Portrait of Lesya Ukrainka

Birthday profile

Lesya Ukrainka

Lesya Ukrainka, Ukrainian poet and playwright (died1913)

Born
February 25, 1871
Died
August 1, 1913
Zodiac sign
Pisces
Birth year
1871

About Lesya Ukrainka

Lesya Ukrainka (Ukrainian: Леся Українка, romanized: Lesia Ukrainka, pronounced [ˈlɛsʲɐ ʊkrɐˈjinkɐ]; born Larysa Petrivna Kosach, Ukrainian: Лариса Петрівна Косач; 25 February [O.S. 13 February] 1871 – 1 August [O.S. 19 July] 1913) was one of Ukrainian literature's foremost writers, best known for her poems and plays. She was also an active political, civil, and female rights activist. Among her best-known works are the collections of poems On the Wings of Songs (1893), Thoughts and Dreams (1899), Echos (1902), the epic poem Ancient Fairy Tale (1893), One Word (1903), and the plays Princess (1913), Cassandra (1903–1907), In the Catacombs (1905), and Forest Song (1911). By the time she was eight, Ukrainka wrote her first poem, "Hope," which was composed in reaction to the arrest and exile of her aunt, Olena Kosach, for taking part in a political movement against the tsarist autocracy. Ukrainka's first collection of poetry had to be published secretly in western Ukraine and secretly brought into Kyiv under her pseudonym. At age thirteen her first published poem, "Lily of the Valley," appeared in the magazine Zorya in Lviv.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Lesya Ukrainka was born

Lesya Ukrainka was born in 1871. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineGreat Chicago Fire destroys 3.3 square miles
  • Technology milestoneFirst cable car in San Francisco proposed
  • World population~1.51B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderUlysses S. Grant
  • U.S. population39.4M

1871 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Lesya Ukrainka's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18712026
Population39.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.