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Vitaly Korotich

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Vitaly Korotich
Виталий Коротич
Виталій Коротич
Born(1936-05-26)26 May 1936
Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, USSR
Died29 September 2025(2025-09-29) (aged 89)
Moscow, Russia
Alma materKyiv Medical University
OccupationsWriter, journalist

Vitaly Alekseevich Korotich (Russian: Виталий Алексеевич Коротич; Ukrainian: Віталій Олексійович Коротич, Vitaliy Oleksiyovych Korotych; 26 May 1936 – 29 September 2025) was a Soviet, Ukrainian and Russian writer, journalist, poet[1] and KGB agent.[2][3][4]

Life and career

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Korotich was born on 26 May 1936 in Kyiv.[1] He graduated from the Kyiv Medical University in 1959 and worked as a doctor between 1959 and 1966. Later, he became a full-time writer, and served as an officer of the Union of Soviet Writers.[5]

In the late 1970s, Korotich became the editor of Vsesvit, a Ukrainian literary magazine in Kyiv specializing in publishing literary works translated from foreign languages.[6] His magazine was described at the time as one "that probably prints more of the latest American fiction than any magazine in Moscow."[7]

In 1976, Korotich spent three weeks as a writer-in-residence at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.[5] In 1984, still the editor-in-chief of Vsesvit, he was in New York as a member of the Ukrainian SSR's delegation at the United Nations General Assembly.[8] In 1985, he visited Canada as well, participating in a campaign for world peace and for nuclear disarmament.[9]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Korotich was editor-in-chief of Ogonyok magazine in Moscow, which made, some say, a substantial contribution to the promotion of media freedom in the former USSR. The Ogonyok magazine, at the time when Korotich was at its head, was regarded as a "megaphone" for the perestroika and glasnost policies of the last USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev.

In 1992 Korotich went to the United States and was a visiting professor of journalism at Boston University, also lecturing at Boston College on 19 October.[10]

According to Korotich, he did not have a Ukrainian passport. He believed that Crimea should be under Russian protectorate and independent from Ukraine.[11] He later approved of the Russian invasion of his native Ukraine.[12] In 2024, he stated that "a war is being waged against Russia", while "Ukraine is just an expandable."[13] He also called Volodymyr Zelenskyi "one of the most obedient American satellites" and said that Americans "forbid him from negotiating peace" and "could oust Zelensky" if he tried to negotiate with Russians again.[14] Korotich died on 29 September 2025.[15]

Cooperation with KGB

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In 1963, he was recruited by the KGB and was referred to as Agent Yanvarsky. His three-month stay in Canada in 1965 was believed to "contribute to the process of further disintegration of Ukrainian nationalist organisations abroad." Korotich was also informing the KGB against Ukrainian dissident poet Ivan Drach and the head of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians, Petro Kravchuk.[16]

Literary activities

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Korotych was an author of several works of prose and poetry[1] in Ukrainian language.[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "IN MEMORIAM: Помер поет Віталій Коротич". 30 September 2025. Retrieved 1 October 2025.
  2. ^ Издательский дом "Новый Взгляд". О музыке, кино, политике легко! КОЛУМНИСТЫ «НОВОГО ВЗГЛЯДА». Newlookmedia.ru. Retrieved on 2010-12-22.
  3. ^ Газета «Новый Взгляд». Newlookmedia.ru. Retrieved on 2010-12-22.
  4. ^ Газета «Новый Взгляд». Newlookmedia.ru. Retrieved on 2010-12-22.
  5. ^ a b Marshall Fine, Poet provides a view of Soviet Writers, Lawrence Journal-World, Sep 28, 1976
  6. ^ Gibbs, Joseph (1999), Gorbachev's glasnost: the Soviet media in the first phase of perestroika, Volume 9 of Eastern European studies, Texas A&M University Press, p. 110, ISBN 0-89096-892-6
  7. ^ Anthony Austin, Americans sense new vitality in Soviet writers, Sarasota Herald-Tribune – Sep 16, 1979
  8. ^ List of delegations – United Nations. General Assembly
  9. ^ Disparate trio joins to combat nuclear weapons, The Saturday Windsor Star – Jun 8, 1985
  10. ^ "Ukrainian journalist to speak". Boston College Chronicle. Vol. 1, no. 4. Boston College. 15 October 1992. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  11. ^ Jongeneel, Judith. "The weekly Ogonyok in Soviet and American public discourse. The image of the Soviet liberalisations in East and West (1986—1991)". p. 11. Archived from the original on 31 January 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2025.
  12. ^ "Умер Виталий Коротич — украинский поэт и редактор перестроечного «Огонька»". BBC News Russian (in Russian). 30 September 2025. Retrieved 1 October 2025.
  13. ^ "Коротич: Конфликт на Украине стал для США пьянкой, на которой не трезвеют". Komsomolskaya Pravda (in Russian). 1 January 2024. Retrieved 1 October 2025.
  14. ^ "Виталий Коротич: Американцы могли бы изгнать Зеленского с Украины". Komsomolskaya Pravda (in Russian). 8 September 2024. Retrieved 1 October 2025.
  15. ^ Виталий Коротич умер в Москве (in Russian)
  16. ^ "Із поетів — у сексоти". Ukrainian Worldwide Information Network (in Ukrainian). 19 December 2024. Retrieved 1 October 2025.
  17. ^ "Віталій Коротич (1936)". Retrieved 1 October 2025.
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