Lina Kostenko facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lina Kostenko
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Kostenko in 2006
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| Native name |
Ліна Костенко
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| Born | 19 March 1930 Rzhyshchiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine) |
| Language | Ukrainian |
| Literary movement | Sixtiers |
| Years active | 1957–present |
| Notable awards | Shevchenko National Prize, Legion of Honour |
Lina Kostenko (born March 19, 1930) is a very important Ukrainian poet, writer, and journalist. She was also a brave person who spoke out against the Soviet government. She helped start a group of artists called the Sixtiers. Many people say she is one of Ukraine's best poets. She helped bring back a special kind of Ukrainian poetry called lyric poetry.
Lina Kostenko has received many awards. These include an honorary professorship from Kyiv Mohyla Academy. She also has honorary doctorates from Lviv and Chernivtsi Universities. She won the Shevchenko National Prize and the Legion of Honour.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Lina Kostenko was born in Rzhyshchiv, Ukraine. Her parents were both teachers. In 1936, her family moved to Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. She finished her high school education there.
From 1937 to 1941, she went to school #100 in Kyiv. This school was on Trukhaniv Island, where her family lived. In 1943, during World War II, Nazi forces burned down the school and the whole village. Lina Kostenko wrote a poem called I Grew Up in Kyivan Venice about these sad events.
After high school, she studied at the Kyiv Pedagogical Institute. Later, she went to the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. She finished her studies there with excellent grades in 1956.
The Sixtiers Movement
Lina Kostenko was a key figure in the Sixtiers movement. This was a group of young artists and writers in the 1950s and 1960s. They wanted more freedom in their art and ideas. Her poems are often beautiful and thoughtful. They also use clever sayings and everyday language. Her writing often criticized governments that controlled people too much.
Many people say Lina Kostenko brought new life to Ukrainian lyric poetry. She is called one of Ukraine's greatest female poets. One scholar, Ivan Koshelivets, said her writing was "unprecedented." This meant it was very new and different. It did not follow the strict rules set by the Communist Party.
In the early 1960s, she joined literary events in Kyiv. After finishing her studies, she published three poetry books. These were Earthly Rays (1957), Sails (1958), and Journeys of the Heart (1961). These poems became very popular in Ukraine. However, Soviet critics did not like her nonconformist ideas. She did not follow the rules of "socialist realism" set by the Communist Party. Because of this, the Soviet government tried to silence her. They censored her poems, meaning they stopped them from being published.
Standing Up to the Soviet Government
In 1961, Lina Kostenko was criticized for being "apolitical." This meant she was not writing about politics in the way the government wanted. In 1963, her poetry collection The Star Integral was stopped from being printed. Another book, The Prince's Mountain, was also removed. During these years, some of her poems were published in magazines in Czechoslovakia and newspapers in Poland. But they rarely reached Ukrainian readers. People often had to share them secretly through something called samizdat.
In 1965, Kostenko signed a letter protesting the arrests of Ukrainian intellectuals. These were smart people who were speaking out. She went to the trials of Mykhailo Osadchyi and Myroslava Zvarychevska in Lviv. At the trial of the Horyn brothers, she bravely threw them flowers. She also tried to get other writers to speak out for those who were arrested. These efforts did not stop the trials. But they gave hope to Ukrainian dissidents, who were people speaking out against the government.
In May 1966, at a meeting of the National Writers' Union of Ukraine, some young people cheered for Kostenko. She defended her views and other writers who were called "nationalist outlaws." In 1967, she was even nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In 1968, she wrote letters defending Viacheslav Chornovil. He was being unfairly attacked in a newspaper. After this, Lina Kostenko's name was not allowed to be mentioned in Soviet newspapers for many years. She continued to write, but she knew her works would not be published. She worked "in the drawer," meaning her writings stayed hidden.
In 1973, Lina Kostenko was put on a blacklist. This meant her work was officially banned. It was only in 1977 that her collection of poems On the Banks of the Eternal River was published. Then, in 1979, one of her most important works came out. It was a historical novel in verse called Marusia Churai. This book was about a Ukrainian folk singer from the 1600s. It had been waiting for approval for six years. She won the Taras Shevchenko National Prize for this work in 1987.
Kostenko also wrote other poetry collections. These include Originality (1980) and Garden of Unthawed Sculptures (1987). She also wrote a book of poems for children, called The Lilac King (1987).
Life in Independent Ukraine
In 1991, Ukraine became an independent country. Lina Kostenko then moved to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. This is the area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster. She said she wanted to "gain strength" there. However, she warned others not to do the same. After her husband, Vasyl Tsviurkunov, passed away in 2000, she stopped writing for a while.
In 2010, her first novel, Notes of a Ukrainian Madman, was released. It was her first book since 1989. She planned a book tour across Ukraine. But it ended suddenly in Lviv. Some say she was upset because people were selling tickets to her free presentation. Others say she was bothered by critics who did not like her book.
In 2005, the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, tried to give Kostenko the "Hero of Ukraine" award. This is the highest award in the country. But Kostenko refused it. She said, "I will not wear political jewellery." This showed she did not want awards that were linked to politics.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kostenko spoke out against using bad language. She felt it made Ukraine look bad and hurt the beauty of the Ukrainian language. She said the Ukrainian language is like a nightingale, a beautiful singing bird.
Awards and Honours
- Taras Shevchenko National Prize (1987, for "Marusya Churai" and "Uniqueness")
- Antonovych prize (1989)
- Honorary professorship from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
- Honorary doctorates from Lviv and Chernivtsi universities.
- An asteroid, 290127 Linakostenko, was named in her honor. It was discovered in 2005.
See also
In Spanish: Lina Kostenko para niños
- List of Ukrainian-language poets
- List of Ukrainian women writers
