Olga Yulianivna Kobylyanska is a Ukrainian modernist writer.
Place of Birth, Education
She was born on November 27, 1863 in the town of Góra-Humora, located in Southern Bukovina, in the family of an employee.
In the period from 1873 to 1877, she studied at a German elementary school. In the future, she acquired knowledge on her own.
Career
In the period from 1889 to 1891, Kobylyanska lived in the village of Dymka. Later, she moved to Chernivtsi with her family. In the city, she joined the women’s movement.
In 1894, she became one of the founders of the “Society of Ruthenian Women in Bukovina”. An important stage in her life was her acquaintance with Sophia Okunevska, who at that time was considered one of the most educated women in Galicia. It was Okunevska who convinced the writer to switch to the Ukrainian language in literary work and introduced her to Natalia Kobrynska, a Ukrainian writer and an active participant in the women’s movement. Under the influence of these ideas, Kobylianska became the first author in Ukrainian literature to raise the topic of women’s emancipation.
Kobylianska’s worldview was formed under the influence of the philosophical ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche.
In 1899, she visited the Dnieper Ukraine for the first time, where she visited the Kosach family in Volyn, visited the Lysenko and Starytsky families in Kyiv, and also visited Kaniv, where she honored the memory of Taras Shevchenko.
After the end of the First World War and the establishment of the Romanian occupation authorities in the territory of Northern Bukovina, the writer’s life became more complicated due to harassment by the administration.
In 1927, the publication of a nine-volume edition of her works began in Ukraine. In the same year, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of her literary work, the government awarded the writer a pension, which gave her the opportunity to buy her own home. It was in this house that she spent the last years of her life.
Kobylianska died on March 21, 1942 in the city of Chernivtsi.
Creativity
Kobylianska began her literary activity in the mid-1880s. Her first works were written in German. The first literary text written in Ukrainian, the story “Man”, was published in 1895 on the pages of the magazine “Zorya”. The work was the second edition of the story “She Got Married”, which was previously written in German.
The writer dedicated the story “Man” to Natalia Kobrynskaya. It touches on the theme of a woman with education who is unable to come to terms with the lack of spirituality of the bourgeois environment.
Subsequently, Kobylianska wrote a number of stories and novellas, including “He and She” (1895), “The Princess” (1896), “What I Loved” (1896), “Aristocrat” (1898) and others.
One of the most poetic is the lyrical and romantic story “On Sunday Early the Potion Was Digging”, which Kobylianska wrote in 1909. The plot is based on the motives of the famous ballad song “Oh don’t go, Hrytsia, and at the party”.
In the period from 1915 to 1923, Kobylianska turned to the theme of war, writing a series of anti-war short stories. Among these works are “The Forest Mother”, “Judas”, “Towards Fate”, “Dreaming” and others.
Also an important role was played by the novel “The Apostle of the Mob”, which was published in 1926. In it, the writer raised the problem of relations between the intelligentsia and the people against the background.
Interesting Facts
Here are some interesting facts from the life of Kobylianskaya:
- She drew well, and also played various musical instruments, mastering the game by ear. She was fond of horses and kept herself perfectly in the saddle;
- She began to write her first poems and prose works in German when she was about 13 or 14 years old;
- the writer was personally acquainted with Lesya Ukrainka. Although only a few personal meetings took place in their lives, both writers corresponded actively;
- did not like her photographs too much;
- She raised an adopted child – the daughter of one of her brothers, who was born out of wedlock. Her own mother left the girl and went to Vienna. Since then, the child has lived with Kobylianska;
- She provided for herself financially and bought a house at her own expense. In the 1930s, when she lived in Chernivtsi, she became interested in silent films and at the age of 70 did not miss a single new film. She went to the cinemas with her friends and always paid the entrance fee for everyone.
