World and Smoloskyp

Osyp Zinkevych, director of the legendary Smoloskyp Publishing House can rank with patriarch Mstyslav, Oleksandr Koshyts, Ivan Bahriany, Yuri Luckyj, Hryhorii Kostiuk, George Yurii Shevelov, etc. They survived thanks to the other – non-Soviet – world which sheltered them. And being far from continental Ukraine, they did everything to preserve the invaluable treasures of our culture, in particular literature.

Thus, Smoloskyp was founded by Ukrainian students at the beginning of the 1950s in France. In the early 1960s it moved to the USA. Since then it focused on dissident and human rights literature, works by Ukrainian writers forbidden in Soviet Ukraine, and self-published books.

It encompassed a huge collection of poetic, prose, and drama works: Les Kurbas, Mykola Khvylovy, Olena Teliha, Mykola Rudenko, Vasyl Stus, Borys Antonenko-Davydovych, Viacheslav Chornovil, Lina Kostenko, Atena Pashko, Mykhailo Osadchy, Ihor Kalynets, etc. In addition, social and political essays and literary criticism by Hryhorii Kostiuk, George Luckyj, George Yurii Shevelov, documents of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and so on.

At present, the publishing house has two “headquarters”: in Baltimore and Kyiv. In its Kyiv office, there is the Museum of Ukrainian Self-Published Literature and a bookstore where one can buy books from leading Ukrainian publishing houses. By the way, two years ago our editor in chief Larysa Ivshyna, having heard that students doing their internship at the newspaper’s editorial office didn’t know anything about General Petro Hryhorenko took them to this museum.

In Ukraine the following volumes were published: the series “Executed Renaissance,” four volumes of philosophic works by Dmytro Chyzhevsky, works by Olena Teliha and Oleh Olzhych, political and social essays by Ivan Bahriany, memoirs by Oleksandr Barvinsky and activists of the resistance movement during the Second World War and the 1960s, a series of lectures by prominent Ukrainian and foreign professors (Olia Hnatiuk, Pavel Markovsky, Leonid Ushkalov, Dmytro Horbachov, Jose Luis Ramirez and others), correspondence of Viacheslav Lypynsky, etc.

Osyp Zinkevych was recently a guest of The Day.

Mr. Zinkevych, please accept our congratulations on being awarded the Order of Yaroslav the Wise, which you received, according to the presidential decree, for “accomplished Ukrainian work”!

“Thank you. However, you know, if people work for the sake of awards, it’s a bad indicative of them. We returned and brought our publishing house here not for getting prizes, privileges, or posts. We came to work!”

We found you working on archives. What are you systematizing?

“I am a strange man – I read newspapers with scissors in my hands. There were lots of themes I was interested in: the Executed Renaissance of the 1920s and the 1930s, the dissident movement, the Sixtiers, etc. So a lot of materials were collected. No one could dream about the possibility of coming to Ukraine and even buying a house (this one is our property), where an entire archive could be located. Here and in other rooms there is the world-biggest archive of Ukrainian self-published books! Apart from us the Suchasnist Publishing House did it, too, but the majority of their documents, unfortunately, disappeared after the death of director Mykola Lebid. However, there is an archive of self-published literature in the Vernadsky National Library. But there is mainly unofficial periodicals that appeared in 1988–90.

“Similarly to the past practice of the KGB, we have profiles for political prisoners (laughs). Some of them, for example, Ivan Dziuba, came here and was amazed at how much was written about him in the Western press. It’s thanks to our cooperation with the Amnesty International. If in democratic countries a case of one political prisoner or another is given publicity, he begins to be treated differently. However, despite the response to Vasyl Stus’ case (publications of his statements in the foreign mass media and the publication of a collection of his works Palimpsesty [Palimpsests] in the USA), the poet was driven to death.

“We closely cooperated with Amnesty International which, after receiving information about the situation in Ukraine through its own sources, shared it with us. Many materials were received by Radio Liberty, by the way, financed at that time by the CIA, which is not a secret today. However, most of self-published books came through the schemes we developed. The most efficient one functioned in Copenhagen, where Soviet vessels came. One captain brought documents and left them in the arranged mail drop in one of parks, also providing the date of his next arrival. Then our person, a Dutch, by the way, took the parcel and phoned and asked us to come.”

What is known about this captain? Have you ever met him?

“It seems to me he rose to the rank of admiral at the Black Sea Fleet of Ukraine. As far as I know, he’s reluctant to talk about his ‘services.’ In fact, there were different people: sailors of the former Soviet fleet, journalists, and professional athletes, who in totalitarian times were sources of information for Ukrainians abroad.

“Yes, I met this captain in Copenhagen on numerous occasions. And once there was an interesting case. Sometimes human intuition works very well. I went abroad many times, but never took a folding knife with me (it was allowed then). And suddenly I took it along on my trip to Copenhagen. In Copenhagen I was waiting for the captain. He was two hours late. He quickly passed a corded package, saying he was in a hurry. It came to my mind: what if it was a bomb? I knew how Yevhen Konovalets had been killed.

“I went with that package to the park where one wasn’t allowed to walk at night. I put the ‘parcel’ under an oak, on a small hill, not far from a lake and was waiting to see whether it would explode. At dawn, I cut the cord with that knife and found inside almost all the documents of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. I looked up – and there was a strong Danish policeman observing me. I found myself in a police department, told everything as it happened (then there was a wave of criticism against me for it). Evidently, a part of the documentation was copied there, then everything was returned, and I was free to go. As a result – a big, nearly 1,000-page book entitled Ukrainian Human Rights Movement was published in Ukrainian and English.”

Quite a detective story…

“And look at this doll almost cut in two (shows). This is a gift from the famous Ukrainian painter Opanas Zalyvakha. He gave me two dolls like this – a girl and a boy in the Ukrainian national costumes. My wife and I, suspecting nothing, put them in the sideboard. After a few months I went to hospital with appendicitis. And there I had a dream that there must be something inside the dolls. When I returned from hospital, I decided to cut those dolls, and my wife thought I went crazy. And you know what, in both dolls there were diapositives of Zalyvakha’s paintings. The artist wanted to publish an album abroad. The album was already published in Ukraine. In the USA it was difficult — very expensive — to publish it, while Smoloskyp survived on donations from the Ukrainian diaspora.”

What Ukrainian self-published books did you manage to publish abroad?

“Many things. Particularly, I want to mention Lykho z rozumu (Woe from Wit) by Viacheslav Chornovil. At the time, the Western press didn’t write anything about Ukrainian affairs. The last article was published in Le Figaro in 1950 about the assassination of Roman Shukhevych. It looked as if the West didn’t want to spoil relations with the USSR, and obviously under the pressure of different factors there was a biased attitude to Ukrainians and the Ukrainian cause. After we obtained Woe from Wit, a unique work at the time, we set the main goal — make it a worldwide event. And we managed to do it.

“First, we went to Radio Svoboda, which at the time had the audience of hundreds of thousands, or maybe even millions, of listeners. Second, we gained access to US Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski, who helped us publish Woe from Wit in one of the biggest and most prestigious publishing houses — McGraw-Hill. Finally, the Western press started talking about repressions, the dissident movement in Ukraine, about Ukraine per se, and the Ukrainian cause. After that the book by Ivan Dziuba Internatsionalizm chy rusyfikatsia? (Internationalism or Russification?) became known and was published in a few languages. Thus, we managed to break the blockade regarding coverage of Ukrainian issues in the fo-reign mass media and at the same time bring the Ukrainian issue to the attention of many political activists in the West and get their support.”

Mr. Zinkevych, how did Smoloskyp manage to avoid becoming “universal” as other diaspora publishers, continue to specialize in dissident and human rights literature, Ukrainian self-published books, and works by writers banned in Soviet Ukraine, and stick to this concept until now?

“It may sound strange now, but Mykola Khvylovy helped me in this. He is actually following me until now. In 1939, when the Soviet Army occupied Galicia, two Soviet officers visited us — Malynko and Shumylo, and they both courted my sister. But my father was a Ukrainian Sich Rifleman. Once late at night the officers debated with him about independent Ukraine. One of them told my father: ‘In our area (in Eastern Ukraine – Ed.) there were also those who aspired for independence: Khvylovy, Skrypnyk, and Shumsky. And do you know what their end was? How did all three of them end their lives?’

“I remembered Khvylovy most of all. In the morning I asked about him. Father, an ordinary peasant, knew nothing. Since then I became interested in Khvylovy. By the way, as a valuable folio, I keep a volume of his works which I borrowed from Ivan Bahriany and never returned. If you read his Arabesky (Arabesques) or Ya (Romantyka) (I [Romance]) — no one wrote like this in Ukraine! That is how my ambition to publish Khvylovy once appeared.

“After I came to the US, I started searching for someone who could become the editor in chief of the writer’s works. At the time, I was already familiar with the literary critic Hryhorii Kostiuk who knew Khvylovy personally, cooperated with him, and was at his funeral. Thus, we published a five-volume edition (Currently, the most complete edition of the writer’s works. – Ed.). Can you imagine the work that was done – gathering materials from everywhere: Harvard, Columbia, Illinois universities, and Volodymyr Vynnychenko’s archive. The only thing we didn’t find was the full text of the pamphlet Ukraina chy Malorosia? (Ukraine or Little Russia?).”

I know that soon your publishing house will publish — let’s call it a continuation of Valdshnepy (Woodcocks) by Khvylovy.

“We already have advance copies. One of my old friends, just like me, has been interested in Khvylovy for a long time. Back in the 1960s he wrote the story Ahlaia as an attempt to continue Woodcocks — it tells about the lives of this novel’s characters and their descendants 30 years later. The ‘new’ work is published under the pseudonym Artem Sokil (at the author’s request). We discussed with Yevhen Sverstiuk the issue of the title: is it really a continuation or an attempt at continuation? And we came to the conclusion: we’ll call it an attempt at continuation, which it actually is. It’s interesting how the story will be perceived by the contemporary reader.”

Den recently published a material by the literary critic Volodymyr Panchenko about Mykola Khvylovy (Is. 19, Feb. 5, 2010). He wrote that Khvylovy’s daughter Iraida mentioned that you had visited her.

“It was in 1993. At the time, I was busy commemorating the 100th anniversary since the writer’s birthday. I came to her already with the five-volume collection of works by Khvylovy. By the way, some family pictures for this collection were given by close relatives of Iraida who lived in Australia. Among them was a photo of Khvylovy’s grandson Viktor. We didn’t publish it. We feared to do harm. The grandson and his grandfather were so much alike.”

Mr. Zinkevych, you corresponded with patriarch Mstyslav, Ivan Bahriany, Yevdokia Humenna, Dmytro Dontsov, Colonel Andrii Melnyk, Oleh Shtyl-Zhdanovych, Slava Stetsko, Hryhorii Kostiuk, George Yurii Shevelov, and so on. When will this correspondence — and perhaps also your memoirs — be published?

“I don’t have enough time to systematize it. Out of thousands of letters I kept only some were put in order. You think I should get down to memoirs? This is not so important. In our history and culture there were a lot of positive heroes. They should be published first of all! For example, we should write about the period of the 1920s and the 1930s, which is called in literature the Executed Renaissance. Just imagine, when we started publishing Khvylovy in the US, a big campaign was initiated against it! Together with some others we were disdainfully called ‘followers of Fitilev.’

“At the launch of Khvylovy’s third volume in San Francisco one emigrant started shouting that books like this were dripping with Ukrainian blood. This was such a shock for the audience that no one bought books — people were even afraid to approach them. We suspected, and later found proof, that this was a KGB provocation. Soviet ideologists wanted at any price to cut off the creative activity of the Executed Renaissance writers from the Ukrainian literary process. But they failed.

“In my opinion, the writers of the 1920s and the 1930s believed in Soviet Ukraine. They believed that in this system they would be able to create new Ukrainian literature. The process of Ukrainization, which lasted for a few years, was spontaneous or maybe planned in Moscow so that they could first expose the national feelings of many talented people and then kill them. Works of those writers, the writers of the Executed Renaissance, are little known or not known at all in Ukraine. That’s why we are publishing them!”

IMPRESSIONS

Who is Osyp Zinkevych for you? The Day asked this question to those who called Smoloskyp’s office in Baltimore their home, i.e., friends, adherents, and those people who at different times dealt with the publishing house’s director.

Mykhailyna KOTSIUBYNSKA, literary critic:

“I know for sure: it’s not true that there are no irreplaceable people. There are such people, and Osyp Zinkevych is one of them. His really helpful presence in our cultural sphere is very considerable. He is a publisher, publicist, public activist, talented manager of very important cultural projects. His Smolokyp is a symbolic phenomenon in the Ukrainian culture of the 20th and 21st centuries. We, the Sixtiers, have always felt the light of Smoloskyp and its assistance and support. Owing to it our word was heard in the world.

“He accepted existentially the appearance of independent Ukraine. Not a sympathizing view from aside, not help or advice, but direct participation. He moved his Smoloskyp here, where its light is so needed. And the most important thing is that he managed to make this light attract young people. He managed to find a common language with them and despite their otherness, involve them in the work for the benefit of Ukraine. Creative seminars, competitions, publishing young poetry and prose, different cultural activities, and a Ukrainian bookstore — all of this is the light of Smoloskyp.

“Osyp Zinkevych is a personality who hasn’t wasted his life. He is not a declarative patriot, but a vigilant worker in the field of Ukrainian culture. I wish him strength and health!”

Serhii ARKHYPCHUK, film director:

“In the consciousness of every Ukrainian intellectual the Smoloskyp Publishing House has been associated with resistance, truth, and real art. It was Smoloskyp that published works which were forbidden and inaccessible in continental Ukraine, the works that awoke our memory and spirit.

“In conditions of Ukrainian independence one could, as many other publishers or periodicals did, occupy some vague niche and exist in the narrow circle of interested enthusiasts. Instead, Osyp Zinkevych wanted his publishing house to BE! He wanted it to be Ukrainian, successful, profitable, responsive, and promising!

“Thanks to him (youth literary contests and personal stipends) the people who are responsible for the visage of modern Ukrainian literature: Serhii Zhadan, Svitlana Pyrkalo, Taras Prokhasko, Ivan Andrusiak, etc. One should say that the abovementioned contests were timely, mobile, fairly, and devotedly established without any reliance on the state. In other words, this was a deed of a person who organically reacts to the changes happening between generations, in the society, country, and world.

“One should say that Osyp Zinkevych is a man who, having preserved a great enthusiasm to the Ukrainian word and Ukrainian culture, always looks special. His eyes are full of warmth and depth and traditional Ukrainian kindness which we sometimes are too shy to show and therefore conceal. But this distinguishes a Ukrainian in the national diversity represented in the world.

“For me Osyp Zinkevych is a model Ukrainian regardless of the time or place he lives in.”

Atena PASHKO, poetess:

“Long before Ukraine’s independence I learned about Osyp Zinkevych from my husband Viachelav Chornovil. Osyp helped dissidents and the Sixtiers a lot. In particular, he was given petitions, statements, and materials from our political prisoners. Thus, through Zinkevych the world learned about Ukraine, the Ukraine which fought and protested against the totalitarianism. Consequently, it was easier to live realizing that there, in the US, there was our voice — the voice of truth, and, one can say, a human rights advocate. Osyp has a big sympathizing heart; a sharp ear for falsehood and X-ray-like sight. He’s fantastically hard-working, foreseeing, and purposeful. Osyp loves people. He has a flair for young talents!

“These Franko’s poetic lines are about him:

Land, my fertile mother,
Give me the force that
lives inside of you,
A drop of it to help me stand
in the struggle!
Give me the chest-expanding warmth,That awakes infinite pure love
For people!

“You know, I think with fear: what if he leaves Ukraine? But Osyp foresaw this too. He found assistants in whom he believes. May God help him!

“At present, Osyp and Nadia Zinkevych are my close friends, my support, and my interesting company. And I thank them for everything! And especially for the 10-volume edition of the works by Viacheslav Chornovil! Without the overall support of this couple it wouldn’t have been published!”

Mykola ZHULYNSKY, director, Shevchenko Institute of Literature, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine:

“People like Osyp Zinkevych should be cultivated — they are too few in our society! When I speak about him, I remember Borys Hrinchenko. The key to comparison is their service to the national cause and Ukraine: expressive, energetic, worthy, consistent, and unshakable!

“I first heard about Osyp Zinkevych when I came to the USA in 1978 and then got familiarized with the editions published by Smoloskyp. And then I met Osyp. As a person, he’s extremely modest. I’d say he assesses his merits very calmly. Osyp and his wife Nadia are an ideal embodiment of modesty and personal responsibility for the cause.”

Yevhen Sverstiuk, editor, newspaper Nasha vira (Our Faith):

“Osyp Zinkevych is a publisher of good professional culture and high business qualities. He belongs to the generation of pre-war idealists-nationalists. He has a good sense for a book’s value, which he developed in the West in highly competitive conditions.

“He headed the Smoloskyp Publishing House in Paris, which by the way published my first ‘seditious’ book Sobor v ryshtovanni (Cathedral in Scaffolding, 1970). Osyp gave the name of Vasyl Symonenko to it. It was very timely. In other words, he understood that it added publicity to his publishing house. Later in the US the publishing house became a worthy house of Ukrainian dissidents.

“Let me repeat myself: Osyp has a very good flair for names, particularly, the names which were not very publicized at the time. In front of me is the book entitled Shyroke more Ukrainy (The Wide Sea of Ukraine). When it was published, I didn’t see it. But my investigators saw: I was arrested then and they once again familiarized themselves with my articles published abroad in 1972. In a word, Osyp was able to successfully use the material at hand.

“There also was a question: Was it tactful regarding prisoners? I can answer according to the logic of my behavior during imprisonment: in my case it served a good purpose. I realized that the more publications were in the West, the better, so that here they didn’t play fools, saying that nobody knows who you are. And in this matter Osyp took a very firm position by publishing the materials he received and understanding that it was not accidental. By the way, KGB officers were sure that we ourselves helped send them abroad.

“It’s difficult to explain to current readers, but it was even more difficult to explain to the readers of the end of the 1980s that our last names meant little for most readers in Ukraine. Even now the very elevated name of Vasyl Stus in the understanding of an average member of Ukraine’s Writers Union – it was a name of the ‘one arrested in 1972.’ I felt what our names meant when I went abroad in 1989 and saw that all Ukrainians there knew me and greeted as a person who returned from the other world. No exaggeration. And of course, Osyp Zinkevych made his publishing house popular owing to such names. He had enough business orientation to move to Kyiv, because there the epoch of self-published books was over. And it is necessary to promote works which fix the spirit of national resistance in Ukraine. And among all Ukrainians who have moved here Osyp Zinkevych is, of course, the most efficient figure.

“Regarding the fact that Osyp provided me, as the editor of the newspaper Nasha vira and president of the PEN-club, with a building, I suppose he did it not because of tender emotions, but because of business motivation. For he understood that it would immediately become a center where correspondents would come, television cameras, almost all well-known diaspora activists, representatives of embassies, etc. A few years ago the editorial office of Nasha vira was visited by the US ambassador; we talked and then at the end the diplomat took a picture against the background of the publishing house’s exhibits. Certainly, for me it is a common cause, because we are doing national cultural work together.

“There are few people like Osyp now, because he is from the generation which met Oleh Olzhych. His generation was hardened in very difficult political struggles. The epoch makes a man. It’s interesting that people of his generation (such as Vasyl Kuk, Stepan Semeniuk, Mykola Plaviuk, and so on) talk very briefly, conceptually, and to the point. I think when there is a person who is a teacher, there are lessons, too. There are a lot of young people around Osyp. He is open to communication. Those who want to learn can do so. But it’s quite clear that one can’t learn the things that are not written on the scrolls of time.”