The stormy day

In putting together a complete biography of Volodymyr Svidzinsky, a researcher must first of all determine its parameters and the quintessence of the poet.

It is also important to establish the boundary of moral choice: on the one hand, not to create an icon or symbol behind which the features of a living individual cannot be discerned, and on the other, not to focus on trifles, even mistakes that are inevitable in the life of every man. Apart from the general code of virtuous deeds that are formulated in the Ten Commandments, there is also the simple goodness of human hearts, and these virtues do not always coincide. Such distinctions become especially manifest in the example of the destiny of an individual who was forced to experience two wars and two revolutions, famine and repressions, and intellectual and moral humiliations. This was the destiny of Volodymyr Svidzinsky.

In order to understand the poet’s creative path, it is necessary to start with his sunny poems of the early 1920s, which were lit by personal happiness and could not be marred by revolution, war, famine, and terrible privations. His poem “Wind,” from the collection Lyrical Poems (1922), serves as a graphic example:

Wind

A birch tree flows
With a trembling sheen
Bent by a stormy wind,
Its branches outstretched.
The mighty maples
Stormily bend their green clamor
Down to the fresh herbs.
And the mighty grain
All the way to the distant hills
Boils overflowing.
And everything seems to run, to laugh
And follow the blue trail
Of the stormy day.

His happy childhood was a distant memory. We do not know with any certainty whether Volodymyr wrote poetry in his teens, but according to the sad tradition of mankind’s development, critical situations are required in the formation of a genius. After the death of his older brother Heorhii destiny seemed to deliberately torture Svidzinsky, as though it was determined to make him leave behind gems of his creativity.

In any analysis of a writer’s creative legacy, the following question arises: what is more important — social orientation or artistic value? An artist, like the average individual, experiences an inner evolution during his lifetime. Svidzinsky (this spelling conforms to the author’s signature in 1918) was destined to live at a turning point of two epochs and had to experience constant inner changes. Was it interaction, interpenetration, or counteraction that characterized Svidzinsky’s relationship with the times?

In 1918 Svidzinsky lived and worked in Kamianets-Podilsky, where he was exposed to social changes in life. Proof of this is found in a poem we discovered in the archives of Zhyttia Podillia, a newspaper that was considered to be independent and democratic at the time (no. 9, Dec. 26, 1918):

Day is nearing. The moon hid.
The horrible dream shuddered.
The beauty of the heavens,
the harbinger of the east,
Orion flames.
A mighty warrior, he stretches
His shining sword over the earth:
Death to all who are enemies of the day,
Who crave the night.
New life will flame up in the heat of battle.
It craves sacrifices.
As soon as a ray gleams-hot blood,
Like water it will run.
And only then, liberation from the darkness,
Washed in blood,
The earth and unknown bloom will grow
And bear new fruit...
But the stars are slowly fading,
The golden world is becoming light
At the edge of the heavens a quiet wind
Has wakened the trees.
And mighty Orion has faded away
In his martial dress.
One single star is shining
In the sky-blue heaven.
Oh no, there will be no reprisals or revenge.
And human blood will not be shed;
In the eyes of the world’s star
There will be only love!

Svidzinsky was experiencing certain euphoria and an unconditional upsurge of emotional and creative strength. These feelings were fostered by his marriage, indicated by an entry in the Kamianets-Podilsky Registry Office records dating to 1921, Item #372, made in the poet’s hand (hereafter the style and format of the original documents have been preserved):

“25 July 1921
Female Myroslava Svidzinska
Volodymyr Svidzinsky
Soviet civil servant
Zinaida Svidzinska
Schoolteacher
City of Kamianets-Podilsky
19 Pushkin St.
Father: 33
Mother: 35
Firstborn.”

In those years fundamental changes were taking place in the state. For a short period Kamianets-Podilsky was the capital of independent Ukraine, the seat of government and central state institutions. For Svidzinsky these events coincided with his studies at the Ukrainian University of Kamianets-Podilsky.

Entries in his student’s record book indicate that his educational guidelines and research interests were connected with Ukraine, its history and culture. The religious, specifically Eastern Orthodox, milieu was very important to the poet’s world perception. Without a doubt, its roots are to be found in his childhood spent among rural Russian Orthodox priests. He was also a man of European orientation and among the questions related to European history he was most interested in the historical crossroads connected to changes in the life of leading European countries. As a man whose life was constantly accompanied by social cataclysms, Svidzinsky was fascinated by historical processes in other countries, whose consequences were similar to those that were taking place during his own life.

As a free university student, Svidzinsky applied to the external education department for an archivist’s job on Jan. 10, 1921. Svidzinsky was the first archivist of the new historical period. Working with just one assistant, he managed to put together a priceless collection of documents covering several centuries of Podillian history and transfer it to a single depository.

In 1922 the history and economics research chair tasked Svidzinsky with finding Podillian Uniate birth certificates, handwritten books, and old publications in the Kamianets archives and local museum. On Jan. 10, 1923, Svidzinsky was appointed secretary of the archive department.

Several issues of the Uniate publication Eighteenth-Century Birth Certificates were published after being lithographed at the workshop of the Skovoroda Industrial Art Design School in Kamianets-Podilsk, under the professional guidance of W. Hagenmeister.

“List of Postgraduates of the
History and Economics
Research Chair, Podillia...
“Svidzinsky... major: history”

We do not know the subject of the poet’s research paper, but it is safe to assume that the poet was interested in the history of the development and proliferation of Orthodox and Catholic Uniate churches in Podillia, just as he was interested in the history of his own family. We know that after Podillia was annexed to the Russian empire in the late 18 th century, Greek Catholics were forced to convert to Orthodoxy. Svidzinsky came from a family of priests, so he may also have taken a personal interest in this subject. He knew that priests often had to convert into Orthodoxy in the face of threats to themselves and their families.

In the spring of 1923 the archival committee was replaced by the provincial archives department. The Svidzinskys were in dire financial straits. Still, he wanted to continue his research, as evidenced by archival documents.

“Minutes of a meeting of the Postgraduates’ Re-registration
Commission, History and
Economics Research Chair,
Podillia, Institute of People’s
Education,
Dated 03/XII/1923
Having examined the personal cards and staff of the chair, the Re-Registration Commission hereby resolves:
[...] 9. To approve the references of Svidzinsky as the head of the chair in accordance with Clause 29, Personnel Card.
The Academic Committee will be requested to retain Svidzinsky as a postgraduate at the chair. [Signed] Zaklynsky, Head of the Academic Committee Kobzar, Inspector for Professional Training Zoshchenko, representative of the Communist Group.

Volodymyr Svidzinsky continued to work for the research chair until mid—1925.