Chuprynka, Hrytsko

Chuprynka, Hrytsko (Hryhorii) [Чупринка, Грицько (Григорій); Čuprynka, Hryc'ko], b 15 November 1879 in Hoholiv, Chernihiv gubernia, d 28 August 1921. Modernist poet. Chuprynka took an active part in the Revolution of 1905. He contributed to Ukraïns’ka khata and, during the Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917–20), served in the Khmelnytsky Regiment. In 1919 he led a rebellion against the Bolsheviks in Chernihiv gubernia. He was executed by the Cheka. Though a fine craftsman who espoused Paul Verlaine's dictum that poetry is firstly music, Chuprynka was not averse to speaking out on social and patriotic themes in his poems. Most of his poetry has been published in a collected edition, Tvory H. Chuprynky (Prague 1926), edited by Pavlo Bohatsky. An edition also was published in Kyiv in 1991.

[This article was updated in 2001.]