MYKHAILO STRELBYTSKYI, AS I DID NOT KNOW HIM

Abstract

Mykhailo Strelbytskyi (1949-2018) – is a strange and whimsical man. Literary critic, critic, poet, teacher of Ukrainian literature. For the first time, I heard about him by the edge of my ear in the summer of 1978, when I en- tered Odessa University, planned for Ukrainian philology, submitted docu- ments for historical studies (there was a shorter queue), as a result, I did not pass the competition and worked for a year in my native collective farm

«Progress». So, in Odesa, applicants or even students praised two young teachers of literature, Panchenko and Strelbytskyi. I recognized both of them already at the end of the 90s.

We probably met Strelbytskyi through Ivan Iov and Peter Soroka. I don't remember the details. However, since 2001 or 2002, we corresponded periodically until 2010. I did not find all the letters. In February 2007, to- gether with Stepan Protsyuk, we were invited to Vinnytsia by Viktor Melnyk, where we had a meeting in the regional library, then Timiryazev. Mykhailo Strelbytskyi came to this meeting with his technical university student Dmytro Shtofel. Strelbytskyi lived and worked in Vinnytsia since 1980. We even took a picture, maybe Dmytro kept this picture.

Strelbytskyi, who still ran the «Impuls» (?) summer studio at the tech- nical university, had three favorites – Oksana Barbak, Serhiy Bilokhatniuk, Dmytro Shtofel. Mr. Mykhailo helped them publish the first collections and wrote prefaces to them. I reviewed these collections and then even wrote a complimentary material about the «Vinnytsia phenomenon». The phenomenon did not occur, and all the young neophytes disappeared. That is, they are somewhere and live, but they fell out of literature despite the teacher's sup- port. Anton Morgovskyi said that one talent is not enough in literature, char- acter is needed.

Mykhailo Strelbytskyi sent his books regularly. I didn't quite accept his poetic visions. Strelbytskyi was a critic, as early as 1985, becoming a laureate of the Oleksandr Biletskyi Prize, which was awarded for the best critical book of the year (by the way, Volodymyr Panchenko became a laureate of this prize in 1998, and I in 1999). The best of his poetry books «Under the Sky Konovalyuk» (2001-2010, in 3 books), in which Mykhailo Strelbytskyi pre- sented his poetic impressions of the paintings of the artist Fyodor Konovalyuk (1897-1984).

So far, as many as 7 letters from Strelbytskyi have been found to me. Correspondence period 2002-2003. There are letters without dates, they are probably from later years, 2005-2007. We are talking about literature, about Vasyl Fashchenko (1929-1999), his teacher, whom I indirectly knew, because Fashchenko was a member of the specialized academic council at the Institute of Literature named after. T. G. Shevchenko of the National Academy of Sci- ences of Ukraine and was at my defense in the fall of 1994. I even wrote short impressions about Fashchenko, which Strelbytskyi published in the Odesa newspaper «Dumska ploshcha», it seems.

In short, Mykhailo Strelbytskyi was a literary-centric man up to fanati- cism. Of course, talented and whimsical. He died quietly, leaving Vinnytsia, and was buried in his native village of Maidan-Verbetskyi, Letychiv district, Khmelnytskyi region. Therefore, we submit the publication of Mykhailo Strel- bytskyi's letters to the critic and literary critic Yevhen Baran.