Bayda Books was founded by Yuri Tkacz in 1976 in Melbourne, Australia in his parent’s basement rumpus room and has moved many times since.

It was set up in response to Ukrainian literature in English translation not being published by and made available to an English-speaking audience. Prior to this Yuri had translated and published a literary magazine in 1975 and a collection of short stories by Anatoly Dimarov under the imprint of MUUSC (Melbourne University Ukrainian Students Club), of which he was then president.

Though Bayda Books took its name from the Cossack leader Dmytro “Bayda” Vyshnevetsky, the inspiration for the name came after staying with the Pavlyshyns in Brisbane in the 1970s and becoming acquainted with their dog Bayda.

The logo was designed by Con Aslanis, and is based on a 17th century Zaporozhian Cossack coat of arms, but with the musket replaced by a large pen.

Much criticized by elements in the community for not translating “patriotic” novels, Bayda Books criteria was to publish good quality literature, no matter if it was written in the Ukrainian SSR or in the diaspora. An important part of the Bayda philosophy was that the titles had to have an attractive cover, be easy to read, and look and feel like a run-of-the-mill novel. Back in the 1980s many of the titles were reviewed in the Australian mainstream press and were available in mainstream bookshops. Because Deserters are Immortal was read on radio and was on the English recommended reading list for schools in Victoria.

Initial print runs of books were usually 2000 copies and many of these have been out of print for some time.

One of the biggest successes was the Cossack novel Blood Brothers by Vasyl Shevchuk, with all 3000 copies practically sold out, and it enjoyed almost a cult following in the rural areas of Pennsylvania, where Andy Warhol hailed from.

From the mid 1990s and until 2010 Bayda Books went into hibernation as a publisher, and mainly imported and sold books to libraries and the local Ukrainian community in Australia. However, from 2010 it resumed publishing translated novels, and starting in 2020 began publishing new novels and out of print titles on the Amazon platform, which enabled print-on-demand to be used and greatly reduced production costs.

For the future Bayda Books envisions moving all out of print titles onto the Amazon platform, and to produce books in both printed and e-book formats.