Ukrainian folklorist, educator, professor, and civic activist.
From a Cossack land. His mother, Hanna Trokhymivna Kysil, spent her childhood and youth as a hired laborer. His father, Mykyta, grew up under the oppression of his stepmother. The newlyweds went to live in someone else’s house. When young Vasyl was still a child, the family moved further south into the steppes, to the village of Podydar, which had been devastated by “dekulakization.” He attended school in larger neighboring villages. During the famine of 1947, he would flood gophers out of their burrows, and this is how his family survived.
In 1950, he enrolled in the Faculty of Philology at Dnipropetrovsk University, from which he graduated with honors in 1955. He had firm hopes of pursuing postgraduate studies in the Department of Ukrainian Literature, but he refused to join the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He even pointed at a hapless colleague, saying, “I don’t want to be in the same party as him.” And so, the straight-A student was given C's in all his subjects. He worked as a schoolteacher. In 1962, he married Halyna Serhiivna Korablyova, a primary school teacher.
In 1962, he was admitted to postgraduate studies at the Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore, and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. The director, Academician Maksym Rylsky, personally appointed himself as the supervisor for his dissertation, “Ukrainian, Czech, and Slovak Folk Lyrical Poetry.” He successfully defended his candidate’s thesis on December 21, 1965, and it was published as a book in 1970.
As early as 1964, Skrypka had published a critical literary article titled “To Stop the Flow of Ephemera.” In 1968, even before the “Prague Spring,” he participated in the VI International Congress of Slavists in Prague, where minders were assigned to him. In 1967 and 1969, he was invited by the Academy of Sciences to serve on the admissions committee of the Taras Shevchenko State University of Kyiv. Contrary to instructions, he gave an “A” to former political prisoner Anatoliy LUPYNOS and an “F” to the son of a Communist official. A corresponding denunciation was sent to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
On June 27, 1969, he submitted a written report as the chairman of the state examination commission of the Crimean Pedagogical Institute. Section VIII of his report detailed the deplorable state of the Ukrainian language at the Faculty of Philology. This section was published in issue no. 6 of the *Ukrainian Herald* in March 1972. Issues no. 4 and 5 of the *Ukrainian Herald* reported that on December 4, 1970, Skrypka’s work “Stylistic Features of Cossack, Chumak, and Recruit Songs” had been criticized at a meeting of the Institute's Academic Council for “ideological-theoretical and methodological errors” and for his “uncritical attitude” toward M. Kostomarov and M. Drahomanov. On December 15, 1970, the Academic Council passed a resolution declaring Skrypka unfit for the position of a research fellow and demoted him to the position of bibliographer, despite his dozens of publications in journals in Ukraine and Czechoslovakia.
During that time, Skrypka wrote a treatise titled “Songs via Hydroponics,” which he shared with Vasyl STUS and Yevhen SVERSTYUK. STUS responded with a supportive letter offering specific advice. (See: V. Stus. *T cory v 6 t. 9 kn. T.6, kn. 2*. Lviv: Prosvita, 1997, pp. 62–63).
After the arrests of the Sixtiers, a “purge” of academic institutes began. By a decree of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, No. 294, dated July 31, 1972, titled “On Further Improving the Thematic Focus of Scientific Research, Structure, and Staffing of Institutions in the Social Sciences Section of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR,” many employees of research institutions, including Skrypka, were dismissed.
He taught Ukrainian language at the Zhytomyr Pedagogical Institute for a year and then worked as a teacher in a Kyiv vocational school and in evening schools in various cities and villages.
Skrypka met with Oleksa TYKHY, who in 1976 entrusted him with a typescript of his *Dictionary of Words Inconsistent with the Norms of the Standard Ukrainian Language (Foreign Words, Corrupted Words, Calques, etc.)*. It was published in 2009 under the title *Dictionary of Linguistic Corruptions*.
From 1986, he was an associate professor, and later a full professor, in the Department of Ukrainian Literature at the Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical Institute (a pedagogical university since 1999).
At the European symposium “Folklore and the Modern World” (Kyiv, 1990), Skrypka incorporated songs about the Solovki prison camp, collective farms, and Soviet authorities into his scholarly analysis. At the invitation of the University of Alberta (Canada, 1991), he conducted several seminars on ethnology and literary studies. He continued to research oral folk traditions and collected testimonies about the Holodomor and political repressions. Notably, on January 31 and February 1, 1990, he recorded the autobiographical narrative of Oksana MESHKO (published in issues 2–7 of the journal *Kuryer Kryvbasu* in 1994 and as a separate booklet in 1996).
He actively worked for the spiritual revival of the Ukrainian people. From 1994, he was the chairman of the Kryvyi Rih city branch of the T. Shevchenko “Prosvita” (Enlightenment) Society. During the same period, he was a candidate for People’s Deputy of Ukraine.
The professor's scholarly output includes over one hundred works. In his final years, he researched the works and fates of Ivan Bahrianyi, Mykhailo Pronchenko, Vasyl Barka, and Todos Osmachka.
By a resolution of the Bureau of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, No. 281-B, dated December 26, 1994, the 1972 resolution was rescinded. Subsequently, on March 20, 1995, Skrypka submitted an application to the Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore, and Ethnography, to which he received a reply: “...the Institute’s administration believes that your dismissal due to staff reduction was politically motivated and not related to your qualifications as a folklorist.” He was offered reinstatement at the Institute. However, Skrypka did not want to leave Kryvyi Rih.
He passed away on September 20, 1997. He was buried in the village of Nyva Trudova, Apostolove Raion, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, not far from his birthplace. He was survived by three sons: Maksym (b. 1964), Oles (b. 1966), and Roman (b. 1981).
In 2007, a memorial plaque was unveiled with the inscription: “Vasyl Mykytovych Skrypka. April 16, 1930–September 20, 1997. Renowned Ukrainian folklorist, educator, and civic activist. He worked at the Kryvyi Rih Pedagogical University from 1986 to 1997.”
Bibliography:
I.
[On the Status of the Ukrainian Language at the Crimean Pedagogical Institute] VIII. Obshchiye zamechaniya i rekomendatsii [General Comments and Recommendations]. In: V. Chornovil, *Works: In 10 Volumes*, vol. 3 (*The Ukrainian Herald*, 1970–72). Compiled by Valentyna Chornovil. Preface by M. Kosiv. Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2006, pp. 842–847.
“Mother of Ukrainian Democracy.” Literary recording by Vasyl Skrypka. *Kuryer Kryvbasu*, 1994, nos. 2–7. [Interview with Oksana Meshko]; Also: Oksana Meshko. *I Testify*. Recorded by Vasyl Skrypka. Kyiv: URP, 1996, 56 pp.
“My Curriculum... (An Autobiographical Sketch).” *Zahrava* newspaper (Kryvyi Rih), nos. 7 and 8, 1994, June; July. The same, with additions: *Kuryer Kryvbasu*, no. 33 (95), 1995, July, pp. 5–7.
“Oleksa Tykhy's Candle.” *Slovo i Chas*, no. 11 (383), 1992, pp. 34–35; The same: Oleksa Tykhy. *Slovnyk movnykh pokruchiv* [Dictionary of Linguistic Corruptions]. Donetsk: Oleksa Tykhy Society, 2009, pp. 72–76.
II.
Stus, V. *Works: In 6 Volumes, 9 Books*, vol. 6, bk. 2. Lviv: Prosvita, 1997, pp. 62–63.
Chornovil, V. *Works: In 10 Volumes*, vol. 3 (*The Ukrainian Herald*, 1970–72). Compiled by Valentyna Chornovil. Preface by M. Kosiv. Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2006, pp. 561–562 (*UH* no. 4), 769 (*UH* no. 5).
Naidenko, Ivan. “The Eternal Guardian of Human Souls.” *Vestnik Kryvbassa*.
www.krivoy-rog.com/index.php?option=com_content&task... - Cached
Filippova, Inna. “ʻAs soon as I whistle, you'll hand it over...ʼ” In: Oleksa Tykhy. *Slovnyk movnykh pokruchiv* [Dictionary of Linguistic Corruptions]. Donetsk: Oleksa Tykhy Society, 2009, pp. 69–72.
SKRYPKA VASYL MYKYTOVYCH