Padura, Tymko

Padura, Tymko (Padurra, Tomasz) (Падура, Тимко), b 21 December 1801 in Illintsi, Radomyshl county, Kyiv gubernia, d 20 September 1871 in Koziatyn, Berdychiv county, Kyiv gubernia. Poet and musician of Polish descent; member of the Ukrainian school in Polish literature. He graduated from the Kremenets Lyceum (1825). He maintained contact with the Decembrists (among whom he promoted the principle of Ukrainian autonomy) and for that reason was imprisoned by the Russian authorities (1830–2). Padura was influenced by Ukrainian folklore and by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, George Byron, and Ossian. He wrote (in Ukrainian using the Latin alphabet) lyric poetry and songs with a Slavophile and Polonophile interpretation of Ukrainian history (‘Lirnyk’ [The Lyrist], ‘Zaporozhets'’ [The Zaporozhian], ‘Het'mantsi’ [The Hetman's Men], ‘Pisniar’ [The Songmaker], ‘Do Dnipra’ [To the Dnieper]) and set some of them to music. His poems were also turned into art songs by composers such as Mykola Lysenko (‘Lirnyk’) and Karol Lipiński. Padura also wrote poems in Polish.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]