Lesya Ukrainka
Lesya Ukrainka (real name Larisa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka), February 25, 1871 - August 1, 1913.
For Lesya Ukrainka Poltava is a blessed land, and through blood ties with her mother Olena Pchilka, and through a spiritual connection with the "father of Ukrainian poetry" I.P. Kotlyarevskyi, to pay homage to a poet Lesya arrived in summer of 1903, while opening the memorial.
In Poltava, Lesya Ukrainka become a decoration in galaxy of famous literary figures: Panas Mirny, Kotsyubinsky,
V. Samoilenko, M. Starytkogo, V. Stefanik and others. Preserved the house of counsel N. Dmitriev, where Lesya stayed with her mother (Lenin str., 3). There are other buildings marked with her name.
For the first time parents brought Lesya in Poltava, in Gadych, at age of three, in the summer of 1874. Later she was here cause of the disease mainly in warmer summer months. In 1883 since June to August 7, she stayed with her mother, at her grandmother’s house. Two weeks Lesya spent in Gadych in 1887 - since August, 21 to early September, in 1893 – since June, 8 till August, 15. Here she met with the teacher A. Makarova, who was her friend.
In June1898 Lesya came here from the Crimea, and stayed until the last decade of August. From Gadych Lesya Ukrainka traveled to the village Budyscha (Monastery, Brovarky, Kovalevschinu on Tsyachchin farm). In 1899 - 1906 years, arriving in Gadych, writer, lived mainly on the farm Green Grove, which is two kilometers from the city (now the suburb of Gadych).
From Kiev, Lesya came here through Bahmach, Romny to Lokhvytsya, and then in a carriage "Poltava broad way" in Gadych. Resting on shores of Psla, poetess is creating her works.
Here she wrote a poem"Robert Bruce, King of Scotland" (1893), "broken endless conversation..." (1898), translated into Russian her own play "Blue Rose" (1898) and stories of O. Kobylyanskoi "Vowel Strings" (1899) and others. She wrote letters from Gadyach to Dragomanov, M. Pavlik, V. Hnatiuk and others.
Cottage in the tract of Green Grove was built specifically for Lesya Ukrainka by O. Pchilka. Here Lesya was visited by Olga Kobylyanska in summer of 1899. In different years, there have been friends Merzhinsky S., K. Kvitka, F. Krasitsky, G. Khotkevich etc. Here poetess wrote such works as: "The Sphinx", "Ra-Meneis" (1900), "Niobe", "Autumn Song" (1902), "The inscription in ruins" (1904), "Three Minutes" (1905), "Quiet Evening Duma," The Prophet "(1906), wrote stories, articles, letters. In the summer of 1904 in the Green Grove an artist Foty Krasitsky painted a portrait of Lesia Ukrainka.
Poetess watched public cultural events in Poltava, was interested in people who are here, carried about the replenishment of a public library. She liked landscapes of Gadych, and she believed that there such a Ukraine that not anywhere else.
She was writing to her mother from Odessa: "I want to go home to you, to see quiet water, to see clear stars: everything seems to me here boring". Her works were print in the magazine "Native Land", she was interested in progressive newspapers of Poltava. In 1908 with the initiatives L. Ukrainka was sent to Poltava folk expedition to collect and record people's thoughts on the phonograph (supervised by F. Koles).
On the death of the poetess of predawn fires responded telegrams peasants of Oposhnya, Manuilivka, Ostapyevo etc. At the funeral attended Poltava’s delegation. The central street of Gadych was called by name of Lesya Ukrainka and the library where she was working. Then in this library was created literary memorial room.
At Poltava has been widely celebrated 100 anniversary (1971) and 120th anniversary (1991) since the birth of the outstanding Ukrainian poetess.
