A Remarkable Ukrainian Woman

            

Women have always played a crucial role in Ukrainian society. They have been involved in the political, cultural and social life of the nation. Probably, one of the most influential females in Ukrainian history was Lesya Ukrainka.

 Having been brought up in a highly cultivated family, she was exposed to science, literature and history from an early age as her parents were intelligent and welleducated people. 

 Physically she resembled her father and was really good friends with him. However, it was her mother, a writer, a poet and a publisher, in whose steps she chose to follow 

 Unfortunately, from the age of twelve she started to suffer from a painful and debilitating disease, which however, didn’t stop her from pursuing her passion for writing. Her illness made it necessary for her to travel to places where the climate was dry, and, as a result, she spent extended periods of time in Germany, Austria, Italy, Bulgaria, Crimea, the Caucasus, and Egypt. She loved experiencing other cultures, which was evident in many of her literary works. 

 Apart from being an artist, she also was a political, civil, and feminist activist. The poems and plays of Ukrainka are associated with her belief in her country's freedom and independence. She actively opposed Russian tsarism and was a member of Ukrainian Marxist organisations. In 1902 she translated the Communist Manifesto into Ukrainian. She was briefly arrested in 1907 by tsarist police and remained under surveillance thereafter. 

 Ukrainka concentrated on poetic dramas from about 1906 on. Her plays were inspired by various historical events. For example, the Old Testament in Oderzhyma (1901) and Vavylonsky polon (1908), the world of ancient Greece and Rome, the early Christian era in U katakombakh (1906) and Na poli krovi (1911), and the medieval period. Folk songs and fairy tales provide the framework for Lisova pisnya (1912), in which Ukrainka reflects on the never-ending conflict between high ideals and sordid reality. Her historical drama Boyarynya (1914) is a psychological tragedy focusing on a Ukrainian family in the 17th century. 

 Ukrainka also wrote short stories and critical essays and did masterful translations of works by Homer, William Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Victor Hugo, and Ivan Turgenev.

  Lesya Ukrainka devoted her whole life to promoting the development of Ukrainian literature and national identity. She passed away at the relatively young age of forty-two, leaving behind a rich and diversified literary legacy. 

Read the statements decide if they are true (T) or false (F). 

a) Lesya Ukrainka grew up in an educated family.

 b) Both of Lesya Ukrainka’s parents were writers and poets. 

c) Lesya Ukrainka looked like her father. 

d) Lesya Ukrainka had to travel a lot but didn’t enjoy it. 

e) She never had trouble with the law. 

f) Her works were inspired by world history and the society around her.