Ivan Yulianovych Kulyk ( uk, Іван Юліанович Кулик; born Izrail Yudelevich Kulyk; January 14, 1897 – October 10, 1937) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, translator, diplomat and Communist Party activist. He also wrote under the names "R. Rolinato" and "Vasyl Rolenko".

Biography

Kulyk was born in the city of

Shpola Shpola ( uk, Шпола, ; yi, שפּאָלע, Shpole) is a city located in Zvenyhorodka Raion of Cherkasy Oblast (province) in central Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Shpola urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. It had a popu ...

, in the Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine) into the family of a Jewish teacher. He finished fourth-grade college in Uman where he moved with his parents. There his first poem was published in the Uman newspaper ''Provincial voice'' ("Провинциальный голос"), in Russian. In 1911 he enrolled into the

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

Art academy. In 1914, together with his parents, he emigrated to the United States. There he worked in the factories and mines in Pennsylvania. He began publishing his poems in the local Russian newspaper ''New world'' ("Новый мир"). In 1914 he became a member of the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...

(RSDLP). In spring 1917 Kulyk travelled through the Russian Far East and Siberia, returning to Kyiv where he joined the local revkom. He actively participated in the

Kiev Bolshevik Uprising The Kiev Bolshevik Uprising (November 8–13, 1917) was a military struggle for power in Kiev (Kyiv) after the fall of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution. It ended in victory for the Kievan Committee of the Bolshevik ...

that led to the establishment of the Soviet government in Kyiv. In December 1917 he was elected to the Central Executive Committee of Soviets and the first Soviet government of the Ukrainian SSR (heading the

People's Secretariat The People's Secretariat of Ukraine was the executive body of the Provisional Central Executive Committee of Soviets in Ukraine. It was formed in Kharkiv on December 30, 1917 as a form of the Soviet concept of dual power by the Russian and other ...

of the Foreign Affairs). In summer of 1918 together with

Vitaliy Primakov Vitaliy Markovich Primakov ( rus, Виталий Маркович Примаков, Vitaliy Markovich Primakov; uk, Віталій Маркович Примаков) (3 December 1897 – 12 June 1937) was a Soviet revolutionary, military le ...

participated in the formations of the Red Cossacks military units. From May 1921 to May 1922 he was a secretary of the

Kamyanets-Podilsky Kamianets-Podilskyi ( uk, Ка́м'яне́ць-Поді́льський, russian: Каменец-Подольский, Kamenets-Podolskiy, pl, Kamieniec Podolski, ro, Camenița, yi, קאַמענעץ־פּאָדאָלסק / קאַמעניץ, ...

branch of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine. There he edited the local newspaper ''Red Truth'', simultaneously teaching history in the Institute of the People's Education. At this time he published his poem the ''Green heart'' (1921, uk, Зелене серце). In 1924–1926 he was consul of the Soviet Union in Canada. From September 15, 1930 to June 1932 he returned to Kamyanets-Podilsky as secretary of a raion committee. He was one of the leaders of the All-Ukrainian Association of the Proletarian Writers (VSPP), and after 1934 became the leader of the Ukrainian Association of Soviet Writers. Along with those duties he also was head of the State Political Publishing house, edited in the ''Literary newspaper'' ("Літературнa газетa") and the journal ''Soviet Literature'' ("Радянська література"). He was married to the Ukrainian writer Luciana Piontek (1899–1937), an ethnic German. He was arrested during the Great Purge in 1937, charged with "spying against the Soviet Union" and

executed by shooting Execution by shooting is a method of capital punishment in which a person is shot to death by one or more firearms. It is the most common method of execution worldwide, used in about 70 countries, with execution by firing squad being one particula ...

on October 10, 1937. Earlier, on September 25, 1937, his wife was executed as well for "supporting her husband in anti-state activities".

External links

Ivan Kulik
at the Ukrainian literature.

at the Ukrayinski Pisni (Ukrainian songs) * Kryzhanivsky, S.
Ivan Kulik
'. Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kulyk, Ivan 1897 births 1937 deaths People from Shpola People from Zvenigorodsky Uyezd (Kiev Governorate) Ukrainian expatriates in the United States American coal miners Jews from the Russian Empire Ukrainian Jews Old Bolsheviks Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union) politicians Members of the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee Jewish Ukrainian politicians Jewish socialists Jewish Ukrainian poets Ukrainian translators Ukrainian diplomats People of the Russian Civil War Great Purge victims from Ukraine Jews executed by the Soviet Union Soviet rehabilitations 20th-century translators

Biography

Further reading

External links