Mykola Horbal’ was born (1941) in the Lemko village of Wołowiec/Volovets, but his family was soon resettled in the Soviet Ukraine, where he first became a political dissident (trailed, imprisoned and deported several times) and later a politician and a deputy to the Ukrainian parliament. He is also an accomplished poet.
In this memoir he describes one of the sixty [Odyn iz shistdesiaty] years of his life – 2000. It is written in a form of a diary in which he discusses not only present time developments but also the past by mentioning anniversaries of certain events and birth/death of certain people. While this is a book that fits into mainstream Ukrainian culture, Horbal' does occasionally talk about his Lemko background, describes a trip to the region where he was born, mentions the activity of the Tovarystvo Lemkivshchyna of which he is an active member, etc. The book is illustrated with drawings by his brother Bohdan Horbal’.
[B.H.]
Review by Petro Tyma (in Ukrainian)
Review by Vasyl’ Ovsiienko (In Ukrainian): “Дисиденти і час: Думки світлі і вдячні”
Horbal’s biography:
1) (In Ukrainian)
2) (In Ukrainian)
Return to Books index