HOLODOMOR 1932–1933 IN UKRAINIAN VILLAGES AND CITIES: REAL AND LITERARY DIMENSIONS (BASED ON THE WORKS OF OLGA MAK AND LYUBOV BURAK)

Abstract

In the years since the declaration of Ukraine's independence, much has been done in the declassification of the alleged crime - the deliberate organization of the Holodomor of 1932-1933, as well as its research and publicity in our country and in the world, until the international community recognized this crime as genocide against the Ukrainian people . However, the terrible death of millions of our compatriots is still painfully recalled in many families, and new facts about which were previously kept silent are still being discovered, documents from which the "secret" seal has been removed. Fiction as a branch of culture and a special way of reflecting reality also contains works that perpetuate this tragedy, telling about it more emotionally, with the psychologism inherent in such works. Among them, the prose of T. Osmachka, I. Bagryany, V. Barka, U. Samchuk and many other well-known artists of the word has been analyzed more. In this article, the novel "Stones under the scythe" by Olga Mak (1913–1998), a Ukrainian writer who lived in the diaspora, although she experienced the Holodomor in Ukraine, and the short story " The Millstone" from the collection "Annunciation" of the modern Ukrainian poet and Lyubov Burak, a writer from Ternopil. It is noteworthy: these works are given for comparison also because the first depicts the events of the Holodomor in the city, although the history of the village is also present here through the biography of the main character, and in the second - purely in the village. The title of the first work is metaphorical, because the Ukrainians' humanism, innate dignity, endurance, self-sacrifice, ability to share the last, strength of spirit and faith even in critical situations were such "stones" for the Bolsheviks. Lyubov Burak's story is called "The Millstone" (they were made of stone), because this device for grinding grain became sacred for the described family, as it saved everyone's life together with the dying "grandmother". Through the prism of the described stories, the reader immerses himself in the pages of the contemporary life of individual families and, at the same time, of the entire nation.