rukh about organizing the event. Pavlychko would lead the event and encourage Rukh's political Western Base to travel to Southeastern Ukraine to celebrate the Cossack as a universal National symbol. Pavlychko co-authored the Act on Independence of Ukraine which declared the Independence of Ukraine. which was approved on 24 August 1991. On December 1 a referendum was held and the declaration was affirmed by a majority of Ukrainians in all regions of Ukraine by a Ukrainian independence led to the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

. In the 1990s Pavlychko was the ambassador of Ukraine to Poland and Slovakia. Pavlychko was elected to the

Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada ( ; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameralism, unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 Deputy (legislator), deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovn ...

(Ukrainian parliament) from 1990 to 1999, as well as in 2005.

Death

Pavlychko died on 29 January 2023 in Kyiv at the age of 93, and was buried on 31 January in his native village Stopchativ.

Artistic impact

In his poetry works of

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

period, first of which "Love and hatred" published in 1953, Pavlychko presented himself as publicist and civil activist. He is known for presenting paradoxes such as love and hate through antonymic pairs, unlike things in a metaphor. This created an opposition in the literary subject of many poems. Pavlychko would note for example, "Interwoven like my mother's sewing, My sad and joyful ways,". This use of opposites created a sense of irony and humor in much of his work.Critic Askold Melnyczuk noted that Pavlychko used direct and plain spoken language to combine themes of love and history as a poetic Statesmen. According to literary critic Ivan Dziuba, Dmytro Pavlychko started what would become the dissident movement in Ukraine. In 1957-58 Pavlychko's poetry collection “Pravda klyche” (The Truth Calls) was confiscated and banned for breaking political norms of the Stalin era. In later interviews Pavlychko would note that his experience with "Pravda klyche" leade him to abandon the Communist Party, and that he was a member in name only for political reasons to protect the Ukrainian Language. He would note in his younger years he had hoped the Party could be a path to an Independent Ukraine. Pavlychko said in 1992:

I would have much greater opportunities to work for the preservation of the Ukrainian language and the Ukrainian culture. And this was the basis of my Party membership.

Through the 1960s Pavlychko's work remained controversial. His best known work in 1964 “Dva koliory,” or Two Colors. It was immediately censored as promoting

Ukrainian Nationalism Ukrainian nationalism (, ) is the promotion of the unity of Ukrainians as a people and the promotion of the identity of Ukraine as a nation state. The origins of modern Ukrainian nationalism emerge during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, Cossack upri ...

. While many of Pavlychko's poems were used for songs, the most popular and famous was" Two Colours". In 1968 Dmytro Pavlychko wrote an article about poet Bohdan Ihor Antonych and a book "Hranosolv" that lead for people to call for his ouster from the Communist party. Besides writing his own verses, he also translated the poems of

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

, Francesco Petrarca,

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

José Martí José Julián Martí Pérez (; 28 January 1853 – 19 May 1895) was a Cuban nationalism, nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in ...

, and Nikola Vaptsarov, among others. Dmytro Pavlychko was awarded the

Shevchenko National Prize Shevchenko National Prize (; also ''Shevchenko Award'') is the highest state prize of Ukraine for works of culture and arts awarded since 1961. It is named after the inspirer of Ukrainian national revival Taras Shevchenko. It is one of the five ...

in 1977 for'' Love and Hatred''. On October 24, 2019, the National Museum of Literature of Ukraine hosted an anniversary evening dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Dmytro Pavlychko, where the fifth and sixth (last) volumes of his memoirs Dmytro Pavlychko. Memoirs" by Yaroslaviv Val Publishing House.

Awards and honors

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

(1960) *

Order of the Badge of Honour The Order of the Badge of Honour () was a civilian award of the Soviet Union. It was established on 25 November 1935, and was conferred on citizens of the USSR for outstanding achievements in sports, production, scientific research and socia ...

(1967) *

(1977) *

Order of Friendship of Peoples The Order of Friendship of Peoples () was an order of the Soviet Union, and was awarded to persons (including non-citizens), organizations, enterprises, military units, as well as administrative subdivisions of the USSR for accomplishments in s ...

(1979) * International Botev Prize (1986) *

Order of Merit (Ukraine) The Order of Merit () (Distinguished service) first, second or third class, is the Ukrainian order of merit, given to individuals for outstanding achievements in economics, science, culture, military or political spheres of activity. It was firs ...

, 3rd class (1997) *

Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise The Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise () is a Ukrainian award. It is awarded for distinguished services to the state and people of the Ukrainian nation in the field of state building, strengthening the international prestige of Ukraine, develop ...

, 5th class (1999) * Antonovych prize (2004) *

Hero of Ukraine A Hero of Ukraine (HOU; ) is the highest national decoration that can be conferred upon an individual citizen by the president of Ukraine. The decoration was created in 1998 by President Leonid Kuchma. As of 6 June 2025, the total number of re ...

(2004) * Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 4th class (2009) * Order of Liberty (Ukraine) (2015)

Published works

* Lyubov i nenavist ("Love and hatred"), 1953. * Moya zemlya ("My land"), 1953. * Chorna nytka ("Black thread"), 1958. * Pravda klyche ("Truth is calling"), 1958. * Granoslov, 1968. * Sonety podilskoy oseny ("Podillian autumn sonnets"), 1973. * Taemnytsya tvogo oblychchia ("Mystery of your face"), 1974, 1979. * Magistralyamy slova ("Through word's highways"), literary criticism, 1978. * Nad glybynamy ("Upon the depths"), literary criticism, 1984. * Spiral, 1984. * Poemy i pritchi ("Poems and parables"), 1986. * Bilya muzhniogo slova ("Next to the courageous word"), literary criticism, 1988. * Pokayanni psalmy ("Repentance psalms"), 1994. * World sonnets (translation), 1983.

Books

* Dmytro Vasylovych Pavlychko. (2004). ''Ukrainska Natsionalna Ideia : Statti, Vystupy, Interv'iu, Dokumenty'', Vyd-vo Solomii Pavlychko Osnovy. . * Dmytro Vasylovych Pavlychko. (2002). ''Naperstok : Poezii'', Vyd-vo Solomii Pavlychko Osnovy. . * Dmytro Vasylovych Pavlychko. (2002). ''Ukrainska Natsionalna Ideia'', Vydavnychyi dim KM Akademiia. . * Dmytro Vasylovych Pavlychko. (1988). ''Bilia Muzhnoho Svitla : Literaturno-Krytychni Statti, Spohady, Vystupy'', Rad. pysmennyk. .

References

External links

Poems of Dmytro Pavlychko in the Library of Ukrainian Poetry

Poems of Dmytro Pavlychko

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pavlychko, Dmytro 1929 births 2023 deaths 20th-century Ukrainian poets 21st-century translators 21st-century Ukrainian poets University of Lviv alumni Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Members of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union First convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Third convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Fourth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Ambassadors of Ukraine to Poland Ambassadors of Ukraine to Slovakia Child soldiers in World War II People convicted in relations with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists People from Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast People from Stanisławów Voivodeship People's Movement of Ukraine politicians Prisoners and detainees of the Soviet Union Prosvita Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland Commanders with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland Commanders with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta Recipients of the title of Hero of Ukraine Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of Liberty (Ukraine) Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 4th class Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 5th class Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Shevchenko National Prize Translators from English Translators from German Translators from Spanish Translators of William Shakespeare Translators to Ukrainian Soviet dissidents Soviet literary critics Soviet magazine editors Soviet male poets Soviet screenwriters Soviet male screenwriters Soviet translators Ukrainian dissidents Ukrainian editors Ukrainian ethnographers Ukrainian Insurgent Army Ukrainian literary critics Ukrainian male poets Ukrainian prisoners and detainees Ukrainian public relations people Ukrainian screenwriters Ukrainian translators