“But I Am Happy”

Early this summer, Ukrainian pop songwriter and singer Klavdia Petrivna stopped to perform in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod as part of a national tour. This concert was one among many for Petrivna, and for dozens of other Ukrainian pop stars during this third summer of war. Audiences around Ukraine embraced the momentary normality of hearing a favorite star, especially in Ukraine’s far west, beyond easy reach of Russian attack. For a moment, the world could seem as it always had.

Petrivna, however, is not just another talented pop singer. Her mystique rests on her concealed identity, generating a guessing game as to who she really is. She shot to the center of Ukrainian youth culture quickly after coming onto the scene in 2023 thanks to massive popularity on TikTok, YouTube, and, ultimately, radio. Her crystalline voice, fresh lyrics about young love and mental health, bouncy pop rhythms, and innocence set just the right tone for those looking to escape the brutality and cynicism of war. 

Petrivna has assumed the name of a character in Volodymyr Vinnychenko’s 1917 carnivalesque classic Notes of the Snub-nosed Mephistopheles. The central character, a successful trickster lawyer named Yakov Mykhailiuk, is known to all by the character-defining nickname “Kirpaty Mephistopheles.” On one level, the story revolves around a love triangle involving Sonya, the wife of former Communist Party official Dmytro Sosnytski; Sosnytski; and Mykhailiuk. Sonya can’t figure out which one is the father of her baby Dmytro. 

A parallel story focuses around Panas Pavlovich Kryvula, whom Mykhailiuk convinces should divorce his wife and go to another woman. Again, the messy realities of parenthood intervene. 

Finally, Mykhailkiuk has a passing affair with Klavdia Petrivna, a single mother. Mykhailiuk moves on to another woman who turns out to be his true love, only to have that relationship upended when Klavdia shows up with an unwanted son, Mika.

A renowned Ukrainian literary classic, the book is remembered for such lines as “The family cannot be destroyed from the outside. It always falls apart from the inside” and “It gives me pleasure to lure a man to the top of the mountain and push him down.” The novel remains a classic tale of dysfunctional families upended by deceit.

The novel’s import extends beyond its telling portrait of a society on the verge of revolutionary collapse. Vinnychenko, the writer of the story, was the first prime minister of the short-lived independent Ukrainian People’s Republic. He traveled to Petrograd to plead Ukraine’s cause just in time to witness the overthrow of the Russian Provisional Government by the Bolsheviks in 1917. He went abroad, only to return in 1920 to join the Bolsheviks in Moscow. Disappointed by what he saw as the Communists’ “Great Russian chauvinism,” he fled again to live in exile, first in Germany and then France. He was imprisoned by the Nazis for failing to collaborate with their regime. He died in exile in 1951.

The anonymous pop singer’s selection of a character from a Vinnychenko work resonates with political as well as cultural significance. Vinnychenko’s life in some ways represents a vision of a Ukrainian future for those fighting for their county’s independence and integration into Europe. The connection to the character of Klavdia Petrivna speaks to the upheavals caused by the other woman.

Speculation over Klavdia’s identity has run the gamut, from an 18-year-old music student from Lviv (Solomiya Opryshko); to well-known performer Masha Kondratenko (who appeared at a February 2024 awards ceremony to collect Petrivna’s nomination for “Debut of the Year”); to an artificial intelligence anime character. Her identity remains a mystery at this writing.

Fame has taken on a new meaning in the era of social media. Sometimes being mysterious captures more attention than becoming a familiar face. Identity guessing games garner more fans than appearing as oneself (as the producers of the American TV series The Masked Singer can attest). This frisson expands during a period of war, when so much once thought to be known becomes uncertain; in this way, Petrivna’s hidden identity is tailor-made for this moment in Ukraine. 

The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the author and do not reflect the views of the Kennan Institute.