Mykola Khvylovy (actually Mykola Fitillov) (December 14, 1893-May 13, 1933) was a Ukrainian writer and poet of the early Communist Ukrainian renaissance.
Born in Trostyanets, Kharkiv province, in 1919 he joined the Communist Party. He moved to Kharkiv in 1921 and involved himself with writers connected to Vasyl Blakytny and the paper Visti VUTsVK. In 1921, he also published his first poetry collection.
In 1922, he began to focus more on prose writing. His initial collections Syni etiudy (Blue Etudes, 1923) and Osin’ (1924) generated approval from critics like Serhii Yefremov, Oleksander Biletsky, Volodymyr Koriak, Yevhen Malaniuk and Dmytro Dontsov.
A brief member of the literary organization Hart, Khvylovy later became critical of it and the organization Pluh and became a key leader of the Vaplite organization of Ukrainian "proleteriat" writers. Because of pressures against Ukrainian cultural expression and persecution of other writers by Communist authorities, Khvylovy committed suicide in May 1933.
After his death, his works were banned in the Soviet Union and because of his symbolic potency were mostly not permitted until near the end or after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Khvylovy wrote both poetry and short stories. His short stories are best known for their difficult narration forms and complicated imagery.
A novel, titled Valdshnepy (The Woodsnipes), remained unfinished and unpublished when he died. Its second part -- the first published in Vaplite in 1927 -- had been confiscated.
He wrote a number of pamphlets to present his view of the connections between politics and art. He advocated an orientation toward cultural trends in Western Europe in order in loosen Ukraine's dependence on Russian forms and inspiration. His pamphlets created a major controversy and divided representatives of the budding Ukrainian literary scene and created tensions with the authorities.
