Valerian Polishchuk and Ukrainian “Avant-garde” group in the 1920s

Abstract

The article provides a reconstruction of the history of the Ukrainian Constructivist group “Avant-garde” as well as on the artistic and theoretical practices of its founder, Valerian Polishchuk. Special attention is paid to the cultural and historical contexts of the development of the Ukrainian literary avant-garde in the 1910s and 1920s in its close connection to Russian avant-garde, in particular to Futurism and Constructivism. The article also deals with the phenomenon of the Ukrainian Russian-language proletarian literature. It is predominantly based on the archival documents, magazine articles and newspaper chronicles of the 1920s.

Keywords

• ukrainian avant-garde
• futurism
• constructivism
• valerian polishchuk
• vasilii ermilov
• velemir khlebnikov
• grigorii petnikov
• mуkhail’ semenko