Oleksandr Oles

Oleksandr Kandyba
Native name	Олександр Іванович Кандиба
Born	(1878-11-23)23 November 1878 Bilopillia, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	22 July 1944(1944-07-22) (aged 65) Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Pen name	Oleksandr Oles
Occupation	writer and poet
Nationality	Ukrainian
Alma mater	Kharkiv veterinary institute
Period	1906-1944
Children	Oleh Olzhych

Oleksandr Oles (born Oleksandr Ivanovych Kandyba, Ukrainian: Олександр Іванович Кандиба; 1878–1944) was a prominent Ukrainian writer and poet. He is the father of another Ukrainian poet and political activist, Oleh Olzhych, who perished in the Nazi labor camps in 1944.

He was born on 23 November 1878 in the khutir (small village) of Kandyba (now the village of Kandybyne, Bilopillia raion, Sumy Oblast) in Kharkiv province.^[1] He studied at the Kharkiv agriculture school, later at the Kharkiv veterinary institute.^[2]

He is one of the representatives of the Ukrainian Cossack family of Kandyba.^[3]

In 1907 he married Vira Svadkovska. They had a son - Oleh Olzhych, who also became a famous Ukrainian poet.^[4]

Since 1920 he lived in Vienna, where he headed the Union of Ukrainian Journalists and edited the magazine Na Perelomu. Since 1924 he lived in Prague (Czechoslovakia). Oleksandr Oles was one of the founders of the Ukrainian Free University, which moved to Prague from Vienna in 1921.^[5]

Oleh was active in the Ukrainian nationalistic resistance in Ukraine during World War II for OUN-M and was for this arrested by the Gestapo and tortured and then executed at Sachsenhausen concentration camp on 10 June 1944.^[4]

Among his poetic collections are "Z zhurboyu radist obnymalas" — With Sadness a Joy was Embracing, "Komu povim pechal moyu" — To Whom I'll Tell About My Woes, and others (nine poetry books altogether). Oleksandr Oles also created several dramatic works.

Oles died in emigration in Prague on 22 July 1944.^[1] He was buried there until early January 2016 when his and his wife remains were exhumed and replaced by the body of Volodymyr Mykhailyshyn, who was the man that had been paying for the family grave.^[6][7] On 29 January 2017 Oles and his wife Vira were reburied, paid for by the Ukrainian government, in (Ukraine's capital) Kyiv, in the Lukyanivske cemetery.^[7] President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and his wife Maryna Poroshenko took part in this ceremony.^[7]

The sky has embraced the sea,

The sea has spilled into the sky…

The whole world they have forgotten

And have sunk in the fogs of the sky

I have dreamed of being with you,

Our souls are close mates.

You are like the blue sky

And your thoughts are like wandering clouds.

• Poetry of Oleksandr Oles, in Ukrainian