Hart

Hart (Tempering). An association of proletarian writers founded in Kharkiv in January 1923 by Vasyl Blakytny. According to its program, its purpose was ‘to struggle against bourgeois art’ and ‘to attract the proletarian masses to literary creativity.’ Branches of the association were set up in Kyiv, Katerynoslav, Odesa, Kamianets-Podilskyi, and other cities. It published two almanacs: Hart (Kharkiv, 1924) and Kyïv-Hart (Kyiv, 1925). Among its members were V. Blakytny, Kost O. Hordiienko, Ivan Dniprovsky, Dmytro Falkivsky, Maik Yohansen, Hryhorii (Heo) Koliada, Oleksander Kopylenko, Volodymyr Koriak, Hordii Kotsiuba, Ivan Kulyk, Valeriian Polishchuk, Yakiv Savchenko, Ivan Senchenko, Mykola Kulish, Volodymyr Sosiura, Pavlo Tychyna, Mykola Khvylovy. A disagreement between the adherents of its official mass orientation and the supporters of M. Khvylovy, who advocated artistry as the goal of literary activity (the Urbino group), led to Hart's dissolution in December 1925. Khvylovy and his supporters founded the writers' group Vaplite, while most of the other members joined the All-Ukrainian Association of Proletarian Writers.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]