Kovaliv, Stepan Mikhailovich

Born Dec. 25, 1848, in the village of Bronitsa, Drogobych Raion, L’vov Oblast; died June 26, 1920, in the city of Borislav. Ukrainian writer.

Kovaliv graduated from the L’vov Teachers’ Seminary in 1875. His literary views were formed under the influence of I. la. Franko. His works were first published in 1888. Among the collections of short stories written by him are Public Industrialists (1899), The Deserter (1899), The Fishermen (1903), The Godson (1909), The Magic Violin (1910), The Happy Grandmother (1911), In the Last Store (1911), and Pictures From Galician California (1913). In these stories Kovaliv depicts the monstrous exploitation practiced at the Borislav oil fields, creates vivid portraits of workers and capitalists, and describes the hard life of the poor in the Galician countryside during the postreform period.