Poet and War: Maksym Rylskyi in Evacuation

Author

Ruda Tetiana

a Doctor of Philology, a chief research fellow at the Screen, Stage Arts and Culturology Department of  M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine).

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9055-9056

Poet and War: Maksym Rylskyi in Evacuation

Abstract

Maksym Rylskyi and his family have been evacuated to Ufa at the beginning of July, 1941. The institutions of the Academy of Sciences of Ukrainian SSR (now it is the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) have moved there as well as the writers and artists of the older generation. M. Rylsky initially has worked as a senior research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, uniting humanitarian institutes. He has headed the Institute of Folk Creativity and Art (now it is M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) after the reorganization of the Institute of Social Sciences. The research fellows of this Institute have organized folklore expeditions to the Ukrainian villages of Bashkiria, created a number of works based on field recordings, studied Bashkirian musical folklore. Activity of M. Rylskyi has not been limited to the management of a scientific institution; Maksym Tadeiovych has participated in the work of the Union of Writers of Ukraine, an organization of periodical editions, and made reports. He has also written journalistic articles, engaged in translations, worked (alongside M. Kalynovych and L. Bulakhovskyi) on the creation of a Russian-Ukrainian Dictionary. Rylskyi has been elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, awarded the State Prize of Ukraine in 1943.

M. Rylskyi has written campaign poems, works of civic lyrics from the first days of war. During the evacuation, he has created the well-known poem-ode “A Word on the Birth Mother” read at the First anti-fascist rally (November 26, 1941), published several collections of poetry (“For the Native Land”, “Light Weapons”, “The Star of the World”, “A Word on the Birth Mother”), the poem “Thirst”. He has created the largest poetic work in volume – the autobiographical poem “Journey to Youth”. It is, unfortunately, underestimated by his contemporaries.

Being in the harsh conditions of evacuation M. Rylskyi has acted as a poet, public figure, publicist and scientist, worked tirelessly for victory. In April 1944, the Rylskyis family have returned to Kyiv.

Keywords

Maksym Rylskyi, evacuation, Ufa, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Institute of Folk Creativity and Art, “A Word on the Birth Mother”, “Journey to Youth”.

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