Holota, Petro

Holota, Petro [Голота, Петро; pen name of P. Melnyk], b 12 July 1902 in Balashivka (now part of Kropyvnytskyi), d 8 November 1949 in Sniatyn, Stanyslaviv oblast. Writer. He belonged to the writers' groups Molodniak (1926–7) and Avanhard (Avant-garde) (1928–9). His first collections of poetry— Ternystyi shliakh do voli i osvity (The Thorny Path to Freedom and Education, 1921)—and of prose— V dorozi zmahan' (On the Road of Struggles, 1925)—were followed by a few more collections of proletarian poetry, the prose collection Brud (Dirt, 1929), and two novellas: Dni iunosty (Days of Youth, 1930) and Skhodylo sontse (The Sun Was Rising, 1930). Holota was repressed in the 1930s. Subsequently rehabilitated, he settled down in Sniatyn in 1945 and worked there as an editor of the raion newspaper.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]