Women in the life of Mark Kropyvnytskyi

Abstract

The article explores the discourse of Mark Kropyvnytskyi's relationships with women, primarily with his family and loved ones. Among them are his mother, stepmother, first and second wives, as well as several other women, including Antonina Markovych, Maria Starytska, and others. It is noted that the playwright's mother, Kapitolina Ivanovna, was the illegitimate daughter of a young lady and an officer. This officer died in the war before she was born. Because of this, the girl was given to the family of a former serf, Ivan Dubrovinsky, for upbringing. It is noteworthy that the playwright had a tense relationship with his mother. This is due to the fact that in childhood she caused him serious psychological trauma by leaving the family for a hussar officer. It is emphasized that M. Kropyvnytskyi's stepmother, Yavdokha Petlyshenko, did not pay due attention to her husband's children, and their father was often absent due to official business. Therefore, little Marko and his sister often spent the night with one of the serfs. It is emphasized that M. Kropyvnytskyi's first wife, Oleksandra Vukotich, was ten years younger than him, had an attractive appearance, and gladly participated with him in amateur performances. However, their marriage was short-lived (1868-1880), as Alexandra died of diphtheria after twelve years of marriage, leaving her forty-year-old husband with two young children. It is emphasized that the artist's next possible chosen one could be a twenty-six-year-old woman from Poltava, Antonina Markovich. Their romance developed mainly in the format of correspondence over a period of three months - from October 1880 to January 1881. Rumors were already circulating about their imminent marriage, but for unknown reasons this did not happen. It is also noted that in the summer of 1883, M. Kropyvnytskyi had a short­lived affair with seventeen-year-old Maria, the eldest daughter of Mykhailo Starytskyi. However, the relationship did not work out, probably due to the refusal of her father, who did not want his young daughter to link her fate with a much older man. The article notes that M. Kropyvnytskyi's second wife was the twenty-nine- year-old doctor Nadiya Gladushchenko, whom he met in 1887 during his troupe's tour in St. Petersburg.

Almost all of her married life with the playwright was spent in the Kharkiv region, on her husband's estate on the Zatyshok farm, where Nadiya's main occupations were raising children and practicing medicine, mostly on a volunteer basis. The conclusions summarize that information about the women with whom M. Kropyvnytskyi had contact helps to form a more holistic picture of him as a person and an artist.