Role Poet Name Volodymyr Sosiura | Spouse Maria Nationality Ukrainian | |
 | ||
Notable awards Stalin Prize (1948), Shevchenko Prize (1963) Died January 8, 1965, Kiev, Ukraine Books Love Ukraine, Autumn in Sofiyivka, Mazepa Children Volodymyr Sosyura, Mykola Sosyura, Oleg Sosyura Parents Mykola Sosyura, Antonina Sosyura Awards Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner | ||
Volodymyr sosiura
Volodymyr Sosiura (Ukrainian: Володимир Сосюра; born January 6, 1898 in Debaltseve, Yekaterinoslav Governorate (today Donbas region) of the Russian Empire - died January 8, 1965 in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union) was a Ukrainian lyric poet, writer, veteran of the Russian Civil War (1918–20).
Contents
Brief biography
Sosiura fought in Petliura's Ukrainian People's Army (the 3rd Haidamaka Regiment that was quartered in Bakhmut) during the winter of 1918 to the autumn of 1919, before being taken prisoner by Denikin's Volunteer Army. He was sentenced to death, but managed to escape. Later, after the UPR was overrun, he joined the Red Army.
After the Russian Civil War in Ukraine ended (see Ukraine after Russian Revolution), he studied at the Artem Communist University in Kharkiv from 1922–23, then at the workers' faculty of the Public Education Institute (Kharkiv) from 1923-25. Sosiura belonged to the Ukrainian literary organizations Pluh, Hart, VAPLITE, and the All-Ukrainian Association of Proletarian Writers.
In the 1920s-30s Sosiura became very popular, but his ideological loyalties were torn between patriotic feelings for Ukraine and those for the Soviet Union and its often-changing ideologies. Even though he had long been a member of the CPU(b), he was frequently in conflict with it, and was twice expelled for “nationalistic undertones,” he was even forced to undergo a “reeducation” at a factory in 1930-1931. Many of Sosiura's poems were not published.
In 1948 he was awarded the highest honors of the Stalin Prize, but then he came under harsh criticism for his poem entitled Love Ukraine (Любіть Україну), which was deemed too nationalistic in its tone by several Soviet news-media including Pravda. Afterwards his wife was arrested and spent six years in NKVD prisons. In 1963, he won the Shevchenko Prize for Swallows on the sun and Happiness of a working family.
Sosiura died in Kiev at the age of 66.
Works
His works include numerous poems that vary from the patriotic genre to love poems such as Love Ukraine, The Late Summer (Babyne Lito), To Maria, Stalin, and many others.
Love Ukraine
Love Ukraine, like sun that you love
Like wind, like grass, and like water,
Whenever you're happy, in moments of gladness,
At times of trouble, do love.
Love Ukraine when asleep or awake
The glamorous your Ukraine
The beauty of it, always alive and new
And language of hers full of charm.
Amongst the brother-made nations, like garden in dew
She shines through the ages again
Love Ukraine with all of your heart
And all of the deeds that you make...
For further reading refer here
Legacy
His portrait and title of his poem, Love Ukraine, are featured on a two Hryvnia coin.