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Volodymyr Vynnychenko | |
|---|---|
| Володимир Винниченко | |
 Vynnychenko in 1910 | |
| 1st Chairman of theDirectory | |
| In office December 19, 1918 – February 10, 1919 | |
| Preceded by | Pavlo Skoropadsky(asHetman of Ukraine) |
| Succeeded by | Symon Petliura |
| 1stPrime Minister of the Ukrainian People's Republic | |
| In office June 28, 1917[1] – August 26, 1917 | |
| President | Mykhailo Hrushevsky (speaker ofCentral Rada) |
| Preceded by | position created |
| Succeeded by | Vsevolod Holubovych |
| Secretary of Internal Affairs | |
| In office June 28, 1917 – January 30, 1918 | |
| Prime Minister | Himself |
| Preceded by | position created |
| Succeeded by | Pavlo Khrystiuk |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1880-07-28)July 28, 1880 |
| Died | March 6, 1951(1951-03-06) (aged 70) Mougins, France |
| Nationality | Ukrainian |
| Political party | Foreign Group of Ukrainian Communists (1919) |
| Other political affiliations | Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party (1905–1919) Revolutionary Ukrainian Party (?-1905) |
| Spouse | Rosalia Yakovna Vynnychenko (Lifshits) |
| Alma mater | Kyiv University |
| Signature |  |
Volodymyr Kyrylovych Vynnychenko (Ukrainian:Володимир Кирилович Винниченко; July 28 [O.S. July 16] 1880 – March 6, 1951) was a Ukrainian statesman, political activist, writer, playwright and artist who served as the firstprime minister of theUkrainian People's Republic.[1][2] Prior to his entry onto the stage of Ukrainian politics, he was a long-time political activist, who lived abroad in Western Europe from 1906 to 1914 escaping persecutuion byRussian authorities.
Vynnychenko's works reflect his immersion in the Ukrainian revolutionary milieu, as well as his life both among impoverished working-class people, and among émigrés living in Western Europe. He is recognized as a leading Ukrainianmodernist writer of the pre-revolutionary era, and an author of short stories, novels, and plays. InSoviet Ukraine between the 1930s and mid-1980s Vynnychenko's works, like those of many other Ukrainian writers, were forbidden.
Volodymyr Vynnychenko was born in a village, Vesely Kut (today – Hryhorivka,Novoukrainka Raion), in theKherson Governorate of theRussian Empire, in a family ofpeasants.[3] His father Kyrylo Vasyliovych Vynnychenko earlier in his life was aserf who moved from a village to the city of Yelisavetgrad, where he married a widow, Yevdokia Pavlenko (nee: Linnyk). From her previous marriage Yevdokia had three children: Andriy, Maria, and Vasyl; Volodymyr was her only child from the marriage with Kyrylo. Upon his graduation from a local public school, the Vynnychenko family managed to enroll Volodymyr at theYelyzavetgrad Male Gymnasium[3] (today its building belongs to theState Emergency Service of Ukraine). In later grades of the gymnasium he took part in a revolutionary organization and wrote a revolutionary poem for which he was incarcerated for a week and excluded from school. That did not stop him from continuing his studies as he was getting prepared for his test to obtain the high school diploma (Matura). He successfully took the test in theZlatopil gymnasium from which obtained hisattestation of maturity.
In 1900[citation needed] Vynnychenko joined theRevolutionary Ukrainian Party (RUP)[4] and enrolled in the law department[4] atKiev University, but in 1902[4] or 1903[3] he was expelled for participation in revolutionary activities.[4] As a member of the RUP[3] he provided political agitation and propaganda among the Kievan workers and peasants from Poltava[3] and was jailed for several months inLukyanivska Prison.[3] He managed to escape from his incarceration.[3] In 1902 Vynnychenko published in "Kievskaya starina" his first novel "Beauty and strength", after which he became known as a writer.[3] Afterward, due to a new arrest he was forcibly drafted into a punitive battalion in theRussian Imperial army[3] where he began to agitate soldiers with revolutionary propaganda.[citation needed] Tipped off[by whom?] that his arrest was imminent,[citation needed] Vynnychenko illegally[3] fled toeastern Galicia,[citation needed]Austria-Hungary. When trying to return to Russian Ukraine with revolutionary literature, Vynnychenko was arrested and jailed[3] for one year[5] with a threat to spend the rest of his life inkatorga.[3] After his release in 1904,[5] he passed his exams for a law degree in Kiev University.[citation needed]
In 1906 Vynnychenko was arrested for a third time, again for his political activities, and jailed for a year; before his scheduled trial, however, the wealthy patron of Ukrainian literature and culture,Yevhen Chykalenko, paid his bail, and Vynnychenko fled Ukraine again, effectively becoming an émigré writer abroad from 1907 to 1914, living in Lemberg (Lviv), Vienna, Geneva,Paris,Florence, Berlin. In 1911 Vynnychenko marriedRosalia Lifshitz, a French Jewish doctor. From 1914 to 1917 Vynnychenko lived illegally near Moscow throughout much ofWorld War I[4] and returned to Kiev in 1917 to assume a leading role in Ukrainian politics.
After theFebruary Revolution in Russia in 1917, Vynnychenko served as the head of theGeneral Secretariat, a representative executive body of theRussian Provisional Government in Ukraine. He was authorized by theCentral Rada of Ukraine (ade facto parliament) to conduct negotiations with theRussian Provisional Government, 1917.
Vynnychenko resigned his post in the General Secretariat on August 13 in protest against the Russian government's rejection of the Universal ofCentral Rada. For a brief period he was replaced byDmytro Doroshenko who composed a new government the next day, yet unexpectedly he requested his resignation as well on August 18. Vynnychenko was offered to return, form a cabinet and redesign the Second Universal to petition a federal union with the Russian Republic. His second government was confirmed byAlexander Kerensky on September 1.
It is often[clarification needed] claimed[by whom?] that the political mistakes of Vynnychenko andMykhailo Hrushevsky cost the newly establishedUkrainian People's Republic its independence.[citation needed] Both men were strongly opposed to the creation of the army[citation needed] of the Republic and repeatedly denied[citation needed] the requests bySymon Petliura to use his volunteer forces as the core of a would-be army (seePolubotok Regiment Affair).
After theOctober Revolution and theKiev Bolshevik uprising many[clarification needed] of his secretaries resigned after theCentral Rada disapproved the Bolsheviks' actions inPetrograd with the ongoing confrontations in Moscow as well as the other cities in the country.[citation needed] On January 22, 1918, the Ukrainian People's Republic proclaimed its independence because of the Bolshevik intervention headed byAntonov-Ovseyenko. The country was squeezed between the abandoned German-Russian frontlines to its western border and the advancingBolshevik forces of Muravyov along the eastern border. Within days,Mikhail Muravyov managed to invadeKiev, forcing the government to evacuate toZhytomyr whose retreat was secured by the efforts of theYevhen KonovaletsSich Riflemen. During the evacuation, the Ukrainian government managed to secure military assistance in the face of theCentral Powers. The government signed thehighly-criticised treaty with the Germans to repel the Bolshevik forces in exchange for a right to expropriate food supplies. That treaty also required theSoviet Russia to recognise theUkrainian People's Republic. Around then, Vynnychenko's government established an economic agreement with the government of theBelarus People's Republic through the Belarus Chamber of Commerce in Kiev. However, Vynnychenko's was replaced as well by the Socialist-Revolutionary government ofVsevolod Holubovych.
After thecoup d'état of HetmanPavlo Skoropadsky in collaboration with the German occupation forces in April 1918, Vynnychenko left Kiev. During the period ofSkoropadsky's rule he headed the Ukrainian National Union.[5] Later, after forming theDirectorate of Ukraine, he took an active part in organizing arevolt against the Hetman. The revolt was successful and Vynnychenko returned to the capital on December 19, 1918. The Directorate, a temporary executive council of five, proclaimed the restoration of the Ukrainian People's Republic. The Directorate was put in charge by the Labour Congress until the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly would convene to elect a permanent body of government.
On his post, Vynnychenko was unable to restore order or to overcome his disagreement with Petliura.[3] Critical of the policies of most Ukrainian parties, which he considered to be tooright-wing andpro-Entente,[5] he stepped down on February 10,[3] 1919 and emigrated abroad. In a brief period inVienna[3] in 1920, he wrote his three-volume "Rebirth of the Nation".[3] At the same time, at the end of 1919, Vynnychenko resigned from theUkrainian Social Democratic Labour Party and formed the Foreign Group of Ukrainian Communists.[3]
In June 1920 Vynnychenko himself travelled to Moscow in an attempt to come to an agreement with the Bolsheviks. After four months of unsuccessful negotiations, Vynnychenko had become disillusioned with the Bolsheviks: he accused them ofGreat RussianChauvinism and insincerity as socialists. In September 1920 he returned to émigré life, where he revealed his impressions of Bolshevik rule. This action produced a split in the Foreign Group of the Ukrainian Communist Party: some remained pro-Bolshevik and indeed returned to Soviet Ukraine; others supported Vynnychenko, and with him conducted a campaign against the Soviet regime in their organNova Doba ("New Era").[6]
Vynnychenko spent 30 years in Europe, residing in Germany in the 1920s and then moving to France. As an émigré, Vynnychenko resumed his career as a writer. In 1919, his works were republished in an eleven-volume edition in the 1920s.
In 1928 he published ascience fiction novel,Soniashna mashyna ["The Solar Machine"], which has been described as "best-selling" despite facing hardships from theSoviet censors, who criticized it for not mentioning the existence of the USSR in itsfuture history.[7]
In 1934, Vynnychenko moved from Paris toMougins, nearCannes, on the Mediterranean coast, where he lived on a homestead type residence as a self-supporting farmer and continued to write, notably a philosophical exposition of his ideas about happiness, Concordism. Vynnychenko called his placeZakoutok.
During theGerman occupation of France, for refusing to cooperate with the Nazis, Vynnychenko was thrown into a concentration camp, which affected his health severely.[8] After the end of the war, he called for general disarmament and peaceful coexistence of the East and West.
He died in Mougins, near Cannes, France in 1951. Rosalia Lifshitz after her death passed the estate toIvanna Nyzhnyk-Vynnykiv (1912–1993), who emigrated to France after World War II and lived with Vynnychenko since 1948.[9]
Vynnychenko’s political awakening arose, he claimed, at the intersection of social and national experience. Writing in his diary in 1919, he recalled that “from the time the landowner Bodisko beat my father on his estate, fooled him, exploited him, chased him from his plot into the field, where I was tending livestock, from that moment I already took into my soul the seed of hatred for social exploitation, for Bodiskos of all types.” Other youthful experiences added feelings of national humiliation and anger to these social emotions. He recalled, for example, how, as a gymnasium student, teachers and other students (“young gentlemen”) treated him as a “little muzhik” [peasant] and a “little khokhol” [a derisive term for Ukrainian].[10][11]Vynnychenko demanded respect and recognition for Ukraine and Ukrainians as a nation. In 1913, he published in Russian an “Open Letter to Russian Writers” that criticized the “unconscious” tendency in a great deal of Russian literature to stereotype Ukrainians and others. The Ukrainian characters who appear in Russian literature, he argued, are much like the stereotypes of Jews and Armenians that Russians also have “a weakness for.” “Always and everywhere [in Russian literature] the ‘khokhol’ is a little stupid, a little cunning, a little lazy, melancholic and sometimes good-natured.” These stereotypes are “shameful” not only for Ukrainians whose equal humanity is not recognized but for Russian writers themselves and Russian literature.[12]
During the First World War, which brought fighting and occupation onto Ukrainian lands, Vynnychenko rhetorically wondered why our “brother” Russians show little concern with the suffering of Ukrainians? Why does “the love among Ukrainians for their own nation [narod] and sorrow for its fate elicit…wrath, indignation, and feelings of spite, or, at best, sarcasm or indifference?” The answer, he argued (writing in Russian, so again addressing Russians as much as Ukrainians), is that Ukrainians are becoming strong and aware as a nation, and “they fear us.” But nothing can stop the development of Ukrainian “consciousness,” he declared, which is already manifest in its intelligentsia. “Just as you cannot stop the formation of clouds, arising from the earth and returning to it, so it is impossible to stop the formation of a nationally conscious stratum in a people. We emerge from the raw earth, from the soil, from the depths of our nation, and we again return to it, and we again arise.”[13]
Vynnychenko believed that it was not enough to change structures of power in freeing the Ukrainian nation. Liberation demanded changes in people’s mentalities and values, in their moral and spiritual lives, in their selves. A true revolution needed to be, Vynnychenko insisted, all-sided, all-embracing, universal liberation (vsebichne vyzvolennia). To explore and promote this vision, he examined in his fiction questions of sexuality, emotion, will, and character. Ultimately, the point was to ask the most important question: how to realize a fully human and fully free personality, especially in the face of the crushing conditions and legacies of unfreedom?[14]
Vynnychenko first became famous as a writer in 1902. Hisnaturalistic short stories gained popularity due to their contrast with thenarodnik prose. In his writings Vynnychenko described the life of the lower social strata such as labour migrants, hired servants at noble estates and marginalized elements (most notably -The Beggars (Ukrainian:Голота), 1904). He demonstrated the picture of social and moral decay of traditional villages and devoted his attention to the life of provincial bourgeoisie, soldiers, prisoners and revolutionaryintelligentsia. Vynnychenko'srealism was combined withimpressionistic elements.[5]
In his later works composed after 1905 Vynnychenko increasingly introduced the topic of humanpsychology. His typical literary hero of that period is a cynical egoist, who denies the basics of humanmorals in the name of "honesty with oneself" and allows himself to commit any deed if it is supported by his own "will, reason and heart". Heroes of Vynnychenko's plays and novels are prone tohysteria and lack of willpower, and have an unstable worldview, which influences their behaviour. Elements of satire are present in his 1917 novelNotes of a Snub-Nosed Mephistopheles (Ukrainian:Записки кирпатого Мефістофеля). After theRevolution of 1917 Vynnychenko involvedutopian and political ideas in some of his works, dedicating his writings to the problem of human labour (The Sun Machine, 1928) and the need to opposeBolshevik expansion in Western countries (New Commandment, 1949).[5]
Vynnyhenko's early playDisharmony (Ukrainian:Дисгармонія), which he composed in 1905, caused a scandal because of the rejection ofmorals by its main hero, and was banned from being staged. Five of Vynnychenko's following plays concerned themselves with revolutionary topics, and were similarly banned by censorship. His first unpoliticized drama calledLies (Ukrainian:Брехня) was published in 1910 and achieved great success after its production by Kyiv's Mykola Sadovskyi Theatre in the following year; in 1918 it was adapted as a film, and in the following decade reached the stages of numerous European countries. Vynnychenko's next play,The Black Panther and the White Bear (Чорна Пантера і Білий Ведмідь, 1911), was produced in Germany during the early 1920s and was also followed by a film adaptation in 1921, but failed to achieve the similar degree of success.[15]
Vynnychenko's plays revolutionized theUkrainian theatre, contrasting with works of earlier authors and their predominantlyethnographic chracter. His theatrical works were especially popular during the revolutionary period, with two new Ukrainian theatres -Molodyy Theatre and the National Theatre - opening their inaugural seasons with dramas by Vynnychenko in 1917.[15]
Vynnychenko's writing has been praised for his attention to detail, realism, dynamic plots and use of humour. At the same time, his language has been condemned for its dryness and lack of form, as well as a tendency for moralism and overly artificial depiction of psychological conflicts.[5]
Vynnychenko is still somewhat famous in Ukraine.[16][17] Vynnychenko has not been as popular asMykhailo Hrushevsky as a political figure,[18] but is widely known as writer; his work was adapted for screen numerous times since the 1990s byDovzhenko Film Studios directors.
Vynnychenko's archives are housed inColumbia University, New York City and supervised by a commission of theUkrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences.[4]
