Marko Vovchok (Ukrainian: Марко́ Вовчо́к, real name Mariya Vilinskаya, Russian: Мария Александровна Вилинская; 22 December 1833 – 10 August 1907) was a famous Ukrainian writer. Her pen name, Marko Vovchok, was invented by Panteleimon Kulish. Her works had an anti-serfdom orientation and described the historical past of Ukraine. In the 1860s, Vovchok gained considerable literary fame in Ukraine after the publication in 1857 of a Ukrainian-language collection, "Folk Tales" . She enriched Ukrainian literature with a number of new genres, in particular, the social story ("Institute"). Marusya's story, translated and adapted into French, became popular in Western Europe at the end of the 19th century. After a scandal over the plagiarism of her translations into Russian in the 1870s, she almost