This week marks the 85th anniversary of the birth of Ukrainian poet and dissident Vasily Stus. Actively defending Ukrainian culture and opposing the official policy of the USSR, the sixties writer gave his life for his beliefs. Articles and books are devoted to his work, and the recently published work “Vasil Stus’s Right” has become one of the most important studies of the poet’s life.
The memory of Vasily Stus will live not only thanks to his work. Collectibles issued in his honor are quite popular. In 2008, the NBU issued a nickel silver coin with a denomination of 2 hryvnias. The obverse depicts a symbolic composition, which means the path to independence, on the reverse is a portrait of the poet. In the background is a fragment of Alla Gorskaya's mosaic "Woman-Ptah". For 10 years, the cost of the coin itself has risen several times, from UAH 15 to UAH 80.
Philately also has an interesting copy - a postal envelope with the stamp “Vasil Stus. 1938-1985". The envelope, printed with a circulation of 400,000 copies, went into circulation at the end of February 2018. The face value of the stamp is 12 hryvnia, which corresponds to the V sign (in April 2022, Ukrposhta refused to use the V and Z markings).
In second-hand books, a 6-volume collected works in 9 books will be a valuable find - the set was published in the 1990s in a small edition. After the collapse of the USSR in Ukraine, they began to discover the work of previously banned writers, of course, even then they immediately took up the reprint of Vasily Stus. This multi-volume book, prepared in Lvov by the Prosveshchenie publishing house, includes poetry, prose, literary criticism, letters, and other texts by the dissident.
