Zemliak, Vasyl

Zemliak, Vasyl [Земляк, Василь; Zemljak, Vasyl’] (pseudonym of Vasyl Vatsyk), b 23 April 1923 in Koniushivka, now in Lypovets raion, Vinnytsia oblast, d 17 March 1977 in Kyiv. Writer. He graduated from the Zhytomyr Agricultural Institute (1953) and from 1958 worked in publishing. From 1963 to 1966 he was editor in chief at the Kyiv Artistic Film Studio. He first published his writings in 1945. Subsequently he became popular as a result of his prose works on modern village life, such as the novelettes Ridna storona (Native Lands, 1956), Kam'ianyi Brid (1957), and Hnivnyi Stration (The Angry Stration, 1960). He went on to publish the novelette Pidpolkovnyk Shymans’kyi (Lieutenant Colonel Shymansky, 1966), the novels Lebedyna zhraia (The Swan Flock, 1971; English trans 1982) and Zeleni Mlyny (1976), and the play Prezydent (The President, 1975), about S. Allende. Several films based on Zemliak's work have been made, including Vavilon-XX (Babylon XX, 1979) directed by Ivan Mykolaichuk.

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