Lina Kostenko

Lina Vasylivna Kostenko (; born 19 March 1930) is a Ukrainian poet, journalist, writer, publisher, and former Soviet dissident. A founder and leading representative of the Sixtiers poetry movement, Kostenko has been described as one of Ukraine's foremost poets and credited with reviving Ukrainian-language lyric poetry.

Kostenko has been granted numerous honours, including an honorary professorship at Kyiv Mohyla Academy, honorary doctorates of Lviv and Chernivtsi Universities, the Shevchenko National Prize, and the Legion of Honour.

Early life and career

Lina Vasylivna Kostenko was born to a family of teachers in Rzhyshchiv. In 1936, her family moved from Rzhyshchiv to the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv, where she finished her secondary education. The poem I Grew Up in Kyivan Venice is devoted to these events.

After graduating from high school, she studied at the Kyiv Pedagogical Institute, and later at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow, from where she graduated with distinction in 1956. and has been called one of Ukraine's greatest female poets. Ivan Koshelivets, Ukrainian émigré scholar, referred to her writing as "unprecedented" for its deviation from socialist realism.

In the early 1960s, she took part in the literary evenings of the Kyiv Creative Youth Club. Following her graduation, she published three collections of poetry: Earthly Rays in 1957, Sails in 1958, and Journeys of the Heart in 1961. The poems became immensely popular among Ukrainian readers. She was criticized by Soviet critics for her ideologically nonconformist attitude and her conscious avoidance of the principles of socialist realism imposed by the Communist Party. The government of the Soviet Union forced her into silence as she was unwilling to submit to Soviet authorities who censored her poems. , it appeared that among the nominees submitted from 1901 to 1974 – publicly available due to 50-year secrecy period, Lina Kostenko is one of only the four living.

In 1968, she wrote letters in defence of Viacheslav Chornovil in response to the defamation against him in the newspaper "Literary Ukraine." After that, the name of Lina Kostenko was not mentioned in the Soviet press for many years. She worked "in the drawer", knowing that her works were not going to be published.

In 1973 Lina Kostenko was blacklisted by Secretary of the Central Committee on Ideology of the Communist Party of Ukraine Valentyn Malanchuk. Only in 1977, after the departure of Malanchuk, was her collection of poems On the Banks of the Eternal River published,

In popular culture During the 2026 Winter Olympics, Ukrainian short track speed skater Oleh Handei included a line of Kostenko's poetry on his helmet that read, "Where there is heroism, there is no final defeat." He was ordered to remove it on grounds that it was a political slogan. Handei questioned the decision and asserted it was a personal motto. He explained, "A person whose words I respect, whom I follow, where there is no hint of war. It's not allowed. I tried to argue — they made it clear to me that it was better not to do so."

Awards and honours Taras Shevchenko National Prize (1987, for the novel "Marusya Churai" and the collection "Uniqueness") Antonovych prize (1989) Honorary professorship from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Honorary doctorates from Lviv and Chernivtsi universities. Asteroid 290127 Linakostenko, discovered at the Andrushivka Astronomical Observatory in 2005, was named in her honor.