Vasyl Hryhorovych Chumak (; – 21 November 1919) was a Ukrainian writer and communist revolutionary.

Biography

Vasyl Hryhorovych Chumak was born on 7 January 1901 in the town of

Ichnia Ichnia (, ) is a small city in Pryluky Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine, located on the Ichenka River. It hosts the administration of Ichnia urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population is Etymology There is evidence that in ancient ...

Chernigov Governorate Chernigov Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire. It was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Little Russia Governorate (1796-1802), Little Russia Governorate and had its capital in Cher ...

. His father was the Cossack-descended Hryhorii Semenovych Chumak, while his mother was Anastasiia Petrivna Chumak (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Marchenko), of landlord stock. The family held six desiatiny of land in the region, including a bakery and a bread factory. Chumak undertook his early education at a religious school, before studying at Ichnia's high school between 1910 and 1914. He next studied in

Horodnia Horodnia (, ) is a small city in Chernihiv Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine. It has had city status since 1957. Horodnia hosts the administration of Horodnia urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: 11,240 (2023 estimate), Geo ...

, where he finished gymnasium in 1918. After graduating he travelled to the Ukrainian capital of

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, ...

, where he joined the

Borotbists The Borotbists () were a left-nationalist political party in Ukraine that existed from 1918 to 1920. It is not to be confused with its Russian affiliated counterparts – the Ukrainian Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries ( Borbysts) and th ...

. As a Borotbist, Chumak was secretary of the party's journal, ''Artwork'', and he also worked in the All-Ukrainian Literary Collegium of the Ministry of Education of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Following the takeover of Kyiv by the

White Army The White Army, also known as the White Guard, the White Guardsmen, or simply the Whites, was a common collective name for the armed formations of the White movement and Anti-Sovietism, anti-Bolshevik governments during the Russian Civil War. T ...

Chumak began organising a pro-communist resistance organisation, alongside . The two were soon arrested, and, while attempting to escape from captivity, were both shot to death. Following the Soviet capture of Kyiv, both of their bodies were reburied in a mass grave on Anosov Square (now the Park of Eternal Glory).

Works

Chumak's works, first created in 1917 and encouraged by his interest in the writings of

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 ...

, took on a

romanticist Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

and revolutionary character, and he wrote in several forms, including prose, stories, essays, literary criticism, and published articles. In his poetry, Chumak was an

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

, and through his works expressed support for Ukrainian independence and communism. Following Chumak's death, a poetry collection was released under the title ''Prelude'' (). Chumak was responsible for the establishment of several journals, as well as the Ichnia branch 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.

Legacy

Ukrainian literary critic wrote in the 1920s that Chumak, alongside Mykhailychenko,

Vasyl Ellan-Blakytny Vasyl Ellan-Blakytny (), born Vasyl Ellansky (; January 12, 1894 – December 4, 1925) was a Ukrainian poet, journalist and politician. As a poet, using the pseudonym Ellan, he was hailed as a pioneer of Ukrainian proletarian literature. Ellan ...

, and , comprised a group he described as "the first braves", responsible for the development of Ukrainian communist literature. Chumak's works were banned from the early 1930s as part of a broader crackdown by the government of the

Soviet Union 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 ...

on the Borotbists. In the 1950s he was rehabilitated, and his works were again permitted.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chumak, Vasyl 1901 births 1919 deaths 20th-century Ukrainian writers Borotbists Poets from the Russian Empire Activists from the Russian Empire Prosvita Rebels from the Russian Empire Ukrainian communists Ukrainian revolutionaries