Ostroh Academy publishes 3rd volume of Ulas Samchuk’s works
OSTROH — Ostroh Academy recently published a collection of works by Ulas Samchuk entitled Mariia, Vidnaidenyi rai (Rediscovered Paradise), and Choho ne hoit’ vohon’ (What Fire Does not Heal), commemorating the 105th birth anniversary of this noted Ukrainian author. In his works Samchuk tells about his “small homeland,” the village of Derman (now in Rivne oblast). He was destined to live most of his life abroad, yet his love for Ukraine only grew stronger, and he dedicated his entire literary talent to the Ukrainian people.
Mariia is perhaps his best-known work. According to Petro Kraliuk, first vice rector of the Ostroh Academy and a member of the National Writers’ Union, it was first published in 1933 and hit the bull’s eye, considering that it was a year marked by the horrors of the Holodomor, when millions Ukrainians starved to death. The woman hero is starving and dies a horrible death in the final scene of the story. Not surprisingly, this story was considered to be a requiem for the Holodomor.
However, its idea and contents are much broader. According to Kraliuk, “this is a philosophical parable of sorts about the ruination of a rustic paradise, the traditional rural way of life. Here the author doubtlessly relies on his own life experience while in Derman. Ulas Samchuk does not idealize this paradise; he demonstrates that it enabled people to survive, even if through backbreaking toil. But then external forces — the wars, revolutions, and the Bolsheviks that came to power—ruined this paradise. Mariia and her family were killed by the famine resulting from this ruination.”
Whereas characters in Mariia cannot resist this ruination from the outside, those in What Fire Does Not Heal struggle against it. Formally, according to literary critics, this oeuvre should be regarded as evidence of the heroic struggle waged by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during the Second World War, although the main hero, Troian, does not belong to ideologically motivated nationalists. For him the most important thing is to defend his village and its traditions. Derman is Troian’s paradise on earth, and it is being destroyed by the Bolshevik invaders who ruin everything and even rename the village. The reader is left with vivid memories of Troian and other UPA men who fearlessly defended their native land to the last man.
The third part of this volume contains stories included in the collection Rediscovered Paradise, including the author’s recollections of his “first emigration,” when he deserted the Polish army and lived in “civilized Europe” (Germany and Bohemia), where the living conditions were much better than in his native village of Derman. One of his characters says, “We are lagging terribly behind Europe. We only know our Marusenka and Kalynka songs, with the nightingales chirping and young fellows like Hryts waiting for their dates under a weeping willow… Do our uncles, after they have had their fill of fat meat dumplings and moonshine, see these crystal palaces and pavilions where you can cheaply buy everything that makes you feel so happy and takes you away from the drab daily routine?”
The philosophic author was aware of what was happening. He was far from idealizing this “paradise on earth” when he summed up, “Man is poisoned by luxury here; he is drowning in it…” Says Ihor Pasichnyk, rector of Ostroh Academy: “This writer must have been convinced that paradise is where you live; it is the traditions you must protect and respect; paradise is your family. These are simple truths; all brilliant things are simple.”
The collection of works by Ulas Samchuk was published on the initiative of Oxana and Yaroslav Sokolyk (Canada). They gave Ostroh Academy an exclusive right to reprint works by this prose writer because they regard the academy as a major Ukrainian cultural and patriotic center. Thus, on the eve of Samchuk’s centennial jubilee, Ostroh Academy’s Editorial Department published his trilogy Volyn, which is still very popular with the reading public, along with two parts of Samchuk’s reminiscences and reflections on the Second World War, entitled Na bilomu koni. Na koni voronomu (On a White Horse. On a Black Horse).
Pasichnyk says that this is not the end of the project, considering the writer’s rich literary heritage. Ostroh Academy is planning to publish the fourth volume of his collected works: “After more than a hundred years since the birth of this author — often described by critics as a 20th-century Ukrainian Homer — not all Ukrainians have been able to appreciate his contribution to the development of the national idea and culture.”
Samchuk’s collection Mariia, Rediscovered Paradise, and What Fire Does Not Heal will be launched in Ukrainian schools, colleges, and other higher education institutions in Rivne oblast and all over Ukraine. A certain number of copies will be donated to school libraries.
