A CELEBRATED ARTIST
The name of Nil Antonovych Khasevych was restored to art lovers after Ukraine won its independence. Works that the artist created when he was in the Ukrainian underground began emerging from KGB archives. “Bei,” “Zot,” “333,” and “Staryi” were the code names of Khasevych, who was the only representative of Rivne oblast in the Ukrainian parliament — the Supreme Ukrainian Liberation Council — and the propaganda leader of the OUN [Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists] security service in Volyn.
During World War II, Khasevych painted a portrait of Klym Savur, the commander of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) detachments in Volyn, who was buried near Diuksyn, the artist’s native village. It was not until 1950-1952 that albums of Khasevych’s works were compiled and published overseas. Entitled Volyn u borotbi [Volyn in Struggle] and Hrafika v bunkerakh UPA [Graphics in UPA Bunkers], the albums astonished the world. They were circulated among various embassies and during sessions of the UN General Assembly. Not surprisingly, the State Security Ministry (MGB) launched an active search for the artist whose works condemned the Soviet totalitarian system.
Aside from creating a series of psychological portraits of UPA fighters, Khasevych produced sketches of many UPA decorations, in particular the “Combat Merit Cross,” the “Cross of Merit,” and the “Medal for Fighting in Especially Difficult Conditions.” Khasevych created the design for the so-called bofony — bonds for the UPA combat fund. He also executed a large number of illustrations for leaflets, including mocking caricatures of Soviet leaders.
“Until the last drop of my blood I will fight against the enemies of my people. I cannot fight them with weapons, but I fight with a cutter and chisel. Disabled, I am fighting at a time when many strong and healthy people in the world do not even believe that such a struggle is at all possible. I want the world to know that the liberation struggle continues, and Ukrainians are fighting. This is my opinion, the opinion of a rank-and-file member of the underground. Glory to Ukraine!” Nil Khasevych wrote these words in 1951, when Stalin’s minions were hot on his trail. At the time the MGB in Volyn oblast had dozens of drawings that were found in 1947 in the possession of Khasevych’s female courier, who was killed while trying to reach Lutsk. By sheer accident the secret police failed to identify their creator as Khasevych, who had already made a name for himself in Volyn before the war.
The secret police tracked down “Zot’s” bunker after intercepting encrypted documents of the resistance fighters. The secret papers revealed the whereabouts of those for “whom five kilograms of paper and cherry tree wood needed for engravings were being stored.” This had to be the artist’s hideout. On March 4, 1952, MGB forces surrounded the hamlet of Sukhivtsi, located a short distance from Klevan, a former raion center in Rivne oblast. Outnumbered, Khasevych and his brothers in arms Anton Melnychuk and Viacheslav Antoniuk were killed. The grenades were thrown into the bunker with the fighters trapped inside. The heroes’ bodies were left lying in Klevan for several days to intimidate the local population. To this day no one knows where Khasevych is buried.
...BUT LITTLE KNOWN
Nil Khasevych was not only an artist of the Ukrainian patriotic underground. He had already made a name for himself in the artistic world in the 1930s. His works were displayed in Rivne, Lutsk, and Lviv as well as Prague, Berlin, Warsaw, Paris, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. Khasevych’s name was ranked alongside such prominent Ukrainian graphic artists as Yuriy Narbut, Petro Kholodny, Olena Kulchytska, and Vasyl Krychevsky. However, after the war Nil Khasevych was “forgotten” for nearly half a century.
The great artist was born on Nov. 25, 1905, in the village of Diuksyn in Kostopil raion, Rivne oblast. In 1918 Khasevych and his mother were in a train accident. His mother was killed and Nil lost his left leg. But this did not stop him from learning. Personal determination and the support of his father helped him obtain a good education. A highly-respected man in the village, his father raised three sons, all of whom became patriots of Ukraine. He himself was killed in 1943 during a Nazi roundup.
The events of the revolution interrupted Khasevych’s plans to graduate from an ecclesiastical seminary in Zhytomyr. Nevertheless, being a devout Christian, Khasevych started to paint icons after studying with some Rivne-based artists. Before the war Khasevych painted numerous icons for the town of Diuksyn.
In 1926 the artist went to Warsaw to continue his education. At first he attended the Academy of Arts as an independent student and became a full-fledged student only in 1930, after passing external examinations for a high school certificate. He received artistic training from Professors Milosz and Mieczyslaw Kotarbinski and graphics instruction from Professor Wladyslaw Skoczylas. Khasevych chose graphics and weaving as his specialty. He focused especially on weaving, which was taught to him by Professor Chaikovsky, and dreamed of practicing this craft in his native Volyn. However, his early success was in painting. In February 1933 Khasevych wrote in his research paper: “Painting is absolute truth, and the language of truth should be learned everywhere and always. I would make painting the basis of education in all schools. This is the only language with which you can express everything.”
Khasevych was a member of the popular artists’ group “Spokiy” [Calm]. Out of the 31 members, 14 were natives of Volyn. While still a student, he won the Vaticana award for his painting “Prachky” [Women doing laundry] and his portrait of Hetman Mazepa.
Recently I chanced upon the place in Diuksyn where the artist had painted his female neighbors doing the laundry, who were immortalized in his award-winning painting. Unfortunately, the ancestral home of the Khasevych family no longer exists. It once stood in a picturesque location next to natural springs in the heart of the village. Still unknown to the public is his painting “Pastushka” [Shepherdess], a photo of which I discovered in the State Archive of Volyn Oblast in the newspaper Volyn (No. 4, 1938).
The exhibit of Khasevych’s works at the Volyn Ethnographic Museum is dedicated to the centennial of the great artist and features “Prachky” and reproductions (photocopies) of previously unknown linotype and wood engravings, including a linotype engraving entitled “Holova” [Head], which may be a self-portrait of the young Khasevych. These works were published in 1935 in the distinguished Polish journal, Znicz.
For a long time Khasevych was considered an illustrator. However, aside from his numerous ex-librises and illustrations for printed works, he created a considerable number of paintings. At the beginning of the German occupation he worked at the newspaper Volyn together with Ulas Samchuk. In 1941 he served as a justice of the peace in the village of Derazhne, several kilometers from his native Diuksyn, where he saved many of his fellow countrymen from persecution by the German occupiers. Today one building in Derezhne bears a memorial plaque that attests to Nil Khasevych, justice of the peace.
Before the war Khasevych’s credo contained the following theses: “Everything that surrounds us should be beautiful” and “Art should be popular not only in substance but also in form, which should be harmonious with the entire historical culture of Ukraine.” In 1935 the journal Znicz, which enjoyed great popularity in the artistic community, wrote, “Humbly and slowly, but confidently, Nil Khasevych has been progressing in his creative work and has now earned recognition not only among the artists of Warsaw, where he studied and exhibited his works; he has also earned favor and acknowledgement among artists abroad, especially French.”
The centennial of the great artist will be marked during special events in Kostopil. Commemorative events will be held on a smaller scale in Khasevych’s native village of Diuksyn, perhaps because the kilometers of impassable roads make it nearly impossible to get there. The village is special in that a loudspeaker is set up in the center, which broadcasts non-stop, the way it did before and after the war. Diuksyn residents say that the radio broadcasts do not bother anybody, or perhaps the villagers have simply grown accustomed to them.
The locals quickly noticed that I was not from these parts and asked me in the bizarre local vernacular: “Otkul ty?” [Where are you from?] They still remember Nil Khasevych. The local school is especially proud of its famous former resident. A group of 18 schoolchildren recently embarked on a two-day hike to Sukhivtsi, where Khasevych died. The school held exhibits entitled “To gain victory or perish” and “From oblivion to eternity” dedicated to the artist’s centennial. The school organized an essay contest and held a commemorative evening. Father Oleksandr from the church in Starozhukiv and Father Vasyliy, the prior of the Diuksyn church, said prayers for their glorious landsman. The idea to name the school in Khasevych’s honor is long overdue, and the school administration has submitted requests to the appropriate authorities. Meanwhile, Kostopil, where the artist was commemorated at the all-raion level, has published a collection of essays, articles, and reminiscences about Khasevych entitled Lytsar svobody [The Knight of Freedom] (author and compiler Anatoliy Karpyuk).
Nil Khasevych has returned to his native Diuksyn in an aureole of glory. He is the pride of the local community, where a street bears his name, and a monument has been erected opposite the school. It bears the inscription: “Outstanding Ukrainian graphic artist, fighter for an independent Ukraine, native of Diuksyn.”
