Family and education Lesya Ukrainka was born in 1871 in the town of
Novohrad-Volynskyi (now Zviahel) in
Ukraine. She was the second child of Ukrainian writer and publisher Olha Drahomanova-Kosach, better known under her pen-name
Olena Pchilka. Ukrainka's father was Petro Kosach (from the
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, Ukrainka's father Kosach studied mathematics at the University of Petersburg. Two years later he moved to Saint Vladimir Imperial University of Kiev (now
Kyiv University) and graduated with a law degree. In 1868 Kosach married Olha Drahomanova, the sister of his friend
Mykhailo Drahomanov, a well-known Ukrainian scientist, historian, philosopher, folklorist, and public figure. 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. Ukrainka was very close with her uncle Drahomanov, her spiritual mentor and teacher, as well as her elder brother Mykhailo, known under the pen name Mykhailo Obachny, whom she called "Mysholosie" after their parents' joint nickname for both of them. Lesya inherited her father's physical 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; conversely, Lesya had no gift for mathematics, but she knew
English,
German,
French,
Italian,
Greek,
Latin,
Polish,
Russian,
Bulgarian, and her
native Ukrainian. 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 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 Mykhailo could read foreign languages well enough to read literature in the original.
Early poetry 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. It was at this time that her uncle, Mykhailo 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. 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 secretly brought into Kyiv under her pseudonym. 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. 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 Kyiv, which was banned in 1905 because of its relations with revolutionary activists. 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, Petro Kosach, Kostiantyn Mykhalchuk, Mykhailo Starytsky, and others. One of the works they translated was
Nikolai Gogol's
Evenings on a Farm Near Dykanka.
Taras Shevchenko and
Ivan Franko were the main inspiration of her early poetry, which was associated with Ukrainka's loneliness,
social isolation, and longing for the Ukrainian nation's freedom. 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
Kyiv.
Later career and illness . From left:
Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky,
Vasyl Stefanyk,
Olena Pchilka, Lesya Ukrainka,
Mykhailo Starytsky,
Hnat Khotkevych,
Volodymyr Samiilenko 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 Lviv, 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 several
sociopolitical essays. She was best known for her plays
Boyarynya (1914;
The Noblewoman), a psychological tragedy centred on the Ukrainian family in the 17th century located at Corso Felice Cavallotti, 112. Lesya Ukrainka actively opposed Russian tsarism and was a member of Ukrainian
Marxist organizations. In 1901, she gave the
Austro-Marxist Mykola Hankevich a Ukrainian translation of
The Communist Manifesto made by "her comrades from Kyiv". She was briefly arrested in 1907 by tsarist police and remained under surveillance thereafter. In 1907, Lesya Ukrainka married
Klyment Kvitka, a court official, who was an amateur ethnographer and musicologist. They settled first in
Crimea, then moved to
Georgia.
Death and funeral After returning from her annual trip to a health resort in Egypt in May 1913, Ukrainka visited her family and friends in Kyiv. Her old friend
Liudmyla Starytska-Cherniakhivska recalled, that it was clear that this meeting would be the last: due to physical weakness, the poetess could barely rise from her bed, but she still preserved interest for civic and cultural life, and shared her creative plans. After arriving to the Caucasus through
Odesa, Ukrainka joined her husband in
Kutaisi. There she continued dictating her poems and wrote several letters to friends and family. Suffering from fever caused by tuberculosis of the bone, lungs and kidneys, Lesya was tended to by her mother and sisters, who came to assist her husband. On 23 July, on advice of a doctor, the family decided to transfer the terminally ill poetess to the resort village of
Surami, which was considered to have a better climate. Three days later, Lesya's state deteriorated further, and on 30 July she started refusing food. Having learned about the severity of her illness,
Olha Kosach-Kryvyniuk set on a journey from Ukraine to support her family, but arrived only a few hours after her sister's death. Lesya Ukrainka died in the early hours of 1 August 1913, cared by her mother until the last moments. On 7 August 1913, crowds of people gathered at
Kyiv railway station to meet the train which brought the body of the poetess back to Ukraine. On the same day, a funeral march was organized to
Baikove Cemetery. Despite a police ban on gatherings, many members of the procession were able to lay wreaths and flowers on Ukrainka's grave. == Sexuality ==