Chrysanthemums. Uliana Kravchenko

Yuliia Shnaider (1860–1947), known as Uliana Kravchenko, was born into a German-Ukrainian family, but from childhood, time after time, she chose Ukrainian identity. In her autobiographical story “Chrysanthemums”, she recalls the first 17 years of her life in the town of Mykolaiv, in the Lviv region. Her memories are not just a chronological account of events, but a multilayered essay-observation. After all, here is the surrounding life, and the traditions of the Boykos, and fashion, and the social and literary moods of that time, and admiration for world-famous works and figures. And all this is successfully recreated by the hand of an attentive, caring girl. Uliana Kravchenko writes a sensual text, like playing the piano, full of minor notes and the tenderness of chrysanthemum petals.