Spatial dimensions of Soviet repressions in the 1930s : the House of Writers (Kharkiv, Ukraine).

541 Pages·2013·5.253 MB·English

by  Bertelsen, Olga

SPATIAL DIMENSIONS OF SOVIET
REPRESSIONS IN THE 1930s:
THE HOUSE OF WRITERS (KHARKIV, UKRAINE)

By Olga Bertelsen, D.D.S., B.A.

Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

July 2013
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Abstract
This study examines spatial dimensions of state violence against the
Ukrainian intelligentsia in the 1930s, and the creation of a place of
surveillance, the famous House of Writers (Budynok Slovo), an apartment
building that was conceived by an association of writers “Slovo” in Kharkiv.
This building fashioned an important identity for Ukrainian intellectuals,
which was altered under state pressure and the fear of being exterminated.
Their creative art was gradually transformed into the art of living and
surviving under the terror, a feature of a regimented society. The study
explores the writers’ behavior during arrests and interrogation, and examines
the Soviet secret police’s tactics employed in interrogation rooms.

The narrative considers the space of politics that brought the
perpetrators of terror and their victims closer to each other, eventually forcing
them to share the same place. Within this space and place they became
interchangeable and interchanged, and ultimately were physically eliminated.
Importantly, the research illuminates the multiethnic composition of the
building’s residents: among them were cultural figures of Ukrainian, Russian
and Jewish origins. Their individual histories and contributions to Ukrainian
culture demonstrate the vector of Stalin’s terror which targeted not Ukrainian
ethnicity as such but instead was directed against the development of
Ukrainian national identity and Ukrainian statehood that were perceived as a
challenge to the center’s control and as harbingers of separatism.

The study also reveals that the state launched the course of counter-
Ukrainization in 1926 and disintegrated the Ukrainian intellectual community
through mass repressive operations which the secret police began to apply
from 1929. The study also demonstrates that, together with people, the state
purposefully exterminated national cultural artifacts—journals, books, art and
sculpture, burying human ideas which have never been and will never be
consummated. The purpose was to explain how the elimination of most
prominent Ukrainian intellectuals was organized, rationalized and politicized.
During the period of one decade, the terror tore a hole in the fabric of
Ukrainian culture that may never be mended.

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Acknowledgments
I am indebted to my supervisor Dr. Nick Baron for his professional
guidance and patience throughout this project. Our different views on several
issues crucial to Soviet history invigorated robust debates which encouraged
greater introspection about the subject of my research. Because of his
thoughtful comments, several separate research projects were launched that
helped me address questions that were not included in the thesis. Moreover, I
have to thank Dr. Baron for sharing common interests in cultural studies (what
could we expect other than this from the children of writers?), interests that, I
hope, might generate a common research project in the future. Beyond
intellectual encouragement for this study, I am grateful for his unfailing
support for all my projects that ran parallel to the dissertation over three years.

I am also grateful to Professor Elizabeth Harvey for her thoughtful and
detailed comments on various chapters of the dissertation, and for her support
of my endless array of research projects. The final draft especially benefited
from her suggestions about structure and the conceptual framework of the
thesis. Inspiring conversations with Dr. Liudmyla Sharipova about Ukrainian
realities reinforced a necessary bridge between the past and the present in
Ukrainian history, which found its reflection on the pages of the dissertation.

The assistance of faculty and staff at the University of Nottingham
(History Department) Professors Maiken Umbach and John Young, Dr. Rob
Lutton, Dr. Mathilde Von Bulow, Dr. Sarah Badcock, Amanda Samuels and
Jessica Chan helped me in many different ways approach the final stage of the
Ph.D. program, for which I am very grateful to all of them. Dr. Margaret Siriol
Colley, the British journalist Gareth Jones’ niece, was extraordinarily kind to
me during my residence in Nottingham, and I am grateful to her for sharing
her thoughts and knowledge about the famine of 1932-33 in Ukraine.

I also wish to thank Dr. Myroslav Shkandrij (another scholar and a
child of a writer) for his generous support of this project—for the time he
invested reading the thesis and his thoughtful comments and knowledge on the
subject he shared with me. I am indebted to him for providing me with
alternative translations of names, titles and excerpts from prose and poetry
from Ukrainian into English. His suggestions made my translations and the
narrative clearer and more precise.

I owe special thanks to my undergraduate professor Dr. Michael
Hickey whose intelligence, knowledge, thoroughness and precision have
always set an example for me. His constant involvement and contribution to
my scholarly growth are greatly appreciated, as well as his practical advice
about surviving in the academic world.

I would also like to thank Dr. Matthew Schwonek for reading parts of
the thesis and for his extensive comments, as well as for additional secondary
sources he recommended. They were extraordinarily helpful for my
understanding of several issues raised in the dissertation. I am grateful to Dr.
Roman Serbyn, Dr. Roman Senkus, Dr. Marko Pavlyshyn and Dr. Halyna
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Hryn for their general support of the study and patient readings of parts of the
dissertation. Special thanks to the Ukrainian journal editors Liudmyla
Shalaeva and Dr. Aliona Varets’ka who provided me with their thought-
provoking comments about several chapters of the dissertation and also with
their friendly support while in Kyiv, Ukraine. I greatly appreciate my
friendship with the Ukrainian scholar Serhii Krasnokuts’kyi who helped me
conceptualize the narrative about Mykhailo Bykovets’. His and his wife Dr.
Viktoriia Kas’ianova’s incessant optimism and rare sense of humor have been
a “transmitted” phenomenon, and helped me during moments of despair and
disappointment.

I appreciate the thoughtful suggestions of Dr. William Chase about the
issues of subjectivity and terminological clarity of several notions related to
repression. I am grateful for his trust in me as a scholar and his support of my
views. Dr. Yaroslav Bilinsky read a part of my thesis and provided several
useful insights that strengthened the argument, and Dr. Taras Hunczak
confirmed the legitimate use of the term “slov’iany” after consulting with his
colleagues—scholars in Ukraine. I am grateful to David Brandenberger for his
comments about the theme of Galicians, and for his thought provoking
questions about the subjectivities of Soviet secret agents.

I am grateful to Dr. Vadym Zolotar’ov, an expert on the history of the
Soviet secret police, for his support of the study and his willingness to make
his unique private archive available to me. The study greatly benefited from
his knowledge and subtle understanding of the methods and practices of the
secret police in the 1930s.

The Ukrainian historian Ihor Shuis’kyi allowed me to use the catalogue
of the state project “Rehabilitated by History” which helped me locate several
criminal files of the slov’iany. Our communication resulted in a mutual
scholarly project that is in its final stage.

The Les’ Kurbas Center in Kyiv helped a great deal at the early stage
of my research, and provided me with an opportunity to use a unique
collection of sources about Ukrainian culture and theatre gathered by Les’
Taniuk. Special thanks to Dr. Tetiana Boiko for her knowledge and assistance
with the sources. I also owe a large debt of gratitude to L.I. Mukha, Head of
the Scientific and Informational Department in the Institute of Ukrainian
History of the National Academy of Science (Kyiv, Ukraine), who provided
access to a great wealth of materials about Soviet repression of Galicians
during the 1920s-1930s and the famine of 1932-33 in Soviet Ukraine.

I am indebted to the staff of the Ukrainian archives for their
assistance—Serhii Bohunov, Volodymyr Viatrovych, Volodymyr Hovorun,
Heorhii Smirnov, Marat Balyshev, Olena Balysheva, Leonid Skrypka,
Volodymyr Lozyts’kyi, Liudmyla Momot, Valentyna Plisak, Iuliia Kozhedub,
Iuliia Hun’ko, Olena Rachkivs’ka, Ul’iana Herasimova, Oksana Sumtsova,
Iryna Hryhorenko, Svitlana Dubrovs’ka, Tetiana Pylypchuk, Ol’ha
Riznychenko, Volodymyr Chaplia, and for their permission to make
photocopies of archival documents. Special thanks to the Head of the Security
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Service of Ukraine in Kharkiv oblast’ Volodymyr Vyshnevs’kyi and to the
Head of the SBU archive in Kyiv Svitlana Liaskovs’ka.

Research and writing were supported by several institutions. I am
grateful to the University of Nottingham and its History Department (U.K.),
the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (Canada), the Shevchenko
Scientific Society (U.S.A.), and the British Royal Historical Society (U.K.) for
their financial support of the study. This support made my extensively long
research trips to Ukrainian archives possible.

I wish to thank the Union of Writers and the community of Kharkiv
writers who in many ways participated in this project. I am grateful to the
Ukrainian poet Tetiana Shamrai for our 3 December 1988 conversation that
occurred several days before her tragic death at the age of 24. I frequently
return to this conversation about Khvyl’ovyi, mortality and senseless
existence, and her poetry in my memory, and this memory accompanied me
and helped me conceptualize the chapter about Khvyl’ovyi. I am also grateful
to the literary critic Volodymyr Bruggen whose work, thoughts and friendship
were of great importance and support for me throughout this project. Special
thanks to the poets Anatolii Pererva and Viacheslav Romanovs’kyi for their
valuable assistance during my research in Kharkiv. The project also benefited
from my communication with the theatre director and actor of the Pushkin
Russian Drama Theatre Oleksandr Vasyl’iev, the theatre director of the
Shevchenko Ukrainian Drama Theatre in Kharkiv Anatolii Starodub, and the
Ukrainian artist Natalia Verhun.

I would like to thank Valentyna Sichkar, the director of the Holobs’ka
Village Library (Kovel’ Region,Volyn’ oblast’, Ukraine), for allowing me to
use documents related to the slov’ianka Halyna Orlivna (from the Iakov
Voznyi Family Archive). I am also very grateful to the director of the
Korolenko State Scientific Library (Kharkiv, Ukraine) Valentyna
Rakytians’ka and her assistant Nadiia Firsova for their permission to use rare
book collections and for making photocopies of documents and photographs
that have been used in the dissertation.

I consider myself fortunate in having Dale A. Bertelsen as my
husband, friend and scholarly advisor. His expertise in Soviet political and
cultural history was of great help to me, and I am pleased to express my
gratitude for his comments and suggestions about earlier drafts of the
dissertation. With all my love and appreciation of his help, I have to admit that
I am still confused about the proper use of English articles “a” and “the,”
which I use interchangeably and often improperly. Nevertheless, of necessity,
we discovered his unique culinary talents which proved useful in keeping our
family alive during the writing of this thesis. We both are thankful to our
daughter Kate whose intellectual and professional maturity allowed us to
pursue our separate scholarly projects. Her physical presence and her interest
in the topic helped me mobilize my intellectual resources during public
presentations.

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Finally, I would like to thank my parents, the former residents of the
House of Writers (Budynok Slovo)—my late father and Ukrainian poet Robert
Tretyakov, and my mother, editor and journalist, Lidiia Tretyakova, without
whom this project would not have come into being. They brought me into this
world, and, most importantly, into this place, which became emblematic of
Ukrainian cultural traditions. I am grateful to my predecessors, Jewish,
Ukrainian and Russian intellectuals, who resided in apartment 44 in the House
of Writers in Kharkiv where I was born, Dovid Fel’dman, Oleksandr
Dovzhenko, Mykola Bazhan, Iurii Ianovs’kyi, Ivan Kaliannyk and Ivan
Vyrhan, whose individual histories and creative art invigorated my interest in
this study, and inspire me to continue.

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Contents
Abstract iii

Acknowledgments v

Introduction 1

The Subject of the Study and Historiography 1
Conceptual Framework 15
Sources and Methods 27

Chapter One 39
From Culture to Politics: The House of Writers—
Conceived, Lived, Perceived

Kharkiv of the 1920s—“the Capital of Arts” 39
Conceiving Byt: Collective Search for Solitude and Isolation 45
Building Budynok Slovo: Organizational Difficulties 55
Slov’iany and the Communal 1930 67

Chapter Two 77
Material Culture and Surveillance of Budynok Slovo

Budynok Slovo as an Architectural Innovation 77
Fashion in Budynok Slovo 92
Elegance as a Business Style: Writers’ Tools 97
Furniture: Luxury, Convenience, and its Absence 99
Changing Self-Identities of the Slov’iany 102
Surveillance of Budynok Slovo: Vanishing Public Space 106
The Role of Janitors and Administrators 111
Deterioration of the Community and Art 114

Chapter Three 121
Police Spatial Practices and the Galician Trace

Historical Context 123
The Early Thirties: Vanquished Slov’iany 132
The Kharkiv GPU Prison and Staff: Practices and Traditions 140
The First Slov’iany Arrested 148
Galicians (Halychany): Proponents of Ukrainian Culture 153
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Independentist Pavlo Khrystiuk 156
Words, Deeds, Fear and Confusion 161
Chapter Four 165
Ialovyi’s Case: The Power of Interrogation Rooms

Combating Ukrainian Nationalism 165
The Uniqueness of Mykhailo Ialovyi’s Criminal File 170
Obliterating Human Bonds and Friendships 183
Love and Fear: Lidiia Vovchyk-Blakytna 189
The Ukrainian Scenario of Conversion 194
Chapter Five 207
Mykola Khvyl’ovyi: Suicide or Murder?

Khvyl’ovyi in Scholarly Discourse 210
Khvyl’ovyi’s Views and the Literary Landscape of the 1920s 218
The State’s Attitudes toward Khvyl’ovyi 224
The Noose Tightened: The Late 1920s 228
Potential Reasons for Khvyl’ovyi’s Suicide 231
The Controversy over Khvyl’ovyi’s Suicide 239
Free in the Space of Art 244

Chapter Six 251
The UVO Case and the Repressions of 1933

A Scapegoat: Andrii Richyts’kyi 254
Serhii Pylypenko 263
The “Decemberists” of 1933 267
Oles’ Dosvitnii 275
Ostap Vyshnia and Les’ Kurbas 282
Chapter Seven 295
Unnecessary Bloodstained Confessions: The
Repressions of 1934

The Spatiality of the Terror 295
Oleksa Slisarenko: Temporary Surrender 299
The Krushel’nytskyi Family: The Fatal Misstep 304
Valerian Polishchuk: “An Artist with Nerves Stretched like
Strings” 313
Hryhorii Epik: A Return to Roots 326
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