Tychina, Pavlo Grigorevich

(also Pavel Grigor’evich Tychina). Born Jan. 15 (27), 1891, in the village of Peski, in what is now Bobrovitsa Raion, Chernigov Oblast; died Sept. 16,1967, in Kiev. Soviet Ukrainian poet; state and public figure. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1929). Minister of education of the Ukrainian SSR (1943–48). Hero of Socialist Labor (1967). Member of the CPSU from 1944.

The son of a d’iachok (low-ranking cleric) and elementary school teacher, Tychina graduated from the Kiev Commercial Institute in 1917. His work first appeared in 1912. In 1918, Tychina published the verse collection Sunny Clarinets, which was noted for its musicality, rhythmic richness, and use of both symbolist and impressionist poetic devices together with those of the folk song. The collections The Plow (1920) and Instead of Sonnets and Octaves (1920) demonstrated the development of Tychina’s talent as a poet of socialist revolution. The verse collection Wind From the Ukraine (1924) evokes the enthusiasm of building a new life and is imbued with the spirit of Soviet patriotism and internationalism.

In November 1933 the poem “The Party Leads, ” written in Ukrainian, appeared in Pravda; it resounded throughout Soviet poetry and played a major role in evolving the theme of friendship among peoples. The poem appeared in a collection of the same name in 1934. In the collections The Feeling of a United Family (1938; State Prize of the USSR, 1941) and Steel and Tenderness (1941), Tychina continued developing the themes of Soviet patriotism, socialist internationalism, and peace. In the 1930’s he also published the narrative poem Kotovskii’s Saber (1938) and the dramatic poem Shevchenko and Chernyshevskii (1939). His verses and narrative poems from the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 were published in Conquer and Live! (1942). The most significant work from this period is the narrative poem The Funeral of a Friend (1943). Tychina’s topical articles inspired Soviet soldiers to feats of valor.

In his later years, Tychina published the verse collections To Grow and Act (1949), Power Was Given to Us (1953), We Are the Conscience of Mankind (1957), Grow, Beautiful World (1960), and Communism Is Visible in the Distance (1961), as well as poems and fairy tales for children, translations of poetry of the fraternal peoples of the Soviet Union, and several works of literary criticism. An innovative artist, Tychina extensively used the poetic wealth of the Ukrainian folk song in his poetry, and many of his poems have been set to music. In 1962 he was awarded the Shevchenko Prize of the Ukrainian SSR for his selected works in three volumes (1957).

Tychina was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Ukraine from 1952 to 1959 and again from 1960. He was a deputy to the second through fifth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He served as chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR from 1953 to 1959 and as deputy chairman of the Soviet of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from 1954 to 1962. Tychina was awarded five Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.