Ivan Dziuba

Ivan Mykhailovych Dziuba (Ukrainian: Іван Михайлович Дзюба; 26 July 1931 – 22 February 2022) was a Ukrainian literary critic, social activist, and Soviet dissident. Honoured as a Hero of Ukraine in 2001, Dziuba was an academic of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the second Minister of Culture of Ukraine (1992—1994),¹ and head of the committee for Shevchenko National Prize (1999–2001).²

Dziuba was the editor in chief of the magazine The Contemporary (Ukrainian: «Сучасність») and during the 1990s was a member of the editorial boards of scientific magazines Kyiv Antiquity (Ukrainian: «Київська старовина»), Word and Time («Слово і час»), Euroatlantic («Євроатлантика»), and others. He was also the Co-Chief of editorial board of the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine.³⁴

Biography

Born into a peasant family, Dziuba spoke Russian language until 17 years of age.⁵ In 1932, his family, fleeing from the famine, moved from their home village to the nearby workers' village Novotroyits'ke for a short time. Later, they moved to Olenevski Quarry (now Dokuchaievsk), where Dziuba finished secondary school No. 1. He graduated from Donetsk Pedagogical Institute, and pursued postgraduate studies in the Shevchenko Institute of Literature. His work was first published in 1959.