Ivan Nechui-Levyts'kyi and the Prohibitions on Publishing Ukrainian Literature

The impact of the Valuev Directive on Ukrainian literature should, in principle, be measurable quantitatively. But the quality of the evidence, the size of the empirical sample, and other factors make any such measurement practically meaningless. The only way to gauge the impact of Valuev is to examine the personal and creative reactions of the persons most directly affected by the decree. Ivan Nechui-Levyts'kyi was the most prominent Ukrainian writer in the Russian Empire, and his response to the Valuev Directive offers a revealing picture of the circumstances in which Ukrainian literature was developing in the second half of the nineteenth century.