The monument to Ukrainian poet, writer of political essays and social political activist Olena Teliha (maiden name Shovgenova) has been unveiled on the territory of National Ukrainian Technical University Kyivskyi Politekhnichnyi Institut. The poetess was born on July 21, 1907 in St. Petersburg. She had to stay abroad since 1923. Olena Teliha was one of the poets who grouped around the Visnyk (Herald) magazine edited by D. Dontsov, a critic and a writer of political essays. The major topic of her literary activities, as well as of those of other poets of the interwar period, was the idea of Ukraine’s self-realization as a sovereign state (Immortality, Kin Day, Answer). The poetess’ romantic hero is always a bright personality, self-disciplined and well aware of his duty to the nation (To the Contemporaries, Evening Song). At the same time her verses are full of unique intimacy and focuses on a person’s inner world. Due to unfavorable circumstances O. Teliha failed to publish any collections during her life time. Only after her tragic death the books of her verses were published: Vigilant Soul (1946), Flags of Spirit (1947), In Foreign Land (1947). In the Kyiv occupied by the Nazis Olena was busy organizing literary forces and edited the Litavry (Timpani) supplement to the Ukrainske Slovo (Ukrainian Word) newspaper. The Nazis executed Teliha by shooting in Babyn Yar on February 21, 1942.
The composition of the bronze monument to the poetess is quite original: a young girl wearing a light dress is sitting on a bench. Her poem is engraved on granite: “I say not once: compete and seek! Look into eyes of passions and renunciations! And I just know that one quiet evening your hand will reach the gates divine.” The erection of the monument was initiated by former KPI students and teachers. Sculptor Volodymyr Schur is the author of the project. The master is well known by the Kyivites for his monuments to Holokhvastyi and Pronya Prokopivna on Andriivskyi Uzviz, and to Panikovskyi on Prorizna street.
