Kucher, Vasilii

Kucher, Vasilii Stepanovich 

Born July 7 (20), 1911, in the village of Vitovtsy, now in Andrushevka Raion, Zhitomir Oblast; died Apr. 18, 1967, in Kiev. Soviet Ukrainian writer. Member of the CPSU since 1940.

Kucher studied at the University of Kharkov (1930–34) and participated in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. His first works were published in 1932; he is the author of many essay and story collections, primarily about socialist reform in the Ukrainian village. Kucher’s novels include Sailors of the Black Sea Fleet (1948; new ed., 1952); Hunger (1961), about the life of Soviet military sailors; and Farewell to the Sea (1957), about the restoration of the kolkhoz village. He later dealt with the lives of working youth—the novels Necklace (1964) and Eagles Drink Water (1966). He is the author of the historical novel Ustim Karmaliuk (1940; new ed., 1954) and the historical revolutionary novel Our Life Is Not a Bed of Roses (1967), about the life of Artem (F. Sergeev). Kucher also wrote children’s books.

WORKS

Tvory, v 5 tt., vols. 1–3. Introduction by O. Diachenko. Kiev, 1970–71.

REFERENCE

Pro Vasylia Kuchera: Spohady tovaryshiv i druziv. Kiev, 1971.