Mikola Fedorovich Chernyvsky: to the biography of the Ukrainian poet, writer, public figure and on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth

Abstract

The article refutes the fact of the participation of Mykola Cherniavsky, a Ukrainian writer, public figure, in an anti-Polish rally on September 17, 1939 in Moscow, simultaneously with the invasion of Soviet troops to Poland, in the book by Eva Thomson «Empire’s Troubadors: Russian Literature and Colonialism»(K., 2006). The comparison of the information on the biography of Mykola Cherniavsky, revealing the circumstances of his death, the history of disclosure of information about it, and the attempt to identify the persons who participated in this propaganda event, allows us to restore historical justice. It was found that Mykola Cherniavsky could not take part in the All-Moscow rally of writers (as formerly claimed by E. Thomson), since he was repressed and executed a year earlier. The article also examines the issues of involving the Ukrainian intelligentsia in participation in antiPolish campaigning activities organized on the behalf of the public and intellectuals by the Soviet authorities in 1939. Biographical information about the rally participants is presented and made an attempt is made to establish the motives of well-known Soviet writers and poets in support of the aggressive policy of the Soviet Union in relation to neighbouring countries. The reasons for carrying out public actions of anti-Polish direction, their contents and consequences on the materials of the Soviet publications «Pravda» and «Literary Gazeta» are analyzed.