IN THE SHADOW: about geniuses and their no less genius wives

Art design: huxley.media via Midjourney

 

They created the conditions for work. Comfort, peace, and coziness. They knew when to bring tea, a sweet bun, or a glass of cherry liqueur. To console or stay silent. The wives transcribed and retyped manuscripts. They provided lines while roles were being studied. They washed brushes. Sorted correspondence. Inspired. Filled with energy. Calmed the children so they wouldn’t disturb the genius with their noise. They searched for money for vacations, tours, or trips abroad. They loved passionately and placed love above their own fulfillment. Some devoted wives responded with mutual affection and financial well-being. Others — only with heartfelt feelings. The third — with neither.

 

The future wife of Bohdan Stupka, Larysa, was a talented ballerina. She danced at the Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet and showed great promise. The young man served as a master of ceremonies in the Song and Dance Ensemble, earning three rubles and eighty kopecks, announcing: «The soldier of October defends peace», and dreaming of becoming an actor.

They got married, settled in a small room of three by five meters, and had a son, Ostap. Ballet became a thing of the past: their child was constantly sick, and Bohdan’s career slowly progressed. Larysa exchanged her pointe shoes and arabesques for household chores and completed homework, pies, and dolma in a timely manner.

One day, after a performance, the actor returned home to find Larysa in the kitchen, listening to the ballet «Giselle» on the radio. She was catching every note, swaying, and crying bitterly. To cheer her up, Bohdan Sylvestrovich stripped down to his underwear and tried to play the role of Paris, the handsome seducer. Larysa laughed but then cried again…

Ariadna Dragomanova (the companion of artist Ivan Trush) was born in Switzerland, studied mathematics, literature, history, and philosophy at the Sorbonne, and learned painting in Sofia. She received an English education, which her father supported, and wasn’t afraid of traveling alone, easily navigating public institutions like post offices and banks. She knew languages and played the piano masterfully, but her husband wished for her not to work and hired three assistants for her.

The family arrived in Lviv, but the city did not accept Ariadna, leaving her isolated. Ivan, on the other hand, became quite popular. Handsome, stylishly dressed, and with a cherrywood cane, he often walked around the city. He painted portraits of Kameniar, Lesya Ukrainka, and Mykhailo Hrushevsky. Ariadna took care of their four children and managed their two-story house and garden.

When their daughters turned three and two, and their eldest son Myron was just born, the landscape artist traveled to Venice for inspiration and spent two months in the city of water. The family respectfully blessed him for such a long journey. Later, tough times came, and Trush’s works stopped selling. Ariadna did not sit idle; she began giving private lessons in French and music, as she also had many talents, while Ivan Trush, in his later years, painted the piece «Loneliness Together».

 

 

Lidia Amosova was just as skilled in surgery as her husband. She started as an operating room nurse and then graduated from both pedagogical and medical schools. She performed lung surgeries with great talent but didn’t have the opportunity to spend the nights at the hospital. At home, her daughter Katya, her elderly mother, and a mountain of household chores awaited her. Breakfasts, cleaning, and getting ready for school. Dictations, making meatballs, ironing robes and aprons.

Soon, Lidia Vasylivna retrained as a physiotherapist because who would want a specialist who is always asking for time off and in a rush? While Mykola persistently climbed the career ladder, she managed the household, did repairs, hired plasterers, and even carried out the garbage herself, painting windows.

After moving to their summer house in Klavdiyevo-Tarasove, she created a small garden, growing raspberries, strawberries, parsley, and dill. She maintained a sterile cleanliness, even starching rags. Every evening, she waited for her academic husband and served dinner, as the daily life of a brilliant surgeon was of no interest to him.

Vira Kotsyubynska was truly progressive. She taught French, mathematics, and calligraphy at a women’s theological school and studied at the Bestuzhev Courses in St. Petersburg. She led an active social life. After meeting Mykhailo, she decided to put her own interests aside for his.

She managed everything: the house, four children, and his blind mother. The most important thing was for the master to write his short stories peacefully, rest, and travel abroad for treatment. Vira Ustymivna edited his manuscripts, organized Saturday intellectual gatherings, and served dumplings and tea. She calmed the children: the writer preferred to work on his novellas and stories in silence. Mykhailo took this as a given, reading his manuscripts to his wife and listening to her remarks, then played with his lover and tanned on the island of Capri.

From there, he wrote: «I organize my day like this: I get up at seven or eight, have breakfast, and immediately go for a walk. I lie somewhere near the sea or climb to a high place, to a picturesque spot, lie down, enjoy myself, think, sometimes write observations about nature in my book, rarely read…»

 

 

The intellectual Klavdiya Leontovych faithfully served her chosen one. The composer often traveled with a large suitcase across villages, collecting folklore, and would return home late in the evening, immediately sitting at the piano to write pauses, notes, bass, and violin clefs on the staff.

Klavdiya raised their two daughters, making sure no one went hungry and patched up his hat and trousers. When they moved to Kyiv, he often stayed late at work and returned in the dark while she waited by the window. Hearing his loud footsteps, she would jump up, wipe away her tears, and pretend to be carefree and cheerful so as not to upset her artist. She would warm the modest dinner.

 

 

Rozaliya Lifshyts (first a common-law wife, then the legal wife of Volodymyr Vynnychenko) had a medical education. She defended her dissertation on the topic «Tetanus in adults and its paratyphoid origin» and became a doctor of medicine, but for the sake of her beloved, she was ready to move heaven and earth.

She learned Ukrainian, agreed to an open relationship, translated his works into Russian and French, and retyped them. She accepted her husband’s philosophy that a person can allow themselves anything, as long as they are not tormented by guilt. Something like: «One can love two, three, five people at the same time, as many as the body and the fire can handle…».

She shared his passions for nudism and vegetarianism. Each time, stating that Volodymyr had reached a dead end and lost his ideas and inspiration, she introduced him to interesting young women. This is how the novelist and playwright received new impressions and was inspired by fresh ideas. His plots became more intricate with antitheses and «movement-reflexes». He sank even deeper into his «Solar Machine».

Olha Franko graduated from the Kharkiv Institute for Noble Girls and then attended the higher women’s courses in Kyiv. She knew French, German, English, and Russian. She was considered intellectual, smart, and educated. Ivan, as he himself claimed, married her for pragmatic reasons, and he did not hesitate to take advantage of her dowry. With this money, he published his own journal «Zhittia i Slovo» and printed the collection «From Heights and Lows».

Olha gave birth to four children, wrote articles, and helped the poet collect Ukrainian folklore. Franko never bothered with household chores because he earned money with his pen. During breaks, he would visit a fancy restaurant for a cup of coffee. Meanwhile, his wife built a house, baked yeast pies, made jams and conserves, and did everything possible to ensure that her husband «felt good at home». She toughened the children, played with them on the slide, and corresponded with the journal subscribers until she eventually went mad.

Franko’s wife (as she was called behind her back) had a hereditary illness that worsened over time, and she also accidentally read a letter from her talented publicist, especially the bitter paragraph: «I married my current wife without love, but because of the doctrine that I should marry a Ukrainian, preferably an educated one, a student. Of course, my choice wasn’t brilliant. With another woman, I could have developed better and achieved something more. Well, never mind, fate can’t be avoided».

 

 

Lydia Tychyna was at first introduced by the poet as a servant. He hid her in the bathroom or the closet, yet she obediently visited «Rolit» to clean, wash underwear, and bake honey cakes. Her mother also served «her son-in-law»: she took care of begonias and sewed trousers. Magdalyna Slyvka patiently washed brushes and cleaned her Adalbert Erdel palette. She took him away from his lover, Sylvia, and ignored the opinions of others, who thought the painter considered her just a free housekeeper.

Valentina Honchar (a philologist by education) would type Oleksii Terentiyovych’s works before lunch and only then begin to manage the household. She raised the children, sorted the mail, hiding unpleasant letters from the writer in which people suggested he should shoot himself. She fried buckwheat cakes, ironed white shirts, and always covered the table with a white tablecloth because her fiancé loved it.

Sofia Rafalovych (the second wife of Kazimir Malevich) looked after his children from his first marriage, sold hand-woven baskets at the market, and invented fairy tales that the publisher Sytin printed just so her beloved could work in peace. He painted stout porters, devout women in churches, and plump peasant women with trapezoid-shaped buckets.

Kateryna Rylska also stepped into the shadow of her husband. She cleaned carp and bream that Maksym Tadeiovych brought from fishing, cared for the roses, and hosted guests (sometimes as many as thirty people gathered for dinner). She turned a blind eye to his affair with the chemist.

At home, she dressed as if for a holiday: a blouse, skirt, and heeled shoes. Always a festive hairstyle, powder on her cheeks—she looked as if she was about to head to the theater rather than preparing to spy on wild hare fat. She accompanied him on trips, edited manuscripts, and ensured silence while her chosen one translated Hugo, Voltaire, and Mickiewicz. He rhymed about the Homeland, the slumber of the white forest, potato digging, and the unburned bush.

She cooked deliciously: her signature dish was wild duck soup. Maksym created with pleasure, and while signing another collection for his wife, he couldn’t help but scold her: «To my dear Katya, to love the song as I love it, and to visit the piano more often than the washing machine».

 

 

The list could go on endlessly. We could mention Ilya Mechnikov and Olga Bilokopytova, Ilya Repin and Natalia Nordman, Mykhailo and Lyudmyla Dragomanovs, Valentina and Anatoliy Solovianenko. In each case, the wives shared their husbands’ preferences, ideas, and ideals. They supported them in times of despair and rejoiced in their successes and achievements.

Thus, we have great politicians, playwrights, translators, painters, scientists, and doctors. It is fascinating to imagine how their careers would have unfolded without their beloved wives. What if it weren’t for their care, self-sacrifice, unconditional faith, and boundless love?

 

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