Olha Kobylianska

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Olha Kobylianska
1899
Born	Ольга Кобилянська 27 November 1863 Bukovyna
Died	21 March 1942 Chernivtsi
Nationality	Ukrainian
Occupation	writer, feminist

Olha Kobylianska (Ukrainian: Ольга Кобилянська; 27 November 1863 Bukovyna - 21 March 1942 Chernivtsi) was a Ukrainian modernist writer and feminist.

Kobylianska was born in Gura-Gumora in Bukovyna. She was one of seven children of Maria and Iulian Koblyliansky. Kobylianska was mainly self-educated, receiving only four years of formal schooling in the German language.^[1] She wrote her first works in German, beginning in 1880.

In 1891 she moved to Chernivtsi. She met and traveled with fellow Ukrainians Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko, Vasyl Stefanyk, and Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, which influenced her cultural and political outlook.^[2] She became involved in the Ukrainian women's movement in Bukovyna and began writing in her Ukrainian language.^[1]

Her writings were influenced by George Sand and Friedrich Nietzsche. Kobylianska was interested in the Ukrainian peasantry, and often wrote about the lives of the people. She depicted the struggle between good and evil and the mystical force of nature, predestination, magic, and the irrational in many of her stories of peasant life. Her works are known for their impressionistic, lyrical descriptions of nature and subtle psychological portrayals.^[2]

Kobylianska's works have been published in many editions and selections. In 1944 a literary memorial museum dedicated to her was opened in Chernivtsi, in the building in which she lived from 1938-1942. There is also a museum to her in Dymka, where she lived in her youth.

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