Prolitfront

Prolitfront (Proletarskyi literaturnyi front [Proletarian Literary Front]). A Ukrainian literary organization founded in Kharkiv by Mykola Khvylovy, other former members of Vaplite, members of Molodniak, and members of other literary organizations. It was active from April 1930 to January 1931, when it was pressured by the All-Ukrainian Association of Proletarian Writers (VUSPP) to disband. It was the last attempt of the Vaplite group to take a collective stand for the right of writers to belong to organizations other than the VUSPP, which sought a monopoly on the entire Ukrainian literary world. Among its members were Khvylovy, Pavlo Tychyna, Mykola Kulish, Ostap Vyshnia, Yurii Yanovsky, Oles Dosvitnii, Ivan Senchenko, Petro Panch, Ivan Dniprovsky, Hryhorii Epik, Hryhory Kostiuk, Vasyl Mysyk, Mykhailo Yalovy, Leib Kvitko, and Ivan Momot. Prolitfront issued no direct statements of opposition, but it rejected the VUSPP's adopted method of ‘proletarian realism’ (see Socialist realism). Like Vaplite it sought to unite the best in Ukrainian literature and create a free environment for its development. Prolitfront also issued its official organ Prolitfront. Its fall was brought about by increasing political and cultural centralism and increasing disunity among Ukrainian Communists.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]