Friends!

On this day 213 years ago, was born "the first Ukrainian lexicographer" Mykola Markevich. Even then, the Russians called him the "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist". I want to tell you his story.

Mykola Andriyovich was born in the village Dunajec in the family of landowner. His mother was Countess Anastasia Gudovich. The legacy of the family, he received an estate in the village Turivtsi. He studied the in the "boarding school" in the Main Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg and then had already started to write his first poems.

Mykola Markevich served in the army, during the service he met the future Decembrists. Once retired, he returned to his estate and married the daughter of another landowner - Ulyana Rakovich. His first poetry collection Mykola Andriyovich called "Ukrainian melodies." To them he wrote the music.

History interested man the most. First, he collected historical documents of Cossack era to create a Ukrainian Encyclopedic Dictionary. He wanted to give every Ukrainian an opportunity to be able to find any information about Ukraine, to study biographies of famous people. For 10 years, he had written articles for his dictionary, produced 11 volumes, each of which consisted of 600 pages. But he stopped printing it, because his books published in Moscow, were called "Large historically, mythological, and statistics literature dictionary of Russian state."

His pro-Ukrainian position he demonstrated by giving "History of Little Russia" in 5 volumes. There he prepared a compilation of all the events in the Ukrainian land from ancient times to the late 18th century and gave a complete picture of the people. For this edition, the author was criticized because according to Russian scientists: "Little Russia has never been a state, it follows that its history in the strict sense of the word did not exist." And for some reason picked Markevich collection of documents on the history of Ukraine stored in the Russian State Library, and his diaries - the Institute of Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

By the way, Taras Shevchenko used "History of Little Russia" when he wrote the poem "Gaydamaka." He even dedicated a poem with the following lines:

"Bandura player, a gray eagle,
Well you, brother,
You have wings, you have the power
You have where to fly. "

It was first published in "Kobzar" in 1840. In response, Mykola Markevich set to music Shevchenko’s poem "Why do I have black eyebrows."

Mykola Andriyovich died at the age of 56 years because of the disease in his own estate. He was buried in the family crypt near the Church of All Saints.

Friends! Ukrainian history is very interesting and full of variety. A personality, engaged in its research and preparation of the collection for future generations - must remain in our memory forever.