Evgenii Pavlovich Grebenka

Born Jan. 21 (Feb. 2), 1812. in the village of Mar’ianovka. in present-day Piriatin Raion, Poltava Oblast; died Dec. 3 (15), 1848, in St. Petersburg. Ukrainian and Russian writer. Born into a gentry family. Graduated from the Nezhin Gymnasium of Higher Studies.

Grebenka lived in St. Petersburg from 1834. He began publishing in 1831. The fables Ukrainian Tales (1834; 2nd edition, 1836) brought him fame. They exposed social injustice, the arbitrary authority of landowners, and bribery (“The Bear Court.” “The Fisherman,” “The Wolf and the Fire.” and “Barley”). Several of his verses in Ukrainian and Russian (“I Was Still a Young Girl” and “Black Eyes”) became popular songs. Grebenka’s early Russian prose portrayed Ukrainian life in a romantic spirit, and the later prose, from the position of critical realism (“Stories of a Man from Piriatin,” 1837; “Brothers,” 1840; “The Nezhin Colonel Zolotarenko,” 1842; “Chaikovskii,” 1843). He depicted the life of petty functionaries (“Distant Relative.” 1841; “Poltava Evenings,” 1848). the oppression of the serfs (“Snipe,” 1841; “Adventures of a Blue Bank Note.” 1847). and the tragedy of the “little man” (“Notes of a Student,” 1841; “The Doctor,” 1844; “Zaborov,” 1848). Grebenka was close to the “natural school.” He published the almanac Lastivka (The Swallow) in St. Petersburg in 1841.