Kotsiuba, Hordii

Kotsiuba, Hordii [Коцюба, Гордій; Kocjuba, Hordij], b 14 January 1892 in Kostiv, Kharkiv gubernia, d 17 December 1938 in Kharkiv. Writer. A graduate in law from Petrograd University in 1917 and a member of the Borotbists during the revolutionary period, he first published in 1919. In 1921 he cofounded and edited the journal Shliakhy mystetstva. In the 1920s he belonged to the writers’ groups Hart and Vaplite. In 1934 he was elected to the executive of the new Writers' Union of Ukraine. Between 1924 and 1934, 18 of his short story collections appeared, including Sviato na budniakh (A Celebration during Workdays, 1927), Zmova masok (Conspiracy of the Masks, 1929), Dniprovi sagy (Dnipro Sagas, 1931), Na terezakh (On the Scales, 1931), and Bronzovi liudy (Bronze People, 1931). He also wrote the novels Novi berehy (New Shores, 2 vols, 1932, 1937), Rodiuchist' (Fertility, 1934), and Pered hrozoiu (Before the Storm, 1938). He was arrested during the Yezhov terror and subsequently executed. He was posthumously ‘rehabilitated’ in 1956, and his novels Pered hrozoiu (1958) and Novi berehy (1959) were reprinted.

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