On January 29, at the age of 94, the legendary Ukrainian poet, translator, public and political figure and Hero of Ukraine Dmitry Pavlychko died. An outstanding Ukrainian was one of those who wrote the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine in August 1991.
Channel 24 has collected for you the most interesting facts about the biography of Dmitry Pavlychko. Read more about the creative, political and diplomatic career of the Hero of Ukraine.
Condemned for membership in the UPA: childhood and youth
Dmitry Pavlychko was born into a large peasant family on September 28, 1929 in the village of Stopchatov, Kosovsky district, Ivano-Frankivsk region, which was then annexed by Poland. First he studied at a rural school in Yabloniv, and then at the Kolomyia gymnasium.
In the fall of 1945, Dmitry Pavlychko was accused of involvement in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and imprisoned for almost a year. Later, the poet admitted his participation in the UPA, but noted that the detachment in which he was was disbanded, and he was sent to school.
In 1953 he graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Lviv University (now LNU named after Ivan Franko). A year later he joined the CPSU. Subsequently, he worked as an editor for Zhovten and Universe magazines and moved to Kyiv.
Dmytro Pavlychko/Archive photo
“Read or suffocate”: Pavlychko's political activities
Dmytro Pavlychko was one of the founders of the People's Movement of Ukraine and the Democratic Party of Ukraine, and in 1990 became a deputy of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR. In July of the same year, he became a co-author of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine.
A year later, Dmitry Pavlychko already participated in the writing of the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. Then, in the midst of heated discussions within the walls of the Verkhovna Rada, the poet first acted as an intermediary in negotiations with the communist majority. However, less than an hour before the vote, when the text of the document was brought to the then chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR, Leonid Kravchuk, who suggested postponing the vote, Pavlychko sharply forced him to read the Act.
Read! If not, I will strangle you, – contemporaries will remember Pavlychko's words.
The text of the Act was written by Levko Lukyanenko, but the beginning of the document “Based on mortal danger …” is edited by Dmitry Pavlychko.
Pavlychko was also the author of the doctrine of the neutral and non-bloc status of Ukraine.
After the declaration of independence and a referendum, Dmitry Pavlychko continued his political activities – in 1998 he was elected a people's deputy. From 1995 to 1998 Pavlychko was the Ambassador of Ukraine to Slovakia, and from 1999 to 2002 he was Ambassador to Poland. It was during the petition that a monument to Taras Shevchenko appeared in Warsaw.
From 2005 to 2006, he was a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada for the third time. In 2004 he was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.
The destroyed collection and the legendary “Two Colors”: the work of Dmitry Pavlychko
Dmytro Pavlychko will forever remain in Ukrainian history as an unsurpassed master of words. During his life, he wrote a number of collections of sensual poems, and almost everyone knows individual poems.
In 1958, the fourth collection of poems by Dmitry Pavlychko, entitled “The Truth Calls”, was published. However, Soviet censors banned the book and destroyed almost all 18,000 copies. However, this event did not break the poet, and the following year the collection “Bystrina” saw the light of day.
Dmitry Pavlychko was also a literary critic, in particular, in 2007, the two-volume “Literary Criticism” was published.
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In addition, Dmitry Pavlychko was one of the most famous Ukrainian translators. The poet translated from English, Spanish, Italian, French and many Slavic languages. In translation, Ukrainians were able to read the works of Dante, Petrarch, Baudelaire, Goethe, Heine, Rilke, Ibsen and others. In 1983, Pavlychko concluded the anthology “World Sonnet” with translations of the world's most famous authors.
Dmitry Pavlychko wrote sonnets himself. And not only intimate, but also patriotic. “Two Colors” is already a cult poem that has turned into a folk song, but it also has lines no less relevant. Revive, bring the Cossack glory out of the dust. I’ll crush my death with my prayer, I’ll bow down to you with stone and grass, Ale, don’t let it, so that the servants of Moscow Znov turned my land into ruins! Don't allow a crest to the prince's throne, Extinguish the patriotic spirits in the hearts and light the future of the world! Ale, yak me worthy only pokari – Do not torment the Siberians, let's go on fire I German slaves slept to the ground!
The tragedy of the poet: the personal life of Dmitry Pavlychko
Dmitry Pavlychko was married to a woman named Bogdana, about whom very little, if nothing, is known. In marriage, they had two daughters – Solomiya and Roksolana. The eldest daughter of the poet followed the paths of her father – she became a writer, literary critic and translator. Solomiya Pavlychko was one of the first in Ukraine, she spoke about feminism and gathered like-minded women around her.
On the morning of December 31, 1999, Solomiya took part in the filming of the morning show, and in the evening at home, as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty boiler, she lost consciousness and choked in the bathroom. The poet's daughter was 41 years old.
My soul was in her, my hope was in her, with her departure my life turned into some kind of mechanical movement, into twilight, into where I see only sad grievances,” Pavlychko said after the tragedy.
Solomiya Pavlychko/Archival photo
Reaction to the death of Dmitry Pavlychko
On the evening of January 29, 2023, the chairman of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine Mikhail Sydorzhevsky wrote in his social networks that the daughter of Dmitry Pavlychko Roksolana reported the tragic news that the legendary poet had died.
- < li>President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that Dmytro Pavlychko will be remembered as one of the authors of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine and the organizers of the Ukrainian national movement;
- The Verkhovna Rada expressed gratitude to Dmytro Pavlychko for achievements in Ukrainian culture and political work .
- The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy noted that Pavlychko gave Ukraine a song that has already become popular and has been uniting Ukrainians of all generations for decades. The death of the poet is called a loss for Ukraine;
The editors of Channel 24 express their sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of Dmitry Pavlychko! This is a great loss for our entire country.
