Nil Khasevych, Artist Ukrainian Underground Art Album Of The Woodcuts Made In Ukraine, 1947-1950

Page 1 of 5  table of contents    next      Nil Khasevych Artist Of The Underground "A Biographical Sketch", 1952 by Lev Shankowsky Born in 1906, the son of a village clerk in a little village of Volynia, this part of Ukraine which later became the cradle of the UPA, Nil Khasevch had a hard boyhood. There was little that was joyous about life in a big, poverty-stricken family of a small farmer who from time to time performed some minor ecclesiastic office in a local Orthodox church. At eight years of age, little Nil suffered an accident which crippled him permanently. While riding with his mother in a cart to a neighboring town an on-coming train stuck them as they crossed the tracks. The mother was killed instantly while Nil, severely injured, was taken to the hospital. The surgeons saved his life but a leg was lost. GLORY TO UKRAINE! For Ukraine! For Freedom! For People! 300 Killed Near Kruty - 359 Killed Near Bazaar A Lot Of OUN - UPA Killed In Struggle GLORY TO HEROES! The accident and death of his mother were terrible blows to the little boy, but loss of his leg paved the way for his art career. His injury made it certain that he would never become a valuable laborer in his father's fields. He felt useless at home, an unnecessary eater of bread which was so scarce. The father, however, had no intention of allowing him to live in idleness and tried to give the boy an education. The odds were against the boy: the First World War came with all its hardships and his native Volynia became a battlefield for the million-men armies of the great powers. The Ukrainian Liberation War (1917-1921) followed. Volynia was ceded to Poland (1920), and conditions remained unsatisfactory for getting a regular education. IN VOLNNIA THE RYE HAS BEEN CRUSHED BY THE FOE In 1926 Khasevych registered at the Academy of Arts in Warsaw. There he studied painting and later graphic arts. The Warsaw Academy was a good art school, and he progressed rapidly despite the fact that he had to make up the defects in his early education. In 1932 he finished the course and received the diploma of an art teacher. But being a Ukrainian, he could not hope to get an adequate position in school.So he began specializing in woodcutting and Ukrainian calligraphy. The years after finishing the Academy were devoted almost exclusively to graphic arts. Soon Khasevych became a master of Ukrainian letters and of ex-ibris. He became acquainted with the latest developments in this field and this resulted in an award in 1937. He won the third prize in the International Exhibition of Woodcuts in Warsaw (1936-37) for four book plates...(see below). As a prize-winner he became known in artistic circles, and this encouraged him to develop his specialty and to produce some excellent works in the 1937-1939 period. The hour when Khasevych attained artistic maturity was one of the most pregnant in the history of Ukraine. It was the time when two great powers again contended for Ukraine. Neither of them was willing to grant any concessions to the Ukrainian people and the latter, not willing to submit, sought to take advantage of the conflict. The Ukrainians organized the force of their own - the UPA (Ukrainian Povstancha Armia - Ukrainian Insurgent Army) - which fought the Nazis in the recent war and still is engaged in warfare against the Soviets. Its purpose is to win national freedom and independence for Ukraine. Along with thousands of other Ukranians, Nil Khasevych found his way into the UPA in 1943. We are able to show some of his woodcuts made in the underground from 1947 to1950. In them we can see how his engravings in wood have helped disseminate the ideals for which the UPA fights. As an artist influenced by his surroundings, Khasevych expresses in a realistic manner the deeply-felt experiences of the Ukrainian people under Soviet subjugation. His woodcuts, including subjects of every sort from illustrations of underground publications to satirical pieces, have a direct, almost primitive realism which strikes in a truely incomparable manner at the enemy of the Ukrainian people. Ukrainian Insurgents Visiting A "Khutir" (Farm) As an underground artist he undertook and completed his series of designs for the underground almanac 'Fighting Volynia", mostly with highly-wrought landscape backgrounds of his native land. A portrait series belongs to this group. A series of productions entitled, "Collectivization" is an indictment of the Russian kolkhoz system forced upon Ukraine - the land of individual landholders. His satirical pieces are clear and incisive answers to Soviet myths. Of course, we can show only a small part of his production here. All of these specimens were brought from Ukraine by UPA soldiers who fought their way through Poland and Czechoslovakia into the U.S. Zone of Germany in 1947-1950. THE PEOPLE ARE YOKED A large number of Khasevych's designs were engraved by his pupils: "Artem," "Svyryd" and "Myron." Sometimes their engravings are from Khasevych's sketches, and in some cases they are entirely executed by them through Khasevych's supervision which is visible in their work. The fact that Khasevych supervises a sort of art school in the underground is a tribute to him and the movement. In is difficult to evaluate the work of an artist who is working underground as he is probably the first in the world to create under such conditions. Of course, comparing his present work with his pre-war production, we note a decrease in form due to the conditions under which he operates. However, we think that his woodcuts are masterpieces in harmony of text and artistic illustration. Their simple, crude and naive art brilliantly combined with the idea it represents is a convincing document of the epoch in which the Ukrainian people live. In a letter written by Nil Khasevych to his friends in this country, he wrote the following: "The Russians know who is hiding under the alias of D. Bey, but my fellow-countrymen don't know. I want them to know. I want the world to know. I've lost everything, and I cannot lose more than my life. However, as long as a spark of life remains, I shall fight the enemy of our people. I cannot fight them with arms, so I fight them with my burin and carver. And I, a cripple, am fighting them at a time when many strong and healthy men the world over doubt that such a fight is even possible. I want the world to know that the fight is possible and that we Ukrainians fight." USSR IS A PRISON FOR NATIONS Nil Khasevych's underground life must be extremely hard since he lost a leg in an accident while a boy. But the fact that the UPA is able to make it possible for him and his group to work is perhaps the most striking proof of its efficiency. It is proof of how deep-rooted the UPA is within the Ukrainian people. It is the Ukrainian people who give the underground fighters food and shelter and it is the Ukrainian people who make is possible for our artist and his men to unfold free artistic activities in a country of non-existent "free art" and of the artists being only humble servants of the Soviet propaganda apparatus. Thanks to this support by the Ukrainian people the activities of the Ukrainian underground under Soviets have reached a scale that has exceeded all expectations. BUT NOTHING TO EAT In a struggle carried on in secrecy all names of the underground fighters including those of the underground leaders and the UPA Supreme Commander must remain secret and have to be substituted by assumed names or even numbers. If we disclose the real name of this underground artist, it is because he himself desires it and the Supreme UPA Command by way of an exceptional measure approved his request and allowed us to disclose the real name of D. Bey, or Bey-Zot - an alias under which Nil Khasevych is known in Ukraine. Like thousands of other underground fighters Nil Khasevych is aware of his predicament and he knows that he has to expect no mercy, no "beau geste" on the part of the present rulers in the Kremlin in case the hunting bloodhounds of the Soviet police found him and put an end to his daring artistic activity. But as every artist Nil Khasevych is proud of his artistic work and signs his woodcuts with his own initials (N. Kh. N. Khas.). He is anxious to preserve his work from danger of possible destruction and makes necessary steps to send some of his reproductions abroad. Khasevych can proudly look back upon the past eight years of his underground artistic activity. He has contributed much to the spreading of the UPA's ideas in Ukraine. The Ukrainians the world over look with pride at his incomparable work. But we think that the people in the West should also become acquainted with this work, for Khasevych is fighting Soviet Russia - more and more the implacable enemy of Western civilization. "Nil Khasevych - Artist Of The Underground A Biographical Sketch" by Lev Shankowsky, Pages 21-22 "Ukrainian Underground Art" "Album Of The Woodcuts Made In Ukraine, In 1947-1950 By Artist Of The Ukrainian Underground Nil Kkhasevych - "Bey-Zot" And His Disciples" :Published By "Prolog" - Publishers Of The Ukrainian Underground Publications From Ukraine Editorial Board: Dr. Dmytro Bahlay, Prof. Petro Mehyk, Prof. Lew Shankowsky Philadelphia, PA. 1952    table of contents    next