On the Birthday of Volodymyr Sosiura — Ukrainian Poet, Writer, and University Alumnus

On 6 January, it is 128 years since the birth of Volodymyr Sosiura (1898–1965) — one of the best-known Ukrainian poets of the twentieth century, whose creative path combined the dramatic experience of his era with a sincere lyrical voice.

A certain period of Sosiura’s life was connected with Kharkiv. In the 1920s, he studied at the Kharkiv Institute of Public Education, which is now known as V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.

Sosiura entered the history of Ukrainian literature as a poet of deep emotional intensity and civic passion. His poem “Love Ukraine” (1944) became one of the most famous works of twentieth-century Ukrainian poetry — and at the same time an example of how complex and contradictory an artist’s fate could be under a totalitarian regime. The poem brought the poet not only nationwide recognition, but also severe trials: in 1951 it was subjected to harsh official criticism for “bourgeois nationalism.” Yet time has put everything in its place: today “Love Ukraine” is regarded as one of the moral manifestos of the Ukrainian people.

On the poet’s birthday, Karazin University honors the memory of its alumnus as one of those who helped shape the humanistic and value-based dimension of Ukrainian culture.