Maksim Rylskii

Born Mar. 7(19), 1895, in Kiev; died there July 24, 1964. Soviet Ukrainian poet, scholar, and public figure. Member of the Academies of Science of the USSR (1958) and the Ukrainian SSR (1943). Member of the CPSU from 1943.

Ryl’skii studied in the history and philology faculty of the University of Kiev and became a schoolteacher. His works were first published in 1907. In the 1920’s he belonged to a society of Ukrainian neoclassicists who professed aesthetic views. During this time he wrote the verse collections Through Storm and Snow (1925), Thirteenth Spring (1926), Where the Roads Converge ( 1929), and Sound and Echo ( 1929).

In the early 1930’s Ryl’skii turned to contemporary life and themes of Soviet patriotism and friendship among peoples: the collections The Sign of the Scales (1932), Kiev (1935), and The Grape Harvest (1940) and the historical novella in verse Marina (1933). During the Great Patriotic War (1941–5), Ryl’skii’s poetry served as a call to struggle against the invaders and instilled faith in the coming victory. Ryl’skii received the State Prize of the USSR in 1943 for his collections A Word About the Motherland, The Dawn of Day, and Sacred Weapon.

Ryl’skii’s last books of poetry represented a genuine creative flight. They include the collections Roses and Grapes (1957) and Far Horizons (1959), for which Ryl’skii was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1960, and the collections Goloseevskii Forest (1959), Flock of Cranes (1960), In the Shadow of a Lark (1961), and Wintertime Records (1964). Ryl’skii’s translation of A. Mickie-wicz’s narrative poem Pan Tadeusz was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1950. Ryl’skii’s journalistic works include Evening Chats (1962,1964) and About the Good in People (1965).

Ryl’skii was a master of strict poetic forms, for example, the sonnet, tercet, and octave, and of stanzaic verse in general. His work is characterized by a striving for clarity and simplicity of expression, melodiousness, richness of vocabulary, and an abundance of rhythmic and intonational patterns. Ryl’skii translated works by A. S. Pushkin, M. Iu. Lermontov, Mickie-wicz, J. Siowacki, and the French classical poets. He also did prolific work in the fields of literary scholarship, linguistics, folklore studies, and art criticism. His poetry has been translated into many of the languages of the peoples of the USSR and into foreign languages.

Ryl’skii was chairman of the Writers’ Union of the Ukrainian SSR from 1943 to 1946 and director of the Institute of Art Criticism, Folklore, and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR from 1944 to 1964. He was a deputy to the second through sixth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Ryl’skii was awarded three Orders of Lenin, three other orders, and various medals.