Almanac literature of Bukovina of the totalitarian era (40–60 years of the XXth century): organization, editorial policies, issues
Authors: Tymoshyk Mykola 
Published: March 2024

The article is written on the basis of archival documents of the Chernivtsi region that have not yet been included in scientific circulation, materials from the collections of local newspapers published in Chernivtsi in the 40–60s of the 20th century. They make it possible to find out the purpose, goal, task of the ruling Bolshevik party regarding the establishment of almanac publications, as the first stage of the affirmation of a new form and content of socialist rea­lism literature in a specific historical enclave of Ukrainians – Northern Buko­vina, which was annexed to Soviet Ukraine in 1940.
We are talking about four such almanacs – “Free Bukovyna”, “Bukovynskyi Kobzar”, “Sun over the Carpathians”, “Soviet Bukovyna”. They are different in terms of frequency, subject matter, design, but with the same purpose: to promote the formation of communist consciousness among readers, to identify and support local literary talents, and to direct their creativity in the right direction for the ruling party.
At the center of the author’s observation is a complex of issues related to the foundation, editorial policy, artistic and technical characteristics, and the main problem-thematic areas of publications.
The circulation of almanacs ranged from 2,000 (“Bukovynskyi Kobzar”) to 7,000 thousand copies (“Soviet Bukovyna”. Volumes were also unstable – from 72 to 276 pages. The periodicity of publication and the time of existence of the almanacs were different. If the issues of “Bukovynskyi Kobzar” and “Suns over the Carpathians” were single, and “Free Bukovyna” was published only three times, and “Soviet Bukovyna” – seven. With the exception of 1955, the latter was consistently published every year from 1954 to 1960 inclusive.
A distinctive feature of the content: a significant number of reprints from the regional newspaper, moreover, are outdated in time. These are my two explanations: either the founders changed their orientation from a literary-artistic to a socio-political publication, or the quality of the literary works proposed for publication by the members of the literary studio clearly did not satisfy those who ordered from those talents the topics needed by the authorities.
The appearance of each almanac, as well as each of its new editions, was timed, with minor exceptions, to a certain date of the red calendar of the Soviet history of Bukovyna. An exception is “Bukovynskyi Kobzar”, which was published in 1940 on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of Yu. Fedkovich, and the third issue of “Soviet Bukovyna” (1956) – for the 100th anniversary of Ivan Franko. Accordingly, these dates formed the topics of the publications.
A number of publications are of incomparable value for the history of national culture: first editions of the works of iconic writers and artists of the region or archival documents about their lives and activities (Olga Kobylyanska, Yu. Fedkovich, S. Vorobkevich) and an annual literary and artistic chronic­le that can be used to track the completeness and peculiarities development in the region of literature, culture, and art.
Of all the Bukovyna almanacs of this period, the story of the “Bukovyna Kobzar” is the most mysterious and dramatic. Soon after its release, the entire edition was successfully confiscated. Since then, information about the existence of a single copy preserved in Bukovyna has not appeared anywhere in open catalogs for the last thirty years of Ukrainian independence. A rare phenomenon in post-Soviet bibliography. The article analyzes in detail the reasons and consequences of the authorities banning this almanac.