Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Executed Renaissance
The Executed Renaissance (Ukrainian: Розстріляне відродження, romanized: Rozstriliane vidrodzhennia), or Red Renaissance (Ukrainian: Червоний ренесанс, romanized: Chervonyi renesans), was a generation of Ukrainian artists and intellectuals of the 1920s and early 1930s in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic who produced significant works in literature, philosophy, painting, music, theater, cinema, education, and science before being mostly destroyed during Stalin's Great Terror.
The 1920s were a period of national cultural flourishing in Soviet Ukraine, enabled by the collapse of the Russian Empire and the end of imperial censorship, along with the early Soviet policy of nativization. This was ended by the 1930 show trial of the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine, which convicted 45 Ukrainian intellectuals on charges of anti-state or counter-revolutionary activity; up to 30,000 more would be arrested, deported, or executed over the following decade, culminating in the Great Purge of 1937-38.
The term was coined in 1959 by the Polish émigré publisher Jerzy Giedroyc, editor of the influential Kultura magazine in Paris, who suggested it to Ukrainian émigré and literary critic Yuriy Lavrinenko as a title for his anthology of the period's best Ukrainian literature.
The collapse of the Russian Empire during the First World War, the abolition of imperial censorship, the establishment of an independent Ukrainian state, and the cultural leniency of the Soviet regime in the 1920s together led to an astonishing renaissance of literary and cultural activities in Ukraine. Scores of new writers and poets appeared and formed dozens of literary groups that changed the face of Ukrainian literature. These processes were supported by the policies of nativization (in Ukraine it was called Ukrainization), the New Economic Policy of state capitalism (1921–1927), and the drive to eliminate illiteracy.
The term "Executed Renaissance" was first proposed in 1959 by Jerzy Giedroyc, editor of Kultura publishers in Paris, and it was devoted to publishing anti-communist writers from throughout the Polish diaspora. In a 13 August 1958 letter to Yuriy Lavrinenko, Giedroyc referred to an anthology of recent Ukrainian literature which Lavrinenko had prepared at Giedroyc's request:
"About the name. Could it be better to give it a generic name: Executed Renaissance. Anthology 1917–1933 etc. The name would then sound spectacular. On the other hand, the humble name Anthology can only facilitate penetration by the Iron Curtain. What do you think?"
"So be it," replied Lavrinenko.
The book The Executed Renaissance, An Anthology, 1917–1933: Poetry, Prose, Drama and the Essay, published in Paris by Kultura (1959), remains one of the most important sources for the history of Ukrainian literature during the period. It includes the best examples of Ukrainian poetry, prose, and essay-writing from the 1920s and early 1930s.
Hub AI
Executed Renaissance AI simulator
(@Executed Renaissance_simulator)
Executed Renaissance
The Executed Renaissance (Ukrainian: Розстріляне відродження, romanized: Rozstriliane vidrodzhennia), or Red Renaissance (Ukrainian: Червоний ренесанс, romanized: Chervonyi renesans), was a generation of Ukrainian artists and intellectuals of the 1920s and early 1930s in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic who produced significant works in literature, philosophy, painting, music, theater, cinema, education, and science before being mostly destroyed during Stalin's Great Terror.
The 1920s were a period of national cultural flourishing in Soviet Ukraine, enabled by the collapse of the Russian Empire and the end of imperial censorship, along with the early Soviet policy of nativization. This was ended by the 1930 show trial of the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine, which convicted 45 Ukrainian intellectuals on charges of anti-state or counter-revolutionary activity; up to 30,000 more would be arrested, deported, or executed over the following decade, culminating in the Great Purge of 1937-38.
The term was coined in 1959 by the Polish émigré publisher Jerzy Giedroyc, editor of the influential Kultura magazine in Paris, who suggested it to Ukrainian émigré and literary critic Yuriy Lavrinenko as a title for his anthology of the period's best Ukrainian literature.
The collapse of the Russian Empire during the First World War, the abolition of imperial censorship, the establishment of an independent Ukrainian state, and the cultural leniency of the Soviet regime in the 1920s together led to an astonishing renaissance of literary and cultural activities in Ukraine. Scores of new writers and poets appeared and formed dozens of literary groups that changed the face of Ukrainian literature. These processes were supported by the policies of nativization (in Ukraine it was called Ukrainization), the New Economic Policy of state capitalism (1921–1927), and the drive to eliminate illiteracy.
The term "Executed Renaissance" was first proposed in 1959 by Jerzy Giedroyc, editor of Kultura publishers in Paris, and it was devoted to publishing anti-communist writers from throughout the Polish diaspora. In a 13 August 1958 letter to Yuriy Lavrinenko, Giedroyc referred to an anthology of recent Ukrainian literature which Lavrinenko had prepared at Giedroyc's request:
"About the name. Could it be better to give it a generic name: Executed Renaissance. Anthology 1917–1933 etc. The name would then sound spectacular. On the other hand, the humble name Anthology can only facilitate penetration by the Iron Curtain. What do you think?"
"So be it," replied Lavrinenko.
The book The Executed Renaissance, An Anthology, 1917–1933: Poetry, Prose, Drama and the Essay, published in Paris by Kultura (1959), remains one of the most important sources for the history of Ukrainian literature during the period. It includes the best examples of Ukrainian poetry, prose, and essay-writing from the 1920s and early 1930s.