Turning the pages back...

June 10, 1976

Famed Ukrainian poet, writer and journalist Roman Kupchynsky died on June 10, 1976, at the age of 81. He was known to many by the pseudonym "Halaktion Chipka."

Born in 1894 in Rozhadiv, western Ukraine, Mr. Kupchynsky completed his secondary education at Peremyshl Gymnasium and a year of study at the Lviv Theological Academy. He then joined the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, attaining the rank of lieutenant. After his release from a Polish POW camp, Mr. Kupchynsky continued his education at the Ukrainian Secret University.

Mr. Kupchynsky was a prolific writer and songwriter. He wrote nearly 100 songs, mostly about the Sich Riflemen. His prose trilogy "Zametil" (Snowstorm) and his satirical poem "Skoropad" (Fast-fall) also focused on the Sich Riflemen. He is perhaps best known as the writer of the religious hymn "Bozhe Velykyi, Tvorche Vsesvitu" (O Great God, Creator of the Universe).

As a journalist, Mr. Kupchynsky wrote for the newspaper Dilo, the journal Chervona Kalyna and, after emigrating to the United States after World War II, the Ukrainian-language daily Svoboda. Over the course of his life, he headed the Society of Writers and Journalists in Lviv, co-founded the Association of Ukrainian Journalists in America, and was given the title of honorary president by the journalists' society in 1966.

Source: "Roman Kupchynsky, Poet, Writer, Journalist, Dies," The Ukrainian Weekly, June 19, 1976. "Kupchynsky, Roman," Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Volume II, edited by Volodymyr Kubijovyc. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 9, 2002, No. 23, Vol. LXX

| Home Page |