Vasyl Symonenko

Who was Vasyl Symonenko?

Vasyl Symonenko a well-known Ukrainian poet, journalist, activist of dissident movement. He is considered one of the most important figures in Ukrainian literature of the early 1960s. By the opinion of the Museum of dissident movement in Kiev, the works and early death of Vasyl Symonenko had an enormous impact on the rise of the national democratic movement in Ukraine.

The poet was born in a peasant family in the village of Biyivtsi, Kharkiv Oblast.

After graduating from Kiev State University in 1957, Vasyl Symonenko worked as a journalist in several newspapers in Cherkassy oblast.

The debut book of poems "Tysha i hrim" came in 1962 and made clear the talent of Symonenko among the young poets, though he had only one year to live. His literary environment included the poets Mykola Vinhranovsky, Ivan Drach and Lina Kostenko, the publicists, critics Ivan Dziuba, I. Svitlichny, Y. Sverstyuk and other "shestydesyatnyky".

During his last year of living Vasyl Symonenko wrote his second book – "Zemne tyazhinnya", the verses from which were quoted, written out, learned by heart and compared with the poetry of Taras Shevchenko.