Vasyl Symonenko

Vasyl Symonenko studied at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Institute of Journalism. The recorded working language is Russian and Ukrainian. The field of work recorded is poetry, journalism and dissent. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are verse. Work by Vasyl Symonenko is recorded in the collections of Sixtiers Museum Collection.

• Name — Vasyl Symonenko • Native Name — Василь Симоненко • Born — 8 January 1935 • Birthplace — Biivtsi, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Poltava Oblast, Ukraine) • Died — 13 December 1963 • Place of death — Cherkasy, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine) • Occupation — * Poet • public activist • Citizenship — Soviet Union • Alma Mater — Kyiv University (1957) • Movement — Sixtiers • Awards — Shevchenko National Prize

He was born into a peasant family in the village of Biivtsi, Kharkiv Oblast (today Poltava Oblast). After graduating from Kyiv State University in 1957, Vasyl Symonenko worked as a journalist at several newspapers in Cherkasy Oblast. His debut book of poems "Тиша і грім / Tysha i hrim" ("Silence and thunder") was published in 1962 and made the talent of Symonenko apparent amongst the young poets. His literary environment included the poets Mykola Vinhranovsky, Ivan Drach and Lina Kostenko, the publicists, critics Ivan Dziuba, Ivan Svitlichny, Yevhen Sverstiuk, who, with other Ukrainian intilligensia of the time, made a group which is now known as the шістдестятники (Sixtiers). During his last year Vasyl Symonenko wrote his second book – "Земне тяжіння / Zemne tyazhinnya" ("Earth’s gravity"), verses from which were quoted, written out (adding what the Soviet censorship had omitted), learned off by heart and compared with the poetry of Taras Shevchenko. In 1962, Symonenko together with his friends A. Horska and Les Tanyuk, uncovered the burial places of NKVD repressions in Bykivnia, Lukianivskyi and Vasyslkivskyi cemeteries near Kyiv. Because of this, he was cited by the Kyiv City Council. According to some scholars, this could have caused his falling out of favour with the government, and, possibly, his death. In 1963, Symonenko was beaten badly by employees of the local militsiya at the Smila railway station. Symonenko died in the main regional hospital on December 13, 1963, from kidney cancer, presumably aggravated by a police beating. He was buried in Cherkasy.

His works have been translated partially into English. • Vasyl Symonenko. "Гранітні обеліски. / Granite obelisks". Translated into English by Andriy M Freishyn-Chirovsky. Jersey City: Svoboda. 1975. 143 p. (parallel bilingual texts in both English and Ukrainian) • Vasyl Symonenko. "Тиша і грім. Вибрані поезії Василя Симоненка / Silence and Thunder: The Selected Poetry of Vasyl Symonenko". Translated into English by Michael M Nayden. Lviv: Piramida. 2017. 128 p. (parallel bilingual texts in both English and Ukrainian) • Vasyl Symonenko. "Rose Petal Wine". Translated into English by Yuri Tkacz. Melbourne: Bayda Books. 2020. 116 p.