Sixtiers

The Sixtiers (Ukrainian: Шістдесятники, romanized: Shistdesiatnyky, lit. 'people of the sixties') were a generation of young Ukrainians who reawakened Ukrainian literature and a sense of Ukrainian nationalism within the intelligentsia of the Soviet Union. The Sixtiers entered Ukraine's cultural and political life during the late 1950s and 1960s. They expressed elements of humanism, embracing Western literature and drawing on romantic and realist influences, while stressing universal socialism in the values of Leninism. The Sixtiers arose during the Khrushchev thaw, which followed a period of Russification under Josef Stalin. Born in Ukraine between 1925 and 1945, their worldviews were formed by a series of tragedies and persecutions from their childhood including the Holodomor, Stalin's purges and World War II. Political and historical events followed while many were attending university. The Sixtiers are often seen as a "group of friends" and included writers, literary critics, poets, painters, fashion designers, and translators. After 1964, many Sixtiers faced persecution and arrest; their work was smuggled out through the samvydav network or hidden until after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.