Serednytsky, Antin

Serednytsky, Antin or Serednicki, Antoni [Середницький, Антін; Serednyc'kyj; pseudonyms: Antin Verba, Antin Bilchuk, Vasyl' Shandruk and others], b 1 March 1916 on a farm near the village of Verbovets, Kremenets county, Volhynia gubernia, d 12 September 2012 in Warsaw. Ukrainian writer, educator, and community figure in postwar Poland. He graduated from Warsaw University (1948) and became a teacher in Warsaw. Between 1960 and 1986 he worked at the department of Ukrainian philology at Warsaw University. He developed the curriculum for teaching the Ukrainian language in Poland’s elementary and secondary schools. In 1966 he was appointed deputy head of the Ukrainian Language Curriculum Commission of the Polish Ministry of Education. In the years 1969–87 he published an elementary school Ukrainian grammar and seven Ukrainian readers. He also played a prominent role in the Ukrainian Social and Cultural Society (USKT [now Association of Ukrainians in Poland (OUP)]) and for several terms was its vice-president and head of its literary association. In 1976 he published a brochure about this society and he was also chief editor (1962–87) of its annual calendar (kalendar), Ukraïns'kyi kalendar. He was a member of the Union of Polish Writers. His works were published in Soviet Ukrainian and USKT/OUP periodicals and separately. They include the story collections  Proidenym shliakhom (The Road Traveled, 1976) and Mandrivka do Chaichynets' (A Trip to Chaichyntsi, 1984). His literary criticism and reviews appeared in the Polish press and scholarly journals.

In his literary criticism, Serednytsky paid special attention to the works of Hryhorii Skovoroda, Ivan Kotliarevsky, Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko, Taras Shevchenko, Panteleimon Kulish, and Mykhailo Drahomanov. Following the collapse of the USSR and the 1991 Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence, Serednytsky wrote studies on the biography of Symon Petliura and the history of the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR)—‘Ofenzywa na Kijów w roku 1920 i jej konsekwencje dla Armii i Rządu URL’ (The Kyiv Offensive and Its Consequences for the Army and Government of the UNR, 1994), ‘Symon Petlura’ (1994), ‘Symon Petlura – życie i działalność’ (Symon Petliura: Life and Work, 1997)—and on the problems of Polish-Ukrainian cultural relations—‘Wkład Polaków do kultury ukraińskiej’ (The Contribution of Poles to Ukrainian Culture, 2000) and ‘Wkład Ukraińców w dorobek kulturalny Polski’ (The Contribution of Ukrainians to Poland’s Cultural Heritage, 2004). Serednytsky translated Taras Shevchenko’s story ‘Bliznetsy’ (The Twins) into Polish, as well as works by Iryna Vilde, Oles Honchar, Mykhailo Stelmakh, and Yurii Yanovsky. He received several Polish medals and citations for his contributions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bialokozovych, V. ‘Z istoriї ukraїns'koї diaspory: Antin Serednyts'kyi u koli pol's'ko-ukraїns'kykh kulturnykh vzaiemyn,’ in Literatura. Literaturoznavstvo. Zhyttia. Zbirnyk naukovykh prats' i materialiv. Do 75-richchia vid dnia narodzhennia d-ra filolohichnykh nauk, profesora Marka Veniaminovycha Teplins'koho (Ivano-Frankivsk, 1999)
Kolianchuk, O. ‘Senior mystsiv pera,’ Nad Buhom i Narvoiu, no 1 (2011)
Serednyts'kyi, Ia. ‘Ukraїnoznavcha diialnist' Antina Serednyts'koho,’ Ukraïna-Polshcha: istorychna spadshchyna i suspil'na svidomist', no 6 (Lviv 2013)
Radyshevs'kyi, R. Pol's'ka literaturoznavcha ukraïnistyka (Kyiv 2023)
Piskun, A. ‘Pol's'ka ukraïnika v literaturno-krytychnii retseptsiї Antina Serednyts'koho,’ Kyïvs'ki polonistychni studiï, no 41 (Kyiv 2025)
Sukharieva, S. ‘Slovo Antina Serednyts'koho pro mynuvshchynu: do istoriï literaturnoï krytyky ukraïns'ko-pol's'koho pohranychchia,’ Volyn' filolohichna: tekst i kontekst, no 41 (Lutsk 2026)

Roksana Kharchuk

[This article was updated in 2026.]