Petro Semenovych Drevchenko (1863 – 1934) was also known by the surname of Drevkin and Drygavka.

Biography

Drevchenko was born in 1863 in the Poltava Governorate

Poltava Governorate

The Poltava Governorate or Government of Poltava was a guberniya in the historical Left-bank Ukraine region of the Russian Empire, which was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Malorossiya Governorate which was split between the Chernigov Governorate and Poltava Governorate with an...

 of the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 (in present-day Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

) to a family of servants. From the age of 12 he lived in Kharkiv

Kharkiv

Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...

, in the area of Zalutin. At the age of 13 he came down with the mumps

Mumps

Mumps is a viral disease of the human species, caused by the mumps virus. Before the development of vaccination and the introduction of a vaccine, it was a common childhood disease worldwide...

 and lost his sight. At 14 he was apprenticed to kobzar

Kobzar

A Kobzar was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment.-Tradition:Kobzars were often blind, and became predominantly so by the 1800s...

 Hnat Honcharenko

Hnat Honcharenko

Hnat Tykhonovych Honcharenko was one of the most renowned Ukrainian kobzars of the Kharkiv oblast of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.- Biography :...

 for 4 years and at 18 completed his apprenticeship and received permission to become an independent kobzar. At the age of 20 he was married.

Kryst wrote that Drevchenko reminded one of his teacher - Hnat Honcharenko

Hnat Honcharenko

Hnat Tykhonovych Honcharenko was one of the most renowned Ukrainian kobzars of the Kharkiv oblast of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.- Biography :...

. He had a fidgety character and was given the name Drygavka (meaning "spinning top"). He travelled around considerably giving numerous performances. Of the kobzars of the early 20th century he made public significant sections of the Ustynski books. He often performed with lirnyk Ivan Zozulia.

He participated in the XIIth Archeological Congress

12th Archeological Congress

- Preamble :In the 1867 a tradition of holding Archeological Conferences known as Congresses was established in the Russian Empire. The aim of these conferences was to discuss and to make public studies dealing with matters of antiquity and ethnography...

 in Kharkiv

Kharkiv

Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...

 in 1902. According to Heorhy Tkachenko

Heorhy Tkachenko

Heorhiy Kyrylovych Tkachenko .-Biography:Tkachenko was able to complete his high school education in Kharkiv before continuing his education in Moscow. He completed his education in Moscow as an architect in 1929 and continued to live in Moscow where he designed many of the parks around the city...

 Drevchenko's performance in 1922 at the opening of the Artem museum to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Hryhory Skovoroda aided significantly in raising his popularity.

His playing technique was admired by Mykola Lysenko

Mykola Lysenko

Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist.- Biography :Lysenko was born in Hrynky, Kremenchuk Povit, Poltava Governorate, the son of Vitaliy Romanovich Lysenko . From childhood he became very interested in the folksongs of Ukrainian peasants and...

 who at one time considered him for a position to teach bandura at his music school in Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

.

Filaret Kolessa

Filaret Kolessa

Filaret Mykhailovych Kolessa was a Ukrainian ethnographer, folklorist, composer, musicologist and literary critic. He was a member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society from 1909, The Free Ukrainian Academy of Sciences from 1929, and the founder of Ukrainian ethnographic musicology.- Biography...

 noted that Drevchenko had characteristics of stage performance in his dumy

Duma (epic)

A Duma is a sung epic poem which originated in Ukraine during the Hetmanate Era in the sixteenth century...

(sung epic poems) renditions but when compared to Ivan Kuchuhura Kucherenko

Ivan Kuchuhura Kucherenko

Ivan Iovych Kuchuhura-Kucherenko Ivan Iovych Kuchuhura-Kucherenko Ivan Iovych Kuchuhura-Kucherenko (July 7, 1878—November 24, 1937 was a Ukrainian minstrel (kobzar) and one of the most influential kobzars of the early 20th century...

, Drevchenko's recitations kept their archaic base.

In Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 times, Drevchenko took up a number of social causes such as the right for kobzars to perform on the streets. Together with the kobzars Pavlo Hashchenko

Pavlo Hashchenko

Pavlo Ivanovych Hashchenko was a Ukrainian kobzar and bandura player.Hashchenko was originally from Poltava province but lived most of his life in the village of Konstantynivka, Bohodukhiv county, Kharkiv province....

, Stepan Pasiuha

Stepan Pasiuha

Stepan Artemovych Pasiuha was originally from the town of Velyki Pysarivky, Bohodukhiv county, in the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire. He learned to play the bandura from Dmytro Trochenko . He had seven dumy in his repertoire:*1. Marusia Bohuslavka*2...

, H. Tsybko they created the duma “About the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

.” Heorhy Tkachenko

Heorhy Tkachenko

Heorhiy Kyrylovych Tkachenko .-Biography:Tkachenko was able to complete his high school education in Kharkiv before continuing his education in Moscow. He completed his education in Moscow as an architect in 1929 and continued to live in Moscow where he designed many of the parks around the city...

 regarded Drevchenko to be his teacher.

Drevchenko later was persecuted by the Soviet authorities. He died in 1934, possibly in Kharkiv. The circumstances of his death are not clear but it is assumed that he died during the Holodomor

Holodomor

The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...

.

Sources

• Черемський, К. П. Повернення традиції / К. Черемський. – Х.: Центр Леся Курбаса. – 1999. – 288 с.
• Черемський, К. П. Шлях звичаю / – Х.: Глас. – 2002. – 444 с.