Bookvica

[GALICIA REMEMBERING THE INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE] Ystorychnyi kaliendar-al'manakh Chervonoi Kalyny na 1930 rik [i.e. Historical Calendar-Almanac of Chervona Kalyna for 1930]

(Lepkyi, L., editor)

L'vyv: Nakladom vydavnytstva "Chervona Kalyna" 1929. Item #1958

[24], 160 pp., ill., numerous ads. 23 x 15.5 cm. Both calendar and almanac parts within the book have a title page. Original publisher’s illustrated wrappers.
In Ukrainian. Overall good condition, Wear to the spine and both covers. Front cover partially detached. Numbers “1930” with pen on the spine, stamp “Printed in Galicia” on the front cover. Insides clean. Minor tear to p. 39-40. Cover illustration by Edvard Kozak (1902-1992), an Ukrainian artist most known as a children’s books illustrator and a caricaturist.

The publisher Chervona Kalyna, active from 1921 to 1939, was created by a joint effort of two military groups: Lehion Ukrayins'kykh Sichovykh Stril'tsiv [Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen] and Ukrayins'ka Halyts'ka Armiya [Ukrainian Army of Galicia]. “Chervona Kalyna” itself stands for the berry red viburnum, a cossack symbol known to any Ukrainian. Chervona Kalyna was led by Galician military officials with Stepan Shukhevych serving as head, but the literary and publishing work were guided by the poet Lev Lepkyi (1888-1971) and prominent Galician publisher Yvan Tyktor (1896-1982) respectively. The contents is a swan song of the failed Ukrainian armed struggle for independence during the late 1910’s. The book, aside from the vast variety of advertisements, consists of 2 parts: calendar and literary part. The calendar lists Catholic and historically important Ukraine related dates. Each month is accompanied by a short story on heroism of the Ukrainian army from the 1914-1921 period (according to various studies, this 1930 calendar was the first one to introduce such a format of month-related shorts).

The literary part has a table of contents and consists of some dozen articles written mostly by the riflemen themselves, with photographic and sometimes artistic materials supplemented. The articles are mostly memoirs and chronics of the battles with Bolsheviks and Poland during the short Polish-Ukrainian war. The authors are describing in detail the glory of the days gone by, reflecting on some political events, and providing biographies of important people of the decade. There is a place for curiosities nevertheless: one article cites love poems taken out from censored soldier letters in 1919 and a joke about cognac.

Interesting also is the way the introductory ads are made: the text part providing reviews of new historical books is framed with ads of legal advisors and doctors. Such Chervona Kalyna calendars were published annually and all had a national-patriotic incline. They were niche, but competed successfully with similar Western Ukrainian calendars of the time - Dnipro, Prosvita, Zhinocha dolia. Research states, there were a total of 27 different calendars almanacs issued in the Western Ukraine during 1920-1930’s (see: Kuzhel', L. Zakhidnoukrains'ki ta ukrains'ki emihratsiini al'manakhy 1920–1930-kh rokiv: tematyko-typolohichnyi analiz. In: Zapysky L'vivs'koi natsional'noi naukovoi biblioteky Ukrainy imeni V. Stefanyka. #7, 2015). This particular calendar was popular among the youth that had romantic views on the military activities and the older emigrants who were veterans of the battles described.
Additionally, the publisher issued over 80 books on politics and war and was publishing a monthly Litopys Chervonoi Kalyny. The contents were all revolving around the armed struggle for Ukrainian independence, politics and military history. The publisher ceased to exist after the annexation of Western Ukraine by the USSR.

Rare. WorldCat and KVK show some issues of Ystorychnyi kaliendar-al'manakh available in libraries, but only the Russian State Library has a copy for 1930.

Price: $750.00