Yevhen Hrebinka

Yevhen Pavlovych Hrebinka
Portrait of Yevhen Hrebinka by Taras Shevchenko (possibly) in 1837
Born	Євген Павлович Гребінка (1812-02-02)February 2, 1812 Ubizhyshche, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	December 15, 1848(1848-12-15) (aged 36) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	Ukrainian
Literary movement	Romanticism
Spouse	Maria Rostenberg (since 1844)

Portrait of Hrebinka by Apollon Mokritsky in 1833

Yevhen Pavlovych Hrebinka (Ukrainian: Євген Павлович Гребінка) or Evgeny Pavlovich Grebyonka (Russian: Евге́ний Па́влович Гребёнка) (2 February 1812, Ubizhyshche (today – Marianivka), Poltava Governorate - 15 December 1848, Saint Petersburg) was a Ukrainian romantic prose writer, poet, and philanthropist. He wrote in both the Ukrainian and Russian languages. He was an older brother of the Russian architect Mykola Hrebinka.

Biography

Yevhen Hrebinka was born in khutir Ubizhyshche to a retired stabs-rotmistr (1LT) Pavlo Ivanovych Hrebinka and daughter of Cossack captain from Pyriatyn Nadia Chaikovska. His elementary education Yevhen received at home. In 1825-31 he studied at the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in Nizhyn (today - Nizhyn Gogol State University). While in school Hrebinka started to write his poems and in 1827 he wrote his drama piece V chuzhie sani ne sadis (Do not get seated in others sleigh). In 1829 Hrebinka started to work on translation to Ukrainian language of the Pushkin's poem Poltava.

His works first started being published in 1831 when on the pages of the Ukrainian almanac published in Kharkiv appeared his poem Rogdayev pir. The same year Hrebinka was drafted to the army as a ober-ofizier in the 8th Reserve Malorossiysky Regiment quartered in Pyriatyn. Created to fight against the 1831 November Uprising, the regiment failed to leave the city of Pyriatyn. After the defeat of the uprising, Hrebinka retired from the military.

In 1834 he moved to Saint Petersburg and published "Little Russian Fables" in Moscow which, because of its vivid and pure language, wit, laconic style, and attention to ethnographic detail, ranks among the best collections of fables in Ukrainian literature. Many of his lyrical poems, such as A Ukrainian Melody (1839) became folk songs. Hrebinka is recognized as a leading representative of the so-called "Ukrainian school" of Russian literature. In June of 1835 through Ivan Soshenko, he met with Taras Shevchenko. In 1836 Hrebinka published his translated version of Poltava in Ukrainian language.

Many of his Russian language works include Ukrainian themes, such as Stories of a Pyriatynian (1837), the historical poems Hetman Svirgovskii (1839) and Bogdan (1843), the novelette The Nizhen Colonel Zolotarenko (1842), and the novel Chaikovskii (1843). In 1843 he wrote a poem Dark Eyes that would later become a famous Russian song with the same name.

Since 1837 Hrebinka worked as a teacher of Russian language in the Noble Regiment, took part in freeing of Taras Shevchenko out of serfdom, collects works in Ukrainian language and publishing of the last in Otechestvennye Zapiski. After being refused, he compiled and published another Ukrainian almanacs, called Lastôvka in 1841. It had 382 pages and contained works by many famous Ukrainian authors, along with Ukrainian folk songs, popular proverbs, and folktales.

Hrebinka took kindly to the young enserfed artist Taras Shevchenko and helped connect him with Saint Petersburg elite who organized Shevchenko's liberation from serfdom in 1838. He also helped publish Shevchenko's Kobzar in 1840. In 1840 Otechestvennie Zapiski published his novella Notes of a student, while Utrenneya zarya published novella Wader. In 1842 he wrote novella Senya. In 1843 Hrebinka travelled to Kharkiv and together with Taras Shevchenko he visited Tetyana Volkhovskaya in her manor in Moisivka (near Drabiv). The same year Otechestvennia Zapiski published his novel Chaikovsky with epigraphs taken out of the Shevchenko's works. In 1844 Hrebinka married Maria Rostenberg and the same year his other novel Doktor was published.

Not long before the establishment of Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Hrebinka met with Panteleimon Kulish in 1845 and wrote a story Petersburg side. In 1846 he started to publish his collection of prose work and before own death late in 1848 managed to release eight volumes. In 1847 Hrebinka out of own pocket established a parish school for peasant children in Rudky village, not far from where he was born. The same year there were published his novellas Zaborov and Adventures of the Blue Assignation.

On 3 December 1848 Hrebinka died from tuberculosis in Saint Petersburg. He was buried back at home in Ubizhyshche.

His collected works were first published in 1862.

While traveling I was thinking: What will I do among moskals? But came out contrary: Petersburg is a colony of educated Little Russians.

— Yevhen Hrebinka,

External links

• Holod, I. Yevhen Hrebinka – a Godfather of the Kobzar and the author of Ochi Chernyie. Ukrayinska Pravda. 1 February 2012.