Vishnia, Ostap

(pseudonym of Pavel Mikhailovich Gubenko). Born Nov. 11, 1889, in Grun’, presently in Sumy Oblast; died Sept. 28, 1956, in Kiev. Soviet Ukrainian writer and satirist.

Vishnia was born into a peasant family. From 1917 he was a student at Kiev University. He began publishing in 1919. His feuilletons and humorous stories were very popular, particularly with Ukrainian readers. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, Vishnia’s satires branded the enemy and inspired Soviet people with courage and faith in victory (the collection The Antiaircraft Gun, 1947, and others). His works were directed against the vestiges of the psychology of private property and its morality and against alien and hostile influences—for example, the collections Samostiina dirka (Independent Hole; 1945), Beautiful Spring (1949), Vishnevi usmishki (Vishnia’s Jokes; 1950), and Selections (1955). Vishnia’s writing is noted for its wealth of methods of portrayal; many of his images and apt expressions have become widely used. His works have been translated into the many languages of the peoples of the USSR.