Chaplenko Vasyl.Ukrainians: a novella.New York, 1960

“Who will come? Those who are in Samarchyk, the Bolsheviks, or those who are in the “gubernia” (Sicheslav), the “Ukrainians”?”

Vasyl Chaplenko. “Ukrainians”: novella / [cover: approximate copy of a drawing by M. Hryhoriev].

New York: All-Slavic Publishing House, Inc., 1960.

Published in a softcover of light blue paper: the author’s surname and the title—outline letters with shadow, printed in black; at the bottom—a drawing of a rebel with a bandolier and rifle, and a line of soldiers. The end of the text (“End”) is printed on the inside of the back cover. The text block is sewn. The cover shows slight rubbing and darkening at the edges and spine, with occasional small spots on the front side. The paper has natural yellowing; along the inner edges of the first sheets are yellow-brown stains, with occasional spots on the edges. At the bottom of the title page, an ex-libris “This book belongs to Jerry Hupalo” is pasted, partially obscuring the publication details. Condition: very good.

Published during the author’s lifetime. The book has historical and cultural value: it is a literary portrayal of the liberation struggles of 1918–1920, created by the émigré writer based on the accounts of their participants.

INFORMATION

“Ukrainians” is the second book in Vasyl Chaplenko’s tetralogy about Sicheslavshchyna from 1918–1930, written in emigration about the “Petliurists.” In the introductory essay “From the Author” (Brooklyn, October 1960), the writer explains that before emigrating, he had practically not known the participants of the Ukrainian armed struggle: in 1918–1920, he lived in Left-Bank Ukraine, where the Ukrainian troops were defeated quite early. He gathered the material already in the West—interviewing “old” émigrés and reading memoirs. Among those who helped are mentioned Yaroslav Chizh (an account of Makhnovist captivity), Fotii Meleshko (memoirs of Makhno), and Serhii Lytvynenko, whose firsthand description of the blowing up of a railway bridge the author preserved in the text as an authentic account. The action takes place, among other places, in the village of Pidhorodnia, ten versts from Sicheslav; the text includes diary entries by Vasyl Rohovenko from December 1918. The plot is self-contained, so the novella can be read separately from the first book—“One and a Half Human.” The third book, “The Dead Perevytok,” according to the author, was then in manuscript form, while the fourth, “People in Snares,” was already published.

Vasyl Chaplenko (1900–1990) was a writer, linguist, and literary scholar, and a graduate of the Dnipropetrovsk Institute of Public Education. After teaching at higher education institutions in the USSR, he left for the West in 1945 and later settled in the United States. Author of the novellas “The Beer-Seller” (1943), “People in Snares” (1951), and “One and a Half Human” (1952), the historical novel “The Black Sea Sailors” (1948–1957), and works on the history of the Ukrainian literary language.

The book was published by the New York-based All-Slavic Publishing House, Inc. (address on the verso of the title page—46 Great Jones Str.). On the verso of the back cover is a list of sixteen of Chaplenko’s works published as separate books: from the collection “Malouchky” (1927) to “Ukrainians.”