Maksym Rylsky was one of Ukraine's most prominent Soviet-era poets, but his career nearly ended in 1931 when he was arrested by the NKVD and subjected to intense pressure to renounce "bourgeois nationalism" in his work. He complied, survived the purges, and went on to lead the Institute of Art Studies, Folklore, and Ethnography in Kyiv — an institution that quietly preserved Ukrainian cultural material throughout the Stalin years. The coin was issued on the 110th anniversary of his birth.
Maksym Rylsky was one of Ukraine's most prominent Soviet-era poets, but his career nearly ended in 1931 when he was arrested by the NKVD and subjected to intense pressure to renounce "bourgeois nationalism" in his work. He complied, survived the purges, and went on to lead the Institute of Art Studies, Folklore, and Ethnography in Kyiv — an institution that quietly preserved Ukrainian cultural material throughout the Stalin years. The coin was issued on the 110th anniversary of his birth.