People
Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko
1778–1843 · Writer, playwright
Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko — prose writer and playwright tied to Kharkiv and Osnova. City and Sloboda life are the natural setting of his plays.
Tales
13
легендадо XVIII века · Центр
WHERE DID KHARKIV COME FROM?
On a horse in full gear—with shield and pike, bow and arrows—sits a Cossack; behind him rise the towers and walls of a stockade. Thus an old artist portrayed the legendary founder of our city, Kharko…
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топонимсоветский Харьков · Центр
OUT INTO THE STREET—AND NO STREET
Whole studies are devoted to Kharkiv toponymy, full of curious detail. Chebotarska, Kuznechna, Rymarska, Katsarska, Stolyarny and Slesarny lanes, the Honcharivka district—all evidently took their names…
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топонимбез даты · Центр
WHERE DID NETECH GO?
"Burst if you will, Kharkiv doesn't flow"—one of our old local sayings. It bundles the names of rivers in the city center: Kharkiv, Lopan, and Netech. The first two still exist, but where did the third…
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слухXVIII век · Харьков
THEY STOLE THE BRIDGE
Kharkivites once found that a bridge on the Lopan… had vanished. They appealed to the City Duma, which knew nothing and asked the governor. He replied that the bridge had been ordered dismantled…
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байкабез даты · Харьков
BALLS, DINNERS, MASQUERADES...
"Balls, masquerades, and genteel gatherings then called 'clubs' began in Kharkiv. How fine it was in that free, sincere, patriarchal age. Every Sunday, every holiday…
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байкабез даты · Центр
IN MANY FACES
I marvel, creator, / At our tricky age: / Actor, poet, and committeeman / Are one and the same man. This epigram, attributed to V. Karazin, appeared in the 1830s and targets G. Kv…
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топонимбез даты · Харьков
LOST TALENT
G. Kvitka noticed shop signs and coats of arms painted in a distinctive hand. The artist was young Khamlo-Sokira. Finding undeniable talent in the poor youth, the writer…
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байкаXIX век · Центр
"THE INSPECTOR GENERAL"—PLAGIARISM?
A young man arrives in a provincial town; the authorities take him for an inspector, and uproar follows. Gogol's Inspector General? No—it is G. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko's comedy…
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топонимXIX век · Основа
BELATED MEMORY
At G. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko's funeral in 1843 his Russian friend, scholar I. Sreznevsky, said: "Remember, Ukraine, this grave: here lies one who, animated by love for you, your welfare, and your tong…
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байкабез даты · Харьков
AN ACTOR'S RUSE
Ivan Kotlyarevsky of Poltava, without pausing work on his poem Eneida, wrote the plays Natalka Poltavka and Moskal-charivnyk. But where to stage them? His hometown had no theater. Then…
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байкабез даты · Центр
FOR THE ROLE OF STETSKO
About the same time, on the “recommendation” of the regional committee, the Kharkiv Academic Drama Theatre named after T. Shevchenko removed from its repertoire the production of H. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko’s comedy Shelmenko the Orderly…”
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топонимначало XX века · Центр
FIVE FROM THE PAWNSHOP
As is well known, in December 1917 a congress in Kharkiv proclaimed Ukraine a Republic of Soviets. Half a century later, to honor the event, the city’s central square was renamed Soviet Square (now Constitution Square…”
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