Biography of Lesya Ukrainka: photos and interesting facts. Unusual facts from the life of Lesya Ukrainian

Larisa Petrovna Kosach was born on February 13 (25), 1871 in the city of Novograd-Volynsky. Mother - a writer who worked under the pseudonym Elena Pchilka, father - an educated landowner Pyotr Antonovich Kosach (1841--1909), who was very fond of literature and painting. Writers, artists and musicians often gathered in the house of the Kosachs, evenings and home concerts were held. Uncle Lesya (as she was called in the family, and this household name became pseudonym) - Mikhailo Drahomanov, who over time took care of his niece in a friendly way and helped her in every possible way - was a scientist, folklorist, public figure, lived abroad for a long time in France and Bulgaria. Lesya thoroughly studied a number of foreign languages, which gave her the opportunity to become widely acquainted with classical works world literature.

Lesya began to play and compose small pieces of music from the age of five, at the age of nine she wrote her first poem. In 1881, she suddenly fell seriously ill. She suffered from unbearable pain in her right leg. At first they decided that she had acute rheumatism, they treated her with baths, ointments, herbs, but it was all to no avail. The pain passed into my hands. The doctors were finally able to determine that it was bone tuberculosis. On the musical career Lesya was given a cross. After the first, difficult but extremely unsuccessful operation hand was crippled.

Ukrainka began writing and publishing at the age of 12. To her early works includes the Ukrainian translation of Gogol's "Evenings on a Farm" (co-authored with his brother). Ukrainka was published in foreign magazines Zorya, Live and Word, Literary and Scientific Bulletin.

Lesya was treated in the Crimea, Egypt and Greece, in Germany and Austria, as well as with a folk healer in the village. Kosiv region (now Sumy region). Everything was useless. To the aggravated process of bone tuberculosis was added incurable disease kidneys. Lesya Ukrainka died on August 1, 1913 in the Georgian town of Surami. She was buried at the Baikove cemetery in Kyiv.

In 1897, in Yalta, Larisa Petrovna met Sergei Konstantinovich Merzhinsky, a public figure, a graduate of the Kyiv University of St. Vladimir. Merzhinsky lived for some time in Yalta, undergoing treatment for tuberculosis. Four years later Lesya (in 1901) Lesya goes to the winter Minsk to visit her mortally ill lover. In the difficult winter months, one of her strongest dramas is born - “Obsessed”, Sergei Merzhinsky dies, and Larisa Petrovna puts on black mourning clothes forever.

In 1907, the poetess returned to the Crimea again with Kliment Vasilyevich Kvitka, who later became her husband. A hasty move saved the life of Kliment Kvitka, tuberculosis gradually receded. During their married life, Kliment Kvitka recorded songs that Lesya remembered from childhood. And already after the death of his wife, in 1917 he published a two-volume photocopy of "Melodies from the voice of Lesya Ukrainka" in a photoscopic way. Kliment Vasilyevich lived until 1953, outliving his wife by 40 years.

Creation

The literary activity of Lesya Ukrainka proceeded in the era of imperialism and the first Russian revolution. AT Ukrainian literature of that time, the naturalistic, decadent-symbolist and revolutionary-democratic currents were determined. P. Grabovsky, M. Kotsiubinsky and Teslenko adjoined the latter, sharply opposed to all bourgeois-nationalist literature. Lesya Ukrainka had a negative attitude towards both decadents and naturalists. Departing from the liberals, she became more and more imbued with revolutionary ideas, approaching the revolutionary democrats.

Worldview of Ukrainka in the late 1880s - early 1890s not yet complete; it sometimes showed the influence of liberalism; but in the future the writer freed herself from them, definitely and resolutely drawing closer to revolutionary democracy (especially during the period of the revolution of 1905).

The creative method of Ukrainka is closer to romanticism than to realism, but fundamentally it differed sharply from the method of the decadent Ukrainian neo-romantics, especially the symbolists, primarily in its ideological and thematic orientation, as well as artistic means. Unlike many decadent romantics, Ukrainka did not idealize the past, although she created her images on historical material; passionately hating the oppressive reality tsarist Russia, she did not indulge in pessimism, did not fall into despair, but on the contrary, she called for the struggle for complete liberation from all oppression and the destruction of the exploitation of man by man. Romanticism Ukrainka was permeated with a revolutionary mood.

In early lyric and epic works The Ukrainian woman felt the influence of the previous and contemporary Ukrainian liberal-bourgeois poetry: P. Kulish, Ya. historical images the Greek poetess Sappho, Queen Mary Stuart; along with the folk-song rhythm and stanza (the so-called "Kolomyykova") - hexameter, distich and sonnet. Already in the first poetic experiments of Ukrainka, something new, original, peculiar, not similar to the works of her Ukrainian literary teachers, was felt.

The poetry of Ukrainka was greatly influenced by Russian and Western European literature, especially G. Heine, whom she translated a lot (“Book of songs”, published in 1892 in Lvov, “Atta Troll”, “Weavers”, etc.). The Ukrainian was also under the influence of Shevchenko. Under the influence of Shevchenko's ballads, the Ukrainian wrote her own an early poem"Mermaid", in which, according to Ukrainian poet and criticism of I. Franko, was "a weak echo of Shevchenko's ballads without life observations and social contrasts." In the future, Shevchenko's influence became deeper. It manifested itself mainly in the Ukrainian woman's passionate hatred of tsarism.

In the intimate lyrics of Ukrainka, at first the usual motives of nature and love prevailed. In most cases they are infiltrated sad moods. The grief of the poetess, aggravated by a serious illness, unlike the grief of contemporary poets, is not inspired by literary samples - she is sincere, direct. The lyrics of Ukrainka reflect the heavy internal struggle between the personal and the public. public motives began to appear in the lyrics of Ukrainka very early (“V’yazen”, “If I get tired ...”, etc.). First of all, these are the motives of dissatisfaction with the unbearable tsarist reality, anger and hatred for tsarism, protest against national and social oppression, and the desire for complete freedom. The Ukrainian gradually but consistently overcame personal suffering, becoming more and more convinced that the role of the poet is in serving the people; sometimes, like many romantics, she idealized this role (“Spivets”, “Contra spem Spero”, “My Way”, “Dawn Lights”). Dissatisfaction with reality was initially refracted through the prism of protest against the national oppression of the Ukrainian people. But at the same time, she was also aware of social oppression (“If I get tired ...”, “Slavus-Sclavus”). She expressed dissatisfaction with the conciliatory, servile policy of the Ukrainian liberals (“Word, why are you not a firm cry?”, “Comrades in memory”). In the years preceding the revolution of 1905, we observe in the poetry of Ukrainka and bright revolutionary motifs (“Turn”, “Polar Night”, “Oh, how important it is ...”, “Dym”, “Written in the ruins”). Being the largest poet after Shevchenko in pre-revolutionary Ukrainian literature, Ukrainka widely used in her lyrics the formal achievements of Russian and world poetry and, in particular, the wealth of Ukrainian folklore.

The main ideological motives of the lyrics of Ukrainka received further development in a number of epic poems("Samson", "Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland", "One Word"). In the poem "Long Taska", which deals with the role of the poet in society, one can feel the influence of Heine's satire. In the poem "Vila Posestra" Ukrainka used Serbian folklore, and in the poem "Izolda Biloruk" - the medieval novel "Tristan and Isolde".

In the late 1890s and early 1900s. Ukrainian gave herself mainly dramatic genres. Her first play Blakitna Troyanda (1896), although staged, was not particularly successful. In the future, the Ukrainian performed for the most part in the genre of a dramatic poem and drama, not designed for staging in the theater. In dramatic works, the talent of the poetess reaches a climax in its development. characteristic feature Ukrainka's drama is the widespread use of images of world literature and plot material from the field of history and mythology of various eras and peoples of the world. The poetess gave an original interpretation of the plot, filled it with new ideological content, skillfully handling classic plot situations. In the dramatic poems "The Babylonian Full" (1903) and "On the Ruins" (1904), the theme of the struggle against national oppression and the conflict between the individual and society was developed. The fantastic drama "Autumn Tale" was the first response of Ukrainka to the revolutionary events of 1905. This allegorical work is imbued with the revolutionary-democratic idea of ​​the struggle against tsarism. It testifies that during the revolution of 1905 Ukrainka was aware of the leading role of the proletariat in the revolution and sharply condemned the treacherous policy of the liberal-bourgeois intelligentsia. Drama before the revolution could not be published under censorship conditions. In the same year, the dramatic poem "At the Catacombs" was written, depicting the conflict of a neophyte slave with the Christian community in the first centuries of Christianity. The image of a Protestant slave breaking with the community and going to the camp of the rebellious slaves is given with exceptional artistic power. This poem has not only an anti-religious meaning: it is an extremely vivid protest against all kinds of oppression and slavery.

In the dramatic poem Cassandra (1907), W. gave an original interpretation of the image of Cassandra, which has already been encountered more than once in works of world literature. Conflicts of the strong romantic heroes dramatic poems are devoted to their environment: "At the Forest" (1907), "Rufin and Priscilla" (1908), "Lawyer Martian" (1911) and "Orgy" (1911). One of the most prominent dramatic works Ukrainka is a drama extravaganza "The Fox Song" (1911), built on the rich material of Volyn folklore and written in rhythmically beautiful verse. The drama reflects dissatisfaction with reality and the desire for a better, free life. "The Fox Song" was staged many times on the stage not only of the pre-revolutionary, but also of the Soviet Ukrainian theater. original interpretation the image of Don Juan is given in the drama "Kaminniy Gospodar". In this drama, Donna Anna is shown by a Ukrainian woman not as a victim of Don Juan, but as a strong personality that seduces Don Juan from the path of protest against society and pushes him onto the path of reconciliation with it, which was the cause of the death of the hero. Creativity Ukrainka also contains samples of prose.

Ukrainian bourgeois-nationalist criticism revealed a lack of understanding of the writer's work, becoming stumped before the complex allegories and symbols of her works. She tried to devalue her the best works imbued with truly democratic ideas. From pre-revolutionary criticism, only I. Franko tried in his article (1898) to objectively assess the outstanding role of Ukrainka: poetic word, as from the lips of this weak, sick girl.

The article is based on materials Literary Encyclopedia 1929-1939.

Memory

Named after the writer:

Boulevard - in Kyiv.

Streets - in Lutsk, Moscow, Tbilisi, Batumi, Irkutsk, Minsk, Yalta, Simferopol, Kovel, Lvov, Pripyat, Chernivtsi, Gorlovka.

Volyn National University - in Lutsk.

in Kyiv - National academic theater Russian drama.

in Dneprodzerzhinsk - a musical and drama theater.

There are four museums of Lesya Ukrainka in Ukraine: in Kyiv, Yalta, Novograd-Volynsky and Kolodyazhny (in Volyn).

Many famous talented people gave the world Ukraine, including thinkers, statesmen, physicists, microbiologists, architects, athletes, actors, writers. February 25, 2016 marked the 145th anniversary of the birth of the greatest Ukrainian poetess Lesya Ukrainka, which completely changed Ukrainian poetry, enriched it with the perfection of forms, brought into it, like a sip fresh air, many poetic genres, a variety of new themes and motifs. Ivan Franko once called her the only man in Ukraine, emphasizing that among contemporary Ukrainian poets there is no equal to this beautiful, incredibly talented, strong spirit woman.

The real name of the world-famous poetess is Larisa Petrovna Kosach-Kvitka. Since childhood, the poetess knew Latin, Greek, translated German, English, French classics, but Ukrainian has always remained native. She chose her pseudonym as a girl, so that the word "Ukrainian" was written with capital letter. Lesya Kosach was born on 25.02. 1871 in the city of Novograd-Volynsky in an intelligentsia Ukrainian family. Her mother, Olga Kosach, wrote poems and stories under the pseudonym Olena Pchilka. Subsequently, her uncle Mikhail Drahomanov, a well-known folklorist, scientist, prominent public figure. He spent a long time abroad, where he was acquainted with V. Hugo, I.S. Turgenev. At the request of her mother, Lesya studied at home, as a result she received a comprehensive, albeit messy, education, which she later recalled with regret more than once. She turned out to be very talented child. At the age of four she already read, at five she played the piano beautifully, at eight she began to write poetry, which began to be published when she was 12 years old. Knowledge of several foreign languages ​​allowed Lesya to get acquainted in the original with outstanding works of literature. And suddenly, in January 1881, a terrible illness bedridden a girl gifted by nature with numerous talents. She had to lie in bed for months with her arms and leg in plaster, and so began her incredibly long “thirty-year war” with bone tuberculosis, as Lesya herself once called her illness. Parents made every effort to alleviate her suffering. However, the disease did not recede for long. She had to undergo several operations abroad, go through many painful courses of treatment.

Lesya had to say goodbye to music forever, but because of her forced immobility, her poetic talent was strengthened. In 1885, her poem "Sappho" was published. Being familiar with the masterpieces of literature, Lesya decided to translate these works into her native Ukrainian language and started with her beloved Heinrich Heine. Proficient in several foreign languages she became one of the best translators in Ukrainian literature. To deal with translations, on her initiative, a creative Group under the name "Pleiades", from which prominent Ukrainian writers later came out. Her first collection of poems, called On the Wings of Songs, was published in Lvov in 1893. Many researchers consider Maxim Slavinsky to be the first love of the young poetess, with whom she translated Heine. Then she was 15 years old, Slavinsky - 18. She dedicated such masterpieces as “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, “Burning My Heart” and others to him. But her true first love was the revolutionary Sergei Merzhinsky. Their acquaintance took place in 1897 in Yalta, where both arrived for treatment. Lesya Ukrainka was 26, he was 27. Probably they would have been happy, but Merzhinsky was ill with consumption and soon fatal disease took her beloved. On the death of her beloved, she created the dramatic poem "Possessed" in one night, which received great recognition and fame.

In August 1907, in Kyiv, Lesya Ukrainka married the musicologist and folklorist Kliment Kvitke, whom she had known for a long time thanks to mutual passion. folklore. The husband of Lesya Ukrainka tried with all his might to alleviate her illness, with the proceeds from everything previously acquired, he sent her for treatment abroad. She is treated by famous doctors from Austria, Greece, Italy, Germany and even Egypt, but the disease does not leave the great poetess and continues to progress. By the end of 1911, her condition worsened significantly, in addition to bone tuberculosis, an incurable kidney disease appeared. Traveling around the world, Lesya Ukrainka continues to write. The stronger and closer the disease, the more it works. It was then that such masterpieces as the extravaganza "Fox Song", the poems "Lawyer Martian" and "The Stone Master, or Don Juan" came out from under her pen. The greatest writer of Ukraine died in the Georgian town of Surami on August 1, 1913. She was buried at home, at the Baikove cemetery in Kyiv.

For all of us who do not remember history and are not familiar with cultural heritage.

Lesya Ukrainka is not Lesya at all, and not at all Ukrainian (that one is not Ukrainian at all).

Real name - Larisa Petrovna Kosach. Lesya's (Larisa's) parents, Pyotr Kosach and Olga Dragomanova, were Russians, more precisely, Rusyns. The family of Olga, the mother of Lesya-Larisa, came from Greek roots.

However, Lesya's mother also dabbled in poetry and published under the pseudonym Olena Pchіlka. In principle, the Ukrainian language was not native either for Lesya or Olena, but there was an order for Ukrainization, and customers from Austria paid well for the work. A friend of the family was Ivan Yakovlevich Franko (also a Rusyn?), in fact, he was also in this business. As they say, "nothing personal" And only Lesya's (Larisa Petrovna's) father, Pyotr Antonovich Kosach, was an ardent defender of the Russian language and the unity of all Russians (Great Russians, Little Russians, Belarusians ...). But who remembers this now? After all, in Soviet period remembering this was considered indecent ...

Some details (you can double-check this version if interested): http://alternatio.org/articles/item/2073-victim-mother-little-known-Lesya-Ukrainian

And this is Lesia-Larisa's mother. "Noble Maiden" Russian Empire and Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, the daughter of a landowner and the niece of the Decembrist Yakov Yakimovich Dragomanov ... http://podgift.ru/mans3_5r.htm

And here is the great-uncle of Lesya (Larisa). Yakov Akimovich (Yakimovich) Dragomanov. Decembrist, i.e. freemason, member of the Society of United Slavs. Although he opposed the Russian state system, was a true internationalist. And, as follows from the name of the society, he advocated the unity of the Slavs (in any case, such a goal was declared). By the way, he was a very worthy, honest and courageous man and officer. Although on the day of the Senate uprising he was in the hospital, and he was not threatened with hard labor, he honestly confessed his revolutionary convictions and did not deny his participation in the conspiracy ... http://www.hrono.ru/biograf/bio_d/dragomanov_jakov.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%F0%E0%E3%EE%EC%E0%ED%EE%E2,_%DF%EA%EE%E2_%DF%EA%E8%EC %EE%E2%E8%F7

Continuing to dig a little deeper around the "apple tree", next to which the dragomanov's "apples" fell, we find this. The Society of United Slavs, it turns out, favored federalization. Those. for the unification of all Slavs in a single large state: “Russia, Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary with Transylvania, Serbia, Moldova, Wallachia, Dalmatia and Croatia. Members of society considered Hungarians to be Slavs. As you can see, Ukraine this list no (i.e. it is part of Russia). At the same time, within the framework of a federal state, the “Slavs” proposed to clearly define the boundaries of each of the states included in the federation (it was not proposed to divide Russia into Great, Small, New, Red, White, etc. parts of Russia). The Society of United Slavs was perhaps the most peaceful (although some consider it the most militant) of all the Decembrist communities. Although it joined the general plan of regicide (some members of this society took an oath), the "Slavs" categorically opposed armed uprising, because military revolutions (!) "are not the cradle, but the coffin of freedom, in the name of which they are committed." However, for the freedom of the people, they were ready to shed their own blood ...

http://www.hrono.ru/libris/lib_n/nechk15.php

This is not about the origin of poets, but about the origin of the idea of ​​the separation of Russia and Ukraine (and the ensuing bloodshed). And about the origin of the most modern Ukrainian language, tailored to order ... And what's interesting: neither the customers nor the performers were Ukrainians in the ethnic sense. However, Pushkin also had a hand in the creation of the modern Russian language. But he did not do this by order of the interventionists, and the idea of ​​a new Russian ("Moskal", i.e. Pushkin!) language does not contain even a fraction of the thought of the need to separate the large Russian Slavic community.

I recommend reading this text, written by Panteleimon Kulish, one of the inventors of modern Ukrainian (still its first version, which bears little resemblance to the chimera used by modern Ukrainian politicians).

The real name of the famous Ukrainian writer is Larisa Petrovna Kosach. She was born in the city of Novograd-Volynsky. Her mother was the writer Olga Kosach, who wrote under the pseudonym Elena Pchilka. Father - Pyotr Antonovich Kosach, who was very fond of literature and painting.

Writers, artists and musicians constantly gathered in the house of the Kosachs, evenings and home concerts were held. The main role in shaping the views of the future writer was played by Lesya's uncle, Mikhail Dragomanov, a scientist, folklorist, and public figure.

Ukrainka began writing and publishing at the age of 12. Her early works include the Ukrainian translation of Gogol's "Evenings on a Farm" (co-authored with her brother). Ukrainka was published in foreign magazines "Zorya", "Live and Word", "Literary and Scientific Bulletin"

deadly disease

Lesya loved music very much. And mom bought a piano for her baby when Lesya was only five years old. However, at the age of nine, the girl fell ill with tuberculosis of the bones, and the illness chained her to bed.

Lesya had to lie with plastered arms and legs for months. One day, her aunt, Alexandra Antonovna, who taught the girl to play the piano, noticed that Lesya quite confidently knocked out the beat with a leg free from plaster. It turned out that this is how the girl ... played the piano.

Fighting fears

The girl was very brave. Even as a child, she, being afraid of the night and predatory animals, struggled with her fears and ran at night into the neighboring forest to see the mermaid.

And once dad brought a little goat as a gift for his 12-year-old daughter. Lesya became very attached to the animal. When the goat grew up, she ran into the forest, where she was torn apart by wolves. The girl, having learned about the tragedy, clenched her fists and noted that she crushed the wolf with her own hands - so that he would not dare to offend "these ones, weaker than themselves!"

Men of Lesya Ukrainka

Some researchers call the first love of the future great poetess Maxim Slavinsky. When they met, Lesya was 15, Maxim - 18. Together they translated Heine. The second romantic meeting took place in 1892. In the future, Slavinsky will become one of the leaders of the Central Rada, the ambassador of the Ukrainian People's Republic in Prague. Arrested by Chekists, he will die in prison.

Lesya Ukrainka dedicated such masterpieces to Slavinsky love lyrics like "Burning my heart", "I stood and heard spring", "Dream of a summer night", "I wish I could sing"...

But the first true love Lesya Ukrainka is called her friend in misfortune - a revolutionary with consumption Sergei Merzhinsky. They met in Yalta in 1897, having arrived for treatment. He was 27 years old, she was 26.

At first she did not like him, but gradually penetrated into the soul. He called the writer "Lesya-Larochka". He died in her arms in Minsk from pulmonary tuberculosis. At his deathbed, Lesya wrote the poem "Obsessed".

Six years after Merzhinsky's death, when Lesia was thirty-six years old, she met a first-year student Kliment Kvitka, musicologist and collector folk songs. Lesya Ukrainka invited him to record songs from her that she knew ...

When Lesya announced her decision to marry Kvitka, her mother was categorically against it. However, Lesya's character was decisive. She completely abandoned her parents' money and went to Clement to start a new, independent life with him.

Having married, Clement proved to Lesia his sincere feelings. He tried his best to raise money for the treatment of his wife, selling everything acquired for this. With the proceeds, Lesya was treated in Europe by the best doctors, but the disease continued to progress ...

Many argue that at one time the writer was not indifferent to a student at Kyiv University, who lodged at Kosachy on the street. Nazarievskaya, 21, Nestor Gambarashvili.

Then Lesya was 24. She taught him French, he taught her Georgian. Nestor got married in 1897, which was a real drama for her. Lesya wrote many letters to Nestor, unfortunately, during civil war they were irretrievably lost.

Last Stand

Lesya Ukrainka and Klyment Kvitka officially married in the church on August 7, 1097. First they settled in Kyiv, then moved to the Crimea. Clement sells his property, realizing that his wife's illness is progressing, and a miracle is needed to save her.

Lesya travels a lot around the world in the hope that doctors will still cure her of tuberculosis. In parallel, she does not stop writing.

The life of the great writer was saved by the healers of Egypt, Greece, Germany and Austria. However, everything was useless. Incurable kidney disease was added to the aggravated process of bone tuberculosis.

Lesya Ukrainka died on August 1, 1913 in the Georgian town of Surami. She was buried at the Baikove cemetery in Kyiv.