Lina Vasylivna Kostenko - poetess, publicist, public figure, belongs to those people who become legends during their lifetime. She became a legend when she boldly spoke publicly in defense of Ukrainian dissidents in the sixties, well aware that by her act she was putting a taboo on her own creativity.

Lina Kostenko's poetry has become incredibly popular in the early '90s: she is quoted and eager to meet. After the publication of the historical novels "Marusia Churai" and "Berestechko" there were queues for books, as in the famine years for bread… Her speeches really become resonant. The lecture "The Humanitarian Aura of the Nation, or the Defect of the Main Mirror" became one of the most popular philosophical works in Ukraine. But Lina Kostenko again demonstratively went "into spiritual emigration", writing: "And again they are sitting in power on the right. Cynicism is coming - I do not exist in it." Later, the poet will renounce all-state awards, including the title of Hero of Ukraine. Her statement "I do not wear political jewelry!" becomes winged.

Ethnographer Oleksii Dolia suggested to journalists: “Do you want to interview Lina Vasylivna? Go with her to the Zone." It was in the Chornobyl zone, where she constantly went on expeditions, where people live as their great-grandparents lived, that she rested her soul. She wrote: "You ask - how can you love the Zone? And how can you not love it? Do you love your mother less because she has already died? On the contrary, more, deeper, penitent, because it is love multiplied by the pain of irreparable loss.

Among Lina Kostenko's modern editions there are the prose works "Notes of a Ukrainian Samashedshyi", "River of Heraclitus", "Three Hundred Poems. Favorites». The collection of poems "Crossroads Madonna" (2012) includes new and previously unpublished poems of different years (1960-2010). This collection is special because it contains many photos of the poetess and people close to her.

The staff of Sumy Branch of Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs joins the entire Ukrainian community, which enthusiastically resonates with the high poetic word of Lina Kostenko on her birthday.