Hutsalo, Yevhen

Hutsalo, Yevhen [Гуцало, Євген; Hucalo, Jevhen], b 14 January 1937 in Staryi Zhyvotiv (today Novozhyvotiv), Illintsi raion, Vinnytsia oblast, d 4 July 1995 in Kyiv. (Photo: Yevhen Hutsalo.) A prominent Soviet Ukrainian writer since the 1960s. A graduate of the Nizhyn Pedagogical Institute (1959), he was first published in 1960 and is the author of over 25 novella and short-story collections, several of them for children. They include Liudy sered liudei (People among People, 1962), Iabluka z osinnoho sadu (Apples from an Autumn Orchard, 1964), Olen’ Avhust (The Stag Avhust, 1965), Proletily koni (The Horses Flew By, 1966), Rodynne vohnyshche (The Family Hearth, 1968), Poliuvannia z honchym psom (Hunting with a Hound, 1980), and Opovidannia z Ternivky (Stories from Ternivka, 1982). Considered in the 1960s one of the shistdesiatnyky—the postwar generation of writers and cultural activists who rejected Stalinist methods and ideology and pushed for cultural and political liberalization—he subsequently chose the safe life of an official writer over one of opposition to the regime. Hutsalo's works are noted for their detail, lyrical descriptions of nature, psychological portraits, and abundant use of the rural vernacular. He is also the author of a trilogy of novels— Pozychenyi cholovik (The Borrowed Man, 1982), Pryvatne zhyttia fenomena (The Private Life of a Phenomenon, 1982), and Parad planet (Parade of Planets, 1984)—and, since 1981, three poetry collections. A five-volume edition of his selected works was published in Kyiv in 1996–7.

Ivan Koshelivets

[This article was updated in 2008.]