Zbanatsky, Yurii

Zbanatsky, Yurii [Збанацький, Юрій; Zbanac'kyj, Jurij], b 1 January 1914 in Borsukiv, now in Kozelets raion, Chernihiv oblast, d 25 April 1994 in Kyiv. Writer. During the Second World War he served as a partisan commander (see Soviet partisans in Ukraine, 1941–5) and was decorated as a Hero of the Soviet Union. His first published work appeared in 1944. His novels, short stories, and documentary essays devoted to the war include Taiemnytsia Sokolynoho boru (The Secret of Sokolyne Forest, 1949), Lisova krasunia (The Forest Beauty, 1955), Iedyna (The Only One, 1959), and My—ne z legendy (We Are Not from a Legend, 1972). His novels Malynovyi dzvin (The Crimson Bell, 1958), Kuiut' zozuli (The Cuckoos Are Calling, 1975), Lito v Sokolynomu (A Summer in Sokolyne, 1953), Pryvitaite mene, druzi! (Greet Me, My Friends, 1956), Kuriachyi boh (The Chicken God, 1966), and others are written for young readers. His contemporary, mostly rural-set novels include Peredzhnyv’ia (Before the Harvest, 1955) and Khvyli (The Waves, 1967).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]