Dudko, Fedir

Dudko, Fedir (Дудко, Федір; pseudonyms: Odud, F. Karpenko, F. Dudko-Karpenko), b 7 May 1885 in the village of Shablyniv, Sosnytsia county, Chernihiv gubernia, d 1 March 1962 in New York. Writer and journalist. Dudko studied journalism in Moscow and began to work as a journalist in Kyiv in 1907, writing, among others, for the newspapers Rada (Kyiv) and Vidrodzhennia (Kyiv). In 1920 he moved to Lviv, where he worked at the library of the Shevchenko Scientific Society and as a journalist for Novyi chas, while also writing for other newspapers, such as Teatral’ne mystetstvo and Promin’ (Chernivtsi). During the Second World War he worked for Krakivs’ki visti. In 1944 he moved as a displaced person to Germany and in 1949 emigrated to the United States of America. Dudko wrote many short novels, most of them linked with the period of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–20. They display an intimate knowledge of the daily life of the times, an ability to build captivating plots, and an inclination towards romanticization. Dudko’s legacy includes the following works: Otaman Kruk (1924); the collections of short stories Divchata ochaidushnykh dniv (The Girls of Desperate Days, 1937) and Hlum (Scorn); a cycle of novels (1928–31)—V zahravi (In the Blaze), Chortoryi (Vortex), Kvity i krov (Flowers and Blood), Na zharyshchakh (On the Burned Ruins), and Prirva (The Precipice); the collection Zametil' (The Blizzard, 1948); a historical novel, Velykyi het'man (The Great Hetman, 1936); the historical story ‘Strybozha vnuka’ (A Granddaughter of Stryboh, 1937); and stories for children. His memoirs entitled Moia molodist' (My Youth) appeared posthumously in 1965.

[This article was updated in 2024.]