Mykola Zerov

Mykola Zerov

Mykola Zerov (26 April 1890, Zinkiv, Poltava Governorate - 3 November 1937, Sandarmokh, Karelia.^[1]) was a Ukrainian poet, translator, literary scholar and critic. He was perhaps the most talented of the Neoclassicist movement of poets in 1920's Ukraine. Despite the populist and propagandistic impulses of Communism, the neoclassical movement stressed the production of 'high art' to an educated and highly literate audience. Zerov, particularly, eschewed contemporary politics in his poetry, focusing on aesthetic and historical classical themes under a tight and difficult poetical structure. This approach eventually proved fatal, as Zerov, along with many other Ukrainian writers of the period, was later sent to Solovki prison camp^[1] and later executed. He is considered to be one of the lead figures of Executed Renaissance.

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