Vasyl Oleksandrovych Sukhomlynsky

Sukhomlynsky worked between 1918 and 1970 across teacher, writer, journalist, pedagogue and opinion journalist and 1 further recorded occupations. This article rests on 14 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Vasyl Olexandrovych Sukhomlynsky • Birth Name — Василь Олександрович Сухомлинський • Born — 28 September 1918 • Birthplace — Omelnyk, Ukrainian State • Died — 2 September 1970 • Place of death — Pavlysh, Kirovohrad Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union • Known for — Teaching method • Occupation — Teacher, publisher, writer

Sukhomlynsky was born in a peasant family in the village of Omelnyk, Vasylivka volost of Oleksandriia uezd (today Oleksandriia Raion of Kirovohrad Oblast in Ukraine). According to the baptismal records of the local church, his original surname was Sukhomyzsky (Сухомизський), and the current version of his name was only adopted in 1939. In 1933 he finished a seven-year school of primary education after which his mother escorted him to Kremenchuk where he enrolled into a local medical college (tekhnikum). However, he quit the medical school and enrolled into Robitfak which he finished in short term. In 1935 he started to work as a teacher not far from his native village. In 1938 Sukhomlynsky enrolled into the Poltava Pedagogical Institute out of which he graduated the same year. Upon graduation, he returned to native lands where he worked as a teacher of the Ukrainian language and literature in the Onufriivka middle school. There he got married. During World War II he volunteered to the front-lines in 1941 and as a junior politruk was severely wounded in January 1942 during the defense of Moscow. He was transferred to a military hospital in the Ural Mountains where he continued his medical treatment. During that time he continuously requested his return to the front-lines while the medical commission could not recognize him even conditionally available for that. He was appointed a principal of a middle school in the town of Uva (Republic of Udmurtia). After the de-occupation of Ukraine from the Nazis, in 1944 he returned to his native land. Vasyl learned that his wife and young son had been tortured by the Gestapo. He was appointed as a director of the Regional People's Education (RAINO). In 1948, he became principal of the Pavlysh Secondary School in the settlement of Pavlysh (upon his own request) – a post he held to the end of his life. In 1968 Sukhomlynsky received the title of Hero of Socialist Labour.

• Illustration — Sukhomlynsky's grave in Pavlysh, in Ukraine. Sukhomlynsky sought to prolong children's childhood, to keep them optimistic and open to the world, to preserve the freshness of their emotional responses to the world. He showed them that although they were small, they could do a lot to care for the environment in which they lived and to bring happiness to the people they met. He sought to refine their sense of beauty, being very selective in the impressions he fed to their young minds. He took them to the most beautiful natural settings he could find. He taught them to listen to the music of nature, the rustle of grasses and of leaves, the song of the lark. He played them music inspired by such natural sounds, and showed them paintings of natural beauty. He did not swamp them with a surfeit of images and sounds, but allowed each new exposure to beauty to be memorable. He taught them to become more aware of the inner world of other people, to read others' eyes, to recognize feelings of joy, of sorrow or confusion. He tried to ensure that children took joy home from school to their families, to ensure that every child uncovered some latent talent or ability at which they could excel. Not every child could excel academically, but each could shine at something and find a way to bring joy to others. This was the foundation of their self-respect and their moral development. For his achievements in the field of education, Sukhomlynsky was bestowed the title of Hero of Socialist Labor in 1968. He was also a recipient of two Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Star, Ushinsky and Makarenko Medals. In 1969 Sukhomlynsky wrote the book Серце віддаю дітям, ("Sertse viddayu dityam"); English translations: To Children I Give My Heart, by Holly Martin Smith, 1982, and My Heart I Give to Children, by Alan Leslie Cockerill, 2016,. For this book he was awarded the State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR in 1974 (posthumously).

An atheist and a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Sukhomlynsky has been variously characterized as a National Communist or a member of the Sixtiers generation. In 1961 he was involved into the Soviet anti-religious campaign, promoting the closure of a local church in Pavlysh and accusing its priest of "fanaticism", which resulted in his expulsion. During a government campaign against Oles Honchar's novel The Cathedral, Sukhomlynsky wrote a letter of support to the author.

Vasyl Oleksandrovych Sukhomlynsky was born on 28 September 1918 in Vasylivka. Sukhomlynsky held the nationality of Soviet Union. Sukhomlynsky was educated at Poltava National Pedagogical University. Recorded child: Olha Sukhomlynska. Sukhomlynsky worked as teacher, writer, journalist and pedagogue, and the authority record catalogues a further 2 occupations under the same name, among them opinion journalist and poet. Sukhomlynsky held the posts of head teacher. Sukhomlynsky worked in Ukrainian and Russian. Sukhomlynsky died on 2 September 1970 in Pavlysh. Sukhomlynsky is buried at Pavlysh.