Volodymyr Vladko

Volodymyr Vladko
Native name	Володимир Миколайович Владко
Born	Volodymyr Yeremchenko (1901-01-08)January 8, 1901 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	April 21, 1974(1974-04-21) (aged 73) Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, USSR
Resting place	Baikove Cemetery
Occupation	fantasy writer, journalist, literary critic, theatre critic
Language	Ukrainian
Education	Voronezh Institute of Popular Education
Period	1926-1971
Genre	science fiction
Notable works	Argonauts of the Universe, Descendants of the Scythians
Notable awards	Order of the Badge of Honour (1967)
Spouse	Maryna
Signature

Volodymyr Yeremchenko (Ukrainian: Володи́мир Микола́йович Єре́мченко, 8 January 1901 – 21 April 1974), better known as Volodymyr Vladko, was a Ukrainian fiction writer, journalist and theatre critic. He was a member of the Union of Soviet Writers (1934).

Early life and education

Volodymyr was born in Saint Petersburg, in the family of a newspaper technician and a midwife. He received his primary education in a real school, and later he graduated from the Voronezh Institute of Popular Education. He was fluent in English and Latin. After losing his father at the age of 15, he started working as a copyist in various print publications.

His first publications date to 1917, when he began working as a reporter. In 1917-1919 he worked as a feature writer for the Voronezh Commune newspaper, and from 1919 to 1921, as head of the propaganda department of Tsentropechat in Voronezh.

Working at a newspaper in Leningrad and then in Voronezh, he signed his first publications as Vladimir Eremchenko. But a typographical error was made in the pages of one article: "Vlad" remained from the first word, and the ending "ko" from the second, leading him to adopt pseudonym "Vladko".

He moved to Kharkiv in 1921, where he worked as a literary employee of the editorial office of Kharkov Proletarian newspaper, a Ukrainian-language correspondent for the newspaper For Industrialisation and executive secretary of the Radio magazine.

Literary career

His first book Donbas – the land of gold, was released in 1930. He made his debut as a science fiction writer, with the story The Robots Go, which was awarded a prize at the all-Ukrainian competition in 1929. During that time period he released other books, including such titles as: The Wonderful Generator, Argonauts of the Universe, 12 stories, and Descendants of the Scythians.

In the late 1930s, he became a senior lecturer at the Department of theory and practice of the party press at the Ukrainian Institute of Journalism in Kharkiv. Later he worked as a literary employee of the editorial office of Socialist Kharkivshchyna newspaper.

His next works explored anti-fascist and anti-war themes. Aerotorpedoes turn back and The Gray-haired Captain took place during the Spanish Civil War, in which the main character attempts to fight against the dictatorship but all his efforts end tragically.

After releasing The Grey-haired Captain, Vladko fell silent for 15 years. During the Second World War, Vladko was a political commentator on the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian radio station in Saratov. Subsequently, he became a special correspondent of the Radinformburo, an in-house correspondent of the Pravda newspaper, head of the Central Repertoire Committee of Ukraine, and head of the Ukrainian branch of Literaturna Gazeta (Literature Newspaper). In 1944, he became a member of the Communist Party of Soviet Union.

In 1956, Vladko returned to writing science fiction, writing the stories Borrowed Time, Purple Death, the collection Magical Stories, as well as reissuing The Gray-haired Captain.

Volodymyr Vladko's works have been translated into Belarusian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, German, Serbian, Czech and Japanese. In particular, Argonauts of the Universe was published six times in Japan.

Vladko died on April 20, 1974, in Kyiv at the age of 73 . He was buried at the Baikove cemetery.

Selected works

• "The Iron Riot" ("The Robots Go") (1931, 1967)
• "The Wonderful Generator" (1935)
• "12 stories" (1936)
• "Aerotorpedoes turn back" (1937)
• "Argonauts of the Universe" (1935, 1956)
• "Descendants of the Schythians" (1939)
• "Grey-haired Captain" (1941, 1959)
• "Borrowed Time" ("Savings Bank of Time") (1961)
• "Magical Stories" (1962)
• "Purple Death" (1963)
• Works in five volumes (1970–1971)

Sources

• Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia: in 12 volumes / ch. ed. M. P. Bazhan; editor: O. K. Antonov and others. — 2nd edition. — K.: Main editorial office of USE, 1974–1985.
• Volodymyr Vladko. The last «Ukrainian Jules Vern»? Archived 11 February 2017 in Wayback Machine.] 06.03.2013 Dzerkalo Tyzhnia
• "The writer Volodymyr Vladko has died" // "Svoboda", part 89, May 10, 1974, p. 1 [Archived 9 July 2016 in Wayback Machine.]
• Biography on UaModna, 24 April 2015
• Fiction in the times of industrialization: 6 strangest novels Archived 10 January 2019 у Wayback Machine.]