Ostarbeiter, political prisoner. Poet, prose writer, translator.
The Vasylenko Cossack officer lineage has been known in the Novhorod-Sivershchyna region since the 17th century. His father, Oleksandr Khomych Vasylenko (1894–1977), worked as an accountant on a collective farm; his mother, Nataliya Ivanivna Zakharchenko (1900–1995), was a peasant. Mykola’s upbringing was influenced by his grandmother, Anastasiia Fedorivna Kyrychenko, who lived to be 94, was literate, resourceful, adhered to Ukrainian traditions, and had 11 children. She would gather all 16 of her grandchildren around her and tell them fairy tales and sing countless songs she knew. As a boy, he read Taras Shevchenko’s “Testament” syllable by syllable and memorized it. In school, he began to write poetry himself. As a teenager, he participated in artistic Olympiads, reciting his own and Shevchenko’s poems. From the age of 15, he was published in the district newspapers of the Kherson region. He completed 9th grade in Kherson.
The war found Vasylenko as a student at the Kherson Maritime School. In December 1941, the Germans closed the school and formed a labor brigade for the city administration from the students. They cleaned the streets of garbage, dug trenches, and sawed firewood. In 1942, the brigade was renamed the fifth company for guarding shops. The young men began to flee. One was caught and shot in front of the formation; another was hanged. The remaining 40 youths were taken under convoy to Germany in January 1943, to the city of Braunschweig. They worked with the city fire brigades, also cleaning streets and clearing ruins after bombings. In April 1945, they were liberated by the American army. Feeling no guilt before their homeland, the young men crossed into the Soviet occupation zone. In Frankfurt an der Oder, Soviet soldiers robbed them, and those who tried to escape by swimming across the Oder were shot. Instead of being sent home, they were mobilized into the Soviet Army. Vasylenko served in the 45th Cavalry Regiment in the cities of Barthy, Gdańsk, and Szczecin, which had been transferred to Poland. He was demobilized in May 1947.
He returned to Kherson. Before he could find a job, he was summoned to the military commissariat in June, taken to an MGB prison, accused of “aiding the German occupiers,” and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment and 5 years’ deprivation of civil rights (Article 54, 1a of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR). Only 50 years later did Vasylenko learn that he had been falsely accused of possessing a weapon, which is why he has not been rehabilitated to this day.
In early 1949, Vasylenko arrived as part of a transport at OLP (Otdelny Lagerny Punkt, or Separate Camp Point) No. 2 in the city of Inta, Komi ASSR (Kislansky raion, P.O. Box 388/2), where he served 8.5 years with the number E-415 on his back. In the camp, he completed courses for hoisting machine operators and worked in mines No. 5 and No. 10.
Under Stalin, there was no library, no newspapers, no radio in the zone, and writing anything was forbidden. But despite the ban, a spiritual life flourished underground. There were many intellectuals in the camp. Vasylenko met and became close with the poets and translators Hryhoriy KOCHUR, Dmytro Palamarchuk, Ivan Savych (Lukyanenko), Mykola SARMA-SOKOLOVSKY, Andriy Khymko (Khymenko), Mykhailo Khorunzhy, the Jewish writer Grigory Polianker, the Russian poet Viktor Vasylenko, and other now-famous poets and prose writers. In hiding, he wrote poems, gave them to trusted friends to read, and secretly passed manuscripts to other camps. A large collection of his camp poems was sent by a civilian foreman (who also wrote poetry) to Vasylenko’s relatives, and they have been preserved.
In 1953, Vasylenko came across an encyclopedia where he read an article about the “War of Laodice” of 247 BCE, from the era of the collapse of Alexander the Great’s empire. He became interested in the figure of the queen of the Seleucid state. After consulting with historian acquaintances and professors about that era, Vasylenko, during night shifts and hiding from prying eyes, wrote the novella “Laodika.” It was praised by H. KOCHUR and G. Polianker. As a samvydav manuscript, the novella made its way to other camps, from which Vasylenko received positive feedback in letters (which have been preserved). Forty years later (1994), the novella was published in the almanac *Step* in Kherson.
Vasylenko worked in the coal mine faces, where certain death awaited him, but his technical knowledge, which was needed for production, and his acquaintance with imprisoned doctors saved him. A paramedic, L. I. Polyuha, secretly inoculated him with typhus; Vasylenko was treated, and the authorities had to give him work on the surface of the mine as he was considered weak.
After Stalin’s death, prisoners were allowed to receive books from Soviet publishing houses from their relatives. They were reviewed by an operative, who stamped “KONTROL” (CONTROL) on the title pages. Vasylenko has preserved several such books.
In captivity, Vasylenko mastered English (taught by fellow prisoners) and translated Byron and other poets from the originals.
On October 8, 1955, he was released with his conviction expunged and his rights restored. He returned to Kherson. After long hardships, in 1956 he began working as an electrician, later as a foreman in the electrical shop at the Kherson Cotton Combine, and as an engineer at “Khersonenergo.” From 1964 to 1984, he was an engineer for labor protection and safety at the Kherson Winery.
In 1956, he married his former classmate and fellow political prisoner, Evelina HUBCHENKO. They began to build a home. That year, Vasylenko sent several of his poems and translations to Maksym Rylsky. The academician replied on December 24, 1956: “...Thus: on the poems you sent, I see the seal of undeniable talent; the translations (from Bohdanovych and Goethe) testify to a cultured language... If you have not yet published these poems anywhere, then allow me to personally appeal to our journals.” (The letter is preserved). Several poems were published in the periodical press, and later in the journal *Ukraina*.
He enrolled in correspondence courses at the Horlivka Industrial Technical School. A week before his diploma defense, KGB officers gave him an ultimatum: cooperate with them or he would not receive his diploma. They showed him a stolen notebook with his poems, for which they promised him 10 years of imprisonment. Vasylenko promised to cooperate, but only after receiving his diploma. In 1960, after getting his diploma, he immediately and categorically refused. Harassment and persecution began. He was fired from his job. Thanks to an acquaintance, Hnatiuk (a native of Ternopil), who was the head of the Kherson Sovnarkhoz administration, he managed to get a position as an engineer at “Khersonenergo.”
For speaking out against the flooding of the Dnipro floodplains and historical monuments, the KGB “recommended” that Vasylenko be fired. In 1963, Fidel Castro visited the USSR. Vasylenko wrote a poem, “Give Me Your Hand, Cuba!” and sent it to the editors of the newspaper *Radians’ka Ukraina*. On the day of Castro’s arrival in Kyiv, the poem was published next to his portrait. The issue of his dismissal was postponed, but Vasylenko’s salary was reduced by 10 rubles.
In 1962, Vasylenko completed the 10th grade of evening school, enrolled in an 8-month preparatory English course, and applied to Odesa University. But he was not allowed to take the exams, as there was allegedly an order from the ministry not to accept anyone from Kherson.
He worked at the winery. He attended the regional literary association, helping young writers master the craft of words. Unexpectedly, in 1970, he was awarded the medal “100th Anniversary of the Birth of Lenin.” However, he was not allowed on a tourist trip to Bulgaria. The “Radians’kyi Pys’mennyk” publishing house included his poetry collection “Perelisky,” with a preface by Volodymyr Vilny, in its thematic plan for the first quarter of 1974. The editors approved the collection without any remarks. But when Vasylenko went to visit H. KOCHUR in Irpin on November 18, 1973, to congratulate him on his birthday, the typesetting of the book was dismantled. The KGB accused Vasylenko of possessing “samvydav,” which he had allegedly received from H. KOCHUR. For 10 years, he was not published, even in the periodical press. He buried what he wrote in glass bottles in his garden. Only in the early 1980s did his translations begin to be published.
In 1990, the “Tavria” publishing house (Simferopol) published a poetry collection by three authors, “The Heavenly Key”—Vasylenko, V. Puzyrenko, and V. Davydov. In the same year, with the help of a sponsor, a book of Vasylenko’s prison poetry, “The Confrontation,” was published with a preface by H. Kochur. He published books of poetry: “The Blazing Saber” (based on the fairy tales of his grandmother Anastasia, 1996); a bilingual English-Ukrainian book of English folk poetry, “The Key to the Kingdom” (1997); “A Handful of Rain” (1999, these two books were awarded the V. Mysyk Prize in 2000 and were included in an international bibliographic guide); “A House Stood on the Hill” (poems for children, 2001); he completed the historical novel “Fragments of an Empire,” in which he depicted the political situation and social and domestic scenes of the ancient slave-owning states of Egypt and Seleucidia, which arose from the collapse of Alexander the Great’s empire. Vasylenko exposes the treachery of kings, lays bare the roots of predatory wars and senseless state terror.
In 1989, Vasylenko was among the organizers of the People’s Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) in the Kherson region; he was a delegate to all its congresses; a member of the board of the regional organization of the All-Ukrainian Society of Political Prisoners and Victims of Repression, the council of “Memorial,” “Prosvita,” an elder of the Ukrainian Cossacks, and a member of the council of the KUIH (Congress of Ukrainian Intelligentsia). In 1992, he was admitted to the National Writers’ Union of Ukraine. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal *Visnyk Tavriiskoi Fundatsii* and heads the city charitable organization Tavriiska Fundatsiia (Center for the Study of the Ukrainian Diaspora).
Vasylenko’s poems are distinguished by their elevated spirit and discipline of word. D. Pavlychko noted a selection of his poems from captivity, “In the Weave of Barbed Wire,” as “the most moving, astonishing poems, where fearlessness turns into despair. But the most important feature of his character is faith in his truth and his invincibility.”
Vasylenko lives with his wife, Evelina HUBCHENKO, in Kherson. Their son, Valentyn, born in 1956, died in 1999. Their grandson, Oleh, was born in 1979.
Bibliography:
1.
*The Heavenly Key: Poems*. Foreword by L. Fedorovska. Simferopol: Tavria, 1999. 92 pp.
*The Confrontation: Poems*. Foreword by H. Kochur. Simferopol: Tavria, 1990. 224 pp.
“‘Parnassus’ in the Arctic.” *Zona*, no. 3, 1992, pp. 120–131; also in: *Chronicle of Ukraine’s Golgotha*, vol. 1, 1993, Lviv, pp. 30–40.
*The Key to the Kingdom: English Folk Poetry in the Original Language and in Ukrainian*. Kherson: Ailant, 1997. 47 pp.
*The Blazing Saber: A Poem-Fairy Tale*. Kherson: Pilotni shkoly, 1996. 24 pp.
*A Handful of Rain: Poetry*. Foreword by I. Nemchenko. Kherson: Ailant, 1999. 84 pp.
*A House Stood on the Hill: Poetry for Children*. Illustrated by O. Hlushko. Kherson: Ailant, 2001. 27 pp.
*Fragments of an Empire: A Historical Novel*. Afterword by M. Olenkovsky. Kyiv–Kherson: Prosvita, 2002. 272 pp.
*A Whole Kingdom for a Horse!: A Fairy Tale in Verse*. Kyiv–Kherson: Prosvita, 2003. 43 pp.
*The Architecture of Fate: Poems*. Foreword by D. Pavlychko. Kyiv–Kherson: Prosvita, 2004. 160 pp.
*Wormwood for a Fire: A Book of Memoirs*. Foreword by I. Nemchenko. Kyiv–Kherson: Prosvita, 2007. 446 pp.
*The Long Road from the Tunnel: Short Stories, a Novella*. Foreword by I. Lopushynsky. Kherson: VAT KhMT, 2009. 266 pp.
*Branded Dawns: Poems*. Foreword by V. Zahorodniuk. Kherson: Ailant, 2011. 351 pp.
*Transit of Gems: Translations*. Kyiv–Kherson: Prosvita, 2012. 247 pp.
2.
Bratan, M. I. “For the Sake of Light.” *Berezil*, no. 2, 1993, pp. 169–171.
Nemchenko, I. V. “A Confrontation with Conscience.” *Stepova Ukraina*, no. 8, 1994.
*Mykola Vasylenko. Literary Studies, Bibliographic Essays*. From the series “Literary and Regional Studies.” Kherson, 1996. 37 pp.
Savych, Ivan. “Mykola Vasylenko: A Handful of Rain.” *Literaturna Ukraina*, 2000.
Datsiuk, Yevhen. “A Whole Life in the Furrow.” *Shliakh peremohy*, no. 28, 2004.
Hryshyn-Hryshchuk, Ivan. “Biography of a Ukrainian.” *Slovo Prosvity*, no. 31, 2005.
Datsiuk, Yevhen. “The Poet's Ascent.” *Vyzvolnyi shliakh*, book 7 (626), July 2000, pp. 88–93.
Antonyshyn, Svitlana. “A Confrontation with Truth.” *Kyiv*, no. 3–4, 2001.
Lopushynsky, Ivan. “‘O Land, Ancestral Earth, I Mature in Your Light’.” *Krymska svitlytsia* (Simferopol), no. 84–85, 2001.
Antonyshyn, Svitlana. “Goodness That Is Worthy of Freedom.” *Berezil* (Kharkiv), no. 11–12, 2012.
Soroka, Petro. “The Scepter and the Staff. The Painful Truth of a Poet.” *Kur’ier Kryvbasu*, nos. 278, 279, 280, 2013.
Nemchenko, I. V. “Vasylenko, Mykola Oleksandrovych.” *Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine*, vol. 4. Kyiv, 2006, pp. 108-109.
Shcherba, Taisiia. “And the Memory Hurts.” *Ukrainska literatura*, no. 12, 2009, pp. 40–42.
Kagantsov, Mark. *Mykola Oleksandrovych Vasylenko: “I Am He Who Did Not Surrender in Spirit.”* Saint Petersburg–Kyiv, 2012, pp. 35–52.
*The Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960–1990. An Encyclopedic Guide*. 2nd ed. Foreword by Osyp Zinkevych and Oles Obertas. Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2012, pp. 109–110.
Interview with M. Vasylenko on February 17, 2001: https://museum.khpg.org/1364235729
Vasyl Ovsienko, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, 2013. With corrections by M. Vasylenko in June 2013.
VASYLENKO MYKOLA OLEKSANDROVYCH