Rival Cultural Strategies in Ukrainian Culture of the late XVIII - mid-XIX Centuries 5 страница

Pymonenko, Mykola ( 1862 – 1912). Prominent Ukrainian realist painter; son-in-law of Volodymyr Orlovsky; full member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts from 1904. After studying at the Kyiv Drawing School (1878–82) and the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts (1882–4) he taught at the Kyiv Drawing School (1884–1900) and Kyiv Art School (1900–6). He took part in the exhibitions of the Society of South Russian Artists (1891–6) and Peredvizhniki society (from 1893) and became a member of the latter society in 1899. In 1909 he was elected a member of the Paris International Association of Arts and Literatures. Pymonenko produced over 700 genre scenes, landscapes, and portraits, many of which were reproduced as postcards. Pymonenko also created illustrations for several of Taras Shevchenko's narrative poems, and in the 1890s he took part in painting the murals in Saint Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv.

Vasylkivsky, Serhii (1854 - 1917). Painter and art scholar. He studied at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts (1876–85) and in France (1886–8). He also painted in Italy, Spain, northern Africa, and Britain. After settling in Kharkiv in 1888, he was active in Ukrainian artistic circles and headed the architectural and art society there. He produced over 3,000 realist and impressionist works. They include a few portraits; historical paintings, such as Zaporozhian Skirmish with Tatars (1892), Cossacks in the Steppe (1915), and Cossack Campaign (1917); genre paintings; and many landscapes. In 1901–8 Vasylkivsky painted murals and ornamental wall panels for the Poltava Zemstvo Building; they included The Chumak Romodan Route, The Cossack Holota, and The Election of Colonel Martyn Pushkar. He copublished, with Mykola Samokysh, an album of Ukrainian folk ornamental motifs (1912), for which he painted over 100 designs, and an album on Ukrainian antiquity, for which he did 27 historical portraits.

Neo-Romanticism (or Late Romanticism) was an artistic movement in the late XIX – early XX centuries. It was a response to the conservative values of realism and a rebel against the world of machines and new cities. Neo-Romantics tended to draw their inspiration from artists of the age of Romanticism, and stressed feelings and internal observations in their activity. In Ukrainian literature Neo-Romanticism of L. Ukrainka, O. Kobylyanska, O. Oles’, N. Voronoy was inspired by the old Ukrainian culture of Cossackhood and shadowed with subjective personal lyricism.

L. Ukrainka (1871 -1913). Poet and playwright; daughter of Olha Kosach-Drahomanova (Olena Pchilka). Lesia Ukrainka spent her childhood in Volhynia in the towns of Zviahel, Lutsk, and Kolodiazhne and then moved to Kyiv. Her views were particularly influenced by her mother's brother, Mykhailo Drahomanov. Lesia Ukrainka achieved a broad education by self-tuition. She knew all of the major Western European languages as well as Greek and Latin and the Slavic languages (Russian, Polish, Bulgarian, and others). She was equally familiar with world history and at 19 wrote a textbook for her sisters, published in 1918 as Starodavnia istoriia skhidnykh narodiv (Ancient History of the Eastern Peoples). Lesia Ukrainka translated a great deal (eg, Nikolai Gogol, Adam Mickiewicz, Heinrich Heine, Victor Hugo, Homer). Suffering from tuberculosis, she traveled to Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Egypt, and, several times, the Caucasia in search of a cure. Travel exposed her to new enriching experiences and broadened her horizons. Lesia Ukrainka began writing poetry at a very early age. At the age of nine she wrote the poem ‘Nadiia’ (Hope), and her first published poems, ‘Konvaliia’ (Lily of the Valley) and ‘Safo’ (Sappho), appeared in the journal Zoria (Lviv) in 1884. 1885 saw the appearance of her collection of translations of Gogol, which she prepared together with her brother, Mykhailo Kosach.

Lesia Ukrainka began to write more prolifically from the mid-1880s. In Kyiv she joined the literary group Pleiada and together with Maksym Slavinsky translated Knyha pisen’ (Book of Songs, 1892) by H. Heine. Her first collection of original poetry, Na krylakh pisen’ (On Wings of Songs), appeared in Lviv (1893; 2nd edn, Kyiv 1904). It was followed by the collections Thoughts and Dreams” (1899) and Echoes” (1902). Her early poems deal mainly with the beauty of nature, her love of her native land, personal experiences, the poet's vocation and the role of poetry, and social and community concerns. Epic features can be found in much of her lyric poetry, and reappear in her later ballads, legends, and the like—‘Samson,’ ‘Robert Brus, korol’ shotlands’kyi’ (Robert Bruce, King of Scotland), ‘Vila-posestra’ (Vila Sister), ‘Odno slovo’ (A Single Word).

Lesia Ukrainka reached her literary heights in her poetic dramas. Ukrainka's first drama was Blakytna troianda (The Azure Rose, 1896), which describes the life of the Ukrainian intelligentsia. In further dramatic works she developed a new genre, that of the ‘dramatic poem.’ The first such work was Oderzhyma (A Woman Possessed, 1901). Particularly important among her works are the dramatic poems on the subject of prisoners in Babylon, which were meant to serve as symbols of the imprisonment of Ukrainians within the Russian Empire; among them are Na ruïnakh (Upon the Ruins, 1903), Vavylons’kyi polon (The Babylonian Captivity, 1903), and V domu roboty—v kraïni nevoli (In the House of Labor, In the Land of Slavery, 1906). In the dramatic poem Kassandra (1907) she portrayed the fate of Ukraine through the tragic history of long-lost Troy, and using Cassandra as her spokesperson, she challenged the Ukrainian people to shake off their apathy and inertia. In the dramatic poem U katakombakh (In the Catacombs, 1905) she also castigated the Ukrainian community for its compromises and passivity. In the drama Rufin i Pristsilla (Rufinus and Priscilla, 1908) the shining image of the Christian woman is contrasted with the brutal strength of Imperial Rome. The dramatic poem Boiarynia (The Boyar Woman, 1910) illustrates most clearly Ukrainka's hostility to Russian imperialism; it maintains that only armed struggle can free the Ukrainian people from their Muscovite prison. The theme of the poem Orhiia (The Orgy, 1912–13) concerns the poet's role in that ceaseless battle. In the dramatic poem Kaminnyi hospodar (The Stone Host, 1912) Lesia Ukrainka employs the Don Juan theme in an original presentation of the conflict between social conformity and personal freedom and responsibility. Her neoromantic work, the drama Lisova pisnia (The Forest Song, 1911), treats the conflict between lofty idealism and the prosaic details of everyday life. Lesia Ukrainka also wrote prose works. Her literary legacy is enormous, despite the fact that for most of her life she was ill and often was bedridden for months.

Romantic motives in Ukrainian music were represented in the works of composers N. Lysenko, S. Gulak-Artemovsky, S. Vorobkevich.

Lysenko, Mykola(1842 -1912 ). Composer, ethnomusicologist, conductor, pianist, teacher, and community figure. The descendant of an aristocratic Cossack starshyna family, he acquired the rudiments of piano playing from his mother and gained a strong appreciation of Ukrainian music and Cossack lore from his grandparents. From 1860 he studied at Kharkiv University and Kyiv University, graduating in 1865 with a degree in natural sciences. His stay in Kyiv, his activities in the Hromada of Kyiv, and his close relationships with his cousin Mykhailo Starytsky, and with Volodymyr Antonovych, Tadei Rylsky, and others led Lysenko to make a strong personal commitment to the study and development of Ukrainian music. He worked for two years as an arbitrator in Tarashcha county, then furthered his music studies in Leipzig (1867–9) under K. Reinecke and E. Richter. After returning to Kyiv in 1869 to work as a music teacher and conductor, he moved to Saint Petersburg (1874–6) to study orchestration under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; then he returned to Kyiv in 1904 to open his own school of music and drama.

At the time, Lysenko was at the center of Ukrainian cultural and musical life in Kyiv. He gave piano recitals and organized choirs for performances in Kyiv and tours through Ukraine in 1893, 1897, 1899, and 1902. He cultivated an informal network of patriotic Ukrainians, and headed the Ukrainian Club from 1908. He also maintained close ties with community leaders in Western Ukraine from as early as 1867, most notably with Ivan Franko.

Lysenko's musical compositions were numerous and varied. His operatic works include the singspiel Chornomortsi (Black Sea Cossacks, 1872); the operetta Natalka from Poltava (1889); the operas (based on works by Nikolai Gogol) Christmas Night (1873–82), Utoplena (The Drowned Maiden, 1883), and Taras Bulba (1890); the operetta Aeneid (1911); the miniature opera Nocturne; and three operas for children: Koza Dereza (Billy Goat's Bluff, 1888), Pan Kots’kyi (Sir Catsky, 1891), and Winter and Spring (1892). Other theatrical musical works include Sappho (1886–94), which is composed of scenes from life in ancient Greece, and music for William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

An eminent concert pianist, Lysenko wrote many compositions for the piano. These works include a sonata, two rhapsodies, a suite, a scherzo, and a rondo, as well as a long list of smaller forms such as ‘Songs without Words,’ nocturnes, waltzes, and polonaises. In these works he often uses the melodies and rhythms of Ukrainian folk songs. In some, Fryderyk Chopin's influence is noticeable. In the field of chamber music, Lysenko wrote many works for violin and piano as well as a trio for two violins and viola and a string quartet. He also wrote a symphony (unfinished) and a symphonic fantasia.

Settings of words by Taras Shevchenko occupy a special place in Lysenko's works. The settings include solo art songs, choral works, and cantatas for choir and orchestra, such as Raduisia nyvo nepolytaia (Rejoice, Unwatered Field), Biut’ porohy (The Rapids Roar), Reve ta stohne Dnipr shyrokyi (The Mighty Dnieper Roars and Bellows), Sadok vyshnevyi kolo khaty (The Cherry Orchard by the House), and Na vichnu pamiat’ Kotliarevs’komu (To the Eternal Memory of Kotliarevsky). Shevchenko's collection Kobzar particularly fascinated Lysenko, who composed music for 82 of its texts.

In total Lysenko wrote over 120 art songs, including many vocal solos with piano accompaniment to the poems of Ivan Franko, Lesia Ukrainka, Oleksander Oles, Heinrich Heine, Adam Mickiewicz, and others.

From an early age Lysenko displayed an interest in musical folklore. While still in school he began transcribing Ukrainian folk songs, and when working in Tarashcha county he recorded the wedding songs of the Pereiaslav region and the dumas and historical songs performed by the renowned kobzar Ostap Veresai. Lysenko's ethnomusicological works include Kharakterystyka muzychnykh pytomennostei ukraïns’kykh dum i pisen’, vykonuvanykh kobzarem O. Veresaiem (Characterization of the Musical Traits of Ukrainian Dumas and Songs. Performed by the Kobzar O. Veresai, 1874) and Narodni muzychni instrumenty na Ukraïni (Folk Musical Instruments in Ukraine). He also published several collections of folk songs.

Over his lifetime Lysenko arranged approx 500 folk songs, including both solos and choruses with piano accompaniment, and a cappella choruses. He concentrated on tonal and harmonic particularities of Ukrainian folk songs, selecting appropriate means for the arrangement of various types of songs and preserving the folk style of melodizing.

Lysenko was the founder of the national movement in Ukrainian music, based on a specific Ukrainian cultural tradition and the originality of its folk music. His prolific and versatile life's work became the foundation for the further development and expansion of Ukrainian musical culture. Lysenko influenced a large group of Ukrainian composers, including Kyrylo Stetsenko, Yakiv Stepovy, Mykola Leontovych, Oleksander Koshyts, Stanyslav Liudkevych, Lev Revutsky, and Mykhailo Verykivsky.

Lysenko Music and Drama School (Muzychno-dramatychna shkola im. M. Lysenka). A school established in Kyiv 1904 by Mykola Lysenko to foster the development of Ukrainian music. Lysenko financed the project with funds originally gathered by his supporters to buy him a country house for his 35th jubilee celebration. The school's curriculum was on the level of a conservatory, and there was a separate drama department and a museum of Ukrainian folk instruments. The school was directed initially by Lysenko and then by his daughter Mariana Lysenko (1912–18). Teachers included Lysenko, Hryhorii Liubomyrsky, Oleksander Myshuha, and Mariia Starytska. The school was the only Ukrainian higher music school of its day, and its influence in the development of Ukrainian music is reflected in the list of its graduates, which includes Kyrylo Stetsenko, Oleksander Koshyts, Lev Revutsky, and Mykhailo Mykysha.

Hulak-Artemovsky, Semen (1813 - 1873 ). Composer, opera singer, actor, and dramatist. He was the nephew of Petro Hulak-Artemovsky and a close friend of Taras Shevchenko. A graduate of the Kyiv Theological Seminary, he studied voice in Saint Petersburg and Florence (1839–42). He was noted for his dramatic talent and his powerful, rich baritone voice. From 1842 Hulak-Artemovsky was the leading soloist at the Mariinskii Theater and the Italian Opera in Saint Petersburg. His repertoire included over 50 operatic roles, including Ruslan in M. Glinka's Ruslan and Liudmila, Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Antonio and Lord Ashton in G. Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix and Lucia di Lammermoor. He wrote the comic opera Zaporozhets’ za Dunaiem (Zaporozhian Cossack beyond the Danube, 1863), in which he sang the part of Karas; the divertissement Ukraïns’ke vesillia (The Ukrainian Wedding, 1851), in which he sang the father-in-law; the vaudeville Nich na Ivan Kupala (Saint John's Eve, 1852); and several art songs. As an actor he appeared in roles such as Vybornyi and Chupryna in Ivan Kotliarevsky's Natalka Poltavka and Moskal’-charivnyk (The Muscovite-Sorcerer).

In the mid-XIX century many amateur theatre groups and touring theaters appeared in Russian ruled Ukraine. Elements of theatricality can be traced in Ukrainian folk customs and rites, games, folk oral literature, and folk dances back to pre-Christian pagan traditions and rituals. They are especially evident, even today, in the spring vesnianky-hahilky, the summer Kupalo festival, and the winter carols and above all in the ceremony of the Ukrainian wedding. Theatrical entertainment and participation in many rituals was provided by skomorokhy. With the Christianization of Ukraine, the Divine Liturgy took on elements of theatricality, and the church adopted or converted many pagan rituals for its own purposes. The recorded history of nonritual Ukrainian theater begins in 1619 with two intermedes staged between the acts of a Polish religious drama. The further development of Ukrainian theater was influenced by European medieval theater, the Renaissance, and classicism in the court and in school drama, particularly at the Kyivan Mohyla Academy. The prohibition of school performances at the academy by Metropolitan Samuil Myslavsky in 1765 resulted in many of its students' contributing to the development and popularization of vertep puppet theater, which was portable so that those involved were less likely to be prosecuted. Vertep performances consisted of two parts, religious and secular, and were the prevailing form of theatrical entertainment in rural areas. Also common was a folk drama consisting of a one-act play based on a local event—for example, Koza (The Goat), Mlyn (The Mill), Did i baba (Old Man and Old Woman), and Pip i smert’ (The Priest and Death). Eventually more historical portrayals evolved—Tsar Maksymillian, Tsar Herod, and Lodka (The Boat); these were the archetype of 19th-century ethnographic theater.

Ukrainian secular theater became popular during the 19th century, beginning with the staging of the first Ukrainian-language plays of Ivan Kotliarevsky and Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko by the Poltava Free Theater in 1819. From the end of the 18th century, Ukrainian landlords organized serf theaters at their estates, where Ukrainian plays were sporadically performed. Ukrainian performances were also staged by Russian-Polish troupes. The pioneering Ukrainian actors were Karpo Solenyk, Mikhail Shchepkin, and Liubov Mlotkovska.

In Russian-ruled Ukraine many amateur theatre groups and touring theaters were active by the end of the 1850s. In Kyiv the leader in setting up amateur troupes was Mykhailo Starytsky, and in rural areas, Ivan Karpenko-Kary. Although the 1863 tsarist government circular prohibited the use of the Ukrainian language on stage, the development of Ukrainian amateur theater continued. It reached its apex in the performance in 1873 of Mykola Lysenko's opera Rizdviana nich (Christmas Eve Night, based on Nikolai Gogol's story), directed by Starytsky in a populist-ethnographic style.

The many amateur theatre groups and touring theaters, active in Russian-ruled Ukraine by the end of the 1850s, played an important role in the Ukrainian national revival. In Kyiv the leader in setting up amateur troupes was Mykhailo Starytsky, and in rural areas of southern Ukraine, Ivan Karpenko-Kary. Although the 1863 tsarist government circular issued by Petr Valuev limited the use of the Ukrainian language on stage, the development of Ukrainian amateur theater continued until 1876, when the Ems Ukase completely prohibited Ukrainian performances in Russian-ruled Ukraine. In 1881, in spite of heavy censorship, the first touring theater in eastern Ukraine was founded, under Marko Kropyvnytsky. Touring theaters led by Starytsky (1885), Mykola Sadovsky (1888), and Panas Saksahansky (1890) followed. Their repertoire consisted mostly of populist-romantic and realistic plays by Kropyvnytsky, Starytsky, and Karpenko-Kary. Censorship did not permit performances of plays with historical and social themes and completely prohibited the staging of plays translated from other languages. Each performance had to include at least one Russian play and the troupe was required to secure a local governor's permission for each staging of a Ukrainian-language play. After the failed Revolution of 1905 censorship eased, and Mykola Sadovsky was able to organize the first resident Ukrainian theater in Kyiv in 1907. He successfully produced Ukrainian operas as well as melodramas and comedies of manners in translation. In the 1910s, the populist-ethnographic theater gave way to the realistic-psychological style of acting

Kropyvnytsky, Marko, (1840 - 1910 ). Renowned actor, stage director, playwright, and composer; a founder and director of the first professional Ukrainian theater in Russian-ruled Ukraine. Working as a petty official of the county court or the municipal government in Bobrynets and Yelysavethrad, for ten years he was active as an actor and play director in amateur theater groups with Ivan Tobilevych (Ivan Karpenko-Kary). In 1871 he moved to Odesa and joined the professional theater of Russian popular drama owned by the brothers I. and D. Morkov and M. Chernyshov, where he played mostly the roles of Ukrainian characters. For the next decade he worked in Ukrainian and Russian provincial troupes, appearing mostly in Odesa, Kharkiv, Kherson, Yelysavethrad, and Katerynoslav, and occasionally in Galicia (1875), the Crimea, and Saint Petersburg (1874). In 1882 Kropyvnytsky organized his own touring theater troupe in Yelysavethrad. As the first Ukrainian professional troupe, it marks the beginning of a new period in the history of the Ukrainian theater. Drawing on the talent of such actors as Mariia Zankovetska, Mykola Sadovsky, Leonid Manko, O. Viryna, and Andrii Maksymovych, the troupe toured Ukraine and some Russian cities (Rostov-na-Donu) with a populist-realist repertoire, and was acclaimed highly by both Ukrainian and Russian critics. In 1883 Mykhailo Starytsky assumed control over the troupe, but Kropyvnytsky stayed on as a stage director. For over 20 years he continued to work as an actor and play director in various Ukrainian troupes, some of which he himself had organized and managed (1885–8 and 1894–1900). Retiring in early 1903 to his estate Zatyshok in the Kharkiv region, he continued writing plays, worked on his memoirs, and occasionally acted with touring companies.

Kropyvnytsky performed diverse character roles, ranging from the dramatic to the comedic genre, in which he excelled. His repertoire included such roles as Stetsko in Svatannia na Honcharivtsi (Matchmaking at Honcharivka), Makohonenko in Natalka Poltavka (Natalka from Poltava), Karas in Zaporozhian Cossack beyond the Danube, Bychok in Hlytai, abo zh pavuk (The Profiteer or the Spider), the title roles in Taras Bul’ba and Othello, and Talbot in Maria Stuart. Creating his own school of acting, Kropyvnytsky perpetuated the traditions of Karpo Solenyk and Mikhail Shchepkin and promoted the trend to realism on the stage. Several generations of populist-realist actors of the prerevolutionary period, including the stars of the Ukrainian stage, were trained by him.

Kropyvnytsky's work as a dramatist, which began in 1863, was determined to a large extent by the immediate demands of the stage. Accepting the principles of the romantic-populist theater, Kropyvnytsky subordinated his depiction of reality to the standards of romantic theater. His best plays are Dvi sim'ï (Two Families, 1888) and Zaidyholova (The Dreamer, 1889). The comedic opera Poshylys’ u durni (They Made Fools of Themselves, 1882) is a witty composition in the style of Molière. Kropyvnytsky successfully adapted for the stage Oleksa Storozhenko's story ‘Vusy’ (Whiskers, 1885), depicting the life of Ukrainian landowners in the 1840s. The comedy Chmyr (The Dirty Fellow, 1890) presents a gallery of village characters. Kropyvnytsky wrote over 40 original plays and stage adaptations, that are recognized as classics of the 19th century Ukrainian drama.

Karpenko-Kary, Ivan (pen name of Ivan Tobilevych), ( 1845 - 1907 ). Famous Ukrainian actor and playwright; the brother of the theater figures Panas Saksahansky, Mykola Sadovsky, and Mariia Sadovska-Barilotti. From the age of 14 he worked as a clerk (from 1869 as a police secretary in Yelysavethrad). In 1863 he met Marko Kropyvnytsky and with him became involved in producing amateur theater in Yelysavethrad. In 1883 he lost his job for his involvement with Ukrainian revolutionaries and for procuring passports for them and joined Mykhailo Starytsky's troupe. In 1884 he was exiled to Novocherkassk; returning to Ukraine in 1886, he lived under police surveillance until 1889. From 1887 until his illness in 1904 he lived on his farmstead, wrote, and worked as a stage actor and director, mostly in the traveling troupe of his brother P. Saksahansky. He was acclaimed for his principal dramatic and comic roles in many Ukrainian plays, some of them his own. He was buried on his farmstead near Yelysavethrad (now Kirovohrad); the literary memorial museum-preserve Khutir Nadiia was opened there in 1956.

Karpenko-Kary was renowned as a playwright. He began writing quite late in life: his first story, Novobranets (The New Conscript), and first play appeared in 1883. Altogether he wrote 18 frequently produced plays.

While realistically and perceptively portraying life and social relations in the village, Karpenko-Kary also reflected in his plays the impact of colonialism in Russian-ruled Ukraine: land poverty and rural overpopulation, and the ignorance and evil deeds of the peasant in a position of authority (in Burlaka), the rich peasant (Kalytka in Sto tysiach), and the large landowner (Terentii Puzyr in Khaziaïn).

Some of Karpenko-Kary's plays were an important step forward in Ukrainian theater. In them he abandoned the sentimental populist-ethnographic approach and melodramatic, operatic forms; instead he highlighted social relations and conflicts and concentrated on psychological portrayal and character development, thereby creating the finest examples of turn-of-the-century Ukrainian didactic plays about peasant life and laying the foundations of modern Ukrainian theater. His plays are still often produced in Ukraine.

Sadovsky, Mykola (real surname: Tobilevych), ( 1856 -1933 ). Theater director, actor, and singer; brother of Ivan Karpenko-Kary, Mariia Sadovska-Barilotti, and Panas Saksahansky. In 1881 he began his theatrical career in Hryhorii Ashkarenko's, Marko Kropyvnytsky's, and Mykhailo Starytsky's troupes. From 1888 he led his own troupe, which in 1898 joined Saksahansky's Troupe. Sadovsky was the artistic director of the Ukrainska Besida Theater (1905–6) and then organized the first resident Ukrainian theater in Kyiv, which was active until 1919.

Acclaimed by Mykhailo Starytsky as the most talented of the Tobilevych family, Sadovsky was an actor of the realistic-psychological school, whose best roles were profound interpretations of the heroes in historical and social dramas, such as Starytsky's Bohdan Khmel’nyts’kyi, Ivan Karpenko-Kary's Sava Chalyi, and Liudmyla Starytska-Cherniakhivska's Het’man Doroshenko. He also played with success as the Komandor in Lesia Ukrainka's Kaminnyi hospodar (The Stone Host) and was a key force behind the flowering of Ukrainian operatic theater, in which genre he staged operas by composers such as Mykola Lysenko, Denys Sichynsky. He wrote Moï teatral’ni zhadky (My Theatrical Reminiscences, 1930; 2nd edn 1956).

Zankovetska, Mariia ( 1854 -1934 ). Actress, singer, and theater activist. Zankovetska was educated in a Chernihiv private school and at the Helsinki Conservatory. She debuted in 1882 in Ivan Kotliarevsky's Natalka from Poltava as a member of Marko Kropyvnytsky's troupe, which production heralded the rebirth of Ukrainian professional theater, heavily repressed since the Ems Ukase of 1876. Zankovetska performed as leading actress in the troupes of Kropyvnytsky (1882–3, 1885–8, 1899–1900), Mykhailo Starytsky (1883–5), and Mykola Sadovsky (1888–98), in Saksahansky's Troupe (1900–3), in Onysym Suslov's troupe (1903–4), in the Society of Ukrainian Actors (1915–17), and in the State People's Theater (1918–22). She appeared at the All-Russian Congress of Stage Workers in 1897, where she demanded the termination of censorship in Ukrainian theater. In 1909–15 she directed amateur groups in Nizhyn and Krolevets. Her last performance on stage was in Kyiv in 1922, and that same year a theater in her name was founded see.

Zankovetska's stage career spanned over 30 dramatic-heroic roles from the populist-ethnographical repertoire, which she played with innate subtlety and intelligence. Her best performances were opposite Mykola Sadovsky (Tobilevych), and her talent was praised by Konstantin Stanislavsky.

4.First two decades of the XX century were extremely intensive for Ukrainian culture. The World War I (1914–1918) and Ukrainian National Democratic Revolution (1917–1921) influenced cultural climate of Ukrainian lands. Artistic revolution that coincided with social and political transformations involved Ukrainian artists. In the first decade of the XX century A. Archipenko, A. Exter, M. Boychuk, D. Burluk, V. Tatlin spent time in Paris and were embraced in process of the Modernism, a leading artistic movement on the boundary of the XIX and XX centuries. It was a revolt against realism in arts, a break with previous traditions in all spheres of culture. It was abstract, unconventional art in technologically arranged world largely uncertaity in times of rapid changes. Modernism experimented with new literary and artistic forms. Ukrainian Modernism was closely connected with experiments with color and was developed in folk creativity or ancient traditions. In Ukrainian architecture modernism was manifested in the revival of Ukrainian national style in the projects of V. Krichevsky, K. Zhukov, O. Timoshenko, V. Gorodetsky, P. Yurchenko. L. Kurbas was an organizer and director of the Ukrainian avant-garde theatre. His “Young Theatre” (1917–1919) with experimental production replaced the traditional Ukrainian ethnographic repertoire and traditional realist psychological theatre.

An international movement in literature and art that emphasized the sense of a radical break with the past and the possibility of a transformed world. Emerging at the end of the nineteenth century as a rejection of realism and populism, it experimented with new literary and artistic forms, often under the influence of photography, film, and new technologies. Non-traditional materials were often used in architecture and sculpture, such as new metal alloys, glass, and synthetic plastics. The focus in literature and art was often on subjective perceptions and on the inner psychological conflicts and complexes of the urban intelligentsia. Depictions of individual personalities often included the eccentric, the taboo, and the deranged. Modernism coincided with and reflected the rapid growth of capitalist production and the rise of strong feminist, political, and national movements.

Central and East European modernism in the years 1880–1913 is often viewed as encompassing the “isms”: impressionism, symbolism, cubism, abstractionism, futurism, and expressionism. A second wave of modernism appeared in the years 1914–30, which was strongly influenced by radical political movements in Europe and sometimes identified itself as the cultural avant-garde of these movements. It was closely associated with the futurists, constructivists, expressionists, and surrealists of the post-First World War years.