Ihor Kostezkyj (), also known by the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Iwan Mersljakow (), was a Ukrainian writer, playwright, translator, literary critic and publisher. Born on 14 May 1913 (1 May 1913 O.S.) in

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, ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, Kostetskyj grew up in his

and

Vinnytsia Vinnytsia ( ; , ) is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It serves as the administrative centre, administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast. It is the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. It also s ...

. During the 1930s, he studied stage directing and acting in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, spending two years as an actor in the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

. Kostetskyj began his literary career at this time authoring Russian-language reviews of theatrical performances; his first publication, signed with his pen name incorporating his mother's

maiden name When a person (traditionally the wife in many cultures) assumes the family name of their spouse, in some countries and cultures that name replaces the person's previous surname, which in the case of the wife is called the maiden name ("birth name" ...

, was written in

in 1941. In the early 1940s, following the outbreak of the

Second World War 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 ...

, he returned to the German-occupied Vinnytsia and lived there until the autumn of 1942, when he was deported to Germany for forced labor. Kostetskyj continued an active literary career in the

displaced persons camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displace ...

s after the war in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, continuing to write and publish works in a combined traditional and modernist style, briefly publishing a short-lived artistic and literary journal, and becoming one of the founders of the

Artistic Ukrainian Movement The Artistic Ukrainian Movement (), or MUR (), was a literary and artistic organisation of Ukrainian writers living in displaced persons camps in post-war West Germany from 1945 until 1948. The MUR was founded in September 1945 in Fürth near Nure ...

(MUR, ). From 1949 to 1969, Kostetskyj was the editor of ''Ukraine and the World'' (, ''Ukraïna i svit''), a journal of cultural, literary, scholarly, and political affairs published by Ilia Sapiha in

Hannover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

. With his wife, German poet and translator Elisabeth Kottmeier, Kostetskyj established the Na Hori ( ''On the Mountain'') publishing house in the mid-1950s, publishing several dozen of books including Ukrainian translations of literary classics.

Notable works

* ''Tales about the Victors'' (1946) * ''There, Where the Miracle Begins'' (1948) * ''Soviet Theater Policy and Stanislavsky's System'' (1956) * ''The Theater on Your Doorstep'' (1963) * ''The Whole World Belongs to You'' (2005) osthumously published

Notable works

Further reading