UKRAINIAN-LANGUAGE NEWSPAPERS FROM THE PERIOD OF UKRAINE’S NAZI OCCUPATION ON VOLODYMYR VYNNYCHENKO

Abstract

The article considers and analyzes the references to of Volodymyr Vynnychenko, found in the Ukrainian-language press of the Nazi occupation times. The object of the study were various materials: fragments of books, articles, notes, reviews, announcements, which were published in newspapers edited in 1941– 1944 in different regions of occupied Ukraine, as well as abroad

It is ascertained that in general the mentions of Vynnychenko were presented in Ukrainian-language newspaper periodicals quite significantly, although in fragments. Some articles by the same authors that mentioned his name were sometimes published in different editions. Vynnychenko’s characteristics as a writer, playwright, politician, and statesman are ambiguous in their content. They contain a wide range of evaluative judgments - both positive and negative.

Relevant materials were researched and structured in four main aspects:

positive appraisal of Vynnychenko as a writer, playwright, cultural figure;
negative opinion about him in this context;
positive characteristics of Vynnychenko as a politician, statesman;
negative references to his activities in this area.

It is stated that Vynnychenko’s diverse, often polar, references to him as a writer, playwright, and cultural figure generally appeared in a considerable number of that time newspaper publications, and it is impossible to speak of any clear predominance of positive or negative among them. Vynnychenko’s negative perception as of the writer through the prism of ideological contradictions was significant, and yet it was not determinative. Along with this, there are good reasons to say that positive characteristics of Vynnychenko as of a politician, a statesman were significantly inferior in number to negative assessments of his activities in this area.