My, journal
My, journal [«Ми»; We]. A journal of literature and art published in Warsaw from 1933 to 1937 and then in 1939 by the Variah publishing house; the journal was associated with the literary group My, also known as the Warsaw Group, which emerged in 1933 from the literary group Tank. The group’s members supported the Government-in-exile of the Ukrainian National Republic and were opposed to the ultranationalism of Dmytro Dontsov and his journal Vistnyk. The texts published in My reflected this political and esthetic orientation.
Until 1937 My appeared as a quarterly, and then it became a bimonthly. A total of 11 issues were released. Andrii Kryzhanivsky, together with Ivan Dubytsky, edited the journal in 1933–37 (the first issue was edited exclusively by Dubytsky). In 1938 Borys Olkhivsky replaced Kryzhanivsky as editor and the 1939 issues of My, edited by Olkhivsky, were published by Modest Kunytsky. Among the journal’s contributors were Bohdan Ihor Antonych, Sviatoslav Hordynsky, Nataliia Livytska-Kholodna, Petro P. Kholodny, Kryzhanivsky, Olkhivsky, I. Cherniava, Yurii Kosach, H. Lazarevsky, Vadym Lesych, Mykhailo Rudnytsky, and Pavlo Zaitsev. My published poetry, prose, political essays, philosophical studies, translations (of works by Charles Baudelaire, Paul Valèry, Emile Verhaeren, Oscar Wilde, William Faulkner, Miguel de Unamuno, and others), and literary criticism. It printed contributions not only of émigré writers, but also of writers from Western Ukraine and even of Soviet Ukrainian writers, such as Mykola Bazhan, Yurii Yanovsky, Mykola Khvylovy, Yurii Smolych, and Ivan Senchenko, and literary translations by Mykola Zerov.
The literary group My and its journal did not advocate some fixed programmatic principles and did not impose any substantial restrictions on the contributors to its journal. Although the group members generally identified with Ukrainian nationalist orientation in politics, they advocated for democratic form of nationalism, humanitarian in spirit. Thus, My published works not only by writers of nationalist orientation, but also texts by liberal-minded authors with a democratic worldview and also Ukrainian national communists. Some of the group members, and especially Andrii Kryzhanivsky, published polemical articles in My aimed against the authoritarianism of Dmytro Dontsov and the political stance of the journal Vistnyk. Unlike Dontsov, the members of My attached great significance to the role of Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917–20) and they also valued literature for its own sake, disagreeing with Dontsov’s politicized notion that adhering to the ideology of nationalism may actually ensure high quality of a given author’s literary work. (This conflict between Dontsov and the younger generation of Ukrainian émigré writers was later discussed and analyzed by such literary figures and scholars as Nataliia Livytska-Kholodna, Marta Skorupska, Halyna Svarnyk, Oleksandr Ilin, and Myroslav Shkandrij.)
The journal My was designed primarily by Petro P. Kholodny, but it also featured artworks by Nil Khasevych, Roman Selsky, Volodymyr Lasovsky, and others.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Livytska-Kholodna, N. ‘Vydavnytstvo “Variah,”’ Suchasnist’ no 11 (1980)
Strumins'kyi, B., Skorups'ka, M. (comp.) ‘Materiialy do istoriï literatury i hromads'koï dumky: lystuvannia z amerykans'kykh arkhiviv 1857–1933’ vol 3 (New York 1992)
Svarnyk, H. ‘Lystuvannia Iuriia Lypy z Dmytrom Dontsovym,’ Ukraïns'ki problemy, no 3–4 (1995)
Rudiuk, О. (comp.) ‘Literaturno-mystets'kyi zhurnal ‘My’ 1933–1939: Systematychnyi pokazhchyk zmistu’ (Lviv 2011)
Shkandrij, M. Ukrainian Nationalism: Politics, Ideology, and Literature, 1929–1956 (New Haven and London 2015)
Il’in, O. ‘Andrii Kryzhanivs'kyi – ukraïns'kyi pys'mennyk-neoromantyk iz Beresteis'koho Polissia,’ Sprava: Biełaruska-ŭkrainski almanach Tavarystva ŭkrainskaj litaratury pry Sajuzie biełaruskich piśmieńnikaŭ no 3 (2016)
Roksana Kharchuk
[This article was updated in 2026.]