Shkrumeliak, Yurii

Shkrumeliak, Yurii [Шкрумеляк, Юрій; Škrumeljak, Jurij; pseudonyms: Ivan Sorokaty, Yu. Ihorkiv, O. Pidhirsky, Smyk], b 18 April 1895 in Lanchyn, Nadvirna county, Galicia, d 20 October 1965 in Lviv. Writer and journalist. A veteran of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, in the 1920s he studied at Lviv University and Prague University and the Ukrainian Higher Pedagogical Institute in Prague. In Lviv he worked as a coeditor for the Svit Dytyny (1920–30) and Ukrainska Presa (Ivan Tyktor) (1928–9) publishers and was chief editor of the popular weekly Narodnia sprava (Lviv) (from 1928) and the children’s monthly Dzvinochok (1931–9). He began publishing in 1915. In the interwar years he wrote many children’s books, notably Iurza-Murza, Zapysky Ivasia Krilyka (The Notes of Ivas Bunny), Strilets' Nevmyrakha (The Rifleman Nevmyrakha), Mova vikiv (The Language of Ages), and a four-part history of Ukraine for children. He also translated into Ukrainian stories for children from The Thousand and One Nights (tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad the Sailor). His poems, stories, feuilletons, and belletristic reminiscences appeared in Mytusa, Students’kyi visnyk, Svit dytyny, and Narodnia sprava (Lviv) and in the Chervona Kalyna publishing house annual Istorychnyi kalendar-al'manakh Chervonoï kalyny. Published separately were his long poem Son Halycha (The Dream of princely Halych, 1920), the memoirs Poïzd mertsiv (The Train of the Dead, 1922), the poetry collection Aveleva zhertva (Abel’s Sacrifice, 1926), and the novels Cheta Krylatykh (The Squadron of the Winged Ones, 1928), Vohni z polonyn (Fires from the Mountain Pastures, 1930), and Vysoki hory i nyz'ki dolyny (High Mountains and Low Valleys, 1939). Although he had published a pro-Soviet poetry collection in 1941, from 1946 to 1955 Shkrumeliak was a Soviet political prisoner in Siberia. He was rehabilitated in 1956, and the regime published his poetry collection Sopilka spivaie (The Sopilka Is Singing, 1957) and a book of selected works, Pryvit Hoverli (Greeting to Hoverlia, 1964).

Roman Senkus

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