Today, let’s return to Poltava, Ukraine. Poltava is a charming city, with a long history, and a dedication to arts, music, and culture.
The city also has some very interesting “Notable People”.
Poltava Ukraine – Let‘s Refresh our Memory
Poltava is a city located on the Vorskla River in Central Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Poltava Oblast as well as Poltava Raion within the oblast. It also hosts the administration of Poltava urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Poltava has a population of 279,593 (2022 estimate).
The 200th Anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Poltava in June 1909
Notable People
Marusia Churai
Maria or Marusia Churai (1625–1653) was a mythical Ukrainian Baroque composer, poet, and singer. She became a recurrent motif in Ukrainian literature and the songs ascribed to her are widely performed in Ukraine.
According to the legend she was a native of Poltava (then in Crown of the Kingdom of Poland), and is regarded as the purported author as well as the subject of the well-known Ukrainian folk song “Oi Ne Khody Hrytsiu Tai na Vechornytsi” (Oh Gregory, Don’t Go to the Evening Dances) known in the West as “Yes, My Darling Daughter”.
Marusia’s got a bit of the femme fatale vibe goin’…
Monument of Marusia Churai / Gogol Drama Theater
The monument devoted to the legend personality of young woman named Marusia Churai is located in the heart of Poltava – behind Gogol Drama Theater facing Nebesna Sotnia street. The monument was unveiled on April 14, 2006. Its authors are Poltava sculptors Dmytro Korshunov and Valerii Holub.
The figure of Marusia Churai, as well as the plots of songs attributed to her, were used by a number of Ukrainian writers and poets in their works. The most famous of them is the historical novel in the poems “Marusya Churai” by Lina Kostenko.
The monument presents a figure of a young girl in national costume, who bowed her head in a slight squint; in her left hand she holds a bundle of plants, and in her right she raises it to her face.
The monument is 3.5 meters high, cast from concrete, its upper part is chained with copper.
The monument was created due to folk tales and legends about a girl from Poltava Marusia, who lived in the XVII century and had an extremely good voice and a knack for composing songs. It is her creative talent attributed to a number of Ukrainian folk songs, among which the most famous in our time are “Oh, Hrysts, do not go to hang out”, ” At down got up Cossacks”.
Imagine having your Wikipedia tag line “femme fatale”….
Maria began to travel around Europe, exploiting the wealthy lovers she frequented. Among them, Count Kamarowsky stood out.
In a first phase of the investigation, the Venetian police thought it was a political murder, but in a drawer of Palazzo Maurogonato an insurance policy was found for Maria Tarnowska.
The trial began on March 14, 1910 and lasted about 2 months. The countess and her two lovers were convicted and found guilty of the murder of Kamarowsky. The Countess was recognized as hysterical and half-bright, so she was sentenced to only eight years in prison. She was transferred to Trani Penitentiary and was released in 1915.
Maria Tarnowska died on 23 January 1949 in Santa Fé [Argentina].
Nothing says that you’ve made it as a femme fatale than having an American bar in Venice named after you.
Moura Budberg
Maria Ignatievna von Budberg-Bönninghausen (February 1892 – 1 November 1974), also known as Countess von Benckendorff and Baroness von Budberg, was a Russian adventuress and suspected double agent of the Soviet Union secret police (OGPU) and the British Intelligence Service.
According to the British journalist Robin Bruce Lockhart, who knew her personally, “she was, perhaps, the Soviet Union’s most effective agent-of-influence ever to appear on London’s political and intellectual stage”.
By Allan warren – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19916126 Moura Budberg, Baroness Budburg, taken in her apartment in London
Details
Semi-Sequitur: Maria Venuti Maffioli
It appears that the Baroness recently return from an art gallery by Maria Venuti Maffioli. Ms. Maffioli was an artist known for Chinese brush paintings. Virtually nothing on the web (we didn’t try very hard).
Interesting that AI image generation had a sort-of consensus of her likeness.
Alina Treiger
Now let’s look at a notable Poltava hero!
Alina Treiger (born March 8, 1979, Poltava, Ukraine) is the first female rabbi to be ordained in Germany since World War II.
Biography
Treiger was born in Poltava, Ukraine and grew up in the Jewish community there. Her father is Jewish, wasn’t able to attend college and worked in a factory. Her mother, a trained food technician, was active in the local Jewish congregation but did not become a member until 2013.
Treiger, who identified as a religious Jew from a young age, joined the local congregation in her teens. She took part in youth programming and summer camps and eventually traveled to Israel with the Jewish Agency in 1998. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Treiger started a Jewish youth club in Poltava and then traveled to Moscow to study at the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
As a 21-year old, after finishing her studies, she founded Beit Am, a liberal congregation in her hometown. She emigrated to Germany in 2001. In 2002, through the WUPJ, Treiger enrolled at the Abraham Geiger College of the University of Potsdam for her rabbinical studies…. Among Treiger’s inspirations was Regina Jonas, Germany’s first female rabbi, who was ordained in 1935. Treiger moved to Germany because she felt stifled by the Orthodox Jewish community in Ukraine.Germany has needed more rabbis in order to handle the influx of Soviet Jews who have emigrated to Germany since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. She works primarily with the Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants in the city of Oldenburg and the nearby town of Delmenhorst.
Wikipedia / Photo By Matthias Süßen – Own work, CC BY 3.0
