Hnat Martynovych Khotkevych December 31, 1877 in Kharkiv

Kharkiv

Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...

, Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 – October 8, 1938 in Kharkiv, in the Ukrainian SSR

Ukrainian SSR

The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...

 of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

) was a Ukrainian

Ukrainians

Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...

 writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

, ethnographer, playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, musicologist, and bandurist

Bandurist

A bandurist is a person who plays the Ukrainian plucked string instrument known as the bandura.-Types of performers:There are a number of different types of bandurist who differ in their paricular choice of instrument, the specific repertoire they play and manner in which they approach their...

.

His mother was a domestic worker

Domestic worker

A domestic worker is a man, woman or child who works within the employer's household. Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping...

. Little is known about his father, who left the family in the mid-1880s. As a youth he learned to play the piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 and violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

 and later learned to play the bandura

Bandura

Bandura refers to a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. It combines elements of a box zither and lute, as well as its lute-like predecessor, the kobza...

 through observing the blind folk kobzars of the region. He completed his tertiary studies in engineering.

Khotkevych was a renaissance man and was multi-talented. Although he was trained as a professional engineer, he is known more as a prolific Ukrainian literary figure, and also as a dramatist, composer and ethnographer, and founder of the modern bandura art.

Literature

Khotkevych initially began writing as a student having his first stories published in 1897 - "The Georgian lady". Later appeared "The Prodical Son" (1898), "Analogies of life" (1901). "Mountain Aquarelles" (1914). His first major successful work was a novel about life in the Carpathian mountains - "The stone soul" which first appeared in 1911. Other novels followed. "Aviron" (1928), "Berestechko", "Tarasyk". An 8 volume collection of his writing were published in 1928.
Many of his unpublished works however have been lost.

Khotkevych's winning formula for writing was to incorporate original folkloric and ethnographic material, in particular folks songs, tales, customs and even dialectical and lingual differences of the region or time which he as writing about. He included many aspects of the modernist style popular in Ukraine at the time.

Theatre

As a youth he had the chance of seeing a number of theatrical performances in Kharkiv. He was so taken by these performances that in the summers he organized a theatre in the village of Derkachi for all the peasants.

In 1903 he organized a Ukrainian workers theatre in Kharkiv

Kharkiv

Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...

 which was also hugely successful. He produced and wrote over 50 plays. Because his activities addressed social and national issues, he was forced to emigrate in 1905 to Halychyna (part of Western Ukraine) which at that time, was under Austro-Hungarian rule.

In 1910 whilst in Halychyna he once again organized a theatrical troupe made up of illiterate Hutsuls

Hutsuls

Hutsuls are an ethno-cultural group of Ukrainian highlanders who for centuries have inhabited the Carpathian mountains, mainly in Ukraine, the northern extremity of Romania .-Etymology:...

 who had great success touring Western Ukraine performing the ethnographic plays he had created.

In 1912 he returned to Kharkiv

Kharkiv

Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...

 and after being released form incarceration renewed the activities of the Kharkiv Ukrainian Theatre until his internal exile to Russia in 1914.

He continued writing plays, the most interesting was the work Bohdan Khmelnytsky

Bohdan Khmelnytsky

Bohdan Zynoviy Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky was a hetman of the Zaporozhian Cossack Hetmanate of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . He led an uprising against the Commonwealth and its magnates which resulted in the creation of a Cossack state...

 which chronicle the life and times of the renowned Kozak leader in the mid 17th century.

In 1936 he played the role in the film "Nazar Stodolya", which appeared in 1937, but after being shown briefly for two weeks was removed from showings.

Khotkevych wrote a number of studies on the history of theatre in Ukraine such as "The Folk Theatre in Galicia", and "The Theatre in 1848".

Music

As a student Khotkevych became well known for his bandura playing. He first purchased an instrument in 1894, and first performed on stage as a soloist in 1896. When he was expelled from the Kharkiv Polytechnical Institute he joined Mykola Lysenko

Mykola Lysenko

Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist.- Biography :Lysenko was born in Hrynky, Kremenchuk Povit, Poltava Governorate, the son of Vitaliy Romanovich Lysenko . From childhood he became very interested in the folksongs of Ukrainian peasants and...

's touring choir as a bandura soloist. At a young age he was renowned as a virtuoso of the bandura

Bandura

Bandura refers to a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. It combines elements of a box zither and lute, as well as its lute-like predecessor, the kobza...

.

In 1902, he was asked to read a paper on the music and traditions of the folk bandurists known as kobzars at the XIIth Archeological Conference held in Kharkiv

Kharkiv

Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...

 in 1902. He prepared a paper and also organized a concert which became the first performance of a bandura ensemble in history.

Since that time this art-form became hugely popular throughout Ukraine.

After emigrating to Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

 in 1906 he traversed Halychyna with solo recitals of bandura music. In 1907, he wrote the first bandura handbook which was published in 1909 in Lviv

Lviv

Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...

.

In 1910, he had one of his bandura compositions - "Odarochka" - published in Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

 which became the first composition published for the instrument. He returned to Central Ukraine in 1912 and was soon arrested, jailed and later exiled to Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. He returned to Kharkiv only in 1917 where he taught Ukrainian Literature and Language at the Kharkiv Zoological College.

In 1920 he organised a Ukrainian choir that performed ethnographic choral works and in he 20's had numerous compositions published.

From 1926 on, he taught the first conservatory level courses in bandura at the Kharkiv Muz Dram Institute. A new textbook for the bandura was partially published (the 3 final books were lost at the publishing house). A collection of his compositions for the bandura was prepared but was also lost by the publishing house. Only a handful of students completed these courses such as Leonid Haydamaka

Leonid Haydamaka

Leonid Hryhorovych HaydamakaLeonid Haydamaka has left his impression on the development of bandura art in the 20th century....

, O. Herashchenko, O. Hayevsky, I. Oleshko, and Hryhory Bazhul. Most were arrested in the early 30's, however some found their way out to the West during WWII.

In 1928, Khotkevych became the director of a special bandura studio, organized to retrain and convert the Poltava Bandurist Capella

Poltava Bandurist Capella

The Poltava Bandurist Capella was vocal-instrumental ensemble who accompanied themselves on the multi-stringed Ukrainian bandura. It was initially established in February 1925, based on a male church choir who sang in the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Cathedral in Poltava under the direction of...

 to play in the Kharkiv style

Kharkiv style

The Kharkiv Academic Style of Bandura Playing is a specific way of playing the Ukrainian folk instrument bandura.The instrument is held in a way that allows both hands equal access to all the strings...

. He composed and arranged numerous works for this ensemble. In 1931 the ensemble received the privilege of being the first Soviet ensemble to be invited to tour North America. Unfortunately the tour did not take place and Khotkevych was removed from the directorship of the ensemble in 1932. All of his pieces and arrangements being subsequently banned.

Apart from his musical performance and compositions, Khotkevych also produced a number of books on Ukrainian folk instruments, and the bandura specifically. These books were openly criticised in the press and also banned from 1932.

Persecution

Khotkevych knew about persecution more than many other individuals of the time. As an ethnograther he saw the type of persecution which blind kobzari underwent from Tsarist police whenever they visited the city. He was constantly being persecuted by Tsarist authoprities because of his association with Ukrainian culture and the bandura. He was removed from studies in 1899, and in 1905 was forced to emigrate.

When he returned from Austro-Hungary he was followed by police and incarcerated, and with the outbreak of WWI was forced into internal exile to Russia.

Under the Soviet rule the cycle continued after a short period.

From 1928 Khotkevych began to once again have difficulties in all his publishing endeavours. Initially manuscripts began to disappear at publishing houses and in the mail. Works had to be submitted 3 or 4 times and then they were often sabotaged in the publishing houses. Khotkevych wrote numerous letters to complain, but little was done.

From 1931, he underwent numerous personal attacks in the Soviet press, which ultimately resulted in all his music and writing being banned in 1932 and losing all employment.

In 1933 his family starved during the Holodomor

Holodomor

The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...

 as he was not given ration cards because he was officially unemployed. In 1934 an attempt was made to kill him by pushing him under the wheels of a train. As a result he was hospitalised for a period with moderately severe injuries to his leg.

In February 1938, during the Stalinist purges, he was arrested, tortured and secretly sentenced to death. he was shot October 10, 1938.

Soviet sources initially falsely stated that he was sent to Siberia for 10 years without the right to correspond. False death certificates were issued to state that he died in 1943.

He was shot on October 8, 1938 and his body was buried in a mass grave on the outskirts of Kharkiv.

Postmortem

Khotkevych was rehabilitated

Rehabilitation (Soviet)

Rehabilitation in the context of the former Soviet Union, and the Post-Soviet states, was the restoration of a person who was criminally prosecuted without due basis, to the state of acquittal...

 by the state in 1956; however, only a small part of his literary output was republished. In 1977, despite being on a UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 list of noted cultural figures to be commemorated, nothing was published.
In post-1991 Ukraine numerous works by this author have been republished and many manuscripts have found their way from the archives into publications due mainly to the efforts of the Khotkevych foundation in Kharkiv.

In 1989 a film was made after the Khotkevytch book Kaminna dusha. directed by Stanislav Klymenko. A documentary about Khokevych's life "Sledovat' na sever mozhet'" was made in 1991.