Oleksandr Kandyba | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Native name | Олександр Іванович Кандиба |
Born | Bilopillia, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire | 23 November 1878
Died | 22 July 1944 Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia | (aged 65)
Pen name | Oleksandr Oles |
Occupation | writer and poet |
Nationality | Ukrainian |
Alma mater | Kharkiv veterinary institute |
Period | 1906-1944 |
Children | Oleh Olzhych |
Oleksandr Oles (real name Oleksandr Ivanovych Kandyba) ( Ukrainian: Олександр Іванович Кандиба) (1878–1944) was a prominent Ukrainian writer and poet. He is the father of another Ukrainian poet and political activist, Oleh Olzhych, who perished in the Nazi labor camps in 1944.
He was born on 23 November 1878 in the khutir (small village) of Kandyba (now the village of Kandybyne, Bilopillia raion, Sumy Oblast) in Kharkiv province. [1] He studied at the Kharkiv agriculture school, later at the Kharkiv veterinary institute. [2]
He is one of the representatives of the Ukrainian Cossack family of Kandyba. [3]
In 1907 he married Vira Svadkovska. They had a son - Oleh Olzhych, who also became a famous Ukrainian poet. [4] Oleh was active in the Ukrainian nationalistic resistance in Ukraine during World War II for OUN- M and was for this arrested by the Gestapo and tortured and then executed at Sachsenhausen concentration camp at 10 June 1944. [4]
Among his poetic collections are "Z zhurboyu radist obnymalas" — With Sadness a Joy was Embracing, "Komu povim pechal moyu" — To Whom I'll Tell About My Woes, and others (nine poetry books altogether). Oleksandr Oles also created several dramatic works.
Oles died in emigration in Prague on 22 July 1944. [1] He was buried there until early January 2016 when his and his wife remains were exhumed and replaced by the body of Volodymyr Mykhailyshyn, who was the man that had been paying for the family grave. [5] [6] On 29 January 2017 Oles and his wife Vira were reburied, paid for by the Ukrainian government, in (Ukraine's capital) Kyiv, in the Lukyanivske cemetery. [6] President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and his wife Maryna Poroshenko took part in this ceremony. [6]