Ryleev, Kondratii

Ryleev, Kondratii [Рилеев, Кондратий], b 29 September 1795 in Batovo, near Gatchina, Saint Petersburg gubernia, d 25 July 1826 in Saint Petersburg. Russian writer and Decembrist leader. He edited the popular literary almanac Poliarnaia zvezda. He also became a leading figure in the Northern Society of the Decembrist movement. For his role as a key organizer of the 1825 uprising he was arrested and later hanged in Saint Petersburg’s Peter and Paul Fortress. While living in the Ostrohozke region Ryleev developed a considerable interest in Ukrainian history and ethnography (as documented in I. Zaslavsky’s book Rylieiev i rosiis'ko-ukraïns'ki literaturni vzaiemyny [Ryleev and Russian-Ukrainian Literary Relations, 1958]). He incorporated Ukrainian themes into his writings, notably in the collection Duma (1825) and the poems ‘Voinarovskii’ and ‘Mazepa.’

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]