Vasyl Stefanyk Василь Стефаник | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Vasyl Stefanyk. 1896 | |
| Born | Vasyl Semenovych Stefanyk (1871-05-14)May 14, 1871 |
| Died | December 7, 1936(1936-12-07) (aged 65) |
| Occupation | prose writer and political activist |
| Language | Ukrainian,Polish, German |
| Nationality | Austro-Hungarian Empire,Poland |
| Alma mater | Krakow University |
| Period | Young Poland |
| Genre | Expressionism |
| Notable works | Stone Cross(1900) |
Vasyl Semenovych Stefanyk (Ukrainian:Васи́ль Семе́нович Стефа́ник; May 14, 1871 – December 7, 1936) was an influentialUkrainianmodernistwriter and political activist. He was a member of theAustrian parliament from 1908 to 1918.
Vasyl Stefanyk was born on May 14, 1871, in the village ofRusiv in the family of a well-to-do peasant. He was born in the historical region ofPokuttia, then part ofAustria-Hungary. Today it is part ofKolomyia Raion,Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. He died on December 7, 1936, in the same village, Rusiv, at that time the part ofPoland.
His primary education Stefanyk was at the Sniatyn City school. He later studied at Polish gymnasia inKolomyia andDrohobych. He was expelled from the Kolomea gymnasium for the participation in a revolutionary group. He eventually graduated from the Drohobych gymnasium, and enrolled in the University of Kraków in 1892.
Stefanyk's "Blue Book" was republished in Ukraine in 1966 under the title "The Maple Leaves" in an edition lavishly illustrated byMykhaylo Turovsky.
Three stories from the "Blue Book" were the basis of the classic Ukrainian 1968 film "The Stone Cross" byLeonid Osyka.
Stefanyk was deeply concerned with the destiny ofUkrainian immigrants to Canada and often mentioned them in his many writings. One of his stories,The Stone Cross (Kaminnyi Khrest), (later made into a movie) is a stirring account of an immigrant's departure from Stefanyk's native village,Rusiv. The man upon whom it is based died in 1911, inHilliard, Alberta.
The monument that was erected to commemorate Vasyl' Stefanyk is located at theUkrainian Cultural Heritage Village, east ofEdmonton, Alberta. That is a statue that was a gift fromUkraine to theAssociation of United Ukrainian Canadians. The statue was sculpted byW. Skolozdra in 1971 to mark the 100th anniversary of Vasyl Stefanyk.
