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Irina SteshenkoUkrainian Soviet theater actress, writer, translator
Date of Birth: 04.07.1898
Country:  Ukraine |
Content:
Biography of Irina Stechenko
Irina Stechenko was a Ukrainian Soviet theater actress, writer, and translator. She was born into a well-known Ukrainian cultural family and was the granddaughter of the prominent Ukrainian playwright Mikhail Staritsky. Her parents were Oksana Mikhailovna and Ivan Matveevich Stechenko. Ivan, who was a writer, translator, pedagogue, and Minister of Education of the Ukrainian People's Republic, was tragically killed by a Bolshevik agent-terrorist in Kiev on July 29, 1918. Her mother and younger brother, Yaroslav, were also victims of repression and died in Stalinist prisons.
Early Career
In 1918, Irina completed her studies at the Higher Women's Courses in Kiev. From 1918 to 1920, she studied at the Kiev Music and Drama Institute named after Lysenko. In 1920, she began her acting career and performed at the First Theater of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic named after Shevchenko in Kiev. In 1923, she was invited by Les Kurbas to join the Berezil Theater, and in 1926, she relocated with the theater to Kharkiv.
Acting Career
From 1935 to 1949, Irina Stechenko was an actress at the Ukrainian Drama Theater named after Shevchenko in Kharkiv. She portrayed various roles, including the Witch in Shakespeare's "Macbeth" (1924), Sirchikha in Staritsky's "Chasing Two Hares" (1925), Matildochka in Kulish's "Malakhii the People's Friend" (1928), Arabella in Schiller's "Fiesco's Conspiracy in Genoa" (1928), Rina in Kulish's "Mina Mazaylo" (1929), and Dorimena in Molière's "The Imaginary Invalid" (1933).
Later Life
In 1949, Irina Stechenko retired from the stage and moved to Kiev. She focused on translation work, translating dramatic works by Goethe, Schiller, Goldoni, Molière, Shakespeare, Ostrovsky, as well as prose by Mark Twain, Jack London, and Stefan Zweig into Ukrainian. Her apartment on Pushkinska Street became a gathering place for intellectuals in the 1960s, where they discussed politics and culture.
In 1973, she was accused by the newspaper "Pravda Ukrainy" of having connections with foreign bourgeois nationalists and was expelled from the Union of Writers of Ukraine. Despite this, she continued to fight for the preservation of the memory of her grandfather, Mikhail Staritsky. She campaigned for the establishment of a museum in the house where he lived with his family from 1901 to 1904 and where he passed away on Saksahanskoho Street in Kiev. The museum was finally opened in 2002.
