Іван Котляревський

Activity: Culture, Literature
Date of Birth: August 29, 1769
Date of Death: October 29, 1838
Navigator: The Long Nineteenth Century

Born and died in Poltava. Writer, military officer, educator, and public figure. He is considered the founder of modern Ukrainian literature.

Ivan Kotliarevsky was born into the family of a minor nobleman whose father worked as a clerk. It is not known exactly where the future writer received his primary education; most likely he studied at a parish school. Later he attended the Poltava Theological Seminary, where he became interested in the humanities, developed a passion for theater, avidly read classical literature, and translated texts from six languages.
Kotliarevsky’s family was not wealthy, so after completing his studies he had to look for work immediately. He worked as a clerk and later served as a tutor in landowning families. It was during this period that he began working on his poem Eneida, which corresponded with the literary fashion of the time for adaptations of classical texts.
From 1796 to 1808, Kotliarevsky served in the military. He participated in the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792) and, as a member of the Seversky Regiment, received several awards and the rank of staff captain. Although the writer did not initially intend to publish “Eneida,” he continued working on it even during his service within the Russian Empire. Through this work, Kotliarevsky clearly expressed his Ukrainian identity and resisted imperial cultural assimilation. One form of such resistance at the beginning of the nineteenth century was the artistic admiration of simple rural life and the turn toward folk themes.
Kotliarevsky did not plan to publish his text, but this did not prevent Maksym Parpura from publishing it without the author’s permission in 1798 in Saint Petersburg. Likewise, in 1808 Ivan Glazunov printed another edition there without the author’s knowledge. Both publications contained many errors, which deeply upset Kotliarevsky. In 1809, with the support of the patron Semen Kochubey, he published his own edition of “Eneida,” which differed significantly from the previous ones: the writer added a fourth part to the work and edited and corrected the first three. On the title page he placed the note: “Newly corrected and supplemented compared to previous editions.”
After retiring from military service in 1808, Kotliarevsky returned to Poltava. In 1810 he became the supervisor of the Poltava Institute for the Education of Poor Nobles. Although this position did not bring him substantial income, it corresponded with his educational aspirations. However, the approaching French invasion of Russia (1812) forced him to leave the job. At the beginning of August 1812, as an officer, he formed the Fifth Ukrainian Cossack Regiment. Although the writer did not personally participate in battles, after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s army he carried out several military assignments: he twice traveled to the Russian army headquarters in Dresden, as well as to Saint Petersburg and Kremenchuk.
After returning to Poltava, Kotliarevsky immersed himself in his long-standing passion for theater. He organized amateur performances and played comic roles in popular plays. In 1816 he was appointed director of the Poltava Theater. During this period he wrote the plays Natalka Poltavka and Moskal-Charivnyk, which gained great popularity with audiences.
Noticing the remarkable talent of the serf actor Mykhailo Shchepkin, Kotliarevsky helped secure his freedom from serfdom. During the four years of their collaboration, the Poltava Theater became one of the leading theaters in Ukraine, but in 1821 it had to close due to financial difficulties. After that, Kotliarevsky almost stopped writing; he only completed work on “Eneida.” However, he did not live to see the full edition of the poem published. It was printed in 1842, after his death.
The first monument to Kotliarevsky was erected in 1903 on what is now Kotliarevsky Boulevard in Poltava, although the imperial authorities resisted this for a long time. The permission eventually granted by officials included a condition: the inscription on the pedestal had to be written in Russian.
In 1904 the collection Na vichnu pam’iat Kotliarevskomu (“In Eternal Memory of Kotliarevsky”) brought together works by representatives of different literary generations. It included, among others, the poem “At the Celebration of the Unveiling of the Monument to Ivan Kotliarevsky” by Mykola Voronyi and “At the Unveiling of the Monument to the First Ukrainian Writer Ivan Kotliarevsky” by Panas Myrnyi.
The city where Ivan Kotliarevsky was born and died honors him with numerous memorial sites. In Poltava there are the Ivan Kotliarevsky Literary-Memorial Museum, the Ivan Kotliarevsky Museum-Estate, and Kotliarevsky Park, where his grave is located.

Brief Conclusions

Statesman and reformer — he was primarily a public figure rather than a statesman; he also carried out socially significant military activity by forming the Fifth Ukrainian Cossack Cavalry Regiment to fight against Napoleon.
Legislator — he was not a legislator in the literal sense; he is regarded as the founder of modern Ukrainian literature.
Builder and patron — he was involved in charitable activities and, in particular, freed his own serfs at the end of his life.
Church policy — he was not involved in significant church activity.
Legacy — his work “Eneida” became the first major literary work written in the living vernacular language, marking the beginning of the formation of the modern Ukrainian literary language.

Author: Viktoriia Smushok