Voronko, Platon

Voronko, Platon [Воронько, Платон; Voron'ko], b 1 December 1913 in Chernechchyna, Okhtyrka county, Kharkiv gubernia, d 10 August 1988 in Kyiv. Poet and children’s writer. A former Soviet partisan commander (see Soviet partisans in Ukraine, 1941–5), after the Second World War he was an editor of Dnipro, the vice-chairman of the Writers' Union of Ukraine and vice-chairman of its Kyiv branch, and a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR (from 1980). From 1944 on he published over 30 collections of civic and lyric poetry and over 30 books of poems, tales, and plays for children. Much of his writing reflects his love for and knowledge of Ukrainian folklore and folk songs. He was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1951, the Shevchenko Prize in 1972, and the Lesia Ukrainka prize in 1976. Many articles and three books, by P. Serdiuk (1963), S. Rusakiiev (1973), and L. Horlach (1973), have been written about him. An edition of his works in four volumes appeared in 1982–3.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]