Vasyl Stefanyk

Vasyl Semenovych Stefanyk (Васи́ль Семе́нович Стефа́ник; May 14, 1871 – December 7, 1936) was an influential Ukrainian modernist writer and political activist. He was a member of the Austrian parliament from 1908 to 1918.

Early years
Vasyl Stefanyk was born on May 14, 1871, in the village of Rusiv in the family of a well-to-do peasant. He was born in the historical region of Pokuttia, then part of Austria-Hungary. Today it is part of Kolomyia Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. He died on December 7, 1936, in the same village, Rusiv, at that time the part of Poland.

His primary education Stefanyk was at the Sniatyn City school. He later studied at Polish gymnasia in Kolomyia and Drohobych. He was expelled from the Kolomea gymnasium for the participation in a revolutionary group. He eventually graduated from the Drohobych gymnasium, and enrolled in the University of Kraków in 1892.

In culture
Stefanyk's "Blue Book" was republished in Ukraine in 1966 under the title "The Maple Leaves" in an edition lavishly illustrated by Mykhaylo Turovsky.

Three stories from the "Blue Book" were the basis of the classic Ukrainian 1968 film "The Stone Cross" by Leonid Osyka.

Abroad
Stefanyk was deeply concerned with the destiny of Ukrainian immigrants to Canada and often mentioned them in his many writings. One of his stories, The Stone Cross (Kaminnyi Khrest), (later made into a movie) is a stirring account of an immigrant's departure from Stefanyk's native village, Rusiv. The man upon whom it is based died in 1911, in Hilliard, Alberta.

The monument that was erected to commemorate Vasyl' Stefanyk is located at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, east of Edmonton, Alberta. That is a statue that was a gift from Ukraine to the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians. The statue was sculpted by W. Skolozdra in 1971 to mark the 100th anniversary of Vasyl Stefanyk.