Pavlo Tychyna

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Pavlo Tychyna (Ukrainian: Павло Григорович Тичина; b, 27 January 1891 [O.S. 15 January], Pisky, Kozelets uezd, Chernigov Guberniya – d. September 16, 1967, Kiev) was a major Ukrainian poet. His initial work had strong connections to the symbolist literary movement, but his style transformed a number of times during his long career and frequently aped the acceptable socialist realism. His first works exploded onto the avant-garde Ukrainian scene with their colorful imagery and dynamic rhythms. However, as the Communist approach to artistic expression hardened and the role of a state-supported artist became more defined and restricted, Tychyna's poetry shifted rather dramatically, using clear pro-Communist political language, including a famous ode to Stalin, and the lyrics of the state anthem of the Ukrainian SSR. Tychyna was often criticized by Ukrainian exiles for the praising of Communism in his work and co-option by the regime, but recent scholarship has stressed his subtle distancing and mocking of Communist excesses and brutality through over-the-top suffusive praise.

1 Life
2 Controversy
3 Major works
4 References

[edit] Life

Born in Pisky in 1891, in 1913 Tychyna graduated from the Chernigov Theological Seminary. That year he began studying at the Kiev Commercial Institute. At the same time, he worked on the editorial boards of the Kiev newspapers Rada and Svitlo.

After an immediate success with his poetry, in 1923 he moved to Kharkiv (Kharkov), entering the vibrant world of early post-Revolution Ukrainian literary organizations. In 1923 he joined the organization Hart and in 1927 the famed Vaplite. Controversies about the ideological tendencies of Vaplite and the content of several of Tychnya's poems led to him being criticized for ideological reasons. As a response, Tychyna transformed the style and content of his poetry, adapting to the increasingly repressive political circumstances.

[edit] Controversy

Tychyna represents a complicated figure in both a political and academic sense. Many Ukrainian exile intellectuals and scholars involved in the analysis of Ukrainian literary history could not accept Tychnya's submission to political authority and apparent abandonment of many of his literary companions to the horrors of Stalinism. The true merit of his later poetry has been difficult to judge in such a bitter environment, which is only now relaxing. It also becomes difficult to determine Tychyna's true intent and emotions in such a repressive environment.