Shovkoplias, Yurii

Shovkoplias, Yurii [Шовкопляс, Юрій; Šovkopljas, Jurij], b 6 February 1903 in Kharkiv, d 12 October 1978 in Kharkiv. Writer and teacher. In Kharkiv he worked as a teacher (1923–30), belonged to the writers’ group Prolitfront (1930), and headed Kharkiv University’s department of journalism (1949–51), the literature and art department of the CP(B)U city committee (1951–3), and the Kharkiv branch of the Writers' Union of Ukraine (1953–6). Later he was editor in chief of the literary journal Prapor (Kharkiv). He began publishing short stories in 1926 and wrote the novels Vesna nad morem (Spring at the Seashore, 1929), Proiekt elektryfikatsiï (The Project of Electrification, 1929), Zavtra (Tomorrow, 1931), Zemlianyi pokhid (The Land March, 1933), Inzhenery (Engineers, 2 vols, 1934, 1937; rev edn 1964), Pochynaiet'sia iunist' (Youth Begins, 1938), and, a trilogy, Liudyna zhyve dvichi (A Person Lives Twice, 1964); the story collections Henii (A Genius, 1929), Pronyklyvist' doktora Piddubnoho (The Insight of Doctor Piddubny, 1930), Profesor (1930), and Studenty (Students, 1930); the essay collections Elektrychnyi SRSR (The Electrical USSR, 1932) and Narodzhennia elektrychnoho strumu (The Birth of the Electrical Current, 1936); and a few children’s books. An edition of his selected works (2 vols) appeared in 1973.

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