Cheremshyna, Marko

Cheremshyna, Marko [Čeremšyna] (pseudonym of Ivan Semaniuk), b 13 June 1874 in Kobaky, Kosiv county, Galicia, d 25 April 1927 in Kobaky; buried in Sniatyn, Galicia. (Photo: Marko Cheremshyna.) Writer. Cheremshyna completed a law degree at the University of Vienna in 1906 and maintained a law practice in Sniatyn, where he was active in civic life. He began writing short stories as early as 1896 and published them in newspapers (Bukovyna) and journals (Literaturno-naukovyi vistnyk). On the basis of regional origin, Cheremshyna is often placed together with Vasyl Stefanyk and Les Martovych in the ‘Pokutia triad.’ Yet Cheremshyna's stories are more like chronicles of local peasant life and lack the tension and force of Stefanyk’s works, as well as the humor and satire of Martovych’s. They reflect the dialectal traits of Pokutia and are marked by a rhythm and style reminiscent of folk laments (holosinnia) or of folk epics (see Duma). Two collections of his stories appeared during his lifetime: Karby (Notches, 1901) and Selo vyhybaie (The Village Is Dying Out, 1925). These have been followed posthumously by many selected and collected works, published in Galicia and in the Ukrainian SSR, including his last collection Verkhovyna (Highlands, 1929). Cheremshyna was also known for his translations of short stories from German, Czech, and Hungarian. In 1949 the Cheremshyna literary memorial museum was founded in Sniatyn. O. Hidan’s study of his life and works published in 1986.

Danylo Husar Struk

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]