Andrii Malyshko

Andriy Samiylovych Malyshko (; , Obukhiv – 17 February 1970, Kyiv) was a Soviet Ukrainian poet and translator. Many of his poems were made into songs.

Biography Malyshko was born on 2 (15) November 1912 in Obukhiv, now a city in Kyiv Oblast of Ukraine into a shoemaker's family. After graduating from the Kyiv Institute of Popular Education in 1932, he worked as a teacher and wrote articles for a number of Soviet Ukrainian newspapers. During the German-Soviet War Malyshko served as a war correspondent. In 1944 he was appointed editor of Dnipro magazine. Later in his career Malyshko served as member of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (from 3rd to 6th convocation). He died in 1970 in Kyiv.

Literary work Malyshko started publishing his works in 1930. His early poems were dedicated to typical issues of the time and included the themes of civil war, reconstruction of national economy, socialism, collective labour, working man, Ukrainian history etc. However, already then Malyshko's works were characterized with deep lyricism, emotionality, presence of folklore motives and popular beliefs, feelings of beauty in relation not only to nature, but to also to the human soul. His wartime poetry can be seen as a sort of a diary showing fates and expressing feelings of different people in extraordinary circumstances.

After the war Malyshko published several collections of ideologically loaded romantic poetry. During this time he dedicated many of his poems to peasant life, which was depicted in an optimistic tone very different from the reality on the ground. Starting from the late 1950s the author could finally rid his creativity of superficial generalizations and excess pathos, producing new works with original content and masterful use of verse. Malyshko's later poems contain philosophical elements, concerning themselves with the topics of technical progress and place of humanity in the world.

Outside of poetry Malyshko was also known as a librettist, co-operating with composers Yuliy Meitus and Heorhiy Maiboroda, as well as literary critic and translator. A number of his poems were turned into songs, most famously Kyiv Waltz and Song about the Towel.

Notable publications Poetry collections Fatherland (, 1936) Lyrics (, 1938) - nominated for the 1947 State Prize From the Book of Life (, 1938) Birth of Sons (, 1939) Skylarks (, 1940) Days of Dawn (, 1940) Letters of Red Army Serviceman Opanas Baida (, 1940) March (, 1940) Rise for the Battle! (, 1941) Over the Fires (, 1942) My Ukraine! (, 1942) Tale of the Campaign (, 1943) Battle (, 1943) She-Prisoner (, 1944) Yaroslavna (, 1946) Spring Book (, 1949) Beyond the Blue Sea (, 1950) - nominated for the 1951 State Prize Gifts to the Leader (, 1952) Book of Brothers (, 1954) What is Written Down by Me (, 1956) My Mother's Heart (, 1959) Noon of Age (, 1960) Oracular Voice (, 1961) Letters at Dawn (, 1961) Transparency (, 1962) Distant Orbits (, 1962) - nominated for the 1964 State Prize of Ukraine Road Under the Sycamores (, 1964) - nominated for the 1969 State Prize Rue (, 1966) Blue Chronicle (, 1968) August of My Soul (, 1970) Poems Yaryna (, 1938) Karmaliuk (, 1940) Duma of Cossack Danylo (, 1941) Prometheus (, 1946) - nominated for the 1947 State Prize Literary criticism Thoughts on Poetry (, 1959) Word about a Poet. M.T. Rylskyi and his works (, 1960)

Awards and honors

Two Orders of Lenin (1960, 1962) Order of the Red Banner (1944) Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1967) Order of the Red Star (1943) Order of the Badge of Honour (1939) Two Stalin Prizes (1947, 1951) USSR State Prize (1969) Shevchenko National Prize (1964)