The article analyzes three historical novels by the renowned Ukrainian writer Olga Strashenko (1950–2015), dedicated respectively to the Byzantine history and civilization of the 12th century, the Ukrainian Hetmanate of the 18th century, and the famous Ukrainian figure of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Nataliia Kobrynska. Ukrainian literary criticism has only addressed the analysis of the novel “The Byzantine Cunning,” while the other two works are characterized for the first time.
Methods. The research uses cultural-historical, comparative-historical, descriptive and textological methods of analysis of monuments of literature.
Results and conclusions. Olga Strashenko (1950–2015) – the mother of the author of the article, a renowned Ukrainian writer, librarian, literary scholar, and translator, worked in various genres of fiction, but considered her main creative achievement to be her three historical novels – “The Byzantine Cunning,” “The Emperor’s Beloved” (Elizabeth Petrovna and Alexei Rozumovsky), and “Lady Natalia –Women’s Troublemaker” (a documentary novel about Nataliia Kobrynska against the backdrop of the era). Chronologically, the first novel to appear was “The Byzantine Cunning” (2005–2006), which the author diligently worked on from 1988 to 1993, and which subsequently waited over 10 years for a publisher due to economic hardships. The events in the novel unfold in the second half of the 12th century – from the 1160s to the 1180s, taking place both in the Byzantine Empire and in Halych Rus, as well as in Kyiv, near Vyshhorod, in Darnytsia, Osokorky, and Korchuvate. The two main plot lines – the “Byzantine” and the “Ukrainian-Rus” – are distinctly delineated in the multi-faceted work. The story primarily deals with the Byzantine Empire during the reign of the last members of the Komnenos dynasty (1081–1185) – Emperors Manuel (1143–1180) and his cousin and rival for the throne, Andronikos Komnenos (1182–1185). Andronikos is depicted as a 12th-century adventurer, a figure with Alcibiades-Nero-Byzantine traits, who returned to Constantinople after a long exile, having also spent time in Halych Rus. His political activities were marked by two main directions – demagoguery and ruthless terror. It was he (the future “peasant tsar”) who introduced proscription lists of “traitors to the homeland,” specifying the types of execution they faced (here, vivid parallels with the political processes of the Stalinist era emerge). The documentary-adventure novel “The Emperor’s Beloved” (2009) echoes events that took place in the mid-18th century, focusing on the trip of Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna to Ukraine in 1744 and her relationship with Alexei Rozumovsky, the “night emperor.” The novel also explores the European theaters where the battles of the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) occurred, involving Ukrainian units. The idea of restoring the Hetmanate and the Ukrainians’ struggle for their rights runs as a red thread through the novel. The novel depicts hetmans such as Danylo Apostol (of Romanian descent), Kyrylo Rozumovsky, Pylyp Orlyk, and his son Hryhor Orlyk, as well as high-ranking officials like Alexei Bestuzhev and Mikhail Vorontsov. It also portrays the future “she-wolf on the throne,” Catherine the Great, and the distinguished scholar Hryhoriy Skovoroda. There are ongoing debates about Skovoroda – who was this traveler? Was he a “philosopher of the people,” a patriotic Ukrainian, or a man of the world, a precursor of the modern cosmopolitan? Inspired by the vivid image of Nataliya Kobrynska (1855–1920) since her student years at the Kyiv Institute of Culture (1968–1973), Olga Strashenko wrote a thesis on Kobrynska and her work based on the 1958 edition of her writings. She later authored the novella “Lady Natalia – Women’s Troublemaker,” excerpts of which were published in the women’s newspaper “I, You, We” (1994) and “Ukrainian Language and Literature in School” (1998). A candidate dissertation was planned in the 1990s. Having amassed a substantial amount of collected material, Olga Strashenko expanded the novella into a historicalbiographical novel of the same name in 2013. The novel has a chronological storyline: Kobrynska’s family home in Beleluia, her marriage, widowhood; a trip to Vienna with her father (a deputy of the Austro-Hungarian Parliament), exposure to progressive ideas, primarily feminist ones. Thus began a life filled with the struggle for women’s equality: writing works, organizing the women’s society of Ruthenian women in Stanislav, attending various congresses, assemblies, and travels.
Keywords: Olga Strashenko, the Byzantine Empire, Andronikos I Komnenos, the Cossack Hetmanate, Alexei Razumovsky, Nataliya Kobrynska, the feminist movement
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DownloadDOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/2520-6346.1(66).74-101