Queer Places:
Baykova Cemetery
Kiev, City of Kiev, Ukraine
Lesya Ukrainka[1]
(born Larysa Petrivna
Kosach-Kvitka, February 25 [O.S.
February 13] 1871 – August 1 [O.S.
July 19] 1913) is one of
Ukrainian literature's foremost writers, best known for her poems and
plays. She also was an active
political, civil, and
feminist activist.[2]
In 1901 she met the Ukrainian
modernist writer
and
feminist Olha Kobylianska. The meeting produced an intensely
passionate union that was realised through correspondence as illness and
circumstances prevented them from living together.[4]
The literary critic Ihor Kostetsky later suggested that their relationship
was
lesbian, while
George S. N. Luckyj believes that: "There was probably little or no
physical contact between the two women, though the language of their
letters appears homo-erotic".
Among Ukrainka's most well-known works are the collections of poems
On the wings of songs (1893), Thoughts and Dreams (1899),
Echos (1902), the epic poem Ancient fairy tale (1893), One
word (1903), plays Princess (1913), Cassandra
(1903—1907), In the Catacombs (1905), and Forest song
(1911).
Ukrainka was born in 1871 in the town of Novohrad-Volynskyi of Ukraine.
She was the second child of Ukrainian writer and publisher Olha
Drahomanova-Kosach, better known under her literary pseudonym Olena
Pchilka. Ukrainka's father was Petro Antonovych Kosach (from Serbian
Kosača noble family), head of the district assembly of conciliators, who
came from the northern part of Chernihiv province. After completing high
school in Chernihiv Gymnasium, Kosach studied mathematics at the
University of Petersburg. Two years later, he moved to Kiev University and
graduated with a degree in law. In 1868 he married Olha Drahomaniv, who
was the sister of his friend Mykhaylo Petrovych Drahomanov, a well-known
Ukrainian scientist, historian, philosopher, folklorist and public figure.[3][4]
Kosach, her father, was devoted to the advancement of Ukrainian culture
and financially supported Ukrainian publishing ventures. Lesya Ukrainka
had three younger sisters, Olha, Oksana, and Isydora, and a younger
brother, Mykola.[5]
Ukrainka was very close to her uncle Drahomanov, her spiritual mentor and
teacher, as well as her brother Mykhaylo, known under the pseudonym
Mykhaylo Obachny, whom she called "Mysholosie."
Lesya inherited her father's features, eyes, height, and build. Like
her father, she was highly principled, and they both held the dignity of
the individual in high regard. Despite their many similarities, Lesya and
her father were different in that her father had a gift for mathematics,
but no gift for languages; on the contrary, Lesya had no gift for
mathematics, but she knew English, German, French, Italian, Greek, Latin,
Polish, Russian, Bulgarian, and her native Ukrainian.[4]
Lesya's mother, a poet, wrote poetry and short stories for children in
Ukrainian. She was also active in the women's movement and published a
feminist almanac.[6]
Ukrainka's mother played a significant role in her upbringing. The
Ukrainian language was the only language used in the household, and to
enforce this practice, the children were educated by Ukrainian tutors at
home, in order to avoid schools that taught Russian as the primary
language. Ukrainka learned how to read at the age of four, and she and her
brother Mykhaylo could read foreign languages well enough to read
literature in the original.[7]
By the time she was eight, Ukrainka wrote her first poem, "Hope," which
was composed in reaction to the arrest and exile of her aunt, Olena
Kosach, for taking part in a political movement against the tsarist
autocracy. In 1879, her entire family moved to Lutsk. That same year her
father started building houses for the family in the nearby village of
Kolodiazhne.[8]
It was at this time that her uncle, Mykhaylo Drahomanov, encouraged her to
study Ukrainian folk songs, folk stories, and history, as well to peruse
the Bible for its inspired poetry and eternal themes. She also was
influenced by the well-known composer Mykola Lysenko, as well as the
famous Ukrainian dramatist and poet Mykhailo Starytsky.[9]:12
At age thirteen, her first published poem, "Lily of the Valley,"
appeared in the magazine Zorya in Lviv. It was here that she first
used her pseudonym, which was suggested by her mother because in the
Russian Empire, publications in the Ukrainian language were forbidden.
Ukrainka's first collection of poetry had to be published secretly in
western Ukraine and snuck into Kiev under her pseudonym.[10]
At this time, Ukrainka was well on her way of becoming a pianist, but due
to tuberculosis of the bone, she did not attend any outside educational
establishment. Writing was to be the main focus of her life.[9]:10
The poems and plays of Ukrainka are associated with her belief in her
country's freedom and independence. Between 1895 and 1897, she became a
member of the Literary and Artistic Society in Kiev, which was banned in
1905 because of its relations with revolutionary activists.[11]
In 1888, when Ukrainka was seventeen, she and her brother organized a
literary circle called Pleyada (The Pleiades), which they founded to
promote the development of Ukrainian literature and translation of foreign
classics into Ukrainian. The organization was based on the French school
of poesy, the Pleiade. Their gatherings took place in different homes and
were joined by Mykola Lysenko, P. Kosach, Kostiantyn Mykhalchuk, Mykhailo
Starytsky, and others.[12]
One of the works they translated was Nikolai Gogol's Evenings on a Farm
Near Dikanka.
Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Franko were the main inspiration of her early
poetry, which was associated with the poet's loneliness, social isolation
and adoration of the Ukrainian nation's freedom.[13]
Her first collection of poetry, Na krylakh pisen' (On the Wings
of Songs), was published in 1893. Since Ukrainian publications were
banned by the Russian Empire, this book was published in Western Ukraine,
which was part of Austria-Hungary at the time, and smuggled into Kiev.
Ukrainka's illness made it necessary for her to travel to places where
the climate was dry, and, as a result, she spent extended periods of time
in Germany, Austria, Italy, Bulgaria, Crimea, the Caucasus, and Egypt. She
loved experiencing other cultures, which was evident in many of her
literary works, such as The Ancient History of Oriental Peoples,
originally written for her younger siblings. The book was published in
L'viv, and Ivan Franko was involved in its publication. It included her
early poems, such as "Seven Strings," "The Starry Sky," "Tears-Pearls,"
"The Journey to the Sea," "Crimean Memories," and "In the Children's
Circle."
Ukrainka also wrote epic poems, prose dramas, prose, several articles
of literary criticism, and a number of sociopolitical essays. She was best
known for her plays Boyarynya (1914; The Noblewoman), a
psychological tragedy centered on the Ukrainian family in the 17th
century,[14]
which refers directly to Ukrainian history, and Lisova pisnya
(1912; The Forest Song), the characters of which include
mythological beings from Ukrainian folklore.
In 1897, while being treated in Yalta, Ukrainka met Serhiy Merzhynsky,
an official from Minsk who was also receiving treatment for tuberculosis.
The two fell in love, and her feelings for Merzhynsky were responsible for
her showing a different side of herself. Examples include "Your Letters
Always Smell of Withered Roses," "To Leave Everything and Fly to You," and
"I'd Like to Wind around You Like Ivy," which were unpublished in her
lifetime. Merzhynsky died with Ukrainka at his bedside on March 3, 1901.
She wrote the entire dramatic poem "Oderzhyma" ("The Possessed") in one
night at his deathbed.
Ukrainka actively opposed Russian tsarism and was a member of Ukrainian
Marxist organizations. In 1902 she translated the Communist Manifesto into
Ukrainian. She was briefly arrested in 1907 by tsarist police and remained
under surveillance thereafter.
In 1907, Ukrainka married Klyment Kvitka, a court official, who was an
amateur ethnographer and musicologist. They settled first in Crimea, then
moved to Georgia.
Ukrainka died on August 1, 1913 at a health resort in Surami, Georgia.
There are many monuments to Lesya Ukrainka in Ukraine and many other
former Soviet Republics. Particularly in Kiev, there is a main monument at
the boulevard that bears her name and a smaller monument in the Mariyinsky
Park (next to Mariyinsky Palace). There is also a bust in Garadagh raion
of Azerbaijan. One of the main Kiev theaters, the Lesya Ukrainka National
Academic Theater of Russian Drama is colloquially referred to simply as
Lesya Ukrainka Theater.
Under initiatives of local Ukrainian diasporas, there are several
memorial societies and monuments to her throughout Canada and the United
States, most notably a monument on the campus of the University of
Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.[15]
There is also a bust of Ukrainka in Soyuzivka in New York State.
Each summer since 1975, Ukrainians in Toronto gather at the Lesya
Ukrainka monument in High Park to celebrate her life and work.[16]
On May 28, 2007, the National Bank of Ukraine released a 200-hryvnia
banknote depicting Lesya Ukrainka.
According to image consultant Oleh Pokalchuk, Ukrainka's hairstyle
inspired the over-the-head braid of Yulia Tymoshenko.[17]
My published books:
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