Zakhidnia Ukraina

Zakhidnia Ukraina [Західня Україна; Western Ukraine]. An organization of revolutionary writers. It was established in Kyiv in 1925, as a division of the organization Pluh, and existed as an independent entity from 1926. It consisted largely of writers originally from Western Ukraine, among them Vasyl Atamaniuk, Dmytro Bedzyk, Vasyl Bobynsky, Mechyslav Hasko, Dmytro Zahul, P. Hirniak, Volodymyr Gadzinsky, Volodymyr Gzhytsky, Liubomyr Dmyterko, Y. Zazuliak, Myroslav Irchan, M. Kachaniuk, M. Kichura, Mykhailo Kozoris, Mykola Marfiievych, Antin Pavliuk (Yavir), Hryhorii Piddubny, Dmytro Rudyk, Ivan Tkachuk, Ahata Turchynska, Anton Shmyhelsky, Myroslava Sopilka, and Rostyslav Zaklynsky.

The organization’s first publication was an almanac Zakhidnia Ukraïna featuring works by 20 authors and published by the State Publishing House of Ukraine in 1927. At the end of 1927 the group established its own publishing house. Apart from longer literary works, a number of publicist and fictional works by the members of Zakhidnia Ukraina were published in its Masova biblioteka (Mass Library) book series from 1927 to 1933. In 1930 another sizable almanac, edited by Vasyl Atamaniuk, Dmytro Rudyk, and Dmytro Zahul and containing works by almost all members of Zakhidnia Ukraina, appeared. From 1928 the organization also issued in Kharkiv a magazine Zakhidnia Ukraïna, in which the works of its members were published. Between 1930 and 1933 this magazine appeared regularly on a monthly basis.

However, upon the formation of the Writers' Union of Ukraine (1932–4), Zakhidnia Ukraina was liquidated, and most of its members were subsequently either repressed or executed during the Stalinist terror.

Marko Robert Stech

[This was updated in 2024.]