Bloody Wedding in Kyiv: Two Tales of Olha, Kniahynia of Kyivan Rus

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch · Petro Haivoronskyi

Hul 2016 · Sova Books

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“She was called ‘light of salvation’ by the great Rus chronicler Nestor, ‘wise’ by history, ‘cunning’ by the people and ‘holy’ by the church,” is the apt description of Olha of Kyiv by the author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Written more than a century apart, two fictional accounts of Olha, a real female monarch of Kyiv, explore facets of the ruthless ruler’s personality. The Kniahynia’s Comb and Bloody Wedding in Kyiv will leave readers staggered by Olha’s enigmatic blend of devotion and ferocity.

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Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836–1895) was an aristocrat and author, and a scholar of his homeland, the historic region of Halychyna (Galicia) in Ukraine. Best known to Western readers for his novella Venus in Furs (1870), and for his involuntary inspiration of the term ‘masochism’, von Sacher-Masoch wrote the short story Bloody Wedding in Kyiv in 1886. This fictionalised tale of the notorious Olha of Kyiv contains compelling historical details and betrays some curious insights into the author’s preoccupations.

Petro Haivoronskyi

Born in 1958 in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, Petro Haivoronskyi, the author of The Kniahynia’s Comb, is a modern Ukrainian writer and journalist who has received several accolades including the Gold Medal of Ukrainian Journalism and the Honorary Ethnographer of the Donetsk Region. Haivoronskyi’s published works include his numerous contributions to The Free Thought Ukrainian newspaper in Australia and the Ukrainian works Miners’ Ballad (2002) and Mykola Momot: Life Without Intermissions (2010), a documentary novel about the Ukrainian opera singer.