82. M.Khvylovy and Vaplite

Vilna Akademia Proletarskoi LITEratury (Vaplite) - Free Academy of Proletarian Literature - was a literary union in Ukraine. It was established in Kharkiv and existed from January, 1926 to January 28, 1928. In the organization actively worked, the above mentioned, Mykola Khvylovy, Mykhailo Yalovy, Mykola Kulish, Pavlo Tychyna, Mykola Bazhan, Yuriy Yanovskyi, etc.

While accepting the official requirements of the Communist party, Vaplite adopted an independent position on questions of literary policy and supported Mykola Khvylovy in the Literary Discussion of 1925–8. The views of Mykola Khvylovy led to criticism from the Party and government personnel of the Ukrainian SSR. Especially sharp attacks suffered his work, "Waldshnepi". Due to constant persecutions VAPLITE was forced to self-dissolve in 1928. The members of VAPLITE continued their literary activity in the literary almanac "Literary Fair" (1928–29) and the organization "Politfront". The members of VAPLITE became one of the first victims of Stalin regime's repressions.

83. M.Zerov and Ukrainian Neoclassicists

The nucleus of the group of the Ukrainian Neoclassicists of the 1920s consisted of Mykola Zerov, Maksym Rylsky, Pavlo Fylypovych, Mykhailo Drai-Khmara, and Oswald Burghardt (Yurii Klen). The closest to what could be considered their program is clearly set out in Mykola Zerov's Do dzherel (To the Sources, 1926). ‘We should,’ he wrote, ‘assimilate the highest culture of our times, not only in its latest manifestations, but also in its original forms.’ They never established a formal organization or program, but they shared cultural and esthetic interests. Mykhailo Mohyliansky, Viktor Petrov, and others are also included in this loose grouping. The group's name is derived from their use of themes and images of antiquity and was given to them by their opponents in the Literary Discussion of 1925-8. The Neoclassicists were self-consciously concerned with the production of high art and disdained 'mass art,' didactic writing, and propagandistic work. In the 1930s Mykola Zerov, Pavlo Fylypovych, and Mykhailo Drai-Khmara were sent to Soviet concentration camps and perished there.

84. Ukrainian poetry of the 20th century (m.Bazhan, p.Tychina, m.Rylsky)

The movement dominated Ukrainian poetry after the publication of Pavlo Tychyna’s Soniashni klarnety (Sunny Clarinets, 1918) and Zamist’ sonetiv i oktav (Instead of Sonnets and Octaves, 1920). In the 1920s it was manifested in the radical poetic experiments of Mykhailo Semenko and Valeriian Polishchuk and in the poetry of Mykola Bazhan and other poets. Examples in prose include the impressionistic works of Vasyl Stefanyk and Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, the psychological prose of Volodymyr Vynnychenko and, in the 1920s, Valeriian Pidmohylny, and the experimental prose of Mykola Khvylovy’s (Syni etiudy [Blue Etudes], 1923) and Leonid Skrypnyk’s (Intelihent [The Intellectual], 1929). Ukrainian literary modernism also produced strong women writers who expressed feminist concerns (eg, Lesia Ukrainka and Olha Kobylianska). In Ukrainian émigré literature, modernism was most apparent in the work of the interwar ‘Prague school’ of Ukrainian poets and the postwar New York Group of poets.