Biography

Ostap Vyshnia (real name Pavlo Hubenko) was a Ukrainian writer, humourist, satirist, and medical official (feldsher). Nicknamed by many critics as the Ukrainian Mark Twain and the Ukrainian Printing King. Hubenko's first published work, Denikin's Democratic Reforms, appeared on 2 November 1919 in the newspaper Narodna Volia under the pen name P. Hrunsky. Several satirical articles were also printed in this same newspaper by the young writer. His period of regular publication began in April 1921, when he became a journalist with the government newspaper News of the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee (Ukrainian: Вісті ВУЦВК). The pen name Ostap Vyshnia first appeared in The Peasant Truth on 22 July 1921, in the feuilleton Odd Fellow, Really!. In 1933 he was sent to the labour camps for ten years, and he was able to return to his literary career only in 1943. He was rehabilitated in 1955.