Olga Yulianovna Kobylyanskaya (1863-1942) - Ukrainian writer, famous figure, who devoted his life to the struggle for the equal rights of women and men; member of the Union of Writers of the USSR.
Childhood in Gura Humor and Suceava
Olga Kobylyanskaya (1863-1942) was born on November 27 in the city of Gura Humor in the Carpathian Mountains region (now this city belongs to Romania) and lived an almost 80-year long and eventful life. Olga spent most of her childhood with her brothers and sisters, whom she loved very much (she was born the fourth child in the family). Her life began in Gura-Gumora, and then, at the urgent request of her father, their family was transferred to the city of Suceava, where the Ukrainian poet Nikolai Ustiyanovich lived next to the Kobilyansky family. Very soon, the future writer finds a new girlfriend in her new city - her namesake and her neighbor, daughter Ustiyanovich Olga. In the same city, Julian Kobylyansky, attaching great importance to the education of his children, gave his sons to a small school. Together with her older brothers, Olga also began to get used to the educational process.
Childhood in Kimpolunga
After the Suceava, the Kobylyansky moved to Sad-Gorod, but they did not stay there - the family father had an attack, after which the local doctor decided that the patient simply needed fresh mountain air to heal. Olga Kobylyanskaya was constantly with her father. The biography of the future writer continues further in the city of Kimpolung, where in 1869 the whole family was forced to move, and where later they will live fourteen long years. It was there that a young girl graduated from a small German school in four years. At first, training was difficult, since German was the new language for young Olga, and yet nothing could be done - in South Bukovina in those years, German was the official language, because the training program in most schools was conducted on it.
A family
A lot can be said about any of the writers using a variety of sources, and this writer has an interesting fact from a biography. Olga Kobylyanskaya was one of seven children in her family. In our time, it is difficult to imagine how much effort had to be spent on ensuring that every child in the future grew up as a worthy person. It was really difficult for the future writer’s parents from the very beginning, in particular it is worth noting the difficult fate of Julian Kobylyansky, who remained an orphan almost in early childhood. Olga's father, in spite of the difficult situation, tried his best to get education on his own, earning lessons from him that he cheaply gave to the neighboring children. Thanks to his efforts, Kobylyansky soon got the place of a contractor, and then this was followed by a promotion - he was appointed a mandator. However, the desire for justice of this man played a cruel joke with him: speaking against a noble and connected landowner, he signed a sentence for himself. Still, he did not give up and after some years he achieved decent work in court.
Much less is known about Olga Kobylyanskaya’s mother than about her father. The reliable fact is that she was the daughter of an emigrating Pole. For a long time, the mother of the future writer worked as a governess in the family of a wealthy priest.
Both father and mother Kobylyanskaya were honest and sympathetic people, everyone treated them with respect, they wanted their advice and listened to them. Father was strict at times, but invariably fair, mother was a soft and sensitive woman who managed to raise seven worthy people and open the way for them in life.
First self-awareness
Despite the active study of the language of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kobylyanskaya began to study the Ukrainian language, which was even more difficult than German. She took lessons from a local teacher by the name of Protsyukevich, who taught at the same school where Olga studied.
Being very freedom-loving and emotional in her soul, the girl could not help but get into the literature, always looking for the opportunity to throw out her thoughts and feelings. And in her family from the cradle, the parents instilled in the children respect and love for the word and creativity of the people. As a result, during the years of study at Kimpolunga Olga re-read many books: the list included Goethe, Schiller, and even Byron.
The biography of Olga Kobylyanskaya gives the reader a vivid idea of what followed the craving for literary art that had strengthened in the girl. Already at fourteen, she tries her poetic powers and rhymes the first lines.
Early work
Young Olga Kobylyanskaya wrote her first poems under an interesting and reflecting the whole essence of children's inexperience title: "Gortenza, or an essay from the life of one girl." The work was written in German and was not approved by any of Kobylyanskaya's friends or acquaintances. From the bitterness of the first failure, Olga in her entire life will never again remember her first attempts at writing.
But she was not going to stop at this - several poems appeared: “A sketch from folk life in Bukovina”, “A man from the people”, etc. Nevertheless, all these works were fragmentary, highlighting certain aspects and not wanting to be collected into the full picture of the thoughts and emotional state of their author.
Becoming Olga Kobylyanskaya as a writer
An important moment in the fate of Olga Kobylyanskaya was her acquaintance with Natalia Kobrinskaya, a well-known Ukrainian writer at that time. Kobylyanskaya herself was barely eighteen, but this did not stop her from rising and confidently walking along the path that her parents first directed, and now the mentor in the person of the great writer. From that moment on, Olga’s whole life has changed dramatically. A completely different world opens before her - a world where she can finally express her thoughts without fear of being ridiculed.
Kobrinskaya introduces Kobylyanskaya to Ukrainian creativity - Ukrainian books, legends and legends are used. Eagerly swallowing every word, Kobylyanskaya realizes that she has found her place in life. Many acquaintances and friends are happy to help Olga in the study of Ukrainian culture. Very soon, Kobylyanskaya Olga begins to make rapid progress in the literary field. After writing a story in German “She got married”, which later became the basis of the novel “The Man”, the very famous Ukrainian writer Olga Kobylyanskaya was born.
Life in Chernivtsi
In 1891, for family reasons, the entire Kobylyansky family moved to Chernivtsi. This time Olga finds herself in the prime of her writing - she loves everything around her, she wants to create and bring a particle of herself to this world. In this city, she can now fully embrace Ukrainian culture, which she uses, while simultaneously improving some of her works.
In 1894, the first Ukrainian novel Kobylyanskaya “The Man” was published in the magazine Zarya. Illuminated by the bright rays of success, the writer works even harder, makes various translations, and takes an active part in all literary events.
In 1895, the story was completed under the name "Princess". It was after this work that Kobylyanskaya Olga Yulianovna gained respect from the famous author Ivan Franko.
In 1898, the writer came to Lviv. Here, the biography of Olga Kobylyanskaya is replenished with a new significant event - the girl personally gets acquainted with Ivan Franko, and a strong friendship is made between them. After this event, Ivan Franko, as a rather authoritative and respected writer at that time, publicly announced the talent of Olga Kobylyanskaya.
Acquaintance with Lesja Ukrainka (Larisa Kosach)
Few people know the identity of yet another, but more famous writer under the pseudonym Lesya Ukrainka. There were too many rumors and secrets around the name of these two women, two ardent defenders of women's rights, two girls, unusually similar in spirit. In 1899, through a mutual friend of M. Pavlik, the acquaintance of two future inseparable friends took place. In that 1899, Lesya decides to write the first letter to Olga, it is from this first letter that the correspondence of two women begins, which they will keep until the end of their days. An amazing understanding is established between them: for both, great happiness is to correspond with books, music, literature, discuss and tell their thoughts, their problems. Lesya Ukrainka always admired bold thoughts in the works of Kobylyanskaya, and the other idolized poems of her friend. Throughout their friendship, they were frank and responsive to each other, often visited one another and simply could not imagine moments without thinking about their girlfriend. Olga visited the Green Grove near Lesya, and the last one stayed for a whole month at the house of her parents in the Carpathian Mountains.
It was thanks to Lesa Ukrainka that the works of Russian classics of that era - Tolstoy, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, etc., made a huge impression on Kobylyanskaya.
Supporter of female emancipation
Feeling strange pressure and imposing bans in various fields, Olga Kobylyanskaya decided to fight with all her might against the infringement of women's rights in public and cultural life. The belligerent fire of feminism flared up so strongly in the writer that after some time she became one of the initiators of the Society of Russian Women in Bukovina.
In many of her works, for example, in The Princess or in her first novel The Man, Olga Kobylyanskaya clearly reflects the heroines' search motive - the search for love, the meaning of life and, of course, female happiness. Each female character of the writer has a strong-willed and strong character, thanks to which each of these strong “book” women ultimately achieves her own. Such was their creator.
last years of life
After 1912, life turns into a black stripe for Olga Kobylyanskaya. One by one, her close friends die: Ivan Franko, Kotsyubynsky and even Lesya Ukrainka. War begins in the country, and on this soil and the soil of grief, Olga begins to write anti-war stories, in order to at least try to return a ray of light into the dark world. So there are "Dreaming", "Judas", and others.
During the Second World War, Olga Kobylyanskaya, already paralyzed and at an advanced age, is planned to be evacuated from Chernivtsi, where she lived her life, but nothing comes of it, and the unfortunate writer is taken prisoner by the Germans. She was destined to fall under the tribunal and be shamefully killed, but again she proved by her strong-willed character that she was able to change and will do so, if she wants, the whole scenario of events. March 21, 1942 she dies. In memory of the writer, a museum was built in her hometown, which to this day is full of people so that they all remember the amazing woman that Olga Kobylyanskaya was. The biography of the writer ends in this city - she is buried in Chernivtsi - the place where she was destined to begin her amazing journey as a writer and worthily complete it.