DISCOVERY OF A LATER EDITION OF THE ARTICLE BY V. STUS «A PHENOMENON OF OUR TIME (THE ASCENT TO CALVARY OF GLORY)»

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DISCOVERY OF A LATER EDITION OF THE ARTICLE BY V. STUS «A PHENOMENON OF OUR TIME (THE ASCENT TO CALVARY OF GLORY)»

Journal Title: Scientific journal «International Journal of Philology» - Year 2018, Vol 1, Issue 281

Abstract

The works of Vasyl Stus – а Ukrainian poet, human rights activist, a member of the Sixtiers’ movement of resistance against the totalitarian system in the USSR – are subject to scientific interest of literary critics and historians. Studying his literary heritage is complicated by many years of hushing up his works during the Soviet times, banning them from being published in the USSR, partial physical destruction of his works in places of detention and the poet’s tragic death in the camp for political prisoners ВС-389/36-1 near village of Kuchino, Chusovyi District of Perm Region. His works ended up in KGB’s archives, self-published collections, some were published abroad. All the publications of his works happened without the author’s participation. The document found in the stock collection of The Sixtiers Museum is a previously unknown version of V. Stus’s literary study «A Phenomenon of Our Time (The Ascent to Calvary of Glory)» on works by Pavlo Tychyna. This literary study by V. Stus is already well known among scholars. According to a memoir by M. Kotsiubynska, Stus finished it in the summer of 1971, printed out several copies and gave them to his closest friends. The official publication of the article was made from one of these copies. The typescript was found among Ivan Svitlychny’s papers confiscated during the second search of his home on 22 May, at the time when Ivan Oleksiyovych himself, having been arrested on the same day as Vasyl Stus (12 January 1972), was held in remand prison of the KGB. There are three types of corrections in this text: proof-corrections related to spelling and misprints; minor but fair stylistic adjustments; and the most interesting, crossing out some parts of the text and replacing them with handwritten fragments. The stylistic adjustments were made by Ivan Svitlychnyi but replacement of some text fragments with others was undoubtedly made by the author, although, apparently, influenced by conversations with the critic. The fragments omitted by the official edition of Stus’s text had been written with a blue ballpoint pen on the back of Ivan Svitlychny’s drafts, which indicates that discussion and correction by Vasyl Stus of his article most likely took place at Ivan Oleksiyovych’s house. So what is the semantic difference between the two versions of the article? Mykhailyna Kotsiubynska, who since her childhood had been fond of early works by Pavlo Tychyna, remembered that after reading Stus’s article she discussed it with Vasyl, trying to soften the harshness of his crushing criticism of the poet praised by the Soviet authorities. It seems that Ivan Svitlychnyi to some extent also played a role of Tychyna’s advocate, bringing a number of arguments. Influenced by communication with the critic, V. Stus abridged his article by cutting out some lengthy historical narratives on the subject of the Ukrainian revolution. Having learned from Ivan Svitlychnyi how Tychyna in the horrible prewar years found the courage to confront Mykyta Hruschov in defence of Maksym Rylskyi, who was faced with charges of «criminal activity» «uncovered» by the authorities of NKVD (The People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs), Stus makes fundamental changes to the ending of his article and generally somewhat softens the rigidity of his opinions. Vasyl Stus’s rage was primarily directed against the totalitarian Communist government, which was purposefully destroying the poet in a poet, and personality in a person. The text corrected by Stus remained with Ivan Svitlychnyi... In less than six months the cruel age would lay its claim to Vasyl Stus himself. But unlike his vis-a-vis, Vasyl Stus ascended his Calvary proudly and unerringly. The moral maxims he brought before Pavlo Tychyna he just as ruthlessly and uncompromisingly applied to himself. In the early years of Ukrainian independence, Ivan Svitlychny’s wife Leonida claimed back from the Security Service of Ukraine her husband’s confiscated archive and gave it to the Public organization The Sixtiers Museum, members of which were assembling a stock collection for the future Sixtiers Museum which opened in August 2012 as part of the Museum of Kyiv History... The document we have discovered is a witness to the continuation of the author’s work on the article which had already been written and given for revision to his friends-Sixtiers; it shows his desire to reveal with maximum objectivity the tragedy of Tychyna’s genius, and the expression of great respect towards the leader of the Sixtiers’ movement, literary critic Ivan Svitlychnyi.

Authors and Affiliations

O Lodzynska

Keywords

V. Stus I. Svitlychnyi M. Kotsiubynska P. Tychyna repression the Sixties

EP ID EP365137
DOI -
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