Adrian Kashchenko (19 September 1858 - 16 March 1921) was a well-known Ukrainian

Ukrainians

Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...

 writer, historian of Zaporozhian Cossacks.

Adrian Kaschenko was born in the family of small landowner claiming its roots to the Zaporozhian Cossacks in Yekaterinoslav Governorate

Yekaterinoslav Governorate

The Yekaterinoslav Governorate or Government of Yekaterinoslav was a governorate in the Russian Empire. Its capital was the city of Yekaterinoslav .-Administrative divisions:...

 (modern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast is an oblast of central Ukraine, the most important industrial region of the country. Its administrative center is Dnipropetrovsk....

). Sharing the amongst nine siblings one of whom Mykola Kaschenko - would become a Ukrainian academician and the founder of Kiev Botanical Gardens

Kiev Botanical Gardens

The A.V. Fomin Botanical Garden is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. In 1839 the Kiev Taras Shevchenko University opened its own botanical garden. The botanical garden is 22.5 hectares , with 8,000 plant species, including 143 recorded in the Ukraine's Red Book of Rare Species...

. Adrian studied several years in gymnasium and military college, served as a small rank officer. Not finding himself in military career, A.Kaschenko became a clerk in the railway department, married and settled in Yekaterinoslav for some time. During his railway service Kaschenko was transferred to Perm

Perm

Perm is a city and the administrative center of Perm Krai, Russia, located on the banks of the Kama River, in the European part of Russia near the Ural Mountains. From 1940 to 1957 it was named Molotov ....

, Saint-Petersburg, Tuapse

Tuapse

Tuapse is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the northeast shore of the Black Sea, south of Gelendzhik and north of Sochi. It serves as the administrative center of Tuapsinsky District, although administratively it is separate from it...

 and back to Yekaterinoslav. Although he was married, his wife later left, though she remained financially dependent on him.

Kaschenko wrote both documentary and fiction stories about life of Zaporozhians and their environment. Among them short stories "Zaporozhska slava" ("Zaporizhian fame"), "Na ruinakh Sichi" ("On the ruins of Sich"), "Mandrivka na porohy" ("Trip to the sills"). At stories "Z Dnipra na Dunai" ("From Dnieper to Dunai

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

"), "Zruinovane gnizdo" ("Ruined nest") where he attempted to show the negative aspects following the break-up of the Zaporozhian Host

Zaporozhian Host

The Zaporozhian Cossacks or simply Zaporozhians were Ukrainian Cossacks who lived beyond the rapids of the Dnieper river, the land also known as the Great Meadow in Central Ukraine...

. Several documentary portraits of Cossack leaders were created: "Nad Kodatskim porohom" ("Under the Kodak sill") about Hetman

Hetman

Hetman was the title of the second-highest military commander in 15th- to 18th-century Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which together, from 1569 to 1795, comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita....

 Ivan Sulima, "Hetman Sahaidachny", "Kost Hordienko-Holovko - last knight of Zaporizhia".

Most of Adrian Kaschenko works were published in 1917 - 1919, during the epoch of Ukraine after the Russian Revolution

Ukraine after the Russian Revolution

Ukrainian territory was fought over by various factions after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the First World War, which added the collapse of Austria-Hungary to that of the Imperial Russia. The crumbling of the empires had a great effect on the Ukrainian nationalist movement and in the short...

 and Ukrainian People's Republic

Ukrainian People's Republic

The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...

 (previous attempts did not gain wide publication due to the censorship in the Russian Empire). At that time Kaschenko took part in the Ukrainian Prosvita

Prosvita

Prosvita is a society created in the nineteenth century in Ukrainian Galicia for preserving and developing Ukrainian culture and education among population....

("Enlightenment") society activities and even founded his own publishing house. Sudden illness and subsequent death in 1921 put an end to his scientific and public career.

Printing of Kaschenko stories was only renewed after Ukraine became independent.

Works of Adrian Kaschenko

• "The ruined nest"
• "The Story about Zaporizhian Army"
• "From Dnieper to Dunai"
• "Under the Kodak sill"
• "Hetman Sahaidachny"
• "Kost Hordienko-Holovko - last knight of Zaporizhia"
• "The Grand Meadow of Zaporizhia"

External links

• Works of Adrian Kashchenko