Oles Honchar

Oleksandr (Oles) Terentiyovych Honchar (Ukrainian: Олесь Гончар) (April 3, 1918 in near Katerynoslav – December 12, 1995 in Kiev), was a Ukrainian and Soviet writer and public figure fighting for the reinstatement of the Ukrainian culture in the Soviet society after its abolition by the establishment. He also was a veteran of the World War II and member of the Ukrainian parliament.

Biography

Early years

According to several encyclopedias Honchar was born in the village of Sukhe in Kobelyaky uyezd, Poltava Governorate which is not very accurate. The documents from the regional archives of Dnipropetrovsk Region tell that he was born in family of factory workers in a village of Lomivka that just before the World War II was incorporated into the city of Dnipropetrovsk. His mother died when he was three, while his father perished on a job site later in 1941. Being left parentless he was taken by his maternal grandparents to live in the village of Sukhe, near Kobelyaky (today in the Poltava Region). Living with his maternal grandparents Oleksandr took their last name and, thus, became to be known as Oles Honchar (Oles is diminutive of Oleksandr).