Malyshko, Andrii

Malyshko, Andrii [Малишко, Андрій; Malyško, Andrij], b 15 November 1912 in Obukhiv, Kyiv county, d 17 February 1970 in Kyiv. Poet and publicist. He graduated from the Kyiv Institute of People's Education in 1932 and then taught in Ovruch. He worked for Komsomolets’ Ukraïny, Literaturna hazeta, and Molodyi bil’shovyk. Malyshko's first published works appeared in Molodniak in 1930, and his first published collection of poetry was Bat’kivshchyna (The Fatherland, 1936). His other prewar collections included Liryka (Lyrics, 1938), Z knyhy zhyttia (From the Book of Life, 1938), Narodzhennia syniv (The Birth of Sons, 1939), Lysty chervonoarmiitsia Opanasa Baidy (The Letters of Red Army Serviceman Opanas Baida, 1940), Berezen’ (March, 1940), Zorevi dni (Starry Days, 1940), and Zhaivoronky (The Meadow Larks, 1940). During the Second World War he was a correspondent of front-line newspapers and published the collections Do boiu vstavaite (Arise to Battle, 1941), Ukraïno moia (My Ukraine, 1942), Ponad pozhary (Above the Conflagrations, 1942), Slovo o polku (A Word about the Regiment, 1943), and Bytva (The Battle, 1943). His postwar material, among numerous collections, includes Za synim morem (Beyond the Blue Sea, 1950), Knyha brativ (The Book of Brothers, 1954), Sertse moieï materi (My Mother's Heart, 1959), Zapovitne dzherelo (The Source of the Testament, 1960), Dubovyi tsvit (Oak Blossoms, 1960), Taras Shevchenko: Dramatychna pisnia (Taras Shevchenko: A Dramatic Song, 1964), Synii litopys (The Blue Chronicle, 1968), and Serpen’ dushi moieï (August of My Soul, 1970). He also published collections of critical essays, Dumky pro poeziiu (Thoughts on Poetry, 1959) and Slovo pro poeta: M.T. Ryl's'kyi ta ioho tvorchist' (A Word about a Poet: M.T. Rylsky and His Work, 1960), and translations of Russian verse. Compilations of his work appeared in (5 vols 1962) and (10 vols 1972–4).

The references to internal and international politics and Communist Party directives throughout Malyshko's voluminous canon made him the recipient of various Soviet awards. His works were held out as models of socialist realism and lauded for their populism and adherence to the Party line. In accordance with the prime directive of socialist realism of ‘creating for the people’ he employed a simplistic lexicon and poetic form and concentrated on the sentimental and patriotic. Many of his works have been put to music (eg, ‘Kyïvs'kyi val's’ [Kyivan Waltz]).

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kovalenko, L. Poet Andrii Malyshko (Kyiv 1957)
Nedil’ko, V. Vyvchennia tvorchosti A. Malyshka (Kyiv 1977)

Ivan Koshelivets

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