Liubomyrsky, Stepan

Liubomyrsky, Stepan [Любомирський, Степан; Ljubomyrs'kyj; pseudonym of Liubomyr Stepan Rykhtytsky; other pseudonyms: Stepan Elerson, Mykola Khortytsia], b 21 April 1921 in Drohobych, Galicia, d 16 July 1983 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Writer. Liubomyrsky’s studies at Lviv University were interrupted when the university was shut down by the Germans. He joined the Division Galizien in 1943. His writing career began in the prisoner of war camp in Rimini, Italy, in 1946 with the collection of stories Son litn'oï nochi (Dream of a Summer’s Night, under the pseud Stepan Elerson). His second work, Zhorstoki svitanky (Cruel Dawns, 1947), was the first in a long series of novels devoted to the underground struggle for Ukraine’s independence. Some of his novels, which were heavy on intrigue and full of national pathos, were extremely popular (Plem’ia Vovkiv [The Clan of Wolves, 1951], Mizh slavoiu i smertiu [Between Glory and Death, 1953], and Pid molotom Viiny [Under the Hammer of War, 4 vols, 1955–6]), although of little literary value and marred by two-dimensional characterizations. In his later novels, including the posthumous trilogy Slidamy zapovitu (Following the Testament, 1985), plot often gives way to ideological preaching. His first novel, Zhorstoki svitanky, was made into a film in 1965, produced by Walter Wasik in Canada. Liubomyrsky wrote two more film scenarios for the Canukr film production company in Oshawa, Ontario: Nikoly ne zabudu (I Shall Never Forget, 1969) and Zashumila verkhovyna (Whispering Highlands, 1975).

Danylo Husar Struk

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]