Roman Ivanychuk. Mallows

Roman Ivanychuk

Work proposed for translation: 

Mallows
A novel (1968)
Length: 288 pp.
Copyright: Heirs: natalia.ivanychuk@gmail.com

Roman Ivanychuk (1929–2016) was a well-known Ukrainian writer and public figure. In 1948, he enrolled at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Lviv, but was soon expelled for “anti-Soviet activities.” He managed to return to the university in 1953. In 1958, he published his first book, a collection of short stories entitled Prut Carries Ice, which brought him recognition. His novel Mallows, published in 1968, was also well received by readers, but provoked a harsh reaction from official critics, which led to him being banned from publishing for a certain period of time. The main part of Roman Ivanychuk’s creative work consists of historical novels. This choice of genre was due to the fact that, by writing about topics distant in time, it was possible to avoid the need to fill the texts with Soviet ideology. The writer won the Shevchenko Prize (1985) for his novel The Fourth Dimension. During the Perestroika period, Ivanychuk became an active participant in the national liberation movement, and was elected a People’s Deputy of the Ukrainian SSR in the spring of 1990, participating in the preparation of the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. From the 1990s to the 2010s, he continued to actively write and publish his new works (novels, short stories, memoirs, essays) and taught at the University of Lviv for a long time. His works have been translated into Slovak, Polish, German, and French.

The events of the novel Mallows (originally titled Janissaries) take place mainly in the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate in the mid-17th century. The key theme is the identity of Ukrainians who were forcibly taken from their homeland as children, grew up in different circumstances in Crimea or Turkey, and almost completely lost touch with their native land. However, they still feel connected to their roots, which causes an internal crisis and the need to make a choice. Important characters in the novel are also those who were forced to leave Ukraine as adults and therefore have a slightly different experience of their relationship with their motherland. The author raised the issue of loss of identity and assimilation for a reason. Developing it on the basis of events of the 17th century, he primarily criticised the Soviet authorities, who pursued an active policy of assimilation. The relevance of these hidden meanings provoked great popularity for the novel, but also a harsh reaction from the Soviet authorities: the author managed to write a work that thoroughly and carefully describes the crisis of a person who finds himself at a crossroads between two identities — his native one and a hostile one.