Vynnychenko and Korolev. The replying reflections

Vynnychenko and Korolev. The replying reflections unto the Volodymyr Vynnychenko 's open letter


Quite by chance in Wikisource I discovered the work by Volodymyr Kyrylovych Vynnychenko (1880 – 1951) - "The Open Letter to Russian Writers," - written in 1913.

This letter can be presented - very roughly and extremely simplistic - as a reaction-reproach to the attitude from side of a "Russian writers" to the letter "i" and to an ordinary villagers who lived (and are living?) in a white Ukrainian khatas [a khata - a peasant dwelling, a traditional peasant house (in Ukraine and a number of other areas)].

On this occasion I remembered Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (1907 - 1966) and his biography.

If I remember correctly, Sergei Korolev has Ukrainian roots.

A much of outstanding people from different fields of activity were of the Ukrainian origin!

I tried to imagine that Sergei Korolev lived all his life in a nice white khata (to be honest, I personally would not refuse - with a reasonable level of comfort), and would be intellectually focused on the problem of using the letter “i”.

I assume that a Russian writers in their majority (those whom Volodymyr Vynnychenko meant) respected a residents of a white khatas.

But they (a Russian writers) may have anticipated a future that - sadly, - turned out, has minimum a common with a white khatas, with a wooden khats of a Russian peasants.

It is possible to find an examples of the ironic attitude of a Russian writers to a "Russian peasants". Perhaps Volodymyr Vynnychenko saw a situation through a prism with a slightly distorting effect...

Leo Tolstoy, as his biographers write, tried to facilitate the changing of the houses of some peasants onto a more modern type of dwelling, but he received a psychological resistance in response. Biographers convey this situation, at least with a bewilderment, with a perplexity.

If to skip a many logical links and chains in reasoning, the problem is as follows. From the past to the future, all the most valuable should be taken. And the ability to build a life (useful activities, personal relations, leisure, etc.) in a completely new conditions. In these new conditions, a very, a very much things has been changed compared to the past ... To learn, to master a general and a technical (a professional) culture...

As for a khatas built in a past epochs, they were built from the environmentally friendly materials. It was possible to live in them happily ever after, maintaining a health.

As a rule, both in Ukraine and in other territories of the Russian Empire on the tables of a many villagers there were a fish, a vegetables, a fruits, and other environmentally friendly products.

So, a life in a “simple khatas” was not so bad. Was a lot of good. But to focus on the demonstration of a “general respect” and a “general reverence” for the style of life in a "simple khats" a some Russian writers may not have seen much a sense... And what degree of irony can be considered permissible? - There is a lot of unclear, of a turbid in this subject...

But, however, a living conditions have changed - very quickly and very radically.

There is a past, there are the emotions, there are the prospects and there are the achievements, for example, the achievements of Sergei Korolev ...


February 9, 2020 19:35


Translation from Russian into English: February 10, 2020 09:57.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский “Винниченко и Королёв. Встречные размышления к открытому письму Владимира Винниченко”.