Ukrainian soil has long been known to be rich in talent. The writers Nikolai Gogol and Mikhail Bulgakov, the philosophers Hryhoriy Skovoroda and Nikolai Berdyaev, and the fathers of the Soviet space program Sergey Korolyov and Yuri Kondratyuk were born here. Abstract painters Sonia Delaunay and David Burlyuk are of world renown. The legendary American pianist Vladimir Horowitz was born in Kyiv. So was the famous choreographer Vasiliy Avramenko. And finally, nobody would ever think that the magician David Copperfield or the Hollywood movie stars and directors Kirk Douglas, Lewis Milestone and Mike Mazurki have Ukrainian roots. Without attempting to mention all the outstanding businessmen, inventors, scientists, lawyers, physicians, writers and artists who hail from Ukraine, let us remember some of those who were born or spent their childhood in this country or heard about it from their parents.

        This legendary designer, engineer and test pilot stood at the cradle of world aviation. His giant WWI bombers 'Russian Knight' and 'Ilya Muromets' paved the way for heavy aircraft production. His flying boats blazed transoceanic passenger trails, landing both on land and water. But his greatest accomplishments were his helicopters. Sikorsky approached the concept of the helicopter back when he went to Kyiv Polytechnic, and he assembled his first practical whirly-bird in the yard of his house on Velyka Pidvalna (now Yaroslavov Val) in his native Kyiv. Even though the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 forced him, a designer of world repute by that time, to emigrate to France and then the United States, he did not abandon his work. In 1923, a small company called Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation was founded with financial support from the composer Sergey Rachmaninov. In his first 16 years with the company, Sikorsky created 15 types of aircraft. The total number of aircraft types he designed in his lifetime is 78, 74 of which were then constructed.

        This great composer went down in the history of world culture as the author of wonderful symphonies, operas and ballets. His music entertains, amazes and even shocks the listener. Prokofiev was born in the village of Sontsivka, Yekaterinoslav Province (now Kirovohrad oblast). In 1918-1932 he lived abroad. At 32, he married Spanish-born singer Lina Lubera, whom he met in Paris. He returned to the Stalinist Soviet Union with his family. His meeting with 25-year-old Mira Mendelson in Moscow when he was 50 proved fatal: Prokofiev left his family but he and Mira never married even though they lived together to the end of his life. Lina was charged with espionage several years after the divorce and sent to a hard labor camp. The composer's relations with the Soviet government were complex and contradictory, but his "Soviet" period was fruitful: three symphonies (No. s 5,6 and 7) and a number of operas, among them the comic Betrothal in a Monastery, ballets (Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella and others), and music for movies, some of them by the director Sergey Eisenstein. Prokofiev died at the zenith of his fame on March 5, 1953 - the same day as Stalin.

        A paradoxical and outstanding representative of avant-garde and founder of suprematism - the art of geometric abstraction. Malevich's Black Square used to shock the public in 1913 and still enraptures those for whom the essence of the painting remains unchanged no matter whether the black square is placed against the red or white background. This globally renowned painter was born in Kyiv, finished an agronomy school in the village of Parkhomivka, attended Mykola Murashko's art school in Kyiv and learned at I. Rerberg's art studio. Malevich spent his lifetime working in Kursk, Moscow, and Leningrad, while his works were exhibited across the whole of Europe. The aesthetic inclinations of this painter-supremacist of Kyiv descent were, to a large extent, shaped under the influence of Ukrainian folk arts and crafts - peasant embroideries, popular prints and ornaments. He even set up artisan workshops where Ukrainian peasants produced handicrafts to his sketches. Malevich spent his creative life searching for the philosophy of colour and in the research of colour correlation dynamics.

        An outstanding choreographer and dancer, born in Kyiv. As a child, he lived in Tarasivska Street, sang in the St. Sophia Cathedral choir, learned to play piano at Kyiv Conservatoire and attended the ballet studio then led by celebrated ballet master Bronislava Nijinska. For over 30 years, Serge Lifar headed the ballet company of France's premier theater Grand Opera, became an Academic of the French Academy of Arts and a holder of the Order of Legion d'Honneur; Serge Lifar contributed a new style - neoclassicism - to world ballet. The maestro created over 200 ballets and divertissements in opera performances, founded the Paris Institute of Choreography and the Chair of Dance History and Theory at the Sorbonne, as well as authoring numerous ballet research and exciting autobiographical works. One of them, The Harvesting Years describes Lifar's Ukrainian roots and Kyiv period of his life. The master dreamed of having a National Academy of Dance instituted at Kyiv Opera Theatre in line with that at the Paris Opera Ballet. In the early 90s, the dancer's dream came true: a National Academy of Dance of Ukraine was founded at the National Opera House of Ukraine under the aegis of the UNESCO World Council of Dance. Beginning 1994, the Annual Serge Lifar Ballet Contest was held in Kyiv. This famous dancer is buried at the Saint Genevieve de Bois cemetery in Paris. In line with his will, the tombstone carries the engraving Serge Lifar from Kyiv.

        An influential Israeli stateswoman and public figure, Golda Meir (Myerson) was born into the family of carpenter Itskhak Mabovitch in Kyiv and lived in Ukraine until she was five years old. In 1906, her family emigrated to the United States. In 1915 Goldie Mabovitch, a socialist by persuasion, joined the Labor Zionist Party, where she revealed her remarkable talents as a politician. Together with her husband Morris Myerson, she immigrated to Palestine in 1921. She took an active part in Israel's struggles for statehood and following the establishment of the State of Israel served as ambassador to Moscow (1948 - 1949). She held various ministerial posts and headed the Israeli Labor Party. In 1969 - 1974 Golda Meir (she Hebraized her name in 1956) was Prime Minister of the State of Israel. In her last years, she reflected on her childhood memories of Kyiv in her autobiography My Life.

        Increasingly regarded as one of the greatest English novelists, Conrad (Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) developed as a writer under the influence of Polish, Ukrainian, French, English and Russian cultures. Born into the family of a Polish author in their ancestral manor Terekhiv near the provincial town of Berdychiv, he spent his childhood moving from one little town in Podillia and then Russia (where his family was exiled for political reasons) to another. Later, as a student of a Lviv gymnasium, Conrad wrote his first poetic and drama works in Polish. Seeking to accomplish his childhood dream, Joseph Conrad moved to France after his father's death and took up a steward's job on a ship in Marseilles. A few years later he successfully continued his marine career - first, as a seaman on board a British vessel, where he was eventually promoted to the position of second navigator with a captain's certificate. Joseph Conrad entered the writing community rather late - a manuscript of his first novel Almayer's Folly was first seen when its author was 38. Five years later, the writer's definitive work, his marine novel Lord Jim, was finally published. Conrad, a reputed master of prose, neo-romanticist, and author of over 30 novels describing travels and adventures, made an enormous impact on numerous American and English writers. Hemingway, Faulkner, and Greene all learned from him.

        This globally known Israeli writer, winner of the 1966 Nobel Prize for Literature, was born in Halicia which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The writer's childhood passed in the town of Buchach (now - Ternopil region). In 1910, he moved to the land of his ancestors - Palestine, and then returned to stay for a long while in Europe in Poland and Germany. However, in the early 1930s Agnon chose to go back to Jerusalem to spend the rest of his lifetime in this eternal city. Almost every book by the writer depicts the life of Jews living in picturesque Halicia. Among his most admired works are his novels The Bridal Canopy (1919, translated into English in 1937) and A Guest for the Night (1938, translated into English in 1968), Agnon is often compared with Cervantes, largely because his protagonist is a knight guided by ideals in a world of evil.

        John Hodiak's fame reached its peak in the war and post-war years as the movies Lifeboat and Command Decision starring the actor were released. Hodiak started as a petty clerk with Chevrolet eventually doing some part-time jobs for a radio station until he came to Hollywood at the age of 29. According to movie-making directories, not only did John Hodiak perfectly meet all criteria required of Dreams Factory actors, but he also possessed a unique radiant smile producing mystifying and, most importantly, memorable effects. Working predominantly with Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer studio, the actor would typically play roles of somewhat naive, sensitive and vulnerable men. After the war, Hodiak starred in many films, though his role in Song of Russia caused certain problems with the Un-American Activities Committee. His masterful portrayal of Lieutenant Marek's deeply psychological character at a Broadway theatre was the actor's last success in 1953.

        The creative legacy of this talented artist of the 20th century greatly influenced the evolution of European and American sculpture. At 20, Arkhypenko moved from Kyiv (where his first personal exhibition was held in 1906) to Russia, then to France where his works won wide-spread acknowledgment. In Paris, Arkhypenko kick-started a revolution in the field of sculpture, working with non-traditional materials and invariably adhering to the cubofuturism trend. The artist arranged his first personal exhibition outside Ukraine in the German city of Hagen. Attending the grand opening was Apollinnaire, a famous French poet, who referred to Arkhypenko's works as sculpto-painting. Arkhypenko then traveled a lot until anchoring himself on the American continent. A catalog featuring Arkhypenko from a Washington National Gallery exhibition in 1987 placed him next to the great Rodin.

        Источник: журнал "Панорама" №1/2000