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Alexander PidsuhaUkrainian poet, prose writer, playwright, translator, public figure.
Date of Birth: 16.10.1918
Country:  Ukraine |
Content:
- Early Life and Education
- Wartime and Post-War Career
- Literary Career
- International Recognition
- Acclaimed Poem
- Later Years and Legacy
Early Life and Education
Born into a family of a village blacksmith, Oles Pidsukha graduated from a seven-year school in a neighboring village and enrolled in the preparatory faculty of the Kyiv Linguistic Institute. Two years later, he became a student at the Kharkiv Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages.
Wartime and Post-War Career
Upon graduating, Pidsukha worked as a lecturer at the Donetsk Industrial Institute (1939-1941). During the German-Soviet War of 1941-1945, he served at the front. Post-war, he taught English at the Kyiv Pedagogical Institute named after Maksym Gorky.
Literary Career
Pidsukha experimented with writing during his student years, publishing his first poetry collection, "Soldiers of the World," in 1948. This was followed by "Life for Us" (1950) and "A Word About Our Friends" (1951).
From the 1950s to the 1960s, Pidsukha gained recognition as a prose writer. Alongside lyrical poetry collections like "Heroika" (1951), "I Go to the Call" (1965), "Drops" (1966), and "Rozpovên" (1969), he published his first prose book, "Face to Face: Non-Fictional Stories" (1962). His most notable achievement of this period was the verse novel "Polesian Trilogy" (1962).
International Recognition
In 1962, Pidsukha was recommended by the Writers' Union for a UNESCO scholarship to Canada, England, France, and the United States. This trip inspired his "Canadian Notebook" poetry cycle, which became the basis for the collection "Mother's Testament" (1964).
Acclaimed Poem
The poem "Mother's Testament" (1962), published in the collection of the same name in 1964, is considered one of Pidsukha's finest lyrical-epic works. It draws heavily from his autobiography.
Later Years and Legacy
Pidsukha served as the Chairman of the Society for Cultural Relations with Ukrainians Abroad from 1973 to 1979. He lived in the House of Writers RoLit from 1952 to 1957 and 1980 to 1990, and in a house on M. Kotsiubynsky Street from 1957 to 1979. Upon his passing, he was laid to rest in the Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv.
