Ukrainian writer of the sixties, poetess.
Born into a family of teachers. In 1936, the family moved to Kyiv, where Lina graduated from secondary school No. 123. She studied at the Kiev Pedagogical Institute, the A. M. Gorky Literary Institute, which she graduated in 1956.
Lina Kostenko was one of the first and most notable in the galaxy of young Ukrainian poets who appeared at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s.
The collections of her poems “Rays of the Earth” (1957) and “Sails” (1958) aroused the interest of readers and critics, and the book “Journeys of the Heart”, published in 1961, not only consolidated the success, but also showed the real creative maturity of the poetess and set her name among the outstanding masters of Ukrainian poetry.
Restrictions on the freedom of creative thought and various “disgraces” during times of stagnation led to the fact that L. Kostenko’s poems practically did not appear in print for quite a long time. But it was in those years that the poetess, in spite of everything, worked hard, in addition to lyrical genres, on the novel in verse “Marusya Churai”.
Books:“Over the Banks of the Eternal River” (1977), “Marusya Churay” (1979), “Uniqueness” (1980) have become extraordinary phenomena of modern Ukrainian poetry.
The poetess also wrote a collection of poems, “The Garden of Unmelting Sculptures” (1987), and a collection of poems for children, “The Elder King” (1987). Together with A. Dobrovolsky, the film script “Check Your Watch” (1963) was written.
In 2010, her first major prose work was published - the novel “Notes of a Ukrainian Madman,” the theme of which was defined by publisher Ivan Malkovich as a Ukrainian view of world madness.
Lina Kostenko's works have been translated into English, Belarusian, Estonian, Italian, Lithuanian, German, Russian (Book of Selected Poems, translation by Vasily Betaki, Paris, 1988), Slovak and French.
He appears extremely rarely in public and leads a reclusive lifestyle. Today Lina Kostenko lives in Kyiv.
Biography
Lina Vasilievna Kostenko was born on March 19, 1930 in the city of Rzhishchev, Kyiv region. The parents of the future poetess were teachers. In 1936, the family moved to Kyiv, where Lina graduated from school on Kurenevka and, while still a schoolgirl, began attending the literary studio at the Dnipro magazine, which was edited by Andrey Malyshko. In the post-war years, Lina began attending a literary studio at the Writers' Union of Ukraine. In 1946, her first poems were published. L. Kostenko entered the Kiev Gorky Pedagogical Institute (now the Drahomanov Pedagogical University), but left it and went to study at the Moscow Gorky Literary Institute. In 1956 she graduated from the institute, and the following year the first book of her poetry about the Prominence of the Land was published. Vitrila's second collection was published in 1958, Mandrivka's collection of hearts - in 1961.
Promises
promised to go to the barricades
Writer Lina Kostenko is ready to personally confront the invaders of the icon museum in Radomyshl. She stated this during Olga Bogomolets’ concert at the Ukrainian House.
I have been silent for a long time, but today I will say. My patience has run out. When I imagined that some bandits appeared there, in Radomyshl, in this amazing place that Olya created! I really regret that I was not with you. I don't know how it would have ended. Frankly, this is a case when you need to shoot. If this goes unpunished... I don't really like getting up from my writing desk - a writer has to write. But I see that they will provoke me and take me out...even to the barricades. They will know about this in France, and in Italy, and everywhere,” the LB.ua correspondent reports the words of Lina Kostenko.
Honorary Doctor of Chernivtsi National University (2002); laureate of the National Prize of Ukraine named after. Taras Shevchenko (1987), for the novel Marusya Churai and the collection Uniqueness); laureate of the Petrarch Prize (Italy, 1994); laureate of the International Literary and Art Prize named after. O. Teligi (2000). She was also awarded the Insignia of the President of Ukraine (1992) and the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, V degree (2000), but publicly refused the title of Hero of Ukraine: I don’t wear political jewelry. Lina Kostenko's works have been translated into English, Belarusian, Estonian, Italian, Lithuanian, German, Slovak and French.
Compromising evidence on his political strength
Tymoshenko considers Lina Kostenko to be the morality of the nation. Leader of the VO Batkivshchyna Yulia Tymoshenko called the writer Lina Kostenko the morality of the nation. Yu. Tymoshenko stated this live on the TV channel. This is the morality of the nation. This is the person that Ukraine really lacks,” Yu. Tymoshenko emphasized. She recalled that at creative meetings L. Kostenko said that it would not be possible to start well from your knees, that this was a bad position to start. In this regard, Yu. Tymoshenko noted that if we feel an inferiority complex, we are all on our knees. And as Lina Kostenko said, this is a bad position for starting. And I would like this feeling to disappear at the genetic level,” the leader of the VO Batkivshchyna emphasized. Let us remind you that L. Kostenko’s all-Ukrainian tour in support of her new novel Notes of a Ukrainian Samashed began on January 25. Of the planned seven evenings, the writer spent three - in Rivne, Kyiv and Kharkov. On February 9, a message appeared that L. Kostenko was interrupting his creative tour due to the provocative insinuations of some Lviv writers, journalists and theater workers.
The most popular in modern Ukrainian poetry is the work of Lina Kostenko.
People become familiar with her poems already at school, because... they are included for study in the school curriculum.
Lina Kostenko is one of the first and most famous poets who spoke out for freedom and justice in the 60s.
Childhood
The future star of Ukrainian poetry was born on March 19, 1930 in the city of Rzhishchev. Parents belonged to the intelligentsia and worked as teachers.
When the girl was 7 months old, her family was subjected to repression. The father was arrested. The girl had an extremely fighting and freedom-loving character.
Already at the age of 5 she demanded to be given free space. In 1936, together with her mother, Lina moved to Kyiv, where she went to secondary school No. 123.
The family settled on Trukhanov Island, located on the Dnieper. During the war, it was burned along with the population.
The formation of Lina Kostenko’s personality fell during the war years, which formed integrity and inaccessibility in the character of the poetess.
At the age of 11, during the fierce battles for the Dnieper, the girl and her family were sitting in a trench. Everyone around was crying and wailing, and Lina began to write her first poem.
She wrote it on the wall with a branch. A few moments later, this wall was blown up along with the text.
This is how the expression appeared that Lina Kostenko’s words are capable of destroying any barriers.
The first published works appeared when Lina turned 16 years old. After school, she entered the Kiev Pedagogical University, but did not graduate.
In 1952, having passed a big competition, she became a student at the Institute of Literature. Gorky in Moscow. She graduated with honors in 1956.
Poetry: a creative path
After studying, Lina Kostenko began to actively write and publish her collections. In 1957, Rays of the Earth was released, a year later, Sails.
All of them immediately received critical approval and the love of the public. In 1961, the book "Journeys of the Heart" became even more successful.
The name of the new poetess is ranked among the outstanding authors of Ukrainian poetry.
However, success was soon followed by a period of oblivion. Beginning in 1961, Lina began to be accused of opposing the existing political regime.
They stopped printing it. However, Lina Kostenko’s popularity in poetry circles only grew. Her creations increasingly showed criticism of the existing government.
In 1965, arrests began, and Lina stood up for the persecuted intelligentsia. She did this in her usual manner: she wrote letters and spoke in court.
Her behavior aroused admiration and support from young people, although such feelings were punishable at that time.
In the 60s, Lina Kostenko did not publish, but continued to write, and she also actively participated in literary circles and meetings.
After the end of political repression, 3 new collections of poems were released at once. During this difficult period, the novel “Marusya Churay” was written, published in 1979.
It became a breakthrough, a masterpiece of the poetess’s entire work. The novel is based on a love story between a Ukrainian girl and a Cossack, which ended in tragedy.
Most of Lina's poems were published in Poland and Czechoslovakia. The books “Over the Banks of the Eternal River” and “Uniqueness”, published later, also took their rightful place in modern Ukrainian poetry.
In addition to poetry, Lina Kostenko, together with A. Dobrovolsky, took part in writing the film script for the film “Check Your Watch” (1963).
In 1987, a collection of children's poems, “The Elder King,” was completed. In the same year, another book with poems, “The Garden of Unmelting Sculptures,” was published from Lina’s pen.
For a long time she was a member of the presidium of the Writers' Union. Lina Kostenko decided to try her hand at prose only in 2010.
Many works have been translated into foreign languages: Estonian, Russian, English, Italian, German, French and Lithuanian.
Last year Lina turned 86 years old. Now she lives a more unsociable life in Kyiv. She practically never gives interviews; she is rarely seen in public.
Personal life
She entered into her first marriage while still studying at the institute. A youthful love for the young Polish writer Jerzy-Jan Pachlewski ended with the creation of a family.
Soon they had a daughter, Oksana. However, Lina Kostenko was faced with the question: to stay in her homeland or leave with her husband for Warsaw.
Lina did not have the determination to follow her husband, and they separated. Now their daughter has defended her doctorate in philology, and heads the department of Ukrainian studies at the University of Rome.
With my second husband
Much later, Lina Kostenko marries again. The chosen one was the head of the film studio named after. Dovzhenko, former war hero - Vasily Tsvirkunov.
She considered him the ideal man, and named their son in honor of her husband - Vasily.
In 1973, her husband was forced to leave the film studio, and Lina supported him as best she could.
The poetess loved to travel. She and her husband traveled almost all of Ukraine in the old Zaporozhets.
She was the only writer who was not afraid to visit the Chernobyl zone after the disaster.
The poetess was even part of an expedition organized by the Ministry of Emergency Situations to Chernobyl.
In November 2000, a tragedy occurred in the family, which greatly affected Lina Kostenko’s well-being. Her husband died of a heart attack.
Son Vasily trained as a programmer, lives and works in America.
Awards
Kostenko Lina for her novel “Marusya Churay” in 1987. was awarded the prize. Shevchenko. She is an honorary professor at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy.
In 1994 she received the international Petrarch Prize, and in 2000 she was awarded the Order of Yaroslav the Wise.
In addition, Lina Kostenko was awarded the honor of becoming an honorary doctor of the Chernivtsi National University in 2002. She publicly renounced the title of Hero of Ukraine.
Kostenko Lina Vasilievna is a Ukrainian poetess who belongs to the so-called generation of the sixties. She had to go through many trials. She went into creative “hermitage.” Due to her character, she could not even get along with the Ukrainian intelligentsia, whose basic values she always defended. But Lina Kostenko, whose work and life we will consider in this short essay, has always been very beloved among young people. Students, as many years ago, go to her lectures and rare meetings with her. And every time some outstanding event happens in Ukraine, the poetess responds to it with a sharp and sometimes sarcasm-filled aphorism.
early years
Lina Vasilievna Kostenko was born in March, on the 19th of 1930, in the city of Rzhishchev, near Kyiv, into a family of teachers. Six years after her birth, the family moved to She lived on Trukhanov Island, which in those years was called the “Venice of Kyiv.” During the fascist occupation, it was burned along with the village. She graduated from two universities - the Kiev Pedagogical Institute and the Moscow Literary Institute - and in 1956 she entered adulthood. Already in those years, she was unofficially called one of the most promising poets, Lina Kostenko. A photo of our heroine in her youth shows her graceful figure, intelligent face and bold look.
"Sixties"
At first, the poetess's poems were favorably received by critics. But, starting in 1961, she began to be accused of being “apolitical” and was practically not published, and criticism of the then authorities increasingly appeared in her work. Lina Kostenko's poems began to be published in other countries - in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and were also popular in samizdat. When dissidents among the Ukrainian intelligentsia began to be arrested in 1965, she openly spoke out in defense of those persecuted in her characteristic shocking manner. She wrote letters in defense of political prisoners and threw flowers at them during the trial. Even then, young people gave her a standing ovation, despite the danger of such an expression of feelings. Although Lina Vasilievna Kostenko was not arrested herself and was not interrogated, she was simply no longer noticed in the Soviet press. Her name was not mentioned, and she herself was blacklisted. The woman worked mainly “at the table”.
Creativity of the era of disgrace
Despite the fact that the proud Ukrainian poetess was silenced, it was during this period that she wrote her most famous works. First of all, these are the collections “Princely Mountain” and “Over the Banks of the Eternal River”, as well as the novel in verse “Marusya Churay”, the poem “Berestechko” and “Thought about the Non-Azov Brothers”, the play “The Garden of Unmelting Sculptures”. Her poems, even the earliest ones, have deep philosophical overtones. She easily overcomes established literary stereotypes. The collection “Over the Banks of the Eternal River” became a real poetic discovery. Lina’s main credo was the words of one of her heroes that he was not afraid of informers in the tavern, because he preferred to express everything to the king’s face. She enjoyed such love from readers that even Soviet officials were afraid to touch her.
Images and associations
In her works, Kostenko Lina Vasilyevna turns her thoughts to traditional subjects. These are images of art, mythological characters, biographies of famous people. But at the same time, she gives all this a second and third meaning, polemicizes with the present, draws interesting parallels, and makes subtle ironic attacks. Critics claim that in this field the poetess has no equal in modern Ukrainian literature. Her poetic novel on a historical theme, “Marusya Churay,” was an amazing success. This is a literary interpretation of the famous story about unhappy love. A girl who writes popular Ukrainian songs fell in love with a Cossack, and then poisoned him for his infidelity. But the main conflict of the novel is the clash of maximalism and pragmatism, reckless faith and calculation, which many call “the ability to live.” The main creative feature of Lina Kostenko is intellectualism.
Out to people
During the era of perestroika, the poetess’s works not only began to be published, but her merits were very highly appreciated. In 1987, it was Lina Vasilievna Kostenko who received the Shevchenko Prize. The photo you see above captures what the laureate looked like that year. She received this prize precisely for the novel “Marusya Churai”. The poetess also received many other awards. These are the international Petrarch Prize (1994) and the Order of Yaroslav the Wise (2000). But she refused the title of Hero of Ukraine, sarcastically citing the fact that “she doesn’t wear jewelry.” Many of her collections and dramatic works have been published, which have not seen the light of day for many years. In 2010, her poem “Berestechko” was published, as well as her only prose novel, “Notes of a Ukrainian Madman,” which caused a huge stir. Her most popular collections of poems were “The Hyacinth Sun” and “The River of Heraclitus.”
Modern Lina Kostenko
Autobiography is not the genre that inspired the poetess. In all her eighty-odd years, she never bothered to write anything like that. But in 2012, on April 9, on the birthday of Charles Baudelaire, Ivan Dzyuba presented a book about her life, “There are poets for eras.” The poetess continues to write poetry, trying to cover vast historical spaces and comprehend the paradoxes of culture and politics. She very keenly feels the disharmony of the world in which we all live, and expresses it in ironic aphorisms with which she responds to topicality. “What is happening now,” the poetess philosophizes, “is a nightmare that humanity has dreamed. Then it will be called History. And then they will add it to the previous nightmares.” “My ears bleed when I hear how my people are being insulted.”
Apocalyptic motifs arise from such feelings in her poetry. But ultimately, Lina Kostenko’s work is not aimed at despair and hopelessness, but at the desire for perfection, humanity, the desire to reach the intelligence and dignity of fellow citizens. “And no matter what anyone says to anyone, evil will disappear and truth will win!” - she is sure. At one of the press conferences, the poetess expressed her long-standing dream. She would like not to write poetry with political overtones, but “to draw birds with a silver pencil on linen.”
