Great Poltavites

Prominent figures given to the world by Poltava region

   Lesia Ukrainka was calling Poltava region “the most Ukrainian land” not by chance while  inviting Olga Kobylianska to Hadiach.

   Poltava land is a unique, charming part of Ukraine. Picturesque nature, great monuments of history, literature, architecture, its sons’ scientific achievements, and their victory in military and labour cases - all of them has been a unique feature of Poltava area till now. There is no field of human activity not to be represented by some outstanding people from Poltava region.

   In 2007 Inter TV Channel launched “Great Ukrainians” project – the Ukrainian television program representing a talk show combined with an interactive poll for spectators, and during the interim period between telecasts, for all the citizens of Ukraine on the place and role of prominent public and political figures, military men, artists, scientists, athletes, religious leaders and others in national and world history. The project moderator – Savik Shuster, journalist, the project chief editor – Vakhtang Kipiani, Honored Journalist of Ukraine.

    Top Hundred of Great Ukrainians were listed as per the poll outcome. Final voting results were made public on April 11, 2008. Top 100 of Great Ukrainians list also includes prominent personalities related to Poltava region:

H. S. SKOVORODA (No 4)
Lesia UKRAINKA (No 5)
N. V. GOGOL (No 18)
S. V. PETLIURA (No 26)
I. P. KOTLIAREVSKY (No 29)
Pylyp ORLYK (No 36)
V. I. VERNADSKY (No 39)
M. V. LYSENKO (No 41)
S. A. KOVPAK (No 42)
O. T. HONCHAR (No 72)
V. A. SYMONENKO (No 73)
R. A. KYRYCHENKO (No 75)
K. V. BILOKUR (No 85)

V. A. SUKHOMLYNSKY (No 87)
A. S. MAKARENKO (No 88)
P. I. KALNYSHEVSKY (No 89)
I. M. PIDDUBNY (No 92)
O. V. KOSHOVY (No 96)
Ostap VYSHNIA (No 97)

    But Poltava land is known for not only these names. Only literary figures Poltava land has given to the world are over 1,000. Hryhorii Skovoroda and Ivan Kotliarevsky, Nikolai Gogol and Nikolai Gniedich have contributed in both Ukrainian and world literature, to mention only a few. Cossack glory has been described by chroniclers Samuel Velichko and Hryhorii Hrabyanka. Stepan Steblin-Kaminsky, Oksana Ivanenko, Andrii Pashko, Andrii Strashko were born in Poltava and its surroundings.

    Writers and poets Vladimir Korolenko, Panas Mirny, Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky, Fedir Garin, Olexandr Chucha, Mykhailo Kazydub, Taras Nikitin, Petro Rotach, Fedir Morhun lived and worked here.

    Fruitful land of Kozelshchina, Kobeliaky and Novi Sanzhary districts is the birthplace of many writers. The greatest ones among them are Oles Honchar, Pavlo Zahrebelnyi, Boris Oliynyk, Yuri Dold-Mykhailyk.

    This is the Lubny district where Oles Donchenko, Petro Lubensky, Volodymyr Malyk, Sholem Aleichem, Vasyl Symonenko, Petro Artemenko lived and worked.

    Vasyl Kapnist, Panas Myrny, Ivan Bilyk, Volodymyr Samoilenko, Oles Donchenko, Yakiv Shut’ko, Anatoly Dimarov, Stepan Rudansky came from Myrhorod area.

    Olena Pchilka and Mykhailo Drahomanov were natives of Hadiach district.

    Arkhyp Teslenko, Yakiv and Petro Savchenko are originally from Lokhvytsia area.

    Famous names of Zinkiv district are brothers Hryhorii and Hryhir Tiutiunnyk, Mykola Zerov, Mykhailo Orest, Ivan Tsiupa, Ivan Bahrianyi, Dmytro Nytchenko (Chub).

    Volodymyr Kanivets, Dmytro Kosaryk, Mykhailo Starytsky were born and worked in Hlobyne area.

    This is a poet Yevhen Hrebinka who made Hrebinka district famous.

   Poltava actor Yuri Timoshenko (Tarapunka) and actresses Vira Kholodna, Klara Luchko and Tamara Kysliakova worthily made names.

    Poltava region’s outstanding compatriot scientists such as designers of rocket and space technology Yuri Kondratiuk (Oleksandr Sharhey), Vladimir Chelomey, Yuri Pobedonostsev, designer of heavy tanks Nikolai Dukhov, spaceman Georgy Beregovoy, mathematician Mykhailo Ostrogradsky, famous inventor scientists Gleb Kotelnikov, Nikolai Pilchikov, Ivan Frantsevich, Semen Braude should be mentioned.

   This is in Poltava region where natural philosophers Vasily Dokuchaev, Volodymyr Vernadsky, Nikolai Vavilov, outstanding scientist teachers Anton Makarenko, Hryhorii Vashchenko, Vasyl Sukhomlynsky worked.

    The fates of prominent military figures such as Ivan Briukhovetsky, Danylo Apostol, Ivan Vyhovsky, Petro Kalnyshevsky, Ivan Mazepa, Pylyp Orlyk, the heroine of the war of 1812 Nadia Durova, Field Marshal I. Paskevich, generals brothers Pashchenko, guerrilla general Sydir Kovpak, Army General Ivan Tretiak, Soviet Marshal Ivan Kulikov, submariner hero Alexandru Marinescu, generals Oleksiy and Mykhailo Kyrponis, Marshal Sergei Biriuzov, the first president of Chechnya, General Jokhar Dudayev are linked to the history of Poltava region.

    At different times, figures of Ukrainian People's Republic such as Symon Petliura, Ivan Steshenko, Borys Martos, D. Karpenko, Kyrylo Osmak, populist revolutionaries Sofia Bohomolets (mother of President of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Oleksandr Bogomolets) and I. Fesenko, Soviet statesmen Anatoly Lunacharsky, Aleksandr Shlikhter, N. Kalchenko, Nikolai Podgorny, Volodymyr Ivashko did all and redounded to the glory of Poltava land. Family roots of the well-known Cossack officers and later distinguished noblemen such as Kochubeys, Troshynskys, Apostols, Rodziankos, Zakrevskys, Miloradovichs, Bezborod'kos, Galagans, Gamaliys, Kapnists, Poletykas are in Poltava land.

Writers, poets, philosophers

Bunin Ivan  (1870-1953)

Gogol Nikolai (1809 - 1852)

Guramishvili Davit (1705-1792)

Hlibov Leonid (1827 - 1893)

Honchar Oles (1918-1995)

Hrebinka Yevhen (1812-1848)

Korolenko Vladimir (1853-1921)

Kotliarevsky Ivan  (1769-1838)

Kovinka Oleksandr (1901-1985)

Lesia Ukrainka (Larysa Kosach) (1871-1913)

Makarenko Anton(1889-1939)

Malyk (Sychenko) Volodymyr (1921-1998)

Olena Pchilka (Olha Kosach (Drahomanov)) (1849-1930)

Oliynyk Borys (b. 1935)

Ostap Vyshnya (Pavlo Hubenko) (1889-1956)

Panas Myrny (Panas Rudchenko) (1849-1920)

Pavlovsky Ivan  (1851-1922)

Shevchenko Taras (1814 - 1861)

Skovoroda Hryhorii  (1722-1794)

Sukhomlynsky Vasyl (1918-1970)

Symonenko Vasyl (1935-1963)

Zahrebelnyi Pavlo (1924 - 2009)

Zerov Mykola (1890-1937)