Володимир Винниченко

Volodymyr Kyrylovych Vynnychenko (Ukrainian: Володимир Кирилович Винниченко, pronounced [woloˈdɪmɪr kɪˈrɪlowɪtʃ wɪnːɪˈtʃɛnko]; July 28 [O.S. July 16] 1880 – March 6, 1951) was a Ukrainian statesman, political activist, writer, playwright and artist who served as the first prime minister of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Prior to his entry onto the stage of Ukrainian politics, he was a long-time political activist, who lived abroad in Western Europe from 1906 to 1914 escaping persecution by Russian authorities. Vynnychenko's works reflect his immersion in the Ukrainian revolutionary milieu, as well as his life both among impoverished working-class people, and among émigrés living in Western Europe. He is recognized as a leading Ukrainian modernist writer of the pre-revolutionary era, and an author of short stories, novels, and plays. In Soviet Ukraine between the 1930s and mid-1980s Vynnychenko's works, like those of many other Ukrainian writers, were forbidden.