Stories from the Ukraine

by Mykola Khvylovy, George S.N. Luckyj (Translator), Аркадій Любченко (afterword)

Edited, with an introduction by G. S. N. Luckyj

Five short stories by the leading Soviet Ukrainian who committed suicide in 1933.

In 1925 Khvylovy was the risen star of Soviet Ukrainian literature. But when, in the early 1930's, the Party instituted a campaign of terror against the resistance to the collectivization of agriculture in the Ukraine - as well as against Ukrainian culture and literature - Mykola Khvylovy shot himself.

The stories freshly translated in this collection show the transformation of the talented revolutionary into an embittered cynic - from the early tales of drama and symbolism to the final savage satires on Soviet officialdom and the Ukrainian Communists.

Genres: Short Stories

234 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1960

About the author

Mykola Khvylovy (Ukrainian: Микола Хвильовий, Khvyl’ovyy) (December 13 [O.S. December 1] 1893 – May 13, 1933) was a Ukrainian writer and poet of the early Communist era Ukrainian Renaissance (1920–1930).

Born as Mykola Fitilyov in Trostyanets, Kharkov Governorate to a Russian laborer father and Ukrainian schoolteacher mother, Khvylovy joined the Communist Party in 1919. In the same year he became the chief of local Cheka in Bohodukhiv povit. He moved to Kharkiv in 1921 and involved himself with writers connected to Vasyl Blakytny and the paper Visti VUTsVK (news from All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee). In 1921, he also published his first poetry collection.

In 1922, he began to focus more on prose writing. His initial collections Syni etiudy (Blue Etudes, 1923) and Osin’ (Autumn, 1924) generated approval from critics like Serhiy Yefremov, Oleksander Biletsky, Volodymyr Koriak, Yevhen Malaniuk and Dmytro Dontsov. His impressions of the work as a CheKa officer are reflected in his 1924 novel "I (Romance)", the hero of which - the head of the local Cheka - sentenced his mother to death in the name of the ideals of the revolution.

A brief member of the literary organization Hart, Khvylovy later became critical of it and the organization Pluh and became a key leader of the VAPLITE organization of Ukrainian "proleteriat" writers. Because of Stalin's repressions against his friends in the pro-Ukrainian Communist movement, Khvylovy committed suicide on 13 May 1933 in front of his friends in his apartment in Kharkiv. His suicide note said: "Arrest of Yalovy - this is the murder of an entire generation ... For what? Because we were the most sincere Communists? I don't understand. The responsibility for the actions of Yalovy's generation lies with me, Khvylovy. Today is a beautiful sunny day. I love life - you can't even imagine how much. Today is the 13th. Remember I was in love with this number? Terribly painful. Long live communism. Long live the socialist construction. Long live the Communist Party."[1]

After his death, his works were banned in the Soviet Union and because of his symbolic potency were mostly not permitted until near the end or after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Reviews

[Andriy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Микола Хвильовий. Nicolas!
Надзвичайно цікавий і приємний автор.
Живий, сміливий і різноманітний.
Хоч признаюсь, що полюбив я його далеко не зразу – в школі (де, так би мовити, відбулося наше перше знайомство) Він був малозрозумілим і дивним автором, що його нещодавно тільки вилучили з архівів КҐБ і включили в шкільну програму. По-моєму, вчителі й самі не дуже-то знали як давати раду такому новоспеченому старосвітському авторові. Пам’ятаю, що ніяк не міг зрозуміти, що то за оповідання таке «Кіт у чоботях» і як взагалі так можна писати?! от згадайте лишень: «Плякати! Плякати! Плякати! Гу-у! Гу-у! Бах! Бах! Плякати! Плякати! Плякати! Схід. Захід. Північ. Південь.» – катастрофа якась, а не проза... а ще пам’ятаю як цілий клас шокувало убивство в новелі «Я (Романтика)»… Та, про це можна довго міркувати-розказувати…
А хочеться коротко: Дозвольте відрекомендувати!
(може і Вам згодом захочеться Його іще раз і ще перечитати :))

[Roman Brasoveanu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a joy to read. Khvylovy is a satirist of the same calibre as, if not greater than, M. Bulgakov. By way of a different comparison, it has been said that this neoromantic is the Ukrainian Pilnyak, which is to say that it isn’t only his cutting wit and political awareness which make Khvylovy a must-read author. Surprisingly, he’s received almost no attention outside of Ukraine and Russia.

The stories range from clever denouncements of homo sovieticus, hypocritical, pseudo-intellectual types, as in ‘Ivan Ivanovich,’ to serious psychological struggles involving matricide, treachery, and the new religion in ‘Myself’ (Romantica).

The greatest of these is ‘A Sentimental Tale,’ which so gripped and entranced me that I felt that I was reading for the first time- that it would injure me to stop. Everything in it is perfect and no word superfluous. Sublime romance, transfiguration, humor, political commentary, and excursions into the surreal meet here and as if you were reading Pushkin, every paragraph could be carved into stone. Khvylovy is not merely the Ukrainian Pilnyak, his style is wonderfully unique.

Not only Khvylovy the writer, but Khvylovy the revolutionary hero who said that he would appeal directly to Stalin if his party membership was revoked all the while being denounced by the party while criticizing it and maintaining an adversarial relationship with Moscow, leading the Ukrainian Literary Revolution, preaching a messianic and unorthodox communism, clinging to his blue commune behind the hill, is seen. In this work these two faces of this remarkable man are inseparable, though the 1931-1933 period show that he could hide the latter.

For the joy of reading, for the joy of thinking, this collection is a triumph of the highest order.

[Victoria & David Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The result of Stalin’s policies was the Great Famine (Holodomor) of 1932–33—a man-made demographic catastrophe unprecedented in peacetime. Of the estimated five million people who died in the Soviet Union, almost four million were Ukrainians. The famine was a direct assault on the Ukrainian peasantry, which had stubbornly continued to resist collectivization; indirectly, it was an attack on the Ukrainian village, which traditionally had been a key element of Ukrainian national culture." Britannica
In the preceding decade Mykola Khvylovy, who was one of the key figures in the Ukranian 'Executed Renaissance', published most of his surviving prose works. Initially a dedicated Bolshevik during the chaos and upheaval of WWI and the communist revolution, he grew to oppose the overwhelming Russian influence in the arts and to advocate for an independent Ukrainian style. This, of course, attracted Stalin's attention and condemnation (Stalin notoriously involved himself in closely following and criticising all the arts). Khvylovy, like his compatriots, was forced to recant and was ostricised to the pont that he committed suicide at the age of 39.
Of the five stories here, the first three are excellent: impressionistic, symbolic, they reflect the geography, psychology, and events of the time. The latter two (the stories are presented chronologically) are satires and haven't aged as well. There is also a story by Arkady Lyubchenko, 'His secret' (although not mentioned in either the introduction or table of contents) which takes place during the Holodomor.