BIOGRAPHY

LYDIA MIKHAILOVNA MOGILYANSKAYA
07.11 (25.10.) 1899, Chernigov — 06.06.1937, Moscow

UKRAINIAN POET

PSEUDONYMS:
Ladya Mogilyanskaya, Venyamin Kalent’ev.

PARENTS:
Father - Mogilyansky Mikhail Mikhailovich (1873 - 1942) - Ukrainian and Russian writer and publicist, journalist, translator, literary scholar and critic, lawyer, public figure; Mother - Sitenskaya Alexandra Alexeevna (1873 - 1932) - teacher.

SIBLINGS:
Dmitri Mogilyansky (Dmitro Tas’) (1901 - 1938), Elena Mogilyanskaya (1905 - 1998), Irina Mogilyanskaya-Safyan (1911 - 1987)

KEY BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS:
1917 — graduated from the women’s Gymnasium in Petrograd, moved to the city of Chernigov.
1918 - 1919 — studied at the Chernigov Institute of Public Education (completing 2 courses), was a member of its student council. 1919 — first publication of her poetry, in the journal “Prosveshchenye”, Chernigov.
1919 - 1922 — represented the province of Chernigov’s Department of Public Education in collecting folklore and materials “concerning Ukrainian dialects in Novgorod-Seversk and neighbouring districts and the translation of Ukrainian dialects into Belorussian and Russian, as well as information on the influence of Ukrainian culture in those regions where Ukrainian dialects were not currently encountered”; was also a member of the Commission for the Study of Historical Monuments in Chernigov.
1922 - 1929 — worked as an editor for the paper “Chervonyi Styag”
1923 — married Konovalov Victor Ivanovich (1898 - ????), secretary of the Chernigov Press Department, son of Ivan Konovalov, a well-known public figure and poet from Chernigov (literary pseudonym: Voronkivsky). Gave birth to her only child (1924) - a daughter, Inna.
Until 1929 — published her poetry in the Ukrainian SSR journals: “Chervonyi Shlyakh”, Nova Generatsiya”, “Zhittya i Revolyutsiya”, “Literaturno-naykovyi Visnik”, “Selyanske Zhittya”, “Zorya” (Dneprotetrovsk), “Vsesvit” and others. She attended meetings of a circle of artistic young people, organized by Alexander Selivanov in Chernigov
1929 — arrested by the Chernigov district department of the GPU (State Political Department) of the Ukrainian SSR as one of 68 individuals “for the distribution of counterrevolutionary literature and for taking part in the counterrevolutionary terrorist organization “The Young Peoples’ Democratic Union””. She was sentenced to death by the OGPU (Joint State Political Department) of the SSSR. Later, this sentence was reduced to 10 years imprisonment in corrective-labour camps. She served this sentence in the special camp on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea, after which she was transferred to work on the building of the White Sea-Baltic Canal.
1933 — her sentence was commuted and she was freed from imprisonment; she began to work as a volunteer on the construction of the Moskva-Volga Canal.
1933 - 1937 — worked for the press department of the Dmitrov labour camp in its cultural-educational section, editing the Ukrainian language newspaper “Za Novu Lyudinu”, and also for the journal “Na Shturm Trassi”. She published poetry and prose in both Ukrainian and Russian in many of the camp’s publications. In 1935 she published a book of poetry titled “Dva Kanala” (in Russian and in Ukrainian), and in 1936 - a book of essays titled “Lagernitsi-stakhanovki”.
1936 — accepted as a candidate for membership in the Union of Writers of the SSSR.
1937 — granted membership in the Union of Writers of the SSSR
1937 — 11 May, arrested in Dmitrov, Moscow Region, “for taking part in a counterrevolutionary terrorist organization” and sentenced to death on 5 June. The sentence was carried out on 6 June, 1937. Place of burial: Moscow, Donskoy Cemetery (mass grave).

REHABILITATION: pardoned on second charges in 1957, pardoned on first charges in 1990.