Sosiura Volodymyr Mykolaiovych

He was born on January 6, 1898 at the Debaltseve Station, into a large mining family. He is the author of more than 40 collections of poems and novels. Childhood of the poet was difficult and poor. Sosiura’s family moved to the Tretia Rota (the village of Verkhnie, today’s Lysychansk) and settled in an empty hut. From the age of 12, he worked in a soda plant. In 1911, he studied at the ministerial two-grade school. He began writing poetry at the age of 14. In 1918, became a member of the insurgent group of workers of the Donetsk Soda Plant; in 1919, a Cossack in the Petliurov’s Army; in 1922–1923, a student at Artem University in the city of Kharkiv; in 1923–1941, literary work in Kharkiv and Kyiv; in 1941–1944, a war correspondent of the front-line newspaper.

He belonged to the literary organizations “Pluh”, “Hart”, VAPTITE. He was married three times and had three sons.

Died on January 8, 1965 in Koncha Zaspa. Buried in the Baikove Cemetery.

In the newspaper “Golos Rabocheho” for the October–December 1917, 28 poems were first published. These are “Nad prudom” (Over the Pond), “On prishol” (He Came), “Rodina” (The Motherland), “Otzvuchali akkordy” (The Chords Sounded), “Groza” (The Thunderstorm), “Zhyzn” (The Life), “Yesli mozhesh” (If You Can), etc.

In 1921, the first collection of works “Poezii” (The Poems) was published. Collected editions of Sosiura’s works are “Poezii v triokh tomakh” (Poetry in 3 Volumes, 1929—1930), “Twory v triokh tomakh” (Works in 3 Volumes, 1957—1958), and “Tvory v desiaty tomakh” (Works in 10 Volumes, 1970—1972). Revolutionary and romantic poem “Chevona zyma” (The Red Winter, 1922) was recognized as the most outstanding example of the poetic epic of the Civil War in Ukraine. Sosiura devoted to this theme many other works, which organically combine the intimate with the social and universal issues: the collection “Misto” (The City, 1924), “Snihy” (The Snows, 1925), “Zoloti shuliky” (The Golden Hawks, 1927) and several others.

Main achievements and awards:

First Class Stalin Prize (1948): for the collection of poems “Schob sady shumily” (Let the Gardens Make Noise, 1947);

Taras Shevchenko State Prize of the USSR (1963) for the collection of poems “Lastivky na solntsi” (The Swallows on the Sun, 1960) and “Schastia simii trudovoii” (The Happiness of a Working Family, 1962);

Two Lenin Orders (January 5, 1948; November 24, 1960);

Order of the Red Banner (September 13, 1943);

Order of the Red Banner of Labor (January 4, 1958);

Order of the Badge of Honor (March 5, 1939).

In the city of Lysychansk, a monument to Volodymyr Sosiura was erected near the Sosiura House of Culture. In the Lysychansk City Museum of Local Lore, there is an exhibition dedicated to the outstanding poet.