Vasyl Stus
| Vasyl Semenovych Stus | |
|---|---|
Vasyl Stus on the cover of a book of his poetry My People, I Will Return to You
|
|
| Native name | Василь Семенович Стус |
| Born |
January 6, 1938 Rakhnivka, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Died | September 4, 1985 (aged 47) Perm-36, Kuchino, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Nationality | Ukrainian |
| Citizenship | Soviet |
| Alma mater | Donetsk National University |
| Occupation | poet |
| Known for | poems, human rights activism with participation in the Ukrainian Helsinki Group |
| Movement | dissident movement in the Soviet Union |
| Spouse(s) | Valentyna Popeliukh |
| Children | Dmytro |
| Awards |
  Shevchenko National Prize, Antonovych Prize |
| Signature | |
 |
|
Vasyl Semenovych Stus (Ukrainian: Васи́ль Семе́нович Стус; 6 January 1938, Rakhnivka, Ukrainian SSR – 4 September 1985, Perm-36, Kuchino, Russian SFSR) was a Ukrainian poet, translator, literary critic, journalist, and an active member of the Ukrainian dissident movement. For his political convictions, his works were banned by the Soviet regime and he spent 13 years in detention. On November 26, 2005, the Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko posthumously awarded him the highest national title: Hero of Ukraine. Stus is widely regarded as one of Ukraine's foremost poets.
Vasyl Stus was born on January 6, 1938 into a peasant family in the village of Rakhnivka, Haisyn Raion, Vinnytsia Oblast (province), Ukrainian SSR. Next year, his parents Semen Demyanovych and Iryna Yakivna moved to the city of Stalino (now Donetsk). Their children joined them one year later. Vasyl first encountered the Ukrainian language and poetry from his mother who sang him Ukrainian folk songs.
After secondary school, Vasyl Stus entered the Department of history and literature of the Pedagogical Institute in Stalino (nowadays Donetsk University). In 1959 he graduated from the institute with honours. Following graduation, Stus briefly worked as a high school teacher of Ukrainian language and literature in Tauzhnia village of Kirovohrad Oblast, and then was conscripted to the Soviet Army for two years. While studying at the university and during his military service in the Ural mountains, he started to write poetry and translated into Ukrainian more than a hundred verses by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Rainer Maria Rilke. The original copies of his translations were later confiscated by the KGB, and were lost.
...
Wikipedia