Zerov Mykola
Zerov Mykola was born on April 26, 1890 in county town of Zinkiv in Poltava land into large family of a teacher of the local two-grade school. (Her mother, Mariya Yakivna, derived from the Cossack family of Yaresko from near Dykanka town). After leaving Zinkiv school where his classmate was a future famous comic writer Ostap Vyshnya, Zerov attended Okhtyrka high school and First Kyiv high school. In 1908 to 1914 he studied at historical-philological faculty of Kyiv University.
In 1912 the first articles and reviews by Zerov came out in the magazine “Svitlo” (Light) and newspaper “Rada” (Council). Between 1914 and 1917 he taught Latin at Zlatopil high school. From 1917 Mykola worked as a teacher for Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood Kyiv Second High School, from 1919 he was appointed a Professor of Kyiv Architectural Institute, and from autumn 1923 he was Professor at Kyiv Institute of People's Education.
Mykola Zerov has been rightly considered the leader of ‘Neoclassicists’ - a group of poets, translators, and critics of literature, O. Burgardt, M. Dray-Khmara, M. Rylsky and P. Fylypovych are also referred to. Although they were not formally constituted a separate literary organization, what they had in common was their high aesthetic criteria that comprised the priority of human values in art. In his original poetic creation Zerov preferred sonnets and Alexandrines that stand out for perfection of form and for profound philosophical penetration into the life. As a translator he has made interpretations of the ancient heritage and the French Parnassians as well as works of many other classical poets, which has been unsurpassed in many ways to this day.
As a critic Zerov actively participated in the so-called literary discussion of 1925 to 1928 while supporting and sustaining the attitude of M. Khvylovy. A big number of substantive researches on history of the Ukrainian literature also belong to him. The book “Roman Poetry Anthology” (1920), “Kamena”, “Lesya Ukrainka”, “New Ukrainian literature” (1924), “Back to the sources” (1926), “From Kulish up to Vynnychenko” (1929) came out in separate editions in Ukraine.
M. Zerov’s literary work was continually accompanied by malicious attacks of vulgar sociological criticism, and since the late 1920s the true political harassment of the writer began. In 1930 he was questioned as a witness in court due to the proceedings against the so-called the Union for Ukrainian Liberation (SVU Process). In the night before April 28, 1935 he was detained at the station of Pushkino near Moscow. On May 20 Zerov has been convoyed to Kyiv for investigation. Accusation: leading a counterrevolutionary nationalist terrorist organization.
After some ”shufflings”, “Zerov’s group” has been finally specified within six persons: Mykola Zerov, Pavlo Fylypovych, Anany Lebid’, Marko Vorony, Leonid Mytkevych, Borys Pylypenko.
Kyiv Military District Tribunal in closed judicial session between February 1 to February 4, 1936 without the prosecution and defense has considered the case No 0019-1936. M. Zerov was charged with leadership of 
the Ukrainian nationalist counter-revolutionary organization and, according to the articles of the Criminal Code of the then USSR, the tribunal sentenced him to be imprisoned for 10 years at Corrective Labour Camps, followed by confiscation of his own property. It could be interesting to quote the information in vindication decision regarding M. Zerov: “Inspection has found that a former USSR NKVD employee Ovchinnikov who took part in the investigation of the case was convicted for violation of socialist legality, and the former secret policeman Litman was dismissed from the organs of State Security for falsification of the investigative material due to the facts that defamed his officer rank.” Thus the following confession of Zerov in the court sounded like mockery: “On my part, there was only one call to terror, it’s in the form of reciting a poem by Kulish during a meeting at Rylsky’s place.” It is referred here to Zerov’s declaiming the poem “To Kobza” by P. Kulish at Rylsky’s flat on December 26, 1935 where two “neoclassicists” and young writer Serhiy Zhyhalko commemorated those shot on charges of belonging to the mythical “Association of Ukrainian Nationalists” O. Vlyzko, K. Bureviy, D. Falkivsky, H. Kosynka and others. However, at that time a “representative of Proletarian Truth newspaper” whose being there was repeatedly cited during the trial also came to Rylsky’s by chance (chance?). But neither his name was called nor he was ever interrogated, even as a witness, during the investigation for some reason...
In early June 1936 the prisoner transport of those convicted in the case of this “gang” arrived in Solovki. Zerov completely dedicated himself to his favorite activity, translation, in short minutes of his free time. According to many witnesses, he completed his longstanding work on Ukrainian version of “Aeneid” by Virgil (the manuscript of this translation was lost or destroyed).
Without any further reason or explanation “the case of Zerov and others” was urgently reviewed by “special troika” at Leningrad Regional NKVD Authority on October 9, 1937, which resulted in the capital punishment to Zerov, Fylypovych, Vorony and Pylypenko. All of them were shot on November 3, 1937.
By the decision of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR dated March 31, 1958, the sentence of Kyiv Military District Tribunal dated February 1 – 4, 1936 and the resolution of “Special Troika” at Leningrad Regional NKVD Authority dated October 9, 1937 has been canceled, the charge dismissed.
Mykola Zerov has been posthumously rehabilitated.
