Dniprova Chayka was the pen name of Liudmyla Vasylevska (October 20, 1861 – March 13, 1927), a Ukrainian educator and writer. The daughter of a Russian village priest and a Ukrainian mother, she was born Liudmyla Berezyna in

Karlivka Karlivka (, ) is a city in Poltava Raion, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Karlivka urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: History First settlers from the Right-bank Ukraine, right bank of Dnieper a ...

in the southern Ukraine and was educated at a private gymnasium in

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

. She worked as a private tutor and then taught in a village school and later high school. She compiled Ukrainian folk songs and oral tradition. In 1885, she married Teofan Vasylevsky, a Ukrainian historian and patriot. Because Ukrainian nationalist was suppressed within the Russian empire, the couple often found themselves under police surveillance and, in 1905, Vasylevska's writings were confiscated. Her first poems and short stories were published in journals in Ukraine. She also wrote poems and fairy tales for children and the

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

s for a number of children's operettas; the scores were written by

Mykola Lysenko Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko (; 22 March 1842 – 6 November 1912) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist of the late Romantic period. In his time he was the central figure of Ukrainian music, with an ''oeuvre'' tha ...

. Berezyna also wrote poetry in Russian and translated Swedish and Russian literature into Ukrainian. She and her husband separated after their children were grown up. Vasylevska died in Hermanivka at the age of 65. A collection of her works was published in 1929 and another in 1931. Her work was translated to English for the collection ''In the Dark of the Night'' (1998). A commemorative coin bearing her image was released into circulation in Ukraine in 2011, the 150th anniversary of her birth. It was part of a series called "Outstanding Personalities of Ukraine".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaykaa, Dniprova 1861 births 1927 deaths 19th-century Ukrainian women writers 20th-century Ukrainian women writers 19th-century Ukrainian writers 20th-century Ukrainian writers 19th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers People from Mykolaiv Oblast People from Ananyevsky Uyezd Ukrainian women short story writers Ukrainian short story writers Pseudonymous women writers Ukrainian women poets Burials at Baikove Cemetery Ukrainian-language writers Translators to Ukrainian Writers from the Russian Empire