Kravchenko, Mykhailo

Kravchenko, Mykhailo [Кравченко, Михайло; Kravčenko, Myxajlo], b 1858 in Velyki Sorochyntsi, Poltava gubernia, d 21 April 1917 in Velyki Sorochyntsi. A famous folk kobzar. Blind from the age of 15, he learned his craft from the kobzars S. Yashny and F. Hrytsenko-Kholodny. He performed at the 12th Russian Archeological Congress in Kharkiv and the All-Russian Cottage-Industry Exhibition in Saint Petersburg in 1902 and gave several concerts in Moscow, Kyiv, Katerynoslav, and Poltava. Two of his own dumas deal with the 1905 peasant uprising in Sorochyntsi. Lesia Ukrainka, Vladimir Korolenko, Opanas Slastion, Porfyrii Martynovych, and particularly Filaret Kolessa recorded the dumas he sang. He taught the famous kobzar Petro Huz.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]