Neoclassicists (Ukraine)

The Neoclassicists (Ukrainian: Неокласики, romanized: Neoklasyky or Неоклясики, romanized: neokliasyky), also referred to as the Academists, were a literary group based in Kyiv, Ukraine during the 1920s. Centred around the piatirne grono (lit. 'cluster of five') of Mykola Zerov, Maksym Rylsky, Pavlo Fylypovych, Mykhailo Drai-Khmara and Yuriy Klen, they were an informal group, so named by opponents during the 1925–1928 Literary Discussion debate for their evocation of theming and imagery associated with classical antiquity. The Neoclassicists opposed the "mass art" and proletarian literature that emerged following the Russian Revolution, favouring literary aesthetics over socialist ideology. The Neoclassicists ceased to exist during the early 1930s, when their members were largely either arrested or fled the Soviet Union. They were part of the Executed Renaissance.